Chapter 008 Linjiangxian (Part 2)
Ni Su had never been as miserable as he was now. He lived in a dilapidated temple, curled up in a haystack, and quietly endured the long night with the dry grass as his pillow.
Ni Su stared at the lonely white candle on the ground, and couldn't help but recall that in the strange books he had read before, there were almost no ghosts that did not eat incense and candles, or absorb essence.
But he is not like that.
When he turned over, the hay beneath him rustled again. Ni Su saw that the man outside the door had sat down on the steps without him knowing when. His back was as lonely as a bamboo, sometimes thick and sometimes thin, as if he would blend into the mountain mist at any time.
Unconsciously, Ni Su seemed to have taken a light sleep, or just closed her eyes for a while in a daze. When the sky turned light and the morning light spread over her eyelids, she opened her eyes vigilantly.
There was a light mist in the early morning, and there was a moist air. Ni Su stepped out of the temple gate and looked around, but she did not see the man who was sitting alone on the steps last night. From time to time, a breeze brushed her cheek. Ni Su heard the sound of the horse's breathing, and she immediately went down to unload the horse.
In the carriage was the luggage that Qian's mother had packed for Ni Su, including her jewelry, clothes, the books she often read, and the ink she often used, but it was not convenient to carry them with her at the moment.
Ni Zong would never let her go easily, so Ni Su didn't plan to look for a driver again. It would be better to travel light and hide all these things for the time being.
She only brought important medical books, the Jiaozi given to her by Cen, and a pair of gold needles.
There were also horse racing venues in Que County, and Ni Su had been there with Ni Qinglan. However, at that time, she only watched Ni Qinglan and his friends who studied and socialized with him ride horses, and she had never actually ridden one herself.
She remembered her brother stepping on the stirrup and jumping onto the horse in one go, but when she tried to do the same, the horse did not cooperate. Its tail wagged back and forth and its hooves stamped anxiously.
Ni Su was unable to get up or down in the stirrups, and her temples were covered with sweat. The woods were rustling with sound, and she suddenly felt a breeze blowing, easily carrying her to the horse's back.
The golden light of the morning sun was scattered. A young and pale man stood by. Noticing her gaze, he gently raised his eyes, which were much clearer than last night. His slender finger bones held the reins and his hand gently stroked the horse's mane. "Horses are spiritual animals. If you want to control them, you have to get close to them."
Ni Su said nothing. He just stroked the horse gently and pulled the reins forward. The horse actually seemed to be less anxious and followed him obediently.
For some reason, when Ni Su saw him stroking the horse's mane, she sensed something different about him, as if this was an action he had repeated countless times.
He led the horse to a place with lush grass. Ni Su saw the horse impatiently lowering its head to eat the weeds, and then she realized that she had not fed it from last night to this morning.
Ni Su held the reins he handed over and said, "Thank you."
In the early morning, there were always a few farmers from the nearby villages going up the mountain to chop firewood. Ni Su rode her horse slowly on the mountain path and met an old man. After she asked a few simple questions, she realized that she had indeed taken the wrong road.
On the way to Qiao Town, Ni Su gradually learned the basics of riding a horse. Although she didn't dare to ride too fast, she didn't ride too slowly either. She didn't stay in Qiao Town for long. She just bought some dry food and continued on her way.
The recent death of her mother weighed heavily on Ni Su's heart, and the news that her brother might be suffering from soul-leaving syndrome made her almost breathless. Ni Su wished she could work day and night and rush to Yunjing as soon as possible.
But it was difficult to travel at night. When Ni Su was sitting by the stream eating dry and hard bread, he was picked up by a peasant woman who had returned from the mountain from collecting firewood and was taken home.
"You're lucky to be here at a good time, girl. The daughter-in-law next door is giving birth right now, and we might have to set up a banquet tonight." The peasant woman didn't have much tea at home, so she used a gourd ladle to scoop a bowl of water for her.
Ni Su thanked him and gave all the sesame candies she had on her to the little girl in the peasant woman's family. The little girl was in the period of changing teeth, and when she received the sesame candies, she smiled brightly at Ni Su, revealing her gums with two missing front teeth.
"Eternal life? Immortality..."
A trembling old woman came out of the door, her cloudy eyes looking somewhere unknown, calling a name over and over again.
