As the bush rustles, a Moon Rabbit observed its surrounding with innocent-like gaze before stopping at a human figure. The human appeared to be sitting while another human shielded behind one of the tree's trunk.
The rabbit traced the sitting human from his leg and to his eyes and not long after, the human realized someone was watching it and when he turned around he made an eye contact with the rabbit.
"What's this rabbit doing here? Shoo, go away!" The human spoke in a low voice before gesturing the rabbit to scram but unable to understand the human, the rabbit instead stood quite in its place and simply tilted its head.
Irritated, the human casually grabbed the rabbit by its neck.
"I said. Go. A-way!" The human thrown the rabbit into somewhere else and fortunately, the rabbit landed safely and scurried away while making little noises.
"Is that rabbit craved to be turned into a stew or what?" Li Kong wondered about the animal's thought before focusing back his attention onto something in front of him.
It was a deer. The deer currently drinking water on the riverbank, completely oblivious to the facts a hunter had set his gaze on it.
Looking at the still deer, Li Kong stared at his uncle and pondered to himself.
'What's going on with uncle today? Why did he suddenly bring me to the forest to hunt?'
Since the "happy" incident he found himself into, his uncle forced him into his training but weird enough, his uncle never even mentioned hunting for the slightest.
Every lessons he attended was so boring that he rather risked being caught while escaping than attended the lessons which didn't end up well.
Li Kong even went to the point of begging White to end his suffering which White immediately brushed off, telling him that he was simply lazy.
Each training session, his uncle would only told him to perform stances and hold them for long time until he felt his arm muscles was tearing up and fixed his posture with a bamboo rod on his hand.
He was reminded by the time he held the bow string for almost half an hour and his body trembled and his face turned tomato red before ultimately collapsing out of exhaustion.
He had to suffered through that kind of torture for two weeks every time they met it wasn't until the third week his uncle told him to shoot an arrow and afterwards he practiced shooting arrow every time he had a lesson with uncle Ye.
His mind wandered back to him and he realized that his uncle was staring at him for quite some time now and with a low voice, he asked Ye Cheng, "What?"
Ye Cheng stared at him for another second before shifting his focus back to the deer and his lips moved.
"Do you know what I'm teaching you, Li Kong?"
Li Kong stared strangely at the hunter and answered, "Isn't it archery?"
"Wrong." Ye Cheng's stern voice sounded. "What I am teaching you are how to hunt. Archery is just a means to an end."
Ye Cheng grabbed on his bow before standing properly and fixed his posture to suit a stance.
"Do you know what it takes to be a proper hunter, Li Kong?"
Pinching his chin, Li Kong worked his brain to find the answer but before he could figured out the answers, a deep voice entered his ears.
"A hunter has to be calm at any moment and perceptive of his surrounding." Ye Cheng inserted the arrow. His muscles inflated as he pulled the bowstring.
His gaze drifted toward the deer and focused entirely on it. As if sensing the intense gaze, the deer pulled its head and turned its head.
"And the most important part, you have to be one step ahead of your prey." As Ye Cheng uttered the words, the arrow was released from the string and propelled forward straight to the deer.
The silent whistle was quickly noticed by the deer as its tried to gallop but it was already too late for the deer as the arrows traveled in a straight line to its escape route but for some unknown reason, the arrow only grazed a little of the deer's hide, splatters of blood flown out in the air.
When the deer had finally gone, Ye Cheng packed up his bows and started walking forward.
"Let's go." Ye Cheng said.
"Where?" Li Kong followed his uncle and tilted his head.
Instead of answering, Ye Cheng pointed at the bow that Li Kong carried then the direction where the deer disappeared into.
"You're going to hunt down that deer." Ye Cheng stated calmly.
"Why me? You're the one letting it go." Li Kong squinted his eyes a little.
"Because I miss it on purpose, you goddamn brat. Now shut your mouth and track down that deer. We're not leaving even a step from the forest until you dragged that deer out." Ye Cheng ended the conversation and proceeded forward while Li Kong reluctantly followed behind him.
Thanks to the blood trail caused by Ye Cheng's arrow, the pair quickly found out where the deer had gone to. The deer was recovering from the wound before under the shield of the tree.
