Chapter 300: The Fire in Chang’an (2)

When bones are cracked, it really hurts terribly.

If you bump into something, your breath is immediately cut off and your body goes limp.

To what extent? If your ribs are cracked, it hurts just to breathe, so you end up with tears in your eyes, then realize crying hurts more and just let the tears flow.

Since she had cracks all over her arms and legs, it’s understandable why Seol Iri had been moving around like a 100-year-old or seriously ill patient.

But it’s also amazing that she didn’t make a single sound of pain and kept her mouth tightly shut, to the point of wondering if she’s really human.

“No, you were moving around like that? Doesn’t it hurt?”

“Yes. A little.”

When told to answer one by one, she listens well.

Yes to moving around, a little to whether it hurts.

With no intact bones in her arms and legs, and muscles that were evenly beaten just beyond the point of melting, how can it hurt only a little?

Then a thought suddenly occurred – come to think of it, isn’t Seol Ganom someone who couldn’t wake up even when burning her forehead while sleeping?

“Is that an Ice Arts side effect too? Dulled senses?”

“Yes. Yes.”

“But you were moving slowly because it hurt a lot, right?”

“No.”

Then, why on earth?

Qing waited for the rest of the explanation.

But no further explanation came.

“Miss Seol. Usually there should be an explanation of why you were moving like a 100-year-old after that ‘no’, right? It doesn’t end at ‘no’.”

“Moving slowly helps heal faster.”

Hmm. Qing tilted her head.

For someone claiming it doesn’t hurt much, she looked quite pained.

Moving around is one thing, but didn’t she tremble and barely lift her spoon?

The explanation of moving slowly to heal faster sounds plausible when you hear it, but in reality, people just move quickly out of habit if it doesn’t hurt right away.

Of course, Qing doesn’t hold back when she’s suspicious.

So she raised one finger and poked her side.

If it really doesn’t hurt, there would be no reaction to poking, and if she’s forcibly enduring pain, poking once firmly would accurately reveal her condition.

“Kyak!? Heuk…! Hup, heuheup…!”

Seol Iri flinched greatly and startled.

Of course, all her muscles tensed at once, so she suddenly couldn’t breathe and curled up, making choking sounds like she was dying with her throat blocked.

The cold sweat flowing instantly was a bonus.

At this, Qing narrowed her eyes.

“No, it hurts. You can’t even breathe.”

“Huk, keuhup, I can, endure. Heuheup.”

“No. If it hurts you should say it hurts. Why do you keep trying to hide it?”

“It’s not.”

While she seems to listen well, once she starts being stubborn about something, there’s absolutely no way to soften her.

“It’s not? Should I poke you again?”

“Yes. Yes.”

“Did you say yes? I’ll poke you again?”

“Yes. Yes.”

In the end, Qing sighed deeply.

Even while trying to die, she says go ahead and poke if you’re going to, so why on earth is she acting like this?

“At this rate you won’t even be able to move around.”

“It’s not.”

“Enough. Since we’re staying in the city anyway, rest well during that time. Take off your clothes so I can apply medicine.”

“Yes.”

And then she grabs her clothes and struggles while groaning, using all her strength.

Qing watched this and sighed deeply again.

“Aiyoo. Enough, just stay still.”

She had planned to stay only until Geol Taran found out about the core technicians of the project, but as she stayed, she found she couldn’t just leave.

The city was in ruins and there was a shortage of manpower, so what started as helping for a few days turned into settling down to help.

Qing’s superhuman strength has already transcended human limits.

Add to that a Transcendent Realm martial artist, and she could easily do the work of thirty strong men by herself, so if she suddenly left, the gap would be considerable.

So well, Miss Seol’s condition wasn’t good either.

While helping, she decided to help fully, then finish up with Jangheung Trading Company in Chang’an, stop by Mount Zhongnan and Mount Wudang, and quickly return home.

Sichuan is honestly a bit far…

It’s already hot now and will be even hotter.

So while staying in Nakryeong, Qing’s daily routine was quite busy.

Wake up in the morning, wash up roughly, take care of Seol Iri and just help her wash her face, then breakfast.

This useless and incompetent woman can’t even eat properly by herself.

