Mo Lingwei trembled uncontrollably.
Until Shen Ningning's small, delicate, and soft hand took his.
"Oh, so you're afraid of water? It's okay, I'll hold onto you. You won't sink," the little girl said with a sweet smile.
Her chubby cheeks puffed up, revealing an adorable dimple.
Mo Lingwei looked up. Bathed in the sunlight, the little girl was backlit. She wore ragged clothes, yet her smile was the purest and most beautiful he had ever seen.
Her words, somehow, miraculously soothed him.
'It doesn't matter if I'm in a terrifying place, as long as someone is here to hold me tight like this.'
Mo Lingwei lay at the edge of the pool. Once his body relaxed, he found himself floating on the surface of the icy-blue spring water.
The sun shone down warmly, and all the while, he held tightly to her small hand.
「Meanwhile.」
Aunt Qin was helping Landlord Du put on his outer robe.
The two of them once again brought up Shen Ningning, who had run off with the wolves.
Landlord Du was tall and pot-bellied, and his inverted-triangle-shaped eyes gave him a sinister look.
"Shen Ningning may be young, but she still saw something she shouldn't have that day. If she talks, it'll affect my career as an official. Gui Hong, you can't let her live!"
Aunt Qin straightened Landlord Du's collar and chuckled, her voice cloyingly sweet. "Brother-in-law, you can rest assured."
"That little orphan values her grandmother more than her own life. Once she finds out her grandmother is dead, she definitely won't want to live on her own."
"I've already tried everything to force her to her death. Even if she doesn't die, I'll just get Mrs. Qin Sr. back here, and that little orphan will follow her right back home. I will have her life!"
Landlord Du nodded and walked out the door.
Just then, Uncle Qin returned home carrying a hoe, covered in dirt.
Upon seeing Landlord Du, Uncle Qin hurriedly bowed and scraped, offering a greeting.
Landlord Du stared straight ahead, ignoring him completely. He climbed directly into the carriage waiting at the courtyard gate and left without a backward glance.
"Take care, brother-in-law! Say hello to my sister for me!" Aunt Qin called out, leaning against the fence and waving.
Only after the carriage was out of sight did Uncle Qin follow Aunt Qin inside.
"Your brother-in-law was here again? Did he give us anything?" he asked eagerly.
Aunt Qin shot him a look and sat down at the mirror to comb her hair. "Why don't you go to the kitchen and see for yourself?"
Uncle Qin hurried out, returning a moment later.
His voice was tinged with dissatisfaction. "Why only half a vat of rice? He usually gives us two or three vats!"
SLAM—! Aunt Qin slammed the comb down on the table.
She whipped her head around and cursed, "You conniving idiot! There's a food shortage everywhere right now. The fields have no harvest, and everyone is depending on the court's disaster relief grain. My brother-in-law giving us half a vat of rice is already generous, and you're complaining it's not enough?"
"If you think it's not enough, go get some yourself! Don't even talk about how you couldn't find work before—now that a wolf has bitten off one of your hands, who would want a cripple?"
Uncle Qin's neck veins bulged as he shouted, his face red, "Wang Guihong, what kind of thing is that to say?! I listened to you! I abandoned my own mother in the mountains!"
"I'm so desperate for food because I want our whole family to have enough to eat!"
Seeing he was genuinely angry, Aunt Qin's eyes darted about, and her tone softened.
She turned back with a placating smile. "Alright, alright, I know you're just looking out for our family. But you have to be a little understanding, don't you think?"
"There's a drought on, and our family is completely reliant on my brother-in-law's charity. Besides, when our Meimei fell into the well and cracked her head open, didn't he have to pay for the doctor's fees and medicine?"
Uncle Qin immediately deflated, all the fight gone out of him.
He sat down on the stool, dejected.
If it weren't for his own incompetence, Aunt Qin wouldn't be the one calling all the shots at home.
*
「Three days passed.」
Thanks to Shen Ningning's Spiritual Spring Water, Mo Lingwei soaked for four hours almost every day, and his injuries healed at a speed that surpassed his wildest imagination.
When he sat in meditation to regulate his breathing again, he realized that the searing heat from the poison that had been agitating his blood had vanished!
The spring water had actually cured his poison!
