Su Xi’s first reaction was, of course, that she liked the finely crafted silver hairpin more. What girl could resist a beautiful piece of jewelry? Besides, the silver hairpin had a classical charm to it—its hollowed design was extraordinarily delicate, and the pattern of pure white blossoms carried an ancient grace. Even in modern times, it looked like an antique!
For a moment, she almost forgot this was just a game. Excited, she sat up straight on the sofa and reached out her finger to pick at the screen—trying to pry the hairpin out.
But obviously, that subconscious action was far too silly. How could something inside a game be picked out by hand?!
Su Xi held the screen in her hands, full of resentment.
She didn’t know whether to blame the game’s original artist for drawing the hairpin too beautifully, or to blame her little one for giving a gift that struck straight into a mother’s girlish heart.
She wanted it but she couldn’t have it.
She had checked before: there was no inventory system in the game interface, only a harvest bar for her little one. But clearly, this gift didn’t belong in the harvest section.
She wanted to store it in a bag like in other games but that wasn’t possible.
——Then how was she supposed to take it?!
Su Xi used her finger to nudge the silver hairpin on the table’s edge, listening to the crisp, pleasant ding it made. Her heart itched, but for the moment, she had no idea what to do with it.
…However, even if she couldn’t take it away, she couldn’t just leave it here and ignore it either.
Otherwise, when her little one came back and saw the gift untouched, he’d definitely be disappointed again—and just like last time, he’d sit alone under the setting sun, showing that quiet, sorrowful expression…
Su Xi slapped her thigh. “Got it!”
Although she felt a bit reluctant, this was the only way.
She pressed her finger on the screen and dragged the silver hairpin. The hairpin was lifted from the table, and the light streaming in through the window shone upon it, making it gleam like moonlight—more beautiful than ever.
At first, Su Xi only planned to take the hairpin, but her gaze couldn’t help falling onto the man’s belt lying on the table—equally exquisite.
Greed was probably a fundamental human instinct.
She couldn’t help herself—she picked up the belt as well. Then, with the thrill of having found hidden treasure, she switched the game interface to the bamboo grove outside the woodshed.
She planned to find a place to bury both gifts first.
That way, to her little one, it would mean she had already accepted them.
After redeeming a “dig and fill pit” action from the shop, Su Xi carefully placed the two small boxes into the ground and covered them with soil.
Although it was a pity, this was the best she could do for now.
Su Xi lingered for a while, gazing at the buried gifts. She memorized the surrounding bamboo stalks with distinctive markings, planning to dig them back up later—once her little one left Prince Ning’s residence and switched maps—so she could bring them along.
Because of this unexpected, heartfelt gift, Su Xi was too excited to put her phone down. She switched the interface back inside the house, continuing to think about how to make the bow and arrows her little one needed.
Naturally, the in-game shop had everything—from expensive to cheap, there were “Moonfang Wolf-Bone Arrows,” “Black Dragon Iron-Spine Arrows,” “Phoenix Feather Arrows,” “Birch-Wing Arrows,” “Wood-Feather Bamboo Arrows,” “Plain Wood Water Arrows,” “Hunter’s Arrows,” “Ordinary Bows and Arrows,” “Tattered Bows and Arrows,” and more.
Each image was displayed in a neat row, the pricier ones looked particularly sharp and formidable!
If this were before she’d hit the lottery, Su Xi, with her meager allowance, would’ve had to scrimp and save—at most, she could only afford the most ordinary set of bows and arrows.
But now, she only wanted to spend money—she wanted to give her little one the very best.
Without hesitation, her finger moved straight toward the most expensive option: the “Moonfang Wolf-Bone Arrows,” priced at two thousand gold coins.
However, the moment she tapped it, a message popped up below—
“For Royal Use Only.”
So it turned out the arrows were engraved with the royal totem.
The finest arrows the sons of nobility could use were the Phoenix Feather Arrows.
To avoid causing her little one any unnecessary trouble, Su Xi had no choice but to give up on the wolf-bone arrows and instead bought the best she could within the allowed range—the Phoenix Feather Arrows!
Before long, a beautifully shaped bow with feathers bright and round like the autumn moon appeared on the table.
