Chapter 17

Fu Wei's bravado left Yu Ying speechless.

She withdrew her gaze from the bowl of orange fruit seeds and called out to Fu An.

"Put the fruit out in the sun to dry. I'll pick it up when night falls."

Fu An looked at his uncle and then at his aunt, and seemed to understand something.

She even asked her uncle, who had difficulty walking, to do some work.

When Fu An was about to leave, Yu Ying suddenly remembered something and hurriedly called him: "Wait a moment."

Fu An turned back and looked at her in confusion.

Yu Ying instructed: "Don't tell your grandma that I ordered your uncle to do chores."

Fu Wei paused while wiping his hands with his eyes lowered, then raised his eyelids slightly and glanced at her.

I asked him for help, but he came secretly?

When Fu An was puzzled, he heard her say, "If your grandmother knew, she would definitely help your uncle do it. You definitely don't want to see your grandmother tired."

Upon hearing this, Fu An frowned and said, "That won't work."

"Since you don't want your grandma to know, then keep it a secret."

Fu An felt a little sorry for his uncle, so he hesitated for a moment.

After a moment, he nodded, glanced at his uncle guiltily, turned around decisively, and left the house without looking back.

When Yu Ying saw the look Fu An gave Fu Wei, she thought that although she felt guilty, it was not much.

Yu Ying put down the medicinal wine and brought in a basin of cold water.

She wrung the towel half dry and said to him, "Take off your clothes."

Fu Wei was slightly suspicious: "Not applying medicinal wine?"

Yu Ying explained, "It's supposed to be a cold compress, but there's no ice and the water isn't very cold. I can only make do with it for now. I'll use medicinal wine to massage the blood stasis tomorrow morning."

She unfolded the cloth and looked at him quietly.

After a moment's silence, Fu Wei took off the shirt he had just put on, revealing his left shoulder and arm.

Yu Ying was about to put a cloth on the bruise, but she saw another old wound in a place she had not looked closely at before.

With the collar of the shirt unbuttoned, it is difficult to cover the chest.

The thin chest still has the shadow of its former firmness and volume, and on that cold white chest, there are tiny and scattered scratches of various sizes.

—like scrapes that have been dragged across the floor.

As soon as the thought came to her mind, her gaze shifted and fell on his shoulder blade, where there were still lingering blood stasis and scab marks.

Yu Ying suddenly recalled that there were also traces of blood stasis and abrasions on his legs and knee joints.

She had previously thought that the injuries were caused by someone breaking her legs, so she didn't think about it too much. But now she thought that they were more like the injuries caused by being dragged on the ground.

She didn't move for a few breaths. Fu Wei seemed to notice her scrutiny and said indifferently, "It's just an old injury."

It's just an old injury...

But Yu Ying knew that for him, it was an old injury now, but it was also a new injury in the past.

She lowered her eyes, breathed a sigh of relief, and then covered his arm with a slightly cool cloth.

His fingertips brushed across the skin of his arm, and Fu Wei's arm tightened slightly.

Yu Ying didn't notice and just instructed: "Every once in a while, when the cloth is slightly warm, change it, wash it, and then apply it again."

Fu Wei nodded slightly as a response.

Yu Ying didn't ask anything, only saying, "Except for the blood stasis on your legs, which will be left untreated for now, apply hot compresses to the blood stasis elsewhere on your body tomorrow."

Fu Wei held the wet towel in silence for a long time. He only spoke when Yu Ying rolled up her sleeves and prepared to turn around and leave the room.

"You know about me?"

Yu Ying, who was turning around, looked back at him, wondering if it was too late for him to ask now.

But he still nodded and said, "I know a little bit."

Fu Wei lowered his eyes, "Since you know, then you should know that the person who exchanged identities with me for twenty years didn't want me to have an easy life. He wanted me to live a hard and miserable life. Now that he has power and influence, it would be easy for him to destroy me again and everyone around me."

"Then what?" Yu Ying asked.

Fu Wei raised his eyes, looked at her, and slowly said, "It would be easy for him to destroy you. Everything you have worked hard for now will be in vain."

How could Yu Ying not know this? But she also knew that the era of the Wuling County Prefect would soon be over.

Moreover, when war breaks out, she, a woman, may find it difficult to protect herself.

But Fu Wei is capable of protecting himself even with a broken leg, so it’s always right to stay with him.

These things, of course, cannot be said out loud.

Yu Ying then changed her approach: "Where can I go? The whole world is my home, or return to the Yu family?"

She paused, then continued, "If I go back to the Yu family, will that person let me go?"

