Chapter 79

The runaway locomotive.

The voices of the samurai welcoming me as if they had seen a deceased ancestor.

It was only natural that they would welcome me so enthusiastically, as saving the head of the Tang family was practically the same as saving the entire Tang family.

‘Sure enough, the treatment is different when I come to the Yibu of the Yi family.’

I smiled and asked the samurai,

“Ah, are you all well? You seem to be in a hurry to go somewhere…”

In response to my question, the samurai began to rush towards me, shouting,

“Master, this is not the time for such things. No, it’s not. It’s the young lady!”

“Mr. Liu Qingyun, please come with us quickly!”

“No, one at a time…”

“Quiet!”

Eight samurai were all talking at once, making it impossible to think, but one of them, who seemed to be the leader, stepped forward and bowed respectfully.

“Greetings, Mr. Liu Qingyun. I am Fan Jin, the leader of the Poison Blood Squad (毒血隊).”

A toad from the Tang family, dressed in red martial attire.

The leader of these toads.

The leader of the terrifying Poison Blood Squad, yet he looked very ordinary.

Perhaps his ordinary appearance was used to sprinkle poison and throw hidden weapons without notice, making him a reliable hitman for the Tang family when on our side, but a despicable one when an enemy.

Ordinary on the outside, but a mass murderer who uses poison on the inside.

Perhaps the ideal form for a terrorist?

“Ah, greetings, Leader Fan.”

Although I had never met him before, I pretended to be pleased, and the leader began to explain why the samurai were so agitated.

“We were on our way to meet Mr. Liu Qingyun.”

“You? Ah! Could it be the ceremony for the sworn siblings?”

I asked, thinking they might have come to discuss or inform me that the preparations for the ceremony were complete, but the answer was a bit surprising.

“No. Miss Tang Yingying is currently on the brink of death.”

“Yingying, or Miss Tang?”

‘No, what’s wrong with a perfectly fine child? Could it be Yingying?’

“Impossible! Did she eat a pufferfish that wasn’t prepared properly?”

I had clearly told her to practice enough when I taught her!

Thinking she might have made a mistake while secretly preparing and eating it due to her love for food, I asked, but then I remembered that with the Poison King around, it shouldn’t have been a big problem.

After hesitating a bit, I waited for the leader’s response, and he shook his head.

“No. Many doctors have come and gone, but they all say she has become weak and they don’t know the cause. It’s suspected to be a strange illness.”

It’s like in the previous life, when doctors would diagnose something as a syndrome if they couldn’t determine the exact cause.

In this era, doctors were all the same, and it was hard to trust their words.

‘Anyway, they call everything a strange illness if they don’t know what it is.’

“No, a strange illness…?”

But it was a difficult situation.

Given that they had come to find me, it was clear they wanted me to examine Tang Yingying.

Due to my efforts in improving my wife’s allergy condition and saving the life of the Tang family’s head, there seemed to be a deep misunderstanding.

People seemed to think I was possessed by Hua Tuo, the divine doctor of the Three Kingdoms era, but I was a chef, not Hua Tuo.

That’s why I didn’t want to be the one leading the charge, whether in the military or anywhere else.

But I couldn’t just stand there or back away.

Yingying was my sister.

In a society controlled by Confucian Taliban, showing any hesitation if my sister was sick could lead to social ostracism.

I first asked about Yingying’s condition.

Although they called it a strange illness, it might not be serious, or it could be something minor.

Maybe she had constipation from eating too many medicinal herbs…

It’s a common condition for girls her age…

“So, how has she been since she collapsed?”

“Almost five days… She hasn’t regained consciousness yet.”

“What?! No, what are these doctors doing, letting a child be unconscious for five days!”

‘These quacks really!’

It was an emergency.

If she had been unconscious for five days, it was a real emergency.

If Tang Yingying were to die, one of the two pillars supporting my connections would be lost.

Even without Yingying, the credit for saving the Tang family’s head wouldn’t disappear, but the head would leave before me. In the long term, Tang Yingying was essential, and this was a truly difficult situation.

