A Hero's Heart - Chapter 15

“I’m a grown man. A scar is nothing!”

Lu Zichen did not seem to care about the injury on his face.

“Take Doctor Zhao’s kindness. Don’t disappoint him.” I pushed him into a chair and had Zhao Yihuan’s father summon the best physician in the city to examine him.

After we left the forest, I handed Gu Changting over to the authorities responsible for the case.

Only then did I escort Zhao Yihuan home.

Her father held her and cried for a long time. Eventually, he bowed repeatedly to the four of us and thanked us with tears in his eyes.

Thinking about Lu Zichen’s injury, I decided to have it examined.

Zhao Yihuan had also promised to take me to the best restaurant in the city for a feast, so I agreed.

The physician examined Lu Zichen and shook his head. “It should heal well. You may be left with a scar.”

“Why worry about a scar? A scar makes a man look more heroic. Right, Seventeen?” Lu Zichen turned to him.

Seventeen turned his face away.

Lu Zichen looked at me. “Did you mean what you said yesterday?”

I was confused. “What did I say?”

“Do you really believe that no matter what I looked like, I would never become a monster?”

I had forgotten that I had said anything like that. But when I saw his foolish expression, I nodded anyway.

“A fool like you would make perfect food for a monster.”

“You!” He sprang up in anger, but the physician immediately pulled him back down.

I was still laughing when Zhao Yihuan finished settling matters with the physician.

Her father had invited the physician to treat her and given her a great deal of nourishing food. After a good night’s sleep, she looked much better.

She bowed to us, then smiled at her father. “Father, these heroes saved me. This evening, please prepare a feast at the finest restaurant in the city to thank them.”

I agreed without hesitation.

After we sat down, she looked at me with curiosity.

“You’ve helped me so much, but I still don’t know your name, young lady.”

Her words drew the attention of Lu Zichen, who had just finished having his wound treated.

I rubbed my nose. “It’s nothing. My name is Wen… Wan.”

I gave her a false name.

There was a reason. The Carefree Sect had only a dozen or so people. If I caused trouble in the martial world, someone might trace me back to the sect and bring disaster to everyone there.

After we exchanged names, the four of us became much more familiar with one another.

We chatted about all sorts of things. Then Zhao Yihuan suddenly invited me to go shopping.

I had been waiting for the chance.

As soon as I returned the previous day, she had sent someone to prepare two sets of her own clothes for me. I was now wearing one of her pink silk dresses, with layer after layer of fabric trailing around my ankles.

Lu Zichen had lowered his head ever since he saw me.

I brought Seventeen along as well.

Money had been tight before, so I had only bought Seventeen two sets of coarse cloth robes. Since Zhao Yihuan was paying, I thought I might as well have two better outfits made for him.

“You treat Seventeen so well. What exactly is he to you?” Lu Zichen asked after I pushed Seventeen into the dressing room.

I shot him a look.

He took a step back. “Don’t tell me he’s your lover?”

I lifted my foot and kicked him.

He ran around me, laughing. “I was only joking.”

“Then what is your relationship?” he asked, still unwilling to let it go.

I did not know how to answer.

If I said Seventeen was someone I had picked up on the road, I might hurt his pride.

But if I said he was my junior brother, he had not officially joined the Carefree Sect yet.

The words “What is he to you?” had barely formed in my mouth when Seventeen came out.

The moment I looked at him, I froze.

He wore a pale moon-white robe of fine silk. On his slender body, it carried the cold, distant quality of moonlight. He was so thin that the robe seemed almost too large for him, yet that looseness gave him an ethereal elegance.

Gu Changting had also worn moon-white clothes, but on him they had looked flamboyant and shallow.

My gaze lingered on Seventeen for a while before moving upward.

It stopped on the cloth covering half his face.

I remembered my encounter with Gu Changting. I had been the one to suggest removing his mask.

Could Seventeen think his own eyes were frightening, and therefore assume that Gu Changting’s ugliness was also hidden beneath a mask?