Remembering the side quest, Su Xi enthusiastically selected a strand of bright red silk ribbon from the shop and carefully tied it to the bow’s head.
This side quest was basically a freebie, probably designed to ease the game’s pacing. It was simple enough, but tying a bow through the screen was rather difficult, and it still took Su Xi quite a while to finish.
When she finally managed to tie a somewhat crooked bow, the system popped up with the completion reward:
The system prompted: “Current total points: 17. You may unlock one new section. Please select a location to unlock.”
Each time she unlocked a new section, Su Xi couldn’t help feeling excited. The game’s scenery was stunning in its detail—blue stone paths, long corridors, eaves of tiled roofs, all exquisitely rendered.
Every time a new part of the map lit up, it felt like she was personally exploring the ancient capital step by step—perhaps even the entire Yan Kingdom itself.
It gave her a strange and wonderful feeling.
Su Xi said, “Let’s see where my little one is first?”
The map popped up. Outside Prince Ning’s residence, the capital was vast, divided into four main sections: the Imperial Palace, Inner City, Outer City, and Moat. Su Xi didn’t bother studying the divisions in detail—it was probably similar to inner ring, second ring, and third ring roads.
Near the moat stood a building that looked like a temple, and her little one’s light marker was blinking there.
“What’s that place?” Su Xi said in surprise. It was the first time she’d seen her little one run that far away.
The system explained:
“That is Yong’an Temple within the capital. The Empress Dowager once came here to offer incense, so its incense offerings are very prosperous. However, this winter there was a frost disaster—snow has fallen continuously for months. Beyond the capital, famine stretches for thousands of li, and refugees wander without shelter. Many citizens within the capital have also caught wind-cold illnesses with no medicine available. Thus, they’ve gathered near Yong’an Temple, hoping to meet some high-ranking official who might give them justice.”
Su Xi felt this must be a new storyline about to unlock and quickly said, “Unlock Yong’an Temple for me!”
───♡───
Lu Huan went to the city market today. Originally, he planned to use the silver left over from buying the silver hairpin and the pearl belt to purchase birch wood and feathers. But such materials couldn’t be found in ordinary markets, so he left the inner city and headed toward the outer city hills.
He never expected that along the way, everywhere he looked, there were people dying—stricken by wind-cold, unable to find a doctor, left to perish in despair!
Where had all the doctors gone?
It turned out that during the days he himself had been ill with wind-cold, an outbreak had spread through the capital—like a plague. Even in Prince Ning’s residence, over a dozen servants were dismissed and driven away because of it.
Naturally, all the physicians in the capital had been urgently summoned by nobles and officials to treat them first.
As for the common folk—those with a little savings could still hire a physician, but the poor, with nothing to their name, could only wait for death.
Unwilling to die in silence, many flocked to Yong’an Temple, seeking justice.
All along the outer city roads, people were coughing and shivering from the cold. In front of a few good-hearted street-side clinics, dense crowds gathered, waiting for relief—
The sight was horrifying.
The farther Lu Huan walked, the tighter his brows furrowed into a deep crease.
───♡───
Su Xi opened the newly unlocked Yong’an Temple map section and immediately locked onto her little one amidst the crowd.
It was her first time seeing him in an outfit meant for going out. He wore a robe made of animal hide, and over his head, he had deliberately put on a black hat and cloak—to avoid being recognized by anyone from Prince Ning’s residence.
The tiny, round little figure walked among the crowd with his hands clasped behind his back, his face calm and stern. Compared to his usual adorableness, there was now a touch of sharp composure to him.
Su Xi was just about to find it amusing when she was suddenly startled—startled by the masses of sick and weakened people lying all over the ground at Yong’an Temple.
The entire ground was full of people!
All of them had fallen ill from wind-cold and, with no medicine to treat it, lay weakly against the walls, looking as though they might die at any moment.
There were wrinkled elders, infants still wrapped in swaddling clothes held by their mothers, and even strong young men—all struck by the same illness, all alike: limbs powerless, high fevers that would not break, their bodies chilled to the bone.
Even though the figures on the game screen were only stylized stick-like characters, Su Xi still felt deeply shaken. Her heart ached at the sight.
