By the time Yangjin returned to the village, the sky was already nearing dusk.
The villagers who had surrounded Sang Luo earlier had already left, leaving only Ciren and Sang Luo in the courtyard, apparently talking about something.
Yangjin desperately resisted the urge to rush over and separate the two. Gritting her teeth, she returned to her own home.
The next day, since Ciren had to go to town with Zhandui to sell animal hides, Sang Luo stayed home with Lhazhen to tidy the house.
Yangjin seized the opportunity.
First, she pressed garlic hard against her eyes. Then, with tears streaming down her face, she rushed into the courtyard of Sang Luo’s home.
Sang Luo had already noticed Yangjin’s unfriendly looks over the past few days.
Now, seeing her rush over in this state, Sang Luo’s guard immediately went up.
“Yangjin, what happened?”
“My father is in trouble!”
Yangjin forced out two tears.
“He went up the mountain to tend the livestock and accidentally fell down a steep slope. His leg might be broken, and he’s in terrible pain! Please, you have to go take a look!”
Lhazhen, who had been hanging clothes out to dry, became worried when she heard that Yangjin’s father had broken his leg.
In the Tibetan region, it was common for herders to suffer injuries from falls, and if they were not treated in time, they could easily be left disabled.
Yangjin’s father had helped Zhandui take care of Ayi in the past, so Lhazhen could not simply stand by and watch him suffer.
She stepped forward.
“Where is your father? I’ll go with A-Luo.”
Yangjin’s heart tightened, and she hurriedly waved her hands.
“No, Aunt Lhazhen. That place is very remote and the road is difficult to travel. It’ll be faster if I take Mamba Sang Luo through a shortcut. My mother and younger brother are already there watching over him!”
Sang Luo quietly watched Yangjin’s performance and came to a conclusion.
Yangjin was lying.
On the day Sang Luo had helped deliver Yangzong’s baby, Yangzong had mentioned that their father had suffered from rheumatism years ago and had almost completely stopped going up the mountains to herd livestock.
Once she confirmed that Yangjin was lying, Sang Luo wanted to see exactly what she was planning.
“Don’t worry, Yangjin. I’m a doctor. Saving people is my duty. Wait for me a moment. I’ll go inside and get some emergency medicine.”
“Then hurry!”
Yangjin quickly agreed, afraid that Sang Luo might change her mind.
Sang Luo nodded and turned around. Inside the house, she took specially prepared hemostatic and anti-inflammatory powder and bandages from her space. At the same time, she carefully concealed some sedative powder in a hidden pocket inside her sleeve.
She had a feeling that this trip would not be simple.
Sang Luo came out with her medical kit on her back and gave Lhazhen a reassuring look.
“Mom, I’ll be back soon. Don’t worry.”
Lhazhen nodded but still reminded her.
“Be careful.”
Sang Luo nodded before turning to Yangjin.
“Let’s go.”
Yangjin was overjoyed. She hurried ahead to lead the way, taking what she called the “shortcut” toward the pasture outside the village.
The farther Yangjin and Sang Luo walked, the more remote the surroundings became. They gradually moved away from the herders’ tents and livestock. Soon, all that remained around them were jagged rocks and the howling wind.
Sang Luo silently observed the terrain, growing increasingly wary.
After they passed through a mountain hollow, Yangjin’s expression immediately changed. The anxious, pitiful look she had been wearing vanished completely.
“I brought her to you! Where’s my money?”
A man dressed entirely in black stepped out from behind a rock.
He looked Sang Luo up and down, astonishment and greed flashing through his eyes.
“You’re Sang Luo? Sang Chen’s daughter?”
Sang Luo immediately understood.
Sure enough, this trouble had come from her father’s side.
She deliberately took a frightened step backward and looked at Yangjin.
“Yangjin, you… you lied to me? Your father wasn’t injured at all?”
Yangjin sneered.
“Who told you to be so stupid? If you want someone to blame, blame yourself for getting in my way!”
