C19 – Suffering
Just as Wang Laosi opened his mouth, “No …”
Behind the squire’s back, a head poked out, boyish and unshakable: “I smell Ah Zhen, they must be here!”
Wang Laosi thought to himself, does this brat have a dog nose? He can even smell it … As he was thinking, he slipped through the crack in the door and stood in the yard, shouting, “Ah Zhen, Ah Yu, are you there?”
Soon, Xie Zhen and Li Yu came out of the house with faces full of disbelief.
They had never thought that someone would come here, and this person was Gao Xun. How did he find me? Xie Zhen was so moved that tears welled up in her eyes, and she took the initiative to rush over and join him. “How did you know we were here? Only you are here? Where’s my father and mother? Where are they?”
Gao Xun took out a piece of silk he had prepared earlier and wiped the tears from the corner of her eyes. “I came with my parents. They’re nearby. We’ve been searching this hill for an entire morning and we’ve finally found you … Don’t cry, Uncle and Auntie are fine, but they’re worried about you. Alright, you guys quickly come back with me.”
She nodded and calmed herself down, and then pulled Li Yu over. She said to Gao Xun, “Brother Xiao Yu is injured. We need to find a doctor for him as soon as possible when we get back.”
Gao Xun didn’t ignore it, so he hurriedly ordered a servant to go back to Temple of Puning to get a doctor, so as to avoid wasting time.
When he was done, he realized that both of them were wearing coarse hemp, especially the ponytail on Xie Zhen’s head. At first glance, they really did look like little girls from the countryside. It was just that her appearance was too beautiful, and she could not conceal her natural wealth and noble temperament no matter how hard she tried.
Gao Xun looked at their attire and could not help but ask with his handsome face, “Why are you guys wearing this set of clothes?”
Xie Zhen opened her arms, and said reluctantly, “our clothes have been cut by the grass. Aunt Yang lent them to us…”
Madam Wang Yang’s daughter was one year younger than her. Her clothes were smaller on her body, revealing her delicate white wrists. Under the sunlight, they were as white as white jade. It was just that her wrist had been scratched with several red lines from the rough cloth. Her skin was delicate and delicate, making her unable to wear such rough clothes. However, after wearing it for the entire night, there was not a single word of complaint.
Gao Xun clearly wanted to look at her hands, but he had no choice but to hold himself back. His face was red as he said, “The carriage is at the village entrance. I will bring you there right away.”
As he was leaving, Xie Zhen said “hold on”.
She searched her entire body and only found a small jade-green fish. She didn’t know if it was worth money or not. He could only ask Gao Wenshu, “Do you have any money with you?”
Gao Xun was too focused on finding them. Where would he find the money? He could not bear to disappoint him, so he searched every guard, barely gathering seven or eight taels of silver and dozens of copper coins. He fumbled around on his own body, found a jade ginseng pendant and a small pearl, and handed them all to her. “Only these valuable things, what are you going to do with them?”
She grinned gratefully. “I’ll tell you later!”
She turned around and ran under the eaves. Lady Wang Yang and her two children were standing in front of the door of the living room. Xie Zhen held a handful of gold and silver jewelry in front of her, and her smile was as bright as a small sun: “Aunt Yang, these are all for you. Thank you for treating big brother Xiao Yu, and thank you for letting us eat and sleep!”
Madam Wang Yang had never seen so many jewels in her life, so how could she dare to accept them? She nervously rejected, “No, no, it was just a small effort …”
However, he did not know what kind of noble people they had saved. It was only natural that he would receive such a reward.
She refused to accept it, but Xie Zhen was a smart girl, so she immediately stuffed these things into Madam Wang Yang’s daughter’s hands. Before the other side could react, she was already far away.
The little girl stood in the courtyard with her eyes curved in a smile, completely different from the dejected look she had yesterday. The warm spring sun shined on her body, coating her body with a layer of golden fur. She looked extremely soft.
Madam Wang Yang was about to thank them with the two children, but they already got into the carriage and drove off.
