Chapter 11 Dawn Mist Have you heard of Xie Qinghe?
The lamp wick flickered, its faint light illuminating the doorway.
Its small figure nimbly slipped through the crack in the door, casting a shadow a hundred times larger onto the wall.
Ji Ming's eyelashes trembled slightly, and he subtly slowed his breathing.
Ning Lu quietly peeked into the bed and saw that the person had turned their head and was asleep. She breathed a sigh of relief.
She quickly washed her face, tiptoed out the oil lamp, and lay back down on her side.
Thankfully, he was asleep, saving her the trouble of making up an excuse.
In that case, the person asking the question won't care, but the person explaining will put in a lot of effort and get exhausted.
He at least has a conscience; he still knows to leave a light on.
Ning Lu rubbed her nose, which was sore from crying, turned over, closed her eyes, and fell asleep.
Perhaps because she was exhausted from crying, she fell asleep exceptionally quickly today. In the blink of an eye, even breathing could be heard from under the bulging blankets.
Ji Ming's curled fingertips snapped open and slowly spread out to his sides.
The next morning, unusually, there was no sound of Yu Niang sweeping and burning firewood in the front yard, and Ji Ming also slept in a little later than usual.
Upon waking and opening her eyes, before she could even discern when or where she was, Ning Lu excitedly appeared beside her bed.
"Ji Amin, I've thought of a fantastic business opportunity! I have a feeling! We're going to be rich!"
Ji Ming's brow twitched, and he looked up, his gaze falling on her two walnut-shaped eyes, a mixture of surprise and amusement on his face.
Now, with her eyes shining and full of energy, she doesn't seem like the person who cried her heart out and was in utter despair behind the haystack last night.
Composing himself and suppressing his thoughts, he nodded, signaling her to continue.
Ning Lu pretended not to notice his attention to her eyes, turned her body to the side, and pretended to be calculating.
“I just reviewed the distances and characteristics of these three surrounding villages and found that the local specialties of these villages are different. Although there are vendors who come and go regularly, it is only a few times a month, which is not flexible.”
“I’m fast on my feet. Once I know the way, a journey that used to take three hours round trip can be done in two and a half hours. With the time saved, I can combine purchasing and delivering messages into one process.”
"How about this: you go out in the morning to collect mail and orders from our village, and then go to another village in the afternoon to deliver goods and collect orders. You only need to go to two places each day, going to the east on odd-numbered days and the west on even-numbered days. Two days on, one day off, nine to five, how does that sound?"
Ning Lu finished speaking in one breath, feeling a little short of breath, and waved her hand to fan her mouth and nose.
Then she casually sat down on the edge of the bed, looking like she was waiting for praise.
Are you alone?
“That’s right, otherwise, bringing you along would only slow me down. You just need to guard the rear.” Ning Lu clapped her hands and nodded approvingly at him: “If you do well, I can also develop a downline, recruit agents… uh… I mean find people to open branch stores for me.”
"Have you ever considered why such a business opportunity has been left unresolved until today?"
Not receiving the expected support, Ning Lu frowned, bent over, wiggled her toes, and blurted out.
"The mountain roads are difficult to walk, strenuous and unsafe, and the area is small with many interpersonal relationships."
She had thought about all of these things, but she still felt it was feasible.
“In the long run, it’s really not worth it, but we’re short of money right now. And we’re not going to stay here forever. I think we can give it a try.”
Those swollen eyes blinked incessantly in front of him. Ji Ming wanted to say something more, but his shoulder was slapped hard twice.
"If you're short of money, you can't have it all at once. You'll only know if it works if you try."
"If we had planned everything for the long term, neither of us would have lived to this day."
She stood up briskly, took two steps forward, and stepped into the light.
The sunlight streamed in, casting her long shadow across the bed, landing beside Ji Ming.
He looked toward the source of the shadow, where the slender little man, with his back to him, took two deep breaths before raising his arm and waving excitedly at him.
In this desolate autumn day, with the ground covered in withered yellow leaves, he unexpectedly saw a patch of vibrant life.
