The advisor called his personal attendant over, whispered instructions into his ear, and the attendant acknowledged the command to prepare. Magistrate Liu and Chief Constable Wang were consumed by curiosity.
Late in the night, after Bai Yiyan and Zhao Yu washed up with the hot water provided by the jailer, they went to sleep. Because he had slept too much during the day, Zhao Yu found it difficult to rest properly, tossing and turning on the bed like a roasting pancake before finally drifting off.
However, shortly after falling asleep, he was woken up by the urge to urinate. Dazedly, he got up and felt his way toward the chamber pot in the corner. The grand prison was pitch black, with only the torches on the corridor walls providing a shred of light.
Suddenly, Zhao Yu felt something was amiss; there seemed to be something moving inside the cell. He snapped awake and rubbed his eyes vigorously, only to see several long, strip-like dark shadows inside the cell, one of which was very close to Bai Yiyan. The torchlight flickered, and Zhao Yu finally saw the true appearance of that dark shadow. His pupils constricted and his entire body trembled. The shadow was unmistakably a snake, over a meter long, with an oval head, a flared neck, and a pair of large occipital scales behind its crown, pitch-black all over. Judging by Zhao Yu’s rich theoretical outdoor experience, this was clearly a king cobra. How could there be a venomous snake in a grand prison? Zhao Yu had no time to think carefully; right then, he saw the snake’s body rear up, its neck expanding as if ready to attack Bai Yiyan at any moment.
Zhao Yu’s physical conditioned reflex was significantly faster than his brain. Without a single thought, he lunged forward, grabbing the king cobra’s icy body with his bare hands. The king cobra whipped around and bit the back of his hand. In the process of lunging, he also stepped on a snake on the floor and was bitten a second time. Zhao Yu felt a searing pain where he was bitten, and slowly his limbs began to burn with an agonizing heat, his vision blurring and his head spinning.
Bai Yiyan caught the nearly collapsing naive rabbit. In truth, he had known someone placed venomous snakes into the grand prison, but he did not care in the least. This minor snake venom had zero effect on him anyway. Besides, after playing with these foolish bailiffs for two days, he had grown weary of it and wanted to use this opportunity to draw them out, give them a severe beating, and then leave. As for his cellmate Zhao Yu, he knew the boy had been framed, but wasting time on him would not yield what he needed.
At that moment, Zhao Yu was merely a cute toy to Bai Yiyan, and he cared little whether the boy lived or died. Yet, he never expected this naive rabbit to wake up in the middle of the night, see the snake about to attack, and, right as he was about to make his move, beat him to it by throwing himself forward recklessly to save him. At that exact moment, he suddenly regretted it. He did not want this naive rabbit to leave him just like this.
“Are you alright?” Bai Yiyan looked at the weak, naive rabbit before him and asked with concern.
“Good thing you are fine.” Seeing that the person he saved was unharmed, Zhao Yu relaxed and passed out. He never imagined he would risk his life to save someone, let alone face his greatest fear, snakes, but he felt no regret.
Seeing that the situation was turning bad, Bai Yiyan swiftly sealed his acupoints to slow down his blood circulation, pulled an exquisite small porcelain bottle from his chest pocket, poured out a fragrant medicinal pill, and forced Zhao Yu to swallow it. Then, picking him up, he kicked the cell door flying and strode out. The jailers outside the cell were so terrified they dared not even breathe loudly, watching blankly as the two departed as if entering an empty courtyard.
The bailiffs stationed outside on standby saw Bai Yiyan carrying Cao Xiaohan out and swarmed forward, yet hesitated for a long time without daring to act. Bai Yiyan cast a disdainful glance at them, too lazy to bother with these small fry, leapt up onto the roof, and deployed his lightness kung fu to head toward the city outskirts.
While leaving Ami County, Bai Yiyan casually stole two sets of clothing from a local household for himself and Cao Xiaohan to change into. Ten miles away from the county town, nestled in the mountains, lay a small village of around two hundred people with a simple population and rustic folk customs. Bai Yiyan brought the unconscious Cao Xiaohan here and sought lodging at a secluded farmhouse near the edge, calling out through the weathered wooden door beyond the wicker fence.
