Chapter 001 Rain Bell (I)
The sky was dark and windy, and the lanterns were wet with fog.
The young man knelt with his clothes hanging down, accompanied by the crackling of raindrops outside the door. A long whip hit his back hard, and the fabric of his clothes was soaked with blood. The veins on the side of his neck bulged slightly, but he still endured it without saying a word.
"How could I raise a brat like you! Ni Qinglan, tell me, have you forgotten all the family rules passed down by our ancestors?" Another whip came.
"I forgot, but I haven't forgotten everything."
The boy's words were inconsistent with his serious voice.
Ni Zhun, who was in a rage, turned even more : "What did you say? Do you know what people say about you? They say you and He Liu are having an affair, and that you two are secretly giving things away! You have brought shame to our Ni family!"
"He Liu is over thirty years old, and our Lan'er is only sixteen. My Lord, do you believe those rumors? He Liu has been in poor health since giving birth, and has had frequent lochia. Her husband's family is unwilling to seek medical treatment or medicine for her, so there is nothing we can do..."
"What a good son you have taught me!"
Cen walked in through the door, her skirt barely brushing the threshold. Before she could finish her words, Ni Zhun turned around and glared at her, "He is a man, but he is trying to get involved in gynecology. Now he even dares to diagnose He Liu while I am away. He completely ignores the strict rules between men and women! Now the He family is going to sue him, saying that he is having an affair with He Liu!"
Ni Zhun's furious roar almost drowned out the thunder in the sky. The little girl who was blocked outside the door by the maid saw Cen's thin apricot yellow skirt slightly lifted. Cen's tone was calm: "Haven't you already made arrangements with the county magistrate?"
"Zishuk!"
Ni Zhun seemed to be unable to bear it any longer, unable to face the identical attitudes of the mother and son, "Do you know that his reputation has been ruined because he treated Mrs. He Liu?"
"Is it a doctor's duty to watch someone die without rescuing them?"
Ni Zhun had just finished speaking when he heard the young man behind him speak again. Ni Zhun turned around and whipped him several times with the whip. The sound of the whip rubbed against the eardrums of the girl near the door, but she did not hear any sound from Ni Qinglan.
Cen found her and glanced at the maid at the door. The maid immediately stepped out of the door, picked up the girl, and walked into the courtyard before she opened the umbrella. The sound of hurried footsteps stepping on the rain was getting closer and closer. The maid looked up and found that it was the old eunuch. He covered his head with one hand and hurried over. Before he even went up the stairs, he shouted: "Master! Something happened!"
Ni Zhun was furious and turned around to curse: "This family really has no rules at all!"
"My Lord..."
The old eunuch shuddered and pulled back his hand, raindrops hitting his face. "The servant who went out to buy incense and candles said that He Liu couldn't bear the humiliation from her husband's family, so she jumped into the river and committed suicide!"
At this sound, Ni Zhun's hand trembled and the whip fell to the ground.
The night rain was getting heavier. Unable to bear the rain and dew, a few cicadas fell under the shade of the trees, unable to make any sound.
The girl turned around and looked at the young man covered in blood in the ancestral hall. Beads of sweat were forming on his temples and nose. The candlelight reflected his stunned expression.
After a long silence, Ni Zhun looked at Ni Qinglan who was kneeling on the ground again. The anger on his face had disappeared, replaced by a helpless mockery: "Boy, take a good look at it. Do you think you are saving her or harming her by pretending to be a doctor?"
Ni Zhun hit him repeatedly but he didn't have the strength to hit him anymore.
The night rain was not quiet. Ni Qinglan knelt in the ancestral hall for half the night. His knees were numb and he had little feeling left. Suddenly he heard a "creaking" sound. He came back to his senses and turned his head to glance casually. The usually serious boy couldn't help but twitch the corners of his lips slightly.
The little girl didn't have the strength to push the heavy wooden door open completely, so she could only squeeze in sideways through the not-so-wide gap.
