"Yan Lingyun?"
Lian Youming's eyes lit up. He had been planning to look for the girl once the weather turned a bit warmer, never expecting that she would come knocking on his door on her own.
She arrived at just the right time.
Just as he was about to greet her, he saw that she did not mind the filth at all, crossing the flat clearing and walking straight toward him.
"Why are you here?" Lian Youming asked, a mix of curiosity and vigilance in his voice.
After all, with the incident involving the White Lotus Sect, and the fact that she had recognized the aged medicine at a single glance, he truly felt uncertain in case it was all an act.
Yan Lingyun seemed particularly sensitive to the cold. She wore a brand-new blue padded coat and large, thick padded mittens that resembled a pair of cattail-leaf fans. A padded neck-warmer covered most of her face, leaving only a pair of big eyes exposed, a layer of white frost clinging to her upturned eyelashes. "Educated Youth Lian, I just came back from the hospital. Sister Qin asked me to bring you some things—she's so busy she couldn't get away."
Her crisp voice delighted Lian Youming's ears. Over the past few days, aside from Doctor Liu's snoring and teeth-grinding, all he had heard were the squeals of the old sow in the pen—who knew whether she was poorly fed or in heat, but she had been constantly nudging and rooting at him every single day.
"Sister Qin? Which Sister Qin?"
"Qin Hongxiu, Sister Qin."
Well, look at that.
They had met only once, and already they were on sisterly terms.
Seeing that Lian Youming was baffled, the girl hurriedly offered a thorough explanation.
As it turned out, Yan Lingyun was quite skilled in medicine. In addition, the director of her forest farm shared a deep friendship with Qin Yuhu, so he had brought her to the hospital to examine him. There, she had crossed paths with Qin Hongxiu, and the two naturally hit it off.
Hearing about Qin Yuhu, Lian Youming's expression turned serious. "Is my uncle all right?"
Standing outside the pen, Yan Lingyun gave a soft hum. "He's out of danger. I gave him some acupuncture and took the opportunity to clear up some of Director Qin's old injuries as well. He should be able to get out of bed around the Spring Festival."
"That's great then. I really can't thank you enough for the trouble."
Relief washed over Lian Youming, and his gaze toward the young girl softened considerably.
"It was no trouble." Seeing that Lian Youming was busy, Yan Lingyun did not linger. She took out a few study review materials that Qin Hongxiu had asked her to bring from her bag. "I'll be going then."
Setting the items down, she turned on her heel to leave.
Looking at her retreating figure, Lian Youming's eyes glinted, and he called out hurriedly, "Wait, don't go yet! I have something to ask you."
Hearing this, Yan Lingyun halted in her tracks, blinking her wide eyes as if waiting for him to continue.
Lian Youming looked left and right, then waved the girl over. "Come closer."
Yan Lingyun turned around and looked at him. "What is it?"
Lian Youming pondered for a moment, reached into his coat to pull out the brocade silk bearing the words "Golden Bell Shield," folded it in half to conceal the text, and left only the human figures visible.
"Student Yan, could you take a look at these little drawings for me? There are some parts I can't quite make sense of."
Yan Lingyun stepped closer to look. With just that single glance, confusion flickered in her pretty eyes. After pondering for a moment, under Lian Youming's hopeful gaze, she said in a hushed voice, "This looks like the practice method for an internal martial art."
She recognized it just like that?
Lian Youming's heart skipped a beat, and he listened as the young girl continued, "Still, this martial art of yours is rather peculiar. It requires opening up the twelve regular meridians, which are the main conduits that circulate qi and blood, connect the viscera, and link the upper and lower body, all terminating at the hands and feet. Do you see these twelve human figures? Each one has a completely different posture—some sitting, some reclining, some leaping into the air, some bending and twisting the waist. They look very much like stance training in internal martial arts."
Yan Lingyun studied it with curiosity and contemplation, but after watching for a while, her gaze grew solemn. "I suspect there must also be a special breathing method to go with it. This art of yours is far more fierce and aggressive than ordinary internal fist and palm styles. If you train strictly according to the diagrams alone, the rapid surge of qi and blood will drain your essence like water bursting through a dam—a torrential, unstoppable torrent. Although you might achieve some results, you wouldn't live past thirty."
Hearing these words, Lian Youming immediately recalled the "Three Yin Earth Fiend Force" written on the other piece of brocade silk. That swallowing qi method strengthened the Five Qi to accelerate the digestion and absorption of food, replenishing the body with essence.
Now it seemed that the one drained while the other replenished; only by combining the two did they form a complete whole.
He voiced another confusion that had been lingering in his mind: "Why do the lines of muscle and tendon here flow inward instead of outward?"
This was something Lian Youming had never been able to understand.
Ever since witnessing several lethal combats and learning the silk-reeling force taught by the Old Man Who Guards the Mountain, he had understood that the force exerted in fist and palm techniques was invariably projected from the inside out, then channeled into the hands, feet, and limbs to deliver devastating offensive strikes. Yet the muscular lines formed by these human figures drew from the outside inward, pulling the force tightly inside, which was utterly bizarre.
At first, Yan Lingyun was equally perplexed. Staring at the figures, she furrowed her brows in silence.
Lian Youming was just as baffled. At first, he had assumed this was some kind of external conditioning art, spending every day thinking about tempering bone and sinew to build up his physique. Who could have imagined that this "Twelve Stages Golden Bell Shield" was actually an internal martial art? He had fallen into a misconception right from the start.