So this was how terrifying an epidemic caused by mere wind-cold could be in ancient times?!
It was practically a catastrophe. Who knew how many people would die this winter?
The physicians were doing all they could to treat patients, but their skills were clearly limited. They could only use crude herbal remedies to save those with mild symptoms. Those whose fevers had raged for days without subsiding—faces pale as paper—had already been abandoned as hopeless.
Su Xi had never imagined that something as ordinary as a viral cold, by modern standards, could kill so many people in the game’s ancient world.
That day, she herself had only bought one dose of medicine for her little one. He had taken it once and recovered almost immediately!
——Did that mean the medicine she bought from the shop could save all these people?!
The thought flashed across Su Xi’s mind at the very same moment Lu Huan, standing amid the sea of suffering, furrowed his brows in deep contemplation of the same question.
His wind-cold had also been severe that day, yet after just one night, he had nearly recovered. The medicine that person gave him,was it truly so effective?!
That person always seemed to have strange, unheard-of things… including that peculiar shelter against the cold.
He wondered what ingredients that medicine contained. If he could identify them, could he gather herbs to make more—to save these women, children, and the elderly?
The officials in the inner city, afraid the imperial court would learn the truth and discover the city was not at peace, had begun driving the plague-stricken commoners out beyond the capital walls.
The people, cold and destitute, wept to the heavens in despair.
Meanwhile, the officials within the city feasted and reveled night after night, singing and dancing as if the world were still whole.
Lu Huan turned around, and his gaze paused briefly on a dying child—about eight years old, hands red from frostbite, bare feet against the frozen ground.
His eyes darkened, and after a long moment, he forced himself to look away.
Just then, a new main quest appeared on Su Xi’s screen—
【Prompt: Please accept Main Quest IV — Assist the protagonist in creating a miraculous medicine that cures wind-cold. Become an unnamed divine physician within the capital, win the hearts of thousands of commoners, and earn fifty taels of silver within ten days through the sale of the wind-cold medicine.】
Su Xi was startled at first, but when she saw the words “point reward,” her fighting spirit was immediately reignited!
However, even without that quest, when Su Xi saw her little one standing still, gazing from afar at that poor child, she could tell—he had already made up his mind to act.
She didn’t know what exactly her little one was thinking.
But she had once seen, among the scrolls piled up in his wardrobe, the one he read most often, worn at the edges from countless turnings—
It was a painting of a peaceful realm, rivers clear and seas calm, a world of harmony and prosperity.
───♡───
Meanwhile, inside Prince Ning’s residence, Princess Consort Ning was pacing anxiously in Lu Wenxiu’s room, fingers restlessly turning the beads of her Buddhist rosary—so distraught she was nearly faint with worry.
Ever since Lu Wenxiu had been rescued from the riverside, he had been running a fever and coughing. She thought it was nothing more than a common cold; with a doctor’s visit and regular medicine, he should recover in time.
But who could have expected that after all these days, he still hadn’t improved!
Worse—three days ago, his condition had taken a sudden, drastic turn for the worse. He was now completely bedridden, burning with an unrelenting fever and entirely delirious.
Even the imperial physician sent from the palace had shaken his head and said, “The Second Young Master’s body was already frail, and after falling into the frozen lake, the cold has now taken hold deep within. There is nothing more that can be done, only Heaven’s mercy may save him.”
Though tactfully worded, the meaning was clear—he was beyond saving.
If even the imperial physician was helpless, where could they possibly find a doctor more skilled than that?
Princess Consort Ning had never imagined that while she was busy scheming how to have that illegitimate son killed during the autumn hunt on Yan Mountain, her own son would instead fall grievously ill from that very same self-inflicted fall into the lake!
A sharp pain gripped her heart, and she collapsed into a chair.
The old madam had practiced martial arts all her life; her body was strong. After being rescued, she had been warmed by a brazier right away—so it was no surprise she hadn’t fallen ill.
But why was it that the illegitimate son, who had also been in and out of Prince Ning’s residence these past days, remained perfectly healthy?!
Anxious, furious, and heartsick over Lu Wenxiu, Princess Consort Ning nearly ground her teeth to pieces.
