A scent of medicine assailed his nose, and upon seeing who had come, Lin Ning felt relieved.
It was Aunt Chun...
Aunt Chun was the maidservant who had been abducted up the mountain along with his mother, Madam Ning, back in those years. After Madam Ning had died of illness, Aunt Chun had always taken care of him.
Aunt Chun was in her early thirties this year. Though her looks were not outstanding, her expression was gentle and soft, making her seem approachable.
She was carrying the medicine pot, and seeing that Lin Ning had opened his eyes, she was first delighted, but her expression soon darkened again.
Lin Ning knew that this time, Aunt Chun was truly angry...
Previously, even when "he" had schemed Tian Hu to death, even when people in the stronghold had already seen through Lin Xiaoning's bullshit "brilliant schemes," at least Aunt Chun had believed he was still that kind child.
But this time...
His mother, Madam Ning, had treated Tian Wuniang as her own daughter, while Aunt Chun doted on Jiu Niang as her own daughter.
Aunt Chun probably never dreamed, even in her wildest dreams, that Lin Xiaoning's evil claws would reach toward Jiu Niang, who was only six years old...
It was deranged, an outrage that appalled everyone.
Bearing this dark burden on the original owner's behalf, Lin Ning had no choice but to accept it.
However, he understood even more clearly that if even Aunt Chun gave up on him, then the road ahead for him would only become harder...
Coughing dryly, Lin Ning looked at Aunt Chun, whose face was stern as she poured out the medicine for him, and said in a weak voice, "Aunt Chun, I never meant to harm Jiu'er. I was just annoyed that she followed me around chattering every day, so I wanted to scare her a little. Later, when I heard her crying so hard, I was already going to let her go and bring her back, but then A Niu rushed over and beat me..."
After all, he was the child closest to her heart. Hearing this, Aunt Chun's expression softened slightly, and she asked, "Is that really true?"
Lin Ning gave a bitter smile and said, "Auntie, even though I hate Tian Hu for causing my father's death, no matter how low I've sunk, I couldn't possibly harm Jiu'er, could I? She's still just a child, and she's always been close to me..."
Hearing this, tears began to fall from Aunt Chun's eyes, and she said, choking up, "If you knew she was close to you, why would you go and scare her? Besides, your Second Uncle Tian didn't mean to either..." Before she could finish, Aunt Chun quickly stopped herself.
In the past, although Lin Xiaoning had been ill-tempered and disagreeable, looking down on everyone, he had still shown some respect toward Aunt Chun—except that no one was allowed to speak up for Tian Hu in front of him.
Because of this, Lin Xiaoning and Aunt Chun had clashed several times over it, and he had even lost his composure once and cursed at her, calling her shameless for having taken a liking to Tian Hu...
And judging from the memories, it did indeed seem that Aunt Chun had feelings for Tian Hu, though it should have stopped at propriety...
At this moment, with Lin Ning covered in wounds, Aunt Chun did not dare provoke him to anger and risk worsening his injuries, so she immediately cut off her words of advice, watching him carefully, and sighed, "Ning'er, let's not speak of that anymore. Auntie didn't mean it that way. Just rest and recover your strength, all right?"
Seeing that her eyes had turned red, Lin Ning sighed inwardly as well.
The original owner had deliberately left a "will" for Aunt Chun to find, and after seeing it, she had rushed to find Tian Hu, and Tian Hu had later died because of it.
For Aunt Chun, this was probably a pain that cut to the heart...
Lin Ning looked at Aunt Chun and said hoarsely, "Aunt Chun, actually, I stopped blaming Second Uncle Tian a long time ago..."
"Hm... hm? What did you say?"
Aunt Chun nearly thought she had misheard. She stared at Lin Ning in shock, and then her expression changed drastically. With trembling hands, she reached to touch his forehead, tears streaming down her face as she said, "Ning'er, you mustn't... you mustn't let anything happen to you!"
Lin Ning blinked in confusion, and seeing Aunt Chun suddenly overcome with grief, he only then realized she likely believed the saying that "when a man is about to die, his words are good"...
He said, torn between laughing and crying, "Aunt Chun, I'm fine. It's just that... earlier, in a dream, I dreamed of my mother. She told me that Father and Second Uncle Tian's line of work was always going to end this way. A clay pot is bound to crack at the mouth eventually, and soldiers are bound to die before the battle line eventually. If something bad happens one day, there's truly no one to blame. If not for that, my father wouldn't have passed the position of Stronghold Master to Second Uncle Tian before he died. Aunt Chun, I truly don't blame Second Uncle Tian, but I still want to take revenge myself. The hatred for my father's killer is not something I can live under the same sky with. If I cannot take revenge, how can I call myself a son? I just never expected that it would end up implicating Second Uncle Tian..."
