Chapter 42: Sacrificing Oneself for the Fortress

Knock knock knock~

“Brother, are you inside?”

The sound of knocking rang out, accompanied by Erhu’s coarse and loud voice.

More than an hour had passed, but Li Xiao had not yet returned.

Erhu couldn’t sit still and began to search courtyard by courtyard.

Finally, he found Li Xiao’s horse in a relatively luxurious courtyard.

According to the people of Hou Village, this was originally the residence of Hou Tiancai and his wife, the best courtyard in the village.

However, the door was tightly closed at this moment. Erhu shouted twice without response, immediately getting a bit anxious.

Seemingly worried about something happening to Li Xiao, with a bang, the door was smashed open by Erhu.

After entering, Erhu was somewhat dumbfounded.

Li Xiao was standing perfectly fine in the main hall, unharmed.

“Brother, I called you several times and you didn’t respond; why didn’t you open the door?”

“I thought something happened to you!” Erhu said guiltily.

While speaking, Erhu’s gaze looked behind Li Xiao.

Just in time to see a woman walking hurriedly, looking panicked, covering her mouth as she ran into the inner room.

Then the sound of dry retching came from inside.

“Hou Tiancai’s woman?”

Erhu’s eyes widened instantly, as if discovering a new continent.

“Big Brother? You two~”

Erhu looked disbelieving, pointing his finger at Li Xiao, then pointing at Huang Xiu’er in the inner room.

Feeling he had been fooled by Li Xiao.

Clearly yesterday, Li Xiao had told him it was best not to break the body (lose virginity) before sixteen.

But how to explain the scene before him?

Li Xiao felt a bit uncomfortable under Erhu’s contemptuous gaze, and was even more unhappy in his heart.

His good deed was interrupted.

So he pulled Erhu out of the room, walked into the courtyard, mounted his horse, and said in a firm tone:

“We are innocent.”

“Her husband died, she felt terrible, so I came over to comfort her.” Li Xiao explained.

The situation at that time was like this: “Madam Hou, you don’t want your husband to be cut into a thousand pieces, do you?”

But unexpectedly for Li Xiao, Huang Xiu’er’s answer was ‘Yes’.

Hou Tiancai’s act of abandoning her and fleeing alone had evidently hurt Huang Xiu’er deeply.

Turning love into hatred, she could actually bear to watch Hou Tiancai being cut into a thousand pieces.

This woman’s change in attitude directly stumped Li Xiao; he didn’t know how to continue.

After staring blankly for several seconds, he finally opened his mouth and said: “Madam Hou, your way of thinking is wrong.”

“You are husband and wife, one body; how can you watch helplessly as your husband suffers torture?”

Li Xiao believed Huang Xiu’er still cared about Hou Tiancai deep down; it was just that women were naturally duplicitous.

So, Li Xiao prepared to give this woman a good lesson, make her correct this problem of her mouth, and remember what being of one mind as husband and wife meant.

So the two were truly innocent. Li Xiao was just educating a woman who lost her husband to mend her ways.

Facing Li Xiao’s explanation, Erhu obviously didn’t quite believe it. Riding on his horse, walking out while looking at him sideways.

“Yesterday you said sixteen years old~”

Li Xiao interrupted him directly: “My nominal age is already sixteen.”

Erhu was choked speechless, shocked by Li Xiao’s shamelessness.

But he seemed to understand.

His big brother wasn’t pretending to keep himself clean, but really looked down on Karluk women; his standards were just high.

“This woman is indeed much prettier than Karluk women~” Erhu muttered.

Seeing Erhu looking convinced, Li Xiao didn’t want to explain anymore.

The mouth is on others’ bodies; let them say whatever they want!

As long as he believed in his heart he was innocent, it was fine. After all, he really didn’t have time to break the moral bottom line.

“Has it been two hours already?”

Li Xiao looked up at the sky; the moon had risen very high.

Unknowingly, so much time had passed.

“Almost an hour!” Erhu looked at Li Xiao with resentful eyes.

The four of them waited there like fools for a long time, not expecting Li Xiao to be comforting a young married woman.

“Just right.” Li Xiao chuckled and said.

So, the two accelerated their horses and soon returned to the previous courtyard.

First, they checked Li Erjiang’s condition. Because Dahu and Erhu wiped his body with wet towels, his temperature had dropped a bit, and his complexion was slightly better.

“Looks like it has some effect.”

Li Xiao nodded happily. The next step was to treat the wound.

This was the root cause. If the rotting wound wasn’t treated well, the temperature would only get higher later.

Next, Li Xiao began the final production of allicin.

First, find a clean cloth to plug the jar mouth and filter out all the alcohol inside.

At this time, the garlic paste was useless; what was needed was the alcohol, as the allicin had already dissolved into the alcohol.

