Gu Zhixing gently took her hand in his; her wrist was so slender that his thumb and forefinger could easily encircle it.
"Jin Tang, we've found a place to stay," he said softly, his voice as gentle as if he were coaxing a child. "It's a bit simple, but it's better than sleeping on the streets. You... please wake up soon, okay?"
The only answer he received was the chirping of crickets outside the window.
Before dawn, Gu Zhixing tiptoed out the door.
The dock is hiring porters. They pay two coins per bag of grain, and the work is from dawn to dusk. They can move as much as they can.
Gu Zhixing rolled up his sleeves at the registration desk, revealing his muscular arms, which were thin but still had some muscle.
"A scholar?" The foreman looked him up and down, examining his fair hands and slightly handsome face, and sneered, "If you can't do this job, don't delay things."
“I can do it.” Gu Zhixing’s voice was not loud, but it was firm. “Let me try. If I can’t, I’ll leave immediately.”
When the first bag of grain was placed on his shoulder, Gu Zhixing almost knelt down.
I had never done this kind of work before, and I had no idea how to use my strength skillfully. I just used brute force to carry it on my shoulder, and I didn't dare to put it down even though it aggravated my wound.
The weight of over 100 pounds quickly made his vision go black, and his spine made a sound of being unable to bear the strain.
He gritted his teeth and moved forward step by step, his thin clothes quickly soaked with sweat.
By the end of the day, he had carried forty-three bags, his palms were blistered and his shoulders were swollen, but he earned eighty-six coins in return.
When passing by the pharmacy, Gu Zhixing spent sixty coins to buy the medicine prescribed by the doctor, and another ten coins to buy half a catty of brown rice.
With the remaining sixteen coins, he hesitated for a long time before finally buying a piece of maltose candy.
When he was a child, his mother would always give him a piece of candy when he was sick, saying that sweetness would help him recover faster.
When we got back to the cabin, it was already completely dark.
Gu Zhixing lit the oil lamp, and in the dim light, Jin Tang's face seemed even paler.
He first brewed the medicine and fed it to Shen Jintang spoonful by spoonful, although most of it flowed out of the corners of her mouth.
Then came the rice porridge, which he cooked very thinly, but he scooped out all the rice grains and gave them to Shen Jintang.
"I bought candy today." Gu Zhixing took out a piece of maltose that had melted and deformed from his pocket, carefully broke off a small piece, and placed it to Shen Jintang's lips. "Try it, it's very sweet."
The sugar cube slowly melted, leaving a glistening mark on Shen Jintang's pale lips.
Gu Zhixing gently wiped it away with his fingertips, and suddenly felt his eyes burning.
He hurriedly turned around, swallowed a few mouthfuls of tasteless rice porridge with cold water, then fetched a basin of clean water to wash Shen Jintang's body.
This routine repeated itself for half a month.
During the day, Gu Zhixing carried bags at the dock, in the afternoon he moved wine jars at the winery, and occasionally he could get copying jobs at night.
He learned how to protect his shoulders from chafing while carrying bags, how to move wine jars without spilling a drop of wine, and how to write the most words with the fewest strokes of ink.
His skin was tanned dark, the blisters on his hands had turned into thick calluses, and his cheeks were sunken, making his eyes appear even larger and brighter.
Almost all the money he earned each day, after deducting rent, went to Shen Jintang.
The medication cannot be stopped; the doctor said that even if a person is in a coma, their body still needs to be recuperated.
Occasionally, when there was a surplus, Gu Zhixing would buy some eggs or minced meat, cook them into soup, and feed them to Shen Jintang little by little.
He himself often ate a bowl of thin porridge with pickled vegetables. Sometimes he was so busy that he didn't even have time to eat. His stomach ached so much that he curled up on the ground and trembled in the middle of the night.
That night, after Gu Zhixing finished wiping Shen Jintang's body, he was about to blow out the lamp and rest when he suddenly noticed that Shen Jintang's fingers seemed to have moved slightly.
He held his breath, staring intently at the pale hand, but after a long time, there was still no movement.
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