Chapter 6: Falling in love at first sight with a child?! Before, after leaving seclusion, we were...
Li Chen clapped his hands and pointed to the second floor, saying, "There's plenty of timber here; it's more than enough to repair the roof. We should use the remaining timber to replace those dilapidated walls and floors. That way, it will be warmer to live here. Otherwise, it's always drafty, and we two patients can't stand it."
Shen Zhengyuan nodded and said, "Okay."
“Alright, seeing how decisive Cultivator Shen is, I’m relieved,” Li Chen said. “Well then, I know that Cultivator Shen probably hasn’t done this kind of work before, so I’ll draw up a blueprint for you. Don’t worry, I just walked around this house and looked at every part, so this blueprint is definitely not wrong.”
After she finished speaking, she went back into the house and quickly drew several diagrams. She also added annotations to the side of each diagram, explaining which part it was used to replace, so that Shen Zhengyuan could check and replace it later.
After Shen Zhengyuan received the blueprints, he was about to find a small knife for her when he saw her wave her sleeve and walk to the side, smiling at him. Then she pointed with her chin to the location of the wood, silently signaling him to start working quickly.
Shen Zhengyuan remained silent for a long time before saying, "I'm repairing the house, so what are you doing?"
Li Chen smiled upon hearing this, "Of course I have gathered enough wood and drawn up the blueprints. I am here waiting for good news from Cultivator Shen."
Shen Zhengyuan: "..."
Li Chen was so blatantly slacking off that he couldn't really say anything. After all, he was the man among the two of them, and generally speaking, men are stronger than women, so according to the usual situation, it was indeed his turn to do more work.
He glanced at Li Chenjin, picked up his knife and blueprints, walked over to the wood, and began to study it in silence.
Just as he had chosen his target and was about to make his move, he suddenly heard a faint sound of a flute.
He looked up and saw Li Chenjin standing not far away, holding the xiao (a type of vertical bamboo flute) he had found while searching through the ruins.
Although the rain had stopped, the sky was still covered with dark clouds, and a cold wind blew from afar, sweeping over the ruins and blowing unimpeded onto people, making them feel a bit chilly and adding a touch of desolation to their hearts.
In such a desolate place, the sudden appearance of two people and a building seemed extremely eerie, creating a sense of complete disconnect from the surroundings. However, the addition of the flute music made it feel perfectly in tune with the scene.
Although he couldn't discern which tune Li Chen was playing, the xiao (vertical bamboo flute) was something that had remained unchanged for thousands of years. It sounded deep and heavy, with each note like a lament, a complaint, or a yearning (Note 1), as if someone were sobbing and wailing, which only added to the sense of desolation.
He quietly stood up and looked in her direction.
Li Chen was still wearing the same white dress made of coarse linen. Today, instead of using a wooden hairpin to style her hair, she simply tied it up with a hairband she had picked up from somewhere. At this moment, the hem of her dress and the ends of her hair swayed gently in the breeze.
Suddenly, he seemed to see her heart crying.
If what she told him before was true, then she must be homesick now, he thought calmly.
Unfortunately, although she had a home, she couldn't go back, while he could go home, but he couldn't see a single familiar face.
From this perspective, they don't seem to be that different, and living together like this doesn't seem so bad.
The building wasn't very big, so it didn't take much time to repair. In addition, although Li Chenjin made Shen Zhengyuan do most of the work, he would actually lend a hand. Therefore, it only took two days to repair the building.
Before she could even rejoice that the little dilapidated building was finally free of drafts and leaks, Shen Zhengyuan, who had just finished dinner and was getting up to wash the dishes, suddenly lost his balance and fell back down, almost falling to the ground along with the chair, which startled Li Chenjin.
When her gaze fell on Shen Zhengyuan, he was looking down, covering his mouth, coughing incessantly. He was coughing so hard that his whole body was trembling, as if he were coughing up his lungs.
As soon as she placed her hand on Shen Zhengyuan's wrist, she saw some blood seeping out from between his fingers, dripping onto his clothes.
Li Chen took his pulse and sighed slowly, saying, "The problem isn't serious. It's just that you were already seriously injured and haven't fully recovered. Now, due to overexertion, your meridians and vital energy have been damaged, which is why you vomited blood. You must have felt unwell before. If you were unwell, why didn't you tell me?"
"I'm fine, this injury is nothing," Shen Zhengyuan said calmly.
"You're really stubborn." Li Chen shook his head helplessly and said, "Fortunately, I have a lot of experience with your injury. All you need are some herbs to replenish qi and blood, such as astragalus, ginseng, and atractylodes, plus some herbs to stop bleeding and nourish blood, like agrimony, bletilla, and donkey-hide gelatin. A few doses will do the trick."
