Chapter 183: Great-Aunt

Xiao Zhener let out a scoff, covering her mouth with her handkerchief. "Talking nonsense, who is your great-aunt? Am I really that old?"

Facing the aggressive Third Princess, Huli found himself in a difficult position—whether he answered or not seemed wrong. He simply picked up the tent parts from the ground and began setting it up on his own, treating Xiao Zhener's murmurings as background music, letting them go in one ear and out the other.

Despite finding Huli thoroughly unappealing and annoying in every way, she had to admit his tent-pitching skills were flawless. Once he finished, Xiao Zhener gave it a hard kick. Well, it didn't collapse!

Startled, Huli watched as Xiao Zhener looked eager to deliver another kick, and quickly grabbed her to stop her. "My good great-aunt, this is a tent, not a city wall. It's not built to withstand kicks. If you kick it down again, I am definitely not setting it up a second time."

Xiao Zhener awkwardly retracted her foot, then asked with curiosity, "Judging by your delicate skin and tender looks, you don't look like someone used to doing rough work. How is it that you're so good at pitching tents?"

"That's for sure! To be honest with you, I've been pitching tents ever since I was a child. I basically grew up pitching tents," Huli said, fanning himself with an air of smugness.

Xiao Zhener curled her lip. "As if! You're not some nomadic tribe moving around every few days, pitching tents since childhood. Have some shame."

Being doubted so thoroughly by a young lady made Huli leap to his feet. "Who's lying? It's the absolute truth! I grew up in the mountains. Every season, my father would take us hunting in the forests. Back then, we ate and slept outdoors. If we didn't pitch tents, were we supposed to sleep in the trees?"

"Hmph." Xiao Zhener disdainfully took the bedding handed to her by Afu, leaving Huli with a charming view of the back of her head. Though she claimed out loud that she didn't believe him, in her heart she was already convinced by a good eighty percent.

Feeling an itch of vexation, Huli called out to her retreating figure, "Third Princess, the wilderness is crawling with venomous insects and wild snakes. Don't fall asleep too soundly tonight. Getting bitten by those creatures won't be pleasant at all."

As she stepped into her tent, Xiao Zhener's body stiffened and went numb, the goosebumps on her back standing straight up. The mere thought of venomous bugs scuttling unseen across the ground made her skin crawl all over.

Whirling around, she found that Huli had already strolled away, shaking his fan and laughing heartily. A flash of realization struck Xiao Zhener's mind: Damn it, I got played!

Just as Liu Linger and Baili Xian emerged from their tents, they happened to see Huli walking past with a beaming smile, prompting a wave of suspicion. Why had someone who looked so utterly miserable just a moment ago suddenly become so radiant? Surely they had missed a good show.

***

The spring wilderness was terribly damp, so Xiao Yixiao had Afu gather some branches to ignite a few bonfires. After eating some dry rations, everyone returned to their respective tents to rest.

Liu Linger was half-asleep when a sudden, piercing scream instantly snapped her awake. Sitting up, she looked at Baili Xian, who had also opened his eyes. He turned his gaze toward Xiao Zhener's direction and murmured, "The sound seemed to come from the Third Princess."

Nimbly dressing, Liu Linger said, "Men and women should keep their distance. I'll go check what's happened first. You must not come out!"

Baili Xian let out a hum of annoyance, simply lying back down to signal with his actions that he had zero curiosity about such matters and wouldn't be bored enough to go out and look.

Liu Linger and Baili Xian weren't the only ones; the others had also been jolted awake by the scream. When Liu Linger lifted the flap of her tent, she caught sight of a white figure rapidly darting into Huli's tent.

Rubbing her eyes, she stared at the undulating door of Huli's tent, making sure she hadn't seen things. Liu Linger's face twitched slightly. Surely the person who had just dashed into Huli's tent wasn't Xiao Zhener?!

Indeed, Liu Linger's eyes hadn't deceived her; the one who had rushed into Huli's tent was none other than Xiao Zhener. At that moment, Huli had just emerged from his bedding and was in the middle of putting on his clothes when he saw Xiao Zhener rush before him in a disheveled state, wearing only her inner garments and in a frantic panic.

This shock far surpassed hearing that shrill cry earlier. The arm Huli was threading through his sleeve instantly froze, and he completely forgot how to finish putting on the garment.

His mouth dropping open, Huli stammered, "Third... Third Princess, what are you doing? D-Don't tell me you're trying to launch a night raid!"

Xiao Zhener's pupils were unfocused, her mind filtering out Huli's words entirely as she threw her arms around his waist. She clung to him like a drowning person clutching a piece of driftwood, nearly snapping Huli's slender waist in half.

It felt as though a bolt of lightning had surged through his body, leaving Huli's mind completely blank—until Xiao Zhener began endlessly muttering, "A snake, a snake, there's a snake in the tent."

*Damn it*, could his timing really be this accurate? He had only made a casual remark earlier, and an actual snake had really crawled over? His mouth twitching, Huli suddenly asked anxiously, "Third Princess, were you bitten?!"

"I was bitten! I was bitten by a snake!" Xiao Zhener replied mechanically. Hearing this, Huli's face drained of color: *What, bitten by a snake and you didn't say so earlier? A regular snake would be one thing, but if it's a venomous snake, we're in serious trouble.*

***

Huli hurriedly pushed Xiao Zhener out to arm's length and asked solemnly, "Third Princess, where were you bitten? Do you feel any discomfort in your body?"

Xiao Zhener's face flushed bright red, her voice no louder than a mosquito's hum: "I was bitten below the neck... Ugh, my head is spinning."

"What? Where were you bitten?" The voice was too soft, and Huli hadn't caught it clearly, though he certainly heard the part about her head spinning. His complexion instantly turned ashen. The implications of that statement were massive, and the primary conclusion—one Huli desperately hoped wasn't true—was that Xiao Zhener had been bitten by a venomous snake.

When he asked again where the wound was located, Xiao Zhener's reaction was simply to close her eyes and collapse limply toward the ground. Huli hastily caught her, supporting her onto his bedding. In the ensuing commotion, the already scant collar of Xiao Zhener's inner garment was pulled wide open.

There, two small puncture marks were visible, surrounded by pitch-black bruising, and dark blood was still seeping from the wounds. Huli's head buzzed loudly. After all that fuss, the place where Xiao Zhener had been bitten turned out to be her collarbone—no wonder she had been too embarrassed to speak up loudly.

With the situation being critical, Huli didn't dare dwell on other matters. The absolute priority now was to extract the venom from Xiao Zhener, and the most effective method was to suck it out.

However, Xiao Zhener was a woman, and he was a grown man. What would become of Xiao Zhener's reputation afterward if he did this? Seeing her complexion growing increasingly worse, Huli pushed all hesitation aside, leaned straight down, and placed his mouth over the wound to suck out the poisonous blood.

Sucking and spitting out the venom, he was hard at work when Liu Linger and Xiao Yixiao rushed over to Huli's side. As an older brother whose younger sister had screamed in the middle of the night, how could he possibly sit idly by? Without even bothering to dress properly, he had charged straight to his sister's quarters.

Xiao Zhener's tent was completely empty, with only scattered bedding left behind. Liu Linger kindly offered a hint: "Your sister is in Huli's tent..." Before she could finish her sentence, Xiao Yixiao had already burst into Huli's tent.