What should I do now?

  Cui Ling looked helplessly at the bearded man who was flushed all over his face due to high fever, and suddenly felt at a loss.

  Although she hadn't studied medicine, having gone through two lifetimes, she still possessed the common sense that one should have.

  The bearded man is now suffering from a high fever that won't subside and is still in a coma. If it's not because of excessive blood loss, then the wound must have become infected.

  This situation might have been resolved with just a shot of antipyretics and some antibiotics in a past life.

  But here is a strange era far away from modern civilization, and even a slight illness can cost people their lives.

  What's more, they are no longer in Shengjing or Muzhou City, but in the wilderness and mountains.

  Lack of doctors and medicine, no food or water, not even a warm quilt to keep out the cold...

  For a strong and healthy man, this situation is already a test, let alone for an injured patient who has fainted?

  Choi Yong felt that just sitting there was not enough.

  The man now needs medical treatment, otherwise he is in danger of losing his life at any time.

  He sacrificed his life to save her, she couldn't just stand by and watch him die, no matter what, she had to do something for him.

  She thought for a moment and then exerted herself to pull out her own leg which was being pressed down, and moved the whiskered man's body over to the more comfortable straw.

  Her legs were still weak and powerless.

  But she supported herself against the mountain wall and stumbled to the entrance of the cave, looking out.

  The sky is already bright, it's early morning now.

  As far as the eye can see, a thick layer of mountain snow, pure white without end, one glance cannot see the end.

  Judging from the terrain and environment, they should still be on the mountain at this moment, but the thick snow and dense forest blocked her view, making it difficult for her to determine their exact location.

  Cui Ling really wanted to go out and take a look at the outside situation again, but from inside the house came the weak and painful low moan of the bearded man.

  She hastily stopped in her tracks. From her bosom she pulled out a white handkerchief and spread it flat on the snowy ground.

  Remove the first layer of snow and take only the relatively clean second layer. Hold them in a cloth and wrap it up, then return to the stone cave.

  She had to clean the wound for the mustachioed man first.

  Until the bloodstains on his arm were cleaned up. She then tore off the hem of her undergarment and tightly bound it around his left arm to stop the bleeding.

  Her bandaging skills were quite amateurish, and the result was a bit crooked, but fortunately, it was tight enough that after the initial trickle of blood on the white gauze, there wasn't any more bleeding.

  This can be considered as stopping the bleeding first.

  Next, I need to bring down the fever.

  In the absence of medical treatment, Choi Yeong could only think of physical cooling methods. There were probably only two ways to cool down: applying ice packs and wiping his body.

  An ice pack is easy to come by here in this snowy mountainous region, just like earlier when I used a cloth to scoop up some snow and it was done.

  Wipe the body and then...

  Cui Ling looked at the bearded man's painful expression and couldn't help but feel a twinge of sympathy.

  Forget it. Now the situation is critical, a matter of life and death, she's not a native Sheng Dynasty woman who values chastity more than life itself, why bother being so pretentious?

  Besides, it's just a man's body, she's seen them before, what's there to be shy about?

  Cui Ying thought so, and didn't want to delay for a moment.

  She leaned against the stone wall and walked outside, thinking for a moment. She simply took off the cloak on her body and spread it on the ground.

  A cold gust of mountain wind blew over, like a knife edge cutting across her face, so chilly that her body trembled.

  She shrugged and gritted her teeth as she poured a large handful of snow onto her cloak.

  The cloak area is large, and it can hold a lot of snow. The more you load, the less you have to go out in the cold wind twice.

  She's also uncomfortable. If they both pass out from the cold, their chances of survival will greatly decrease.

  She finally escaped her miserable life, and she didn't want to die now.

  Cui Ling returned to the stone cave, and without any courtesy, she pulled off the upper garment of the bearded man. She wrapped a handkerchief around Bai Xue and carefully wiped his body.

  At first, she was still able to be carefree and calm.

  But after a while, she was ashamed to find that she had lost her train of thought...

  It's not that she didn't have a noble heart to save people, but this man's figure was too good, so good that it stirred up a ripple in the fifteen years of her unmoved heart.

  If it weren't for her still being mindful of her status as a married woman, she would have almost lost control and taken advantage of the mustachioed man's vulnerability.

  The man's upper body was now completely exposed, revealing his resolute jawline, elegant neck, and perfectly chiseled torso.

  Not a muscle-bound hunk, nor a stick figure with no flesh at all.

  His skin was a light wheat color, the muscles on his upper body were slender and elegant, with beautiful lines that made people want to touch and bite him.

  Just as Cui Ling couldn't help but reach out with her demonic claws at the mustachioed man, reason pulled her back.

  "No! No! You're a married woman, how can you casually touch men other than your husband? Now that we're physically cooling him down to save his life, it's not about seducing someone else's husband! Stop!"

  Although Yuan Wulang is not her ideal husband, he has not done anything wrong to her.

  She just looks a bit pretty, dresses up in a flashy way, and because of this she brings back a green hat for him, it's really unfair.

