Xiao Feng Cares for the Gravely Wounded A'Zi is a prolonged rescue shaped by two linked events: A'Zi’s attempt to harm Xiao Feng and the earlier death of her sister, A'Zhu, at his hands. Convinced at first that his defensive strike has killed A'Zi, Xiao Feng refuses to abandon her. He sustains her with his internal energy, carries her through a search for treatment, and ultimately tends to her as she begins to recover. The episode turns care into both a physical struggle to keep someone alive and a response to an earlier, irreparable loss.

From the Strike to the Vigil

A'Zi’s ambush catches Xiao Feng by surprise, and he reacts instinctively to protect himself. When she falls, he fears that she has died. His first response is not triumph or anger but a sudden return to the loss of A'Zhu: he remembers that A'Zhu had asked him to look after her younger sister, and reads A'Zi’s apparent death as a second failure to fulfill that charge. He immediately channels his internal energy into her, and when she moves faintly, he continues, determined to keep her alive.

The situation demands sustained attention rather than a single intervention. Xiao Feng sits in the snow with A'Zi before him and applies both palms to her back, feeding her energy slowly because her condition is so severe that he can only maintain her breathing. After half an hour she responds weakly, calling him brother-in-law. He keeps going; by noon her breathing has become steadier, although she remains gravely ill and her face shows no sign of recovery. He carries her onward while continuing to channel energy into her, making the rescue a journey as well as a vigil.

Sustaining Life on the Road

At a modest inn more than twenty li beyond a small town, Xiao Feng tries to give A'Zi hot soup. She manages only three mouthfuls before bringing it back up with blood. He recognizes that her injuries may be beyond cure, but the possibility that even Divine Physician Xue might not be able to save her does not persuade him to stop. He resolves to keep trying, even if doing so exhausts him and drains his own internal energy, because he wants to honor A'Zhu’s request.

His care is continuous and exacting. For two nights he does not sleep, keeping his palm against A'Zi so that energy continues to reach her; unlike his earlier attempt to save A'Zhu, he cannot withdraw his hand without her breathing ceasing. He drinks the wine stored at the inn as he grows physically and mentally exhausted, and on the fourth morning finally dozes while holding A'Zi’s hand. Even then, the energy continues to flow through their joined palms, and he wakes to find that her breathing has not stopped.

Another two days pass without visible improvement. A'Zi sometimes opens her eyes, but remains too dazed to speak. Xiao Feng understands that staying at the inn can no longer solve the problem, so he prepares to carry her onward and seek help along the way. His decision is not based on confidence that a cure exists; it is a refusal to let the absence of a solution become a reason to leave her behind.

Ginseng and a Change in Her Condition

While preparing to leave, Xiao Feng sees the wooden tripod A'Zi had brought with her and considers destroying it because he regards it as dangerous. He changes his mind, thinking that it matters to her and that she might want to see it if she is near death. When he opens it, he finds a scorpion and a centipede inside, fighting. He removes and kills the insects, closes the tripod, and puts it in A'Zi’s clothes bag. The object thus remains with her, preserved not as a cure but because Xiao Feng does not want to deprive her of something she had endured hardship to obtain.

His search for help leads him into a pharmacy. The doctor examines A'Zi and concludes that she is dead, mistaking the life sustained by Xiao Feng’s internal energy for a corpse that has not yet stiffened. Xiao Feng does not accept the diagnosis as the end of his efforts: he knows that her pulse and breathing depend on his energy, though he also recognizes that an ordinary physician would not understand her condition. When a housekeeper arrives seeking old mountain ginseng for a gravely ill master, the request gives Xiao Feng an idea. He buys the two remaining ginseng roots, has a decoction prepared, and feeds it to A'Zi. This time she does not vomit; her pulse strengthens slightly and her breathing becomes smoother.

The improvement is slight, but it gives his search a direction. Xiao Feng recalls that ginseng grows in Changbai Mountain and heads northeast, buying it from pharmacies along the route. When his money runs out, he takes ginseng from pharmacies by force, unwilling to let the cost stop his attempt to preserve A'Zi’s life. As she consumes it, she occasionally opens her eyes and calls him brother-in-law. At night she can sometimes continue breathing for several hours without his internal energy, a marked change from the earlier stage when his hand had to remain against her.

Recovery and the Duty to A'Zhu

By spring, after several months of daily ginseng, A'Zi has improved significantly. The Jurchen tribesmen can obtain rare, high-quality roots while hunting, and Xiao Feng gathers both game and ginseng during his excursions. He still uses internal energy to regulate her breathing, but now needs to do so only once or twice a day. She can sometimes speak a few words, though her limbs remain weak and she cannot move; Xiao Feng continues to take care of her daily needs.

The narration connects this practical devotion directly to A'Zhu. Xiao Feng willingly serves A'Zi because he remembers her sister’s devotion and sees caring for her as a way to fulfill A'Zhu’s wish. The rescue does not undo his earlier mistake or remove the grief attached to it. Instead, it gives that grief an ongoing task: where he could not save A'Zhu, he can remain beside A'Zi and protect the life she entrusted to him. The episode’s movement from apparent death to gradual recovery therefore rests on repeated acts of attention—holding, carrying, feeding, searching—and on a promise that continues to shape Xiao Feng’s choices.