The Living Yama (Part 8)
"Is that so?" I nodded with a smile. "I'd appreciate it if Doctor Liu could take Lord Xiong's pulse again. If the pulse is fine, I'll go to the prefectural government office to settle the accounts with Lord Wei."
"Uh." Liu Yu returned to the table, took out the pulse pillow, and gestured with his arm, "Lord Xiong, please sit down." He then said to me, who was standing to the side, "Lady Qing, please sit wherever you like."
Liu Yu took Xiong Tu's wrist, alternating between left and right, and breathed a sigh of relief, saying, "Lord Xiong was originally in good health, and he has also taken good care of himself after the injury. In my opinion, the injury is no longer a big problem."
Just as I was about to express my gratitude, Xiong Tu suddenly let out a low cough.
Liu Yu's expression hardened, and he immediately said, "However, although the external injuries have healed, you have been thinking too much, causing your heart and qi to become blocked, which has lingered in your lungs and internal organs. In order to avoid developing any chronic illness in the future, it would be best to recuperate for a while longer."
"Dr. Liu, your pulse is sharp." I approached with a forced smile. "I've also been feeling unwell lately—it's the change of seasons. Dr. Liu, could you take my pulse too? Please excuse me, Master Xiong."
Xiong Tu thanked me and got up to go into the courtyard. I slammed the door shut and turned to glare at Liu Yu.
Liu Yu put away the pulse pillow and chuckled dryly, "Qing Niangzi is feeling a bit feverish. Let me... let me make you a cup of Huangya tea."
"I didn't come here for tea! Give me a straight answer, is that guy outside faking it?"
"That's not the case."
"But what can we do now? He's been staying at my place and won't leave, which is affecting the inn's business!"
"Well—I'll just have to have Ji Zhou compensate you with more money."
"Don't mention him to me! If it weren't for—sigh, let's not talk about this anymore." I said regretfully, "Dr. Liu, please think of another way."
Liu Yu spread his hands, his tone troubled: "This is a mental illness, and only a mental illness can cure it. There's nothing I can do."
A mental illness?!
This "living devil" has become so sentimental while recuperating from his injuries...
I thought for a moment and said, "No, that's not right. This man has been stationed on the border for many years, always decisive and ruthless. His current temperament is indeed somewhat inexplicable. Doctor Liu, could it be the medicine from the past two days—"
Liu Yu interrupted me, his face flushed, "Qing Niangzi, please don't say that! The medicine I, Liu Yu, prepare is absolutely safe!"
"Okay, okay, don't get excited, alright?" I pressed my temples guiltily, suddenly remembering that when Xiong Tu first arrived at the inn, I had chopped him twice with my hands. Could it be that being unconscious for too long had affected his brain?
"Why don't you take him to see Old Liu?" Liu Yu looked outside and lowered his voice. "It's quite a coincidence. On the eve of the chaos caused by the salt smugglers in Yixi, Prefect Xiong sent a visiting card to Old Liu, but for some reason, Old Liu claimed to be ill and avoided seeing him. If Qing Niangzi can mediate, it might help to resolve the situation."
"I'll go now." I said goodbye to Liu Yu, put my hands behind my back, and went into the courtyard. I said to the people waiting under the tree, "Let's go to the school."
"Alright." Xiong Tu nodded, then asked, "Qing Niangzi, are you... alright?"
I looked him up and down and said, "Wow, I didn't realize you were so caring."
Xiong Tu lowered his eyes, his long eyelashes trembling slightly: "I've been causing you trouble these past few days."
"It's nothing." I smiled and continued walking. "I've encountered plenty of troubles, yours is nothing compared to mine."
On their way to the school, they happened to meet Qubu and Aguo, who were going up the mountain to cultivate the fields.
A-Guo smiled and pulled me aside: "Qing Niangzi, who is that handsome man next to you?"
The Liao girls are passionate and outgoing, and they don't shy away from talking about the opposite sex, even after marriage. But to criticize him in front of the "living Yama" is still a bit... I'm not sure if Xiong Tu understands what A-Guo is saying.
Logically, having been in the southwest for ten years, he should be able to understand the foreign language; however, his reaction to the passing caravans at the inn earlier didn't seem to indicate that he could understand it.
I glanced at Xiong Tu and said quickly, "He's a friend of mine."
"Friends?" A-Guo pressed on relentlessly, "What kind of friends? The kind who sing, dance, or give you purses?"
I gave an awkward laugh: "Neither."
A-Guo let out a disappointed "Ah," and Qu Bu quickly pulled her away, smiling at me and Xiong Tu, "Qing Niangzi's friend is our friend."
Xiong Tu remained silent, but smiled and cupped his hands in a gesture of respect to the two of them.
Ah Guo beamed and pulled two pieces of yellow rice cake from his waist pouch, handing them over and saying, "These are for my friend!"
I quickly took out my handkerchief and accepted it, watching the two of them walk away before turning to my side and asking, "Would you like to try some?"
Xiong Tu hummed in agreement, his gaze lingering on the cloth covering the rice cakes.
I suddenly realized—he probably thought the rice cake was too sticky, so I picked up the top piece and handed the rest over along with the cloth.
As I walked and chewed, Xiong Tu suddenly said, "This rice cake isn't as good as yours."
I rolled my eyes at him: "That was made by Lin Zhong."
As we approached the schoolyard, we suddenly heard children crying loudly.
