Chapter 3: Ali

  Just as Wang Long was quietly opening the window, the wooden door creaked open and Wang Long turned his head to look, freezing in place.

  A exceptionally beautiful girl holding a basin of water, standing at the door. This girl wore a light-colored right-buttoned jacket with floral patterns on the shoulder, sleeve and right lapel edge, surrounded by a red waistband, tied with a silver waistband, wearing a crimson Western-style long pants, high bun on top, wearing earrings, head-wearing a small curved moon-shaped silver hairpin.

  Delicate willow-leaf eyebrows, a goose egg-like small face, two crystal-like black eyes shining with clever and lively light, the red and shiny small mouth slightly open, as if forever carrying a kind and lovely smile.

  The girl saw Wang Long standing by the window and immediately showed a lovely smile, happily saying: "You're awake, come on, wash your face first." After finishing speaking, she put the copper basin on the shelf, her voice clear and pleasant.

  Wang Long heard the girl's words and came to his senses, hastily walking over to her and saying: "Thank you, I'll do it myself." He took the embroidered handkerchief from the girl's hand and wiped his face.

  After washing his face, Wang Long saw the girl standing beside him with a smile and asked in confusion: "Miss, may I ask where is this place? Why did I come here?" The girl replied happily: "This place is called Damiang Village. Last time my father went to the mountain to pick herbs, he met you and brought you back. You've been unconscious for half a month, it's great that you can wake up now." Wang Long listened to the girl's words and knew that after killing the big snake last time, he was rescued by her father when he fainted.

  The girl continued: "My name is Aliyi, what's your name, brother?" Wang Long hastily replied: "Thank you for saving me, Aliyi, but I don't remember my name anymore. I don't remember anything from before."

  Ariya's cute little mouth opened wide in surprise and said incredulously, "You can't even remember your own name, have you lost your memory?"

  Wang Long nodded and said, "Yes, I don't remember anything that happened before."

  A Li listened, bowed her head and thought for a moment, then raised her head and said to Wang Long: "Right, last time my dad told me that when he found you, you were lying with a dead snake. You can kill that big snake, you're really awesome."

  Wang Long said with embarrassment: "Actually, that day was just my good luck to kill the big snake. I almost got eaten by it too."

  Aliyah said excitedly, "Then quickly tell me how you killed that big snake. Do you remember?" Wang Long nodded and said, "That I do remember. It's just the things before I killed the snake that I don't remember. That day..." Wang Long began telling Aliyah about killing the snake, and she listened with rapt attention, her cute little mouth opening wide in amazement at the thrilling parts.

  "Ali, has the guest woken up?" Just as Wang Long finished speaking, he heard a voice calling out to Ali from downstairs. Ali said, "It's my dad calling me." Then she shouted loudly at the floor below, "Dad, he's awake, I'll bring him down!"

  Wang Long followed Aliya to the second floor, where a man in his 40s was arranging dishes. Aliya said to Wang Long, "This is my father, Mr. Mi." Wang Long hastily greeted him, "Uncle Mi, hello, thank you for saving me last time."

  "Hey, young man, don't worry about it. I should be thanking you instead. Last time we met, was it you who killed that big snake? You don't know how many people in our village were eaten by that snake. You got rid of a menace for us."

  Wang Long scratched his head awkwardly, and Uncle Mi San pulled Wang Long's hand, saying: "Come on, young man, let's eat." After finishing speaking, he pulled Wang Long to sit down. Wang Long saw several large copper plates on the table, filled with glutinous rice cakes, sour meat, and sour fish.

  Wang Long hadn't eaten for a long time and was feeling very hungry. Under Mr. Misan's enthusiastic invitation, Wang Long finished a whole bowl of glutinous rice balls. Seeing how much he could eat, A Li Yi went to make some more, so that Wang Long could eat his fill at once.

  After dinner, Mr. Mi asked about Wang Long's situation and finally learned that Wang Long had lost his memory. He then said to Wang Long: "Kid, since you don't remember where your home is, why don't you just stay at my place for now? What do you think?"

  Wang Long said gratefully, "Thank you so much, Uncle Misan. But will I be disturbing you if I stay here?" Uncle Misan smiled and said, "It's okay, Aili's mother passed away when she was very young, now it's just the two of us relying on each other. The guest room on the third floor has always been empty, from now on you can live in our third-floor guest room." After a pause, he continued, "Since you've forgotten everything about your past, let's start anew. To make things easier, I'll give you a Miao surname, how about 'Adan'?"

  Wang Long nodded and said, "Okay, Uncle Misan, thank you. From now on, I'll be called Adan." Aliyi exclaimed happily from the side, "Adan!" Wang Long hastily responded, "Yes!" Aliyi continued to call out, and Uncle Misan chuckled, saying, "Stop messing around, take Adan out for a walk and let him get familiar with our surroundings here." Aliyi happily agreed and took Wang Long out of the loft.

