Chapter 044: Picking Mulberries (I)
My brother was smiling.
But in Ni Su's memory, her brother actually didn't smile often. He was a bit like her father, and showed his serious nature when he was young. On the days when her father was devoted to studying family knowledge and seeing patients, it was always her brother who controlled Ni Su's behavior, taught her to identify herbs, and taught her the principles of life.
Ni Su once thought that if she ever did something wrong or took a wrong path in this life, she wouldn't have to worry because her brother would discipline her and pull her back.
He is Ni Su's closest blood brother, and also her teacher who guides and encourages her to stick to her ambitions. From childhood to adulthood, it was he who made Ni Su understand that as a woman, she might be able to live her life in a different way.
Don’t be a caged bird trapped in the inner house, be a flying oriole with spread wings.
Ni Su wiped away her tears vigorously, hoping to see her brother more clearly, but she saw that his figure made up of soul fire gradually faded. She reached out to touch it helplessly, but the soul fire shattered and dissipated faster.
"Ah Xi , my brother is proud of you."
The flowing light was absorbed by the beast bead, leaving only Ni Qinglan's voice resounding in her dream.
Ni Su opened her eyes. The gray morning light had already filled the lattice windows of the room. She stared blankly at the curtains above, and after a long time she slowly touched her wet face.
She remembered her brother's disappearance last night, remembered that the beast bead flew back into Xu Ziling's hands, and she was helped to the bed by him, and she wrapped herself in his quilt and cried for a long time.
Later, the entire dream was filled with my brother's voice and appearance.
Ni Su touched the pillow and felt it was a little wet. She raised her red and swollen eyes and saw that the green gauze curtain had been lowered at some point. There was a figure sitting at the desk outside, and the sound of turning pages was deliberately cautious. If you didn't listen carefully, you wouldn't be able to hear it.
" Xu Ziling."
Ni Su spoke with a heavy nasal tone.
The man behind the desk paused in turning the pages of the book and stood up immediately. Perhaps it was because he had been severely punished for performing magic to help her ward off punishment at Dengwen Drum Court before, and the incense and candles in the past few months had not yet repaired his soul and body well, so he still had to hold on to the corner of the desk when he stood up, and it was a little difficult for him to stand up, but his steps towards the curtain were faster.
"What's wrong?"
Ni Su saw the hand he used to lift the curtain. Although it was pale, the light blue and slightly bulging veins looked no different from those of an ordinary person, and even every inch of his bones looked beautiful.
He changed into a light blue round-necked robe. The white collar of his undershirt made him look like a green pine covered with snow, and his eyes were cold and clear.
"You sat there all night?"
Ni Su saw that he was still holding a book in his hand.
"I don't get tired in the flesh, and even when I close my eyes, I'm not sleeping."
When he transforms into a ghost, he loses some of his five senses as a human. The reason why he has the sense of pain is just to make it convenient for Tu Bo to use it as a punishment for him.
But human sleep, human food, and all the things that support a person's survival actually have nothing to do with him.
He closed his eyes a lot, just trying to recall his memories as a human.
Ni Su watched him put down the book and light the stove to make tea. She suddenly realized that the room was warm. She looked down and saw that the charcoal brazier not far away was burning red.
I don't know how many times he added charcoal that night.
"I haven't thanked you yet for letting me see my brother for the last time."
Ni Su hid in the quilt and looked at him.
Xu Hexue shook his head. "Tu Bo left this beast bead for you as a thank you. If it weren't for the beast bead, I wouldn't be able to help you."
"What did he do to thank me? Burn winter clothes for you? Call you back?"
"Um."
"But," Ni Su found that he could not even remember the face of the old monk with curly white beard in the cypress forest at the Big Bell Temple in Que County, "Why did he go to so much trouble to help you come back?"
Chance is a wonderful thing. For example, if she had not met Xu Ziling, she might have gone to the capital alone. Perhaps she would have died under the cane and would never have seen her deceased brother again.