Mo Lingwei looked down again at his arm. The wounds, where the flesh had once been split open, had all healed, leaving only deep red scars.
And Shen Ningning had said that even these scars would disappear before long.
He gazed at Shen Ningning's small figure bustling about in the distance, boiling eggs.
Mo Lingwei's long, narrow eyes darkened.
'She... Who exactly is she?'
Shen Ningning came trotting over to Mo Lingwei, holding two eggs.
"Here! Eat it while it's hot. Langlang said your external wounds are healing fast, but your internal injuries still need care. Eating eggs will help you get better faster!" the little girl said with a sweet smile.
She gave one to Mo Lingwei, kept one for herself, and sat down beside him.
Just as Mo Lingwei was still peeling his egg, he turned his head and saw Shen Ningning take a bite of her egg—shell and all.
Mo Lingwei was speechless.
"Shen Ningning!" he snapped.
The little girl looked up at him with her watery, innocent eyes, a smear of yolk on her lips.
"Whath wong?" she asked, her words muffled.
"Why are you eating the shell?"
"The shell... you can't eat it? When I was at home, that's how Auntie always divided them. My cousin got the yolk, they ate the white, and I ate the shell."
Mo Lingwei fell silent, his breath catching. He stared at the little girl with his dark, ink-black eyes.
His slender fingers peeled the egg in a flash.
"Eat mine." Mo Lingwei handed the perfectly peeled, tender white egg to the little girl.
Shen Ningning took it silently, hesitating for a long time before taking a bite.
Mo Lingwei's voice was deep. "Eat!"
Only then did she open her mouth with a little "om" and pop the whole thing in, her cheeks puffing out like a little hamster's.
Mo Lingwei laughed in exasperation. "Chew it."
"Mmph..." The little girl finally began to chew obediently.
Mo Lingwei then took the half-eaten egg she'd left behind, peeled off the rest of the shell, and placed it back in her palm.
"You have to remember, from now on, you peel the shell before you eat," he instructed.
"Fank you, Bwuvver~"
"It's 'Brother'."
"Bwuvver."
Mo Lingwei was speechless again.
'Forget it. Why am I arguing with a four-year-old?' he thought.
Shen Ningning beamed a bright, adorable smile at him. Seeing this, the Black Wolf King and the rest of the pack all let out a disdainful "Hmph!" through their noses.
Mo Lingwei felt that he had recovered quite well.
He stood up. "Let's go. Take me to rescue your grandmother."
Shen Ningning was overjoyed. "Bwuvver, are your injuries okay now?"
Mo Lingwei looked down, his eyes cold and his expression untamed.
He straightened his cuffs. "My body is still a little weak, but my martial arts are intact. Rescuing someone should be more than enough."
When Shen Ningning and the wolf pack led Mo Lingwei to the edge of the large pit where her grandmother was imprisoned,
Mo Lingwei froze.
He had thought her grandmother was being held captive by someone.
He had been prepared for a big fight.
But he never expected that the little girl was just asking for his help to break a chain.
In the pit, Grandma Qin merely looked weak and pale. Beside her was a bucket of fresh water and a few fruit pits.
"Ningning..." Grandma Qin said weakly.
"Grandma! I found a super strong big bwuvver to save you!"
After she spoke, her eyes sparkled with anticipation as she looked at Mo Lingwei.
Mo Lingwei asked in a low voice, "I have no saber, no sword. How am I supposed to rescue her?"
"We have them! We have them all!" Shen Ningning clapped her little hands.
The Black Wolf King let out an "AWOO," and four wolves shot out from the nearby bushes.
Each was carrying something in its mouth: a sword, a saber, a long spear, and a dagger.
Every weapon had been sharpened. Mo Lingwei took them and gave them a few swings, realizing each was a priceless treasure capable of cutting through iron as if it were mud.
His curiosity about Shen Ningning grew even stronger.
'Finding herbs and food in the mountains isn't strange,' he thought.
'But this many weapons...'
Mo Lingwei steadied himself, leaped down into the pit, and aimed the long saber at the iron chain shackling Grandma Qin's ankle.
"CLANG—!" A sharp, piercing sound rang out the moment he struck.
The saber's blade shattered into pieces, and a powerful shock ran through the web of Mo Lingwei's hand!
One of the shards flew toward Shen Ningning, who was standing nearby.