"Someone has hurt the General so badly! Say, who did this?!"
"It was some red-eyed people who did it. Besides, you've asked me this question 387 times these four days..."
"Big brother Qianqiao! I don't want you to die!"
"If you beat him with your chicken wings again, he might truthfully die..."
…………
The noisy voices came and went like running water, but they gradually subsided, and at last, the room became hushed.
The curtain was gently opened. A bitter and unpleasant smell mixed with the sweet smell of food drifted to his nose. Feeling a soft hand smearing medicine onto himself, Lu Qianqiao could not help but blush and opened his eyes.
A side view of Xin Mei's face was in his field of vision. She turned her head, and he didn't know what she was looking at. While giving him a very bitter and unpleasant medicine, she held a string of meatballs in her other hand, which she would take a bite from time to time——it was a difficult move. Seeing her hand go to his chest again and almost touch his abdomen, he felt he could not keep it going like this, so he stopped her.
"You..." He tried to speak, only to find his voice was dry and hoarse.
"Huh?" She turned her head in confusion. When she saw that he finally woke up, she was pretty joyous. "You wake up? You have slept for four days. How do you feel now?"
Lu Qianqiao blinked, and his fingers moved slightly. "Sauce..."
Though, he did not expect her to burst into tears and cry, "You finally woke up. I was so worried." However, the fact that she was dripping sauce on his hand while eating her meatballs annoyed him very much.
"Sorry, I'll wipe it for you."
She carefully wiped the sauce off his fingers with her handkerchief, then picked up a small jug with a thin mouth, half picked up his head, and carefully fed him some water.
"You've awakened. I'll get Silan and others. They're all waiting outside the door."
Xin Mei put his head back, got up and was about to leave when he grasped her wrist.
"Sit down." Despite his severe injury and still weak speech, these two words, just like before, seemed like they could not be defied. "Don't call them for the time being."
Xin Mei leaned forward by the bedside while grinning, "Why? Do you want to be alone with me and pour your heart out?"
That was how it performed in the play, wasn't it? After a hero rescued a beauty or a beauty rescued a hero, the injured one would wake up, and there was bound to be a sentimental moment.
Lu Qianqao did not answer as one of his hands gently grasped her wrist, never letting go.
"I told you to run. Why did you come back?"
His voice was very low, a little gentle, no longer cold and arrogant like the first time they met.
She bit at the meatballs and murmured, "If I had run, you would have died. Now you owe me a favour. Remember to return it back to me."
Lu Qianqiao smiled. "Not afraid of being bullied again after running back?"
Xin Mei snorted. "My father said he would be grateful if I didn't bully others since no one in the world has been able to bully me."
.....so worthy of being Boss Xin, very understanding. Lu Qianqiao recalled all her brutal deeds, and those poor people who were angered until they were in tears, ran away and fainted because of her. He could not help but sigh sympathetically.
"Lu Qianqao, you are all right now. So I must return home since tomorrow is my sixteenth birthday."
She ate the last meatballs and wiped her oily hand on his clothes⸻twice. She tried to pull her wrist out of his hand, but he closed his fingers and held it even tighter.
She looked at him doubtfully, but he still didn't say anything. His eyes were tightly closed, and his eyelashes trembled slightly. After a while, he opened them gently like fluttering butterfly wings. His dark eyes were fixed on her. He seemed to have a lot to say but hesitated whether to say it or not.
Xin Mei leaned over and asked, "What else do you want to say? Afraid for the secret of Mist Formation? Don't worry, I won't tell. "
He was silent for a moment, and his fingers tightened. "You...wait for a minute. Bring the doll and the knife from my clothes bundle."
She quickly waved her hand. "Forget it. You're totally not well yet!"
"My fingers aren't injured."
"...okay then."
She got up and tried to move her stuck wrist. His fingers still clasped on it and would not let go.
Eh? She was at a loss.
"Xin Mei." He smiled. He had no idea why he even called out her name.
Her fingertips trembled slightly. She felt strange and a little lost. Because of his injury, his fingers were a bit cold. They slowly stretched and gently held onto one of her fingers. Her fingers also had a bittersweet smell and sticky, oily touch from the wound medicine. She carefully wiped her hand clean with his sleeve.
"Go get it." He slowly let go of her hand.
Now that the prototype was ready, and there was no need for the doll to have the ability to move its joints, the following procedure wouldn't be that complicated. He leaned against the head of the bed and cut the doll's features bit by bit with his knife.
Like that day in the Meishan Residence, Xin Mei leaned over with her whole body and looked at each of his knife movements with her chin in her hand. The sun shone on her head, and her hair was shaggy. He could smell the light aroma of her hair, the salty and hot smell of sauce on her fingers, and the bitterness and astringency of the golden wound medicine.
The sun's heat made these odd smells more fragrant, which he felt a bit fond of.
