In the afternoon, Qingshui Village was exceptionally quiet, with only the summer cicadas relentlessly crying.
Hunter Zhang and Zhang Goudan had both gone to take a nap while Yu Yuan was alone washing clothes in the courtyard.
Now was the hottest time of the summer. When the sun was high up in the sky, the land would be producing invisible waves of heat. As punishment for breaking the bowls and pots, Yu Yuan wasn’t allowed to eat or wash clothes in the shade.
He was punished to kneel in the very center of the courtyard. He was suffering from the scorching sun and still had to wash the dirty clothes of Hunter Zhang and his son. Only the sound of Yu Yuan rubbing and scrubbing clothes could be heard in the empty courtyard.
His wounds hurt so badly, and blood oozed out from them again, mixing with his sweat and dampening his clothes. They clung tightly to Yu Yuan’s body. Yu Yuan’s face grew paler and paler, but his back remained straight.
Yan Mu saw everything through the small crack in the short wall and felt extremely sorry for him. According to the book’s setting, Yu Yuan was only sixteen years old now.
In the modern world, sixteen-year-old teenagers would be carrying their backpacks and happily attending school. But for Yu Yuan, don’t even mention attending school, just having enough warm food and clothes was a struggle.
When she created Yu Yuan’s character, she only thought that the story progression would be interesting if she made Yu Yuan counter-attacking from the bottom level of society, so she purposely set up his backstory to be as miserable as possible. Back then, she thought that since Yu Yuan would become an official of the highest position in the future, with even the Emperor having to treat him with respect, everything that happened when he was young was just to develop his temperament. Only now did she realise that the random sentence she had typed in the word processor had become an actual teenager’s suffering that would stay with him for the rest of his life.
Even though Yu Yuan would become extremely brilliant later on, the damage was real and had already been done.
Yan Mu held a vegetable millet dumpling in her hand and stood blankly for a long time. She had only eaten half her fill at lunch so that she could secretly stash away this vegetable dumpling.
For the sake of Yu Yuan’s handsome face, Yan Mu had the heart to help him out, but as an author, she knew Yu Yuan’s temper very well. Directly giving Yu Yuan the vegetable millet dumpling wouldn’t work, and with his prickly temper, he would most likely not only refuse it, but even suspect her of ulterior motives.
She had to find a way to give it to him that would take the teenager’s self-esteem into consideration.
Unfortunately, this body’s health condition was so bad that it caused Yan Mu’s brain to become sluggish as well. She thought for a long time but couldn’t come up with a better idea, so she simply walked slowly out of the small courtyard and plopped directly onto the road.
“Ouch, it hurts. Someone, quickly help! Yan Mu shouted with her neck straightened, as she pretended to be in pain from the fall. She looked expectantly into the courtyard, but Yu Yuan was still indifferently washing the clothes, not even raising his head.
Could it be that my voice is too soft? Yu Yuan can’t hear it? Yan Mu hesitated for a moment and increased her volume.
“Is there anyone there? My leg is probably broken. Is there any kind person that can help me?” Yan Mu squeezed out a few drops of tears. Her body was originally in bad condition, and the two drops of tears that were hanging on Yan Mu’s long delicate lashes made her complexion look even paler and more pitiful.
Yu Yuan continued scrubbing the clothes and only slowly stood up after a long time. He carried the wooden basin and walked towards Yan Mu.
Yan Mu’s eyes lit up and looked at Yu Yuan anxiously. From Yan Mu’s angle, she could only see Yu Yuan’s well-defined jawline and nose bridge.
As expected of a handsome face that was a hundred percent in line with the author’s aesthetic. Even from such a terrible perspective, Yan Mu still felt that Yu Yuan was d*mn charming. Yan Mu looked at Yu Yuan with an expectant face.
A cool breeze blew by, making Yu Yuan’s clothing rise up, revealing the teenager’s thin and weak chest, and also its crisscrossing scars.
The teenager walked step by step towards Yan Mu but suddenly stopped when he was about to step out of the courtyard. Yu Yuan didn’t even look at Yan Mu and directly splashed the dirty water on the muddy ground at the door, then closed the entrance with extreme indifference.
……
Yan Mu was dumbfounded.
She lay prone on the ground for a long time, unable to recover from the shock.
That’s right. At the beginning of the story, because of the villagers’ discrimination and Hunter Zhang’s abuse, Yu Yuan’s character was frigid and reserved, even to the point of being a little twisted. Positive terms like ‘friendly’ and ‘helpful’ didn’t match Yu Yuan at all.
She was probably out of her mind to actually hope for Yu Yuan to kindly help her.
She had to rely on Yu Yuan’s kiss once a month to prolong her life. Now that half a month had passed since she transmigrated, her body was getting weaker and weaker, so kissing Yu Yuan to continue living was extremely urgent. But when she saw the cold look on his face, she couldn’t help but feel worried.
With her small body, it was impossible for her to force a kiss. How in the world can I kiss Yu Yuan ahhhhhhh.
Yan Mu let out a sigh and slowly got up from the ground. Perhaps she had been exposed to the sun for too long. The moment she got up, she felt her sight turn dark, a wave of dizziness hit her, and the world was spinning.
Crack! She lost her balance and fell heavily to the ground.
This body was extremely sensitive to pain, and before Yan Mu could react, tears had already gushed out first. The intense pain went straight to the top of her skull, and Yan Mu almost passed out.
Yan Mu had never experienced this much pain in her two lifetimes combined. She couldn’t endure the pain and actually cried out.
Crap, this body is really too fragile! She mentally cursed while sobbing as she held onto the wall as support and stood up.
Her left leg was so painful that she couldn’t lift it up.
