Eight heads, frozen to a bluish-purple hue, hung from iron hooks on the relay station’s flagpole.
Melted blood mixed with ice chips dripped steadily into the snow, spreading dark crimson stains across the ground.
Li Laizi’s head faced directly toward Shen Taotao’s family windbreak cave, its bulging eyes frosted over, the corners of its mouth still rigid with the terror of its final moments.
Shen Taotao’s knuckles turned white as she clutched the cotton quilt. Only now did she clearly realize the vast difference between this world and the one she originally lived in—human life here was cheaper than a frozen dog.
Recalling Xie Yunjing’s cold, cruel face sent chills down her spine. This was no Icefield lone wolf—he was clearly a Jade-faced Shura!
The drafty cave filled with the scent of blood. Her eldest brother’s bruised purple waist was swollen badly, Shen Xiaochuan lay on a straw mat clutching his head, He Shi and Second Sister-in-law suffered piercing foot pain, and even Father Shen rubbed his arm silently, not daring to utter a sound.
“I must get medicine…” Shen Taotao dug her nails into her palm, stood up, and was about to crawl out of the windbreak cave when her clothes were tugged.
Father Shen’s withered, branch-like hand seized her: “Taotao! Be obedient, don’t go out!” His weathered face was full of worry.
He Shi pulled her into a tight embrace, tears falling on Shen Taotao’s neck: “I’d rather die in pain than let you go out alone! Those guards are no good… they’ve violated many girls on the road, specifically targeting those alone.”
“Taotao, you’re my life… if you…” She swallowed the unlucky words in a sob, leaving only her trembling, shaking body.
“I can endure it!” Shen Dashan forced out through gritted teeth, his pale face pressed against the mud wall to wipe away cold sweat. “On the exile road… worse injuries than this… just bear it and it’ll pass…” Though he spoke firmly, his voice was weak and floating. The purple bruise below his waist already showed a deathly grayish-blue.
Shen Taotao looked at each of their faces, clearer than when she first crossed over.
They were like a group of dying beasts, hiding their wounds from each other, yet giving their last breath to her.
Shen Taotao pried open He Shi’s iron-like grip, pressed her face to hers, and let hot tears fall into her neck: “Mother, we must survive. Without medicine, you won’t make it.” Her voice was soft but steady. “Li Laizi’s head still hangs on the flagpole. No one around here dares to have evil thoughts for now.”
She pushed He Shi away and stepped into the darkness.
The north wind whipped snow particles against her face. Behind her came Shen Dashan’s hoarse shout: “If anything happens, call out… I’d die before letting you be bullied!”
In the vast snowstorm, the row of heads at the relay station had frozen into gray-purple lanterns. One rolled down and landed precisely in her footprint.
Since she had taken over the original owner’s body, she, Shen Taotao, would protect this family with her life.
But when she truly reached the relay station entrance, Shen Taotao’s legs couldn’t stop trembling.
Li Laizi’s ice-bead eyes and Xie Yunjing’s blood-stained whip tangled into a knot in her mind.
The words “Does it hurt?” chose this moment to ghost into her ears, making her face flush with an abnormal redness.
“What are you dawdling for!” Zhang Xun, thinking she came to repay a life debt, shoved her shoulder hard. “A woman chasing a man is just a veil apart.”
The door hinge screamed open, and Shen Taotao stumbled into the inner chamber.
Billowing steam mixed with faint male hormones instantly washed over her.
Xie Yunjing stood bare-chested before the bronze basin, water droplets tracing the corded valleys of his back before falling away. The plum-colored bruise on his shoulder, large as a rice bowl, had deepened to near-blackness.
The cotton towel in his grasp slapped into the water with a wet smack. A flush crept up his neck, visible and swift. “How dare you! Who gave you permission—”
“I’m wearing trousers, it’s not like you’re naked!” Shen Taotao shot back, righteous indignation in her voice.
Why was he so flustered? She’d seen plenty of shirtless men hauling steel rods on construction sites—the curve of their hips disappearing into loose waistbands, the v-line trailing beneath belts…
“Got any medicine?” She thrust out her palm, staring straight at him as if certain he’d comply. “I’m not taking it for free. I’ll trade you something.”
Xie Yunjing completely ignored the latter part of her statement. The sandalwood box clicked open.
His ears burning crimson beneath the outer robe he’d thrown on, he grabbed two porcelain bottles and shoved them into her hands. “White for internal use, blue for external application.” His gaze swept over the abrasion on her cheek, confirming it was minor before darting away as if scalded.
Shen Taotao turned to leave with the medicine, but her eyes caught on the dark bruise covering his shoulder. “From the ice pillar?”
Xie Yunjing gave a tight nod.
Icefield lone wolf or Jade-faced Shura—what did it matter? If this bruise wasn’t properly treated, he’d be in pain for a month. Since she’d taken his medicine, she might as well consider this payment.
The porcelain bottle clattered onto the table. Shen Taotao poured out the bruise ointment and pointed at the bed. “Lie down!”
“Unnecessary!” Xie Yunjing recoiled as if touched by a hot iron, his robe slipping off one shoulder. “Men and women should not—”
“Should not my ass!” She caught his wrist, twisted it behind his back with practiced ease—the last time she’d used this move was on a rusty water valve.
As the cool ointment spread across his feverish skin, Xie Yunjing’s back stiffened into iron. When her soft fingertips pressed into the bruised flesh, a stifled groan caught in his throat, the vein at his temple throbbing violently.
“Have to work out the congealed blood,” Shen Taotao said, stacking her palms over the injury with the precise pressure of kneading dough. “My grandfather used to say, where there’s circulation, there’s no pain—”
Xie Yunjing’s face was half-buried in the cotton quilt, his breathing ragged. “Your grandfather… knew tuina?”
He’d reviewed the Shen family records—three generations of minor officials in the Ministry of Public Works, none known for medical accomplishments.
“Just a barefoot doctor,” Shen Taotao flipped her wrist and pressed down again, “specializing in stubborn bones like yours!”
The pungent ointment mixed with the metallic tang of his sweat filled her nostrils. Mid-kneading, Shen Taotao suddenly paused—she’d been referring to her modern-era grandfather. Had she slipped up?
She glanced down to study Xie Yunjing’s expression, but found every muscle in his body taut with tension—probably hadn’t noticed.
A fine sweat glistened on his flushed nape, less like pain and more like…
Embarrassment!