Chapter 224: Riverside

"Hey! You little woman!"Seeing Chun Xiaoman treating him like a manual laborer, Dogwa grumbled. But he only dared to curse softly, fearing that if he spoke louder, she would draw her knife and cut him.

At this moment, Chun Xiaoman approached Li Huowang, who was sitting cross-legged. "Brother Li, why are we in such a hurry today?"

Li Huowang patted the ground beside him and said, "There's a potential risk. Though it's just a suspicion, it's better to leave early to be safe." He turned his head again to look in the direction of Women's Mountain. As it stood, regardless of whether the Lion Dance Palace was a force similar to Zhengde Temple, they most likely hadn't noticed him.

"Should I contact them and ask about the 'North Wind' of the Forgetting Dao? No, a rash approach like that is too dangerous. If I want to get rid of the 'Heart Essence,' I must start somewhere else."

Mantou trotted over, placed a stone from his mouth beside Li Huowang, and wagged his tail, looking at him.

"Brother Li, you don't have to keep everything bottled up by yourself. You're already unwell; holding things in will only make you sicker. Tell us some things, and we can all figure it out together."

Li Huowang patted Mantou's head, turned to Chun Xiaoman, who had spoken, and calmly recounted his experience from the previous night.

"Your hallucination told you that the lion dancers had more hands than feet? And then you remembered that the lion dancers actually did have more hands than feet?"

Chun Xiaoman suddenly thought that what Sun Baolu had just told her might be correct.

Li Huowang keenly sensed her distrust. He wasn't angry, just slightly disappointed, sighing softly. He mumbled to himself as he looked at the three hallucinations of varying heights in front of him. "See? This is why I always keep things bottled up inside and don't want to tell others." Some things, once spoken, don't increase others' understanding; instead, they make others think you've truly gone mad.

"Daoist, it's alright. If they don't understand, it's fine. Just tell me. I'm on your side."

Li Huowang completely ignored him, turning his head slightly to look at Chun Xiaoman's empty sleeve. "You've lost an arm now; are you used to it?"

Chun Xiaoman's expression shifted slightly. "Saving everyone was worth losing an arm. If you hadn't taken me in, I would have been gone long ago."

After a moment's thought, Li Huowang decided to explain. He put his hand into his left eye socket, his fingers touching the newly formed outline of an eyeball. "Actually, my ability to regrow lost limbs isn't something I'm holding back. It's just that you truly can't use that method; you wouldn't be able to bear it."

Chun Xiaoman nodded. "I know. If I could use it, Brother Li wouldn't hide it from me. You're not that petty." After speaking, Chun Xiaoman opened her mouth as if hesitating to say something more, but in the end, she remained silent and turned to walk towards Bai Lingmiao, who was gathering wild vegetables in the distance.

She knelt beside Bai Lingmiao, picking out some weeds from the basket with her hands. "If you're truly going to spend your life with him, you'll have to find a way to cure his hysteria. This current state certainly won't do; it's already affecting daily life."

Bai Lingmiao was still savoring the events of yesterday, nodding with a smile.

Chun Xiaoman gently nudged her with her shoulder. "Did you hear me? I'm talking to you."

"I'm listening. Actually, whether he has this illness or not, I don't mind. As long as he's Brother Li, that's all that matters."

Chun Xiaoman looked at the girl beside her, frustrated that she wouldn't listen. "You still won't listen to advice. If it were anyone else, I wouldn't bother."

Smiling, Bai Lingmiao opened her arms and gently hugged Chun Xiaoman. "Thank you for your concern, Sister Xiaoman. I understand."

Looking at the delicate face before her, Chun Xiaoman's heart softened instantly. "Alright, alright, the sun is so bright. Hurry and cover your eyes."

"I'm fine digging for wild vegetables with my head down, as long as I don't look directly at it."

Summer was approaching, and many wild vegetables sprouted on the grassland. Half were put into the boiling noodle pot, and the rest were placed in the ox cart to be eaten tomorrow. Though the wild vegetable barley noodles were a bit rough on the throat, everyone still ate heartily, as lard floated on top of the noodle soup.

After eating, many men went to the river to bathe together. The weather was gradually getting hotter, and being sticky with sweat was very uncomfortable. When the men finished bathing, it was the women's turn.

Bai Lingmiao and Chun Xiaoman, supporting the heavily pregnant Luo Juanhua, walked towards the river, surrounded by the women rescued from the bandit's lair. So many women bathing naked would undoubtedly stir the desires of the other men. However, Li Huowang sat there in thought, like a stabilizing force, making the other men dare not even turn their heads.

Meanwhile, the scene in the river was entirely different. The setting sun had dyed the entire river red. The vibrant red water was scooped up by slender, delicate hands, then cascaded down skin as fine and white as sheep's milk curd, leaving behind glistening, transparent droplets. This sight made Chun Xiaoman, herself a woman, momentarily lose herself in admiration.

Luo Juanhua, standing nearby, also saw it and couldn't help but exclaim, "Tsk, tsk, tsk, what smooth skin! Won't your man rub it raw in bed?"

Bai Lingmiao's face flushed. She covered her body and squatted into the shallow water. "Sister Luo, what are you saying...?"

"There are no men here, why be shy? By my age, you'll understand that shyness is just an act for men." Then, cradling her belly like a watermelon, she leaned closer, her eyes gleaming. "Hey, how is your man in bed? Is he good? How long can he last?"

Seeing Bai Lingmiao almost bury her head in the water, Chun Xiaoman, with a helpless expression, came to her rescue. "Sister Luo, the girl is shy; don't embarrass her."

Luo Juanhua looked disappointed. "I saw she didn't know about such things, so I wanted to teach her. If she doesn't want to hear it, never mind. Besides, this is nothing. In the pond at the head of our village, all the women would do laundry while telling dirty jokes. They were much saucier than this. The men would hear them from afar and just turn around and leave."

With that, she held her belly and shuffled like a crab towards her daughter, who was being held by another woman in the distance.

Chun Xiaoman reached out and supported Bai Lingmiao's smooth arm, helping her out of the water. "Alright, she's gone. Come on out, be careful not to drown yourself."

Bai Lingmiao patted her chest, still shaken. "I've never seen Sister Luo act so uninhibited before. She scared me to death."

"When they reach her age, they all become like that," Chun Xiaoman said, picking up a cloth to help Bai Lingmiao wipe herself dry.

"When we reach Sister Luo's age, will we become like her too? How embarrassing... how can she say such things?" Bai Lingmiao, her flushed face full of shyness, said, looking at Luo Juanhua in the distance, who was holding her daughter and laughing freely.