Chapter 13: Righteous Black Eats Black
It was past one in the morning. Yuan Ye felt as if he had returned to his high school days, starting to burn the midnight oil again, hunched over his phone, rapidly copying the 《Barefoot Doctor’s Manual》 using Pinyin—he was selectively copying, skipping the quotes from great men and the sections on medical ethics and heart for now, mainly copying the methods for diagnosing and treating illnesses, as well as the techniques for harvesting and preparing medicinal materials from the appendix.
As for whether it could adapt to local conditions…
The problem shouldn’t be too big. The 《Barefoot Doctor’s Manual》 is truly the crystallization of a generation of medical workers’ efforts. It’s aimed at the whole country and fully considers different regions and environments, adapting to local conditions. For one illness, it can provide over ten different prescriptions, and the medicinal materials used are often easily obtainable locally.
It’s truly convenient, simple, and cheap. Any difficulties that might be encountered have already been thought through by a group of experts who have racked their brains to provide over ten methods for you. You just need to choose one that can be executed and repeat it according to the book.
Even if he has now transmigrated to the Japanese Medieval Period, there might be some slight incompatibility, but it’s not a big deal. There are no “medical disputes” in this era; if someone dies, it’s their own fault. As long as he doesn’t kill all his patients and ruin his reputation, it’s fine.
A brand new “time-traveling Mongolian doctor” is rising, and the people of the Japanese Medieval Period are blessed!
Yuan Ye has no psychological burden about being a “Mongolian doctor.” Japan later poisoned the world by discharging nuclear wastewater; it’s already very conscientious of him not to have sold them “talisman water.” Who dares say he isn’t a good person?
If anyone dares to accuse him for this, he’ll slap them. He’s not someone to be bullied!
He was copying with a clear mind, his brush flying, when his ears twitched. He vaguely heard movement at the door of the house. Earlier, he had scattered a small handful of rice grains on the stone slab at the entrance. When someone stepped on it, if they were paying attention, the slight rustling sound would be enough to alert him in the silent night.
What was bound to come has come. He had initially thought they were good people, and he had even started to trust them…
Yuan Ye sighed inwardly, his gaze dark. He was already prepared. He immediately locked his phone, blew out the oil lamp, and, with one hand, grabbed the wooden basin beside him. He slowly poured the water from the basin onto the straw mat on the earthen seat, letting the water flow towards the earthen floor room. This was the washbasin water that Yayoi had brought him earlier. He had asked Yayoi not to take it away since last night, preparing it for self-defense at this moment.
The water flowed silently. The room was pitch black.
A moment later, a corner of the straw curtain serving as the door was lifted, and a dark figure quietly crept in. Their form was indistinguishable, only the blade reflected a sliver of moonlight. And judging by the footsteps, there was another person behind them.
By this time, Yuan Ye had already put on his shoes, which he had kept beside him. Meng Ziqi had also been hidden in a corner. The taser was already set to its maximum power, enough to take down a wild boar. When he heard both of them step onto the earthen seat, he directly shoved the taser into the soaked straw mat.
Instantly, the room was filled with flashing electric light. The straw mat closest to Yuan Ye even jumped up, emitting a violent crackling sound. The two people who had just stepped onto the earthen seat on all fours in the darkness let out muffled groans, were thrown to the earthen floor, and immediately began to convulse.
Excellent, ancient people don’t have magic resistance either; they can’t resist electric shocks!
Yuan Ye immediately stepped forward without hesitation, and with the taser, he struck each of them again. The two were electrocuted until they straightened out like salted fish, silent, and had urinated themselves.
Being electrocuted is an extremely painful experience. For a moment, it feels as if even your heart doesn’t belong to you, and you can’t even scream, let alone other organs.
In the words of the old-timers in prison, anyone who can endure three taser shocks without urinating is a good fellow.
Clearly, these two who snuck in were not good fellows; they urinated after just two shocks.
These two were completely incapacitated and would not recover in the short term. Yuan Ye ignored them and strode out of the room expressionlessly. However, as soon as he reached the doorway, the straw curtain was gently lifted, and a dark figure quickly slipped in, moving silently, almost bumping into him.
This greatly exceeded Yuan Ye’s expectations, startling him. Instinctively, he reached out and pushed, simultaneously aiming the taser at the intruder.
The dark figure was clearly also greatly surprised. Rushing into the room, eager to backstab, they never expected someone to be standing at the doorway. Before they had even lifted their head, they were almost pushed over.
However, the dark figure reacted with extreme agility. Even in the dim light where vision was almost impossible, they instinctively sensed Yuan Ye was about to stab them with something. With a muffled grunt, they swung their hand to block, and then, with a flash of electricity, they were sent flying back with a “snap,” hitting the straw curtain and sliding down to lie on the ground.
Yuan Ye showed no mercy, stepping forward and delivering a fierce kick. His sturdy hiking boots struck the small, dark figure, who let out a scream, was sent flying diagonally again, and slammed heavily against the wall, bouncing back and falling completely still.
