Lin Qu was different from his parents. His mouth could chatter on endlessly, often driving Old Mrs. Lin to the point of smoke coming out of her ears.
While Xu Qiu could easily fool Lin Qu’s parents, he certainly could not fool Lin Qu himself.
Lin Qu trotted to catch up with Xu Qiu, who stopped as he saw him approaching.
“What is it? Is something the matter?”
Lin Qu took a stealthy, deep breath, his voice carrying a slight, nervous tremble. “You can’t keep doing that.”
“Huh?” Xu Qiu asked, puzzled.
Lin Qu said, “Going up the mountain by yourself is very dangerous.”
He stared at Xu Qiu with stubborn eyes, as if determined to get an answer out of him. “If, if you keep doing this, I’m going to tell Auntie Li.”
This Auntie Li naturally referred to Xu Qiu’s mother, Li.
Lin Qu knew that he and Xu Qiu had no real relation and weren’t close companions or friends. To rush over uninvited and say such things was extremely unwelcome. It was even quite likely that by interfering with Xu Qiu’s plans, he would cause Xu Qiu to feel resentment toward him; after all, no one liked someone meddling and threatening to tell on them out of nowhere.
Still, he couldn’t bring himself to just stand by and watch Xu Qiu walk alone into those dangerous, deep mountains.
“You might feel like going up alone gives you more freedom right now, but it’s dangerous, and you could lose your life in an instant without a warning. I often work around that area, and I’ll be keeping an eye on you. If you go up by yourself again, I really will tell Auntie Li.”
He repeated himself stubbornly.
In fact, tears were already swirling in the corners of his eyes.
Xu Qiu looked at him in silence, his heart feeling rather heavy. It wasn’t because of what Lin Qu had just said, but because he could tell that Lin Qu genuinely liked him.
Those dark, bright, clean eyes looked straight at him with undeniable clarity.
Finally, he leaned down and picked up a stone from the ground. “I don’t go up the mountain alone because I’m tired of living. I do it because I have the ability to handle it.”
As the words fell, he opened his hand to let Lin Qu see the pebble that had already been crushed into fine powder in his palm.
Initially, he had planned to just use his bow and arrow. After all, the entire village knew his archery was exceptionally accurate, capable of shooting down birds flying in the sky. At the same time, however, the whole village also knew he was sickly and assumed he lacked physical strength.
So he had considered shooting an arrow straight through a tree to prove a point, which would have been quite convincing.
If an arrow could pierce a thick tree like that, it could certainly do the same to any wild beast.
Whatever beast crossed his path could get its skull pierced right through.
However, since they were still near the village, trees growing on the edge of someone’s land were implicitly owned by them. If he dared to shoot straight through a tree of that size, he could guarantee someone would be knocking on their door to make trouble shortly after. Thus, Xu Qiu had to silently switch to a different method.
Lin Qu’s jaw dropped in shock, his eyes blinking rapidly as he stared at Xu Qiu’s hand. “Did you just turn a stone into dust?”
Wasn’t he seeing things?
Xu Qiu picked up another pebble and repeated the demonstration.
Then he said, “I’m not as frail as you think. The only reason I go up the mountain alone is because I can take care of myself. I’m a medical apprentice, and I know how to handle the poisonous insects and pests on the mountain.”
“W, well, what if something happens and you can’t even call for help?” Lin Qu murmured in a low voice.
Yet he also knew that arguing further would just be being overly stubborn.
So he clamped his mouth shut.
“I get it. I won’t tell on you anymore.”
The most he could do was pay closer attention. If Xu Qiu went up the mountain and didn’t come back down after a long while, he would just have to send someone up after him.
Xu Qiu had actually heard what he muttered, but since Lin Qu himself had dropped the point, there was no need to keep holding onto it. “Most of the time, I’ll still go up with other people, so you don’t need to worry too much.”
Wanting to go up alone was simply for the convenience of tossing items into his private space whenever he pleased.
Even so, it didn’t have to be that way every single time. The mountain paths were long, and having someone accompany him along the way to chat made the trip much more pleasant.
He wasn’t an antisocial person, after all.
Hearing Xu Qiu’s gentle gaze and reassuring words telling him not to worry, Lin Qu’s entire face instantly flushed bright red. He stammered, “Th, that’s good then. I, I’ll head back now. There’s still work to be done in the fields.”