Xiong Tu and I exchanged a glance and stopped outside the fence at the same time. We saw a boy dressed in Han Chinese clothes squatting in the vegetable patch in the corner of the yard, holding a half-cut stick and poking at the soil. With each poke, he would look up with his tear-streaked face and let out an even more desperate wail.
I recognized the child as the one who had complained to me about how difficult it was to memorize texts and wanted to learn martial arts on the day we reunited. I suppressed a laugh, walked around behind him, and suddenly asked, "Daxin, what treasure are you digging for here?"
"Waaah, Aunt Qing, the teacher punished me again!" The little guy cried and turned to pounce on me.
His face was covered in smears... I put my arm around his and looked at Xiong Tu, who silently pulled a cloth from his sleeve. I took it and gave the little guy a couple of quick pats on the face.
Da Xin snorted and exclaimed, "Yellow water cake, it smells so good!"
"All you care about is food!" I gently flicked the tip of his nose. "Tell me, why did the teacher punish you?"
Da Xin hung his head and said shyly, "I, I bullied Amu Jie..."
Amujie? That name sounds familiar. I thought about it and realized—it seems to be the mountain boy who delivered snake eggs to Liu Xingjian.
"Huh? Aunt Qing heard from your sister Huai Xu last time that you and Amu became sworn brothers. It hasn't been that long, and you're already breaking it off?"
"No, we didn't break up," Da Xin explained, his face flushed. "Amu Jie and I are best brothers for life!"
"Oh, what's going on? Did the teacher misunderstand you?"
"No. I... I gave Amu a nickname..."
"What nickname is it?" I rubbed Daxin's head and asked curiously, "It's because it makes the teacher angry that he was kicked out of class."
"Grasshopper..."
"Calling your best buddy 'grasshopper'?" I grabbed his head, applying a little pressure. "What were you thinking with that little brain of yours?"
“Amujie liked to catch grasshoppers and roast them to eat. We would call out to him to play after class, and he would agree. The teacher heard this and said, ‘This is a wicked act.’ He wanted to correct my ‘boredom’ and punished me.”
I flicked his forehead lightly: "Well done!"
The little one sobbed, "But... Aunt Qing, do you know what the teacher punished me for...?"
"Could it be—that I'm punishing you by making you catch grasshoppers?"
"That's right!" Da Xin's brows furrowed. "We have to catch twenty to hand in before school ends, and I've only caught three!"
I covered my mouth with my hand, trying hard not to laugh out loud: "Well, then Aunt Qing won't keep you any longer. Don't just think about turning the soil, look around under the grass leaves."
"oh."
There were about twenty children in the classroom, boys and girls, the youngest being five or six years old and the oldest no more than eight or nine. Liu Xingjian, holding a book, stood in front of a wooden board, teaching them.
I led Xiong Tu to the window to listen in—this lesson was about arithmetic.
Liu Xingjian asked, "Now there is a field that is fifteen paces wide and sixteen paces long. How many paces is it?" (Note 1)
Among the children, some were deep in thought, resting their chins on their hands; others dipped their fingers in water and used it as ink to make dots and strokes on the table.
Before long, a young girl from the Liao ethnic group stood up and answered loudly, "Master, give me one mu of land."
Liu Xingjian stroked his beard and smiled: "Indeed." He turned the page and asked, "Now, if there is a total of 55,225 steps, what is its square volume (Note 2)?"
This problem required borrowing and discussing three times to arrive at the result, making it much more complicated than the previous square field problem. Several children showed signs of pain as they calculated.
Liu Xingjian tapped the wooden board with his fingers: "Focus on one thing and you will succeed; focus on two and you will fail."
A moment later, a small boy stood up timidly: "Teacher, is it two hundred and fifteen?"
Liu Xingjian waved for him to sit down and said gently, "It's very close. Think about it again."
The same Liao girl stood up and replied, "Master, it is two hundred and thirty-five paces square."
"Indeed!" Liu Xingjian clapped his hands and laughed, "Shama's calculations were both quick and accurate, let's all give her a round of applause!"
Applause rang out one after another, and a slightly older child asked rather indignantly, "Sham, your father is a hunter and your mother is a weaver. What's the use of you being so good at arithmetic?"
The children whispered among themselves: "That's right. Arithmetic is so hard to learn, it's a waste to learn it and then not use it."
"If only Sister Shama could have my brain, my family owns a rice shop, and my parents always scold me for being slow-witted."
Liu Xingjian smiled and looked at the girl, encouraging her, "Shama, what are your plans for the future? Would you like to tell everyone?"
Shama stood up with his head held high, looked around at everyone, and said confidently, "I, Ashu Shama, will be like Qing Niangzi of Bating Road, and become a judge in the border market of the Great Song Dynasty!"
A little girl next to Shama jumped up and shouted, "I want to be like Qing Niangzi! I want to open a big inn!"
Another little girl shouted, "I want to be like my teacher's wife, I want to open a weaving workshop!"
The boys were not to be outdone: "I want to be a general and lead troops to beat up the barbarians of Shimen!"
"Yes! Take back the land they stole from the Nanguang region!"
"Fight all the way to Dali!"
Can we fight in Dali?
"We can't fight Dali. Dali is now a brother to our Great Song Dynasty."
Liu Xingjian tapped the wooden board loudly, "Alright, alright. That's all for today's lesson. Remember to review your lessons when you get home. School dismissed!"
School's out!
School's out!
"Goodbye, Master!"
"Goodbye, Master!"
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