She came here in the middle of the night, and the laces of her coat were tied incorrectly. Ni Qinglan raised her hand towards her: "A Xi, come here."
Ni Su immediately ran up to him obediently and called in a low voice: "Brother."
Ni Qinglan said absentmindedly, "Hmm," and while retying her belt for her, he said, "Why are you here instead of sleeping? Didn't you say there are a lot of ghosts in the ancestral hall? Are you scared?"
"So I came to accompany my brother."
Ni Su pulled over a cushion and squeezed in to sit next to him, not daring to look at the rows of black tablets behind the altar.
"Brother, does it hurt?"
She looked at the bloodstains on Ni Qinglan's back.
"If it doesn't hurt, it's a ghost." Ni Qinglan was mature beyond his years. He took out a piece of sesame candy wrapped in oil paper from his sleeve and handed it to her. "Take this and go back."
Ni Su took the sesame candy, but cut it in two, stuffed one piece into his mouth, and put the small pillow she brought under his knees.
"You usually hate hard pillows. How could you be willing to give me this one that suits your taste?" Ni Qinglan felt comforted and reached out to touch her head.
"My brother is in trouble, so I'm willing to help him."
Ni Su looked up at him and said, "Mother Qian said that if you admit your mistakes, you won't be beaten."
Mother Qian was a maid serving Ni Su.
"Ah Xi also thinks that I was wrong to save people that day?" Ni Qinglan ate half a piece of sesame candy, and his throat was hoarse as he hadn't taken any water in several hours.
On the day when Ni Qinglan went out of the city to provide free medical treatment to the people in the nearby villages, He Liushi staggered to stop his carriage on the mountain path. The woman cried so hard and was in great pain that she kept shouting, "Sir, save me!"
Every step she took was stained with blood. Ni Su saw the blood trail behind her in the car and was so scared that she couldn't even eat the cake that was fed to her.
"She was in a lot of pain, but my brother looked after her and gave her some bitter medicine, and she felt better."
Ni Su remembered that the woman was so happy holding the bitter medicine in her hands, as if she was drinking honey water.
"But Ah Xi,"
Raindrops hit the window, and Ni Qinglan's voice became more confused. "Did you hear it today? She jumped into the river and committed suicide."
After all, he is still a sixteen-year-old boy, and Ni Qinglan cannot find a straightforward solution when facing such things.
"She's not in pain anymore, why should she die?"
Ni Su was only eight or nine years old and could not yet understand the true meaning of the word "death". However, she knew that when people died, they would become those thin, dark tablets behind the altar in the ancestral hall, with only names but no voice or appearance.
"Because I am a man, I am here to diagnose the secret illness of a woman for He Liu."
"But why can't men diagnose women?" Ni Su asked in confusion, holding her face with her hands on her knees.
It’s not that we can’t diagnose diseases, it’s that we can’t diagnose hidden diseases.
But Ni Qinglan had no intention of telling his younger sister about this. He lowered his eyelids, and the shadows of the trees in the courtyard fell on the floor tiles in front of him through the window screen: "Who knows why."
The rain continued to pour down without stopping.
Ni Su looked at his brother's profile and stood up suddenly.
Ni Qinglan raised her eyes and met her little sister's clear and innocent eyes. She was so small, and the shadow of the lamp fell on her shoulders. She said crisply: "Brother, I am a girl. If I learn the skills of our family like you, can I make them not feel pain and not die?"
they.
Ni Qinglan was stunned.
In the ancestral hall on a rainy night, the young man examined his little sister's tender and innocent face. He raised the corner of his lips slightly and rubbed her head: "If Ah Xi had this ambition, they would not feel any pain and would not die."
The sound of rain gradually subsided, and there was a sound of knocking on the window. Ni Su woke up with sweat on her temples.
"Miss, did I wake you up?" The maid Xingzhu, who had just closed the red window, turned around and said softly, "It's snowing outside. I was afraid that the cold air would get into the house. It would be bad if you caught a cold."
The New Year has just passed, and although it is early spring, the weather has not yet warmed up.
