Chapter 193: Chapter 195: She Saved the Person

Tang Zhijun finally let out a sigh of relief. He had forgotten that Sisi was afraid of creatures like these caterpillars and worms.

“Sisi, look,” Tang Zhijun removed his hand from Sisi’s eyes, “Dad wasn’t lying to you. That really is just a rope, not a worm.”

Sisi still shook her head, sobbing hard.

“I’m not lying to you,” Tang Zhijun was almost desperate. When Tang Yuxin was little and cried, it had also driven Tang Zhinian to tears, a grown man secretly wiping away his tears while holding his daughter.

Tang Zhijun had not understood then, but after having Sisi, he got it. This is the bond between father and daughter. Sisi’s crying now was making him feel like weeping.

“Sisi, daddy really isn’t lying to you. If I am, I’ll let you ride on my back, okay?”

Tang Zhinian tried his best to console Sisi. Finally, Sisi, rubbing her teary eyes, sneaked a peek at the jar, then turned her face away. After a while, she took another look.

“Look,” Tang Zhijun took a bamboo pole and lifted the red rope, “See, it’s just a red rope, not a worm.” And poor Sisi was deceived by her father.

Instantly, Sisi’s sobs turned into laughter. She chattered on about the huge cake that Uncle bought, and the big doll she bought for her sister with her pocket money.

At this moment, Tang Yuxin tossed the snake back into the jar with a sigh.

The doll, in the end, also ended up with Sisi.

Sisi, your sister doesn’t need the big doll anymore. She is a woman in her forties, who can’t carry such a big doll. She would cry out of her own clumsiness.

However, the big cake is real. It’s a ten-inch cake. Tang Yuxin didn’t celebrate her birthday much in her previous life, but in this life, she celebrated it every year. Although people in the countryside might not care much about birthdays, Tang Zhinian did. His daughter only had one birthday a year, once missed, it was gone forever.

Tang Yuxin took a bite of the creamy cake, the sweet taste gradually filled her taste buds. But after the sweetness reached its peak, a certain unspoken sourness followed.

Reflecting on her past, it didn’t feel like a life she had truly lived.

This was her sixteenth birthday. Yes, she was sixteen now, one step closer to the life she yearned for.

At the same time, unbeknownst to her, a group of people clad in camouflage had arrived in the village.

“Excuse me, did any of you rescue someone on the mountain?”

Zhang Yindi abruptly turned her head to observe the group while mulling over their words before finally stepping forward.

She overheard someone asking if one of their men had been injured in the mountains?

“Yes,” the group promptly answered, “One of our own. He said he was saved by someone. It should be someone from your village. After all, there’s only one village around here. Who else would be in the mountains during the day?”

The villager they were questioning shook his head, stating that he had not seen anyone heading for the mountains, which were usually deserted.

They asked a few more villagers but got no leads. Finally, they decided to go back and discuss further steps with Gu Ning. Whether to continue the search or not?

They were here for training, and making a big fuss could potentially cause complications.

However, just a few steps into their departure, they stopped abruptly.

“Who’s there?”

One of them suddenly felt someone lurked behind them.

“Show yourself, or we won’t hold back.”

His tone had grown quite threatening.

A figure cautiously emerged from behind a large tree: a woman, no, a teenage girl. Her appearance was ordinary, and easy to forget soon after.

“Um…” Zhang Yindi bit her lip, her hands clenched behind her back. She remembered the blood on Tang Yuxin, which wasn’t from the snake. The snake had no injuries, and neither did Tang Yuxin. Had she saved the man in the mountain?

“Two days ago, I came across a man on the mountain. He was injured and bleeding a lot. I want to ask if you know him?”

Gu Ning lay on the hospital bed with serious leg injuries. Lucky for him, they were just flesh wounds. But the real problem was the massive blood loss. If someone hadn’t stopped the bleeding with Hemostatic Grass, he would have bled out before reaching the hospital even if someone found him.

All that would have awaited him then was death.

“Mr. Gu, we’ve found the person,” a young man approached and reported to Gu Ning.

Gu Ning gave a faint nod, his youthful face was cold to the point of being devoid of warmth.

Throughout the time of the person being led in, Gu Ning maintained his stoic composure.

“Was it you who saved me?” He asked the young rural girl standing before him. She was wearing plain clothes, and her old shoes were covered in dirt, including bits of mud and a few leaves stuck to the soles.

“Yes, I saved you on the mountain two days ago.” Zhang Yindi stole a glance at the man, her cheeks flushed as she whispered so quietly, barely audible.

This man was truly good-looking. Although he was injured, it did not diminish his charisma. Whenever she tried to take a closer look, he felt like an unsheathed sword, its cold glimmers prickling her eyes.

Gu Ning’s face remained neutral, but his hands unintentionally went to the necklace hanging on his neck. It was something he had gifted someone many years ago, never thought he’d see it again.

He had thought it was her, but unfortunately, it wasn’t.

Although she was young then – just a little girl with large, double-lid eyes. Though her appearance could have greatly changed, the basic features remained. Single eyelids might become double eyelids, a round face can turn a sharp one. But how can such a beautiful child fall from the sky, face-first, in just a few years, turning beautiful large eyes into small ones, a straight nose into a flat one, and even the beautiful face shape into a square one? With that thought, he reached to touch the necklace around his neck again.