Following the address given by Shajina, we found a small house tucked away in the corner of the midsection of the Dark Alley District. Carved crudely on the gate of the courtyard were two things claimed to be dragons: no matter how you looked at them, they resembled starved bats. Undoubtedly, this must be Shajina and Sona’s home. However, after knocking on the door for quite some time, there seemed to be no sign of anyone coming out.

"There’s no one at home," Qianqian mumbled in disappointment, scratching the door, "Should we come back in the afternoon? We’re leaving in a couple of days, and I feel like at the very least we should say goodbye to Shajina and Sona before that."

I hadn’t spoken yet when Lilina sniffed the air, then leaned on the courtyard gate, furrowing her brows as if smelling something amiss: "There are people inside, two of them, but something seems off; they’re very weak. Let’s go in and take a look!"

As Lilina’s words fell, we were all taken aback, but I had no doubt about what this girl said: she wouldn’t make a mistake in this regard. So I nodded quickly, just about to lift my leg, when Bingdisi, beaming, pulled out a wolf fang club: "I will take responsibility for the door opening!"

Sandora promptly grabbed the wolf fang club and knockingly hit Bingdisi on the head: Not many people at the scene can subdue Bingdisi, and Sandora is one of them. Then, our large group directly jumped over the wall and went inside: no matter what, we couldn’t just demolish their house.

The place where Shajina and Sona lived wasn’t big, just a small courtyard with half empty space, while the other half was occupied by the flat-roofed houses most common in the Dark Alley District. The house seemed divided into two parts; a small open kitchen area and the larger part perhaps for residence. The courtyard was very clean, and the dirt ground seemed to have been just leveled yesterday with the fresh color of the soil. The stone-built courtyard wall (in this world, stone materials seem really abundant, even in places like the Dark Alley District, there is enough stone to build houses and pave) hung with racks woven from vines for drying treated beast skin and some plant stems and leaves whose purposes we couldn’t discern. In a corner of the courtyard, we also saw piled assortments, wood boards, stones, metal sheets, all seemingly unremarkable but selected with care, giving the impression that scavengers lived here. Apart from these things taking up space, there’s not much left in the courtyard, and when ten of us stood there, it felt somewhat cramped, indicating how tight the space was.

Lilina pointed to the house pieced together with stones, wood, and a peculiar gray-white mortar: "They are inside, with very weak life signs, but they seem more stable than before."

A large group of people was about to collectively move in, but Big Sister stopped them: "Let Ah Jun and Lilina go in, you don’t see how many of us there are coming."

When I heard this, I turned around, well, this crowd would be enough for major gatherings to spread on various blogs. Considering the small house in front could barely accommodate half of us, compensation for demolition would be appropriate. So in the end, everyone stayed in the courtyard, and only Lilina and I sneaked to the door as if we were thieves. I reached to knock, but then I thought better of it and pushed the door instead. As expected, the door opened: this simple wooden door didn’t seem like it was locked, and in the Dark Alley District, there’s not much need for lock after lock; everyone is like this, who would steal from whom?

"Shajina? Sona? Are you there?" As I walked inside, I called out, although out of concern, I felt this was like trespassing, making me feel quite uneasy. To my slight surprise, the interior of the small house looked absolutely not messy. Despite being situated in such a rundown section of the Dark Alley District, and a house appearing so shabby from outside, this small house was unexpectedly tidy, with a few simple pieces of furniture clean and spotless, surely the owners tidied it up well yesterday. There’s even a faint fresh fragrance in the air, the scent emanating from a bunch of wildflowers on the small table in the center of the room. On the sunny side of the small house stood a very old dressing table, upon which lay several small bottles of unknown usage — obviously for girls. Didn’t Shajina and Sona also use cosmetics? It seemed discrepant with the impression left from when we saw them all covered in dirt following explosions they had set off within the Ancient City ruins.

The two Half-Dragon girls were lying on a low bed on the other side of the small house, seemingly having lost consciousness and in a deep slumber, unable to awaken.

"Shajina, Sona!" Hurriedly, I ran over, calling their names, but there was no reaction at all. I noticed they were still wearing sleepwear — well, possibly sleepwear, as I couldn’t be sure what the sleepwear of this world looked like— nevertheless, these thin clothes didn’t seem worn when going outside— wearing sleepwear suggested that neither had awoken since at least the previous night. Shajina’s face was as pale as paper, though lacking any painful expression, her body scared me with its chill. Sona’s condition was worse: she had bitten through her lip.

"Lilina, check what’s happening?" Although their condition looked urgent, I wasn’t too anxious, they were still breathing, and I had a Life System Demigod by my side, so there was no danger.

"Seems like poisoning, both blood and bone marrow are tainted," Lilina quickly swept a glance, determined their condition, then her hands gathered a glow of green covering their foreheads, "Very odd, the toxin has invaded deeply but it’s not from food or other external sources. The toxins seem generated from their bodies, themselves. Hmm, it appears rather urgent, yet antibodies have already formed within them, suggesting they might make it through. Eh, alright, alright, of course, I’ll help cure them."

