Watching the Hilichurls leave, Shen Qin let out a sigh of relief. He quickly flew to the Wolfhook fruit bush and tested one of the fruits by pressing it.
A slight electric shock ran through his fingers, and a number appeared on the back of his hand: 93!
"It's done!" Shen Qin was overjoyed. He quickly picked the remaining few Wolfhook fruits and, following the method Sucrose had taught him, began looking for loose soil around the camp.
Before the Hilichurl people set up their camp, they would tightly compact the soil, so Shen Qin had to circle the camp once before he found three pits, each containing five or six Gugu fruits.
As he happily dug the fourth pit, a puzzled voice sounded behind him.
"Hola! Dala beru si?" (Hello! What are you doing?)"
A Hilichurl person, rubbing their eyes with one hand and holding a fire slime in the other, looked like they had just woken up.
'No way!' Shen Qin thought in disbelief. He didn't expect there would be a Hilichurl still asleep and not lured away by Sucrose! Shen Qin froze.
To make it easier to dig, he hadn't used his hoverboard, which was left in the center of the camp. He definitely couldn't outrun them, and despite the cuteness of the fire slime in their hand, when angry, they would throw it like a bomb at their enemies, with a high hit rate!
"Ola! (Hello!)" he tried to communicate.(T/N: Bro's trying to cook!)
"Ola Olah! (Hello, greetings!)" The Hilichurl seemed happy and began jumping in circles.
Then it asked, "Aba mosi dada si? (Is it morning?)"
Shen Qin was dumbfounded. He could tell the Hilichurl was confused, but he didn't understand the question. So, he repeated his only Hilichurl language phrase: "Ola! (Hello!)" (T/N: nvm (ﹷ _ ﹷ))
Hilichurl: "Mita! (I want meat!)"
"Ola! (hello!)"
Hilichurl: ?
Shen Qin fixed his gaze on it, then slowly started moving toward his hoverboard. But it seemed to have realized something and suddenly yelled, "Ika! (Enemy!)"
Shen Qin immediately took off running, but the Hilichurl was fast. It threw the fire slime at him just as a figure leaped forward and swatted the fire slime away with a sword. Unfortunately, the splattered fire slime liquid landed on their face and hair, making them scream in pain.
"Godwin! Get on!" Shen Qin shouted, flying to help him.
Yes, it was Godwin, who had come to their aid just hours after they had met.
Godwin reacted quickly. Though his skin burned painfully, he made the right choice—he hopped onto the flying hoverboard.
"Biadam! (Curses!)" the Hilichurl shouted, stamping its feet in frustration below.
Shen Qin and the others quickly retreated to a safe spot, where Sucrose joined them.
"His face is burned. Is there any way to help?" Shen Qin asked urgently.
"Yes, there is!" Sucrose, not knowing why Godwin was here and injured, immediately took out a bottle of medicine from her small bag and carefully applied it to his burned skin. "It will hurt a bit while applying it, bear with it!"
Godwin gritted his teeth in pain, but after the medicine was applied, he immediately looked at Shen Qin. "Did you get the materials? Do you really have a way to restore Glory's eyesight?"
Shen Qin froze for a moment, then replied seriously, "I got it. What I told you before is true. She will soon be able to see the world again."
"That's great..." Godwin let out a deep breath and slumped to the ground.
"Thank you. I owe you my life!" Shen Qin said solemnly.
Without him, the fire slime would have exploded next to Shen Qin, and as an ordinary person, he would have been seriously injured or even killed.
"Wh-what happened?" Sucrose asked, still confused by the injury.
Shen Qin smiled bitterly and explained that another sleeping Hilichurl hadn't been lured away and had woken up just as he was digging for the Wolfhook fruit.
"I'm so sorry! It's all my fault!" Sucrose immediately started crying. She felt both scared and guilty, worried that Shen Qin had really been hurt and blaming herself for not checking the camp properly before leaving.
"I'm just too soft-hearted... I didn't want to deal with them, and I wasn't there to protect you... Wuwuwu..." she cried as she sat down.
"Alright, alright, I'm fine!" Shen Qin reassured her.
On the side, Godwin thought, I have problems too!
After calming Sucrose down in about ten minutes and treating Godwin's burns, they quickly had a simple meal and set off back. Since Godwin didn't have a hoverboard, they had to walk.
"So you chased after me after hearing that?" Shen Qin asked.
"Yes, I let her down, and I let the knight order down. But the most regrettable thing in my life is that I couldn't protect her eyes at that time. If there's any way to restore her eyesight, I'll do anything, so when you said you could help, I followed, hoping to do something for her."
"At that time? Did you know her when she lost her sight?"
"Glori and I grew up together. One year, there was a fire at her house. Although everyone was saved, her eyes were damaged by the toxic smoke, and her vision gradually deteriorated until she could only see a faint light. I often wonder why I couldn't rush in sooner to save her. Why wasn't it me who got blinded instead?" His face was full of regret and pain.
"Did you save her?" Sucrose asked in surprise.
"Yes. After her parents were saved, the fire got worse, and no one dared to go in again to save anyone. The knight order hadn't arrived yet, so I rushed in and carried her out."
Shen Qin and Sucrose both looked at him differently now. He wasn't a coward after all! In fact, he was quite admirable.
"Don't look at me like that, I was a hero back then..." Godwin scratched his head awkwardly.
"So that's why you didn't want to ruin the heroic image she has of you?" Shen Qin pointed out the key reason.
Godwin looked at him in surprise and then smiled bitterly. "I don't know how much you know about me, but I guess I have to confess now..."
He finally confessed to them the truth that he was a deserter.
"I beg you to keep this secret. She always thought I was a hero!" He said near the gates of Mondstadt City to Shen Qin and Sucrose.
Shen Qin asked, "What if the first person Glory wants to see when she regains her eyesight is you?"
Godwin opened his mouth but didn't know what to say.
Shen Qin patted his shoulder and said, "I will help you keep the secret, but you need to make your own choice."
Sucrose added, "I won't tell anyone!"