Chapter 4: Mother Saves a Life
Lu Yuniang had been badly startled by the sudden scream. She pressed a hand against her chest, and it took a long time for her racing heart to finally calm down. By the time she gathered her wits, her daughter had already dashed off.
Frowning with unease, she lifted the hem of her skirt and hurried after her.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the village…
Although Lu Yunxi was small in stature, her legs were fast. She quickly reached the center of the village, where a large crowd had already gathered. Seeing the bloodstains, torn clothes, and hideous wounds on the ground, she gasped.
She looked closer, and her eyes widened.
Wasn’t the injured person Brother Zhuzi, the boy who had just sneaked out?!
Did Zhuzi really get these injuries just from going to the fields? It looked like he had stumbled right into a wild beast’s lair! It was terrifying. Were the farmlands really this dangerous in ancient times?!
The surrounding villagers were murmuring in hushed, anxious voices.
“What happened? How did he get hurt so badly?!”
“I heard he ran out of the village all by himself! Thank goodness he only went as far as the fields and didn’t run up the mountain. Otherwise…”
“Haven’t we warned the kids not to leave the village?! Heavens, his injuries are severe… Where is the doctor? Has anyone called for him?”
“Oh no! The doctor went up the mountain to collect herbs today, and we don’t even know which peak he climbed!”
Hearing this, Zhuzi’s mother, who was kneeling helplessly beside her son, felt her vision darken as tears streamed down her face.
Yunxi gripped her bow tightly, a complex and indescribable emotion swelling in her chest.
If I had known this would happen, I would have preferred the villagers to stay like machines!
At least back then, the children didn’t run around, and no one was in danger!
Lu Yuniang, having chased her daughter all the way to the village center, arrived just in time to hear the villagers’ frantic discussion.
She glanced at the deep wounds on Zhuzi’s body and stepped forward hesitantly. “I have studied some medical skills before. Zhuzi’s mother, if you trust me…”
Before she could even finish, Zhuzi’s mother grabbed her hands tightly, nodding frantically.
“I trust you! I believe you!” she cried in a hoarse voice. “Please save him! Even if… even if the worst happens, I won’t blame you!”
Lu Yuniang immediately stepped forward, took Zhuzi’s pulse, and swiftly listed out a prescription.
Fortunately, the village doctor’s grandson was still at home. While he wasn’t qualified to prescribe treatments, he was very skilled at gathering and decocting herbs. After feeding Zhuzi a bowl of the freshly brewed medicine, combined with some precise acupuncture and the application of healing salves, the boy’s bleeding finally stopped.
Yunxi was utterly stunned as she watched her mother calmly and authoritatively directing the crowd.
My mother actually knows medicine?!
Then it hit her. Right! Recently, all the villagers have been assigned new backstories and skills! It’s no surprise that Mom suddenly knows medicine!
She let out a long breath of relief. Thank goodness the system had suddenly granted the villagers these random skills, and that her mother had drawn the medic class! Otherwise, Brother Zhuzi might really have been beyond saving.
A few days later, Yunxi went to visit Zhuzi as he recovered.
“Brother Zhuzi, did you sneak up the mountain? That’s way too dangerous! You can’t do that again!” The injuries on his body clearly looked like the claw marks of a wild beast; it was terrifying just to look at them.
“Of course not! Why would I go up the mountain to seek death?” Zhuzi’s face flushed red with a mix of indignation and embarrassment. “I just got into a fight with a field mouse!”
“What?! A field mouse?!”
A field mouse! Wasn’t that the exact creature she had been searching for these past few days? Her father had promised that as long as she could defeat a field mouse, she would be allowed to enter and exit the farmlands freely!
No wonder she hadn’t been able to find a single mouse inside the village, no matter how hard she looked. They were all out in the fields!
“Field mice… it’s way too early for you to even think about fighting one! You can’t possibly beat one as you are now!” Zhuzi’s face paled as the traumatic memory resurfaced, and he vehemently shook his head. “If you want to take on a field mouse, you have to wait until you’re at least fifteen or sixteen to even stand a chance!”
Yunxi was shocked.
Brother Zhuzi was known as the toughest fighter among the kids their age, yet he was nearly killed by a tiny little field mouse?!
Are ancient field mice just incredibly ferocious? Or is ‘field mouse’ actually the name of some massive, terrifying beast in this era, completely different from the rodents of the modern world?
Still pondering this mystery, she went to find her father.
“You want to catch field mice? If you feel ready, I’ll take you out there right now,” her father said, giving her an appraising look.
Remembering Zhuzi’s grim warning, Yunxi decided it would be wise to seek advice from the village elders first.
“Ah! You’ve come to the right person! There’s a secret trick to fighting field mice!” one old man said. He looked around furtively before leaning in to whisper mysteriously in her ear. “As long as you smear field mouse droppings all over your body, they won’t chase you, no matter how hard you hit them!”
She let out a dry, awkward laugh.
That sounded like absolute nonsense! And even if it were true, there was no way she was smearing feces on herself. Absolutely not!
After that bizarre encounter, she went around asking others. But after questioning nearly the entire village, she still hadn’t gathered a single piece of useful information.
Forget it! she thought. I refuse to believe that with my adult intelligence, I can’t take down a simple field mouse!
“Be careful,” her mother said, straightening Yunxi’s collar, a deep worry lingering in her eyes. “If you get scared, just ask your father to bring you back! No one in the village has ever succeeded in defeating a field mouse on their first try. Even the best hunters took four or five attempts before they managed it!”
Yunxi nodded, double-checked her equipment, and then walked toward the village entrance with her father.
Mushroom Village was encircled by a yellow mud road about two people wide. You were only considered to have truly left the village once you crossed this boundary.
Yunxi was about to become the first child of her generation to cross that path!
According to local lore, the first person in every generation brave enough to take that step was destined to become the strongest of their peers.
By the time they arrived, the village entrance was absolutely packed with people. As soon as the crowd spotted Yunxi and her father, everyone’s eyes locked onto them like searchlights. Cheering erupted, with people shouting encouragements like, “Do your best!” and “You can do it!”
The village children, meanwhile, looked at her with pure awe and envy.
“Xiaoxi is so amazing! She’s the first one brave enough to walk this path! I bet she won’t even be scared when she faces the field mice!”
“What’s the big deal?! I’d dare to leave too!” another kid blustered.
“Hmph! You’re just bragging. If you’ve got the guts, go over there right now! Aren’t you terrified of the field mice?!”
“…”
Yunxi’s eyelid twitched. She felt like a rare animal on display at the zoo.
Ignoring the commotion, she pushed her way through the crowd, walked the last few dozen meters, and decisively crossed the mud road.
However, the very moment she took that step past the boundary, her pupils shrank to pinpricks.
What in the world is going on?!
A single, narrow road separated them, yet it felt like stepping into an entirely different dimension. Inside the village, the environment was mild, peaceful, and completely free of rodents. But out here in the farmlands, there were field mice swarming everywhere!
She wasn’t exaggerating—there were hordes of them! It wasn’t just one or two; there were easily four or five massive field mice scurrying around every single plot of land!
They scurried wildly through the crops, completely out in the open, as if intentionally flaunting their presence. They were unbelievably arrogant!
“Dad, doesn’t anyone come out here to kill these things?”
“There’s nothing we can do,” her father sighed helplessly. “We kill one, and a new one just spawns to take its place! The only way to stop them is to get rid of the Field Mouse King! But we haven’t been able to find it anywhere!”
