Lady Li had lost one eye, but she hadn’t lost her wits.
If she handed over all of her hidden money to Hua Zhiyun, what if this woman took the silver and did nothing?
She immediately turned and left, deciding to buy medicine directly from the guards instead.
To squeeze every last coin out of the exiles, the guards had prepared a supply of medicinal herbs and wound ointment.
If you had money, you could buy them.
If you didn’t…
…you could wait to die.
Hua Zhiyun chuckled.
Some people simply loved being clever.
Lady Li approached Chen Dali and asked to buy some medicine to stop the bleeding.
Her eye had been gouged out and needed treatment.
She had already lost one eye and didn’t want to lose her life as well.
Chen Dali remembered Hua Zhiyun’s instructions:
If anyone from the Chu family comes asking, don’t sell them anything.
He didn’t dare disobey.
He snatched the banknote from Lady Li’s hand.
When she lunged forward to grab it back, he kicked her away.
She lay on the ground for quite a while before she could get up.
“Scram!”
“No medicine!”
“If you keep pestering me, I’ll chop you up!”
Clutching her injured abdomen, Lady Li staggered away while cursing him in her heart.
She had tried to outsmart them…
…and ended up losing both the money and the medicine.
Lying on the ground, Chu Shen wailed.
“My medicine!”
“Give me back my medicine!”
“Get a doctor to save me!”
“Father!”
His son and daughter knelt beside him helplessly, doing nothing but crying.
Seeing Lady Li return empty-handed, they burst into tears again.
“Mother, where’s the medicine?”
“Mother… I’m so hungry.”
“When are we going home?”
Those words snapped something inside Lady Li.
She suddenly grabbed her daughter and began beating her.
“Home?”
“What home?”
“Our house has been confiscated!”
“If you want someone to blame, blame your eldest brother!”
“He committed treason and colluded with the enemy!”
“He’s the reason our whole family has been exiled!”
The frightened brother and sister glared hatefully at the prison cart.
Chu Linzhang merely cast them a sideways glance before withdrawing his gaze.
His attention returned to the maggots wriggling inside the wounds on his wrists.
If they weren’t treated, the infection would kill him.
Unfortunately…
He knew nothing about medicine.
Although he could control plants and make vines grow…
Although he could fill his stomach by eating leaves…
He didn’t know which herbs could heal wounds.
After washing her face in the stream, Hua Zhiyun tidied her messy hair.
She didn’t know how to arrange an ancient-style bun, so she simply braided her hair into a single braid.
Simple.
Neat.
Practical.
It wasn’t a hairstyle suitable for married women of this era.
Hua Zhiyun didn’t care.
She dressed however she found comfortable.
While she was washing, someone tried to move upstream to collect clean water before everyone else.
Hua Zhiyun gave a light cough.
The man’s calves immediately began trembling.
He instantly chickened out and hurried downstream.
One after another, members of the Chu family arrived.
None of them dared approach Hua Zhiyun.
Instead, they all obediently washed downstream, scrubbing away the dog feces, cow dung, and horse urine covering their bodies.
After enduring the stench all day, they couldn’t bear it any longer.
Fortunately, it was midsummer.
Had it been winter, they wouldn’t have dared enter the water no matter how filthy they were.
If they caught a cold…
With no medicine available…
It would almost certainly mean death.
After cleaning herself up, Hua Zhiyun was about to leave when Chu Linzhang called out from the prison cart.
“Could I trouble you to bring someone to me?”
“Who?”
She raised an eyebrow.
“Chu Lin’an.”
Hua Zhiyun didn’t know who that was.
She walked over to where the Chu family had gathered and called loudly,
“Chu Lin’an! Come here.”
The family immediately surrounded a pale thirteen- or fourteen-year-old boy, afraid Hua Zhiyun intended to bully him.
Seeing the boy’s frightened expression, Hua Zhiyun simply said,
“Chu Linzhang wants to see you.”
Then she turned and left.
The others looked at each other in confusion.
When Chu Lin’an heard it was his eldest brother looking for him, he stepped forward.
His mother quickly grabbed his arm.
She quietly slipped something into his hand before looking at him solemnly.
“Go.”
Chu Lin’an bit his lip.
“Mother… that’s Big Brother.”
“I know.”
Madam Chu Fifth gritted her teeth.
“He won’t live much longer anyway.”
