"How strange — why aren't those cowards practicing their running today?"
"Who knows. Maybe their nerve broke and their legs went soft.
If you ask me, Shitou and his lot are just timid. If it were us few going for conscription, we'd be cheerful and fearless, guaranteed."
"That's right. I've long wanted to charge the enemy ranks and kill to my heart's content — just bad luck I never got the chance."
Five layabouts and idlers kept by their wives lounged under the elm at the village head, eating dates and boasting.
To hear them talk, you'd think them true heroes whose talents had gone unrecognized.
Just as the idlers were warming to their theme, they suddenly noticed three men coming up from the south. At first they paid no mind; on a closer look, they were frightened half to death.
"Lads, it's about time for the midday meal — I'd best get home and check on things."
"That, uh, my stomach hurts — I'll go relieve myself first."
"What luck — I forgot to feed my dog. Let's gather again later, lads."
......
Seeing Zhou Yuan's figure — wooden staff in hand, hatchet at his waist — the few men who'd been so peerlessly valiant a moment ago tossed out a couple of face-saving lines and bolted without a trace.
"You two, hurry up — any slower and you won't land a single blow."
Under the "friendly" regards of Zhou Yuan and the two village men, the five idlers who'd lorded it over the neighbors were sent home by cudgel.
A three-against-five clash, routing the foe without taking a scratch, left the two village men following Zhou Yuan wildly excited.
"Shitou, you're the satisfying one. With trash like that, you should just go straight to your hands."
Sharing in the glory, the village men threw out their chests, swaggering, all their former grievance gone.
"Come on, let's swing by Ergou's place on the way. That boy came to see me the day after his wedding — I can't forget him either."
When Zhou Yuan walked openly into Ergou's yard, he learned that Ergou had taken a real fall this time.
Last night Ergou could still speak and move; by midday today he was laid low with a high fever.
Zhou Yuan glanced through the window and saw that Ergou's health bar had already dropped to 77%.
Ergou's father and mother sighed and sniffled in the yard, quietly wiping away tears, while Cuiniang was inside, wringing out a cloth again and again to cool Ergou down.
To be honest, seeing this scene, Zhou Yuan wasn't surprised.
He'd felt the cold inside 【Nest of the Clearsand General】 for himself, and diving underwater was bound to soak the body and hair.
For a normal person to meet a temperature swing of that grade and come down with a chill and fever was perfectly ordinary — let alone Ergou, in and out of the dungeon so many times.
Ergou wasn't Zhou Yuan with his recovery skills, and this wasn't Blue Star with its advanced medicine.
A bad cold was no great matter on Blue Star; here, it was hard to say.
"Uncle Zhao, has Old Luo from Qiaodong Village been by?"
"He's seen him. Old Luo says Ergou's taken an evil wind into his body, an outward chill; he's gone back to fetch medicine.
No telling whether Old Luo's prescription will work. If he's no better in a couple of days, we'll take Ergou to the county to seek a doctor."
"All right. If you go to the county, just say the word and we few will help carry Ergou over."
"This is why Shitou's the dependable one. My legs are no good, and there's no brother at home to lean on — thank goodness for our Shitou."
Though Ergou's family had their little calculations about Zhou Yuan, the aim was to draw the bond closer, to form a profit-band for the next generation.
So Zhou Yuan bore the family no ill will.
While comforting Ergou's parents, he watched Ergou's state, and before long saw the boy's health bar drop another 1%, to 76%.
"Cough, cough, cough..."
The sound of coughing came now and then from the room; the listless Ergou proved with his own state what happens when a normal person's health bar falls.
In most games, never mind a character's bar dropping above 70% — even down below 30% they're still lively as ever, and a sliver-of-health comeback kill is no rare thing.
But in this real world, the consequences of a fast-dropping health bar were too severe: at the light end, loss of fighting power; at the heavy end, steady worsening and a life in peril.
This meant a normal person's health bar was hollow data — no need to empty it completely; clear off about 40% and their combat state becomes hard to hold.
Take Ergou: his bar looked to still have 76%, seemingly no great problem on the surface.
But it was really just a matter of a dozen-odd days. Once ten days or half a month passed, either the illness would be brought under control and slowly improve, or the whole village would set out tables for the funeral feast.
"Boy's father, Old Luo's only got those few prescriptions in hand — opens the same medicine for every illness. I fear it can't cure Ergou's fever.
While Shitou's here, let's hurry and take him to the county for a doctor."
"Let's wait and see. There's not that much ready cash at home. If Ergou's fever won't break tomorrow, we'll sell the land and go to the county."
Ergou's family had money now, but the pearls the dungeon yielded couldn't see daylight; bring them out in a panicked rush and some strongman in the county might well take their lives over them.
So Ergou's father pinned his hopes on Old Luo of Qiaodong Village, hoping Ergou and his family could weather this calamity.
"Ah... I was too greedy after all......"
Ergou's father sighed low, lips trembling as he murmured without sound, as if praying for his son's safety.
"Creak."
The yard's wooden gate was shoved roughly open, and an old man with scarcely a patch on his clothes barged in, leading an earnest-looking young man.
"The water's boiled, yes? Hurry and brew the medicine.
Tonight we father and son will stay at your place. If it does no good, come morning I'll take you into the city to find the old master."
The crowd bustled to and fro, and at last got the medicine into Ergou; the rest was up to Ergou's fortune.
Seeing the matter settled, Zhou Yuan meant to leave Ergou's house.
But Ergou's parents, afraid he'd refuse the next time they asked his help, pressed and pushed two chicken eggs on him no matter what.
To set them at ease — to show he was willing to take Ergou into the city — Zhou Yuan could only accept the deposit that came freighted with obligation.
Though it was only two chicken eggs, the two village men along with him took no offense.
They split one, leaving the other for Zhou Yuan.
To them, helping a neighbor get treatment was only right and proper; Ergou's family was so poor already that no one could begrudge them.
Zhou Yuan took the egg without ceremony, and, peeling the shell, sidled up to Old Luo to ask about blood-and-qi tonics.
"Uncle Luo, have you got any prescription to tonify qi and blood? Pack me a couple of doses."
Old Luo, who both attended as physician's aide and served as the link to the county's medicine hall, was naturally treated well; he and his son likewise had chicken eggs in hand.
Hearing Zhou Yuan's words, his shell-peeling hands suddenly stopped, and he sized Zhou Yuan up again with care.
"Shitou, with that rosy face and full vigor of yours, you don't look short of qi or blood.
Have you got some hidden ailment? Don't be shy to say — you're young, and the sooner treated the better; let it drag into a chronic trouble and your whole life's wretched."
"Uncle Luo, in all seriousness — I'm about to go for conscription, aren't I?
All this hard training these past days has left my back and waist aching, my body out of sorts."
"Ah, so that's it. I do have a prescription to move the blood, clear stasis, and nourish qi and blood.
But fine tonics are dear — you couldn't afford them and I haven't got them; I can only prescribe you some cheap, common herbs."
"Fine. I'll try the effect. If it works, I'll order a few more doses."