Outside the city gate.
A small beggar clutching a broken bowl huddled in a corner until he saw a handsome young man on a big black horse appear before him.
"Handsome brother!" the little beggar stood up.
Lu Ye smiled, lifted the little beggar onto the horse, and asked, "What's your name?"
The little beggar lowered his head. "I... I don't have a name. They all call me Little Beggar."
Lu Ye thought for a moment and said, "From now on, your name will be Tianya, how about that?"
"Tianya?" The little beggar's eyes lit up. "Okay, I'll be Tianya."
The small cloth bag stirred, grunting. It had witnessed the second idiot cutting off someone's ear the night before and was still a bit dazed. Hearing their conversation, it slowly returned to the real world.
Lu Ye looked at the broken bowl Tianya was holding and asked with some doubt, "Why do you... always hold this broken bowl?"
Tianya's eyes instantly reddened. "Since I can remember, I've lived in a beggar's den. I don't know who my parents are. Because I was too young to beg for food, there was only one old beggar who always shared his food with me. Later, he took me begging and raised me until I grew up. A few months ago, Old Beggar Grandpa died on the street. This broken bowl... is the only thing he left me."
Lu Ye's nose felt a little sore. This child was good, loyal and righteous.
Hengheng also felt this child was very pitiful.
"Tianya, from now on, I will be your master and teach you martial arts. However, you must protect someone and be her personal bodyguard. Are you willing?"
Tianya immediately replied, "I am willing! Who is that person?"
Lu Ye's lips curved upwards. "She is the woman I love the most."
Little Tianya clenched his fists and said with great determination, "Master, don't worry. Once I learn martial arts, I will definitely protect the woman you love the most!"
Lu Ye chuckled, "You can call her Mistress."
"Mistress?" Tianya's eyes sparkled. The word "Mistress" contained the character "Niang" (mother), which made him yearn for it. He had no mother. From now on, Mistress would be his mother.
"Tianya, do you remember how old you are?"
Tianya tilted his little head. "Old Beggar Grandpa said that when he found me, I couldn't even crawl yet. Then another four springs passed."
Lu Ye nodded. "Then you are about five years old this year."
"En, then I'm five!" Tianya had never been so happy. Today, he had a master, a mistress, and his own name, and he knew his age.
After Black Wind ran to a secluded place, Lu Ye touched Tianya's sleep acupoint and then had Hengheng use its consciousness to bring them all into the space.
When Tianya opened his eyes, he found himself lying in an unfamiliar place. He thought he had fallen asleep in his master's arms and that his master had woken him up when they arrived home.
Before him, a very beautiful older sister was smiling at him. This older sister should be his mistress, because he saw his master's arm around her shoulders, and they were smiling happily.
Around him were a group of men, women, old and young, all staring at him. But he wasn't afraid at all, because the smiles on their faces made him feel very safe.
Master introduced everyone to him one by one, and also introduced him to everyone.
Everyone welcomed his arrival.
He couldn't remember everyone at once, but he could feel a lot of kindness and warmth.
A child named Lu Yun wanted to take him to play, but Mistress stopped him.
Mistress asked an aunt to help him bathe. He actually wanted to bathe too, because the children here were all clean, and their clothes were either not patched or had at most two patches. He felt that only by cleaning himself would he be like them.
So he obediently followed the aunt into a room built of stones and thatch, called the bathhouse.
After Tianya finished bathing and changed into clean clothes, he looked particularly handsome.
Tian Guihua touched his little head, her face showing a pained expression. Such a handsome child, how could anyone be so heartless...
Lu Yun came with Tian Dou and the others. Their team was going to recruit a new member, and everyone was excited.
Tian Guihua wiped her eyes and told Lu Yun and Tian Dou to take Tianya out to play.
Tianya made friends for the first time and happily held Tie Zhu's hand, following behind Lu Yun and Tian Dou.
Only then did Tian Guihua hurry to find Bai Sheng and Lu Ye.
"Grandpa, Grandma, this child Tianya—" Tian Guihua started crying before she could finish.
Bai Sheng and Lu Ye exchanged a glance, not knowing what had happened.
"Aunt Guihua, what's wrong with Tianya?" Bai Sheng pulled Tian Guihua, urging her to sit down and speak slowly.
Tian Guihua wiped away her tears. "Grandpa, Grandma, Tianya, he... he was castrated. Only the root is left, woo woo... Which beast could be so cruel? Not even such a young child is spared. May heaven strike him with five thunderbolts!"
Bai Sheng and Lu Ye were quite shocked. Tianya was less than five years old, how could such a young child...
"Is the scrotum still intact?" Bai Sheng asked.
"It's still fine," Tian Guihua said, not feeling embarrassed. After all, Grandpa and Grandma had been through it themselves and understood everything.
Lu Ye frowned and said, "The perpetrator must have deeply hated Tianya. Leaving his scrotum intact was to give him normal male desires, but cutting off his phallus deprived him of the ability to release those desires, thus tormenting him with them."
"How can there be so much hatred? Tianya... he's just a child!" Tian Guihua thought of her own Tian Dou, who was about the same age as Tianya. If he were treated like that, she would be heartbroken.
Bai Sheng said, "Tianya is still young, and I don't know if he can be cured. I'll ask my master later. Aunt Guihua, let's keep this a secret from Tianya for now. We'll tell him when he's older."
Tian Guihua nodded.
Bai Sheng asked Granny Wu, and Granny Wu said that many years ago, she had heard her master mention a kind of witchcraft that could make dead flesh regrow. However, that witchcraft was very difficult to refine because it required finding an extremely rare live corpse worm.
This live corpse worm only appeared on fresh corpses, and even with fresh corpses, it didn't always emerge, making live corpse worms extremely rare.
It seemed that healing Tianya would not be a quick matter. On one hand, she needed to pay close attention to finding live corpse worms, and on the other hand, she had to seize the time to improve her medical skills and witchcraft.
Tianya was Lu Ye's officially accepted disciple, and he called her Mistress, so she had to be responsible for the child.
Bai Sheng built another wooden house in the space to serve as her own pharmacy. She spent her free time in the pharmacy concocting various herbs and蛊虫 (gu worms).
Lu Ye rode Black Wind in the space to patrol the fields and take care of the horses.
In the stable, several more foals were born. One mare had a difficult labor, and Lu Ye personally delivered the foal, saving both mother and child.
However, seeing this scene, he suddenly thought of his precious wife. It was said that childbirth was like walking through the gates of hell for women. His wife was carrying quadruplets, and what if...
Lu Ye dared not think further. His body felt as if it had suddenly plunged into an ice cellar.