HBBMAWH Chapter 117

For a moment, the whole place went silent. After a moment, a burst of sobbing suddenly erupted. It was the sound made by Xierli, who wanted to laugh but had something stuck in his mouth, preventing him from laughing out loud, so he could only make sobbing sounds.

Is this Heaven's will at work? Haha, let's see who will have the last laugh. Xierli laughed wildly in his heart, but was slapped by Yan Cai.

Then, several guards knocked him out, and everything fell silent.

However, it wasn't until the crowd realized what had just happened that they hurried forward.

"Hurry up and call the army physician! Call the army physician!" Amidst the chaos, some shouted loudly, while others didn't know what had happened and just saw a crowd forming ahead, so they instinctively joined in.

Fortunately, they were stopped.

The arrow had diagonally pierced through Jiang Manyue's back, making it difficult to move him for fear of worsening the injury. Even supporting him into the tent was challenging. In the end, several people came up with a solution. They made a stretcher with a hollowed-out middle section using wooden planks and carried Jiang Manyue into the tent.

Yan Cai followed silently beside, not saying a word.

Zhu Hua was holding Qingke in his arms, and suddenly saw someone being carried in. He couldn't see clearly who was lying there and was startled. Immediately, all the army physicians crowded in, followed by the silent Yan Cai. However, the child was very sensitive and reached out his arms towards Yan Cai.

Yan Cai took the child, and his cold body gradually warmed up.

"Father, where's dad?" The child asked, puzzled.

It was only then that Zhu Hua saw the person clearly, and he covered his mouth in shock. The army physician drove him out to boil water.

"Idle people, do not stay here." Yan Cai turned his head silently when he said this while still holding his son in his arms. 

With the highest-ranking person in the army watching, several army physicians broke out in a cold sweat. If they couldn't treat the patient, they didn't know if they would even be allowed to return home alive.

Ignoring the motionless Yan Cai, the army physicians ordered others around: "You go boil water, prepare clean gauze..."

However, when faced with Jiang Manyue's wound, it really was quite tricky. The arrow had pierced directly through his chest from behind.

"It's fortunate that it's not poisoned and hasn't pierced the heart." This might be the only consolation. If it had pierced the heart, there might have been no hope. However, even in the current situation, it was still very critical.

The patient was likely to die from excessive bleeding, so the arrow had to be removed immediately to stop the bleeding.

The physician told Yan Cai, who was nearby, that the scene was too bloody to watch, but Yan Cai didn't blink, as if he hadn't heard them talking at all. He just held his son's head against his chest and didn't let him see.

The child was very obedient. He was always mischievous and playful, but now he didn't make a sound at all.

After urging him a few times, the physician stopped bothering with Yan Cai. They cut open Jiang Manyue’s clothes, exposing the skin underneath. One person held him while another pulled out the arrow, and another stood by with gauze and wound medicine, ready to stop the bleeding at any time.

When the arrow was pulled out, it made a spluttering sound. Blood splattered all over the physician's body, and the others immediately started to stop the bleeding.

The arrow was placed in a tray, just an ordinary arrow, nothing fancy, nothing special, probably just accidentally shot by some archer in that direction.

However, whether intentional or not, the person who shot this arrow could no longer be found. In the vast crowd, how could they possibly find the culprit?

Perhaps the culprit didn't even know he had hit someone with this arrow.

However, the faces of the physicians did not improve after pulling the arrow out. Although it didn't pierce the heart, Jiang Manyue’s current condition is still very dangerous, and he is struggling on the verge of death.

"Report to the Prince, I am powerless. The patient has lost too much blood, and the bleeding is mainly internal. I am incompetent and have limited medical skills, I am powerless."

They couldn't stop the heavy internal bleeding. The physicians were all sorry and somewhat frightened, afraid that the Prince would be angry and punish them.

"No, physicians, please think of another way." Yan Cai, who had been silent all along, finally spoke. Instead of blaming the physicians, he blamed himself for being powerless at this critical moment.

Why did it have to happen at this moment? If... no, he couldn't think of that ‘if’. If he had really done that, Jiang Manyue wouldn't have agreed. Besides, he simply couldn't do it.

The physicians were also in a difficult situation. If there was a way, they would have tried it already.

"We can only stop the external bleeding and then use medication to slowly stabilize the amount of internal bleeding. Unfortunately, the army's medical supplies are quite scarce, and there aren't many good medicines..." The physician mentioned the shortage of medicine, especially the scarcity of many valuable medicines at this moment.

