Chapter 112 Swallowing "Jiang Yuhuo, even you bullied me..."
When Li Mengbai woke up, it was already quite dark.
Is it still morning? He thought groggily.
He opened his heavy eyelids and tried to figure out where he was. All he saw were dilapidated roof beams, and the air was thick with dust and the smell of old hay. If someone wanted to kill him, they could simply jump down through the hole in the roof above him.
It's so hot, so hot...
He tried to sit up, but the hard stone slab beneath him made his whole body ache. He couldn't muster the strength and his upper body fell back onto the bed, his head hitting the stone slab, making him feel both pained and dizzy.
What kind of hell is this place?!
He was burning up and in pain all over, his head was spinning, and he felt so miserable that he wanted to kill someone.
Suddenly, a nauseating herbal smell filled the air. Li Mengbai turned his head to look and saw Jiang Yuhuo holding a bowl of medicinal soup that he didn't know where he got it from. It smelled just as bad as the medicinal soup that the doctor had given him at the camp.
"You're awake. It's time to take your medicine."
Seeing familiar faces calmed Li Mengbai's anxiety somewhat, and his memories gradually returned. He remembered that they had traveled on horseback for half the night to reach the city gate, only to be met by the people who were there to arrest them. They had no choice but to leave and seek refuge in a nearby village, after which he lost consciousness.
He guessed that he had probably fainted.
He felt very unwell, but the smell made him want to vomit.
“…I don’t want to drink.” Li Mengbai turned her head away, her face flushed an unnatural red.
"But you have a fever."
Jiang Yuhuo bent down beside him and reached out to touch Li Mengbai's forehead; it was even hotter than her body temperature.
She suddenly remembered the assessment the green-robed immortal had given her in the dark room of the spirit-suppressing array—that he was spoiled.
Jiang Yuhuo didn't understand. She was the one who took a cold bath, but the person who only got a little bit of cold water got sick and had a fever.
On their way out of the city gate, they came across this dilapidated temple and decided to rest there.
Jiang Yuhu dismounted, and Li Mengbai, behind her, continued to ride slowly forward.
Jiang Yuhuo called to him, but he didn't respond. When she took the reins of his horse, Li Mengbai fell straight down.
She caught him off guard and realized that he was burning up even hotter than she was.
Jiang Yuhuo placed the person in the dilapidated temple, then found some herbs in the wild to dispel heat and treat colds. He cobbled together a stove for decocting medicine and spent most of the day brewing this bowl of soup.
She helped Li Mengbai up and placed the bowl of medicine beside him. "Drink it. The medicine will help reduce your fever."
Li Mengbai felt extremely uncomfortable all over, and when he smelled that nauseating odor again, he became furious and shouted at the top of his lungs.
"I won't drink it! I said I won't drink it, and that means I won't! It's disgusting, no matter how good it is, I won't drink it. Can't you understand human language?!"
Enraged, he swung his hand outwards forcefully.
He brushed the medicine bowl far away, and it smashed to the ground with a "bang," shattering into pieces and spilling the medicine all over the ground.
The air fell silent for a moment.
A crisp cracking sound finally brought Li Mengbai back to his senses, but it exhausted him. He slumped back onto the stone slab, too weak to lift his head, nor daring to look at Jiang Yuhuo.
My heart was pounding wildly, and fear and unease instantly overwhelmed me.
He's started again.
In the moment of silence, Li Mengbai realized that he could do nothing but stare intently at her feet.
He felt terrified, yet he couldn't help but want to curse and destroy... A vicious monster lived in his mind, wanting to destroy everything around him and make everyone die!
He struggled to keep his mouth shut, to control himself from saying anything more vicious. He clearly felt what he wanted, what he had longed for, but he could only watch helplessly as it slipped through his fingers.
He hadn't even grasped it before it was about to disappear.
The black boots changed direction.
Jiang Yuhu left the dilapidated temple without saying a word.
Some medicine was splashed on her. It certainly didn't smell pleasant, but medicine is medicine, and to cure an illness, no matter how unpleasant the taste or smell, one has to drink it.
This is her understanding of medicine.
But there is a chasm between people, a chasm that may be higher than Mount Tianque and deeper than a ravine.