They hid themselves behind trees and when Ye Cheng have cue to Li Kong to shoot, Li Kong stood uprightly and tried to get into a stance but unknowingly he stepped on a fallen branches, sending a crunch sound throughout the vicinity.
"Crap!" Li Kong lifted his feet but by the time he regained his composure, the deer had disappeared from sight.
After that, they tracked down the deer again and Li Kong, dared not to repeating the same mistake, took notice of his surrounding first before he took the stance and aimed for the deer. His bow unsteady and his breath still ragged from the time he spent tracking the deer.
While stabilizing his aim, Li Kong noticed the deer was going to go away. He hurriedly released his arrow but the arrow missed the deer by centimeters and made a loud thud on the tree nearby.
The thud gave the deer enough signal and once again, the deer escaped him.
"Ah!!!" Li Kong exclaimed in frustration before stopping after a neat knock delivered to his head.
Li Kong seethed in response to the sudden pain and he heard his uncle saying, "Do you already forget what I said before? A hunter has to be calm."
Hearing the reminder, Li Kong closed his eyes and took several deep breaths before opening his eyes back.
After calming down, Li Kong carried the bow and walked forward. His gaze never leaving the direction where the deer disappeared.
'Now you look more like a hunter.' Ye Cheng caught the slight glint of his eyes before talking to himself amusingly.
'But not quite yet...'
After that, Ye Cheng followed him from behind and the pair quickly disappeared into the hiding of leaves.
On the other hand, at the same time, Ruman Village.
Yu Mei was tending the plant in front of her house before suddenly a light step was caught by her ears and she turned back.
There she found the doctor, cladded in white clothes, standing calmly behind her and observed the leaf on her palm. On his face, the usual smile was worn.
"It grow bigger since the first time I see it, doesn't it?" The doctor crouched down and touched the leaf, sliding his finger through the smooth surface of the leaf.
Although the doctor appearances shocked Yu Mei a little, she was quick to regain her composure as she hurriedly stood up before bowing down her head to the doctor.
"Good morning, doctor. My father had waited for your visit and already prepared some snacks and tea for you inside." Yu Mei said politely.
"Hahaha. I already told him that I don't need such formalities." The doctor laughed, his gaze still affixed at the leaves.
Yu Mei observed the doctor carefully, looking for any sign of abnormality on the doctor.
She was reminded the encounter with Li Kong yesterday and the graphic descriptions of the altar being provided to her sent chills down her spine despite never seeing it for herself.
'And the very person who built the altar could be the man in front of me...' Yu Mei's gaze landed on the back of the doctor who was still absorbed on the plant in front of him.
Unknowingly, Yu Mei gulped and her complexion becoming more serious as tension building up in her mind.
"Hup!" The doctor suddenly raised his body.
"Eek!" The sudden action throw the young girl into distraught.
"Hmm? What's wrong, Yu Mei?" The doctor said in confused voice while watching the youth's pale face.
"Are you sick? Do you want me to check on you?" The doctor spoke in a concern voice, slowly closing the gap between him and Yu Mei.
Yu Mei reached her hand outward, making the doctor halted in place.
"I'm okay, doctor. Don't worry about me. I'm just feeling a little under the weather." Yu Mei said.
"If you say so." The doctor didn't chase it any further and proceeded to enter the house.
After the doctor had disappeared from her vision, the heavy feeling inside of her chest had finally subsided. She inhaled the nearby air and placed her hand on top of her chest.
'Get a hold, Yu Mei! Why did you panic like that? You don't even know for certain yet that the doctor is the culprit. Did you just talk big game in front of Li Kong's bead yesterday? No, right? Calm yourself down and don't panic.'
After a moment of contemplation, Yu Mei had calmed down and she stared silently at the her house's entrance. She gathered herself once again before stepping forward and went inside of her house.
Behind her, the leaves on the plant turned rapidly from vibrant green to darkish yellow.
The first thing that greeted Yu Mei when she entered the house was the doctor sitting at the wooden couch and her father, Yu Hao, sitting directly across the table.
Both of them appeared to be talking to each other before Yu Hao noticed his daughter walking in.
