How Could I Resist His Madness and Charm [Transmigration] - Chapter 5

As dusk approached, Physician Liu entered the village with two burly men.

Before they even reached the Jia family’s gate, they heard a rhythmic chop-chop sound. Taking a few more steps, they spotted a young man in the courtyard splitting firewood with a sword.

His movements were fluid and precise, the blade met the wood as effortlessly as slicing through water.

“Impressive skill,” one of the men blurted out.

The youth glanced over, his dark eyes devoid of even a trace of warmth, his face expressionless. Without pausing, he continued the steady chop-chop.

It looked as if he were slicing melons or perhaps…

Slicing off heads.

The three men were startled by the sudden thought and stumbled backward in panic. Trapped in the middle, Physician Liu couldn’t avoid having both his feet stomped on, letting out a long howl of pain.

What on earth was that noise?

Luo Yan stretched lazily and rose from her rattan chair. Recognizing the familiar face, she smiled warmly and waved. “Uncle Liu.”

“Young Miss.” Physician Liu quickly composed his pained expression and stepped around Zhu Yun into the courtyard. “Are you managing well with the new prescription?”

“Yes, it’s fine.”

Noticing his limp and slightly flustered demeanor, she tactfully refrained from asking why and simply invited him to sit. “Uncle Liu, this is A-Yun. Please examine him.”

“…Of course.”

Fortunately, Zhu Yun cooperated. Steadying his nerves, Physician Liu checked his pulse and remarked in surprise, “Young sir, it seems you’ve almost fully recovered.”

“Really?” Luo Yan squeezed next to Zhu Yun and pressed her fingers against his wrist, feeling a steady, strong heartbeat but nothing out of the ordinary.

A flicker of amusement crossed Physician Liu’s eyes. “I’m not well-versed in poisons or antidotes. But judging by his robust vitality and the fact that his previously sluggish pulse has returned to normal, I’d say he’s nearly healed.”

Zhu Yun had expected as much. He withdrew his hand and only spoke lazily after Luo Yan nudged him with her elbow. “Since I’ve recovered, I won’t be going to the clinic anymore.”

“What?!” Physician Liu nearly leaped from his stool. Pretending to wipe sweat from his brow with his sleeve, he avoided the youth’s gloomy gaze and turned to Jia Yufang. “May I have a word in private?”

“Grandmother and Uncle Liu can talk here,” Luo Yan suggested, pointing toward the chicken coop. “We’ll go feed the chickens.”

Once they were out of earshot, Physician Liu let out a long sigh. “Old sister, what are your plans? That young man seems extraordinary, likely a martial artist from the jianghu. He’s hardly a suitable match for our young miss.”

“You don’t understand.”

Jia Yufang recounted the changes in Luo Yan over the past two months, her tone a mix of relief and helplessness. “Her living conditions are nothing like before, no fine clothes or food, not even a maid to keep her company. Thankfully, A-Yun came along. At least she has a companion now.”

The Luo family of Cangxi was gone. What mattered more now than the young miss’s health and happiness?

Physician Liu understood but still struggled to accept it. Then Jia Yufang asked, “The young miss has been looking well lately and hasn’t coughed in a long time. Has her health improved significantly?”

To his surprise, he shook his head and replied after a long pause, “Her condition is… peculiar. It’s as if she’s reached the peak of what careful nurturing can achieve but won’t get any worse either. An incurable illness… truly baffling.”

Every word of their conversation reached Zhu Yun’s ears.

He glanced at the carefree girl before him and frowned. “The wind’s picking up. Let’s go inside.”

“?”

Had the sun risen from the west? Since when did Zhu Yun say anything resembling concern? Luo Yan stood on her toes and felt his forehead, muttering, “No fever, either.”

“……”

He really shouldn’t have said that extra sentence.

Seeing Zhu Yun’s changing expressions, she laughed delightedly and honestly coaxed, “I was just joking. Why are you so easily angered? Let’s go inside, let’s go inside and play Chinese checkers.”