"The only difficulty now is that we can't find these medicinal herbs here, so I can't let you work for the next few days. You'd better pray that my body can still hold up, otherwise if my old... old illness relapses, it will be very difficult for the two of us to be together."
Shen Zhengyuan looked at her and suddenly asked, "Are you really sick?"
Li Chen clicked his tongue and released his wrist, saying, "That's not a very nice thing to say, but I do have some old ailments, and they're really serious. If they flare up, you know nothing about medicine, and ordinary doctors probably can't treat me either. If I fall into a coma again, I could easily die."
Shen Zhengyuan: "..."
Shen Zhengyuan stopped talking and just watched quietly as Li Chenjin started clearing away the dishes. Then, humming a little tune, he slowly walked to the dishwashing area, rolled up his sleeves, and began washing the dishes.
He watched her retreating figure, but in his heart he wondered, if what she said was true, then she…
Maybe I really like him...
But what's the use of liking it?
During his years as a fugitive, he witnessed many loving couples parting ways for the sake of livelihood, and many long-term couples going their separate ways because they could not share hardships.
Even those who once stayed together day and night and vowed to never leave each other would separate because they didn't want to be burdened by each other. How long could Li Chenjin maintain this affection?
Besides, he's practically a cripple now, unable to lift a finger or carry anything, and will only be a burden. She may not despise him now, but won't she despise him in the future?
Or perhaps, once she realizes she's not getting a response and her goal isn't being achieved, she'll give up and leave?
So what exactly is her purpose?
It can't really be like she said, because of some vague and unimportant "like".
Li Chenjin was humming a little tune as she washed the dishes, quite content, when halfway through, she felt a faint chill run down her spine, as if she were being secretly watched by something lurking in the shadows. She involuntarily turned around and was startled by the person who had appeared behind her without her noticing.
Her body jerked violently, and the bowl in her hand almost smashed onto Shen Zhengyuan's head. Fortunately, she stopped in time, preventing his head from being smashed open.
"Why do you walk so quietly? Let me tell you, you can scare people to death!" She glanced at Shen Zhengyuan, pursed her lips, washed her hands, and said, "Since you have nothing to do, you can wash the dishes. I'm going upstairs to sleep."
Seeing her turn to leave, Shen Zhengyuan suddenly said, "Aren't you afraid I'll run away in the middle of the night if you leave me to sleep downstairs alone?"
"You still want to run away?" Li Chen turned around, looked at the person in front of him, and sighed slightly. "If you still want to run away, then there's nothing I can do. I can only ask you to stop running for now."
"Let's not even talk about your old injury flaring up now. Even if you run, you can't go far. You'll probably faint halfway there, and I'll have to carry you back. As for me, I haven't been feeling well lately either. I guess it's because I haven't taken my medicine in a long time, and my old ailment might flare up again. So let's take care of each other for now. Once we find a place with a clinic and you take your medicine, it won't be too late for you to run."
Originally, Li Chen had planned to start her journey as soon as she finished repairing the small building, but Shen Zhengyuan needed to rest, so even if she wanted to continue her journey, she would have to wait two days. Therefore, she decided to use these two days to start tidying up the small building.
Actually, there is more than one small building. There is also a wooden fence around the building, which divides the building into a front yard and a back yard.
The front yard was a bit overgrown. Apart from some pebbles, there was a small pond that looked like it could hold a few fish. Because of the previous heavy rain, a lot of water had accumulated in the pond. I wonder if the water in the pond will spill after the small building shrinks.
The backyard looks like it was originally a small garden, and you can still see a few empty flower pots. However, it would be a waste to use this place to grow flowers; it would be more practical to use it to grow vegetables.
So during those two days of rest, she would take a hoe she had found somewhere and turn the soil over and over again, preparing to buy some seeds along with medicine when she arrived in a populated town.
For the past two days, Shen Zhengyuan had nothing to do. To relieve his boredom, apart from eating three meals a day, he would move a stool to her vicinity and watch her hoe the ground from a distance that was neither too close nor too far.
At first, she felt uncomfortable being stared at, but after a while, she gradually got used to it. After all, he really had nothing to do, and he couldn't do the hoeing work now. Besides staring blankly, it seemed that the only way to relieve his boredom was to watch her work.
When the perfect day for their journey finally arrived, she was about to have Shen Zhengyuan pack everything into his Qiankun bag and take it with him when she suddenly heard him say, "You said you fell in love with me at first sight, but I rarely appear in the cultivation world, and I'm usually in seclusion. The few times I did come out of seclusion, there were no outsiders present, so you shouldn't have seen me before."
"Also, I'm only nineteen years old now. The previous times I came out of seclusion, I was thirteen, fourteen, and sixteen years old respectively. Would you fall in love with a child at first sight?"
A note from the author:
(Note 1) From Su Shi's "Ode to the Red Cliff"
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