Chapter 4: Red Marks on the Wrist
After Xie Lingyu entered the main courtyard, everything that happened seemed strange.
First, laughter could be heard from inside the room through the crabapple blossoms. As they got closer, it turned into angry snorting, as if the person was agreeing with something.
What are you doing at night instead of sleeping?
Normally, people should be sound asleep by this time.
He stood at the doorway, and the noise stopped again. After a while, he raised his hand to knock on the door when suddenly the sound of something being smashed came from inside.
Xie Lingyu frowned slightly, and without thinking too much, pushed open the door and entered. The girl in the room was wrapped in a quilt and curled up into a ball, sitting properly on the edge of the tatami.
Apart from some redness on her face, she looked perfectly normal.
"What is Junior Sister doing?"
He lowered his eyes, about to pick up something from the ground, when he suddenly noticed the girl running towards him. The moment he looked up, she was already pouncing on him.
Xie Lingyu was startled and instinctively caught her. As she fell to the ground, her palm supported her slender waist.
The girl was exceptionally close to him, her slender white fingers pressing on his shoulder, the faint scent of medicine mingling with the fragrance of crabapple blossoms filling his heart.
She clutched the glass mirror she had snatched from his hand, visibly relieved, and looked up to meet his gaze.
Those clear amber eyes immediately froze.
The next moment, he quickly let go, stood up, and took a few quick steps back until he bumped into the screen, as if he had accidentally touched something he hated.
The room was dark, so the girl's expression was not visible. She could only be vaguely seen clenching her fists and speaking in a deep voice.
"What are you doing here in the middle of the night?"
After a two-second silence, Xie Lingyu lowered her eyelashes, stood up from the ground, brushed off her sleeves, and said calmly, "The alchemist in the jade box just told me that his disciple put the jade slip recording the method of consumption in the wrong place. I've come to replace it."
Sang Ying immediately understood why there was such a glass mirror in the box.
"Wait a moment."
After saying this, Sang Ying turned around, opened the glass mirror, and quickly explained in the chaotic group chat that she was not the real person, that she had just found the glass mirror, and that she was now returning it to its rightful owner.
The fellow cultivators in the group finally calmed down.
Just as Sang Ying was about to close the glass mirror, the Cave Master of Caixia Cave suddenly spoke up: "[Meeting is fate. Fellow Daoist, why don't you join a group with your own account? We can chat together when we have nothing to do.]"
White Cat Swordsman followed closely: [Yes, yes, the group members are so enthusiastic! You can tell everyone if you have any difficulties, and we'll work together to help you solve them.]
Tianhu Jushi: [Yes, yes]
Delivery Master: [+1]
Master Bukong: [+2]
Stock Market Speculator: [+3]
Sang Ying: [...Do you guys want some gossip?]
Master of Caixia Cave: [Hehe]
White Cat Swordsman: [Hehe]
Tianhu Jushi: [Hehe]
Although she knew that these strange cultivators were just looking for a gossip session, Sang Ying still took out her glass mirror.
She glanced furtively at the doorway; the young man in white stood there, quiet and aloof.
And she also wanted to know... what he really meant.
The master of Caixia Cave added her as a friend and pulled her into the group. Sang Ying had calmed down by now, walked up to the young man, and handed him the glass mirror.
Xie Lingyu opened her palm, revealing a jade slip. Sang Ying picked it up, paused slightly, and tightened her grip on the warm jade slip.
The matter was completed, but the young man did not leave. He remained standing under the flower corridor, with the clear moonlight streaming down along the eaves.
Sang Ying asked in confusion, "Is there anything else?"
Xie Lingyu said calmly, "I will go out tomorrow morning and will be back in about seven days."
Sang Ying: "Oh."
Xie Lingyu would always say something before leaving the house in the past, and Sang Ying was already used to it, so she didn't pay much attention to it.
She looked down at her shadow on the ground. Her sprained ankle had healed completely after a good night's sleep. She slowly stepped on the shadow of the crabapple blossoms, and suddenly noticed that two tufts of whiskers had sprouted on the top of her shadow's head, swaying in the wind.
? !
Sang Ying immediately covered her head.
Xie Lingyu was about to leave when she saw this and paused: "What's wrong?"
Sang Ying hurriedly made up an excuse: "It's nothing, I just feel a little uncomfortable because of my period. I'm going back to my room now."
After saying that, he turned around and ran back into his room, closing the door behind him.
Sang Ying ran to the dressing table and looked in the mirror. Her hair had become a messy bird's nest from sleeping, with two strands sticking up like cockroaches with pigtails.
No wonder Xie Lingyu, who is usually calm in the face of danger, was so surprised when he first saw her. From his perspective, it looked like a female ghost was rushing at him. She would be scared too.
Clutching a soft pillow, Sang Ying collapsed back onto the couch, looking utterly dejected.
But soon something happened that made her even more despondent: the reason she had just made up turned out to be prophetic, and she really did get her period.
Sang Ying huddled listlessly in the blankets, her hands and feet icy cold, her face pale with pain.
She was already weak and always had a hard time during her menstrual period. Today, she caught a chill in Wanbing Valley, and her period came early, making her stomach hurt even more than usual.
My head was foggy, and the blankets weren't warm enough, especially the part of the blankets under my legs, which felt like an ice cave.
Sang Ying curled up inside the blanket, shrinking into a shrimp-like shape.
In a daze, she thought of Xie Lingyu again.
She was frail and sickly from a young age and was carefully raised on Minghua Mountain. Her father forbade her to go out and interact with others. Besides her father, the only people she was close to were her three senior brothers.
Because there were no women around, she lacked basic physiological knowledge, and no one told her about it.
