Warring States Survival Guide

Chapter 105: Chiyo of Higashiomi
A-man had escaped death before and suddenly appeared in front of Yuanye, occupying most of his attention. But now that the girl asked him questions, Yuanye finally had the leisure to look at her carefully.

She was wearing a dark blue, slightly old-fashioned kosode and a black turban (a windproof turban that was tied tightly around the hair and neck, also called a Yu-Gao-Zu turban) on her head. A few strands of black hair in the turban were playfully scattered on her smooth forehead, making her oval face look even smaller and more delicate.

Her facial features were also very delicate, with thin eyebrows, crescent eyes, and a straight nose. At this moment, she was smiling with her face tilted up, and she looked playful yet charming like a young girl. She was considered a little beauty, not much inferior to Ah Qing.

Yuan Ye took a closer look and then looked away, smiling at her, "You are right, saving a life really shouldn't be done in exchange for a reward, but promises are another matter."

The Kosode girl was slightly startled, not quite understanding what he meant.

She was not stupid, so how could she possibly believe that Aman was really worth a thousand kan? But she was short of money at the moment, and Aman had been bragging before that Yuanye was a tycoon, so she would try her luck whether there were dates or not, even if it meant taking some risks. She even let Kotaro keep yelling and scolded him in order to retreat, it was just to make it easier to bargain. After all, if she didn't have a thousand kan, she should at least give him three or five kan, right?

But from what she heard Yuanye seemed to be ready to admit it, which was a bit strange.

She instantly became suspicious and looked at Yuanye carefully. She was a little unsure. After thinking for a while, she smiled and tried, "My lord, you misunderstood. It was just a joke, not a promise. You...you only shouted fifty strings of coins in the river at the beginning. Even these fifty strings of coins seem like a joke to me. What do you think?"

Even if she was really given a thousand strings of cash, she wouldn't dare take it. It was just that she was really short of money. Now the two of them had only a pile of rags and were penniless. They couldn't even afford to eat, so she had to take some money with her.

Fifty strings of cash won’t work, but five strings of cash is negotiable.

Yuan Ye did not comment, and asked, "What is your name?"

"Excuse me, sir, you can just call me Chiyo." The Kosode girl immediately apologized with a smile. She was not impatient or irritated by Yuanye's sudden change of subject and was very patient.

Yuan Ye waited for a while, but was slightly surprised when she didn't say her father or brother's name. However, he didn't want to ask any more questions, so he politely said, "It's Miss Chiyo. If you don't mind, please come in and have a rest! But my conditions are limited at the moment, so I may not be able to entertain you two properly. Please forgive me."

Kotaro beside her immediately grasped the hilt of the knife again, his expression more alert, but Chiyo looked around, then glanced at Nohara, and smiled without much hesitation: "Then excuse me, Lord Nohara."

"No, I can't thank you enough for sending A-man back." Yuanye said politely and sincerely.

After he finished speaking, he led the group to the center of the camp. It was somewhat presentable, but still a bunch of shacks, just relatively large and tidy.

He first asked Yayoi and the maids to prepare hot tea and food to entertain the two guests, and he took Aman to check on his injuries. Kotaro was a bit rookie and wanted to take Aman as a hostage. He was not willing to let Aman leave his side like this, but was stopped by Chiyo in a low voice.

Yuanye didn't care and went to another shack to check on Aman's injuries first. It didn't matter if he took his pulse or something like that. Aqing would check the wound and tell him after he checked it. People in ancient times still had to pay attention to this aspect.

After the examination, A'man's condition was not optimistic. Although she had been laughing and looked very excited before, that was just her nature. In addition, she was particularly active due to the excitement of finally finding them. In fact, she had seven wounds on her body, four of which were on the chest and abdomen. She had also lost a lot of blood and was now in a state of deficiency of both Qi and blood. If she was not careful, she would most likely suffer from sequelae, or even greatly shorten her life.

Yuanye looked serious and started thinking about how to make up for her. But Aman didn't care at all. She was a person who lived happily day by day. She felt that it was a great fortune that she could come back alive. Nothing else mattered. At this moment, she was lying on a thick cotton mattress, covered with a warm quilt, and boasting to Aqing about her escape experience: "... At that time, I suddenly had an idea. I quickly cut off the jidang (a semi-independent piece of armor that protects the waist) on the board and stuffed it into my torso. I threw the unlucky guy into the river, and then I did this to Lin Shengzhen..."

As she spoke, she extended two middle fingers again and began to gesture at Yuanye and Aqing. "He really got angry and immediately ordered his men to shoot me. My testicles were shot through, but my hips were only slightly penetrated. I rolled into the river. I cut off my testicles and other parts and threw them away, then began to float along the river. Halfway through, I blew a piss bubble and continued to float. I was about to fall asleep when I met them."

Ah Qing was feeding her porridge and asked softly, "And then?"

"Then I could tell at a glance that they were poor fellows!" Ah Man slurped the hot porridge he had just cooked, and said vaguely, "I started shouting at them, saying I would give them fifty strings of cash if they saved my life... Well, I was almost dying at the time, and after I shouted fifty strings of cash, I saw that they didn't move, and I was about to drift away again, so I shouted another five hundred strings of cash, and I don't know what happened next."

