Mier looked confused and walked around in circles. "Second Brother, it's only been a few days, and you're already so attached to her?"
"You think she doesn't care about a man's looks?"
Otherwise, it didn't make any sense!
After all, the few of them weren't considered good-looking in Zhukeng Village. If they were, Big Brother wouldn't still be unmarried.
Thinking this, Xing started closely examining Mier's face again.
"The most important thing now is to go find her."
Han interrupted Xing, who was about to continue talking, then looked at Mier, who was still struggling. "You're not even sure if she's still here, right?"
Mier didn't respond, but his expression turned gloomy. He glanced helplessly at Han.
Han tried to comfort him, "I don't think she's an ordinary person. We don't need to worry too much. If you're anxious, let's go out and search for her."
The others agreed.
In the end, only the sickly Liam and Mier, who stayed by the bed, were left in the room.
For some reason, Mier had a strong feeling that Niley was still here.
Meanwhile, Niley—
Because she used a lot of her powers to treat Liam, plus her body hadn't recovered from using up all her energy in the previous corpse tide battle and teleporting here, her abilities were nearly drained. She fainted.
Her body entered defense mode, and vines wrapped around her. With the last of her consciousness, she comforted Mier before entering her inner space to rest.
Outside the space, Han took Lei and Xing and searched the entire Zhukeng Village but couldn't find Niley.
The temperature was dropping, so he told the two to go back first.
Lei noticed his big brother was staring up the mountain and disagreed. "It's not safe to go into the mountains during winter."
Even though it was early spring, the weather was still cold. The animals in the mountains had no food and could attack people.
Going up the mountain now wasn't a wise decision.
Xing huffed, glancing at Han. "Up the mountain? Yeah, if she's really a spirit, maybe she came down from the mountain. But… what kind of plant would still be green in this weather?"
They were cleaning the house earlier when a green glow suddenly appeared next door, which scared them. That's how they found Niley wrapped in vines.
The thing was, they'd never seen anything like it before—not even in the mountains. And the mountain was dangerous.
Lei glanced at his silly fifth brother and shook his head. "Didn't it occur to you that maybe she's not a spirit?"
He knew Xing loved those storybooks, but this was too much.
He worried that one day his foolish little brother would be tricked by someone and still smile about it.
After the two finished talking, Han said, "How about this: you guys go back and check if she's at home. I'll just check the edge of the mountain, not going deep."
Seeing they still weren't at ease, Han added, "I left traps in the mountains before, I'll go check on them too. Don't worry, I hunt often. I'll be fine."
Lei looked at the stubborn Xing and, worried he'd follow Han and cause trouble, finally agreed. "Alright, but you have to be careful."
After that, the three split up.
Inside the house, Mier paced anxiously. When he heard the door open, he rushed to check.
Even though he felt Niley was still around, what if she wasn't?
He thought about it and saw that only two of them returned. His eyes dimmed slightly.
Liam followed, seeing them return, and asked quickly, "Did Big Brother go into the mountain?"
Lei nodded. "He was worried and went to look for her. He also said he'd check the traps he set earlier."
"You actually believed that?"
Liam said as he sat back down.
He poured water for the two of them, then looked at the anxious Mier. "Second Brother, did the Mistress use those vines when she treated me?"
Even though his eyes were covered at the time, he could still sense the brightness—it was that intense.
Mier didn't really want to say much, since it seemed like Niley didn't want them to know. But now that she had disappeared, his heart was in chaos.
He looked at Liam and muttered, "Yes, but it was a bit different."
When Niley treated Liam, only her fingertips extended the vines, which snaked into his body. At that time, Liam glowed green all over, like it was shining from inside him.
But Niley wasn't like that—her whole body was wrapped in vines.
"Do you think she might be healing herself?" Xing clapped his hands as he heard Mier's words.
He remembered reading a story once about a love between a male spirit and a female scholar. That male spirit was a willow tree and would wrap himself in willow branches every time he healed, resting for a few days before recovering.
But... people didn't just disappear into thin air.
He frowned—having a person suddenly vanish was strange enough, especially when they were wrapped in vines.
Liam nodded. "Over the years, we've seen so many doctors. They all said I had an incurable disease. Only she was different. Maybe it's because she healed me that she hurt herself."
Time passed, and no one felt like cooking lunch.
Eventually, Xing, unable to bear the hunger, went to the kitchen to make something simple.
Mier looked at the food Xing brought and weakly shook his head. "I'll wait for the Mistress to come back before I eat."
"If you don't eat, what if you get sick before she comes back?"
Lei didn't agree and looked at Mier disapprovingly.
The day they went to town, he could see they had good feelings for each other.
But they'd only known each other for a few days. From Lei's point of view, Niley was probably just curious about Mier.
After all, they'd seen too much growing up—like how Jiang Yu would hit and scold his husbands. He didn't want his second brother to end up heartbroken and alone.
After Lei said that, Mier finally picked up his chopsticks to eat, but he still looked down and lifeless.
They all ate their simple lunch with no energy. Afterward, Mier and Xing couldn't sit still.
The two exchanged a glance and got up to head out. "Let's go out and look for her."
"No."
Liam stopped them. "If you're going to find Big Brother, he said he'd be back in the afternoon."
Then he looked at them and continued, "If you're going to find the Mistress, I think it's better to stay at home and wait."
"Third Brother is right. After all, she disappeared in the house. If she shows up again, it'll probably be here. What if she comes back and someone else is gone?"
Just as Mier was about to go out, the door opened, and Han returned from outside.