"Hahaha, not at all. Isn't helping others a fine virtue of our Hua Country?"
Meng Jingwei smiled faintly.
After walking down the mountain for a while, at a very steep spot, the masked man slipped, letting out a yelp as he fell to the ground.
"Careful!"
Meng Jingwei saw the masked man lying directly on the ground, with the steep slope behind him. Though falling wouldn't kill him, it would certainly result in serious injury.
She quickly lunged forward, grabbing his leg and holding it tightly in her palm, "Don't worry, I've got you."
Meng Jingwei pulled hard on the masked man towards her, but found that although he looked slender, his body was quite heavy.
However, in that dangerous moment, she didn't overthink it. She dragged the masked man a few steps back, then sat beside him, reaching out to support his neck, "Get up quickly."
His legs were inconvenient, and it was difficult for him to stand after falling. She had to support his upper body to help him up.
"Hey, thanks."
The masked man took the opportunity to loop his arm around Meng Jingwei's neck.
Meng Jingwei strained to help him up, "You look thin, I didn't expect you to be so heavy."
As she focused intently on helping the masked man up, she failed to notice a glint of starlight flash in the man's deep eyes beneath the mask. At that moment, the hand around Meng Jingwei's neck suddenly produced a sharp dagger, which flashed a cold gleam under the setting sun.
The dagger was aimed at her neck. With a single stroke, Meng Jingwei would have been instantly killed.
But before the man could make his move, Meng Jingwei exclaimed, "Watch out!"
With that, she pushed the masked man away.
In the nick of time, the masked man swiftly retracted the dagger and fell onto the slope. Meng Jingwei, on the other hand, gasped, "Hiss..."
The masked man, sprawled on the ground, watched as Meng Jingwei, still catching her breath, clutched her hand. Two small bloodstains had appeared on her wrist.
"You..."
The masked man paused, then fell silent.
Moments ago, if Meng Jingwei hadn't pushed him away, he would have been the one bitten.
"Oh no, it's a venomous snake. Damn it, am I going to die here?"
Meng Jingwei was terrified. She quickly took off the hairband from her head and wound it around her wrist, layer upon layer, until it couldn't be tightened any further, then released her grip.
Everything had happened so suddenly. Meng Jingwei dared not relax for a moment, immediately using her mouth to suck the wound, spitting out the venomous blood onto the ground.
She sucked several times, but not much blood came out.
Meng Jingwei turned to look at the masked man, "I need to go down the mountain. If I can't find a knife to treat the wound, I might die."
Saying this, without waiting for the masked man's reply, she quickly started walking down the mountain.
Watching her retreating back, the masked man clenched the hand hanging by his side. After a few seconds of hesitation, he finally said, "You need a knife? I have one."
Meng Jingwei stopped in her tracks, "You have one?"
"Yes, there are often wild beasts in the mountains. It's safer to carry a knife."
As he spoke, he handed the knife in his hand to Meng Jingwei.
Meng Jingwei took the gleaming knife he handed her, "Thank you, this is really a coincidence."
She didn't say much more and directly made a cross-shaped incision on the wound on her wrist.
The knife was very sharp, and a slight cut opened the skin. The pain made Meng Jingwei grit her teeth, her hand trembling.
Fortunately, the wound was on the outer side of her wrist. If it had been on the inner side, near the major artery, she feared there would be no hope.
"Hiss..."
Because of the snakebite, Meng Jingwei made the cross-shaped cut quite deep. The pain caused her to sit down on the ground.
Blood immediately welled up and slowly dripped onto the ground from Meng Jingwei's hand.
In a short while, the ground was stained with a pool of blood.
Watching her method of treatment, the masked man immediately felt she was not simple, "How did you know how to treat a wound like this?"
"I've seen people treated this way before after being bitten."
Meng Jingwei, enduring the pain, said to the masked man.
Then she returned the dagger to the masked man, "Fortunately you had a knife, otherwise I might have died here today."
Her injured right hand kept bleeding, and Meng Jingwei's right hand began to shake uncontrollably. Her consciousness gradually weakened, and soon, her vision went black, and she collapsed.
Watching her fall beside him, the masked man, gripping the dagger tightly, remained still for a long time.
The evening breeze was cool, dispersing the smell of blood in front of them.
The afterglow of the setting sun, the vast sunset clouds bathed the earth in an orange hue. Smoke curled up from the chimneys of houses at the foot of the mountain, creating a picturesque and exceptionally beautiful scene.
It wasn't until the sun set and night fell.
Qing Muy野 and Xiao Meiyan, not having waited for Meng Jingwei on the mountain, descended.
Qing Muy野, feeling he had been tricked, looked particularly displeased. After going down the mountain, he returned home directly and didn't look for Meng Jingwei.
However, after he finished dinner, Xiao Meiyan appeared, "Qing Muy野, Meng Jingwei she... she seems to be missing."
Qing Muy野, who was standing by the door enjoying the breeze, felt a jolt at Xiao Meiyan's words and asked, "When did this happen?"
"I... I don't know."
Xiao Meiyan dared not tell Qing Muy野 the truth, so she said, "Meng Jingwei went up the mountain before we did, but she hasn't returned yet. Could she... have had an accident?"
At this moment, Xiao Meiyan was somewhat panicked.
If Meng Jingwei had truly met with misfortune, she feared she would feel guilty for the rest of her life.
Qing Muy野, who had initially thought Meng Jingwei was toying with him and was even a bit annoyed, now sensed that something was wrong. He immediately took a few people from the house and went up the mountain with flashlights to search for Meng Jingwei.
The mountain opposite the village was neither too large nor too small. The group searched for two hours without finding her.
Finally, the villagers were alerted, and with twenty to thirty more villagers, Meng Jingwei was found in the grass.
When they saw Meng Jingwei, she was lying on the ground, unconscious. The wound on her wrist had stopped bleeding, but there was a broken hairband nearby and a pool of blood.
Qing Muy野, seeing her pale face and bluish lips, immediately reached out to examine her wound, "Damn it, how did she get poisoned?"
"Chen Kui, hurry down and find the village chief, ask him to find the village doctor."
Chen Kui, who had come to Liangchuan County with Meng Jingwei, was also quite frightened by Meng Jingwei's pale appearance. He immediately nodded, "Okay, okay, I'll go now."
He went down the mountain first, while Qing Muy野 picked Meng Jingwei up and carried her down the mountain steadily and quickly.
At the foot of the mountain, Qing Muy野 carried Meng Jingwei to her bedroom. Xiao Meiyan, seeing her unconscious and pale as paper, was frightened to the point of paling herself.
"This, this, this... what happened to her?"
Xiao Meiyan covered her mouth, her heart filled with dread.
A villager mumbled, "She must have been bitten by a snake, oh dear, that's quite scary."
"Bitten by a snake?"
A sense of guilt welled up in Xiao Meiyan's heart, and she felt she had let Meng Jingwei down.
If it weren't for her insisting on going on a date with Qing Muy野, Meng Jingwei wouldn't have ended up like this.