“I’ve really met a noble person …” Madam Wang Yang sighed with emotion.
Sitting in the carriage on the return journey, Xie Zhen’s heart immediately calmed down.
The terrifying fear from yesterday was still fresh in her mind. She could still remember the widened eyes of the man in black when he died, as well as the howls of wolves one after another … She didn’t expect that she would be able to escape. She even felt that she had gotten a great bargain.
After the suffering, both Xie Zhen and Li Yu seemed to have become much closer to each other all of a sudden.
The two of them didn’t notice it themselves, but the onlookers Gao Xun could see it clearly.
They sat together. Although Li Yu wasn’t very excited, he didn’t frown as he usually did, and he didn’t ignore her. He even exchanged a few words with her. Gao Xun looked back and forth between them in surprise. He wondered what had happened to them, how their relationship had suddenly improved.
Xie Zhen didn’t notice his eyes at all and started to carefully care about Li Yu’s injuries, “Brother Xiao Yu, does it still hurt?”
Li Yu shook his head. “It doesn’t hurt anymore.”
Xie Zhen was almost crying, “you lost so much blood yesterday, I thought you were going to die…”
When Gao Xun heard this, his eyes widened in shock. “Blood?” “Why are you bleeding?”
He remembered that he had forgotten to ask them why they had come here, what they had experienced yesterday, who had taken them away? He only knew that after the great hall of Temple of Puning was set ablaze, the maid cried out in alarm from the backyard, saying that the two of them had been kidnapped by the criminals.
The couple from the Xie family and the Li family nearly fainted when they heard this. They immediately sent all of their servants to search the mountains, searching without stopping for a single night.
It wasn’t until this morning when he tried everything to beg his parents for help that the Second Master of Gao family finally agreed to take him out. Who would have thought that he would actually be the one to find him.
Xie Zhen told him what had happened to her the day before, and he was scared, and he didn’t know how they’d gotten there.
Gao Xun felt both heartache and admiration for her. “You carry Ah Yu on your back.”
Li Yu glanced at him and pursed his lips without saying anything.
He asked, “Who are those people?” “Why should I kill you?”
Xie Zhen was also confused. “I don’t know. However, there’s one more person who helped us, and I don’t know what’s going on … “They are clearly in the same group!”
Gao Xun still wanted to ask something, but the carriage had already arrived at the village entrance and was converging with the carriage of the Second Master of Gao family.
When the Second Master of Gao family learned that Gao Xun had found them, he heaved a sigh of relief. Seeing that the two children were unharmed, he hurried back to the temple to inform everyone that there was no need to look for them.
Back at Temple of Puning, the Xie family and the Li family had long heard the news and rushed to the entrance of the temple to welcome them.
Seeing a carriage from a distance, before it could reach them, Xie Zhen’s smiling face poked out and shouted from afar, “Father, Mother!”
At the same time, the tears of Madam Leng burst forth, tears of joy streaming down her face.
They were really two children who had suffered many disasters. They had nearly met danger when walking down the street, and now, they could be robbed in a temple. Fortunately, she found it in time. Otherwise, she really didn’t know how to survive.
Without waiting for the carriage to steady itself, Xie Zhen impatiently rushed into Leng’s arms, holding her and acting pitifully, “Mother, I was scared …Someone is trying to kill us, and the wolf as well. Brother Xiao Yu and I are both very scared.”
“Don’t be afraid. I’ll protect you …”
Yesterday, Shuang Yu had said that they had been taken away by the black clothed men. Xie Liqing had immediately sent people to investigate the identities of those people, but the criminals had come and left without a trace. A day and a night went by without a clue.
What kind of person would go against a child? Or was it because of their master’s grudge, that he took revenge on the child?
Madam Leng still couldn’t figure it out. They had just arrived in the Qingzhou Province and they didn’t have any enmity with anyone, so how could there be anyone who wanted to harm them?
She forgot one thing. Xie Zhen had been taken in Li Yu’s room, apparently for Li Yu’s sake.