Another one dealt with!
Yuan Ye’s adrenaline surged. In common parlance, he was “seeing red.” A fierce glint appeared in his eyes, as if he had returned to his childhood, to the moment he could no longer bear his drunken father’s habitual beatings and finally fought back. He drew his signal flare gun, lifted the door curtain, and stepped out of the house.
Life is difficult, and human hearts are treacherous, like rolling through hellfire naked. Either you become tempered steel, or you turn to ashes.
Who in this world can have everything go their way? Aren’t we all just overcoming one hurdle after another?
When you need to fight, you fight. He understood from a young age that backing down, enduring, and being weak would not lead to good outcomes. He was always willing to go all out!
But to his surprise, as he strode into the courtyard, he saw the moonlight casting a clear glow, and the night was peaceful.
Well, it wasn’t entirely peaceful. The third dark figure had let out a scream, seemingly waking up the people of the Yayoi family. However, the fight had been so fast—from when he started to when he came out, it hadn’t taken a minute. The Yayoi family was probably still getting dressed and lighting torches, not yet having had time to rush out.
But where was the large group of villagers holding bamboo spears and bows?
He had planned to shoot the leader as soon as he stepped outside, blowing his face to pieces and making him wish he were dead, then wield his taser to take down a crowd, fighting his way through seven times, to intimidate the enemy, impersonate divine power, control their minds, and take charge of the situation, bringing everything into his rhythm. But where were they?
Yuan Ye stood in the courtyard, awkward. To ensure the safety of himself and his foolish son, he had prepared six contingency plans, twelve preparations, and eighty-eight different response methods. He had gathered his strength to its peak, only to find it was all for nothing—only three short figures came to harm him? A Samurai Hunt should involve the entire village, shouldn’t it?
Otherwise, what if someone informs on them later? They must drag everyone down with them. Don’t these villagers understand this basic principle? Are they really that stupid?
Or perhaps he was mistaken, and he was overthinking things. It wasn’t the villagers who wanted to harm him, so he had prepared for nothing and acted like a villain for no reason?
Suddenly, he felt a bit like a clown…
“Lord, what happened?!”
As Yuan Ye was standing in the courtyard, full of suspicion, Jikuro’s family rushed out from the side room, holding torches. Jikuro, having recently recovered from a serious illness, still held a short sword, his face filled with murderous intent. He looked like he had been on the battlefield before, but his words were filled with surprise and uncertainty. Yayoi, who had been on watch, suddenly heard someone scream and quickly woke them up. They were completely bewildered and had no idea what had happened.
“Nothing…” Yuan Ye replied perfunctorily, his dark, deep gaze quickly sweeping over their facial expressions before turning to the cowshed. He asked coldly, “Where are Momorokuro and Ichishiro?”
Could it be that these two boys had malicious intentions?
Yayoi immediately ran to the cowshed. In a moment, Momorokuro and Ichishiro came out, rubbing their sleepy eyes. They were groggy, looking like they had slept too soundly to have heard anything.
It’s true, when one is sound asleep in the middle of the night, a single scream from one room wouldn’t necessarily wake up a whole group of people.
Yuan Ye was completely bewildered. After thinking for a moment, he turned and pointed into the house, ordering the Momoi brothers, “Three thieves came, and I’ve already taken care of them! Go, tie them up and drag them out!”
The Momoi brothers paused for a moment, then rushed into the house without hesitation. After a few shouts, they tied up the three men with their belts and dragged them out, also confiscating two short swords and a short-handled axe.
Jikuro seemed to understand something, his expression turning somewhat grim. He placed his sword on the ground, disarmed himself first, and then, holding a torch, stepped forward to examine them. Upon realizing they were strangers he didn’t recognize, he let out a huge sigh of relief and turned to Yuan Ye respectfully, saying, “Lord, they are not from the village. Shall we wake them up and interrogate them now?”
“No need. One of them is awake.” Yuan Ye kicked the shortest one, the third person who had entered the house, and said coldly, “Stop playing dead. I know you’re awake. Who are you three?”
“Idiot, I’m not with them!” The dwarf had only been shocked once and had lost consciousness for a short while, but he had also been kicked hard in the waist and hip, hitting the wall. Now he was immobile, his throat felt sweet, and he was too weak to resist. He could only pretend to be dead. Now that he was exposed, he stopped pretending and immediately cursed, “Those two guys are just riff-raff from the Kawana Group. Are you blind? You dare lump me in with riff-raff!”
“Kawana Group?” Yuan Ye looked at Jikuro.
Jikuro explained in a low voice, “Lord, they are a group of river pirates from the border of Mino and Owari. They rob on the Nagara River and other nearby rivers, and sometimes they are hired for water transport business.”
“About how many people are there?”
“Uh, it’s hard to say. There are several leaders, and scattered around, maybe a few dozen people.”
