Reborn as a Landlord-Chapter 44 - 27 Beautiful as Jade_1

Chapter 44: Chapter 27 Beautiful as Jade_1
Upon hearing the noise, Lian Manman also noticed something odd about the branch she was holding. She slightly lowered her head, only to realize she was holding onto someone’s half-torn sleeve.
There was a person here, and she hadn’t noticed!
Lian Manman hurriedly let go, steadied herself against a rock nearby, and turned around, only to come face-to-face with that person.
Lian Manman’s heartbeat quickened by two beats. The face before her was somewhat pale, but it did not diminish his appearance. "As if a beautiful woman," four words suddenly popped into her head.
Indeed, there was a man before her, seemingly of tender age, clad in a long moon-white robe with arrow sleeves, leaning against an earthen wall, half-sitting, half-lying there. Manman had seen handsome men and beautiful women in her past life, and the people of the Lian Family were also blessed with good looks, but the beauty of this man still dazzled her.
A faint scent of blood wafted from his nose, and as Lian Manman’s eyes locked onto the man’s dark pupils, something inside stopped her from crying out in surprise.
A stranger, evidently not from the nearby villages, sitting there injured and silent. Manman instinctively sensed danger and also instinctively concluded that a cry would not only be of no help to her but would make matters worse.
Indeed, her discretion proved to be very wise. In a place she could not see, the man’s other hand, which had already reached towards the back of her head, slowly retracted as he noticed her quietude.
Lian Manman and the man locked eyes for a moment.
The man had sustained severe injuries in various places; his legs, waist, and arms were all wounded, especially one of his thighs where an injury continued to bleed, soaking the ground beneath him.
He was not from the village; Manman had many questions in her heart.
"You... are not from our village," Lian Manman tried to remain calm, stating the fact in a normal tone, "You are injured."
"Oh," the man uttered noncommittally, surveying Lian Manman up and down.
An elegant yet extremely dangerous beast. Due to his injuries, he became even more dangerous. Manman sensed the danger and affirmed that it came from the man before her.
"I have medicine that can help you," declared Manman, "Or, I can go back to the village and find someone to help you."
"Are you from the village below the mountain?" the man asked, not in the local accent but in what is known as the mandarin.
"Yes," answered Manman.
The man fell silent again, seemingly pondering something, paying no mind to his injuries that were still bleeding.
"Your wounds are still bleeding," Lian Manman said softly.
The man barely furrowed his brow, no reminder needed. He knew how dire his situation was. Scattered from his men, pursued and heavily wounded, with his medical pouch and such lost. His wounds urgently needed attention, but danger lurked nearby; any slight misstep would cost him his life.
This girl who appeared out of nowhere—was she a harbinger of death, or...
"I have medicine here," Lian Manman took out a porcelain bottle from her basket, "It’s made from herbs native to this mountain, capable of stopping bleeding."
The man’s gaze shifted from Lian Manman’s face to the bottle in her hand, yet he uttered no word.
Lian Manman slowly opened the bottle, showing him the horse hoof wraps inside.
"They might not look nice, but they are very effective," Lian Manman, seeing no objection from the man, took out several large horse hoof wraps from the bottle.
First was the injury on his thigh, which appeared to have been hastily tended to, but blood was still flowing. Manman had never seen such a severe wound before. The man did not speak out against her actions, so she ripped the horse hoof wraps one by one and applied them in layers to the wound on his thigh. After using more than a dozen wraps, she finally managed to stop the bleeding, and she breathed a sigh of relief.
Throughout the process, the man remained very quiet, letting Manman treat him as if it was none of his concern. However, Manman could sense his tension, so she was extra careful with her movements.
The bleeding had stopped, but the wound still needed to be dressed. Lian Manman thought for a moment, then took off her shoes and began to unwind the gauze bandage that was wrapping her feet.
The man finally showed emotion, a suspicious flush of red appearing on his pale face.
"Wait, you, you want to use that..." Foot-binding Cloth?
In this era, a woman’s bound feet were supposed to belong only to her man, a thing of special significance. The foot-binding cloth was also very private. The man was clearly shocked by Lian Manman’s action, and he didn’t want to use the woman’s foot-binding cloth.
"I don’t bind my feet," Lian Manman didn’t know why she had such patience, perhaps it was due to a sense of danger and self-preservation, "Your wound must be dressed, these strips of cloth are what I use to pad my shoes, but they are very clean. You don’t need to worry."
As she spoke, Lian Manman unwound the entire strip of gauze and showed it to the man.
The man looked at Lian Manman’s shoes and saw indeed they were not bound; the gauze was also very clean, so he said nothing more.
Lian Manman then used the gauze to properly bandage the wound on his leg, even securing it with a sturdy knot.
After treating the wound on the man’s leg, Lian Manman raised her head.
"There are other wounds, let’s treat them too," Lian Manman said as she reached for the hoof bag.
"Hmm," the man shifted slightly, apparently to make it easier for Lian Manman to tend to a wound on his side.
Lian Manman was momentarily taken aback because there was no wound on the man’s side. Before she could react, the man’s left hand was already on her shoulder, gently pressing down.
Something was wrong. Without thinking, Lian Manman instinctively flung herself sideways to the ground. At the same time, the man’s right hand passed through the gap between Lian Manman’s arm and waist. From the corner of her eye, Lian Manman saw a streak of white light shoot out from the man’s sleeve, followed by a muffled grunt and then the sound of a heavy object hitting the ground.
Lian Manman lay there, not daring to move; she didn’t even know if she was still alive.
The man patted Lian Manman on the shoulder.
"All right, it’s over, get up," the man said, his tone laced with a hint of imperceptible relief.
Clenching her fists to keep from trembling too violently, Lian Manman slowly got up from the ground. Not five steps away from her and the man lay a man dressed in brown clothes. The man was kneeling with his head down, a red arrowhead protruding from his back.
Lian Manman covered her mouth. She considered herself brave but not brave enough to face this calmly.
"Continue," the man said to Lian Manman.
"Continue what?" Lian Manman blurted out.
The man raised an eyebrow.
"...Oh, okay," Lian Manman finally realized that he meant for her to continue treating his wounds.
Lian Manman nearly used up the whole bottle of hoof bag solution and contributed the gauze from her other foot as well, finally managing to dress the wounds on the man’s arm and waist. The process was slow, deliberately so. The handsome man before her was beautiful as jade but also killed without batting an eye. In this remote wilderness, would he kill her to silence her?
"I wouldn’t dare say I saved you," Lian Manman began slowly, "but I did help you."
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Been busy with a lot today, so I’ll update this much, aiming to post more tomorrow.