Yan Cai quickly handed his son to Zhu Hua and rummaged through boxes and cabinets, pulling out a chest. These were prepared before he left for the border.

The physicians' eyes lit up. These were all very valuable and rare medicines, including ginseng that was hundreds of years old.

"As long as you can cure him, any requests you have can be fulfilled," Yan Cai said earnestly to everyone.

He never made such promises to others.

As physicians, they had heard such promises from patients' families’ countless times before and had long become indifferent to them. However, for the first time, an inexplicable shock arose from the depths of their hearts.

Yan Cai's voice wasn't loud, nor did he cry and make a scene like many other patients' families. It was calm yet firm. However, in these calm words, they deeply felt that sense of sincerity.

"We will." The few physicians who rarely made promises to patients' families said this almost involuntarily. It was only after a while that they realized what they had said.

But what if they couldn't fulfill their promise?

For the patient's comfort and health, the room was cleaned, leaving only Zhu Hua holding Qingke by Jiang Manyue's side. As for Yan Cai, he went to brew the medicine with the medicine pot.

Even though there should be specialized individuals for tasks like decocting medicine, Yan Cai didn't believe in it and insisted on doing it himself. After realizing that the arrow came from their side, Yan Cai does not easily trust the people around for a long time.

All the imperial guards remained by Jiang Manyue's side, guarding outside the tent, not allowing any idle bystanders to approach even half a step. As for taking care of Xierli, Yan Cai didn't bother with it; he handed all the miscellaneous matters in the army over to Chen Nan.

Originally, Chen Nan knew how to manage the army better than Yan Cai.

Chen Nan was also very sensible and did not bother Yan Cai with military matters. He took charge of everything himself, reporting the victory of the battle to the court and preparing to bring Qi Zhen and Xierli back to the capital..

As for the food in the army, the situation had improved. Taking advantage of the chaos in Beirong these days, they directly raided a warehouse in a city of Beirong, obtaining a large amount of food.

It's ridiculous to say, but the officials guarding the city didn't even care about the citizens of the city. They fled with their families and wealth, leaving behind the city's residents.

Chen Nan didn't behave as ruthlessly as Beirong did when they invaded Qingyang County. The Chen  Army only plundered the government granaries and didn't harm the civilians in the city. Through the barred windows, Chen Nan could almost see the frightened figures inside.

He thought in his heart that the people of Qingyang County who were killed and plundered by the King of Beirong at that time were far more frightened than these people. What they had faced was the coming of death.

As for Yan Cai, he focused all his attention on Jiang Manyue's condition.

Relying on daily medication and ‘hundreds of years' worth of ginseng without even blinking, the used whatever means available to barely manage to sustain Jiang Manyue's life.

However, many days passed, yet he still didn't wake up. With other wounded soldiers in the military camp, the physicians could not come every day, often the only ones left in the tent were Yan Cai, Zhu Hua, and Qingke.

Sometimes, Jiang Manyue's condition would become particularly critical, with almost no visible breathing, and at other times, he would improve somewhat.

But regardless, he consistently held on, even the physicians were somewhat shocked, feeling that Jiang Manyue had great vitality and a strong will to survive.

Yet, he still didn't wake up.

One day, as usual, Yan Cai personally brewed the medicine, leaving Zhu Hua and Qingke behind. The sun outside was shining brightly, so Zhu Hua put the sleeping child on the small bed. To prevent the child from accidentally touching Jiang Manyue's wound, he had been sleeping in the small bed these days.

Zhu Hua took the blankets piled up inside to dry them outside. The physician said that blankets needed to be sun-dried often, as it was good for the patient. He hoped that the owner of the tent would recover soon.

The place where Zhu Hua dried the blankets was right by the door, the only entrance and exit of the tent. It was within his line of sight, and there were many guards outside, so no one could enter.

So inside, there were only the unconscious Jiang Manyue and the sleeping child.

Suddenly, the light in the room flickered for a moment, and a string of sparkling lights enveloped Jiang Manyue, reflecting colorful layers of light.

Layers of light fluctuated between reality and illusion, some intersecting, some overlapping, some not touching each other. At this moment, a parallel, non-touching layer of light suddenly twisted and crossed into an unknown plane.

In that twisted layer of light was another parallel world, where if Yan Cai were there, he might find it very familiar.

That was the world Yan Cai came from, and in the twisted layer of light, there was a very familiar face — his own.

The author has something to say:

The derivation of the parallel world in the last paragraph may not be understandable to everyone. That's okay; it will be explained in detail in the next chapter. Finally, I've reached this plot point! Joyful, now I can fill in the plot hole.

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