The young master who grew up in luxury would never understand that a person who has nothing has to exhaust all their strength just to survive, and has no time to care about bitterness or sweetness.
Ultimately, we are from two different worlds, and we only happened to travel together for a short while.
Jiang Yuhuo decided to stop worrying about him. As long as he was still breathing and could return to Yanling alive, that was enough.
Her palms were still burning. She opened her palms and saw a string of small blisters, each the size of a bean. She used the tip of her sword to pop them one by one.
It was always inconvenient to decoct medicine in a broken earthenware pot; you could easily get burned. Now it's much better; there's no need to decoct the medicine anymore.
The clear fluid in the blisters was squeezed out, and the scalded and wrinkled skin was reattached to the flesh. She didn't even frown; she just blew on it and thought it should be better by tomorrow.
As the sun gradually sets, a few scattered houses can be seen in the distance, and occasionally farmers can be seen returning home.
Jiang Yuhuo sat on the steps in front of the temple, thinking about the road ahead.
She released the horse that had been stolen from the camp; the horse was branded with the government's mark, making it too easy for someone to spot.
Without a horse, they would have to travel on foot from now on. Unable to enter the city, they would have to detour through the mountains and forests. She didn't mind the hardship, but there was still Li Mengbai. She didn't know how long they would have to walk like this, or how much longer her senior brother's eye poison would last…
Jiang Yuhuo rubbed the communication talisman in his palm. Without its spiritual power, it had become just an ordinary jade tablet, and no message could be seen from it.
The dilapidated temple was dimly lit. Li Mengbai remained motionless, listening to the sounds outside.
Waiting for them to come back.
When he finally realized that she wouldn't come back easily, Li Mengbai struggled to sit up, wanting to go out and look for her, but as soon as he sat up, he felt dizzy and fell straight to the ground.
He fell to the ground and couldn't move for a long time. Even after he finally regained some strength, he didn't move and remained in the position of falling.
But still no one came in.
Isn't he supposed to have exceptional hearing?
She must have heard it.
Why aren't you coming in yet?
He fell down, didn't she know? How could she leave him alone?!
Take him out!
Or come in and keep him company, just like in the cave, stay by his side the whole time.
Is she getting angry over this? She wasn't like this at all towards that bastard!
Why can't she hug him like that and tell him that she will protect him?
Why be so cruel to him?
He's just sick, he's not going to die. As long as she treats him well, he'll get better.
With his gaze tilted to the side, Li Mengbai watched the sun slowly sink below the horizon, as darkness seemed to be closing in on him.
He was wrong... He shouldn't have lost his temper.
"Jiang Yuhuo, it hurts..." The person on the ground finally groaned in pain, as if whining or muttering in his sleep.
There was finally some movement outside; someone tiptoed in, their footsteps very light.
Li Mengbai was overjoyed and struggled to sit up from the ground. But when he sat up, he saw the face of a strange child.
"Big brother, why are you crying?"
"..."
"You are so beautiful..."
"Are you hungry? I'll get you something to eat."
...
It wasn't that Jiang Yuhuo was deliberately ignoring Li Mengbai by not coming in; rather, she had gone to the mountain behind the temple and had no idea what had happened to Li Mengbai.
Having not eaten all day, Li Mengbai might not feel hungry while lying down, but she was starving. With some daylight still remaining, she could search the mountains; surely she could find something to eat. This was her survival experience since childhood.
After eating a little something, Jiang Yuhuo went down the mountain to return home. Just as she reached the door, she heard Li Mengbai's voice coming from inside.
"What is this? You're not just going to give this to me, are you?"
"...Can you even eat this stuff? Even a dog wouldn't eat it. If you want to please me, you should at least offer me something decent."
Jiang Yuhuo glanced at the green jujube she had just picked from the tree, unsure whether to throw it away.
"Get lost, I don't have time to play with you."
Then came a burst of wailing, and a young child with his hair in a bun ran out crying, bumping right into Jiang Yuhuo who was returning.
The child looked at the person through teary eyes, and upon realizing it was yet another stranger, immediately cried even harder, wiping away his tears as he ran away.
Jiang Yuhuo entered the room and saw Li Mengbai sitting on the ground, and a dark, doughy lump at his feet.
