Chapter 47: The Peng Family of Hebei (4)
Translator: bjgoofy
"What!? Strip my daughter's clothes!?"
"Keh-heuk. W-wait...."
I lightly tapped the wrist of the Peng Family Head, who was gripping my collar.
-Tap tap tap.
Because at this rate, I might die from suffocation.
However, the Peng Family Head, not understanding the meaning of the tapping, tightened his grip on my collar instead.
At that moment, I heard the urgent voices of my father-in-law and nunim from beside me.
My father-in-law grabbed the Peng Family Head's arm and pressed it down as he spoke.
"Peng Family Head! Please wait a moment! There must be a reason why my son-in-law is saying such a thing! It’s not what you’re thinking. Right, son-in-law?"
"Peng Family Head, please let go and listen until the end."
The Peng Family Head wiped away the nosebleed that was trickling down his face with the back of his hand and shouted.
"Fine! You’re saying to strip the clothes off my daughter, who hasn’t even reached puberty, with such a lecherous look in your eyes, what possible reason could you have!?"
His body trembled in anger.
'What, lecherous!?'
Even in this suffocating situation where I felt like I was about to pass out, I was utterly, unjustly wronged.
How could I have any wicked thoughts about a child who wasn’t even ten years old!
I prefer women like Nunim who are more normal and have big.... generous hearts.
"Heo-eok... Keh-heuk..., I almost died...."
Thanks to my father-in-law and nunim, I barely managed to escape the Peng Family Head’s grasp.
After catching my breath from his baseless accusations, I explained why I needed to remove the little girl's clothing.
"Cough, cough! Peng Family Head, please calm down and hear me out. When I said to take off the young miss’s clothes, what I meant was ‘remove all of her clothes and change her into different ones.’
The reason I suggested removing her clothes suddenly was that there was a possibility that something from the Peng Family, whether her clothing or belongings, might have caused her collapse. I meant to remove everything from her body just in case."
"Mm?"
The Peng Family Head, who had been crossing his arms and looking at me as if I were trash, slowly changed his expression.
He glanced at his clenched fist, swallowed hard, then tightly shut his eyes and shouted.
"I, Peng Mu-hwan, have doubted Young Hero’s words..."
"Wait!"
Was he into self-punishment or something? He looked like he was about to punch himself in the face again.
I grabbed his hand and spoke.
"I understand that you were confused and distressed because your daughter collapsed, so let’s leave it at that."
Hearing this, he grinned foolishly with his now gap-toothed smile and brightened up.
"To be so forgiving of another’s mistake, young man, you’re already a great master! Thank you! Hehe."
It seemed he was relieved that he didn’t have to hit himself.
But I wasn’t done talking yet.
I immediately explained that we would be changing the little girl’s clothes and what needed to be done next.
"Ah, and from now on, the young miss of the Peng Family will be under the care of our Tang Sect, and we will prohibit any meetings with the Peng Family members for the time being."
When the Peng Family Head first described his daughter's symptoms, he mentioned that she had collapsed like this before and that she usually recovered in a few days.
That meant that during this period, we could move the young miss and keep her under separate observation.
If she collapsed again even after changing her clothes completely and isolating her from her family, then the cause wouldn’t be poison but something else. That way, any misunderstandings among the Peng Family members would be resolved.
"Huh? Even me?"
"Yes. If the same symptoms appear while she is under our care, that means it has nothing to do with the Peng Family members and is caused by something else. So please entrust her to us for the time being."
When raising venomous creatures, snakes, or amphibians, the owner must always observe them very carefully.
Since these children cannot speak or express themselves, one must observe their behavior to determine where they are hurting and whether their condition is good or bad.
Then what should you do when you determine they're sick?
The next step after identifying a sick child is to determine the cause. Typically, in such situations, caretakers use two methods to find the cause.
These two methods are the process of elimination and the process of addition.
The process of elimination involves removing environmental factors or food one by one to pinpoint the cause. On the other hand, the process of addition changes all environmental factors at once and then reintroduces them one by one to identify the cause.
In this case, the method to apply to the young miss of the Peng Family was the process of addition.
If she were an animal, it might be different, but she was a person.
Using the process of elimination, she might collapse multiple times before identifying the cause, whereas the process of addition would eliminate all possible causes at once and then reintroduce them one by one to pinpoint the culprit.
