The sound of an urgent knock on the Miller Inn's door woke Li Yuan from his deep sleep. The moonlight streaming through the window showed that it was still a long way from dawn. Li Yuan got up quickly, instincts from years of experience telling him that a knock in the middle of the night usually carried bad news.
Sarah Miller had already opened the main door by the time Li Yuan got downstairs. Standing at the threshold was David Miller with a panicked face and breathless gasps.
"Mama, Yuan," he said in a trembling voice, "Anna is very sick. Marcus asked you to come as soon as possible."
Li Yuan felt something cold spread in his chest. "What happened?"
"She started a high fever this afternoon. Now she's unconscious and her body is burning up," David explained, wiping sweat from his forehead despite the cold night air. "Marcus doesn't know what else to do."
Sarah was already moving with the efficiency of someone used to facing a crisis. "David, get the medicine bag from the kitchen cupboard. Yuan, help me prepare some clean water and clean cloths."
They hurried to the Brennan family's house in the cold silence of the night. Li Yuan felt a worry gripping his chest—not because he didn't know how to treat illness (eleven thousand years of experience had taught him a lot about healing), but because he had made a commitment not to use any supernatural abilities.
The Brennan family's house looked gloomy with a flickering candlelight in the windows. Marcus opened the door before they could knock, his face pale and his usually calm green eyes now filled with deep worry.
"Thank you for coming," he said hoarsely. "I... I don't know what else to do."
Li Yuan placed a hand on his friend's shoulder. "We'll help Anna together."
In the bedroom, Li Yuan saw Anna lying with a face flushed from the fever. Her breathing was short and irregular, and even in an unconscious state, she seemed restless. Lila sat on a small chair beside the bed, her blue eyes full of tears.
"Papa, why won't Mama wake up?" Lila asked in a small, heartbroken voice.
Marcus knelt beside his daughter. "Mama is sick, sweetie. But we're going to make her well."
Li Yuan approached the bed and touched Anna's forehead with the back of his hand. The heat radiating from her skin was very high—dangerously high. Without supernatural abilities, he had to rely on the practical knowledge he had gathered over thousands of years on how to treat an ordinary human.
"Sarah," Li Yuan said in a calm but urgent voice, "we need to bring her fever down as fast as possible. Cold water, plenty of cloths, and what do you have to bring down a fever?"
"There's some dried willow bark in the medicine bag," Sarah replied, taking out various herbal remedies. "And some mint leaves to soothe her."
Li Yuan nodded. Willow bark contains salicin, a natural precursor to aspirin—knowledge he had gained from observing the development of medicine over centuries.
"Marcus, I need you to boil water with this willow bark. Sarah, we'll compress Anna with cold water. Lila," he turned to the little girl with a calming smile, "can you help by bringing small cloths for Papa and Mama?"
Lila nodded enthusiastically, happy to finally be able to help.
The next few hours were an exhausting struggle. Li Yuan and Sarah took turns compressing Anna with cold water, carefully giving her the willow bark concoction when she briefly came to, and monitoring her unstable breathing.
Marcus sat beside the bed, holding his wife's hand while whispering words of comfort that Anna might hear in her subconscious. Lila fell asleep on her father's lap, exhausted from worry.
"Yuan," Marcus whispered as Anna's fever seemed to subside a little toward dawn, "how did you know what to do? I was in a total panic."
Li Yuan observed Anna's face, which was starting to look a little calmer. "On a long journey, you learn many things. Including how to care for the sick when there's no doctor around."
"But you were so... methodical. As if you've faced this kind of situation many times before."
Li Yuan looked at his friend with tired but empathetic eyes. "Because I have, Marcus. Many times. And each time, I learned something new."
The sun was beginning to shine through the window when Anna finally opened her eyes. Her fever had gone down significantly, though it was still high, and her breathing was more regular.
"Marcus?" her voice was weak, like a whisper.
"I'm here, my love." Marcus immediately got up, holding his wife's hand with both of his. "I'm here."
Anna glanced around and her eyes met Li Yuan's. "Yuan? What..."
"You were very sick last night," Li Yuan explained gently. "But you're better now."
Anna tried to sit up, but Li Yuan and Marcus immediately stopped her.
"Not yet, Anna," Li Yuan said in a firm but kind voice. "Your fever is just starting to go down. You need complete rest for at least two more days."
"But Lila... and the house..."
"Lila is fine," Marcus reassured her. "And the house is too. The important thing now is for you to get well."
Lila woke from her sleep on her father's lap and immediately saw that her mother was conscious. "Mama!" she exclaimed, jumping onto the bed.
"Gently, sweetie," Anna said, hugging her daughter. "Mama is still tired."
Li Yuan and Sarah finally left when the sun was high, after making sure Anna was in a stable condition and Marcus knew how to care for her further.
"Yuan," Sarah said as they walked back to the inn, "I've never seen anyone handle a medical crisis so calmly. Where did you learn all that?"
Li Yuan felt a deep exhaustion—not just physical, but emotional. Seeing Anna in a life-threatening condition had reminded him how fragile human life is, how precious every moment with loved ones is.
"Experience, Sarah. And desperation. When someone you care about is in danger, you'll do anything to save them."
Sarah looked at him with eyes full of understanding. "You really do love that family, don't you?"
Li Yuan stopped in the middle of the road, feeling the truth of those words flow through his chest. "Yes. More than I ever thought was possible."
Three days later, Anna was strong enough to sit on the porch of the house, though she still looked pale and weak. Li Yuan came to visit with soup that Sarah Miller had cooked and some wild flowers that Lila had picked a few days earlier.
"How are you feeling today?" he asked, sitting in a chair next to Anna.
"Better. But still weak." Anna looked at him with eyes full of gratitude. "Marcus told me what you did that night. How were you so calm in a situation like that?"
Li Yuan looked at Lila who was playing in the yard with her rag doll, then at Marcus who was fixing the fence with movements that were still a little restless—a sign that he hadn't fully recovered from the fear of almost losing his wife.
"Anna," he said in a gentle voice, "when you see a family you love in danger, something inside you takes over. Not courage, but... a simple decision that you will do whatever it takes."
Anna nodded slowly. "And I owe my life to you."
"No," Li Yuan shook his head firmly. "You don't owe me anything. Family doesn't owe each other—family takes care of each other."
Anna's eyes began to tear up. "Family?"
"Didn't Lila tell you? I've become a part of this family." Li Yuan smiled with genuine warmth. "And that means when one of us is in trouble, the others will do whatever it takes to help."
Anna reached for Li Yuan's hand and squeezed it gently. "Thank you, Yuan. Not just for that night, but for being... for being the brother I never knew I needed."
That night, as Li Yuan sat at the window of his room in the Miller Inn, he reflected on the three days that had just passed. He had used all the knowledge and experience accumulated over eleven thousand years, but it was all done through entirely human means.
There was no supernatural ability, no Daojing, no mystical resonance. Just knowledge, dedication, and love—love for a family that had accepted him as one of their own.
And strangely, it felt more satisfying than all the spiritual achievements he had ever attained.
Because for the first time in eleven thousand years, he had saved a person's life not because of a cosmic mission or a grand search for understanding—but because he couldn't imagine living without Anna, Marcus, and Lila in his life.