Chapter 35 Childhood Sweethearts Time "Take it off!"

An oil-paper umbrella soon came to her side, shielding her from the storm.

She smelled a faint pine scent, not from pine needles, which were fresh and a little spicy, but this was a very clean warmth, like pine cones, soaked in the scent of morning light after the rain, gently releasing a caramel-like sweetness.

Lin Meiju's heart was still beating wildly. She raised her hand and used her fingertips to dry the tears on her face, then stroked her temples. This way, through the veil, it looked like she was just tucking her hair behind her ears.

She lifted the veil and met a pair of eyes that were also slightly red.

He leaned down, bringing his eyes level with hers. He looked at her face again and again, his moist eyes filled with surprise and joy. His left hand reached out toward her, a gesture he habitually made to hold her hand. But she didn't move.

So he smiled, as cautiously as if trying to jog her memory: "It's me, Eleven."

Lin Meizhu suddenly felt the smile slipping from her face. The nonchalant greeting she'd prepared couldn't be uttered. He'd come all the way to the capital, even running to see her, but what about her? She just pretended to be unfamiliar, preparing to say, "What a coincidence."

The rain grew heavier, pounding the oil-paper umbrella with a resounding thud. Chuqi was soaked to the bone, but he was oblivious. A look of hurt crossed his face. "Eleven, why don't you look at me?"

His tone sounded so aggrieved that for a moment, Lin Meiju's heart softened.

But she couldn't do that. She wanted to stop him from having such thoughts.

She has always felt that she is a trouble since she was a child. When she was a child, she was a trouble to the Chen Huisheng family. When she grew up, she became a trouble to the Lin family. Now Chuqi is going to become an official, and she cannot become a trouble to him no matter what.

Lin Meizhu smiled a smile that Chuqi found unfamiliar. She said, "Chuqi, I'm married, did you know that?"

There was silence for two moments, with only the chaotic and noisy sound of rain.

Chuqi was like waking from a dream, and he uttered a confused "oh". Suddenly he raised his sleeve to wipe his face, and judging by his mouth shape, he seemed to be smiling. He said, "It's raining so hard."

Yes, and it was localized torrential rain.

She was afraid that if someone saw them holding the same umbrella, it would cause trouble for him, so she reached out to push the umbrella back to him, but he pressed the umbrella handle into her palm first and said, "Here's the umbrella."

Lin Meiju wanted to ask him where he was staying and visit him another day, but he ran to the nearby eaves. She held the remaining warmth from him in her palm, pursed her lips, and finally walked towards the pine cone who was silently shedding tears but pretending to wash his face in the rain.

Lin Meizhu put away her umbrella. Chuqi took it and shook off the raindrops, saying, "The old man's legs and feet are healed now, and he's alive and well, but he rarely sees patients now."

"He brought you some things. I'll have them delivered to your house another day."

"I've also brought the medical records you were halfway through. I'm not as good at gynecology as you are, so I didn't dare help you write it. Please see if there's anything missing..."

Lin Meizhu suddenly asked: "Chuqi, why did you come to the capital?"

Chuqi said: "It's not because of you."

Lin Meizhu smiled: "I didn't say you were because of me."

"How are you doing, Chuqi?"

"Same as you."

That's very bad. It can't get any worse.

But Lin Meizhu smiled as if relieved: "That's good." But she didn't know how truly happy people smiled, and fearing that her expression wouldn't be convincing, she emphasized, "That's great."

Chuqi really wanted to ask her how she was doing, but when he saw her wandering alone on the road like a ghost, he felt that there was no need to ask anything.

They didn't want to be a burden to each other, nor did they want to make the other feel guilty about themselves, so they both put on a happy face, but tears were flowing in their hearts.

It's so strange that two people who were once so close now look like strangers.

There was a brief silence under the eaves.

The silence ended with Chuqi's sneeze. He wasn't actually cold, but for some reason he still touched his arm.

Lin Meiju was about to say goodbye, but she glanced at Chuqi and saw him rubbing his right arm with his left hand. After noticing her gaze, he quickly retracted his hand.

He said, "It's getting late, you should go back early."

Lin Meizhu immediately became alert: "What's wrong with you?"

Chuqi's eyes flickered: "What? Nothing, nothing."

Lin Meizhu slowly frowned: "Let me see your hands."

Chuqi dodged backwards and accidentally kicked down the umbrella leaning against the wall, "It's really nothing!"

Lin Meizhu grabbed his hand that was picking up the umbrella, reached up, and exclaimed, "It's so cold!" Then her tone of questioning changed: "When was the last time you used medicine?"

Chu Qi pulled his hand back, smoothed his sleeve, and answered quickly without looking into her eyes, "Not long ago."

His guilty look seemed so familiar that Lin Meizhu became anxious. "When was it not long ago?"

Chuqi hesitated, holding the umbrella in front of him. The water dripped down and formed a small pool at his feet. Lin Meizhu looked at his half-wet trouser leg and her face turned pale. "Let me see your leg."

Chuqi refused, and the two of them began to chase each other around the pillars.

Chuqi said: "Hey, the rain has stopped, you can go now."

Lin Meizhu was so angry that she wanted to curse. She pressed her knees and took a breath: "Stop right there!"

Seeing that she was really angry, Chu Qi stopped and stuck his head out. A white jade earlobe with red glaze on his right ear was shining with a smart light. He smiled and said, "I'm really fine. It doesn't hurt."

Before being adopted by Chen Huisheng, Chuqi had been homeless and begging for two years, suffering severe injuries to his right hand and leg. Chen Huisheng said the injuries on Chuqi's arm looked like they were caused by a heavy object after falling from a height. Chen Huisheng's exact words were, "He was able to survive despite being injured like that. He had connections up there."