  Wang Long and Aliya arrived outside the building, only to find that this Miao village was built on a green slope of a hill, at dusk, everywhere filled with an atmosphere of quietness and simplicity. Along a small path paved with stone blocks, Wang Long and Aliya came to a small river bank, the water was clear, and on the opposite bank was a large wooden shed built by the river, in the distance, the green and yellow mountains intersected, in the dim light, it looked especially quiet.

  Ari smiled and said to Wang Long: "Ah Dan big brother, is this place beautiful?" Wang Long nodded and said: "This place is very beautiful, I like it very much."

  A Li listened, a happy smile appeared on her face. Occasionally, two Miao children would play and pass by here, A Li enthusiastically greeted them and introduced Wang Long to get to know them. Listening to those children happily calling him "Ah Dan Gege", Wang Long felt especially happy.

  He and A Li stayed by the river for a while, then went for a walk around, basically familiarizing themselves with the entire village. A Li took Wang Long home, and at night Wang Long still lived in the guest room on the third floor of A Li's house with a loft.

  Wang Long lay in bed, trying hard to recall things from the past, but as soon as he thought about the past, his head started to ache, so he had to give up and soon fell asleep.

  The next day, Wang Long got up early, had breakfast, and Mr. Mi said to Wang Long: "Ah-Dan, today I'm going to the mountain to pick herbs, do you want to go?"

  Wang Long nodded and said, "Okay, Uncle Misang, I'll go with you to take a look." Aliyi also wanted to go, but Uncle Misang said, "You stay home, don't go. The mountain is dangerous, we'll be back soon." In the end, Aliyi had no choice but to agree with her father and stay home to watch the house.

  Wang Long and Uncle Mi San walked towards the depths of the mountain, because the big snake in the forest had been killed by Wang Long, so Uncle Mi San was going to a more remote deep mountain. As the doctor of this Miao village, he usually encountered various symptoms from patients, and many kinds of herbs were needed. Recently, a patient contracted a strange disease, which required a special herb as a medicine guide.

  Mr. Mi Sang is preparing to go deep into the mountains to find this medicine, Huang Xue Cao, which he saw in an ancient witch doctor book passed down from his ancestors. However, Huang Xue Cao is extremely rare and usually grows in the depths of the mountains and swamps.

  Wang Long and Uncle Mi San walked forward, cutting through the thorns and brambles. The clouds and mist in the mountain forest were blocked by the tall trees, unable to disperse, and hovered low over their heads, affecting their visibility, forcing them to slow down their pace and proceed cautiously.

  Arriving at a mountain valley, the scene in front of him changed instantly. The entire valley was still like spring, with lush greenery everywhere, completely different from the deep autumn scenery outside. Wang Long curiously looked around.

  In front of the valley was a steep cliff, and on the cliff was a smooth mirror-like surface with only one white flower with red in the middle swaying in the wind. Mr. Mi San excitedly shouted: "Found the Imperial Snow Grass, Adan, look quickly." He pointed at the flower excitedly and kept calling out.

  Wang Long looked at the steep cliff and said, "Uncle Mi San, but it's on that steep cliff. How can we pick it?"

  Mr. Mi suddenly smiled at Wang Long and said, "Watch me." After finishing speaking, he handed the medicine bag on his body to Wang Long, holding a small medicine scoop in his hand, and flew up to climb up the steep cliff. On the smooth cliff surface, it was as easy as walking. Wang Long was shocked and couldn't see that Mr. Mi was so powerful.

  Mr. Mi's hand was about to touch the imperial snow orchid when a sudden change occurred, and a large stone came crashing down towards Mr. Mi. Wang Long shouted loudly from below: "Uncle, be careful!"

  Mr. Mei San calmly and unhurriedly dodged a flying stone, quickly grabbed the Huang Xue Cao, turned around and slid down the inclined wall.

  As Misan's feet were about to touch the ground, a black and strange-shaped knife flew swiftly towards him. Misan hastily raised his small medicine scoop to block it, "pa" sound, the small medicine scoop broke into two pieces, the knife quickly cut through Misan's right arm after breaking his small medicine scoop, cutting open an inch-long wound, fresh red blood gushing out of the wound instantly.

  As Misan's arm was cut, a black-clad masked man suddenly appeared in front of Misan, quickly exchanged a palm with Misan, and Misan was knocked flying towards Wang Long's direction without any defense. The black-clad man was also hit by the rebound force and crashed into the steep cliff, falling to the ground amidst scattered rocks.

  Wang Long quickly caught Mi San, seeing that there was a thread of fresh blood at the corner of his mouth, and he had already fainted.

  The masked man fell to the ground, but with a swift kick of his legs, he quickly got up, although also injured, but obviously much lighter than Misang's injury. He then rapidly ran towards Wang Long and Misang's direction.

  Wang Long put down Mi Sang Shu, and welcomed the masked man. The masked man made a move "Power Split Mount Hua", and Wang Long used all his strength in both palms to meet him head-on.

  With a "slap" sound, Wang Long was knocked flying out by the reverse chop, while the masked man's hand was like being chopped by a hard steel knife, his right hand had been severed at the shoulder and hung loosely on his shoulder.

  (Due to being recommended by a popular account, I'm releasing three chapters today! Brothers, please support me with your votes! Thank you!)