Step two, pour this alcohol into the distiller and heat it to distill.

Soon, the alcohol in the distiller became less and less. After cooling, it turned back into alcohol and flowed back into the wine jar.

And when all the alcohol evaporated completely, a thin layer of pale yellow crystals was left at the bottom of the distiller.

This was the final form of simply produced allicin.

“Done.”

Looking at this thin bit of pale yellow crystal, a joyful look appeared on Li Xiao’s face.

He finally made an antibiotic.

Although the allicin he produced still had quite a few impurities, and the effect was far less effective than penicillin.

But in this ancient battlefield with extremely high infection rates, having an inferior version of antibiotics to use was already good; what right did they have to demand better?

Little did they know, this tiny bit of allicin could save the lives of how many Han soldiers on the battlefield?

And how many soldiers could be spared the pain of amputation?

Li Xiao carefully scraped out the allicin crystals at the bottom of the jar and divided them into two parts.

One half for Second Uncle to take orally with water, the other half to apply to the wound.

In fact, allicin shouldn’t be easily applied to wounds because the pungency of garlic would irritate the wound and cause swelling.

But there was no choice; Li Erjiang’s injury was too severe. Even swelling was better than continuing infection.

And after returning to Hexi Fortress, deep treatment of the wound would be needed: removing rotting flesh, re-suturing, and coordinating with allicin to eliminate infection.

Early the next morning, Huang Xiu’er opened her eyes, looking at the familiar furnishings in the room, but things remained while people had changed.

Slowly getting up from the bed, she only felt her head heavy and dizzy, her whole body weak, and most importantly, her cheeks hurt very much.

Exhaustion.

Too many things happened yesterday. Huang Xiu’er’s fate had changed on this day, leaving her mind in turmoil, full of unease about the future.

So much so that after Li Xiao left, Huang Xiu’er didn’t feel sleepy at all. It wasn’t until dawn broke that she fell into a groggy sleep.

Less than an hour (two hours) later, she was woken up again by noisy sounds outside.

So she got up, enduring physical and mental exhaustion, and began to pack things, packing everything usable to take away.

In a short while, Dahu and Erhu walked over.

“Hou~”

Seeing Huang Xiu’er, Erhu subconsciously wanted to address her as ‘Hou Huang Shi’, but was immediately interrupted by Dahu.

“Madam Huang, rest for a while; we’ll help you pack things.” Dahu smiled gently and said.

Then the two began to help Huang Xiu’er get busy.

“You~”

Watching the two’s behavior, Huang Xiu’er felt somewhat at a loss.

But she also knew these two were that guy’s younger brothers, definitely sent by that guy to help.

Thinking of her situation, Huang Xiu’er didn’t refuse Li Xiao’s kindness, nodded gently, and said: “Thank you.”

Before long, the valuable and useful things in Huang Xiu’er’s home were all packed up.

A lot of stuff, requiring at least a dozen horses to pull.

“According to my brother’s instructions, you can keep all these daily use items, but only half of the cattle, sheep, and horses can be left for you.” Dahu said.

According to Li Xiao’s meaning, the part of the marital property belonging to Hou Tiancai was to be confiscated.

The remaining part belonging to Huang Xiu’er was left for her to continue living on.

Of course, if not for that matter last night, Li Xiao would definitely have confiscated all her family’s things.

“Thank your big brother for me.” Huang Xiu’er said.

A widowed woman had a hard life. Even if she returned to Huangsha Village, she would have to live looking at her family’s expressions.

But with this half of the cattle and sheep property, whether in Hexi Fortress or Huangsha Village, she wouldn’t have to depend on others’ charity.

“En, you can thank him yourself.” Dahu smiled gently, helping Huang Xiu’er drive the cattle, sheep, and horses out of the courtyard.

Preparing to take her and many people from Hou Village to leave here and start a new life.

Dahu was intelligent and thought a bit more than Erhu.

Guessing that Li Xiao coveted not Huang Xiu’er’s beauty, but definitely her identity and background.

The daughter of the Huangsha Village Lord.

Although Huangsha Village was smaller than Hexi Fortress, if it could be pulled onto Hexi Fortress’s war chariot, it would also greatly strengthen Hexi Fortress’s power.

So, in Dahu’s view, Li Xiao’s behavior was completely sacrificing himself for the fortress, considering the great cause of the entire Hexi Fortress.

After Dahu and Erhu drove all the cattle and sheep out, the courtyard was empty, leaving only a solitary house.

Huang Xiu’er stood in front of the courtyard gate, took one last look, sighed gently, then silently turned and mounted her horse.

Hou Tiancai was dead, and the Hou family was gone; she couldn’t be considered a woman of the Hou family anymore.

This place would have nothing to do with her from now on~

(End of this chapter)