Today, there was still no fog in the mountains. Harano stood atop the ridge, gazing out over the boundless peaks, remaining silent for a long time before turning back the way he came.
By the time he returned to the village, Ah Man had already finished her task and come back, and had handed in the quest item: [Ah Man's Eating Tools]. Ah Man was sprawled on the ground checking them: a Japanese biwa, a shakuhachi (a kind of five-holed flute, usually one shaku eight sun long, hence the name shakuhachi), a broken bowl, a set of Pai Gow tiles, and three dice.
Last night, Ah Qing had wanted to assassinate Harano, so for convenience she'd also hidden her personal belongings temporarily—a seven-foot Copper Ring Stick and a little vermilion lacquer drum. Now she'd dug them back out as well, and was sitting in a corner of the dirt-floored house, silently polishing them together with her little macaque.
Harano just gave the scene a casual glance before heading off to wash up, and after he finished, he called for everyone to eat.
Breakfast was still plentiful; white rice was offered in unlimited quantities to everyone. Even those two idiot Lang Faction guys, the brothers Momoi, and Yayoi the part-time little maid, and Ah Qing's pet monkey, could help themselves to all the rice they wanted. There was also miso bamboo shoot mushroom soup, dried egret meat, pickled radish strips, and everyone had a boiled egg. The soup was especially salty—totally extravagant—what seemed to Harano like a perfectly normal, even slightly shabby breakfast, struck Ah Man and the others as pure luxury, pure 100% prodigal wastefulness.
Ah Man not only polished off all the meat and side dishes, but also scarfed down two big bowls of rice. Wiping her mouth after the meal, even she, with her ultra-thick skin and obvious freeloading intentions, felt a bit embarrassed—she'd thought that getting to eat a fat chicken yesterday was a one-off, but today's meal was almost just as good!
Rice at every meal, with meat and veggies—who wouldn't get dizzy from eating so well!
Her opinion of Harano shot up again; the more she looked at him, the more pleasing he seemed, and she couldn't help but suggest enthusiastically, "Do you want to hear a little tune? If there's nothing else going on, I can play you a song or two?"
Harano, unlike her, wasn't eating like a maniac and wasn't finished yet. He waved his hand casually when he heard her, "No need, just rest up!"
"How about a monkey show?" Ah Man, wanting to return the favor somehow, asked eagerly, "Would you like to see a monkey show?"
"Monkey show?" Harano paused, glancing over at Ah Qing and the little macaque next to her, suddenly realizing.
No wonder she kept a little monkey and had that lacquer drum—turns out she was a "monkey performer," making a living by performing with her monkey, not much different from Ah Man, the "Blind Mage" who begged by playing the biwa and shakuhachi.
Ah Qing was busy shoveling rice into her mouth, eating with fierce concentration. Suddenly hearing talk of monkey shows, she looked up right into Harano's eyes, momentarily bewildered.
A moment later, when she realized, she immediately lowered her gaze, refusing to meet his eyes, but her little hands around the bowl gripped so hard that veins popped out, her long lashes trembling nonstop, her face shifting from white to green to red, as if her inner thoughts were in chaos—such a rich and ample breakfast, in all her years of wandering and begging, she'd never eaten anything like it before. She couldn't help but eat more than usual, but now, realizing this, she suddenly felt ashamed.
Mmm, she didn't like Harano, or rather, she hated all Samurai, but she'd still ended up eating so much of his rice. Being watched by him now, she suddenly felt some shame, resented her lack of self-control, and her face started to change color out of embarrassment.
Watching her change faces left Harano confused—"What a weird kid," he muttered inwardly, quickly waving his hand, "No thanks, I'm not really...er, interested in watching a monkey show."
Actually, he was a bit interested—he'd never seen one! But he didn't really know Ah Qing, hadn't even exchanged words with her before, and with her acting so twitchy, like she might explode at any moment, it was probably better not to risk it.
What if she did explode and splattered him with blood? Not a good look!
"Fine, suit yourself!" Ah Man didn't care that he wasn't interested. She'd asked, and if he didn't want to see, it was his loss; at least it saved her the effort!
She got up and went off to lie down, pulled up her little quilt, patted her belly, and planned to go back to sleep—feeling absolutely delighted.
This was exactly the life she'd always dreamed of: eating well every day, doing nothing. She couldn't believe that getting injured by Harano had, strangely enough, made it come true.
She decided to just enjoy this peaceful life for as long as Harano could tolerate, until he finally kicked her out.
......
Temporarily taking in Ah Man and Ah Qing was just a tiny side story in his isekai life—a complete accident.
Once breakfast was over, Harano got back on track, resuming his [Warring States Survival Plan], which meant studying medicine hard to become a "Mongolian doctor" and improve his and his idiotic son's chances of survival.
He found himself a spot in the dirt house, made a bowl of tea, and focused on the hand-copied "Barefoot Doctor's Manual," completely absorbed, shutting out the world to study the classics single-mindedly.
Harano, though young, was patient and persistent—he could sit there for a whole morning without moving at all. By the time lunch was near and Ah Man had finished her post-breakfast nap and crawled up, he was still there frowning and reciting, deeply absorbed in his studies, unaware of anything else.
Ah Man, super curious, leaned over to see what he was doing, but saw the paper was full of "Southern Barbarian script" she didn't recognize, and was shocked, blurting out, "Is this a Southern Barbarian book?"
"You can think of it that way," Harano replied offhandedly.
"Oh? What's written in there?" Ah Man was even more interested.