“If his death can atone for everything, then so be it.”
“Your younger brother is sick.”
“He needs treatment.”
“I don’t have any other choice.”
“We have to sacrifice him.”
“Lin’an…”
She looked at him pleadingly.
“Are you really going to watch your little brother die?”
“Your little brother is your own flesh and blood.”
“Your eldest brother is the one responsible for all of this.”
“Who are you going to choose?”
Chu Lin’an looked at his younger brother, who was burning with fever and muttering deliriously.
His fists tightened.
Conflict flashed through the young man’s eyes.
Finally…
At his mother’s desperate plea—
“Please save your little brother…”
—he made his choice.
A short while later, Chu Lin’an arrived beside the prison cart.
Looking at the filthy, battered Chu Linzhang—with his limbs crippled and none of the imposing aura of the once-invincible God of War remaining—his heart filled with sorrow.
“Big Brother… you wanted to see me?”
Chu Linzhang’s sharp eyes rested on the youth.
“Lin’an…”
“Do you hate me?”
The boy froze.
He looked up in surprise.
Meeting Chu Linzhang’s gentle gaze, his lips moved slightly before he asked,
“Big Brother… did you really betray the country?”
Chu Linzhang shook his head.
“When someone wishes to accuse you, they’ll always find a reason.”
Chu Lin’an nodded.
“Then I believe you.”
“What did you need me for?”
“I’m thirsty.”
“Please fetch me some water.”
“And help clean my wounds.”
Unable to move, Chu Linzhang naturally needed someone to care for him.
Even as a cripple…
…he still wanted to remain as clean as possible.
Chu Lin’an nodded and headed toward the stream with a waterskin.
Hua Zhiyun wandered over, munching on a cucumber.
“You trust him?”
Chu Linzhang lowered his eyes without answering.
Crunch.
She took another loud bite.
“Aren’t you afraid he’ll betray you?”
Instead of replying, Chu Linzhang lifted his gaze.
“Could you let me have a bite of that cucumber?”
His eyes shifted from her amused expression to the crisp cucumber she had already bitten several times.
Just hearing the crunch made it sound delicious.
“My things aren’t free.”
Hua Zhiyun deliberately took another huge bite.
Her cheeks puffed out adorably as she chewed with obvious enjoyment.
To someone starving…
…it was pure torture.
“If you’re willing…”
Chu Linzhang stared directly at her.
“…I’ll repay you with my body.”
If not for the redness creeping onto his ears, one might have thought he said it without embarrassment.
Hua Zhiyun looked utterly disgusted.
“You think I’ll take just any man?”
“You’re too ugly.”
“I can’t bring myself to kiss that face.”
If he had been handsome…
She might have considered it.
Unfortunately, aside from those eyes, not a single patch of healthy skin remained on his face.
It was a bloody mess.
Hard to look at.
Chu Linzhang instinctively thought of the punishment he’d suffered.
The branded character on his face had completely ruined his once-handsome appearance.
“You don’t want me to starve to death, do you?”
“Otherwise…”
“Why did you save me?”
His tone became almost flattering.
“Miss Hua is incredibly capable.”
“You’ve even managed to control the guards.”
“Protecting me would be effortless for someone like you.”
“‘Miss Hua?'”
Hua Zhiyun clenched her fists.
“Of all things to imitate, you had to copy the Japanese way of speaking?”
“So the mighty Prince Chu has abandoned even his dignity for a bite of food?”
Chu Linzhang answered calmly,
“If I can live…”
“…what is dignity worth?”
After being dragged into the dust, he understood one thing.
Either live.
Or die.
He refused to die.
So he would live.
The woman before him was the only lifeline he could grasp.
He had to hold onto it.
If someone had told him three days ago that a proud, six-foot-tall man would lower himself before a woman just for a mouthful of food…
He would have called that person insane.
Now…
Chu Linzhang thought…
The cucumber smelled wonderful.
One bite would be enough.
Ever since she had told him she could save his life…
Ever since he had swallowed that mysterious crystal without hesitation…
He had ceased to be the old Chu Linzhang.
“Since we’re husband and wife in name…”
“I’ll reward you.”
Hua Zhiyun admired how flexible he could be when necessary.
Out of kindness…
She left him the tiny butt end of the cucumber.
The part that tasted bland.
The part nobody would miss throwing away.
Chu Linzhang: “…”