───♡───
Lu Huan’s plan to buy birch wood and feathers was once again set aside. That wasn’t urgent, the ordinary bow and arrows he already had would suffice. But the lives of these commoners could not wait.
Once he’d made up his mind, he acted immediately—returning to the city and entering an herbal medicine shop.
Lu Huan was well-versed in herbs. The medicine packet that person had left him before—he had opened it and examined its contents. Inside were not ground powders but various herbs measured precisely by weight, meant to be boiled together. With one quick glance, he had already committed each herb to memory.
As a precaution back then, after sending some of the wind-cold medicine to Fourth Aunt, he had kept one extra packet stored in his wardrobe.
Now, he only needed to purchase those same herbs one by one, then use weighing scales to calculate and reconstruct the prescription of that miraculous medicine.
He just didn’t know—would that person be willing to let him use it to save others?
After buying the herbs, Lu Huan returned to his small woodshed courtyard, his thoughts heavy.
He strode swiftly through the bamboo grove, but when he reached the door, his movements hesitated slightly.
Though last time he had left a note and received no reply, leaving him somewhat disappointed, this time a faint, stubborn hope still rose within him—an unspoken wish that perhaps, just this once, he might get an answer.
…But what if that person ignored him again?
Lu Huan tightened his grip on the packet of herbs, forcing down the foolish, unreasonable hope that swelled in his chest.
He composed himself, expression restrained, and stepped inside.
He gathered his thoughts and finally turned toward the desk—and this time——
“……”
Lu Huan hadn’t meant to, but the color in his eyes lit up instantly.
He stood by the window, the light of the setting sun falling gently upon him.
On that usually cold and stoic face, there now appeared a rare, unguarded expression—
something that could only be called joy unrestrained.
This was… the first time in fourteen years that such an expression—one that truly belonged to a young boy—had appeared on his face.
But as if suddenly realizing his own emotions, he quickly tried to rein them in. He forced his features into stillness, suppressing every trace of light from his eyes.
He strode toward the desk, pretending that there was nothing sparkling faintly in his gaze.
On the table—the gifts were gone.
Both of them had been taken away.
That person had finally seen them.
And finally… had responded.
He didn’t know whether it was because that person had seen through his careful little intentions and, unwilling to reveal their own gender, had simply taken both gifts at once.
But still, Lu Huan’s heart rippled.
After all, until now, he had only ever been the one to receive things from that person.
And now, at last—it meant that there was some kind of interaction, some exchange, between them.
He pressed his lips together lightly.
And besides the missing gifts, there was something new on the desk.
His gaze fell upon the Phoenix Feather Bow—tied with a strange knot of red silk—and he froze slightly.
The bow was exquisitely made: its body crafted from fine poplar wood, the short arrows formed with phoenix feathers, their heads large and their tails narrow—razor-sharp, the kind of powerful weapon only noble sons could ever hope to wield.
Aside from the phoenix-feather arrows, any bow of higher quality was reserved exclusively for the royal family.
All he had wished for was a simple birch-feather bow but that person… seemed to have gone out of their way to give him something better.
Realizing this, Lu Huan picked up the bow, and a faint tremor ran through his heart.
───♡───
Outside the screen, Su Xi had been following her little one ever since he returned from the temple, just waiting to see his expression when he discovered the bow and arrows she’d given him.
She waited with giddy anticipation, expecting him to show surprise and delight—but what she saw instead was—
Her little one’s face was utterly blank, expressionless and cold, revealing not a trace of joy or anger.
Su Xi: ???
Wait—
You just received the bow and arrows of your dreams, and you’re not even a little happy?!
She knew her little one wasn’t the most expressive, but come on! She wasn’t asking for him to leap up and hug his “mother,” but at least smile a little, right?!
Just as Su Xi was feeling utterly deflated, ready to sulk, a small white speech bubble slowly appeared above her little one’s head.
Inside that white bubble—a tiny heart.
As if shy, the happy little heart popped up once—then quickly hid away again.
Su Xi: …………
Her heart melted into a puddle.
She dropped her phone, dove face-first into the couch cushions, and covered her burning face with both hands.
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