Harano didn't bother to hide it—no one else could read it anyway—so he replied, "Some methods for treating and saving people."
"A medical book, huh…" Ah Man instantly lost half her interest. She stuck her head over to look for a while longer but, unable to make sense of the words, saw Harano had no intention of explaining, so she gave up and hobbled outside for a stroll.
Her name really fit—"Man" for wild and unpredictable; she was exactly that kind of wild girl.
Soon, sounds of her chatting with Yayoi drifted in from the yard. The Momoi brothers quickly joined in, listening to her boast and tell all about her wild adventures and begging journeys through the world.
Harano didn't care, ignoring it all and focusing on memorizing his book.
Five days passed quickly, with no one coming to rob him, and the villagers of Hibi Village not planning any "Samurai Hunt"—no one tried to skewer him with dung forks. Everything passed uneventfully, and Harano completed his great training.
He had secretly finished copying the "Barefoot Doctor's Manual," buried away his cell phone, and managed to read and memorize the book twice. He now had the basic ability to treat—err, to kill—Japanese peasants. That was actually amazing: before this, he didn't even know how, but now he could—at least for a beginner, that was quite impressive.
Just like his uncle's factory gatekeeper, the self-styled Famous External Injury Expert Saibide Doug, used to say: "Saving lives is like killing—it's only by knowing how to kill that you know how to save."
Now, Harano's medical skills were on Saibide Doug's level: sure, he could treat—though whether they lived or died was another story, but hey, he could treat them.
Of course, the "Barefoot Doctor's Manual" was originally written for China's rural areas—a super-fast crash course requiring only literacy; most of the time, you just copy the prescription and try it. Half the time you just pick the simplest one. For a college student like Harano, this was easy; spending five days was already showing a lot of respect for life!
But at this point, book learning had hit its limit. Skills like "locating acupoints," "acupuncture," and "taking pulses" couldn't be mastered from books alone—they needed lots of hands-on practice.
Harano felt it was time to open a "black clinic," but there was still a problem—can't cook without rice, and you can't treat illness without medicine. He didn't have any herbs.
He quickly sent the Momoi brothers to find Ah Man, who was still wandering the village. The girl had really made the rounds; in just five days, even with her injury not healed, she'd limped around and befriended the entire village. She'd already started gossiping at mealtimes and even knew how many chickens each family owned and how many eggs they laid every day.
Once she was brought back, Harano first poured her a cup of hot tea, then politely asked where in Owari Province he could buy herbs. After all, during his last trip to Nagano Castle, he hadn't found a pharmacy, so now all he could do was ask Ah Man, since she was the "Master of All Things."
"Herbs?" Ah Man, a true wild child, was never very obedient. She glanced at the lying Meng Ziqi, and asked curiously, "Are they for treating your friend?"
"No, they're for treating the villagers," Harano answered honestly. At his current level, trying to treat his idiot son might turn tragic, so he needed to practice on villagers first—to level up his skills and boost his reputation too.
Ah Man was even more shocked, looking at him like he'd suddenly gone insane—everyone knew the villagers of Hibi Village had already been picked clean by Samurai and Monks; they were all paupers. You'd get nothing from treating them. Was he completely off his rocker?
Before she could ask if Harano's head had been kicked by a donkey, Yayoi, who was boiling water in the earthen room, gasped in surprise, "Harano-sama, you… you're willing to treat everyone?"
She was born in this era, raised in this village, and knew well that many villagers suffered long-term illness. One of her childhood friends had painfully died just last spring. She knew all this, but was helpless. To suddenly hear that Harano was willing to play doctor and, despite his status, treat the villagers, she was both surprised and delighted—but after saying it, she grew nervous, fearing Harano was just joking with Ah Man.
Even Ah Qing, who was grooming the monkey, glanced over in astonishment. Seeing the anxiety in Yayoi's eyes, Harano became a little more serious and nodded, "Yes."
"But… everyone might not be able to pay your…" Yayoi, precocious as always, immediately thought of the same problem as Ah Man.
Harano had no intention of making money off the poor villagers. He smiled, "You don't need to worry about that—it's just a little extra work, I can just charge for the cost of the medicine. If they can't pay for the medicine, they can owe for now—no interest, and they can pay me back by helping out in the future."
"Really?" Yayoi was even more thrilled. She seemed to see a halo appear behind Harano's head, starting to wonder if he was some "Innate Divine Buddha Saint Body."
"Really."
Yayoi was so moved, she immediately knelt down and bowed, hands overlapped on the dirt, forehead touching the ground, voice trembling with excitement, "Thank you so much! Everyone will be so happy when they hear this!"
Harano quickly waved his hand, "Don't tell anyone yet. Wait until I find some herbs first!"
"Yes!" Yayoi replied crisply, looking with hope at Ah Man.
Ah Man didn't understand Harano's "villainous" intentions at all—completely unable to figure out what he was thinking. She suspected that donkey he'd bought second hand was sneaking into his room every night to kick him in the head, or else he'd never come up with such an outlandish idea!
She stared in disbelief. "You don't even make any money—what do you get out of it? Treating and giving out medicine on credit, with no interest? You got too much money you're itching to burn?"
Harano shot her a look, "Yeah, I just have money and need to burn it—problem?"
"Fine, fine! You're rich, good for you!" Ah Man, as a freeloading "convalescent," couldn't stop him from whatever nonsense he wanted to do, but as she retorted, she started looking at him with pity—No wonder you got exiled! If I were your father, I'd have kicked you out too!
What a totally clueless young master—
Someone like you, in this world, won't last more than two and a half years!