After not hearing any sounds for a while, Ji Yuan suddenly lost his strength and leaned against the mountain god statue. His sweats heavily poured out.
The physical strength he had expended felt like he was back in his college years, where he ran five kilometers cross-country for several times in a row. Now, he couldn’t even have the strength to move a finger. He was leaning against the statue, panting like a dead dog.
The situation left Zhang Shilin and others feeling somewhat at a loss. Originally they were rejoicing that they were still alive, but now, they’re in a panic.
“Master, are you all right?”
“Water ….”
“Water, water, water!! Get some water for the master!!”
Zhang Shilin and a group of merchants were scrambling. Those that went to get towels, got the towels and those that went to get bamboo tubes, got bamboo tubes. The remaining people also fanning Ji Yuan on the side with their clothes.
“The water has come, Master, please drink!!”
Zhang Shilin intended to pass the bamboo tube to Ji Yuan, but found that Ji Yuan only gasped for air and did not raise his hand, so he carefully tilted the bamboo tube close to Ji Yuan’s mouth.
“Gulu, gulu, gulu”
After a guzzle of water, Ji Yuan had enough but Zhang Shilin was still nervous, gripping the bamboo tube tightly. Now he had a bamboo tube in his mouth while his hands and feet were still weak.
‘Shit, Not observant at all!!’
Ji Yuan had to hold his breath and close his mouth. When Zhang Shilin saw the water leaking out, he realized that the master didn’t want to drink anymore, so he hurriedly removed the bamboo tube.
“Hush…Whoo……”
Ji Yuan breathed a huge sigh of relief.
Zhang Shilin and the other merchant also breathed a sigh of relief when they saw this, suddenly remembering something, Zhang Shilin knelt directly in front of him.
The other saw this and followed suit.
“Thank you for your life-saving grace, Master, thank you for your life-saving grace, I kowtow to you, kowtow to you!!!”
“Thank you, Master, for saving us!!” “Thank you, Master…”
The remaining eight merchants, without any pretense, bowed to the ground and made a sound.
Ji Yuan felt this leading kowtow was very inconvenient. He felt embarrassed to be kowtowed by someone so big, let alone by so many people.
“Please quickly get up, don’t stay on your knees, didn’t you all blame me for not saving Wang Dong and the others…”
This was what Ji Yuan truly thought. In his past life, he had seen a lot of incidents where people were unsatisfied with the help offered and wanted more. Rather than letting this problem become a variable, he might as well explain it clearly.
Sure enough, as soon as the remark came out, the merchants were stunned, and looked at each other, the atmosphere was a little awkward.
Even if they don’t have the guts to admit it, but it doesn’t mean that they didn’t think about it . In fact, even Zhang Shilin thought that if the master had intervened earlier, Wang Dong and Jin Shunfu would not have died.
The silence of these merchants proved Ji Yuan’s guess. He was not Huang Yaoshi who liked to go on his own way, inviting troubles to himself. He didn’t need his good deed to be thought of by others, but he also wouldn’t want to leave any misunderstanding in others’ hearts.
****TLN: Huang Yaoshi is a character from the The Legend of the Condor Heroes.
Ji Yuan thought a bit too much. What if some of these people were to look back and get angry? What if the families of those who died had always been resentful all this time? What if they were afraid to blame the fierce tiger and turned their resentment toward him?
“It’s not that I didn’t want to save those four people just now, but it was just that I was too incapable to help. You heard what the tiger demon said. How could resurrection be simple? When the ghost puppet came, I was at a critical moment where I couldn’t move!”
Since he had lied once already, it doesn’t matter if he lied a second time. Ji Yuan spewed some nonsense and planned to get to the main topic.
“To save you, I’ve spared no expense in depleting my energy to break through. It’s a pity that the four have already left. In this state, it’s a miracle that I even could save you all!”
Combined with Ji Yuan’s current appearance, these words were persuasive enough to make Zhang Shilin and others feel embarrassed.
“Later, be more careful, it’s not normal to meet any handsome scholars and beautiful women in the mountains and forests at night.”
Ji Yuan’s sincere words were not only for the merchants but also for himself.
“Thank you master for your teaching, thank you master!!” “Thank you, Master!”
“Master, are you hungry? We still have some food left.”
“Don’t call me master, it’s better to call me ‘sir’.”
Ji Yuan felt that the word “master” regarded him as a god. The “sir” used by the tiger, Lu Shanjun, was more appropriate.
As for the food, although he knew that his body was very weak now, he really had no appetite.
That night, a few dared to sleep even though they knew the danger was over. Except for Ji Yuan who was extremely tired, he swore that he was just too tired to lie down and rest, only to fall asleep in a few seconds.
…
At dawn the next day, the merchants, who had been in fear all night couldn’t sit still, they all got up and prepared to leave.
Zhang Shilin and other persons took out the luggage of the other four persons and put them into their own basket, and the empty basket was placed under their own back basket.
” Little Dong is gone, how can I explain this to Uncle Wang……”
“Yes, there are two children in Old Jin’s family… This time… sighs…”
“Liu Quan and Li Gui haven’t married yet, they are still young…”
“Let’s be more helpful in the future!”
“Yeah, that’s the only way……”
The merchants sighed, because it was dawn, their fears had eased a lot, and the atmosphere was somewhat solemn.
Zhang Shilin walked behind the statue of the mountain god, the expert was still soundly asleep, and he was covered with a robe and the woven raincoat, which were covered by Zhang Shilin and the others after Ji Yuan fell asleep.
As expected of the expert, everyone didn’t dare to sleep last night, even the urge to pee was held back, only the expert could sleep so soundly.
“Master, Sir…Sir Ji Yuan, we’re leaving. What’s your plan, Sir?”
Ji Yuan was very tired, and vaguely heard someone calling him.
“Sir, we’re leaving, do you have any orders? Sir……”
“Don’t bother me.”
In his sleep, Ji Yuan scratched the itch on his face with one hand, and waved his hand like chasing flies with the other.
“Shilin, don’t disturb Sir sleep!”
“Yes, Leader Zhang, he has already been here for a month! Let’s go down the mountain before it gets too late!”
“Brother Shilin, Sir have already driven people away, let’s go!”
Zhang Shilin originally wanted to say goodbye to him personally. He wanted to ask for some amulets and so on. Now he dared not to bother.
Hesitantly, he took out a bag of steamed buns and millet cakes and a bamboo tube filled with water from a basket and carefully placed them next to the Mountain God statue.
“Let’s kowtow to Sir before we leave!”
“Mm-hmm.” “Makes sense!” “OK!”
Zhang Shilin and the merchants gathered to the side of the statue, knelt down, and bowed twice towards the sleeping Ji Yuan.
“Knock knock knock ….”
“So noisy.”
Ji Yuan turned over and cursed.
“Aiya, Sir got angry! Let’s go, go! !” “Let’s go, let’s go!!”
“Oh, wait for me.” “Hush, keep it down!!!”
…..
The merchants hurriedly carried their baskets on their backs and left the mountain temple, shocked. They secretly decided that they would never take the path to Mt Bullhip in the future.
…..
The sun had already risen high, the time was late when Ji Yuan woke up and stretched in the temple.
“Ho ho ho……I slept so comfortably!!”
It seemed to be too quiet, as Ji Yuan rubbed his eyes and looked around. Though his vision was very blurred, he could still tell that it was dawn, but he felt something was wrong.
Wait!! Where’s everybody? Where did everyone go?!
WTF! Damn it, Zhang Shilin, you fucking left me behind!!!!!
A dried up mushroom currently addicted to translating novels. Totally not on caffeine!
