Chapter 44 Saving the cannon fodder brother in Wuxia drama
Naturally, Li Huaike would not ignore a dying person, so he and Uncle Zhang dragged the two people in.
Li Huairou’s face was full of disgust—it was so unlucky for Chinese New Year! How did these two people come here!
“Aunt Zhang, hurry up and make some ginger soup. Huairou, you and Miss Liu should move this girl to your room and change her clothes!” Li Huaike ordered.
“Why! Why do you want to occupy my room! I refuse,” Li Huairou immediately objected.
Miss Liu weakly said, “Then, move her into my room.”
“No way! Your room was also carefully arranged by Aunt Zhang. You can’t let her stay there. Isn’t there an empty room in the West Chamber? Have her live there!” Li Huairou said.
But there was no kang in the West Chamber, and it was too cold. Li Huaike swallowed. He didn’t understand why his sister was targeting this girl in this way. He thought his sister was jealous, but he also knew that he couldn’t offend his sister, so he could only give in.
[A kang is a traditional platform used for sleeping in northern China, where the winter climate is extremely cold. It is made of brick or other forms of fired clay]
Li Huairou and Miss Liu moved Xiao Lingling and helped her change into clean clothes. Aunt Zhang brought ginger soup. Xiao Lingling was sleeping and couldn’t swallow, so Aunt Zhang couldn’t feed her.
Li Huairou rudely opened Xiao Lingling’s mouth and poured the ginger soup in.
Aunt Zhang touched the bed, and upon feeling that it was a little cold, gestured a few times. I’m going to make soup for the lady.
Seeing this, Miss Liu said, “Aunt Zhang, I’ll go with you!” She could see that Huairou didn’t seem to like this girl very much, so she’d better not get in the way.
When everyone was gone, Li Huairou suddenly realized that now was a great opportunity. If she’d known that it would be so simple, why would she go through all that trouble?
Li Huairou began to think about what kind of poison she should inflict on Xiao Lingling. Li Huairou suddenly remembered that there was a poison described in the notes left by the master, a poison which was very suitable for Xiao Lingling! It was called “yunu”.
Hahaha, this was a poison that the master had studied after being deceived by a brothel girl. It counted as poison, but in fact, it was not that poisonous. It was just that the woman who took this substance must have a clear mind; if there was desire, the poison would begin to work. The poison would spread over the body, and the body would be covered with small red bumps. The bumps would disappear if the desire subsided… If the desire recurred, the red bumps would also recur.
This was good! Great!
Li Huairou was about to get the poison when the door suddenly opened.
It turned out that Li Huaike was worried about her, so he’d come to check the situation.
“Why are you laughing?” Li Huaike looked at Xiao Lingling, who was unconscious, and then at Li Huairou.
“Nothing. Why are you here? What’s wrong with Fang Tianluo?” Li Huairou asked.
“Poison. It was a bit strange, so I came to find you!” Li Huaike walked to Xiao Lingling’s side, took her pulse, and looked at her face again. She was fine.
Li Huairou rolled her eyes. “Hmph, what do you mean! You don’t trust me?”
“No, I only came to check on her situation.” How could Li Huaike admit it? “Let’s go, let’s go and see him.”
Li Huaike hurriedly pulled Li Huairou away, then asked Aunt Zhang to look after Xiao Lingling.
Li Huairou didn’t care either. She wanted to poison her and had opportunities, and so was not in a hurry.
When Xiao Lingling woke up, she noticed that there were people around her, and her first reaction was to feel for the dagger around her waist. But the result was that she felt nothing, and she suddenly broke out in a cold sweat.
“Ahhhhh!” Aunt Zhang heard the movements and saw that the girl was awake, so she hurried out to find someone.
Xiao Lingling recovered. Right, they were in Happy Valley now—Tianluo, Tianluo! Xiao Lingling reacted, quickly opening the quilt and stumbling out.
“What are you doing?! It’s snowing outside. Do you want to freeze to death, coming out like this?” Li Huairou hurriedly took a large cloak and put it on her, tying it up.
Xiao Lingling only felt a faint fragrance rushing over her face, and her muddled mind woke up a little. “Thank you. Where is Tianluo-gege?”
“His injury is not a big problem, but the poison is a little difficult to cure. The antidote is still missing one herb,” Li Huairou said.
“What kind of herb? Tell me, and I’ll look for it,” Xiao Lingling asked quickly. Fang Tianluo couldn’t die!
“Don’t worry, it’s not hard to find. It’s on the cliffs of the back mountain. But it’s currently covered by heavy snow. When the snow melts in the spring, I’ll pick it. Don’t worry, he can’t die!” Li Huairou said.
Upon hearing this, Xiao Lingling looked at her suspiciously. “Didn’t you like Tianluo-gege in the past? Why do you say that?” Was it because love had given birth to hatred?
Li Huairou glanced at her—she was very keen! “You also know how it used to be, but people always change. Now I don’t think he is worthy of me, and I don’t like him anymore!”
The expression on Xiao Lingling’s face was very difficult to describe.
“I’m going to see Tianluo-gege.”
Li Huairou curled her lip and followed.
Fang Tianluo was still in a coma, and Xiao Lingling sat on the side of the bed, looking at him affectionately.
Li Huairou glanced at Li Huaike and saw that he was worried, but his worried expression was toward herself. Li Huairou leaned over. “Ge, don’t worry. I don’t like Fang Tianluo anymore. He’s so weak and not worthy of the great me!”
Li Huaike’s expression was suddenly the same as Xiao Lingling’s, an expression that was hard to describe. “Fine, as long as you are happy.”
Li Huairou endured a smile. “Lady, do you mind telling us what the hell is going on? To come looking for us, you have to tell us the reason for the problem!”