…… She seems to have really broken her leg.
Could this be her karma for telling lies to cheat people? Yan Mu wiped her tears in distress and limped towards home.
The vegetable millet dumpling had fallen to the ground due to her fall just now. Fortunately, it was wrapped with oil paper, so it was not contaminated by the dust and dirt on the ground.
Yu Yuan opened the door with an expressionless face and stared at the vegetable millet dumpling, lost in thought.
He knew who she was just now.
The only daughter of the neighbouring Yan Family who was sickly since birth. The amount of medicine she took was more than the rice she ate. The villagers often gossiped behind their backs about whether Yan Mu would be able to live past eighteen years old. But even so, she was the only girl in the village who could attend private school.
The sound of the young girl’s light footsteps came closer. Yu Yuan lowered his eyes and closed the wooden door once again.
“Hmph, if Yu Yuan doesn’t want to eat it, I will eat it myself.” The young girl’s furious voice pierced through the door, slightly soaked with grievance.
A rustling sound could be heard, it was probably the sound of the dumpling being picked up.
“Ouch, my leg hurts so badly.” The young girl inhaled, her voice a little tearful.
The sound of limping footsteps slowly trailed away and was then followed by the sound of a wooden door being closed.
Yu Yuan returned to the courtyard and hung up the washed clothes on the clothesline.
A commotion could be heard from the small courtyard next door. Father Yan’s anxious and caring voice transmitted through the short wall and into Yu Yuan’s ears. He could vaguely hear the sentence “Call the doctor,” and after that, the wooden door next door was slammed open. The sound of a man’s panicked and hurried footsteps gradually faded away.
Yu Yuan lowered his head and silently looked at his hands that were covered with cuts. Because he was frequently doing heavy work, his hands were especially rough. Now that so many cuts were added, and they were soaked in water, the wounds had turned pale, and it seemed that even the skin and flesh were turned outwards.
This pair of hands were extremely ugly and hideous. Yu Yuan closed his eyes and hid his displeasing hands in his pockets.
***************
Father Yan went out to find the village doctor, and Yan Mu was forced to lie on the bed.
An intense pain emanated from her left leg, throbbing straight up to her skull. Yan Mu kept drawing cold breaths of pain. Time passes extremely slowly when you are in pain. This made Yan Mu feel even more suffering.
Due to her awareness of her limits, she closed her eyes and forced herself to sleep. Maybe it was because her body was too weak, but Yan Mu’s consciousness actually started to become blurry.
When she woke up again, she heard the sound of Father Yan and the village doctor conversing.
“It’s just a fracture on her leg, it’s not a big deal. But your daughter’s constitution is too poor. Since it’s an illness that started since she was in the womb, medicine can now only keep it from worsening. It’s impossible to cure it……” the village doctor sighed.
“I only have this one daughter. You have to think of a way, I’m willing to pay no matter how much it takes.” Father Yan’s voice was a little choked with emotion.
“Money isn’t the problem. With her current condition, she won’t be able to live long…… whatever she wants, whatever she wants to eat, just give them to her,” said the village doctor.
After this sentence was spoken, there were no further sounds from outside for a while. A few moments later, heavy footsteps could be heard.
Hearing the sound of footsteps heading this way, Yan Mu hurriedly shut her eyes and pretended to sleep.
Father Yan reached the outside of the room. He knocked on the door and asked, “Daughter, are you awake?”
In order to not let Father Yan be suspicious, Yan Mu waited until he knocked three to four times before she rubbed her eyes, acting like she just woke up, and answered with a stuffy voice.
Father Yan let out a sigh of relief and asked Yan Mu to get up from the bed to see the doctor. Yan Mu obediently responded and quickly got dressed and got up from the bed.
The village doctor was a man in his forties. He took her pulse and told Yan Mu that she was just having a blood and Qi imbalance and needed more sunlight. Yan Mu knew that the doctor was deceiving her, but she didn’t expose him and just nodded her head and responded obediently.
There wasn’t any medicinal shop around Qingshui Village, and there was only a village doctor. Thus, the village doctor always carried some common medicines in his medicine box whenever he went on house calls.
Seeing the doctor lowering his head to write the prescription, Yan Mu took advantage of the fact that Father Yan was not paying attention to them to lower her voice and ask the village doctor, “Well…… may I ask, do you have any ointment for external injuries?”
“Ointment?” the village doctor looked up, slightly surprised, “Are you injured?”
“It’s a friend of mine,” Yan Mu was a little bit embarrassed, “But I don’t have any money, so can I buy it on credit first? When those chicks grow up, I’ll send two over to you……”
Yan Mu’s face turned red. She twisted her fingers and lowered her head. She was prepared to be rejected by the village doctor.
Unexpectedly, the village doctor accepted her request. Yan Mu stood frozen in place and didn’t react until the village doctor took out the ointment.
“Well…… can you please not tell my dad,” Yan Mu hesitated for a long time, but still spoke out in the end. When she first created the character, she set up the whole village to hate Yu Yuan and think of him as an ominous person.
If Father Yan hates Yu Yuan too……
To be on the safe side, Yan Mu thought that it was better not to let Father Yan know.
The village doctor only thought of her as a dying person, so naturally, he would respond positively to all of her requests. After exchanging pleasantries with Father Yan for a while, he turned and left.
Yan Mu looked at the ointment, and her heart leapt with joy.
She softly sighed as she remembered the crisscrossing cuts on Yu Yuan’s body. She hid the ointment in her collar. It was obviously a small tube, but Yan Mu felt it was exceptionally heavy.
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The author has something to say:
Yu Yuan: Every one of you has a father, only I don’t.