Xiao Lingling only woke up three days later. When she learned that Fang Tianluo and the secret book had disappeared altogether, her expression distorted.
After half a day, she suddenly said, “We’re going to Happy Valley.”
Not many people knew about Fang Tianluo’s being kidnapped by the Baiyue Sect, but Xiao Lingling knew that Fang Tianluo and Li Huaike had agreed to meet on the second day of the month. If someone knew that Fang Tianluo was missing and had secretly drugged her to rescue Fang Tianluo, then that person must be Li Huaike.
She was born in the Baiyue Sect and had been trained with poison since she was a child; general poisons couldn’t work on her at all. But when she’d smelled that strange fragrance, she’d subconsciously held her breath, but she was still drugged. No one could do that except Li Huairou.
Therefore, it was probably Li Huairou and her brother who had rescued Fang Tianluo.
Damn, someone had robbed the fruit of victory that was so close at hand—she was unreconciled!
Xiao Lingling rushed to Happy Valley with her people, only to find that Happy Valley had been emptied, and there was nothing left.
After Xiao Lingling searched to no avail, unable to suppress the irritability in her heart, she burned Happy Valley down in a fire.
After venting, Xiao Lingling was still unreconciled. She searched for the whereabouts of Li Huaike and his sister over and over again.
Li Huairou was eating melon seeds and chatting with Liu Sike. She saw Uncle Zhang come in with a sad face. “What’s wrong, Uncle Zhang?”
Liu Sike also stopped working on the embroidery in her hands and looked up at Uncle Zhang.
Uncle Zhang’s angry gestures were accompanied by babbles.
Li Huairou understood. “Happy Valley was burned? If it was burned, then it was burned. Those material things are not given with birth, nor can we bring them with us when we die; it’s fine as long as the people are safe. As long as we are fine, Happy Valley can be anywhere.”
Liu Sike also nodded. “Yes, haven’t all the important things been buried in the ground? When matters are all settled, we can dig them out again and rebuild a new Happy Valley.”
Uncle Zhang’s expression softened, but he was still a little angry. Auntie Zhang came over, pulled him to the side of a woodpile, and threw him an axe. She pointed at the woodpile, then at the stove.
Uncle Zhang understood. He turned his anger into strength and regarded the woodpile as the bitch who’d burned Happy Valley down—chop, chop. After a while, there was a pile of firewood next to him.
In his room, Fang Tianluo looked a little sad. His whole body was immersed in the tub.
Next to him, Li Huaike was flipping through medical books while adding herbs to the tub. He kept an eye on the fire underneath from time to time.
This medicinal bath must be maintained at a certain temperature to be effective, so Uncle Zhang had simply built a stove under the tub. Someone had to keep an eye on it—otherwise, if the temperature was too high, it wouldn’t be a medicinal bath, but a soup.
“What’s the matter?” Li Huaike asked, looking up and seeing that Fang Tianluo had a bad expression. “Is it too hot?” Li Huaike put his medical book down and put his hand into the tub. It seemed to be a bit hot, so he hurriedly took out a piece of wood.
“It’s all because of me. I made you homeless, with nowhere to settle!” Fang Tianluo was not an unreasonable person; he would say whatever he thought. What’s more, the Li siblings had been kind to him, and between them, there was nothing he couldn’t say, so he was embarrassed.
“Hm?” Li Huaike was baffled.
Fang Tianluo was a little speechless, and he reminded him, “Happy Valley was burned.”
“Oh, burned? Eh? Let it be! Anyways, I buried all the important things. The only things that were burned were the house and the plants. It’s a pity that my medicine field is gone.” Li Huaike had been reading the book seriously, and he hadn’t heard the conversation outside.
Fang Tianluo smiled helplessly. Although Huaike didn’t care, he couldn’t take it for granted. When he recovered and avenged his parents…
Could he recover?
Could broken tendons be renewed? Such a thing had never been heard of before!
It was just that Huaike and Huairou were full of confidence. He should have faith in the Li siblings.
After a few days, Fang Tianluo found Li Huairou missing, so he was a little worried. When he asked Li Huaike, Li Huaike smiled and replied, “It’s alright. To replace a few missing key herbs, Huairou went to collect them.”
“No, Baiyue Sect must be searching everywhere for our whereabouts. It will be very dangerous for Huairou to go out now,” Fang Tianluo said anxiously. He didn’t even want to mention Xiao Lingling’s name now.
“Don’t worry. Huairou has disguised her face. Moreover, the missing herbs are very important. Whether your tendons can be renewed depends on those herbs,” Li Huaike said. In fact, he should have gone in the first place, but Huairou disagreed, saying that Sike was pregnant and needed someone to take care of Brother Tianluo. There were differences between men and women, and it was not that she was unwilling—so in the end, he could only let Huairou go.
But Huairou was smarter than him. She should be fine.
Fang Tianluo’s heart became heavier. What had he done? Huairou had done so much for him—how should he repay it? Was it enough to be brother and sister? Did he really love Huairou as his sister? On the contrary, Huairou had been paying the price.
He was really in the wrong!
One month later, in the evening, Li Huairou came back, her face pale, and she staggered. Li Huaike took her pulse and realized that she was injured.
“Where is the injury? Have you treated it? Let your sister-in-law look at it!” Li Huaike said.
“On my back. I can’t reach it, but I’ve bandaged it and taken medicine. My ugly complexion is because of the rush.” Li Huairou frowned. “I’m starving to death. Quickly give me something to eat.”