As night fell, Jia Yufang also stood up to see the guests out.

Physician Liu slowly packed his medicine box while discreetly observing the intimate demeanor of the two. After leaving the courtyard, he quietly suggested, “The young lady is unwilling to go to the capital, so her marriage prospects may face complications. The young master is fairly good-looking and has martial arts skills, he might be a passable match.”

“What do you mean…”

“Why not take him in as a child groom for our young lady?”

Luo Yan was still young and had just survived a life-threatening ordeal, so Jia Yufang hadn’t seriously considered her marriage prospects.

But Physician Liu was right, without a prominent maternal family, even a beautiful woman could only become a rich man’s concubine or a poor man’s wife. Either option would be a disgrace to the young lady, so it would be better to take in a live-in son-in-law.

When selecting a live-in husband, appearance and character were paramount.

Jia Yufang had never seen a young man more handsome than Zhu Yun, so he passed that criterion. As for character, although he usually appeared cold, he was quite gentle with Luo Yan.

If he was willing to let go of his past and settle down peacefully in Qingyuan Village to accompany the young lady, he would be the perfect choice.

“The young lady still has relatives alive. It’s not my place as an old servant to make decisions.” Though Jia Yufang was satisfied inwardly, it wasn’t appropriate to reveal his thoughts to an outsider, so he merely said politely, “Thank you for your trouble today, Physician.”

Inside the house.

Zhu Yun propped his chin, pretending to ponder, but was actually eavesdropping. He didn’t understand what a “child groom” was, but he caught the phrase “still has relatives alive.”

According to Great Li law, if an unmarried woman’s parents died, she should be taken in by collateral relatives. Since she still had relatives, how did she end up in Qingyuan Village…

Just as he was pondering this, a sharp pain suddenly struck his abdomen, and cold sweat immediately trickled down his temples.

It was the residual poison acting up.

As the physician had said, the remnants of the Mandarin Duck Warmth poison in his body were minimal, in a couple of days, he would fully recover. But at that moment, his face was pale, and the veins on the back of his hands bulged, startling Luo Yan so much that she dropped her game piece. “What’s wrong?”

Zhu Yun waved his hand to indicate it was nothing and moved to the couch to sit in meditation and circulate his energy.

Luo Yan mistakenly thought he was in too much pain to speak. She soaked a cloth to wipe his sweat while tears fell. “If I’d known, I would have let you go down the mountain with Uncle Liu. There are so many clinics in town, we could have found a doctor who knows how to detoxify this.”

After a while, he suppressed the poison and slowly opened his eyes. Seeing the young girl’s face stained pink from crying, he couldn’t resist teasing her. “Everyone has to die someday…”

“Don’t die,” Luo Yan sniffled, her response wooden.

The corners of Zhu Yun’s lips unconsciously lifted. “Why not?”

Unexpectedly, confusion flickered in her eyes before she racked her brains to improvise an answer. “You haven’t taught me martial arts yet, and… you haven’t taught me how to catch fish.”

“…” His smile froze, and his voice rose involuntarily. “So, you want me to teach you first and then die?”

Luo Yan was stumped by the question and answered blankly, “Is that possible?”

“No. It. Is. Not.”

Hearing the vigor in his voice, Luo Yan was momentarily stunned. But when she saw the color returning to his lips, her expression quickly relaxed. “You’re okay now?”

“Mm,” Zhu Yun replied coolly. “Disappointed?”

Her shoulders relaxed as well, and she sighed wistfully. “Your illnesses and poisons are so unreasonable. None of the common sense I know is any use. Never mind, tomorrow I’ll go down the mountain and have the physician prescribe more restorative medicine.”

When it came to going down the mountain, Zhu Yun indeed had matters to attend to. He said, “I won’t be going to the clinic. I need to find a weapon shop to repair my sword.”

Luo Yan narrowed her eyes. “From the tone of your voice, it sounds like you don’t plan on taking me along.”