So, what is Xu Ziling's opportunity?
Xu Hexue paused after hearing that. His eyes dropped to the table. After a moment, he said, "Because what I want is also what he wants."
The souls trapped in the Pagoda in Youdu cross the River of Hate to the east every year on the occasion of their release, but in the past hundred years, only a few have been able to cross the River of Hate.
If you don't cross the water of hatred, it will be difficult to eliminate resentment and you can only be imprisoned in a pagoda, with hatred and resentment year after year.
But this is not a good thing for Youdu.
If resentment and hatred fill the underworld, all living souls will suffer from it.
"That,"
Ni Su asked softly, almost tentatively, "What do you want?"
This was the conversation that was closest to his unknown thoughts.
The cold wind tapped the window lattice, and the charcoal fire in the room suddenly splashed a few sparks. Xu Hexue raised his eyes, and the bleak winter scenery outside the window coincided with the desolation in his eyes: "The clean people must be clean."
Fifteen years, Mushen Mountain.
Thirty thousand heroic souls who died in a foreign land, with no remains left and their blood shed.
He wanted to wipe away the blood on their bodies bit by bit, settle their deeds in life, and wipe out their reputations after death.
Even if the bones cannot be buried, a name must be given.
Ni Su didn't really understand what he was saying. How could a clean person be clean? But when she saw him getting up to pour water, she didn't know whether she should ask more.
"Drink some?"
Xu Hexue handed the porcelain cup to her.
Ni Su stole a glance at his expression. He probably didn't want to talk anymore. She got up from the quilt, took the porcelain cup and drank a few sips. She raised her head and met his eyes again. Her voice was much softer: "Thank you."
The sky became brighter. Yu Wen pushed the door open and helped Ni Su wash and comb her hair. Xu Hexue quietly left the room. He stood under the eaves. Maids and servants came and went sweeping the yard, but no one noticed him.
"Sister Yuwen!"
A servant hurried over from the front, holding a food box in his hand. He ran past Xu Hexue breathlessly and stood outside the door, shouting, "Someone is looking for Miss Ni!"
"Who is it?" Yu Wen came out.
"He said...he came to see a doctor." The servant handed her the food box.
Diagnosis?
Xu Hexue raised his eyelids slightly. Sure enough, he heard footsteps in the room. Soon, the girl staggered out. Her eyes were illuminated by the morning sunlight, and they were clear. "Really?"
"It seems like they are here to ask you to come over. They said they can't get out of bed."
The servant touched the back of his head.
"I'll go and take a look."
Ni Su held onto the door and window and walked forward a few steps. Yu Wen hurriedly put down the lunch box and followed to support her, but she suddenly stopped and turned around.
Xu Hexue met her gaze, then nodded slightly and walked towards her.
Waiting in the front hall was a young woman in coarse linen clothes. She stood there very awkwardly, and when a servant invited her to sit down, she refused.
Seeing Ni Su, the woman took the hot tea she handed over and said, "My...my mother has been unwell for half a year, but she has been unwilling to see a doctor. She is also afraid that the medicine lady will not use the right medicine, so she keeps putting it off."
The woman raised her eyes and secretly looked at the girl in front of her who was not much different from her in age. She couldn't help but feel a little suspicious, but after hesitating for a moment, she said, "I heard outside that you come from a respectable medical family. I think you must be a good person since you dare to go to Dengwenyuan alone to seek justice for your brother. So I would like to ask you to diagnose my mother, if, if the consultation fee is appropriate."
With the winter examination case solved, the story of the Chongyang Festival in Dengwenyuan spread throughout Yunjing, and the background of the Ni brothers and sisters became known. Now, everyone in Yunjing admired this young lady Ni who risked her life to seek justice for her brother.
"You are the first person who comes to me for medical treatment. Today I will provide you with free treatment without charging a penny." Ni Su said, and asked Yu Wen to bring her medicine box.