"When I woke up again, I was already with them. I couldn't move, so I asked them to help me find herbs..." She had been hanging out with Yuanye, the "blood-handed butcher doctor" for a long time, and she knew that drinking horse dung soup was unreliable. She turned to Yuanye and said, "It's the tree bark, tree roots, earthworms, wood ashes and so on that you used to mix together to feed others. I ate some of it randomly, and then asked them for food. That Kotaro didn't want to give me food, and he thought it was too troublesome to always find those messy things, so I raised the price to 1,000 kan, and that's how I fooled them." I asked around and looked for you all the way to find you here." The process of finding here was also very troublesome. At the beginning, she was injured and couldn't move easily. She often slept for one or two days. As a result, they stayed in the same place for nearly ten days. Then the two brothers Oda Nobunaga started fighting again. It was too chaotic outside. There were many thieves who were transformed from soldiers. Chiyo still refused to move. It was not until the battle was over for seven or eight days and it was confirmed that the road was completely safe that Chiyo was willing to take her out to find Yuanye. But there is no need to explain these in detail. Anyway, she came here lying down, so it can't be said that it was very hard.

After Ah Man finished explaining his experiences over the past month, he heaved a long sigh of relief. Finally, he raised his eyebrows and boasted, "So, it's me. If it were any of you, you'd be dead!"

Yuanye did not deny it. What she said was simple, but she was able to hold on and not faint even with such injuries. She was able to save herself and persisted until she met someone who asked for help. Afterwards, she even survived the inflammation and high fever from the wounds. This kind of desire to survive is not something that most people have.

Moreover, the "life-saving trick" that she had worked so hard to study before was actually used. At least she used it when she jumped into the river to drift. It was not in vain that she had a dry urine bubble in her body all day, and it was not in vain that she worked hard to develop good swimming skills.

Perhaps, this is an example of "God helps those who are self-reliant". She fought tenaciously for survival, and God saw through it and gave her a break, allowing her to survive and live for decades more.

Yuan Ye looked at her happy but pale face and didn't think she was bragging. He said from the bottom of his heart: "This time... you have worked hard, and thank you very much!"

Ah Man waved her hand and said generously, "Why are you being so polite? It's not a big deal!"

After she finished her outburst, she looked at the bowl of porridge and immediately added, "Of course, it's not a big deal, but after all, I was injured for you. You have to let me take good care of myself. Let Yayoi stew a chicken for me tonight and make it tender. I..." At this point, she swallowed hard and said dissatisfiedly, "Those two guys are very stingy. They don't even want to eat more taro. I'm injured like this and I have to go hungry for three meals in two days. I've suffered a lot during this period."

"I'm already making chicken soup for you. Just tell Yayoi what you want to eat in the future and ask her to make it for you right away. During this time, you should take good care of your injuries and replenish your body. Don't worry about the money." Yuanye didn't hesitate. Aman dared to risk her life to divert the pursuers and save his life in that situation, so there was nothing for him to say. From now on, whenever he can eat something solid, he will never let her eat liquid food!
Ah Man was satisfied. He still felt that Yuanye was the best place to be. His hard work was not in vain. He took the bowl of porridge and drank it all. He licked the bowl clean. Then he looked at Yuanye carefully and asked in surprise, "Are you healed? Wasn't the bone broken at that time?"

She and Yuanye were injured at the same time. Now she can't even sit up by herself, but Yuanye can walk around by himself. This is a bit strange.

Yuanye also looked down at himself. According to the book, it would take more than two months for a broken rib to recover. But after more than a month, he felt that there was no serious problem. Even though he still felt a dull pain when running and jumping, his daily sitting and walking were no different from that of a normal person. It seemed that he had indeed recovered quite quickly.

However, he studied it privately for a while but still had no clue. He couldn't find the reason why he recovered so quickly. He could only continue to suspect that this was an anomaly caused by time travel.

"Maybe it's because of my physical constitution?" He didn't want to talk about it any more. He planned to combine his studies with those of his silly son when he had time. For now, he could only deal with it like this - his silly son seemed a little abnormal too. He had been lying in bed for more than a year. Although he had lost a lot of weight, he was far from weak. His pulse was still strong, which was also a little abnormal. However, he still couldn't find the reason and had no clue at all.

He changed the subject after a perfunctory remark and asked Aman, "What's the situation with Miss Chiyo and Kotaro?"

Aman is an "elite primitive ninja", the "young boss" of the Koga survival school. Even though she is covered in wounds, she would grimace in pain when she sits up, but she didn't hurt her brain. She has been hanging out with Chiyo and the other two for more than a month, so she must have known them all by now. She might even be able to tell whether Chiyo has a mole on her buttocks.

As expected, Aman said immediately, "They are both from Higashiomi. Chiyo is the daughter of a samurai family. Her hometown should be near Lake Biwa, but her father's status is not very high. He is probably just a local samurai. That Kotaro should be a member of their family. He is the kind of member who has been serving for two or three generations. He is very loyal, but his martial arts are so-so. He only has brute force."

"What are they doing in Owari?"

"She must have come here to look for her relatives after her family was ruined. She didn't bring many clothes with her, and she didn't have much money. She couldn't even afford to eat, so she had to live in the wild. She must have fled in a hurry." Aman thought for a moment and said, "She seemed to be looking for a woman from the Owara family. Maybe a distant relative married into a family in Owari, and she wanted to go to this person, but she couldn't find her for a while."

Higashiomi? Lake Biwa? Ohara? Chiyo?
It turns out Chiyo is not a pseudonym, it seems her real name is Chiyo...

Yuanye pondered for a moment, recalled the Taiga dramas he had watched in the past, and felt that it was most likely that person.

(End of this chapter)