The peasant woman quickly put down the work in her hands, and while coaxing the old woman gently, she sent her back to the room. After a long time, she came out again.
"My husband was washed away while repairing the river embankment last year. My mother-in-law was so shocked that she often forgets that her son is gone." The peasant woman smiled and took the initiative to talk about the family affairs.
Seeing that Ni Su didn't know what to say, the peasant woman said while doing her embroidery, "Fortunately, Mr. Meng was still an official here last year, so the pension issued by the court was not embezzled by those damn people, and I didn't have to remarry to get some betrothal money to support my mother-in-law."
Ni Su had heard of Mr. Meng.
Meng Yunxian was born in the military, but later became a civil servant, gaining a place in the Great Qi Dynasty where scholars ruled the country. In his early years, he was promoted to deputy prime minister and was in charge of the New Deal. However, fourteen years ago, the New Deal was abolished, and Meng Yunxian was dismissed from his post and demoted to the small Wen County.
"Sister Jiang, is Mr. Meng not in Wen County this year?" Ni Su asked, holding the bowl.
"I just left a few months ago. I heard that the emperor changed his mind and recalled Mr. Meng to Yunjing. It seems that he will be formally appointed as prime minister this time." Madam Jiang sometimes went to the restaurants and teahouses in Wen County to find some dishwasher work. She heard these things from those crowded places.
The sun was scorching, but there was a gentle breeze under the dense green shade. The sunlight passed through the gaps between the branches and leaves and fell on Xu Hexue's shoulders.
The three words "Mr. Meng" fell into his ears and he opened his eyes.
The cicadas are too close and the noise is incessant.
"Zhang Chongzhi, he is your student. You should know him better than I do. Even if you let him kneel and die here today, I am afraid it will be difficult to change his mind! A fledgling bird has wings and wants to go against the torrent. Even if you are the teacher, how can you stop it?"
On a summer
The noise under the tree brought Xu Hexue back to his senses. He raised his eyes and saw the young girl who was sitting at the table just now hurriedly put down her bowl and ran to the house opposite with Madam Jiang.
Ni Su did not wait for the banquet because the daughter-in-law of that family had difficulty in giving birth. After hearing the neighbors gathered at the opposite door talking about it, Ni Su followed Madam Jiang over.
Hearing the mother-in-law in the room exclaim "Not good", the husband of the woman in labor immediately panicked and hurried to ask for a doctor, but was stopped by his mother: "Son, how can you let those doctors in to see your wife?"
"But Yue Niang..." The man was stopped by his old mother. He was sweating profusely. "But what about Yue Niang? What about my son?"
"I'll go and take a look."
Ni Su didn't intend to watch their family's tangled drama any longer, so he rolled up his sleeves, said something, and went into the room with washed hands.
Everyone looked at each other, and couldn't remember who the girl was.
"Madam Jiang, who is that girl?"
Someone saw that she came with Madam Jiang, so they came up to Madam Jiang and asked.
"This," Madam Jiang rubbed her temples with the back of her hand. She had just picked up a girl on the street, so she had no time to ask about her family. "Her surname is Ni, and she passed by here."
A woman who had followed in ran out and said, "She looks like a medicine woman!"
What? Medicine lady?
Everyone looked at each other again. Madam Jiang was also surprised and said, "How can the medicine lady be so young? She looks like a girl of fifteen or sixteen."
Her behavior doesn't seem like that of an ordinary farmer's child, but more like that of a down-and-out lady. But which lady would do the work of a medicine woman?
It was getting dark. The people outside waited for a long time before they heard a baby crying. The husband of the woman in labor finally relaxed the tension in his mind and turned back to stare at the door.
The old woman pushed the door open and came out, carefully protecting a baby in her arms. She glanced at the old woman first, then walked up to the man with a smile and said, "Sun's eldest son, it's a daughter."
After hearing this, the man was fine, and carefully took the baby from the old woman's hands to look at it. But the old woman frowned, slammed her cane hard, and glanced at the door: "What's the point of having a daughter!"
The neighbors pretended not to hear anything, but the old woman's voice was quite loud. The young wife who had just survived a near-death experience heard it and started to shed tears. Her pale lips trembled slightly, "Thank you for saving my life, young lady."
"You should have a good rest."