“Is anyone home? Excuse me, is anyone here?”
“Who is it, calling souls in the middle of the night?” Candlelight flickered inside the house, accompanied by the rustle of someone putting on clothes. Before long, a sturdy man around thirty years old with tanned skin walked out, his outer robe draped casually over his shoulders due to his hasty awakening.
“Good evening, older brother. My younger brother and I were gathering herbs on the mountain, and he accidentally got bitten by a snake. Might we trouble you to let us stay for the night?” Bai Yiyan said anxiously. The man raised the candle in his hand, and seeing the pale, delicate face of the young boy cradled in the visitor’s arms, he quickly opened the door and welcomed them inside.
“Come right in.” The sturdy man was a warm-hearted fellow. He led them into his younger son’s room, instructing the sleepy-eyed child rubbing his eyes to go sleep in the master bedroom instead, which the child did, stumbling as he went. Bai Yiyan gently laid Cao Xiaohan down on the bed, though at that moment he failed to notice how tender his own movements were.
“Thank you, brother, thank you so much.” Putting on the act of an older brother deeply worried about his sibling, Bai Yiyan expressed profuse gratitude to the rural man, then added, “Brother, I need a quiet environment to detoxify my brother. Might I ask you to be so kind as to have your wife and son avoid disturbing us?” Saying this, he deliberately revealed the dark, black-bleeding wound on the back of Cao Xiaohan’s hand.
“Alright, alright. I will step outside then.” Upon seeing the wound, the middle-aged man immediately knew it was inflicted by a highly venomous snake, dispelling any lingering doubts. He nodded repeatedly, left the candle behind, walked out, and thoughtfully closed the bedroom door behind him.
Bai Yiyan took out a small knife, scorched it over the candle flame, cut a cross into the wound where Cao Xiaohan had been bitten, and let the dark blood drain out. At that moment, he felt deeply grateful for bringing his Universal Antidote Pill when leaving the valley. By now, Cao Xiaohan’s snake venom was already neutralized; he only needed to drain the tainted blood from the wound and administer a few doses of herbal medicine to clear out the remaining toxins. Seeing fresh red blood flowing from the wounds on Cao Xiaohan’s hand and ankle, Bai Yiyan finally let out a sigh of relief. Tomorrow, he would gather a few herbs on the mountain, brew them, and have Cao Xiaohan drink the medicine, and everything would be fine.
“Silly rabbit, oh silly rabbit, I suppose I just did not want to owe you a favor,” Bai Yiyan murmured to himself as he looked at Cao Xiaohan’s sleeping face.
Inside the county yamen, lights blazed brightly. Magistrate Liu had been dragged out of his bed of comfort, his face as dark as the bottom of a wok, his small eyes squinted so narrowly that the whites were invisible.
“What is the meaning of this? Why such a panic?” Magistrate Liu sat unkempt at the main hall, glaring angrily at the person standing below.
“Sir, that imperial criminal has escaped, and he even took the death-row inmate from the same cell with him!” Chief Constable Wang reported, drenched in sweat and trembling with fear.
“What? Useless, a bunch of useless fools! Did the advisor not say there was a plan? What is going on now?” Magistrate Liu smashed a teacup onto the cyan brick floor, sending tea splashing everywhere.
“Sir, that person is truly formidable. Even the lethal venomous snakes I arranged failed to bite him to death. However, according to the jailer’s report, that death-row inmate was bitten by the venomous snake, so I imagine his days are numbered.” The advisor, whose name had just been called, felt quite aggrieved as well; how could so many venomous snakes fail to kill that man? Still, the one comforting thought was that at least someone was vulnerable to the snake venom.
“Do you know why that fellow went out of his way to rescue the death-row inmate?” Magistrate Liu stared hard at the advisor and Chief Constable Wang, wishing he could murder these people whose incompetence outweighed their accomplishments.
“Well… rumor has it that those two hooked up,” Chief Constable Wang said evasively, shifting his eyes left and right.
“What? Oh no! This is terrible. What are we going to do? What is to be done?” Magistrate Liu could no longer sit still. He stood up and paced back and forth anxiously.
“Sir, what is the meaning of this?” The advisor watched Magistrate Liu’s restless demeanor, completely baffled.