Yuan Ye began to understand. These river pirates were likely delivering goods to or entertaining themselves in the market town of Nagoya Castle. They happened to encounter him, saw an opportunity for profit, and wanted to pull off a quick score without anyone noticing. He just didn’t know when he had been targeted. He had been paying attention to his rear on the way back and hadn’t noticed anyone following him.
However, these could be discussed later. He looked at the dwarf on the ground and asked, “They are from the Kawana Group, but what about you?”
“I’m here to save your life!” the dwarf said unceremoniously. “For the sake of those Six Mon Coins!”
This was the truth. He was indeed here to save Yuan Ye’s life. However, after saving his life, it would be reasonable to take half of his money, considered righteous “black-on-black” crime.
Well, taking it all wouldn’t work. If he took it all, over a hundred catties, he wouldn’t be able to carry it. Taking half would be very strenuous.
Yuan Ye was slightly stunned. He took the torch and held it close to the dwarf’s face to examine him carefully, exclaiming in surprise, “It’s you?!”
This was the “blind monk” beggar he had met during the day who played the Japanese biwa. However, he was clearly not blind now, his face filled with angry ferocity, his eyes almost bulging out.
The little beggar said righteously, “Yes, it’s me! I kindly told you that you were being targeted, but you, you idiot, had a blank look on your face, and deserved to be…” He trailed off as he spoke. The current situation clearly showed that Yuan Ye was already prepared. In just a few breaths, he had taken down two river pirates, and even knocked him down. It was completely different from what he had expected. The lines he had prepared beforehand were naturally useless.
Yuan Ye didn’t understand, asking somewhat inexplicably, “When did you warn me?”
“Stop pretending. I used my biwa to warn you of danger, that you were being targeted. Dare you say you didn’t understand? If you didn’t understand, how could you be prepared?” The little beggar became more and more annoyed as he thought about it, cursing loudly, “You’re fine now, and at least half of the credit is mine. Yet you injured me, your benefactor, and tied me up too. Are you even human? Shameless, despicable, rotten-butt, you’ll die a horrible death sooner or later!”
When the lord is insulted, the subject dies. Momorokuro and Ichishiro, who were at the lower end of the feudal loyalty chain, couldn’t stand it. Momorokuro stepped forward and kicked him, shouting, “Bastard, speak politely to my master, don’t be presumptuous!”
The little beggar was not afraid at all and screamed even louder, “You two are even more foolish. Don’t casually mention where you’re from when you’re out. Don’t you understand this basic principle? You weave shop employees say anything after a simple question, are you afraid your foolish master won’t be robbed? The master is a fool, the family retainers are also fools, you are a nest of fools, you’ll all die foolishly sooner or later!”
The faces of the Momoi brothers instantly contorted, then turned pale and bloodless. They looked at Yuan Ye with some fear. At that time, Yuan Ye was picking out cloth, inquiring carefully about the origin and craftsmanship, and bargaining, which took a lot of time. They had nothing to do, so they chatted with the employee at the door. They never expected that a casual chat would ruin their livelihood.
They had only just eaten a meal of rice. They had really just chatted casually, and at the time, they hadn’t thought that malicious people would overhear them!
Yuan Ye didn’t blame them. Such things were hard to guard against; he hadn’t even thought of it before. He just said casually, “It was an unintentional mistake. Just be more careful when you speak in the future.”
The Momoi brothers breathed a collective sigh of relief. Momorokuro immediately tightened his short sword, looking at the three thieves with a desire to atone for his mistake, his eyes filled with ferocity, eager to act. He asked Yuan Ye for instructions, “Lord, what should we do now…”
Yuan Ye asked Jikuro, “In situations like this, how is it usually handled locally?”
Jikuro bowed his head and reported, “Usually, thieves are handed over to Aragiko Castle, where they are sentenced to hard labor or execution.”
Yuan Ye did not object. As long as it didn’t involve fundamental principles, following the rules of the territory was basic courtesy and the best way to avoid trouble. He pointed at the two river pirates and said, “Then do as you say, and this…”
He felt that what the little beggar said was not false. These three people were probably not working together, and he didn’t intend to “punish” the little beggar as well. But before he could finish speaking, the little beggar lying on the ground suddenly sprang up like a fish out of water and kicked Momorokuro flying with one foot. The rope binding him had broken at some point.
After kicking Momorokuro flying, the little beggar intended to flee, cursing at Yuan Ye as he ran, mocking him. However, as soon as he landed, he felt a sharp pain in his waist and hip, his legs went weak, and he almost knelt down. His throat felt increasingly sweet and salty. Staggering, he managed to lunge a few steps before his vision went black, and he fell to the ground again.
It’s over. This time, I’ve truly failed. I, A Man, have traveled the world, and I survived amidst flashing blades, but I never expected to capsize in a small ditch. I might die here!
Grandfather, A Qing, you must avenge me!
