Chapter 41 Chapter 41 The Disabled Prince in a Wheelchair
Yin Jinglong was seen dressed in white sitting on a wooden two-wheeled wheelchair. Seeing Hanyu intruding without permission, he deliberately covered his face and suddenly turned the axle to hide in the shadow behind the door. His withered fingers were scratched by the axle but he didn't say a word.
Beneath his robe, the two legs that had once crushed countless spines and stood atop the Nine-Layered Dan Steps were now nothing more than a senseless, weighty burden. Deep within his bones, the long-severed meridians lay like a wasteland scorched by wildfire and frozen by ice, a dead silence remaining. They no longer responded to any will, but simply existed silently and heavily.
The only thing keeping him alive was the shabby cage beneath him. The wheelchair was so shabby it made his teeth ache. The rough wood was covered in burrs, lacking even the most basic polishing. The wheels were crooked, and every rotation was accompanied by a harsh, strange creaking sound, like a dying groan.
"how so?"
Hanyu couldn't believe that the person he saw was the vicious regent who had once dominated the court and held people's lives in his hands.
Yin Jinglong refused to face her directly. He turned his back on Lai Lao and shouted, "Take her away!"
Lai Lao reluctantly dragged Hanyu outside. When they reached the fence, he sighed and said, "A few days ago, that spider came to me with a coiled dragon jade pendant and asked me to save him. He had a finger-long knife wound near his chest, deep into the flesh and bone, and he nearly died. I was the one who pulled him back from the brink of death, but unfortunately, the poison damaged the meridians in his legs, leaving him disabled."
"Are you referring to the Heart-Eating Gu? He and I were poisoned by the same kind of Gu, so why am I unharmed while he's become like this?"
"You might want to ask that spider about the poison. I'm only responsible for helping him heal his leg disease and the knife wound on his heart."
"That spider must have mentioned me to you, so you recognized me as Yu right away, right?"
Mr. Lai stroked his chest-length white beard and shook his head slowly.
"That spider never mentioned you to me. It was this man inside who kept calling out 'Ah Yu' while he was unconscious. I suspect the 'Ah Yu' he was talking about must be someone very important to him. Otherwise, a person wouldn't be calling out for someone they have no connection with in their final moments."
Hanyu's heart suddenly throbbed, and ripples appeared in the silent, mirror-like lake of her heart. She understood what Lai Lao meant, but she was unwilling to believe it.
Mr. Lai told her that he would give Yin Jinglong acupuncture and moxibustion to treat his leg disease every day. He couldn't guarantee that he could make him stand up again, but at least he could restore some of his meridians.
"I, for the sake of the true owner of this jade pendant, cannot bear to see him fall to this state. Leg disease can be cured, but heart disease is difficult to cure. I'm afraid it will depend on you, Miss Yu, to personally enlighten him."
Hanyu hid in front of the window and looked at the person in the wheelchair in the house from afar. The armrests of the wheelchair were cold and hard, and the rough wood grain was like countless tiny sharp teeth, gnawing at his palms.
He gripped the axle tightly, trying to move the wheelchair backwards. His knuckles made a sound of breaking, and the blue veins on the back of his skinny hand were twisted and bulging like a few dying, struggling snakes, but his disabled right hand had no strength at all.
Yin Jinglong hammered his legs under his white robe with all his might, but no matter how hard he hammered, his legs could not move except for a slight pain.
Hanyu couldn't help but go into the house to help. She didn't say a word, but just pushed his wheelchair away from the corner of the door.
Yin Jinglong stopped yelling and cursing, but closed his eyes tightly, his eyelids trembling violently, as if his closed eyelids were the last shaky dam, and once they opened, the surging torrent that was enough to completely wash him away would pour down.
He didn't dare to see whether there was astonishment or pity in her eyes, let alone how she looked at this dilapidated courtyard, this shabby wheelchair, and the emaciated man in the wheelchair with calloused hands.
After a long silence, Yin Jinglong asked in a slightly hoarse voice, "Are you feeling sorry for me?"
"No, I won't pity a vicious person who has done so many evil things."
"So you think my current situation is my own fault, a retribution?"
Yin Jinglong smiled foolishly. The word "retribution" was like a thorn piercing into his broken chest, causing him to feel a sharp pain in his heart.
Hanyu sighed softly. She had indeed hoped that he would die, and die cruelly and unyieldingly after suffering all kinds of torture.
But I don’t know since when, the previous hatred is not as strong as in the previous life. It is like a cup of tea, the more you taste it, the weaker it becomes. After a long time, I don’t know where the hatred came from.
His Adam's apple rolled up and down, as if he was swallowing a piece of red-hot charcoal, painful and dry. He reached for the teapot on the table, but found that he could not reach it.
Hanyu poured him some tea without saying a word, but Yin Jinglong was reluctant to accept it.
"This king does not need your help."
He stubbornly knocked over the teacup in Hanyu's hand, and porcelain fragments flew everywhere. He supported himself with both hands and tried to stand up from the wheelchair, but as soon as he lifted his buttocks, his crippled right arm could not support his body and he fell off the wheelchair.