Xie Zhen was only implicated.
The Li family’s couple knew this very well. After taking Li Yu from the carriage and seeing his chest injury, they both felt anxious and distressed. They carried him to the backyard of the temple.
Li Yu was tired as well, so he didn’t refuse and just laid on her shoulder. Looking back, just in time to see Xie Zhen like a lost lamb, nestling in the arms of Leng’s rub, satisfied and aggrieved.
In the backyard, the doctor opened the gauze bandages he had wrapped around his chest and made a new diagnosis. The village medicine was rough, and the herbs had not been meticulously ground and were not good for healing wounds. The doctor also prescribed two sets of medicine for external use and told him to drink and change his medicine every day so that he wouldn’t have to move around too much. The wound wasn’t very deep and would only take half a month to heal.
Only then did the Song Family relax. After sending off the doctor, she carried Li Yu and sat on the bed, unable to recover from her shock for a long time.
The atmosphere in the room was rather heavy. Li Xiqing stood by the window with her hands behind her back as if she was thinking about something.
Li Yu moved in Lady Song’s arms. He raised his head and asked, “Mother, what’s wrong?”
After a long time, the Song Family hugged him even tighter. With a trembling voice, they asked, “Yu’er, what do the people you captured look like?”
Li Yu was stunned. “They’re covering their faces. I didn’t see them.”
After a while, Song asked again, “What did they say?”
Li Yu tried hard to recall that the two men in black hadn’t said anything along the way. When they wanted to kill him, they had said a few more words.
“He said someone wanted me dead.” Li Yu’s voice was hoarse as he repeated slowly, “His partner said that someone was trying to kill us all…”
The more Madame Song heard, the more terrified she became. She turned her pleading gaze towards Li Xiqing, who was beside the bed.
Li Xiqing was also confused. He frowned and said, “Stay at home and have a rest, don’t go anywhere. As for these matters, just leave them to me and your mother. ”
Li Yu couldn’t help but ask, “Dad, who are they? Why did you kill me?”
Li Xiqing sighed: “It’s probably the sin I created in the past, it has nothing to do with you, you shouldn’t think too much about it.” “Rest well.”
Li Yu looked at him and nodded.
In this period of time, Madam Song and Li Xiqing kept a close watch on him. In addition to the excuse of recuperating, they didn’t allow him to take even half a step out of the house, and there were quite a few servants in the yard as well. Li Yu had been injured for more than half a year, but he had actually recovered a long time ago. It was just that Madam Song and Li Xiqing claimed that he was not well and that no one should visit him.
Li Yu lay in bed almost sick, occasionally remembering the two black braids that Xie Zhen had in the farmyard, and the scene of her crying and calling him “don’t die”.
He asked, “can I go to the Xie family?”
Madam Song said, “Ah Zhen was also frightened. I think we should go there in a while.”
He did not speak again.
In the blink of an eye it was winter, and he had only met with Xie Zhen once before, on the day Xie Liqing celebrated his birthday. Without time to talk to him, Xie Zhen smiled at him from a distance and was led away by Leng.
The weather was getting colder and colder day by day. After a heavy snowfall, the entire Qingzhou Province was completely covered in white and a vast expanse of whiteness was everywhere.
On this day, Li Yu was sitting under the portico, reading a book by the fire. On the other side of the wall was the noisy laughter of Xie Zhen and Xie Xun, making it impossible for him to calm down. Just as he was about to stand under the wall and protest, a maidservant called out to him, “Young master, the cousin mistress are here.”
Li Yu subconsciously frowned. Obviously, he was extremely unhappy.
The maidservant then said, “Madam requests that you go to the main room.”
He knew that he couldn’t hide anymore, so he could only drop the book and slowly follow behind the maidservant.
As soon as he arrived at the living room, a seven or eight year old girl rushed out from within. She wore a silver and red flowery jacket and a cotton dress. Her voice was loud and cheerful, “Cousin, you’re finally here!”
Li Yu retreated repeatedly, almost being knocked to the ground by her.
