PREV | CONTENT | NEXT
In the rainy season of July, the sky was partially cloudy.
Because of the rain, the walls were stained with gray lines from which rainwater slowly dripped creating a puddle on the ground.
Xu Zhen lay on the wall while looking here and there, after making sure that there was no one watching her, she quickly took out the rice papers she had brought from the home and walked to Yunmo.
Yunmo was a shop that mainly sold and purchased books. It had a large customer base, and the books got sold there without any delay.
Xu Zhen wrote a book on flowers, birds, and fishes a few days ago. She even introduced the local plants and animals, differentiating them on poisonous and non-poisonous bases.
This was a rare good book of this era, she named it ‘Encyclopedia of Flowers, Birds, and Fishes’.
But it didn’t sell well.
She had made twenty copies in total, but only a few copies were sold and others returned to her as it is.
This time she had written ‘Guide for the Imperial Examination’ similar to books of modern times, hoping it could help her make some money.
But she heard some weird noises as soon as she entered Yunmo store.
She went to sell her store owner’s first to sell her books and then walked towards the place from where the noises were coming.
A servant wearing blue clothes was shouting in the small alley near the back door of the store, “Fight! Do you want to fight me!!!”
“Bang! Bang!!” it was the sound of the cane hammering on a body. A pool of blood was puddled on the ground.
Xu Zhen first thought that they were whipping some mad dog who had probably bitten a person.
Only after watching it for a while, she was able to discover that the pile of black things was not a dog, but the clothes of a person.
The person who was wrapped in the clothes was looking unhealthily thin. The yellow hair was looking like weeds, covering the person.
The person was actually a seven-eight-year-old child.
Xu Zhen shouted loudly, “What are you doing?”
The people who were beating the child stopped and looked at her.
The manager was familiar with Xu Zhen, hence told her, “This girl had stolen books from the store.”
Xu Zhen asked, “The girl has just stolen some books from you, you don’t have to kill her for that?”
The manager Yi Zheng replied, “This was not the first time that this girl had stolen books. She did not have any money and there was no one at her house to pay the money, therefore she could only use her life to pay for the books that she had stolen!”
Xu Zhen hurriedly replied, “Quickly stop it, I will pay for her.”
Everyone stared at her for a long time as if they couldn’t accept the fact that there would be a fool like her.
Xu Zhen asked slowly, “How much do I have to pay?”
Initially looking at Xu Zhen, the manager didn’t think that she would be so rich. He answered her politely, “Twelve units!”
Xu Zhen really wanted to faint after hearing it.
Twelve units?!
It took her three years to recognize the currency units and work for it, but then also she was only able to save a dozen or two units.
But she couldn’t leave this child like this, and there is one more thing she had to help this child for her own benefit.
She needed to save this child to help herself because she was not a normal transmigrator, she had to learn merits to live. If her merits become negative then she would be killed and dragged to the council.
After all, her life was not in the line with nature’s law.
She had to earn merit points for good deeds or for stopping bad guys from doing evil.
Generally, she would receive merit points the next day. Right now, she was only having five merit points, for her safety she had to help and save this child’s life anyhow.
Xu Zhen thought about bargaining the amount first.
After glancing at the manager, she carefully asked, “Can you somehow lower the rate…”
The manager angrily shouted, “No. The amount is fixed!”
Xu Zhen miserably looked at her money bag and took out twelve units of gold and sent it to the manager.
The manager froze because he didn’t expect her to pay, then he slowly laughed and took away the money.
Reluctantly Xu Zhen held the money without giving it away.
The manager angrily shouted, “If you do not want to let go of the money, then I will continue to whip her!”
Xu Zhen let go of her hand, but she still looked at the gold units a few times.
The servants dragged the cane and left.
Xu Zhen went close to the girl to check her breathing pattern. Her breath was sprayed with droplets of blood and was very hot.
She didn’t wait and asked the manager to find a doctor. She quickly dealt with the wounds and stuffed some weird herb into the girl’s mouth.
Xu Zhen asked the manager beside her, “Do you know, where she lives?”
The manager replied, “I don’t know anything about it.”
Xu Zhen felt something was wrong and asked again, “Then, from where do you find out that there is no one in her family and she won’t be able to pay you back for the books?”
The manager had already received Xu Zhen’s money so he patiently tried to answer her, “The owner has seen her living in the rundown temple.”
Xu Zhen understood that maybe this little girl was an orphan.
She borrowed a stretcher and asked the manager to let some of his workers help her take this girl back to her home.
Xu Zhen’s house was not too shabby. The walls of the house were covered with some plain white lime.
After arriving at her home, the little girl suddenly turned and vomited on the bed. She spitted out all the weird herbs that she had put in her mouth earlier and turned the white quilt into black.
Xu Zhen cried, “My new quilt!”
Then the girl vomited black blood again, Xu Zhen panicked and said, “Please don’t die.”
She brought some lukewarm water and slowly wiped the girl’s face and body with a towel. She wiped the injured area and again applied some herbs to it.
Xu Zhen was sleeping when she was awakened by the noise of heavy breathing from beside her.
Xu Zhen touched the girl’s forehead, and her hands almost got burnt by the temperature of her forehead.
She quickly wore a robe, and hurriedly walked towards the pharmacy to buy some fever-reducing medicine.
When she fed the medicine to her, the little girl took a bite and spit it. Her lips were deathly pale and totally chapped, and the blood was flowing out of them.
Xu Zhen was very distressed by her bloody lips, she again poured medicine in the girl’s mouth and then stroke her back.
“I have saved you with my hard-earned gold units. So, you have to help me get merit points, otherwise, I will not let you leave.”
The little girl unconsciously frowned her eyebrows tighter.
Hi, thank you so much for picking up this work! Thousand kudos, can’t wait to read the rest!!! 😊
Novel’s synopsis looks quite interesting, thanks for translating!