Saving His Life

No sooner than both were inside the small cave did it start pouring. Wang Jingyuan dragged the man all the way inside and had him lay down flat by the stone wall, carefully arranging his arms and legs straight. She placed the sword next to him. Then she stood there and pondered what to do next.

Both of their clothes were soaked through with the cold rain. She might be okay, but this man was going to get hypothermia. If only she could get a fire going…

Her eyes landed on two drawstring pouches on the man's belt, which had been concealed earlier by his robe. She bent down and opened one. Inside, she found a piece of flint, some metal throwing darts, and a small handful of silver coins. The other pouch contained three ceramic vials with different colored stoppers.

Wang Jingyuan took the vials and studied them curiously. Maybe these contained medicine? All the heroes in the wuxia novels and dramas always had their own medicine, especially ones to stop bleeding. She rattled them next to her ear. One of them contained round pills. The other two seemed to contain powders. She set them aside to investigate later; getting a fire started was a bigger priority.

Wang Jingyuan ventured out into the rain again, since she was already wet from head to toe anyway. She managed to pick up a small armful of semi-dry branches under the trees, which she brought back into the cave. She picked out the ones that were small and most dry and arranged them in a pile. Then she took the flint from the man's pouch and his sword before sitting down in front of her pile of kindling.

She could tell that this sword was a good one. A golden phoenix that was spreading its wings decorated the cross-guard. When she carefully unsheathed the sword, the blade was so polished it seemed to emit a light of its own. Wang Jingyuan felt bad for what she was about to do. "I'm very sorry, but I really have to start a fire," she apologized to the unconscious man. "I need flint and steel, and the only steel here is your sword."

Well, Wang Jingyuan hoped that the sword was made of steel. She held the sword so that it was stabbed into the middle of the pile of kindling. Then she struck the flint against the blade.

It took several minutes of experimenting with what angle to strike the flint and the force with which to strike it before a few sparks appeared. Encouraged, Wang Jingyuan repeated the motion until some of the kindling caught fire. She hurriedly retracted the sword, cupped her hands around the tiny flame, and blew until all the kindling began burning. Then she added a few larger branches until a decent fire was going.

"Wow, that was much harder than I expected," Wang Jingyuan said. "Thank you for letting me borrow your sword." She quickly checked to see if the flint had left any scratches on the sword. It didn't. She placed the sword back into its sheath before standing up and dragging the man closer to the fire.

Wang Jingyuan collected the three vials she had set aside earlier and sat down on the other side of the fire. She unstopped the one with the red stopper first and poured out a few round, black pills resembling small tapioca pearls. She sniffed it, and the heavy scent of Chinese medicine assaulted her senses. She couldn't tell what it was though, and returned the pills back into the vial.

The second vial, with a green stopper, contained a fine brown powder that also smelled like Chinese medicine. For fear of contamination, Wang Jingyuan dumped the little pinch she poured out into the flames.

The last vial, with a blue stopper, had tiny words written on the side. Wang Jingyuan squinted at the label. "Jin Chuang Yao," she read, brightening. She recognized the name. This was the medicine that frequently made appearances in novels and dramas and used to treat wounds and stop the bleeding. It always worked like magic.

"I found something to help you!" Wang Jingyuan said to the man, whose eyes remained closed. She felt a little silly that she kept talking to an unconscious person, but she felt like she would go crazy in the heavy silence. "I'm going to put some of this medicine on your wounds now, okay?"

Technically, she wasn't obligated to do anything, but she had nothing else to do. Besides, she already dragged him in from outside; she might as well put in a little more effort and patch him up. It was easier said than done, though. She had to remove his wet outer robe, which was ripped in several places, and be careful of his broken arm and leg. At least he couldn't feel pain in his unconsciousness. The man's dark gray hanfu bore rips in the areas where he was cut and stabbed. Wang Jingyuan figured that since his white robe was already ripped, he wouldn't mind if she tore off a section to use as a rag to clean his wounds and used the rest as bandages.

There were at least thirty different cuts on him, and a few stabs. Wang Jingyuan had to go outside and rinse the rag as best as she could with the rain every five minutes. When all the wounds were cleaned, she carefully applied a layer of the pale yellow powder from the Jin Chuang Yao vial on them before wrapping some of the larger wounds with strips of the robe. By the time she was done, the vial was empty.

Then, Wang Jingyuan rinsed the rag one last time and wiped away the blood and grime on the man's face. Bold upward eyebrows, tightly-closed eyes, a sharp nose-bridge, and lampshade moustache became more well-defined on an oblong face framed by loose black hair. The long hair might have once been held up by a large hairpin, as per the tradition, but now the strands were matted with mud and blood. Wang Jingyuan carefully checked the man's skull for any cracks, but fortunately found none.

When all of this was done, Wang Jingyuan took the last few strips of the man's outer robe and a couple of strong sticks. She made a cast as best as she could for the man's broken arm and leg, though she wasn't sure if she had done it correctly. It would have to do until she figured something else out.

Night had fallen by the time she finished. Wang Jingyuan returned to her spot on the other side of the fire and sat down tiredly. She didn't know why she was working so hard to save this man's life; she didn't even know him. "I guess I'm just a nice person," Wang Jingyuan said aloud. She studied the man's features again. He looked to be in his late thirties. She wondered about his identity. The chief of a sect? A free-roaming hero? A disciple?

Never mind the man, she thought to herself. What am I going to do now?

There was really nothing she could do. She didn't know where she was, how she got here, or how to go back. It was frightening being utterly alone and not knowing anything. The only thing she could do was wait and gather more information by talking to people. If she could find someone else besides this mystery man.

"Think on the bright side, Jing-Jing," Wang Jingyuan said to herself out loud. "This is your chance to be the protagonist in a drama, except in real life. You can go on some adventures. Since you're here, you might as well make the most out of it."

The fire crackled. Wang Jingyuan noticed that all the branches she brought back had dried nicely by the fire, so she added a few more into the flames. She had enough for a medium-sized fire to last all night. As the branches burned merrily, Wang Jingyuan slowly nodded off to the soothing sound of rain drumming the leaves outside.