Yu Wen originally planned to go with them, but was rejected by Ni Su. She asked for a bamboo stick and asked the young lady named Zhang to help her get the medicine box, and she didn't even have time to eat breakfast.
When she arrived at Miss Zhang's home, Ni Su was not in a hurry to diagnose the disease. Instead, she sat in front of the bed and chatted with Miss Zhang's mother for a few words. She quietly soothed the woman's doubts.
In the villages in the countryside of Que County, she often used this method to get closer to the sick, so as to become closer to them and make them feel more at ease.
It was almost noon when Ni Su left Miss Zhang's house, leaning on a bamboo stick.
"Give it to me."
Xu Hexue reached out to her.
Ni Su did not refuse and handed him the medicine box, saying, "Were you bored while you were waiting for me outside?"
"No."
Xu Hexue held the medicine box in one hand and supported her with the other. Seeing that she was walking very slowly, he thought for a moment and said, "Wait a moment."
Although Ni Su didn't understand why, she still stopped obediently.
She watched him put the medicine box on the ground, took the bamboo stick from her hand, then walked to her and squatted down, his light blue sleeves hanging on the ground. He turned around and saw her in a daze, so he called out, "Ni Su."
"Your injury hasn't healed yet..."
Ni Su grasped the corner of her clothes.
"I don't feel any pain anymore," he said, and suddenly recalled the night outside the Du residence when she walked back with him under an umbrella. He added, "I'm not lying to you."
Ni Su discovered that he had appeared in front of people, because an old man carrying a heavy object passed by them and was looking at Xu Ziling with a strange look.
“…”
Ni Su had no choice but to lean over, put her arms around his shoulders and hug his neck.
She clearly felt his shoulders and back suddenly tense up, like a mimosa being touched. In fact, she felt a little embarrassed and didn't even know where to put her hands.
Her palms were full of his smooth clothes. She raised her eyes and saw his neatly combed hair and a jade hairpin pinned in his black bun.
Xu Hexue picked up the medicine box and carried her to the end of the alley.
Ni Su talked more and more, telling him what prescriptions she had written and how she would always leave the patient's home before noon when she was in Que County.
"Do you know why?"
Ni Su deliberately kept the secret.
"You're afraid they'll keep you for dinner," Xu Hexue walked out of the alley and along the riverbank, the pale yellow willow branches brushing his hair. "Although she's poor, she's hospitable. If you were here, she'd treat you with the food she's most reluctant to eat. What's more, you're treating her mother for free."
"You...are really smart."
Ni Su wanted to wait for him to ask "why".
Although Xu Hexue was born in a beautiful family, he was not ignorant of the sufferings of the world. He had been at the border for five years, and in addition to the bloody killings on the battlefield, he had also seen the sufferings of the people living on the border.
"Practicing medicine seems to be something that makes you happy."
Whether it was her expression this morning when she heard that someone came to see a doctor, or the brightness in her tone when she was chatting with Miss Zhang's mother at her home just now, they all revealed her mood.
"Someone is willing to ask me to see a doctor, this is the best thing," Ni Su mentioned this, and a smile appeared on her face, "Xu Ziling, after the first one, it will not be so difficult in the future, right?"
She was full of longing.
"Um."
Xu Hexue responded softly.
There were few people walking along the river bank, and a thin layer of ice condensed on the shore. He walked forward quietly with a girl on his back, but she didn't expect that her icy fingers suddenly pinched a small object and pressed it against his lips.
Ni Su didn't expect that her fingertips would touch his lips. She instinctively wanted to retract her hand, but the thing in her hand was already against his lips. She was a little embarrassed and whispered, "You... open your mouth."
Xu Hexue subconsciously opened his mouth and bit the thing.
"Ms. Zhang gave it to me. I only took one." Ni Su took her hand back and saw that the cold wind made his thick black eyelashes tremble. She asked, "Is it sweet?"
It turns out to be sugar.
Xu Hexue lowered her eyes and said, "Hmm":
"sweet."