Fu Wei said nothing.

Yu Ying asked again: "After returning to the Yu family, do you think I can survive there?"

The Yu family members knew Yu Liuniang best, so it was impossible for her to play the role perfectly. Moreover, if she played another person for a long time, she was afraid that she would forget who she was over time.

Perhaps he also thought that her situation seemed to be bad no matter where she went, so Fu Wei also remained silent.

Yu Ying sighed helplessly and said, "At this moment, we can only deal with the situation as it comes, and act accordingly. You don't need to tell me so much, I know everything I need to know."

She even knew things that she shouldn't know.

After she said this, she turned and walked towards the door.

Fu Wei watched her lift the straw curtain and walk out, and fell into deep thought.

After a while, he placed the warm cloth into the basin, then lifted the thin quilt and looked at the pair of legs that he had disliked for more than a month.

Through the thin layer of cloth, you can clearly see that something is fixed on the legs, making them extremely prominent.

After looking for a few breaths, he wanted to put the thin quilt back on, but after clenching the quilt in his hand, he finally lifted the quilt into the corner.

Then, Fu Wei picked up the bamboo pole beside the bed, opened the straw curtain of the window, and looked out of the house.

In the yard, Fu An, a thin and tanned man, was washing wild vegetables and adding fire to the pottery stove. He was only eight years old, but he had become the head of the family so early.

Luo, who looked old due to overwork in her early years, had a hunched body and poor eyesight. She could only sit on a wooden stool and could not help even if she wanted to.

Little Funing has always been sick because he has not been able to eat enough. He is almost five years old, but he can't even speak.

Fu Wei's last gaze fell on Yu Ying.

She has a lot of secrets, but there's no doubt her current situation isn't much better.

They all have their own misfortunes, and before they couldn't even afford porridge, but now aren't they still living tenaciously?

Fu Wei wanted to die but couldn't.

He thought, since he had to keep living, maybe he should change the way he lived.

By the time dinner was ready, it was already dark.

The thatched hut was dark, so Yu Ying brought the pottery stove into the hut and re-lit the firewood. Suddenly, there was a dim light in the room, but it was a little hot.

In order not to block the light, she only boiled medicine at the mouth of a stove.

The straw curtains on the windows and doors were opened to ventilate the room and prevent smoke from filling the house.

When Yu Ying brought the dishes to the table, she found that Fu Wei no longer covered his legs with the thin quilt.

I thought to myself that this might be a good change.

She brought up two wooden bowls of cabbage and egg drop soup, and then placed the wild amaranth simply stir-fried with lard on the table.

When the dish was served, Fu An and Fu Ning stared at the oily residue without blinking.

Not to mention after their uncle came, even before he came, the brother and sister rarely ate meat. Their only memory of eating meat was the day their parents left for the quarry.

Each dish and soup only had a little bit of meat, but it was already a very rich meal for the two brothers and sisters.

Yu Ying scooped half a bowl of rice for everyone, and Fu Ning got less.

Although it is not full, it is still more filling than porridge.

Fu Wei glanced at the dishes on the table, then at the half bowl of rice in front of him. He was silent for a moment before looking at Yu Ying.

In this barren Lingnan, impoverished Yu County, in just half a month, she has surprised everyone again and again.

The Fu family went from having nothing to having rice and meat to eat now, all thanks to her ability.

Yu Ying noticed Fu Wei's gaze. She looked up and their eyes met for a moment. Then Fu Wei lowered his eyes, looked away, and picked up the bowl and chopsticks.

Yu Ying felt puzzled, but she didn't say anything. She just said, "Let's eat."

Fu An and Fu Ning picked up the rice bowl, but they only dared to pick up wild vegetables and not the oil residue. During this time, Fu An only dared to carefully pick up a piece of oil residue and put it into his grandmother's bowl.

The moment Luo Shi ate the meat, he also paused.

Yu Ying felt a little uncomfortable when she saw that they were eating so carefully.

There aren't many oil residues, so if you divide it up, each person will probably have about two pieces.

Yu Ying still picked out the oil residue from the wild vegetables, picked up two pieces and put them into Fu Ning's bowl, and picked up another piece and put it into Luo's bowl.

Luo Shi seemed to sense it. When Yu Ying was picking up the second piece of food, she quickly covered her bowl and said, "I don't need it. You guys eat it. You guys eat it."

Yu Ying said calmly, "Eat it, otherwise the two children won't dare to eat it."

Luo Shi whispered, "One bite is enough for me. You've worked hard, so you eat."

Yu Ying gave him a reassuring look.