Xiao Lingling didn’t want to hide from them. “We have gone through many hardships and escorted Princess Baozhu to Yancheng. As a result, Princess Baozhu grew fond of Tianluo-gege and didn’t want us to leave. Prince Yan also hoped that Tianluo-gege would stay, but Tianluo-gege still had his own business to do, and so he refused to stay in Yancheng. After that, Tianluo-gege took me, wounded the guards, and wanted to leave Yancheng. The moment before Tianluo-gege was injured and fell unconscious, he told me to go to Happy Valley to find you.”
Li Huairou stroked her chin. Suddenly, from the corner of her eyes, she saw a slight change in Miss Liu’s face and had doubts. Miss Liu’s appearance had happened at the time of Princess Baozhu’s matter. Could the two have any connection?
However, these things had nothing to do with her.
Li Huaike didn’t doubt, but he was a little emotional. “It’s not easy! Since you’re here, you can rest in peace.”
Li Huairou clapped her hands. “I’m hungry. Aunt Zhang, let’s eat hotpot! Roast some sweet potatoes and chestnuts.”
Aunt Zhang nodded and went to get ready. Miss Liu also followed out with an excuse to help.
Xiao Lingling glanced at Li Huairou. She was now really sure that Li Huairou really didn’t like Tianluo-gege. There was no person who still had the heart to eat and drink when the state of her love’s life was still unknown.
That was good! Even if the princess dared to snatch someone from her, she would not let her off easy.
Completely ignoring the fact that Fang Tianluo had worked so hard to escort the princess back home, the reason why Prince Yan’s people had chased after them was because Xiao Lingling had injured Princess Baozhu.
Of course, Xiao Lingling would never tell other people about this; even Fang Tianluo didn’t know why Prince Yan had suddenly turned on them!
The hotpot was ready, and Li Huairou couldn’t wait. Li Huaike was also a little hungry, and several people gathered around the pot to start eating.
Except for Xiao Lingling. She was actually hungry too, but no one greeted her, so she was embarrassed to go over.
Li Huaike thought for a while. “Miss Xiao, come and eat together with us!”
Xiao Lingling then slowly moved to the table.
Fang Tianluo was awakened by the aroma. He slowly opened his eyes and realized that it wasn’t actually a hallucination. The scent was really delicious; he slowly tilted his head and found a group of lively people sitting together and eating hotpot.
No one had noticed that he was awake.
Fang Tianluo opened his mouth and tried to make a noise, but he was horrified to find that he could not move.
Therefore, Fang Tianluo had to watch the group of people eating, drinking, talking, and laughing, enduring the torment of his hunger.
Xiao Lingling suddenly hiccuped. She was a little embarrassed, but even more angry. How could she make such a rude gesture?
But no one paid attention to it.
Li Huairou smiled and pulled on Aunt Zhang’s arm to play cute. “Aunt Zhang, I want to eat hotpot tomorrow.”
Aunt Zhang gestured a few times, and Li Huairou could now already understand some of her simple actions. What Aunt Zhang had said was, “If you eat too much, you will suffer inflammation.”
[Suffer from excessive internal heat]
“It’s okay, we’ll just take some qinghuo pills later. Alright? At worst, we’ll eat sanxian hotpot tomorrow, so we won’t be afraid of getting inflammation!”
Aunt Zhang agreed, smiling.
Miss Liu was helping clean up the dishes and chopsticks together. Uncle Zhang grabbed the dishes and chopsticks from her hand. With an “ah, ah”, he urged her to go rest.
Miss Liu couldn’t snatch the dishes out of his hands, so she had to pick up some half-made clothes and continue working on them.
Xiao Lingling glanced at her, feeling a little strange. Since when had there been such a person in Happy Valley?
Miss Liu noticed that Xiao Lingling was looking at her. She raised her head and smiled at Xiao Lingling.
Xiao Lingling looked away, and her gaze happened to collide with Fang Tianluo’s. “Tianluo-gege, are you awake?” Then she was a little embarrassed when she thought of what she’d done just now.
Li Huaike hurried over when he heard the words. “When did you wake up? I forgot—this poison will make you soft and unconscious, but you can rest assured that you will be fine when you take the antidote.”
“Tianluo-gege, are you thirsty? Would you like to drink some water?” Xiao Lingling softly asked.
Fang Tianluo looked at the frostbite on Xiao Lingling’s hands, responding to her with his eyes. He was very moved; although he’d been unconscious, he knew that if it hadn’t been for Xiao Lingling, he would have been dead in Yancheng. This journey must have been very hard, and Lingling, she had suffered.
Xiao Lingling fed Fang Tianluo a few mouthfuls of warm water. Fang Tianluo felt his throat improve a lot. “Thank you.”
“Are you hungry? Do you want to eat something?” Xiao Lingling continued to ask. Afterwards, they were embarrassed to find that they were living in somebody else’s place.
Li Huaike laughed and said, “He can’t eat anything else now, so he can only drink some porridge. The porridge is warming on the stove. Aunt Zhang went to get it.”
“Brother Li, thank you for your kindness!” Fang Tianluo said, looking at Li Huaike. If it hadn’t been necessary, he actually didn’t want to disturb the Li siblings. But in that situation, he could only have Lingling look for the Li siblings.
“You don’t have to be polite, Brother Tianluo. You can live here with peace of mind. When spring begins, Huairou will prepare an antidote for you. After detoxifying your body, you will be able to recover to the way you were before,” Li Huaike said with a smile.
Hearing Li Huaike talking about Li Huairou, Fang Tianluo subconsciously looked around the room for Li Huairou, but he did not see anyone.
Li Huaike turned his head and found that Miss Liu and Huairou had left at some point.
Xiao Lingling sat to one side, feeling inexplicably irritable.