There was no clean water in the house. Ni Su's hands were covered in blood and her clothes were stained with blood. She glanced at the woman on the couch and walked out the door. She heard the old woman still mumbling about her dislike for the baby girl in her son's arms, so she said, "Isn't the lady also a woman?"
The old woman narrowed her eyes and looked at her. At first, she was frightened by the blood on her hands, but then she looked at her carefully. Her eyebrows and eyes were neat, and her clothes seemed to be made of good material. She had three buns on her head. Although she had no ornaments to complement her hair, it made the woman look even more clean and elegant.
"Oh, Miss Ni, please come back to my house and take a shower!" Madam Jiang knew the old woman's temper. Seeing that the old woman's face looked increasingly unpleasant, she hurriedly helped Ni Su through the crowd.
"Why is she a medicine woman at such a young age..."
The old woman snorted coldly behind him, staring at Ni Su's back and muttering softly.
"Mother, I saved Yue Niang and your granddaughter's lives, so stop talking!" The man hugged his daughter and sighed helplessly.
"Miss, go wash your hands and change your clothes. It doesn't matter if you can't have his meal. I will prepare a meal for you!" Madam Jiang brought Ni Su back to the yard and pushed her into the side room.
Ni Su had helped peasant women give birth more than once, so she certainly knew that there was an unwritten rule that even if the daughter-in-law in the family gave birth, the "sixth mother-in-law" and the like would not be invited to the banquet or meals.
Ni Su didn't care. She went into the room and washed her hands. She was about to untie her belt, but suddenly stopped. Then she looked around and asked tentatively: "You...are you here?"
Mrs. Jiang's daughter was playing with stones in the yard when she suddenly heard a gust of wind. She raised her head and saw the branches and leaves of the big tree in her yard shaking. A wisp of light smoke floated out from under the shade of the tree, fell into the light of the lantern, and disappeared.
Ni Su in the room didn't hear any noise, so she felt relieved and pulled down her belt, but she heard a "clang" and the wooden stool fell to the ground.
She was startled. Through the simple screen, she vaguely saw a shadow standing beside the table. His behavior was a little strange, and there seemed to be something wrong with his eyes.
Ni Su retied her belt and walked closer with the light. As expected, she saw that his eyes were empty and lifeless. She stretched out her hand and waved it in front of his eyes, and his shadow swayed with it, but his eyelashes did not move and he showed no reaction.
"Your eyes..."
Ni Su was stunned.
He could still see clearly during the day, but thinking back to the night he encountered the bandits, he seemed to be unable to see outside the car either. Ni Su suddenly realized, "Could it be that he has night blindness?"
But ghosts can also suffer from night blindness?
Xu Hexue did not answer, but Ni Su saw that when he raised his hand, a breeze blew and the candle in her hand went out. The room became much darker, with only the light from the lantern outside the eaves coming in along the window lattice.
Xu Hexue remained motionless in the deep shadows. When he smelled the smoke from the extinguished candle, he said, "Light it."
Ni Su didn't understand, but she still took out a fire starter from her bag, relit the candle and put it on the table. Then she looked up and met his eyes.
The spring sunshine is reflected on the water, clear and cool.
"You..." Ni Su looked at him in surprise for a moment, then looked at the candle, and then at her own hands.
She finally understood.
It turned out that only when she lit the lamp herself could he see at night.
"Are all of you ghosts like this?"
Ni Su just felt it was weird.
"My eyes were injured when I was alive, and I can't see at night unless you light the lamp." Xu Hexue said calmly.
He was originally a disabled soul. Unless he returned to the underworld, he would not be able to see anything at night without the necromancer lighting a lamp himself.
Ni Su was stunned for a moment, and after a long while, she suddenly blew out the candle.
Without any warning, Xu Hexue's eyes turned dark again.
"I'll light the lamp for you later."
Ni Su said this and walked back behind the screen.
When Xu Hexue heard the friction of clothes, he probably realized what she was doing. His long eyelashes drooped and he turned his back.
"You didn't have to suffer all that criticism."
Ni Su had just taken off her bloodstained clothes when she heard his voice from behind the screen. Realizing what he was talking about, she turned around and saw him standing in the shadow through the gap, like a pine branch covered with frost and snow.
"It's not the first time I've heard these words, but the women I've saved have never looked down on me. They regarded me as their lifeline, and I was happy to be their lifeline. As for what others say, I can't control their mouths. I just hope that I behave properly and have a clear conscience."