Lilina has this habit of grumbling for a long while before starting any work, just to increase her sense of presence. She always seemed worried that she didn’t have enough of it. As she spoke, a green glow spread through the air, filling the space with a blend of the fragrance of grass and sunlight. The green light gradually faded into the pale skin of the two half-dragon girls. A couple of seconds later, Shajina’s eyelids fluttered, then opened slowly, and soon after, Sona regained consciousness too.

"Ugh..." Shajina moaned painfully. Although she had opened her eyes, it took her quite a while to focus her vision. She looked at the figures in front of her, confused as to why there were strangers in her home. "Uh, is it over...huh? Chen...am I hallucinating, weird, how could I see him in a hallucination."

"Ahem, it’s not a hallucination, I’m actually here at your place." I scratched my head and couldn’t help but say out loud.

Shajina’s eyes widened instantly, and she let out a cry of surprise: "Ah! What are you doing here!" This woke Sona up completely, and both half-dragon girls fixed their golden vertical pupils on me. I grinned and explained, "Didn’t I say I could visit you anytime? We’re planning to leave in a few days, so I wanted to come today to say goodbye. But when I came here, nobody answered the door, and we thought there might be something wrong, so, uh... you wouldn’t mind us trespassing, right?"

Shajina’s brain still seemed a bit sluggish, as she responded with a delay of a few seconds after hearing my words. She nodded, "Oh, so that’s what happened. We’re fine, it’s just some aftereffects."

With the spirits of the two half-dragon girls rapidly recovering, I felt relieved. I took out two bottles of Anwina’s homemade Spirit Clearing Tea from my personal space and handed it to them. "Drink some water first, just unscrew the cap. What exactly happened to you? How did you get poisoned?"

Sona accepted the bottle and thanked me softly, "Didn’t we mention it before? We were once kept as test subjects for a mage’s experimental poisons for many years. Later, we escaped by faking death with poison. These are the aftereffects. The toxins in our bodies flare up periodically, and it’s been many years now. So whenever we go out exploring, we have to carefully plan our time to avoid losing consciousness in dangerous ruins. It’s nothing too serious, we’ve basically adapted over time, and the physique of half-dragons is quite strong."

Sona spoke lightly, as if the cyclical reliving of the poison’s effects from back then was just part of daily life for her. I frowned but then smiled, "But you don’t have to worry anymore. Your problem has been solved."

Sona paused in her actions and, in unison with Shajina, asked, "What did you say?"

"The toxins in your body should have been completely cleared, including any aftereffects left by them," I first glanced at Lilina for confirmation, and after receiving it, assured the two half-dragon girls, "Don’t you feel any changes?"

Shajina frowned, raised her arm, and looked at it uncertainly, "It does seem a bit lighter, and I’m recovering faster from the aftermath than before." Saying this, she glanced at the sky outside and finally exclaimed, "So early? It’s still morning?!"

"Don’t look at me," realizing the two half-dragon girls were looking at me eagerly, I quickly pushed Lilina forward, "Let me introduce, this is Lilina, my sister, she’s the one who cured you. This is her specialty."

Lilina immediately composed herself into a serious expression, clasping her hands in prayer, "Remember the Goddess’s grace, this is her power — want a Bible? Eight dollars a book, discounts on buying more than two..."

"She took too much cold medicine as a child." I casually tossed Lilina aside and explained to the two half-dragon girls. Clearly, they were not focused on Lilina’s sales pitch or my explanations; they still wore faces of disbelief. Shajina, dumbstruck, said, "The poison in us... cleared? How did you manage that? No pharmacists could do anything about it..."

"You forgot the castle," I said with a mysterious smile to Shajina, reminding her to get used to the incredible things we brought along, "Being with us, every day is a moment to witness miracles. Alright, now that you’ve recovered, isn’t it time to change your clothes?"

I slightly turned my head, pointing to the two half-dragon girls, who were still in their pajamas. Although there was no indecent exposure, the thin fabric showed off their figures well, and the neckline of the pajamas was low, causing accidental spills of their allure. Maybe due to regular exercise, both girls had good figures, though the scales on their skin looked a bit odd... Ahem, I wasn’t looking improperly, I could swear to Dingdang. After realizing it was inappropriate, I promptly turned my gaze away — knowing that outside, there were more than a dozen members of the Three Aunts and Six Aunties Promotion Association waiting.

"Ah!" Sona immediately let out a light exclamation, covering her chest and looking over awkwardly, while Shajina shrugged, jumping off the bed to find clothes and muttering, "So what if they look, we’re wearing clothes anyway. Besides, if he wanted to look, he already had his fill when we were unconscious... Oh... Bam!" Before Shajina finished her sentence, her foot wobble, and she fell flat on the ground.

"Shajina!" Sona exclaimed immediately, but she had the same result after jumping out of bed: her legs gave way like she was drunk, and she fell down too. Luckily, there was a soft cushion below her. I quickly stepped forward to help them up, thinking maybe the toxins in their bodies weren’t completely expelled, but Shajina waved her hand, "Don’t panic, don’t worry, it’s the tail, the tail issue."