She was clearly in pain, with trembling hands.

Qing counted internally to see how she was doing, and it took ten counts to lift the spoon to her mouth, and another ten to scoop up a bowl of porridge.

She couldn’t even hold chopsticks, so she couldn’t eat side dishes and just ate porridge and soup.

If left alone, she’d be eating until lunchtime and then immediately continue with lunch.

So what can be done? She has to be fed.

Still, she doesn’t complain about side dishes, and eats hot food well so there’s no need to blow on it to cool it, she just opens her mouth wide like a baby bird being fed when given food, so hmm, it’s cute.

If it weren’t for her face, she would have been thrown away long ago and left as a corpse somewhere.

Unfortunately her face is just my type, so just looking at her makes my heart melt…

After feeding her breakfast like that, head out to the flood recovery site.

Dig up the ground to excavate corpses, clear away collapsed debris, lay new foundations, and erect pillars.

At lunchtime, return to the company to eat lunch and feed lunch, rest briefly, then help with flood recovery construction in the mud all afternoon.

When it’s not raining it’s reconstruction work, and when it rains it’s digging drainage ditches and blocking and draining water, so it’s actually harder when it rains.

This damn rain still pours down heavily once in a while.

When the sun sets, return to bathe, and also wash Seol Iri who’s all sticky with sweat despite not doing anything.

Last time I left her to wash alone, I couldn’t find her and when I searched, she had fallen into the bath and couldn’t get out, so she was all swollen in the cold bathwater.

Then apply medicine and change her bandages.

Only then is it time for dinner.

Eat dinner and feed dinner, and just when I think I can lie down, the old man comes and bothers me again.

“Aigo, my eyes are getting dim with age. Yes. That’s right. You sew well. I thought you were just stupidly strong, but you’re surprisingly dexterous.”

Qing is originally weak to old people.

She also has a habit of becoming even weaker to those with high righteous karma.

But the old man’s righteous karma is extraordinary.

So Qing has no choice but to follow his instructions very obediently.

It turns out he’s a very famous doctor called the Wandering Great Man.

Wandering means a traveling doctor.

And 99 out of 100 traveling doctors are quacks. They can’t settle anywhere because they lack skill, and they wander because they’re afraid of the aftereffects of their medical practices and run away.

So wandering doctor is also a derogatory term implying a quack or fraud.

However, the Wandering Great Man belongs to that one out of a hundred.

He’s called wandering because he only visits cities struck by epidemics or great disasters in the Central Plains, and great man because he provides medical treatment without charge.

After playing the unexpected role of nurse like that and falling asleep, I pass out from exhaustion and then it’s morning again.

Then wash up briefly again, and wipe Seol Iri’s face clean while she just trembles her hands staring at the basin of water.

Then go out for reconstruction work again.

“The Heavenly Maiden has come!”

“Aigo, Heavenly Maiden. Thank you.”

“Wow, Heavenly Maiden! Heavenly Maiden!”

The neighborhood kids sing the Heavenly Maiden song and follow behind.

Somehow all the people of Nakryeong bow their waists and rub their hands together in worship as soon as they see Qing, calling her Heavenly Maiden.

She was treated almost like a mobile shrine or Buddhist temple.

There was good reason for this.

From the perspective of the Nakryeong people, a peerless beauty suddenly appeared who gives food, brings doctors, and does reconstruction work, lifting and moving logs a zhang long with ease.

She’s truly a goddess who descended from heaven.

A fairy is about a servant of an immortal, while a heavenly maiden refers to a female immortal, so their respect in calling her Heavenly Maiden is enough to believe a donkey is a horse.

To be precise, they wouldn’t believe it, but if the Heavenly Maiden said a donkey was a horse, they would consider it a horse from now on.

At first when she helped with work, they called her all sorts of things like miss, young lady, martial artist, my lord.

But after she performed a joint funeral and memorial service, they all called her Heavenly Maiden as if by agreement.

In fact, the memorial service was half-assed, so it was an even more embarrassing title.

Qing is a member of the Dao sect in her own way, and she’s helped Ximen Surin perform rituals many times, so she can imitate it plausibly.