Auntie Zhang immediately went to the stove.
Liu Sike immediately treated Li Huairou’s back injury. The wound had not been treated properly, and it looked horrible. Liu Sike was very distressed.
After treating the wound, Aunt Zhang brought a bowl of shredded pork noodles, and Li Huairou immediately ate it. After the bowl of noodles went down her stomach, some color finally returned to her face.
Liu Sike waited for her to finish eating before asking, “What’s the matter? Who hurt you?”
“Who else could it be? Xiao Lingling. But she wasn’t in good condition. I ruined her face, and now she’s crying all over the world, looking for doctors!” Li Huairou said triumphantly.
“How did you meet her?!” Li Huaike frowned.
“If it wasn’t for the Lingzhu grass, do you think I’d want to meet her?” Li Huairou picked up a snack on the table and ate it. Auntie Zhang had made it deliberately because she was afraid that Liu Sike would get hungry at night.
“Did you find the Lingzhu grass?” Li Huaike was a little surprised. Lingzhu grass was the most important herb for Fang Tianluo’s muscles and veins. It was a pity that it grew in the bitter cold of the far north, and it was too late to come and go, so Li Huaike had looked through many medical books and found an alternative herb.
“It wasn’t me who found it, but Xiao Lingling. I took it when I was clashing with her. She already knew that Lingzhu grass was indispensable for renewing Fang Tianluo’s muscles. So, she’d already sent people to the far north to find it, thinking about waiting for the rabbit to kill itself by crashing into a tree trunk! Who’d expect that the one she was waiting for was me? She deserved it! Her plans were shattered!” Li Huairou was very proud.
[A Chinese idiom which means that if you don’t work hard, and you hope for an accident, the result can only be nothing]
Li Huaike and Liu Sike were speechless, but Uncle and Auntie Zhang had a great expression on their faces, praising her.
“By the way, Uncle Zhang, although I’m sure to get rid of those loose ends, for safety’s sake, you should still go out and have a look!” Li Huairou was full, and her spirit relaxed again, suddenly becoming a little sleepy. “Ge, the Lingzhu grass and the herbs you wanted are in the back-basket. You can handle it yourself—I’m sleepy, and I’m going to sleep.”
“Alright, I know. Go and have a rest. Be careful not to touch the wounds,” Li Huaike said.
“By the way, sister-in-law, there are gifts I bought for you and my little nephew in the back-basket. Remember to take them!” Li Huairou said, yawning.
“I know,” Liu Sike softly and helplessly replied. In such a dangerous situation, Huairou had still remembered to bring gifts for her and her children. How could Liu Sike possibly dislike her?
In his room, Fang Tianluo tightly closed his eyes and unconsciously clenched his hands. He noticed that the strength of his arms was slowly recovering, and he knew what it meant. But he was not happy.
Huairou’s words had given him a deeper understanding of Xiao Lingling’s viciousness and scheming. If Huairou hadn’t saved him, what would Xiao Lingling have done? Would she have played a bitter trick to make him feel soft and finally choose to forgive her?!
Xiao Lingling and the Baiyue Sect had worked so hard, but what on earth did they want to do? The only thing that was worth their effort was the secret book on him.
But the techniques in that secret book could only be practiced by people who had practiced the Fang family’s inner strength techniques since childhood.
Suddenly, in the dim room, Fang Tianluo opened his eyes wide. He appeared to have guessed Xiao Lingling and the Baiyue Sect’s plan.
From beginning to end, what they wanted was the secret book, but when they got the secret book, they’d found that they couldn’t use it. Therefore, the second best way was to have Xiao Lingling take him away and perform another bitter trick, coaxing him to soften his heart and forgive her. Then, when they were together and naturally had a child—his own child—how could he not have that child practice the Fang family’s inner strength techniques? Even the secrets left by his parents would definitely be passed on to the child.
Children were close to their mothers. If the mother instilled something in them from childhood, they would believe and follow it, one by one.
The more Fang Tianluo thought about it, the more he felt that he was right.
Xiao Lingling knew him too well; she knew what to do to impress him. Therefore, if Huairou hadn’t rescued him, he feared that the development of things would have been exactly the same as Xiao Lingling’s plan! He was really so stupid that he’d become a chess piece and tool in the hands of those siblings!
The more Fang Tianluo thought about it, the more worked up he became. His internal force wandered through his body. Fang Tianluo realized that something was wrong and hurriedly ran his internal force, but it seemed to be out of control.
Li Huaike came in, and seeing the situation getting more and more out of control, his expression of joy suddenly became nervous. Before anything else, he took out silver needles and inserted them into a few acupuncture points on Fang Tianluo’s body to help him control the internal force rioting in his body…
After a stick of incense, Li Huaike, sweating profusely, slowly pulled the silver needles out. “Brother Tianluo, your inner strength has improved again! Huairou has brought back the Lingzhu grass, and I can renew your veins for you tomorrow. Although the process is a bit painful, I believe you should be able to endure it!”
Fang Tian Luo gave a hum, and then he asked, “How was Huairou injured?”
“It’s fine. Don’t worry.” Li Huaike hesitated. “It’s just that Huairou was a little childish and had a conflict with Miss Xiao and hurt Miss Xiao…”
“Huaike, so many things have happened—do you think I will never forget Xiao Lingling?” Fang Tianluo smiled bitterly.
Li Huaike awkwardly turned his head. Had he?