  Besides, others can take a concubine at the age of 40 if they have no children, and it's already pitiful enough for him to be stuck with this not-so-likable old wife.

  She would be too unfaithful to him if she were to fall in love with another man.

  Cui Ling decided to ignore the great temptation of the mustachioed man, her eyes fixed on his nose as she helped him wipe his body without looking at him sideways.

  It wasn't until he finally felt his body temperature drop a bit that he stopped the movement of his hands and helped him put his clothes back on.

  In order to conceal her emotions, she specially tidied up his clothes.

  At this time, her stomach suddenly growled with hunger.

  Last night, I didn't eat well and was drugged after just two mouthfuls of beef. After a night of turmoil, I'm already starving, my stomach is protesting, and it's holding on until now. It's already very grateful.

  But in this icy and snowy land, what can be found to eat to fill one's stomach?

  Cui Ling glanced at the gradually recovering face of the bearded man, then moved a few more straws to cover him. Only then did she exit the stone cave.

  She decided to go out and take a look.

  The whole sky and ground were covered with snow, except for the trees, nothing else could be seen.

  She walked out for about a few steps and found that the ground was covered with shallow hoof prints, which should be the bay red horse ridden by the mustache man at night.

  The horse's footsteps are disorderly. The hoof prints are messy and seem to have lost their way.

  Chui Ling was somewhat perplexed as to why the bearded man had let loose the only fine horse that could have taken them back to town.

  Even if they are both physically exhausted and need to rest, he can still tie the horse nearby and wait until their physical condition improves before riding down the mountain together.

  It is better to rely on oneself than to wait for others to come to one's rescue.

  However, Cui Ying believes that Hu Xu must have a reason for doing so.

  Just for the fact that he could descend from heaven at her most critical moment, saving her life from the brutal Rouran bandits, she felt that no matter what, she had to trust this man.

  She withdrew her gaze from the hoof prints and looked up at the towering ancient trees surrounding her.

  It should be a species of Quercus, but she is not familiar with it. She can't identify the specific variety, only knowing that this tree grows very tall, with dense branches and leaves at the top, most of which are covered by mountain snow, occasionally revealing the green color of the leaves when the snow falls off.

  Her eyes lit up, and she said that maybe they could still find pine cones or hazelnuts on the beech trees!

  Cui Ling wandered around nearby and found a relatively weak tree. She hugged the trunk and shook it vigorously.

  Hard work will pay off for those who are diligent, and it's not entirely useless either.

  Finally dropped some stuff similar to pinecones.

  She ran over and peeled it from the inside, only to find that there were still pine cones hidden inside!

  Perhaps because this place has always been rarely visited, the squirrels in the forest can't eat all the pine nuts away, so most of the fallen pine cones have pine nuts inside, and very few are empty.

  Choi Yong was overjoyed.

  Looking at the current situation of the bearded man, there is little they can do, and it seems that waiting for rescue is their only option.

  But waiting requires having grain reserves.

  The drink is fine, and you can get clean snow water for food.

  There is also firewood inside, and even snow water can be heated by finding a way.

  However, within a hundred miles around, there is no human habitation, and solving the problem of food becomes somewhat difficult.

  In the mountains and forests there should be wild beasts, but she was a weak woman, her body was not feeling well, and she couldn't do big things like catching beasts.

  It's already a blessing if she doesn't get eaten by wild beasts, let alone catching them for food.

  They will then face a crisis without food.

  There is only water, no food to eat, at most can hold on for three days, plus her and the bearded man's injuries, illnesses, it's likely they can only hold on for a day and night, which is already quite an achievement.

  But what if help is slow in coming?

  Now, Choi Yeong's worrying thoughts have been resolved.

  This batch of coniferous trees grew something similar to pine cones, inside which were plump pine seeds that could be eaten.

  Pine nuts have a very high nutritional value, if there are pine nuts on the trees here, then she can think of ways to collect some and rely on these things to fill her stomach.

  She took a deep breath, then rubbed her palms together and ran under the tree, shaking it violently.

  "Patter, patter", a steady stream of fruit fell from the trees, and pine cones rained down.

  Choi Yong soon achieved great success.

  She wrapped a full load of pine needles in her cloak and went back, finding an abandoned iron pot in the corner of the stone cave.

  After cleaning and sorting, she poured all the pine nuts into the pot, then tried to set it up on the firewood, but found that stir-frying was too laborious under this circumstance. She went to fetch some snow water and put it in the pot, planning to boil the pine nuts instead.

  Also don't know how long it took, there was a fragrance floating out.

  Cui Ling lightly tapped the mustachioed man, "Hey, if you're awake, get up and eat something to fill your stomach first!"

  The scorch on the bearded man's body had receded by more than half, and his face and forehead were no longer burning.

  But he curled up into a ball, his body trembling with cold, "Cold..."

  Cui Ying tilted her head and listened intently, "What? What did you say?"

  The bearded man's body leaned against Cui Ying's, "Cold, so cold..."

  ps：

  There is still a second update today, but I'm not sure about the time, it might be in the afternoon or at night, depending on the situation.