My mind was shaken, and for a moment, my eyes, as clear as an ancient well, reflected mottled starlight.
"I'm going to talk to the village chief. Remember to eat, and wait for my triumphant return!"
Ji Ming snapped out of his daze, lowered his eyes, cleared his throat, and hastily responded.
Ning Lu nimbly tumbled out of the yard like a rabbit, stood outside the fence, and let out a long sigh.
It seems like they managed to dodge it?
This morning, when she washed her face, she found her eyes were swollen to two large sizes. She felt embarrassed and desperate, and even thought of a hundred strange reasons to explain to Ji Ming.
As a result, when the man woke up and their eyes met, she was speechless.
I don't know why, but every time I see Ji Ming, I feel that all the lies I tell him are just self-deception.
In a flash, Ning Lu realized that avoiding the topic was a better way to deal with him than lying.
Fortunately, he didn't like to ask further questions.
Patting her chest, Ning Lu's forced composure crumbled completely.
It took her a long time to convince herself that without evidence and being dependent on others, they were in an even more passive position. The most important thing right now was to save some money and get Ji Ming away as soon as possible.
Ji Ming...
Despite her initial dislike, as time went on, she often forgot his murderous intent and selfishness from their first meeting, selectively remembering instead his subtle sense of boundaries.
Most of the time after he woke up from his illness, he would stare blankly at one spot, occasionally fidgeting with his fingertips as if he were calculating or sorting something out, or staring at her like he was stalking prey.
Apart from that, he was a patient who was barely worry-free.
He ate little, drank little, didn't cry out in pain, didn't complain, and wasn't curious about anything around him; he just sat there quietly.
He didn't ask her anything, so she didn't have to rack her brains to make up one reason after another to cover up her blank memories and unknown background.
Having witnessed Yu Niang's shift from offering honest help to becoming hesitant and unclear, Ning Lu inexplicably felt a sense of ease and reassurance from the subtle distance he exuded.
If he didn't bring up leaving, she would have preferred to stay with him a little longer.
Every day since arriving in this world, everything seems shrouded in fog. The original owner's identity, the way home, the truth behind the factional strife, and the changes in Yu Niang... nothing is clear.
Thinking of Yu Niang, Ning Lu's lips drooped, and she unconsciously quickened her pace.
The village chief's courtyard and the doctor's house were not far apart. In order to repay the doctor's favor and to become familiar with him, Ning Lu would always detour around the doctor's house whenever she passed by, bringing him something or saying hello.
As she paused to look around, she witnessed a doctor and a woman arguing over payment. Small pieces of silver fell from their hands and rolled all the way to Ning Lu's feet.
She glanced down at the gleaming silver on the ground, then looked back into the hall at the woman standing there—
It was Yu Niang.
The man looked haggard and exhausted, and the child on the bed was crying incessantly.
In the dead silence, Ning Lu bent down to pick up the money, glancing at it a few more times.
Ji Ming had explained to her the differences between new and old silver, including their color, cut, and texture...
"Ning girl." Yu Niang's voice was already hoarse from crying. She wiped her hands by her side and looked at her warily.
Is the child sick?
Ning Lu ran her fingertips along the silver coins, then looked at the child inside.
"It's nothing serious."
As if to expose Yu Niang's cover-up, the child's wailing grew louder before the words were even finished.
Ning Lu weighed the silver in her palm, made a judgment, and handed the silver back to Yu Niang.
Without a moment's hesitation, the other party took the money, hurriedly turned around and handed it to the doctor, then slipped into the inner room.
Behind the curtain, figures moved about. Yu Niang soothed the crying baby in a warm voice, a behavior quite different from what Ning Lu had seen before.
The doctor sat behind his desk, picked up his pen and began to write. Seeing her curiosity, he said a few more words.
"That child has infantile convulsions. It's hard to cure completely. It's not a big deal if it doesn't flare up, but one flare-up can wipe out several years' worth of savings. It's not stable at all. It's really not easy for Yu Niang all these years."