"Tail?" Lili and I were puzzled.

Shajina wiggled her body, showing her thick lizard-like tail covered in scales: "Try lying on your back all night with such a tail: it’s pressed into numbness, so I can’t balance. Half-dragon people can’t sleep lying down, but after being poisoned last night I lost consciousness, probably pressed the tail while struggling. It’ll be fine soon; I’ll just find a place to sit for a bit."

Me: "..." This world is really wonderful, isn’t it? But thinking back to Dingdang always crumpling her wings leading to unstable flights, I’m not too surprised.

"Hey," Sona’s voice chimed in, sounding a bit uneasy, "How should we thank you? This kind of kindness... We really don’t know how to be grateful enough."

Lilina immediately jumped in: "Offer yourself, my boss has a wide hunting range!"

"Keep talking and I’ll sew your mouth shut." I shot this cheeky girl a glance, then waved to the somewhat uneasy half-dragon girl, "It’s just a little help, we’re all friends."

As I was helping the shaky Shajina and Sona back to the bed, Qianqian’s voice suddenly came from the yard: "Ah Jun! Ah Jun! Are you done? Are they alright?"

"That voice... Seems like it’s Qianqian?" Sona surprisingly recognized it was Qianqian outside, and looked amazed, "I thought only you came."

"In fact... quite a few came." I awkwardly chuckled, reaching out to push open a nearby window, "See for yourself."

Shajina poked her head out to look outside, then turned back with shock, "Are you here to confiscate property or silence us?"

I laughed heartily, clearly a joke from her; now Shajina had no hostility left and could joke like this as if we were ordinary friends, which was a good sign. The two half-dragon girls rested a bit and tidied up their clothes before following me out to the yard. A large group immediately swarmed forward, the overwhelming momentum even startled the more composed Sona. They still seemed not quite real, constantly muttering: "They really came." It seemed after leaving us their address that day, neither of them expected we’d really visit, maybe even regarded us travelers as people who wouldn’t intersect with them, "lizard man" explorers, thinking there wouldn’t be any more connections.

I explained Shajina’s and Sona’s situation a bit, everyone sighed in relief upon hearing it was a false alarm, and Qianqian spontaneously hugged Sona’s arm: "It’s good they’re okay, nothing serious. Actually, we should have helped cleanse the poison from the start, only Lilina wasn’t with us then. Ah Jun, you should reward Lilina this time."

Sona smiled unnaturally; you could see she was happy, just not used to being surrounded and casually chatted with by a group: presumably, she and Shajina had never experienced this kind of concern before.

Taking this opportunity, I introduced Big Sister and Vanilla, Little Medwen to them: "This is my sister, Chen Qian, very gentle, she manages all house affairs. These two look like sisters, Vanilla and Medivh, both my sisters."

Shajina nodded: "You have a bunch of daughters and even more sisters, you really are something, but Little Medwen doesn’t look much like your sister though, um, don’t mind my bluntness, she looks really unique."

"No need to mind the details." I brushed it off and casually mentioned that we would leave in a few days, then asked, "Speaking of which, you two plan to continue exploring in a few days, right? Got a destination? Maybe we could meet up if we continue traveling." Since we were aimlessly roaming this world, finding two knowledgeable locals for guides seemed nice, but considering Shajina and Sona have their own lives, I just asked in passing.

"That’s after at least seven days, in seven days the Hanging River will appear near Sentu, we plan to start from the Hanging River, divert to Transversal Canyon, there are some ruins with Black Crystals, possibly make a small profit. But these days, we’ll sell what we’ve accumulated, last time the Imperial Bone Rock found at Ancient City got mostly ruined in the explosion, two sets of equipment destroyed as well, need fast turnover." Shajina started chatting at length as usual, not caring if we could understand her adventurers’ jargon. After she finished, I felt dizzy, all insider adventuring stuff, who knew what those were about. But at least I confirmed they had busy, hard-working lives, continuously on the move for a living, probably couldn’t follow along leisurely with us.

Of course, perhaps we could hire them as guides; though money talks can harm relationships, dealing with stubborn half-dragon people like this might be a better approach. Yet, before I could speak, Little Crow’s excited voice suddenly interrupted my thoughts from not far away.

"Caw!" Little Crow still hadn’t gotten used to greeting with human speech, she cheerfully called out, hopping over while holding a shiny metal panel, "Found this! From in there, I saw it first!"

Little Crow babbled, pointing to a pile of clutter in the yard’s corner, Vanilla standing nearby, awkwardly with hands behind.

"Why rummage through others’ things," I helplessly looked at Silly Bird. Evidently, this fairly clueless fellow had sneaked around rifling through items Shajina and Sona brought from the ruins, "Apologize to the two sisters... huh, what is this?"

My attention was caught by the metal panel Little Crow was gripping; I couldn’t help but take it, turning it over and examining it.

It seemed... to be a part from some kind of precision machinery. (To be continued. If you like this work, you’re welcome to come to Qidian (qidian.com) to vote for recommendations, monthly tickets, your support is my greatest motivation.)