Under the room windowsill, a group of demons was hiding. Silan continued to burst into tears as he tried to break through the window. However, his attempts kept being blocked repeatedly by others around him. Tao Guoguo, with a flush face, attempted to find a crack in the wall to peek in. While Ying Lian was hiding in the shadow, tying a cut-out of a little person from lotus leaves. Afterwards, she wrote the words 'Xin Mei' on it and then smashed it with her nails.
No one was calm. Only Zhao Guanren[1] stroked his thin beard and smiled vulgarly. "Did you hear that? Who dares to say that the General is a boy who does not understand women? When people are seriously injured, they cannot practise what they preach, but they still have fingers! You, kids, should learn more from this!"
*
When the sky was getting dark, Xin Mei finally woke up.
She spent the whole afternoon in front of the bed watching Lu Qianqiao carve the doll and then fell asleep. These days, she felt a little bit tired. Only a few monsters in the Imperial Mausoleum knew how to care for patients. In the end, except for privacy matters such as bathing, the works of changing dressings, feeding him water and taking care of him were left to her.
She yawned. She had fallen asleep on her stomach in an uncomfortable position, and now, she was sore all over her body. She was trying to twist her neck when she suddenly felt her head had gotten a little heavy. She found out that one of Lu Qianqao's hands was on her head, slowly stroking her hair.
As Xin Mei turned her head, the thin blanket covering her shoulders slid down.
She didn't move, just leaned forward on the bed and smiled at him.
The light of the candle placed on the table leapt before his eyes as he gently touched her head with a gentle expression.
"Lu Qianqiao," she said suddenly with a smile, "Do you like me?"
His hand paused, but he did not withdraw it, nor did he speak. For a moment, he picked up a small and exquisite but colourful doll from the head of the bed and put it in front of her.
"A gift," he said.
The already finished, beautiful, and graceful heavenly maiden stood in front of her with its long huge hair like a cloud, and was adorned in colourful clothes. It was awe-inspiring and beautiful. Xin Mei picked it up with a pleasant surprise, unwilling to exert force on it, as she only touched its hair and clothes lightly with her fingertips and mumbled, "Ready so soon? And even hair and clothes also... "
"They were sent over by Zhao Guanren[1]."
Xin Mei stared at him for a long time, then she just looked straight into his eyes. "En, thank you. I like it very much."
Lu Qianqao stiffly withdrew his hand and turned his face away. "It's good that you like it. It's getting dark. I'll ask Silan to take you back. Leave quickly."
Xin Mei touched the heavenly maiden's hair for a while. She then suddenly got up and put the doll in her bag. She smiled and said, "Lu Qianqiao, this doll is not a gift. You have already promised to give it to me earlier before. You have to give me another one as a birthday gift."
He was taken aback.
"I also like the General in the last play. Although he was a bad person, he was quite flattering sometimes. You can help make me a general doll, and I will come to pick it up in a few days."
She smiled cheerfully and turned away.
Liu Qianqiao was left sitting in a daze on the bed. Suddenly, he started touching his face: bad as hell, but sometimes flattering? By the way, where was the mirror? Where was the mirror? What kind of complicated feeling was this? He had to look carefully and make up his mind.
Silan, squatting outside the door with his red eyes, saw Xin Mei come out. Like a spiritless old dog, he only glanced at her.
Xin Mei stared at him for a long time till he got goosebumps all over his body. He angrily said, "What are you looking at?! You, you shameless girl...actually, actually dare to seduce the General..."
She sighed. "Your facial paralysis has become more serious. Now it has turned into a disgruntled face. Please go see a physician."
Silan trembled all over his body and went to fetch his spirit beast. He couldn't wait to shout at the sky; why would the General have a crush on such a girl?!
*
This time, without many spiritual animals to do cumbersome work, the way back seemed particularly short. A moment before noon, Xin Mei had already arrived at Xinxie Manor.
Silan kept a straight face and didn't bother to talk to her. He led his spirit beast around and left.
Xin Mei waved goodbye from behind. "Thank you for bringing me back. Remember to see the physician as early as you can, okay?"
Silan seemed to be falling off the back of the spirit beast.
Xin Mei smilingly ordered Qiu Yue to land on the Xinxie Manor compound. Xin Xiong, who had long heard the movement, ran out expectantly and saw that his daughter had returned home alone. There was not even a shadow of a man around her. He was so furious.
"What have you been doing outside for more than a month?! Where is your husband? What about the husband you have been looking for?!"
Xin Mei put Qiu Yue away calmly. She shook her head at her father and gave out a smile filled with an air of a tyrant ruler. "I've got my eye on one who lives in a nearby Wanlan Mountain. I'm going to settle with him in a few days."
Footnotes Full List
- respectful term of address for a man
Tags:
A Match Made In Heaven