This would place less burden on the child and, once the cause was found, resolve the Peng Family members’ misunderstandings.
"Oho! Son-in-law, while this method may not directly reveal the cause, at the very least, it will help us determine whether poison is involved or not."
Realizing my point, my father-in-law nodded, and the Peng Family Head also gave a firm nod.
"Understood. Please take good care of her, Tang Family Head."
***
"Soryong, please watch over the child for a moment. I will go to Myriad Poison Hall and bring another incense."
In the guest room of the Inner Courtyard, where the direct lineage of the Tang Family resided.
Nunim informed me that she would head to Myriad Poison Hall, leaving me alone with the unconscious child.
Now that she had identified all the scents she had initially brought, she intended to retrieve a different one.
"Yes, Young Miss. I understand."
After seeing nunim off, I turned my attention to the still-unconscious child.
"Sigh..."
A sigh escaped my lips as I looked at her face.
The reason for my sigh was the current situation.
Why had I insisted on isolating the little girl from the Peng Family members...?
Because of me, nunim and mother-in-law were going through unnecessary hardship.
The reason the child was lying in the guest room of the Inner Courtyard, where the direct descendants of the Tang Family resided.
After hearing my suggestion, my father-in-law had decided that thorough precautions were necessary, so he brought the child into the Inner Courtyard and minimized the number of attendants tending to her.
As a result, nunim and mother-in-law were the ones personally taking care of her.
I was merely running small errands on the side.
And this had already been going on for three days.
"She should be waking up around now, though."
According to the Peng Family Head, she usually regained consciousness about three days after collapsing.
As I absentmindedly watched the child, wondering when she would wake up,
Her eyelashes trembled slightly.
A moment later, her eyes suddenly fluttered open, and she blinked at the sight of my face.
"Oh, Young Miss Peng, you’re awake? Do you recognize me?"
Since she had regained consciousness, I asked to check her awareness.
However, instead of answering my question, the little girl suddenly sat up and started feeling her body.
She was wearing clothes that my nunim had previously worn, so she seemed uncomfortable in the slightly oversized, unfamiliar outfit.
Then she stared at me with wide eyes.
The child's mouth quivered like waves.
Soon after, a cry burst out that made me doubt if this was really the same child who had collapsed from illness.
"Waaah! It's gone!"
Her wails echoed throughout the room.
Startled, I quickly tried to calm her down.
It seemed she was frightened to wake up and find herself with a stranger.
From the way she said something was gone, I assumed she was looking for her father, the Peng Family Head.
"Oh dear. Young Miss, are you upset because the Peng Family Head isn’t here? He went to find medicine for you since you were unwell. Now, now, don’t cry. He’ll be back soon."
However, at my words, the little Peng Family girl shook her head fiercely and replied.
"Candied fruit!"
‘Ah, so that’s what it was?’
The moment she woke up, instead of asking for her father, she was looking for her candied fruit.
If the Peng Family Head saw this, he might feel a bit hurt.
According to nunim, when the child collapsed, they changed her clothes and found multiple hidden pockets inside them, just like how the Tang Family stores hidden weapons, except these were filled with candied fruit.
So that was why the candied fruit seemed endless, it had been coming from those secret pockets.
It seemed she was now desperately searching for her stash.
"Huaaa! My candied fruit!"
Nunim had mentioned that the Peng Family was known for their incredible physical strength and mastery of powerful blade techniques, but this little girl seemed to have been born into the wrong lineage.
She showed more talent in sound arts, a technique that could attack opponents using sound.
‘I swear, I feel like my ears are about to start bleeding and I’ll collapse!’
Covering my ears, I spoke to the little girl.
"Alright, Young Miss Peng. P-please calm down. You just regained consciousness after collapsing, so you can't eat candied fruit right now. Eat some porridge first, and then this orabeoni will make some candied fruit for you, alright?"
"Sniff. You'll make it for me?"
At the mention of making candied fruit, her crying stopped as if by magic.
I quickly nodded.
Before I was bitten by a snake and ended up here, the most popular snack in Korea had been Tanghulu, candied fruit, and I had even made it a few times for my streaming channel.
Although, instead of fruit, I had made mine with scorpions and insects.
"Of course. Young Miss Peng, do you know how to make candied fruit?"
"Nope."