"You clearly can't do it, so why do you insist on being so stubborn?"
"Why can't I do this?"
Even if he fell to the ground, he was still so stubborn that ten bulls couldn't pull him back. He was tough with his words and his actions were even more unyielding.
His palm was pierced by the broken porcelain of the teacup, and blood flowed out. He lay helplessly on the ground, violently pulling out the broken porcelain pieces, and rudely yelled: "It's really like a tiger in plain land being bullied by a dog. You even want to bully me with a broken teacup?"
"Now you know how uncomfortable it feels to be bullied, right?"
Although Hanyu verbally insulted him, she still chose to help him. She squatted down, tucked his arm and helped him sit back in the wheelchair.
She looked around the barren little house. The tables, chairs and wooden beds inside were old and worn. No one had cleaned them for some time. The table tops were covered with dust when she touched them.
She took out the orchid silk scarf she carried with her and wiped the blood off his palm. It was a woman's personal belonging and she would not give it to others unless it was absolutely necessary.
Yin Jinglong was speechless and stared at Hanyu wiping his wound.
She wrapped the pale pink silk scarf embroidered with four-leaf orchids around his left palm. The scarf still had traces of the scented powder specially made by the women of the Snow Mountain, which was refreshing and soothing to the touch.
After he calmed down, Hanyu asked what happened at the post station that day. Why did the long-missing A Jiang replace Prince Yin's identity when she woke up?
Yin Jinglong revealed that he had cut out the heart insect from his own body to save Hanyu that night. Now the mother insect in his body has been transferred to Hanyu's body, and his meridians were severely damaged and his legs were disabled because of forcing the insect out.
"Why did you save me? Isn't the statue all you want? Now that you have it, what use am I, a poor orphan from a foreign race, to you?"
"I never wanted a statue! Not before, and not now!"
Yin Jinglong became inexplicably excited. There were some feelings hidden deep in his heart that he couldn't explain or articulate. The grudges of his previous life and the love and hatred of this life were like two hemp ropes tightly twisted together, inseparable and tangled.
"Have you seen your Ah Jiang yet? You should be happy that your beloved has returned, and you should be grateful that I gave you the chance to reunite with him. Why did you come to me again? Did Yin Jingheng ask you to see me in my current miserable state? Is he completely satisfied now?"
"I have no idea what grudge you two brothers have. I only know it wasn't him who crippled your legs, but me. I'm not an ungrateful person! Since you saved my life, I won't owe you a favor. Old Lai said there's still hope for your leg ailment, so let me take care of you here until you can stand up again."
"What if I can't stand up in this lifetime? Are you going to stay here with me and waste my whole life?"
Yin Jinglong raised his eyes slightly, with expectation and desire, as well as entanglement and helplessness flowing in his eyes. He wanted to keep her by his side, but he didn't want his legs to never heal.
Han Yu smiled faintly: "A lifetime is too long, I dare not make any promises. I just want to focus on the present and the people in front of me, and leave the rest to the blessings of heaven and the goddess!"
"The wound on your hand is bleeding again. I'll get you some water."
Hanyu didn't dare to face Yin Jinglong's burning gaze, so she found an excuse to escape. As soon as she walked out of the house, the mother Gu in her body couldn't help but begin to throb, and she felt an indescribable emotion in her heart.
She denied having any feelings for him, thinking it was just the love insect at work, but she knew very well in her heart that the child insect was dead, and only the mother insect remained in her body to sustain her life. This love was developed during her time with Yin Jinglong, but she just didn't want to admit it.
When Hanyu went out to fetch water, the spider happened to come back.
When she saw the broken porcelain on the floor, she realized that someone had come. When her eyes swept over the silk scarf in Yin Jinglong's left hand, she stepped forward and pulled off the patterned blue scarf, demanding, "Who is it?"
This thing doesn't look like the personal belongings of a woman from southern Xinjiang, especially the faint scent of snow lotus on the scarf, which makes it even more impossible to be produced in a Miao village.
Seeing Yin Jinglong remain silent, she roughly guessed the identity of this uninvited guest. Without saying a word, the spider was about to take out the messenger spider to report the news to its master, but she heard him say, "I advise you not to tell him about this."
"Why? The master clearly sent someone to send her back to the capital, how could he let her escape? She is a capable creature, how could she find this place? I have underestimated her in the past."
"Zhu, you finally managed to separate your master from the woman he loves, giving you the chance to be alone with him. If you tell him now, once Min Hanyu returns, how will you ever have the chance to show off in front of your master? How will you even gain his favor?"
"What nonsense are you talking about? It is my duty to be loyal to my master. No matter how he treats me, I cannot betray him."
The spider's explanation was pale and powerless. The feelings hidden in her heart were ruthlessly revealed by him, and she was panicked for a moment.
"This prince can see that you are not loyal to him, but you are attracted to him. Since you like him, you should not hand your rival back to him."
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