Seeing Ni Su curled up in the quilt without answering, Xingzhu went to the bedside and asked with concern: "What's wrong with the girl?"
"I dreamed about my brother."
Ni Su seemed to have just come to her senses. She rubbed her eyes and sat up.
Xingzhu hurriedly took clothes from the wooden pallet to serve Ni Su, "It has been two months since the winter exam. With our husband's ability, he will definitely pass this time. Maybe the news will be delivered soon!"
It took more than two months to travel from Yunjing to Que County, and the news did not come quickly. Ni Qinglan had been away from Que County for nearly half a year, and he had only sent two letters home.
After dressing neatly and washing up, Ni Su just left the room. The old housekeeper came hunched over from the moon-shaped door with green branches wrapped around it, not even bothering to wipe the sweat off her face. "Miss, the second master and his men are here. Madam asked you to stay in the room."
After that, he waved his hand and asked the servant to put the food box into Xingzhu's hand, and then said, "Madam will not have breakfast with you."
"What are you doing here at this time, Master?" Xingzhu frowned and muttered.
The old lady knew that she only listened to the lady's words. When Ni Su saw that he didn't say anything, she knew that her second uncle had come with bad intentions, otherwise her mother would not have asked her to stay in the room and not go out.
Green bamboos stood alone beside the courtyard wall, spring snow fell through the hall like fine dust. Cen sat upright in the hall, and the maid Qian Mama beside her brought her a bowl of tea at the right time. She took it but did not drink it, the bowl warmed her palms, and her voice was cold and calm: "It's early in the morning, and the weather is cold . My second brother brought a large family to my widow's courtyard, but he felt sorry for the loneliness here and wanted to make it more lively?"
"Sister-in-law, we are busy with current affairs at the end of the year and haven't had the chance to get together as a family. How about we come together today to make up for the New Year? What do you think?" Ni Zong, the second master of the Ni family, rolled his eyes but said nothing. Liu, who was sitting next to him holding a tea bowl, always had a smiling face. She couldn't bear to see the room become so cold, so she spoke in a friendly manner. But when she turned around, she saw Ni Zong glaring at her fiercely.
Liu was stunned for a moment, lowered her head and said nothing.
Cen looked at them coldly and spoke slowly, "I always eat light food here, and I don't have any good food prepared. I don't know if you can get used to it, my sister-in-law."
Liu looked at Ni Zong, wondering whether she should respond, but then she saw Ni Zong stand up and put down his tea bowl, "Sister-in-law, why don't you see my little niece?"
"The girl had a fever before dawn. She took medicine and is still sleeping now," said Mother Qian.
"Fever?"
Ni Zong stroked his beard and said, "What a coincidence. She fell ill as soon as we arrived."
"What are you talking about, Master?" Madam Qian took Cen's bowl of lukewarm tea and said, "If the young lady wasn't ill, she would definitely come out to meet the guests."
The word "meet guests" is meant to remind Ni Zong that their second branch and the first branch had already separated.
Ni Zong snorted coldly and glared at her, but said to Cen, "Sister-in-law, if you ask me, you are too kind and lenient. Not only are the old servants around you unruly, but even my niece is becoming more and more outrageous."
"Do you know what Ni Su did outside?" Ni Zong took a few steps back and forth, "She associated with those low-class women! Who is our family? What is her status? She doesn't know how to cherish herself. Sister-in-law, if the news gets out, how will outsiders view our Ni family?"
"Second Master, please provide evidence when you speak. Don't slander our girl like this." Mrs. Cen didn't say anything, so Mother Qian, who was standing next to her, had to speak again.
"Who insulted her for no reason? Sister-in-law, you can just ask her to come out and ask her if she went to Zaohua Village yesterday? And whether she was in a farmer's house with the maid to help a farmer's wife give birth?" Ni Zong ignored the old servant and stared at Cen. "Sister-in-law, I would say that a daughter born to a concubine is not worthy of your protection. You only took her into your family after her mother died . Do you really treat her as your own flesh and blood?"