Seeing the girl lost in thought, he could not resist adding, "I actually practiced it twice, and I noticed the muscles and sinews kept wrapping inward."
Yan Lingyun's pretty eyes suddenly widened, as though a realization had struck her. "Have you ever seen how high-level martial artists exert force when they punch? My grandfather practiced the Five Animal Frolics, and he said that whenever true masters make a move, they can concentrate all their force into a single point. Those who are truly formidable can even penetrate flesh and bone, rupturing internal organs and killing without leaving a trace."
Hearing this, Lian Youming instantly thought of Xue Hen's wild, domineering fist technique, which possessed terrifying penetration like an armor-piercing arrow or a heavy cannon.
The girl's face lit up with animated enthusiasm as she explained in detail, "Look, the muscular alignment on these figures pulls the sinews and bones of the entire body inward into a single unified whole, doing the exact opposite. Since martial arts masters typically concentrate and focus their power into a single point of impact, the martial theory behind your technique might be to disperse the force received at that single point across the entire body, spreading from a point to a plane to neutralize the external impact."
Lian Youming grasped the general gist and chimed in, "Like shattering a boulder on a man's chest?"
Yan Lingyun nodded, her face glowing with delight. "Exactly, that's a very fitting comparison! But this is all just my conjecture based on the muscular movements of these figures. As to whether it's truly the case, you'll have to verify it yourself with the breathing method."
Finding his inner thoughts laid bare, Lian Youming felt his face flush slightly, but he felt no real embarrassment. Instead, he flipped the brocade silk over and shamelessly displayed the recipes for dietary replenishment.
Lian Youming had understood from her words that without the breathing method, these things would be not only useless but gravely harmful to anyone else, so he saw no point in hiding them anymore.
There were five recipes in total, corresponding to the Five Elements medicinal properties of Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth, intended to bolster the qi of the five viscera.
Yan Lingyun seemed intensely intrigued by these things as well. After taking a couple of glances, she could hardly pull her eyes away, growing more enthralled the longer she looked, her eyes shining bright.
"It's actually a food-replenishing method."
Yet the girl soon let out another sigh. "What a pity."
Thinking there was something wrong with the recipes, Lian Youming could not help asking, "What's wrong?"
Still gazing intently at the brocade silk, Yan Lingyun said softly, "Each of these recipes incorporates more than a dozen ingredients. The other ingredients are fine, but the dosage of the primary herb is harmful rather than beneficial to ordinary people. It's like a ferocious concoction of wolf and tiger medicine—at best, it would damage the internal organs; at worst, it could cause sudden death."
At that point, however, the young girl lifted her eyes. "Yet if your breathing method can connect and channel the qi of the five viscera, it can neutralize part of the medicinal potency. They truly complement each other."
Cold sweat drenched Lian Youming's back as he listened. It turned out this internal martial art was riddled with hidden traps at every step! If he had blindly practiced it on the sly without figuring it out, he would not even know how he died.
While his heart was pounding in trepidation, he failed to notice that Yan Lingyun had already blushed crimson, her head dipped almost to her chest.
Separated only by a wooden fence post, the two had leaned close together to inspect the brocade silk, their heads drawing so close they were almost touching without them realizing it. Sensing the intense masculine aura emanating from the youth before her, a rosy blush instantly crept from Yan Lingyun's cheeks to her ears, burning hot.
In that relatively conservative era, when many would blush at a mere glance, such proximity was already quite intimate. What was more, Lian Youming had no idea that his name had already spread far and wide among the ranks of educated youths.
If nothing else, his single-handed rescue of Director Qin had made him a model for everyone to emulate. Although it had been criticized as an error of individual heroism, that very label had only made the rumors spread all the more fantastically.
Furthermore, whenever Big Head Liu went about treating livestock for various households, he had no filter on his mouth. He went around boasting that Lian Youming was like a beast of burden, doing the work of three or four men single-handedly, an absolute paragon of endurance and hard labor.
Naturally, Lian Youming was oblivious to all of this. His mind was entirely consumed with thoughts of martial arts training, and he completely failed to notice the girl's unusual demeanor.
Now that everything was clear, things became simple.
All was ready, waiting only for the east wind.
Once spring arrived, he could go into the mountains to gather those medicinal ingredients and lay down a solid foundation before returning to the city.
"All right, Student Yan, you can head back now!"
Still staring at the brocade silk and mumbling to himself, Lian Youming turned around and headed straight back into the livestock pen.
"Ah?"
He turned away so abruptly that he never saw the dazed, bewildered eyes left behind him.
"Sob..."
No sooner had he stepped inside than he heard a quiet sobbing outside. When he looked out at the sound, he saw Yan Lingyun already running away, wiping her tears, her steps stumbling. To make matters worse, she tripped and fell while crossing the embankment, which seemed to make her weep even harder.
"Huh, crying already? Then she probably isn't a bad person."
Before he could dwell on it, snowflakes began drifting lazily down from the sky once more.
Amid days when Lian Youming worked himself like an ox, New Year's Eve drew nearer, and a festive atmosphere settled over Kaoshan Hamlet. Two plump pigs were slaughtered back-to-back, and each of the thirty to forty households received several strings of pork, with even the educated youths getting a share.
On the day before the Spring Festival, Lian Youming finally saw Qin Yuhu.
The man's face remained stern and impassive as ever. He drove a mule cart with his left hand, his right sleeve hanging empty.
Their eyes met, and Qin Yuhu broke into an easygoing smile. "Let's go. Time to head home for the New Year!"
Chapter 21