"You've only ever had hawthorn berry candied fruit, right? Have you ever tried one made with xi gua?"
"Xi... xi gua!?"
At my question, the little Peng Family girl shook her head vigorously.
Xi gua, the Central Plains term for watermelon.
She must have liked watermelon because her eyes grew wide as she asked again.
"R-really?"
"Of course. But only if you eat your porridge properly, listen well, and promise not to cry or throw a tantrum until the Peng Family Head returns."
At my words, the little Peng Family girl clenched her tiny fist and then performed an adorable martial salute as she answered.
"The Peng Family always keeps their promises! If I break it, I'll punch myself in the face!"
"...Huh?"
They say children learn by watching, so you should never show them bad habits.
It seemed that in the Peng Family, hitting oneself was a regular occurrence.
In the end, I had to spend quite some time lecturing her, firmly insisting that she should never hit herself.
‘Peng Family Head, what the hell have you been teaching this kid?!’
***
"Orabeoni! Show me the big bugs again today!"
"Well... shall I?"
Yingying clung to my leg, dragging me toward the training grounds.
It had been ten days since Yingying started staying at the Inner Courtyard.
The guests from the Emei and Qingcheng Sects, as well as those from Hubei, had all returned, except for a few warriors dispatched by the Murim Alliance.
The official reason given was that they had failed to track down any leads on the Blood Cult, but in truth, they had captured a Blood Cult agent hiding within the Murim Alliance.
Now, they were making their way back to the Murim Alliance, likely preparing for an attack on the cult’s main base.
As for Yingying and me, we had managed to bond over candied fruit during this time.
So much so that when I updated the Peng Family Head about Yingying's condition a few days ago, he was absolutely shocked.
「"So, how is my Yingying doing?"
"She woke up safely and has been doing well. She eats properly and listens well, too."
"What!? She's eating?"
"Yes, just yesterday, she ate a lot of fried pork."
"H-how did you get her to eat!?"
He looked utterly incredulous, as if he couldn’t believe his daughter had actually eaten a proper meal.
"She just ate it on her own."
"Huh? Hahaha!"
As he gaped in disbelief, nunim suddenly rushed over and spoke.
"Greetings to the Peng Family Head. Soryong, Young Miss Yingying is looking for you, asking where her orabeoni went."
"Orabeoni!?」
Recalling the suspicious look on the Peng Family Head’s face as he had eyed me earlier, I let out a small chuckle and headed toward the training grounds with Yingying.
Lately, we had been visiting the Golden-Furred King Bees almost every day because they were extremely fond of Yingying.
Though, in a slightly different way than one might expect.
The reason the Golden-Furred King Bees liked Yingying was simple, since she was a child, she inevitably spilled candied fruit syrup on her clothes while eating. The bees were highly attracted to the sweet scent.
Whenever Yingying visited, they eagerly licked up the traces of sugar syrup, and since she believed the bees liked her, she was thrilled and insisted on visiting them every day.
‘Surely, they don’t see her as food, right?’
As per Yingying’s request, I held her hand and led her toward the entrance of the training grounds, where the Golden-Furred King Bees resided.
But suddenly, she yanked her hand free and ran toward a pile of stones by the roadside, crouching down excitedly.
"Orabeoni, there’s a bee here too!"
"A bee?"
It seemed that, after befriending the Golden-Furred King Bees, she assumed that all bees would like her.
I quickly warned her.
"Yingying, be careful! Other bees can sting-"
"Aah! Ow!"
"Are you alright?"
As expected, she clutched her left wrist and stumbled backward.
Rushing over, I checked her arm and found a bright red sting mark on her left wrist.
When I swatted away the bee that had attacked her, it fell to the ground, a ground bee.
These bees were highly aggressive, so when Yingying got too close, it must have instinctively attacked her.
"This isn’t good. We need to get to the Medical Hall right away."
"It’s not that bad...."
"Still, just in case, let’s apply some medicine."
Thinking that the Tang Sect’s Medical Hall would surely have something for a bee sting, I carried Yingying on my back and started heading there.
But then.
Behind me, I felt Yingying squirming, scratching her body.
Suddenly, her breathing grew rapid.
"Haa... Haa..."
"Yingying!?"
I immediately recognized this reaction.
Yingying was having an anaphylactic reaction.
*****
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