Fu An was stunned for a moment, and he seemed to understand what she meant.

After thinking about it, he said to his grandmother, "If grandma doesn't want to eat it, we won't eat it either."

Even Fu Ning put the bowl on the table.

Although Mrs. Luo couldn't see, she heard the sound of the bowl being put down. She hesitated for a moment before reluctantly moving her hand away from the mouth of the bowl.

Yu Ying picked up two pieces for her, and then picked up some for Fu An. Fu An looked at her in surprise, then lowered his head and said "thank you" in a low voice.

When it was Fu Wei's turn, he casually picked up the smallest piece of oil residue.

Yu Ying stopped worrying about him.

Fu Wei didn't have a strong appetite, so after taking the food once, he didn't take it again.

After the meal, Yu Ying gave each of them half a bowl of still slightly warm egg soup.

After drinking a bowl of egg drop soup, Fu An felt comfortable all over, and he even felt as if he had strength all over his body.

After eating and drinking, both children's faces were filled with satisfied smiles.

Fu An cleaned up the dishes very consciously.

The ceramic stove was very hot, so Yu Ying did not move it out. Instead, she boiled water in the house and planned to let them take turns cleaning it with the hot water.

There were no conditions before, so the grandparents and grandchildren, including Fu Wei, all wiped with cold water. The whole family was already weak, and washing in the icy river water would only make them even weaker.

Yu Ying built a fire in the yard. After the light came out, the grandparents and grandchildren sat in the yard.

The refreshing and gentle breeze brings the fresh scent of green grass, calming people's mood.

When Yu Ying was about to rub the seeds of the Ficus pumila fruit, Fu An ran over and said unnaturally, "I'll do it, you take a rest."

His awkwardness made Yu Ying laugh: "No, you don't have enough strength, you can't do it well."

It is not easy to rub the seeds into a sticky juice.

I was originally thinking of letting Fu Wei do it, but seeing the bruises on his arm, I decided to give up and wait for two days.

While rubbing the seeds of the ficus carica fruit, the hot water had already boiled. Yu Ying asked Fu An to take out several new towels she had cut from the house.

"One for each of you, your sister, and grandma," she said.

Fu An was stunned: "For us?"

Yu Ying nodded. She didn't know how tattered the cloth towels they were using were, and she couldn't bear to look at it, so she went to buy a few feet of cloth today.

Fu An was surprised and delighted, as if he had obtained a treasure. The corners of his mouth could not help but rise, and then he secretly said to his sister: "Sister, we have new cloths to use."

Yu Ying then asked Fu An to scoop half a basin of water and bring it into her room, and then helped Luo into the house.

These days, Luo and Fu Ning went to Yu Ying's house to clean in the evening.

She would wait outside the house while Mrs. Luo was scrubbing.

As she watched Fu An help Luo into the house, Yu Ying felt that this was not a long-term solution.

After thinking about it, maybe when we build the kitchen tomorrow, we can suggest setting aside some space to use as a bathroom.

While thinking about how to do it, she rubbed the fruit seeds. After the thick paste came out, she poured it into a bucket of water, let it sit still, and then put it into the water tank after all the water was used up.

Luo groped her way out of the house. The water boiled again and it was Fu Ning's turn.

Fu Ning also tried to clean it herself, but because she was too small, she could never clean it thoroughly.

Yu Ying filled a new basin with hot water, added cold water and brought it into the house. At the same time, she asked Fu An to bring the old basin into the house.

Pulling Fu Ning into the house, she asked her softly, "Auntie, let me help you take a bath, okay?"

Fu Ning pinched the hem of his clothes and nodded slightly.

After taking off his clothes, Yu Ying was stunned to see Fu Ning, who was so thin that his ribs were visible.

Although I was shocked, I also knew that I wouldn't gain much weight just because the food improved for a few days, not to mention that the food now was not very good. If I wanted to gain weight, it would still take some time to slowly recuperate.

He collected his thoughts, asked Fu Ning to stand in the old wooden basin, and then scooped water with a ladle and poured it on her.

Help her wipe off the dirt on her body.

Fu Ning looked at his aunt who was helping him take a bath, and he felt warm in his heart, and he liked his aunt even more in his heart.

When Yu Ying finished all her work and simply washed up, when she went out of the house to pour water, she found Fu Ning squatting outside the house.

Yu Ying asked: "Why don't you go back to sleep?"

Fu Ning stood up, stretched out his little hand to grab Yu Ying's clothes, and looked at her eagerly.

Yu Ying seemed to understand what she meant, and she asked tentatively, "Do you want to sleep with me?"