When I first had my period, I had the same terrible abdominal pain and saw blood flowing out. I thought I was going to die, so I curled up in a ball and secretly wiped away my tears.
It was Xie Lingyu who noticed that she had gotten up late, and came to knock on the door. Hearing her voice, which sounded like she was about to cry, he realized something was wrong.
At that time, he was only a fifteen or sixteen-year-old boy. Although he was calm and steady, it was the first time he had encountered such a thing involving a girl.
Watching the young girl, who was experiencing her first period, clutching a blood-stained blanket and sobbing as she uttered her last words, the boy was momentarily at a loss.
"...Don't cry, junior sister, you won't die."
He spoke softly, pulled Sang Ying out of the quilt, found her clean clothes, and put her in the inner room.
Through the screen, he explained to her in a hoarse voice that this was a woman's menstrual blood, not a terminal illness.
Realizing she had made a mistake, Sang Ying calmed down, but she cried so hard that her nose was red and she sobbed from time to time.
When she came out after changing her clothes, the boy had already changed all the sheets and blankets on the bed into a new set and was sitting at the table sewing something.
Seeing her come out, the boy slightly turned his eyes away and handed her a stack of white cloth strips.
Sang Ying held the soft white cloth strip in a daze; it was very soft and filled with cotton.
"What is this? Why are you giving me this?"
The boy's eyelashes fluttered, and after a long silence, he finally managed to utter, "Junior sister... place this... place it..."
Sang Ying's dazed mind suddenly cleared, and she realized that he wanted her to put the white cloth strip on the bleeding area. Her ears turned red, and before he could finish speaking, she grabbed the cloth strip and ran back behind the screen.
After dawdling for a while, the young man came out, holding his sword, and stood by the table. On the table was a bowl of steaming ginger and brown sugar water, with red dates and longan floating in it.
"I have informed my master that junior sister does not need to attend class today. Drink the ginger and brown sugar water and rest."
"...Don't tell anyone about what happened today."
"Um."
Sang Ying was relieved. It was already embarrassing enough that Xie Lingyu saw her like that. If word got out, what would become of her reputation as the leader of Minghua Mountain?
Sitting back on the couch, Sang Ying slowly drank from the small bowl. The ginger was hot, and after drinking it, her body felt much warmer, but she was still listless, so she snuggled back into the quilt.
Suddenly, she felt a sharp pain, curled up, her face turned pale, and she bit her lip.
The boy, who was about to leave because he had classes to attend, stopped in his tracks. "Does it hurt a lot?"
"Hmm... How could that be! I... I'm just a little cold, this blanket is too thin."
How could Sang Ying, who prides herself on being the leader of Qingdeng Peak in Minghua Mountain, possibly admit that she was defeated by a mere Gui Shui? Even though her face was pale with pain, she remained defiant.
The boy remained silent for a few moments, then walked over, lifted the blanket, and pulled out one of her hands, his knuckles covering her slender white wrist.
Sang Ying blinked, then suddenly seemed to understand something, her expression one of deep regret at being deceived: "Xie Lingyu, you liar!"
The boy looked up: ?
He asked, puzzled, "What did I lie to you about?"
Sang Ying hugged her little pillow and looked up at the sky sadly: "It's clearly a terminal illness, but you still lied to me and said it wasn't. I knew it was going to hurt so much. Sigh, did you remember what I told you before? Remember to find me a nice place to bury me. I can't sleep if it's ugly."
Boy: "...I'm not lying to you, it really isn't."
Sang Ying: "Then why are you taking my pulse? Isn't it because I'm sick that you do this..."
The boy sighed, shifted his fingers, and changed the gesture of transmitting spiritual energy into holding her hand.
With palms pressed together, a warm spiritual energy flowed into the meridians, and the warmth spread through the limbs and bones, warming the cold hands and feet and reducing the pain considerably.
Sang Ying was slightly taken aback. She looked up and saw his pale profile, which was cold and quiet. The boy pulled the blanket up a little, and his knuckles tightened slightly.
He placed the sword aside, gently leaned against the edge of the couch, and spoke in a clear, low voice.
"Go to sleep, junior sister."
...
Perhaps it is in the coldest times that we recall the warmest moments and feel that warmth as if we were there.
As her consciousness dazed, Sang Ying gradually felt less cold. A warm sensation enveloped her like a soft blanket, and the warmth soothed her aching lower abdomen.
It's so warm...
Sang Ying hugged her warm pillow tightly, pressing her face against it and rubbing against it softly.
For some reason, the usually soft pillow had become hard, and it was getting harder and harder, making it uncomfortable to hug. Sang Ying frowned in her sleep, a little disgusted, but because it was so warm and cozy, she still hugged it tightly.
Hmm... I need to get a new pillow tomorrow.
The next day, Sang Ying, who had a good night's sleep, crawled out of bed with messy hair, stayed in bed for a while longer wrapped in the blankets, and then got up to wash.
Jingxi came in to comb her hair. Sangying rested her chin on her hand and fiddled with the pearl flowers in the box. She noticed a faint red mark on the inside of her wrist, glanced at it, and then looked away without paying attention.
Her skin is fair and delicate, so even the slightest bump or bruise can easily show. I guess she rubbed it against something while tossing and turning in her sleep last night. It will fade away naturally after a while.
After breakfast, Jingxi brought over a bowl of hot ginger soup. "Those with a cold constitution due to the Gui water element suffer a lot. This is an ancient prescription from a pharmacist, which has been simmering for two hours. Madam, drink some to warm yourself up."
Sang Ying was taken aback for a moment, then asked in confusion, "How did you know I was menstruating?"
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