Hearing this, Aunt Chun's heart truly melted.
A great boulder that had long weighed on her chest, suffocating her, slowly settled to the ground.
There had already been secret rumors circulating in the stronghold that Tian Hu's death had been deliberately schemed by Lin Xiaoning and her, and there were many clues that could be traced to support it...
But after Tian Hu returned to the mountain, he flatly denied all of it, and even sternly put a stop to the rumors spreading through the stronghold.
Even up until his death, Tian Hu never blamed her or Lin Xiaoning.
Yet in her heart, Aunt Chun had, in truth, never been without such suspicions...
Ever since the young lady had passed away, Lin Xiaoning's temperament had grown increasingly paranoid and dark. She had watched it happen, her heart aching, yet she had been powerless to do anything.
Lin Xiaoning simply wouldn't listen to her...
If it truly had been Lin Xiaoning's scheme that night, causing Tian Hu to die unjustly, then Aunt Chun would have to live her whole life tormented by regret...
And it was precisely because Lin Ning understood this that he had spoken those words.
"Ning'er, you mustn't do anything foolish again. You never liked practicing martial arts, and your skills are mediocre... no, that's not it—you always wanted to be a great scholar, and you never liked fighting and killing. Wu Niang said she would avenge the Great Chieftain and your Second Uncle Tian herself! Ning'er, please, don't do anything foolish again..."
Fearing that Lin Ning might do something foolish again, Aunt Chun pleaded with him earnestly, tears streaming down her face.
Lin Ning tugged at the corner of his aching mouth, managing a smile, and said, "Rest assured, Aunt Chun. After what happened with Second Uncle Tian, how could I still act recklessly? Even if I'm not afraid of dying myself, I won't drag anyone else into it again..."
Hearing this, Aunt Chun breathed a deep sigh of relief, and unable to help herself, murmured a prayer through her tears, "Amitabha, young lady, can you see this? Ning'er has truly grown sensible, truly grown sensible..."
With that, without needing Lin Ning to say anything, she hurriedly picked up the bowl of medicine and said, "Quick, drink this. That damned A Niu, striking so hard without even asking what happened first. I won't let him off easily when I see him next..."
Lin Ning didn't ask what the medicine was, and after drinking it down as Aunt Chun held the bowl for him, he asked, "Aunt Chun, how did I end up back here? I thought Zeng Niu was going to kill me..."
Aunt Chun was still annoyed just bringing it up. "A Niu said he thought you were trying to push Little Jiu'er off the cliff, and he was so furious he struck without holding back. But in the end, when he saw you passed out cold, and Jiu Niang was crying her heart out trying to protect you, A Niu calmed down and carried you back to the stronghold. Sigh, Doctor An said earlier that you probably wouldn't make it, but since Jiu Niang ended up unharmed after all, Eighth Uncle Zhou and the others still wanted A Niu to pay for it with his life.
Even though the Great Chieftain has already been gone two or three years, how could your Eighth Uncle Zhou and the others forget his kindness? Seeing you beaten like that, your Third Uncle Fang and Fourth Uncle Hu were furious too, but afterward they got even angrier at you—their faces were terrifyingly grim. You, honestly..."
Provoking such widespread anger was only to be expected, but what Lin Ning wanted to know more urgently now was Zeng Niu's fate, since it had a bearing on his current predicament in the stronghold.
Though he already knew Zeng Niu surely wouldn't be made to pay with his life, he still asked curiously, "So how is A Niu now? He didn't have to pay for it with his life, did he?"
Hearing this, Aunt Chun hesitated for a moment, then said quietly, "No, he didn't. Wu Niang wouldn't let Eighth Uncle Zhou and the others lay a hand on him..."
Upon hearing this, Lin Ning fell silent, and an image surfaced in his mind—someone the previous owner, Lin Xiaoning, had utterly despised and detested...
Atop a brown fine horse sat a young girl with an indifferent expression, one hand gripping the reins, the other resting on a precious sword at her side. She wore a coarse hemp robe the color of earthen yellow, her long black hair simply tied back behind her head, without a single hairpin.
Most unforgettable of all were her slender, bright phoenix eyes.