Ning Lu lowered her head in response and saw that the prescription contained the words "earth dragon".
How is your young master?
"Much better, he can get up by himself now."
"Oh?" The doctor was somewhat surprised. He looked up at her, then stroked his beard and said, "Indeed, it would be difficult to have made it this far without extraordinary willpower."
Noticing Yu Niang's gaze, Ning Lu glanced at her in response, then quickly looked away as the other woman dodged.
Her nose tingled with emotion. She rubbed her worn-out sleeve, mumbled a couple of words, and turned to say goodbye before heading to the village chief's house.
At first, the village chief didn't think much of her suggestion, feeling that it was unsafe and unsustainable for a woman to travel to the mountains all the time. But Ninglu was stubborn and insisted on giving it a try.
After a month of persistence, things actually started to look promising. She wasn't picky about the work and didn't care about the cost; she was willing to do even jobs that only paid a few coins a day. She was quick-witted and had a sweet tongue, so more and more people asked her to deliver or buy things for them. From a few coins a day, she gradually accumulated several dozen coins.
However, as her workload increased, she returned home later and later.
At first, Ji Ming felt a rare moment of peace and quiet when she suddenly disappeared. But as the days went by, he began to experience a loneliness and bewilderment he hadn't felt in years.
After the Cold Dew solar term, the weather gradually turned cooler, so Ninglu bought new clothes for the two of them, replacing the old clothes that Yu Niang and the others had given them.
The candlelight illuminated the table, on which sat a dish and a soup, arranged on a crooked wooden table.
Ji Ming sat at the table, holding a short jacket with frayed edges in his hand.
Amidst the flickering flames, slender, long fingertips smoothed out the clothes, revealing a crooked and ugly stitch. Then, the person deftly picked apart the thread with the needle tip, and with a casual tug, the entire thread was pulled off intact.
Silver needles flicked at the fire, and her pale hands moved deftly along the fabric ripped open by the sharp blade. Occasionally, a gust of wind would rise, causing her fingers holding the needles to tremble slightly from coughing.
The oil lamp flickered, and there was now another person on the other side.
Ning Lu's eyes lit up when she saw the steamed buns and side dishes on the table. Without washing her hands, she grabbed them and stuffed them into her mouth.
"It's so good to have food! I'm starving."
Ji Ming, used to this, didn't look up: "The vegetables were brought by Yu Niang."
Ning Lu glanced at the front yard.
Although she didn't pursue the matter of the jade pendant being pawned any further, Yu Niang stopped visiting frequently. When she did come, she always avoided visiting during her visitor hours.
She had decided early on not to care, so she stopped dwelling on it.
"I knew it! The pampered and privileged Ji A-ming would never cook."
Ji Ming ignored her teasing.
She forgot when it started, but she stopped being afraid of him and stopped calling him "brother" as she used to when they first met.
He kept calling out "Ji Amin, Ji Amin," almost forgetting his own name.
Not noticing what he was doing, Ning Lu spoke to herself.
"Hey, do you know why I came home so late today?"
"have no idea."
"On my way back, I ran into some uncles and aunts chatting under the big tree at the entrance of the village. I happened to hear them talking about things in the capital, so I went to listen and came back to tell you about it."
"Isn't it you who likes to join in the fun?"
"Of course there are," Ning Lu readily admitted. "But I'm worried you'll get bored staying indoors all day. In a couple of days, when you're feeling a bit better, I'll take you out for a walk."
Ji Ming raised an eyebrow upon hearing this, but did not respond.
Seeing that he didn't refuse, Ning Lu perked up, picked up her bowl, walked around half the table, leaned close to his ear, and whispered mysteriously, "Have you heard of Xie Qinghe?"
"That ruthless, powerful, and newly risen official who can control everything."
The silver needle stopped in mid-air, and Ji Ming's gaze, which had been fixed on the needlework, suddenly turned cold.
With fingers curled and breaths held, a heavy silence fell over the room.
After a long while, Ji Ming's eyelashes trembled slightly, and he nodded almost imperceptibly.
A note from the author:
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