The man impatiently interrupted.
“Enough nonsense! Little girl, hand over what you took from the Sang family. If you cooperate, I might let you die quickly.”
Sang Luo clutched her medical kit tightly, her voice trembling with “fear.”
“I… I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m just a daughter who came back to her mother’s hometown. What money or valuables could I possibly have?”
“You refuse a toast only to be forced to drink a forfeit!”
The man’s expression darkened as he suddenly lunged toward Sang Luo, reaching out to grab her.
Now!
Sang Luo appeared frightened as she sidestepped. At the same time, she accurately flung the sedative powder from her sleeve toward the man’s nose and mouth.
Then she pulled a surgical knife from her medical kit and thrust it toward him.
“Cough, cough! You…”
The man had not expected her to make such a move. He inhaled a large amount of the powder and immediately became dizzy and disoriented. Even his movements to dodge slowed considerably.
Yangjin was also startled. She grabbed Sang Luo’s arm tightly and screamed.
“What are you doing?!”
As soon as Sang Luo stabbed the man, she forcefully shook Yangjin off and turned around, running toward the dense forest in the opposite direction.
She remembered seeing that forest on the way there. The terrain was complicated and would be easy to use as a hiding place.
“Damn it! Catch her!”
The man shook his head, desperately fighting through the dizziness as he quickly chased after her.
Sang Luo ran with all her strength.
The lack of oxygen at high altitude made her chest ache like a bellows being pumped, but she did not dare stop.
The curses and footsteps behind her drew closer and closer.
In her panic, she lost track of the route and veered away from the direction she had come from, running deeper toward the foot of the snow mountain.
Suddenly, her foot slipped.
She tumbled down a steep slope covered with a thin layer of snow.
“Ah!”
Sang Luo cried out in shock and instinctively protected her head. Her body rolled over loose stones and snow, slamming into the ground countless times before finally landing heavily.
After struggling to push herself upright, she realized that she had fallen into a snow-covered hollow sheltered from the wind.
Sang Luo gritted her teeth against the pain throughout her body and struggled to stand, intending to continue running.
But the moment she stood firmly, a piercing pain shot through her ankle.
As if things weren’t bad enough already!
Sang Luo looked around desperately, trying to find somewhere to hide.
Suddenly, her gaze froze on something deep inside the hollow, behind a huge rock.
There seemed to be someone lying there.
Sang Luo carefully moved toward it.
It was a man wearing a worn-out military uniform.
He lay face down in the snow, covered in blood. His wounds had already turned purple from the cold, and his breathing was so faint that it was almost imperceptible.
After considerable effort, Sang Luo dragged him behind the larger rock and crouched down.
When she turned him over and saw his face clearly, her eyes immediately widened.
Wasn’t this the man whose bullet she had removed back in Rong City?
What was he doing here?
Sang Luo reached out and felt for the pulse in his carotid artery. After a while, she finally breathed a sigh of relief.
There was still a faint pulse.
He was alive.
Sang Luo took spirit spring water and hemostatic and anti-inflammatory powder from her space. She carefully pried open the man’s frozen lips.
She slowly dripped the spirit spring water into his mouth, then used the spirit spring water to clean his wounds before pressing a generous amount of medicinal powder over them.
Since she had no bandages, Sang Luo tore off the cleanest part of her undershirt and tightly wrapped his wounds.
After finishing everything, she leaned against the rock and breathed heavily, listening warily to the sounds outside.
Soon, Yangjin and the man’s voices came from above the slope.
“Fuck! That bitch fell down!”
“There aren’t any footprints leading anywhere else. A slope this steep—there’s no way she survived the fall. But I haven’t even gotten her to tell me where she hid the stuff! No! I can’t come all this way for nothing!”
The man spat and also rolled down the slope into the blood-stained snow, beginning to search for Sang Luo inch by inch.
Sang Luo pressed herself tightly against the rock and held her breath.
The man’s footsteps were getting closer and closer…