Chapter 17: Bodhisattva (V)
In fact, Xu Hexue had long forgotten what sugar cake looked like.
He had been wandering in Youdu for nearly a hundred years and had long forgotten all his habits and likes and dislikes as a human being. However, some things happened to be related to some of his memories that he had barely remembered.
For example, this piece of cake is related to brother and sister-in-law.
It was emitting heat and pressed against his palm. At this moment, Xu Hexue realized that his palm was as cold as ice and snow, while it seemed extremely hot.
The sky outside was not bright yet, and with the bamboo curtain drawn, the interior of the car became even darker. Xu Hexue vaguely saw the girl lying on the seat beside her, with her cheek resting on the back of her hand, and opening her mouth to take a bite of the cake.
He lowered his eyelashes and looked at the cake in his hand.
Like a tentative
He took a slow bite.
What does sweet taste like?
He forgot.
But it is definitely not the dry, numb feeling you get when you put it in your mouth right now, like chewing wax.
It didn't seem to have any taste at all.
"The brown sugar inside is still hot, be careful not to get burned," Ni Su bit open the golden and crispy outer shell and tasted the syrup inside, "It's really sweet."
Xu Hexue couldn't see the syrup inside clearly. He only saw a dark red color in the blurry white glutinous rice. When he heard her say it was sweet, he couldn't help but look up at her.
"Is it tasty?"
Ni Su met his gaze and asked.
"tasty."
He answered.
Ni Su reluctantly ate a few bites of the cake, and soon fell into a daze again due to the swaying of the carriage. She did not even notice when the carriage stopped in front of the Taiwei Mansion.
But there was no longer the bloody and damp smell in her nostrils. She dreamed that she was in a clean and comfortable room, very much like her home in Que County.
"What a majestic Chao Fenglang! You are the only scholar in our family, and your eyes are almost on the top of your head!"
Ni Su was half asleep and half awake when she heard some voices. Suddenly, a bright female voice rose up, startling her and waking her up immediately.
Behind a green gauze curtain, a plump woman can be vaguely seen dodging the hand of the tall and thin man.
"Chunxu, please keep your voice down, don't wake up the girl inside," the man, who was still in his green official uniform, spoke carefully, a little aggrieved, "The Dali Temple has been sorting out the evidence of officials and garrison officers sent from all over the country these past two days. As the chief justice, how can I get away..."
"Not even half a day? Don't you know what the Night Court is? If you had asked someone to mediate later, she would have been tortured into this state!"
"Chun Xu, didn't the doctor say that the injuries on her body were caused by beatings and are only flesh wounds? You don't know the methods of the Night Bureau. If she is really guilty, anyone who goes there will be skinned alive or simply cannot get out. But Han Shizun of the Night Bureau obviously did not torture her. After all, she is innocent," the man patted the woman's shoulder tentatively, "The Night Bureau does not torture people indiscriminately. Han Shizun has a scale in his heart. Didn't we bring her out? Don't be angry..."
The woman was about to speak again when she heard someone coughing behind the curtain. She immediately pushed away the man beside her and lifted the curtain to go in.
The girl on the couch looked pale and sick, and her eyes looked at him blankly.
The young woman saw that her lips were dry, so she called out, "Yuwen, bring me some water."
The maid named Yu Wen immediately poured hot water and carefully helped Ni Su stand up and drink a few sips.
Ni Su felt her throat was a little better. She raised her eyes and looked at the woman sitting on the soft stool. She was plump and bright, as beautiful as a lotus. "But is it Sister Cai?"
"Yes, my name is Cai Chunxu." She held Ni Su's shoulders and let her lie down, and personally took out a cushion to put under her. "You are injured, please stop moving."
As she spoke, she pointed at the gentle and frail young man behind her and said, "This is my husband, Miao Yiyang."
"Miss Ni, I'm sorry, I was a little late."
The second son of General Miao's mansion was like a cat, leaning against his wife and whispering behind her.
"It's all my fault,"
Ni Su shook her head. "If it weren't for the lawsuit, I wouldn't have bothered you."
"Stop talking like that. Your grandfather was kind to my family. If your family is all unwilling to trouble others, then when will my family be able to repay you for what you owe ?"
Cai Chunxu wiped the sweat off Ni Su's temples with a handkerchief and said, "At least you have come out of that place. You can rest assured to stay in our hospital to recover. If there is anything wrong, just tell me."
"Thank you, Sister Cai."
Ni Su thanked him softly.
Cai Chunxu wanted to say something else, but Miao Yiyang, who was standing behind her, poked her on the back twice. She dodged for a moment, turned her head and glanced at him, then stood up reluctantly, "Does my sister have a nickname?"
"When I was at home, my father, brother and mother all called me 'A Xi'," said Ni Su.
"Sister Axi, I'll leave my maid Yu Wen to look after you. I have something to do right now, so I'll come to see you later."
After saying that, Cai Chunxu turned around, lifted the curtain and went out.
"Ms. Ni, take good care of her."
Miao Yiyang said this and ran out hurriedly.
Seeing Ni Su staring blankly at Erlangjun's back as he lifted the curtain and ran away, the maidservant Yu Wen laughed and said, "Don't be surprised, Erlangjun is anxious to ask our lady to test his poems!"
"Testing poetry?"
Ni Su was stunned.
