Maiden Li bent over him with wide eyes, dripping tears onto Qiu Yunru's face.
Qiu Yunru blinked rapidly--he really didn't want this kid's tears getting in his eyeball again!--and thankfully, it slid down his cheek instead.
"Are you dying?" Maiden Li sniffled, checking his wrist pulse. It was steady.
Qiu Yunru shook his head a little.
"What do I do...?" Maiden Li said helplessly, grabbing the inn blankets and wiping black goop off of his shixiong's pale lips.
Qiu Yunru made a strangled noise of protest.
How could you ruin a good blanket like that?!
"What is it?" Li Chenyuan bent over him. "Does it hurt? Do you have an antidote in your pack?"
Without waiting for a response, Li Chenyuan went to go and root around frantically in Qiu Yunru's bag, tossing out bottles and herb bundles. "This? This?"
Qiu Yunru closed his eyes, weeping in his heart.
His carefully organized pack--Li Chenyuan, can't you have a bit of respect for others' belongings?!
Suddenly, the room door was thrown open.
Both men in the room looked up. In the doorway stood the innkeeper, his eyes wide with shock. He held a small ceramic bottle in his hand, and was looking with panic between Qiu Yunru, who was lying on the floor and covered in black blood, and Li Chenyuan, who was staring at him with crazed eyes by the bed, looking completely healthy.
"...Why didn't you both drink it...?" He said weakly.
Suddenly, Li Chenyuan was on him. Dragging the innkeeper inside, he slammed the door and threw the man to the ground, stomping on his crotch.
Qiu Yunru winced. How ruthless! And how embarrassing! Didn't Li Chenyuan know how to not fight dirty...?
As the innkeeper moaned and howled, holding his crotch and rolling on the floor like a tortured rat, Li Chenyuan loomed over him. Qiu Yunru couldn't help but feel he was watching an animation where the main character's face had been completely shadowed by rage, with only one of their eyes glowing in fury!
"Where's the antidote?" Li Chenyuan's voice was terrifying. It was like the sound of a cheese grater scratching across a chalkboard!
The innkeeper floundered. "I don't know! I don't know! What are you talking about?"
Li Chenyuan sneered. The air grew cold and thick.
Within seconds, the innkeeper gave up. Groveling at Li Chenyuan's feet, he wailed:
"Gongzhi! Have mercy! I was only doing as I was told!"
Li Chenyuan grabbed the poor innkeeper's hair by the roots, ruining his neatly tied bun. He dragged the old man's face up to his own with a frightening quietness.
"Where's the antidote?"
"It's there! It's there!"
The innkeeper pointed with a shaking hand to the ceramic bottle he had brought with him. It had rolled off by the bed when Li Chenyuan had stomped his balls to a pulp! What a merciless kid!
After throwing the innkeeper to the ground, Li Chenyuan hurriedly went to get the bottle and pour it into Qiu Yunru's mouth. He propped Qiu Yunru up against the bed and tilted the bottle between his shixiong's lips.
This kid...his hands were shaking as he poured the antidote! How could he go from so terrifyingly cruel to so terrified in the blink of an eye?
Qiu Yunru also wanted to say:
Hey! Check that he's not lying first! What if it's more poison? Don't be so hasty...!
However, he couldn't exactly speak.
Thankfully, as the liquid poured down his throat, he was sure that it really was the antidote. The taste was acrid and sour, smelling of lemons and fermented radishes. As it made its way into his body, a wave of coolness washed over him, and the sticky sensation of blackened blood in his throat and chest subsided.
He coughed, causing Li Chenyuan to worriedly check his face with tears in his eyes once again.
"Shixiong? Qiu-ge? Qiu-ge! It worked?"
Qiu Yunru coughed. A bit of leftover goo crawled up his throat, and he spat it out, feeling sick. When he spoke, his voice was grating and rough: "Indeed. Though, you really should have checked whether it was really the antidote first. What if it had been more poison? You have to be more careful..."
Li Chenyuan's face paled. He gripped the bottle tightly, seeming terrified at the realization that he'd really just poured something random down his shixiong's throat.
Seeing this, Qiu Yunru coughed again, waving his hand weakly. "It's all right. Li-shidi was worried. No need to feel bad. For now..."
The innkeeper was still trembling on the ground. It was really a pitiful sight: both his eyes were blue, his lip was split, and he was shaking with fear.
"There was only enough antidote for one person," Qiu Yunru mused hoarsely. "And yet, there was enough tea for two. Innkeeper senior, who was it you were planning to save?"
The innkeeper trembled on the floor pitifully. His face was stained with tears and snot. "I can't say...I can't say! Have mercy, gongzhi!"
"What do you mean?" Li Chenyuan sneered. "Of course you can. You have a mouth."
The innkeeper bowed his head down to the ground, his hands trembling to grip the wood of the floorboards. "Gongzhi is right. I...I..." He began to weep. "They paid me a large sum of money..."
"A bribe?" Qiu Yunru thought aloud. He tried to stans, but failed miserably, falling back against the wall in an embarrassing display. Li Chenyuan grabbed his arm, steadying him.
This only made Qiu Yunru more embarrassed--it would be better for him to laugh at him or look away than to try to support him so fiercely after seeing him make a fool of himself!
Coughing awkwardly, he went on: "Ahem...Innkeeper senior would kill a cultivator for a bribe? Were you not also threatened?"
"I was, I was!" The innkeeper wailed. "My inn, and my life--they said they would burn both to the ground if I didn't do as they said! I had no choice!"
"Pathetic," Li Chenyuan spat under his breath. "In that situation, you should just kill yourself!"
The innkeeper quivered. "This one is sorry! I should have! I should have!"