"Why are you taking so long on the outside, Mei'er?" Yu Hao asked.
Yu Mei didn't want her father to worried needlessly and maintained a smile on her face.
"I just felt a little unwell, father. Other that I'm okay."
"You're feeling unwell?" Hearing that, Yu Hao immediately stood up and went into his daughter's side.
He checked his daughter forehead and her heart beat through her wrist and when he found there was nothing wrong with Yu Mei, he heaved a sigh of relief before once again placing his hand of Yu Mei's forehead while comparing it to his.
"Are you really sure you're fine?" Ye Cheng's lips trembled slightly and his gaze shook.
"Like I said, I'm completely fine, father." Yu Mei grabbed his father hand and put it to his side, her warmth slowly seeping in Yu Hao's skin.
The doctor watched amusingly from the side and leave a little comment after the family exchange over.
"Rest assured, chief. The illness that Lady Yingya contacted to isn't contagious." The doctor said. "And genetic hereditary is even more unlikely because Yu Mei and her mother-" The doctor was about to finished his sentence before a sharp glare stopped him at his tracks.
"Doctor." Yu Hao lowered his voice. "It is true that I and my family was much grateful for the help you've offered to us but I would like to remind you again to watch carefully the words coming out from your mouth."
"Ah..." The doctor scratched his cheek. "It seemed I have spoken something that offend the chief."
The doctor immediately raised from his seat and sincerely bowed down his head to Yu Hao.
"I'm deeply sorry for what I've said." The doctor said with a sincere voice.
After that, the room was filled with an awkward silent
Yu Mei was confused about what to do until a door creaked from the hallway and following suit was a feminine voice.
"What's wrong, dear?" The voice sounded weak.
"Yingya!" Yu Hao ran into the hallway's direction.
Yu Mei looked at the direction his father was running to and found a fair woman standing in the entrance of the hallway.
Although she was the wife of the village chief who was in his thirty but her face hadn't lost any of her youth and still looking like she was living in her prime.
"Why do you come out? Don't you know you have to stay on bed?" Yu Hao's eyebrows burrowed deeper at his wife's action.
"You're too overprotective, my dear village chief, and I don't like laying in bed all day. You know this." Qing Yingya pouted while replying to her husband but all of a sudden, she started to coughing and Yu Hao could felt her energy diminishing as her body slowly falling.
"Yingya!" Yu Hao hurriedly caught his wife and took her into his embrace.
"Mother!" Yu Mei ran into her mother side as well and looked worriedly at her.
She turned her head to face the doctor and with a pleading look in her eyes, she bowed her head deeply to him.
"Doctor! Please... Please save my mother!" Yu Mei asked with the sincerest part of her heart. She didn't care about the task she had. She just wanted to her mother to be okay.
The doctor stood still, seemingly dumbfounded, and looked at Yu Mei before going back into his usual smile.
"Don't worry, miss. I'll definitely save your mother." The doctor said, smiling.
Yu Mei's eyes brightened up in an instant and she looked at the doctor with gratitude as her eyes sparkled of the tears on it.
The doctor didn't talk further and he walked to Yu Hao and put his palm on his shoulder.
Yu Hao raised his head and met the doctor smiling face before he shifted his gaze back at his wife. Yu Hao then carried Qing Yingya in his embrace slowly to her bed and lied her down gently before sending a gaze to the doctor which the doctor received by nodding.
Then the doctor treaded to the bedside and sat on a wooden chair before examining Qing Yingya and after that, he started to preparing the medicine and fed Qing Yingya the medicine and slowly pour out water to her mouth.
Yu Mei observed all of this happening on the outside and couldn't help but continued to worry in his heart.
She noticed that her father's finger was restless and his legs couldn't stop to shake. Pain continuously flashed through his eyes as he watched his wife complexion become paler.
While Yu Hao's mind was clouded by countless of worries, a familiar warmth permeated through his palm and when he looked at his side and found the sole daughter he had stared at him with a resolute gaze as if saying everything was going to be alright.
Only after that did Yu Hao's breath turned normal and his restlessness disappeared as he continued to look at his daughter.
He tightened the grip on her hand and quietly, the pair of father and daughter leaned on each other.