And yet, had those phoenix eyes held a soft, radiant gaze instead, she would surely have been a beauty capable of overturning cities.
But instead, what bloomed within those phoenix eyes was a stern, sharp light, one that made others afraid to meet her gaze directly.
She was Tian Wuniang, the current Great Chieftain of Qingyun Village, and also Lin Xiaoning's fiancée...
Unlike Lin Xiaoning, who favored storybooks about talented scholars and beautiful ladies and neglected his martial training, Tian Wuniang had displayed astonishing talent for martial arts since she was young.
Lin Xiaoning's father, Lin Long, had even taught her the family's ultimate skill, 《Qiankun Strength》, and Tian Wuniang had lived up to expectations—by the age of fifteen, she had risen to become a first-rate expert. Throughout all of Qingyun Village, aside from Lin Long and Tian Hu, no one was a match for her, and her stunning talent left countless people in awe!
In Lin Xiaoning's memories, there had once been a time when smiles could still be seen on Tian Wuniang's face.
But then, once Madam Ning—the one who had doted on her most, and Lin Xiaoning's mother—passed away from illness, and not two years later Lin Long died saving Tian Hu, and then Tian Hu himself died saving Lin Xiaoning, a smile never again appeared on Tian Wuniang's face...
Especially since, as a young girl, she had taken on the responsibility of providing for the livelihoods of the several hundred people in the entire stronghold.
Aside from Lin Xiaoning, there was no one in all of Qingyun Village who did not submit to her.
And it was said that now, even if Lin Long and Tian Hu were to come back to life, they might not necessarily be a match for her.
With a fiancée this formidable and coldly beautiful, Lin Ning wasn't even sure whether he should be happy about it.
Because, in the end, Tian Hu had died on account of Lin Xiaoning, and today Lin Xiaoning had even attempted to kill Jiu Niang...
It was a tangled mess that couldn't be sorted out.
"Ning'er, don't overthink this. Wu Niang, she's not..."
Seeing that Lin Ning said nothing, Aunt Chun tried hard to explain something on Tian Wuniang's behalf, but Lin Ning merely gave a soft chuckle and said, "Rest assured, Aunt Chun, how could I overthink it..."
These days, it was probably only Aunt Chun who trusted Lin Ning, and who worried he might overthink things.
Outside, as the devil who had even tried to harm Jiu Niang, he would surely be despised by everyone, someone to be avoided at all costs.
Not knowing what ingredients were in that medicine for his wounds, Lin Ning found his eyelids growing heavier and heavier as he thought about it, and slowly drifted off to sleep.
Beside the bed, Aunt Chun watched him and let out a deep sigh, but seeing his bruised and swollen face, with the thick, irritable, ill-tempered air that used to surround him now completely gone, she still felt a great deal of relief in her heart.
After clearing away the medicine bowl and pot, Aunt Chun hurried off—she still had something more important to do, which was to go tell Tian Wuniang, the Great Chieftain, and the others in the stronghold about today's "misunderstanding."
She knew that many people wouldn't believe it, but she understood even better the difference between speaking up and staying silent...
..
A night without incident passed.
The distant crowing of a rooster stirred Lin Ning from his sleep.
Looking once more over the simple, old-fashioned furnishings of the room, Lin Ning once again confirmed to himself that he had indeed become someone else.
The pain in his body was much lighter than the day before—at least when turning his neck, there was no longer that bone-deep, stabbing pain.
His gaze swept across the room, over the canopy bed, the folding screen, the ebony wardrobe, the purple-lacquered side table, the round-backed chair with scrolls of books...
Familiar, and yet unfamiliar.
Still, it wasn't entirely a bad thing.
No need to worry about trade negotiations, no need to ponder policy changes, no need to think about personnel shifts within a company, no need to guard against betrayal, no need to scheme against others or worry about being schemed against...
Lin Ning had already forgotten how many years it had been since he'd last spent a morning like this.
That was fine, too.
Since he had traded one identity for another, then he might as well trade in a new life to go with it...
Outside the window, the pleasant sound of birdsong rose, tranquil and serene.
"Creak... squeak!"
Just as Lin Ning was savoring a stillness he hadn't experienced in many years, he suddenly heard the sound of the room door opening. He turned his gaze to look, and saw a little girl in a white embroidered dress, peeking in from the doorway, a lingering trace of timidity still in her large eyes, her head tilted as she looked at him...
Lin Ning recognized her. She was Tian Jiuniang—Little Jiu'er.
..
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