Without waiting to see Xu Qiu’s reaction, he turned around and bolted.
His two legs moved at top speed.
Watching the boy’s retreating figure, Xu Qiu couldn’t help a soft chuckle before turning to leave as well.
Walking back, he spotted Lin Qiong’s figure in the distance. As he drew closer, Xu Qiu offered a brief greeting, but seeing Lin Qiong nod with a haughty and disdainful expression, he said nothing more and simply walked past.
When he reached the home of the old doctor who taught him medicine, the courtyard gate was unlocked, but the old man was absent, presumably out making a house call. The old doctor possessed fine medical skills, and across several neighboring villages, he was the only physician. Town pharmacies were expensive, whereas gathering herbs themselves made his treatments much cheaper, so most villagers chose to invite the old doctor to their homes when illness struck.
The old doctor genuinely enjoyed healing people, so being out of the house every few days was a regular occurrence.
Even so, he never bothered to lock his door, largely because Xu Qiu frequented the place, and the old man always returned by nightfall, making locks unnecessary. In the village, people generally only latched their front doors loosely and didn’t pay much attention to such precautions.
The old doctor’s courtyard was filled mostly with medicinal herbs, with nothing of high value kept inside. Furthermore, since he was the local healer, no one would ever dare steal from him.
Everyone in the village kept watch out for each other.
Xu Qiu walked in, processed the herbs he had brought back, and then grabbed a broom and cloth to help tidy up the place for the old man before heading home.
Back at home, Li had already returned.
Seeing him, she beckoned him over. “Mother went over to the Lin family today and told Third Uncle Lin’s family that your engagement is officially called off.”
Xu Qiu asked, “Did they agree?”
Li let out a cold snort. “Of course they didn’t want to agree. But I made it crystal clear that this marriage was completely impossible. They can come up with whatever excuse they want on their end, but they are not allowed to push the blame onto you. Besides, crafty as they are, coming up with a decent cover story shouldn’t be too hard for them.”
Part of the reason was that Lin Qiong’s fondness for Xu Qiu was an open secret in the village; otherwise, they might have used some excuse about brotherhood or the like.
While Li spoke with utter indifference, Lin Lao-san and his wife were not taking it nearly as lightly.
Breaking an engagement wasn’t like buying vegetables at the market; it wasn’t something you could casually go back on, especially since their son had constantly chased after Xu Qiu. Now that the match was suddenly gone, everyone knew it was their family’s fault. The couple had sharp tongues and had offended plenty of people over the years, meaning there were plenty of villagers waiting to watch them make a fool of themselves.
Moreover, thinking about how much their son liked Xu Qiu gave the couple an even worse headache.
Holed up in their room, the two of them furiously cursed Li out from head to toe.
Once the venting was done, the problem still needed solving. Zhao, Lin Lao-san’s wife, spoke up. “Third Brother, what should we do about this engagement? Looking at Li, she’s dead set on calling it off.”
“What can we do? What else is there?” Lin Lao-san sat on the edge of the bed with a dark expression. “We stall for now and figure it out later. Judging by Li’s attitude, she probably won’t go around spreading rumors outside just yet. If worst comes to worst, we’ll just create a fait accompli; let’s see what they can say then.”
Although behind closed doors they frequently muttered about how Xu Qiu’s health was weak, and harbored grandiose fantasies that their son was truly blessed and could marry into an even better family in the future.
In reality, both of them knew very well that Xu Qiu was the absolute best option available.
So what if he couldn’t do heavy physical labor? Xu Qiu had genuine skills of his own. Having studied medicine under the village’s old doctor since childhood, and with the old man frequently letting Xu Qiu write prescriptions for patients over the past two years, it was obvious he had truly mastered the craft. Furthermore, Zhao and Li used to be close friends, meaning Zhao had spent plenty of time quietly probing into Xu Qiu’s background and understood him thoroughly.
Once their son married into that family, he would undoubtedly live a life of ease and comfort.
“Fine,” Zhao muttered with bitter resentment, cursing Li once more for good measure.
She couldn’t even imagine what kind of a scene Lin Qiong would make once he found out about this.
The two of them shared a tacit understanding and kept the news strictly under wraps, making sure no one else found out.