"You don't know that our wife's father is Erlang Jun's teacher, but Erlang Jun was born without the talent to write beautiful articles and poems. Fortunately, the emperor took into account the military merits of our Taiwei Master and allowed Erlang Jun to have an official position through the grace of a juren."
Although the position of Dali Temple Sizhi was only an eighth-rank assignment, the government at least gave Miao Yiyang a sixth-rank Chaofenglang.
"There are many officials in the court who are Jinshi graduates. The literati are arrogant and look down on people like our Erlang who are officials. Naturally, they exclude him from all sides. Erlang often has to deal with poetry gatherings, but he can't help in this regard. Fortunately, our wife is well-read and often helps him."
"So that's it."
Ni Su rested her chin on the soft pillow.
"Miss, if you feel any pain in your body, just rest for a while. I will call you to eat once the lunch is delivered." Yu Wen smiled, pulled the tooth hook, lowered the bed curtain, and then lifted the curtain and went out.
It was a sunny day without rain. The sunlight was broken up by the lattice windows and shone obliquely on the ground. The faint smell of incense floated in the house. Ni Su saw a shadow as light as fog standing by the window through the gauze curtain.
He was quiet and no one knew what he was looking at.
Ni Su thought so but didn't say anything, just lowered her eyelids.
After having some vegetarian porridge at noon, Ni Su developed a high fever again in the afternoon. Cai Chunxu asked Yu Wen to invite a doctor. She had no idea how many times she was fed soup medicine in her sleep. The bitter medicine made her tongue numb and her consciousness blurred.
Yu Wen changed Ni Su's wet towel several times during the night, and was so tired that she fell asleep beside the desk in the second half of the night.
Ni Su was in a coma due to the fever. The candle in the room was not lit by her. Xu Hexue saw darkness in front of him and could only follow the sound of her mumbling in her sleep to determine the direction she was in and move towards her step by step.
She was unconscious, calling "brother" one moment and "mother" the next.
Xu Hexue reached out to touch her forehead, but because of his blindness, he tried in the wrong direction, and his fingertips accidentally touched her soft cheek.
Just as a tear rolled down her eyelids, a warm drop fell on his finger.
Curl your knuckles.
Xu Hexue withdrew his hand immediately.
He sat on the edge of the bed, the corners of his cloak were as white as frost, and his thick and long eyelashes half covered his lifeless pupils. After a while, he raised his hand again, and this time he accurately touched the scarf on her forehead.
It's not moist anymore.
Ni Su felt as if she were in a furnace. The brother in her dream was still a teenager, telling her a story in vivid detail about a monkey that was put into an alchemy furnace and burned into a monkey with fiery eyes.
Suddenly,
Ni Su felt that the world was suddenly turning upside down. She looked up and saw branches covered with ice and snow, which fell all over her head.
Almost at the moment when the icy cold temperature hit, Ni Su opened her eyes.
There was only one candle burning in the room.
She stared blankly at the young man sitting beside the couch, and realized that the ice and snow in her dream turned out to be his palm resting on her forehead.
"Xu Ziling."
Ni Su's throat was dry and hoarse from burning, and the sound she could make was very small.
"Um?"
But he still heard it.
Noticing that she was trying to struggle to get up, Xu Hexue pressed her forehead and said, "No need."
She wanted to get up and light the lamp.
He knows.
"Then what will you do?" Ni Su breathed softly, trying to half open her eyes in the dim light and looked at him.
"I can wait."
Xu Hexue's lifeless eyes were filled with withered coldness.
"and you,"
Ni Su's eyelids seemed to weigh a thousand pounds, and she spoke more slowly, "Just wait for me for a moment. When I feel better, I'll ask someone to buy you a lot of incense and candles..."
"good."
Xu Hexue raised his head. The candlelight shone on his shoulders and back. His bones under the cloak were thin and straight.
He placed his hand on Ni Su's forehead and sat there motionless in the silence of the night until dawn.
As the sky brightened, Ni Su's fever subsided.
Cai Chunxu brought a doctor to see Ni Su. Ni Su was given another dose of medicine while she was asleep. Around noon, she finally woke up.
Yu Wen brought a bowl of porridge, and beside it was a plate of brown sugar cut into small squares. "I don't know how much the young lady likes it. If the young lady feels it is bitter, put some brown sugar to reduce it."
Seeing Yu Wen was about to leave after she finished speaking, Ni Su asked, "Can you please buy some incense and candles for me?"
Incense and candles?
Although Yu Wen didn't understand, she still nodded, "What the young lady wants is also available in the mansion. I will go and find it for you ."
Ni Su thanked her, and Yu Wen quickly waved her hands and said she didn't dare, and then left.
The room became quiet.
Ni Su leaned against the soft pillow, looked out the green gauze curtain, and called softly, "Xu Ziling?"
The light mist brought by the wind gradually transformed into a tall figure outside the curtain. Then a hand with pale joints lifted the curtain, and a pair of clear eyes looked at her.
And Ni Su was still looking at his hands.
Later last night, she kept remembering that in her dream she looked up and saw the snow and ice on the branches falling on her hair and temples, which dissipated the endless suffering and heat of being in the raging fire.
"Come here,"
Ni Su's spirits improved a lot. She picked up a tiny piece of brown sugar from the celadon plate and said, "Let's eat candy together."