When Li Mengbai saw her, a look of surprise flashed across his face, but he quickly turned his face away, as if he didn't want to see her.
"Didn't you leave? Why are you coming back to do this?"
Jiang Yuhuo walked up to him, but did not help him up.
"Li Mengbai".
Hearing her call him, Li Mengbai's expression softened a bit. He tilted his head slightly and looked at her with a sidelong glance.
"Are you happy to always trample on other people's feelings, toy with them, and watch them suffer?"
The voice was calm, yet every word pierced the heart.
Jiang Yuhuo was holding her sword, and although she was standing right next to him, Li Mengbai felt that she was very far away. She was backlit, so Li Mengbai couldn't see her face, but the mockery in her eyes was clear.
Suddenly, her eyes welled up with tears. Li Mengbai propped her neck up and met her gaze with resentment. "Is this how you see me?"
“Otherwise, aren’t you the same kind of person?” Her voice was terrifyingly calm. “You look down on them but still take advantage of them, manipulating people at will, taking other people’s sincerity and mocking and trampling on it at will… In your eyes, everyone else is a fool.”
She chuckled, sighed from her chest, and continued, "Young Master Jiang was like that before, the young boy is like that today, and so am I."
She saw through his intentions clearly, and laid bare his despicable nature.
Li Mengbai laughed too, looking at the ground and chuckling as if he couldn't breathe. He didn't argue, but simply asked, "So, you hate me, right?"
Jiang Yuhuo did not answer.
Li Mengbai knew the answer was self-evident.
Something hit the ground, drop by drop...
Li Mengbai suddenly grabbed a piece of black dough from the ground and stuffed it into his mouth. The already coarse food was now covered in dust, but he seemed not to see it as he bit down, chewing it with difficulty, bite by bite.
Jiang Yuhuo was shocked to see this and immediately stopped him, "What are you doing? Are you crazy?"
Li Mengbai continued eating.
She crouched down, lifted Li Mengbai's head, and only then did she notice that his face was covered in tears.
He cried. Why did he cry?
"Stop eating."
Li Mengbai seemed not to hear, and continued to bite, swallowing the rough dough along with her tears into her luxurious stomach.
He was having a hard time eating, and Jiang Yuhuo was also having a hard time watching him.
Stop eating!
Jiang Yuhuo reached out and snatched the dough from his hand.
Li Mengbai stared at her with red, swollen eyes and tear-streaked lashes. He tilted his head slightly, as if unwilling to admit defeat, and said in a hoarse voice, "Didn't you say I trampled on sincerity? I ate it, I ate it... Why are you dissatisfied again?"
"Don't you hate me? Why are you still telling me what to do..."
As he spoke, a wave of nausea surged up, and he immediately turned to the side and began to dry heave. After vomiting for a while, he only managed to vomit the dough he had just swallowed; there was nothing else in his stomach.
Jiang Yuhuo couldn't bear to watch any longer and reached out to pat him on the back.
"If you can't eat, don't force yourself."
How could someone who looks down on even the food of a prefect be able to eat coarse food covered in dust?
Li Mengbai's tears flowed even more profusely. He leaned into Jiang Yuhuo's arms, his hot and large body curling up in front of her, his tears falling onto her clothes.
"Jiang Yuhuo, even you are bullying me..."
He cried weakly in her arms, as if he wanted to shed all the sorrow of his life in that moment.
Jiang Yuhu sighed. The way he looked made it seem as if she had done something to wrong him.
Between sobs, Li Mengbai saw the green dates in Jiang Yuhuo's hand. He reached out to take them, about to ask if they were for him, when he noticed a string of red dots on her palm—burn marks.
She was perfectly fine when I wiped her hands last night, and there was nothing that could have burned her...
His heart tightened, and he instantly understood the reason.
Jiang Yuhuo felt that Li Mengbai should have cried enough, and was about to push him away and help him up when a pair of hands suddenly wrapped around her waist.
The enormous creature in front of her rested its head on her shoulder, its voice muffled, and mumbled in her ear, "I'm sorry..."
-----------------------
Author's Note: Some new readers have joined us! Thank you all for your support! I'll keep working hard! [hugs][hugs]
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
