Chapter 4: Pitiful

A-Lin was so angry she was nearly going mad.

It wasn't that she was angry about Jiu Jin spending twenty taels of silver, but rather that... that big dummy had surely gone and given those twenty taels to help someone else again.

Like a few days ago, she noticed the shoes on his feet were old and worn, so she stayed up for several nights working at the construction site to make him a pair. Who would have thought that he hadn't even worn them for a single day before giving the new shoes away to someone else?

He said that person was pitiful for not having shoes to wear—

Why did he only find that person pitiful, and not see how pathetic his own shoes were? In short, whenever she spoke of her Master, A-Lin felt a hundred and twenty different reasons to be worried.

She always felt that if she didn't keep a tighter watch on him, her Master would one day squander the meager legacy the Lin family had left him; moreover, before the Old Ancestor went to Jiangnan, she had been strictly instructed to take good care of the new Master.

The Old Ancestor said the new Master was blunt and kind, but why didn't the Old Ancestor tell her that this Qi Jiu Jin was a "good person" who didn't know how to refuse anyone!

He was good to everyone, regardless of whether he knew them or whether they had the ability; in short, as soon as her new Master saw someone in trouble, he would immediately step forward to do everything in his power to help; his level of compliance was practically like that of a local Earth Deity.

As soon as A-Lin thought of Jiu Jin, a sense of total exhaustion washed over her.

Sometimes, she also felt she managed her Master too excessively, even overstepping the duties of a servant, but—she didn't want to be like this!

If the Master could let people worry a bit less, stop using his overflowing compassion so recklessly, and let her worry a bit less, perhaps she could be a compliant, obedient, good servant today.

A-Lin lifted her skirt and scurried quickly through the streets and alleys.

"Auntie Liu, Auntie Qiu, have you seen my Master?" A-Lin asked passersby all along the way.

"Jiu Jin?"

"Yes." A-Lin nodded hurriedly.

Auntie Liu, who was washing clothes by the stream, pointed toward the mountain ahead and said, "When I was coming here just now, I saw Jiu Jin jump into the water."

"Jump into the water?!" A-Lin was startled, because... damn it! "What did he jump into the water for? He clearly can't swim!" A-Lin hurriedly ran toward another mountain in a fit of exasperation.

A crowd was gathered on that mountain, as if something major had happened!

A-Lin's heart tightened. She pushed through the crowd and rushed up, only to see her Master lying by the riverbank, his face terrifyingly pale.

"What happened to him?" For a moment, A-Lin thought he had died, because there was no color in his face.

She rushed over, grabbed his ice-cold hand, and checked his breath. Though the breath was weak, it was—

He was still breathing! He wasn't dead yet—

While A-Lin was still busy, the crowd began to chatter and tell her the whole story. "Da Niu, the son of Sister Douhua from our village, was playing around and accidentally fell into the water. Just when everyone was panicking and didn't know what to do, who knew that Jiu Jin, who was passing by, jumped into the water without a second thought—"

"Jiu Jin is truly brave!"

"A true hero!"

"We all think Jiu Jin is amazing."

Everyone was talking one after another, but—

*Sigh*—someone let out a long sigh.

"No one expected that Jiu Jin actually couldn't swim. Once he jumped in, he was just bobbing up and down."

"It was truly life-threatening—"

"The situation back then was truly terrifying!"

The crowd offered another round of commentary, but A-Lin only looked at her silly Master.

How could he act so without thinking? To save someone, he ended up in such a miserable state. She really wanted to ignore him and just let him die to get it over with so he wouldn't be a burden to her, but—

A-Lin glanced at that honest face, and she truly had no way to ignore him. A-Lin steeled her heart—

"Wah!" The storyteller was halfway through when they suddenly let out a scream—because, because...

"He's going to die! Why is Miss A-Lin taking off her Master's clothes?"

"What is she trying to do?"

"She's saving him," someone answered.

"Saving him! Why does saving someone require taking off clothes?"

"How scandalous!"

The onlookers all nodded like pounding garlic, whispering and discussing A-Lin's shocking behavior, but A-Lin had no time to bicker with them; at this moment, saving her Master was more important.

After A-Lin loosened Jiu Jin's clothes, she lifted his chin, and then, she leaned her head down—

"Heck!" The crowd let out another gasp.

"Miss A-Lin is kissing her Master!"

"That's not a kiss! She's saving him!" Saving him, saving him—can't these bumpkins understand! Why do they keep slandering Miss A-Lin's reputation!

"Saving him! Why does saving someone require mouth-to-mouth?"

"Yeah, yeah! Why does saving someone require mouth-to-mouth?"