What would happen if the link between the Tang family and me, Yingying, were to disappear?

‘Yingying, you ungrateful brat! You said you wanted to repay me for saving your father, but now you’re sick when I finally need your help!’

She was a truly annoying and frustrating person.

It was like someone who had issued a lot of bad checks and was trying to escape to heaven as the repayment period approached.

Debtors need to be caught.

I shouted in a hurried voice,

“Let’s go first! We’ll talk on the way!”

At that moment, my wife and concubines, who had noticed the commotion from the dining room, walked out and said,

“Lord? What’s going on…? Oh, aren’t they the samurai from the Tang family?”

“Greetings, Mr. Zhuge Qing.”

“Why is Leader Fan here?”

My wife seemed to already know Leader Fan, and when he told her that Tang Yingying was sick, she exclaimed in surprise.

“Miss Tang?! What is this! She was perfectly healthy not long ago! Lord, let’s go quickly!”

Nodding at my wife’s words, I decided to hurry.

I wanted to comfort the maid and teach her some new dishes, but there wasn’t enough time.

After some thought, I decided that one of the two concubines and the samurai who followed us from the Zhuge family would take the maid and follow us, while the other two samurai from the Zhuge family would take the maid’s younger siblings to the Zhuge family.

My wife, Zhuge Qing, and one concubine decided to leave for the Tang family with the samurai as soon as they finished their meal.

“Eat slowly. You’ll choke if you rush.”

The samurai from the Tang family, eager to leave, were tearing into the five-spice meat with their hands.

As soon as the rough men finished their meal, we set off in the Confucian carriage.

“Let’s go quickly!”

After the samurai finished their meal and boarded the Confucian carriage, the express train to the Tang family set off.

And a moment later, I understood what it felt like to ride in a Confucian carriage with a high level of inner energy, as I had done when traveling from the Zhuge family to the Tang family.

First, the Confucian carriage we brought from the Tang family had no roof.

An open car.

Wind pouring in from the front.

A rugged off-road vehicle with no seat belts.

“How far have we gone?”

The wind slapped my face as the Confucian carriage, propelled by lightness skills, sped along the road, and the echo of my voice asking how much further it was to the Tang family resounded.

Rushing madly, I nearly fell asleep and fell off the Confucian carriage several times in the middle of the night, but I eventually tore my clothes to make a makeshift seat belt and urged the journey on, though my inner energy had its limits.

Thus, we inevitably had to rest, except for one person.

While the exhausted samurai settled down to practice their breathing techniques, my wife’s energetic voice could be heard.

“Lord, I can’t wait. I’ll go ahead.”

“Lady, isn’t it dangerous? Even if you’re in a hurry, it’s better to go slowly.”

“I can take care of myself. Lord, when the samurai and concubine recover their inner energy, come with them.”

In the middle of the night, a runaway locomotive shot towards the direction of the Tang family.

-Clang

The leader of the Poison Blood Squad exclaimed in surprise at the sight.

“Miss, it seems you’ve learned a new skill?! Congratulations.”

‘That skill is for catching a husband! Who knows the pain in my heart…’

***

“It’s been over a week. Why can’t the child open her eyes?!”

“Each doctor who examined her said she isn’t in pain, so let’s wait and see while giving her medicine. Father.”

“But she’s wasting away!”

Tang Yingying, hearing the voices around her, was tightly closing her eyes, unsure of what to do.

She had regained consciousness two days ago, but she hadn’t let anyone know.

She had lost consciousness while lost in thought about Liu Qingyun, having barely eaten for a few days.

When she came to, she found herself in a serious situation.

She wanted to open her eyes and say she was fine, but she didn’t know how to explain why she had collapsed.

She couldn’t tell them she had fallen into a mental trap (心魔) because of Liu Qingyun, who had become my sworn brother, Zhuge Qing.

-Rumble… Rumble… Rumble…

Her stomach was rumbling.

‘What should I do…’

After a while, her grandfather, who had been pacing around her, and the concubines who had been taking care of her, left to have a