Lin Meiju clearly remembered Chuqi rolling around on the bed in pain.

At that time, Chen Huisheng stuffed a piece of cloth into his mouth and said in a hissing voice, "Although your wound has healed, the pus and blood are still flowing. If you don't scrape it clean, it will probably fester. You can't drink the Datura soup anymore, just bear with it." Chuqi's good hand was tightly grasping the quilt, his eyes were wide open, and there were traces of tears in the corners of his eyes. He looked terrified and helpless.

The moment the cold iron bit into the rotten flesh, Lin Meizhu saw through the crack in the door that the veins on his neck suddenly bulged, his back arched so hard it almost broke the wooden bed, and the thick hemp rope tightened around his ankles, causing his legs to twitch violently. Several uncles rushed over and held him down, shouting, "Bring another rope!"

Lin Meizhu burst into tears. She was still very young and didn't fully understand what was happening, but she didn't want her brother Chuqi to be tied up like an animal. Grandma Liang Fang took her to the Golden Flower Temple to kowtow. "Please, Golden Flower Goddess," she said, "for the blessing of Chuqi, to protect Chen Huisheng's family from illness and disaster, to bring his fever down quickly, and to help this poor child survive..."

His calf was broken by someone, and while it didn't leave the hideous scars of his forearm, it took him several years to recover and walk like a normal person. Even then, it was difficult for his calf to maintain the same movement for long periods of time.

Lin Meizhu knew that his injury, though seemingly healed, still required careful recuperation to prevent blood stasis, which could cause a relapse. Back in Lingnan, he'd experienced numbness and pain in his hands and feet on rainy days. Now, with months of travel under his belt, the way he was trying to hide it must have been a relapse.

Lin Meizhu asked him, "Where are you staying?"

Chuqi pointed to a place across the street, and Lin Meizhu nodded: "Let's go."

Chuqi followed happily, "No need, I can handle it myself."

Seeing that he was still obstructing her, Lin Meizhu suddenly asked, "Is there anyone in the room?"

Chuqi shook his head, "They are all out."

The innkeeper dozed off at the counter, calculating his abacus, when he suddenly saw a woman in a veiled hat walk quickly up the stairs, followed closely by a very handsome young man. The innkeeper's eyes lit up again and again, and he nudged his wife, who was doing the accounting, who glared at him, thinking he was being too skeptical.

The shopkeeper tutted his words, "That's not what I meant. I just thought that young man looked familiar."

The shopkeeper's wife asked, "I've been here for a few days, why don't you look familiar?"

The shopkeeper said, "It's not that familiar. I feel like I've seen him somewhere before."

This inn had been open for over twenty years, and the number of guests it had received was so great that it would take ten days to count them all. The innkeeper's wife didn't take it seriously, leaving him alone to ponder, "Then think about it carefully. I heard he was lost when he was a child. He was tall and handsome. Perhaps he was the son of a noble who was left behind among the people."

Upstairs, Chuqi was picking up and hanging up the scattered clothes of several classmates, and moving the books piled on the round stool to the desk, making a place for Lin Meiju.

Lin Meiju recognized Chuqi's bookcase at a glance, flipped through it, and took out two neatly tied bundles of wormwood rolls.

Facing Lin Meizhu's reproachful gaze, Chu Qi whispered, "I have to travel every day. When I'm not traveling, I have to review my lessons, so I use less..."

Lin Meizhu rolled up her sleeves, took out a tinder, lit the lantern, and walked towards one of the beds, "Come here quickly."

Chuqi followed happily and asked, "How did you recognize him?"

Lin Meizhu wanted to say, "Isn't this obvious?" But she couldn't really explain it; it was just a hunch. But after thinking it over, she decided not to answer. She stood by the bed while Chuqi placed a stool for her.

Lin Meizhu said, "Take off your coat and lie down."

Chu Qi touched his belt, looked down at her, and said, "Actually, I can do it alone."

Lin Meizhu was very determined: "Take it off!"

Chuqi was very happy: "Hey!"

When the clothes were half taken off, Lin Meizhu suddenly drooped her face. When she was a virgin, she had seen Chu Qi fishing in the water with his bare chest and had never had any lustful thoughts. But she hadn't seen him for two years and he had grown a lot taller. Even through his shirt, she could feel that he had become much stronger. She said awkwardly, "Just expose your arms."

Chuqi said hello, and indeed, he only lifted half of his clothes, revealing a shoulder as clean as jade and with smooth lines. Perhaps because of the heat from the moxa, the backs of his ears gradually turned a faint red, and the jade beads on his earlobes also reflected a faint pink.

Her shoulders were exposed, her face was full of spring. This scene seemed to be getting worse.

Lin Meiju rolled up his trouser legs and suddenly asked, "Chuqi, are you afraid?" He couldn't explain himself if someone saw him with his clothes half undressed and letting her do whatever she wanted.

Chuqi replied: "I'm not afraid!"

Lin Meizhu jokingly said, "I'm going to be put into a pig cage." This sentence was said in Lingnan dialect, and Chuqi immediately had an image in his mind. He also replied in Lingnan dialect, "I'm waiting for you to save me."

When he said this, he was lying on the bed like a baby, with his neck slightly tilted upwards, looking relaxed and comfortable. His almond eyes were smiling gently, and his slightly messy hair made it easy for people to think of a docile big dog basking in the sun with its mouth open.

Lin Meiju thought to herself, what a fool! How can you catch a man by putting him in a pig cage?

Chu Qi suddenly had a fierce look in his eyes and threatened viciously: "If anyone dares to gossip about me, you and I will die at their doorstep!"

Lin Meizhu: ...Is there any way to avoid killing a thousand enemies and losing eight hundred of our own?