The sunlight dappled through the trees, echoing with laughter and the rasp calls of the wild pheasants.
"Not bad at all, this can sell for quite a bit of money," Xia Yong declared.
"The feathers are also in good condition, worth more than the meat," Xia Yong's wife fondled the wild pheasant happily.
Miss Jun stood still, watching as Xia Yong picked up the wild pheasant entangled in innumerable strands without losing a single feather.
"Did you set this up to catch wild pheasants?" she asked.
Xia Yong's wife turned around and looked at Miss Jun who stood there holding a medicine chest as if in a daze.
"Yes," Xia Yong said, with a touch of pride as he pointed, "We've set up a lot of these in the mountains, they can catch anything."
"Yeah," Xia Yong's wife chimed in, and after contemplating she added, "Wild pheasants are the most valuable."
While Miss Jun didn't know the true worth of a wild pheasant, she finally understood why those three people could have so easily kidnapped her from the tent.
It turned out that it wasn't just the master who had taught them the Hidden Formation, but this Hidden Formation was actually used for hunting.
All that talk about the most powerful killing formations from the heavens and the earth, solemnly warning her not to misuse them.
What killing formation, it's meant for killing chickens!
Just like that ancient chess game that no one could solve, it was really just for amusing children.
And she treasured it like a prized possession.
It really was deception, he only ever deceits her.
Miss Jun covered her face with her hands and started crying.
Xia Yong and his wife were taken aback.
"What's this about?" Xia Yong asked, puzzled, "All was well..."
Xia Yong's wife already hurried over.
"What happened? Miss Jun, what's wrong with you?" she asked uneasily, looking around, "Did an insect bite you?"
Miss Jun cried and shook her head.
"I'm fine, don't mind me, I just suddenly felt like crying. I'll be okay after a good cry," she sobbed.
Just suddenly felt like crying? What kind of habit or preference is that? Xia Yong and his wife exchanged glances, still afraid, perhaps? To be brought here so abruptly.
"Miss Jun," Xia Yong's wife sighed with a tinge of guilt, "Don't be afraid, really sorry about everything, we will send you back today."
Go back? She wouldn't leave, she had only just managed to find this place.
"I'm not leaving," cried Miss Jun.
Not leaving? Xia Yong and his wife exchanged glances again. Was it out of spite?
"How did you all get here?" A hoarse male voice came from up ahead, clearly having heard the crying, "What happened?"
Miss Jun glanced over instinctively, a face blurred into view.
She hurriedly wiped her tears with her sleeve and wide-eyed, watched another figure approach from within the Military Formation Map.
"We have invited a Doctor who can perform vaccinations, I mentioned this to your sister-in-law, to vaccinate Niuniu," said Xia Yong's wife, and she glanced awkwardly at Miss Jun while speaking.
How to introduce this tearful child Doctor?
But then Miss Jun had already stopped crying and stepped forward.
"What is your name?" she asked the approaching man, sniffling, asking with earnestness.
The man seemed a few years younger than Xia Yong, but looked more weathered than the figures on the Military Formation Map.
The master probably depicted them in their younger days.
Taken aback by the question, the man looked at the girl's tear-stained face.
"My name is Yang Jing," he said, without hesitation.
"My name is Miss Jun, pleased to meet you for the first time," Miss Jun greeted with a bow, saying so in a nasal voice, yet her demeanor was solemn, which seemed quite peculiar.
All three of them were momentarily stunned.
Yang Jing looked somewhat at a loss, uttering "ah" twice, not knowing what to say.
"Miss Jun is really courteous," Xia Yong's wife said.
Is it courtesy? Yet, Xia Yong found it somewhat strange. This girl was indeed gentle and seemed to be very polite, but thinking about it carefully, since entering the village, this was the second time she bowed. The first time was to himself, and both times were after she asked for names.
And her demeanor was as if she recognized them, as if she was meeting someone whose reputation she had long heard of for the first time.
Bowing to himself was understandable, after all, at that time, many people were calling him village chief, but Yang Jing...
"I came here for vaccination, they said there was another here," Miss Jun already spoke to Yang Jing again.
"Vaccination? Indeed, someone has managed to perform vaccinations," Yang Jing commented, his face showing a hint of amazement.
"Then let's hurry over," Xia Yong's wife said. "Sister-in-law is probably there already."
Hearing the words "sister-in-law," Xia Yong also put his thoughts aside and gestured with his hands to invite them.
Miss Jun and Xia Yong's wife walked ahead, while Xia Yong and Yang Jing followed behind. The wild chicken was also casually tossed onto the ground; it couldn't escape anyway.
They hadn't been walking along the mountain path for long before they reached a level area. This place was specially tidied up, with several houses built and surrounded by a fence, just like the villages below the mountain, but standing alone amidst the mountains, it seemed even more desolate.
At this moment, a woman was facing away from them, airing clothes in front of the house.
Seeing this figure, Miss Jun's steps halted, and she clutched the medicine box in her arms tightly.
"Sister-in-law," Xia Yong's wife had already joyfully stepped forward.
The woman turned around and gave her a smile.
"You have come," she said.
She was about forty years old, and just like the others, her face was weathered, but one could still make out her youthful grace.
But she was not the girl in the painting.
"Sister-in-law, this is Miss Jun," Xia Yong's wife said.
The woman turned her gaze towards Miss Jun, bowing her head in greeting.
"Thank you, Miss Jun, for making the trip all the way to our remote place," she said.
It seemed that the woman was unaware of how she had arrived. Miss Jun looked at her and smiled.
Xia Yong and his wife looked slightly uneasy, just about to say something, when Miss Jun spoke first.
"I am very pleased to be here," she said.
At those words, the woman smiled.
"Then we are even more pleased," she said, wiping her hands on her clothes. "Come, please sit down. I will go call Niuniu."
Miss Jun felt a bit nervous, sitting down with the medicine box, watching the woman enter the house.
Has she been inside the house all along?
She must have heard the conversation in the yard, right? Or perhaps she had already seen through the window?
As these thoughts swirled through her mind, the woman re-emerged, leading a girl by the hand.
Miss Jun stood up.
The girl was not tall, her body frail, almost completely obscured by the woman standing in front of her.
"Don't be afraid, this isn't a doctor who sees illnesses, this is a doctor for vaccinations..." the woman said with a smile, turning her head to speak to the girl.
It seemed that the girl was afraid of doctors?
Miss Jun observed both of them as they approached step by step, watching as the woman stepped aside, and pushed the girl, who stood behind her, to the front.
Indeed, the girl was not tall and was particularly thin, looking even smaller—not like she was fifteen or sixteen, but more like thirteen or fourteen.
Even though she stood in front of her, Miss Jun still couldn't tell if this was the girl in her master's painting.
Because her head was bowed deeply, not only was her head lowered, but her face was also covered by a cloth.