“You walk slowly and complain about being tired all the time. What’s the point of bringing you?” His words were casual but reflected his true thoughts.

She didn’t bother arguing with him and went back to her room to bring out two heavy chests. Opening the one on her left first, she said, “I want to pawn some things in town. Help me decide what to take.”

Zhu Yun was all too familiar with this official-style chest, everything inside was his spoils of war. His face instantly darkened as he said coldly, “Do you know what’s in this chest?”

“No,” she replied breezily, “but it looks valuable.”

“Every single item in here is engraved with the owner’s name. If you pawn them today, you’ll be dead in your home tomorrow.”

Luo Yan gasped. “So precious? Then why are they in my house? And such a large chest, is someone trying to frame me?”

Zhu Yun’s lips twitched. “You think highly of yourself.”

Had any martial artists been present, they would have easily recognized the origins of each item and noticed their commonality, the owners of these objects had all died at the hands of Lanyue Lou’s Jia Qi.

But seeing Luo Yan’s face fall, with tears that hadn’t yet dried dripping down with a soft “plop,” he cleared his throat and said, “Just melt down the gold and silver, remove the gems before selling them, and keep the secret manuals and elixirs.”

Hearing this, her eyes widened instantly, sparkling with excitement.

Zhu Yun inexplicably averted his gaze and poured cold water on her enthusiasm. “Do you even know how to melt them down?”

“……”

She did not.

Undaunted, Luo Yan opened the other chest, which contained her old belongings. “Then should I pawn these first?”

He picked up a pair of solid gold armlets, noting their intricate patterns, which clearly indicated their considerable value. Feeling an imprint on the inner side, he brought it closer to examine, a small character “Luo” was stamped there.

So, Jia was the servant woman’s surname.

“What did you find?” Luo Yan tilted her head, curious.

Zhu Yun scraped off the imprint with a dagger and tossed the items back. “They won’t be hard to sell, but what do you need money for?”

She pouted. “You’ve never managed a household, so you don’t know the cost of firewood, rice, oil, and salt.”

Even so, Luo Yan herself wasn’t clear about the prices.

In her previous life, her family had been wealthy, but she spent her days in the hospital, wearing patient gowns and eating nutritional meals, money was just a string of virtual numbers to her.

In Qingyuan Village, water was drawn from the well, vegetables were grown at home, and clothes were handmade by her grandmother. As for how much the embroidery brought in, the price of meat, or what other expenses there were, she had no idea.

But she knew that even modern wealthy families found raising children expensive, let alone an elderly woman in ancient times.

To support the two of them, money must be tight, right?

Zhu Yun didn’t refute her after hearing this and nodded. “Then let’s go to town.”

“Eh-”

Luo Yan casually picked up a picture book depicting little figures fighting and caught onto the key information. “You just called these secret manuals? And the bottles actually contain elixirs? I knew I saw you sneaking some!”

The pot calling the kettle black.

A deep furrow formed between Zhu Yun’s brows as he thought, I should have killed her long ago.

Just as the thought crossed his mind, Luo Yan leaned closer, her dark hair cascading naturally and revealing a slender section of her neck. Zhu Yun caught a faint whiff of floral scent and sniffed, it must be from her hair rinse.

His heart suddenly raced, and he raised a hand to push her away.

Little did he know that Luo Yan was merely trying to pick up a fallen hair ribbon. Annoyed, she snapped, “What are you doing?”

“Stay away from me.”

“Huh?”

Luo Yan rose from the low stool and promptly settled onto the couch, pressing shoulder to shoulder with him. She widened her eyes defiantly: I’m going to stick close, just you watch.

Zhu Yun’s expression stiffened slightly, his hand at his side clenching into a fist. He restrained himself, then relaxed it.

After repeating this a few times, he changed the subject: “It’s quite a distance to town. We’ll need to take the main road down the mountain first, then walk a few more miles.”

“I have a solution.” Luo Yan motioned for him to lean closer. “In a moment, tell Grandmother this…”