She burned some yellow paper, recited some Daoist scriptures, even danced with swords while roughly imitating saying “may you be reborn in paradise”.

But the city people don’t know.

And originally rituals are for the living to find comfort, what benefit would the already dead receive?

Two weeks passed like that.

How amazing it is for people to become familiar.

Qing is now a junior carpenter.

The carpenters of Nakryeong vouched that she’s surpassed the level of being recognized as a carpenter anywhere.

Once she learned how to join wood without nails, she could quickly make things like ladders, chairs, and beds.

It’s not thud thud.

When she cuts wood with sword force it makes a swish sound, and when she fits pieces together with superhuman strength it goes in with a swish without needing to hammer with a thud.

Yet she’s still called a junior carpenter.

The path of carpentry is more difficult than expected…

She’s also become accustomed to playing the role of nurse.

She can stitch wounds, set splints, and do simple treatments with her eyes closed.

With her excellent senses combined with dexterity, she really could do it with her eyes closed.

However, the old doctor still scolds her saying she has a long way to go.

The path of medicine is long and difficult.

Listening to the Wandering Great Man’s teachings to think of and care for patients’ pain from their perspective, she realizes anew how difficult it is to save lives as someone walking the path of medicine.

Then she finds herself flipping through a few pages of medical texts at night, thinking she should read them.

And in that extension, she’s become accustomed to taking care of Seol Iri.

Now she can neatly wash her face without soaking her front, lathering with wall soap (primitive ancient beauty soap) and wiping clean without leaving any bubbles.

When she returns at night, she carries her in to wash her, dry her, apply medicine again, change her bandages, and then feed her…

It’s quite bothersome, but still a rewarding task.

The touching story of slowly opening the heart of a sick animal you cared for is a great story verified through various media even in Qing’s homeland.

At some point, the corners of her eyes curved very slightly in a welcoming gaze when she saw Qing, and she would greet her saying “You’re back” when she returned.

Even three days ago, she leaned her body against Qing on the bed first.

It was truly a crucible of emotion.

She used to rebel saying she couldn’t sleep with someone else there and was desperate to get another room.

She said she didn’t like her skin touching others, and to stay away because it was hot, even though she was just a body pillow.

Wasn’t Miss Seol the one who would spit out words she knew wouldn’t be listened to once every ke?

Now she leans against Qing first, so isn’t it a change on the level of “our child has changed”?

And in the first month.

Qing now skillfully washed, dried, and applied medicine while checking Seol Iri’s condition.

Martial artists originally heal quickly from injuries, and in the Wandering Great Man’s words, Seol Iri was injured well so no one area was badly damaged.

By now her bones should have healed clumsily but completely, and her bruises had faded to a light brown color.

“Now there are just a few bruises left, so from tomorrow we don’t need to apply medicine.”

“Yes.”

“Well. Shall we go eat dinner?”

“Yes.”

Seol Iri spread her arms looking at Qing.

Qing skillfully picked up Seol Iri.

She’s become completely accustomed to taking care of Seol Iri.

Seol Iri has also become very accustomed, blowing her nose well when prompted during morning face washing, naturally hugging and leaning when picked up, and taking the right posture to make bathing easy.

So as Qing became accustomed to caring for Seol Iri and Seol Iri matched her well, it became increasingly easy to care for her…

“Huh.”

Did I become accustomed to something I shouldn’t have?

And, did someone I shouldn’t have become accustomed to also become accustomed?

“Miss Seol? You shouldn’t be in pain now, right? No, you haven’t been in pain for a while now with just some bruises left, right?”

“Yes. Yes.”

“Oh?”

“Ah.”

Seol Iri also made a surprised sound as if just realizing.

What the hell is “ah”.

This is why it’s so scary how people become accustomed.

As you get used to something, it becomes natural, and you do things without thinking as you’ve been doing, forgetting even your original purpose.

Didn’t Qing also take care for granted before?

There’s a history of her sworn sister dressing, washing, carrying, and putting her to bed when she pretended to be crippled in the Demonic Cult.

Qing finally came to her senses.

No, why am I doing carpentry work?

Why am I happy to be recognized as a junior carpenter?

And what’s with studying medicine?

Why am I naturally studying medical texts by lamplight every night?