Encounter (II)
He Shu's eyelashes trembled, and he opened his eyes, his gaze sweeping unfocusedly over the roof beams above his head and the blood-stained coat at his hand.
His vision was vague and scattered, and everything in front of him seemed to be a shaking, unfamiliar, blurry block of color.
"Jijiu?" (Are you awake?)
There was a faint sound of birdsong nearby, but strangely, the sound was automatically transformed into something understandable in his mind.
He tried to prop up his upper body, and this action instantly pulled at the wounds all over his body. The belated pain, like being bitten by countless ants, swept over him densely.
He Shu bit his lower lip hard to prevent the groan from escaping. He turned his head to look at the source of the sound, his eyes full of vigilance:
"Hahaha?" (Who is it?)
His voice was dry and rough, and he was stunned for a moment as soon as he spoke, as if even his own voice was unfamiliar to him.
His hand unconsciously raised, but what caught his eye was a wing covered with burnt feathers. He Shu frowned in confusion, and a vague thought flashed through his mind. The wings in front of him suddenly faded away, revealing a scarred human arm.
The wooden stick that originally fixed his injured left arm loosened and fell to the ground, but He Shu didn't care. He touched his cheek and pinched his fingers, as if to confirm whether this body was his.
"Where is this?"
He looked around the unfamiliar room, but could not find any sense of familiarity. His brows could not help but become more and more furrowed.
"Who...who am I?"
As soon as he asked this question, He Shu started to panic.
It was as if a large piece of memory had been taken away, leaving only a blank void.
He tried hard to grab onto something, but his head felt like it was stuffed with cotton wool, heavy, swollen, and aching. The futile search only brought him deeper dizziness and panic.
His heart tightened and his eyes suddenly turned red.
"Chijiu, chijiu, chijiu——" (My benefactor is a crane, a crane——)
It seemed like something was pecking at the wooden window frame by the windowsill. Hearing the sound, He Shu got up with difficulty, moved to the window and opened it. A little sparrow flew into the room and landed on his shoulder.
"Do you know my name?"
"Chirp..." (I don't know...)
He Shu lowered his head, raised his right hand and touched the little sparrow's head, listening to it continue:
"Chirp, chirp, chirp!" (Ah! There's a cat calling you, dead bird!)
"Chirp, chirp!" (Dead bird, dead bird!)
The little sparrow chirped, flew around the crane book twice, and then returned to the windowsill and jumped around.
"Si Niao?"
When He Shu heard the name, he tilted his head in confusion. Although he couldn't remember anything, he still felt that the name was strange from the bottom of his heart.
"That's definitely not my name."
He curled his lips in dissatisfaction and muttered softly. Suddenly, he heard footsteps outside the door. He immediately hugged the coat he was wearing when he woke up and huddled at the foot of the bed.
"Mosheng, take this letter and go to Dingyun Temple to find my master and ask him to come down the mountain to the thatched cottage for a chat."
He Shu pricked up his ears and listened to the voices outside the house. He felt that they were somewhat familiar. He closed his eyes and thought for a while, but still remembered nothing.
The people outside were still talking, but their voices were a little low, and soon they stopped completely.
He Shu couldn't help being curious, so he climbed down from the bed quietly, but accidentally stepped on a wooden stick that had just rolled to the ground.
A sharp pain instantly pierced the soles of his feet, and he was caught off guard by a "hiss". His injured and heavy body instantly lost balance, suddenly tilted, and fell backwards.
The expected pain from hitting the ground did not come. Instead, he felt a warm chest with a bitter medicinal aroma on his waist. The man's strength was not strong, and he barely stopped his falling momentum.
He Shu was carried by this force and staggered two steps to the side. Finally, he could not hold on any longer. With a "thump", his knees hit the cold and hard floor heavily.
A piercing dull pain suddenly exploded from the patella and rushed up fiercely along the leg bone. The pain was so severe that his eyes went black and he gasped.
"Are you okay?"
Turning around, he saw the person who had supported him was half-kneeling on the ground, panting, and a thin layer of sweat on his forehead because of his rush.
The arm that was holding his back was still trembling slightly, and the look in his eyes when he looked at himself was filled with great surprise at having lost something and a trace of fear that had not yet dissipated.
A smell similar to the coat covering him when he woke up instantly filled his nose, and He Shu felt inexplicably at ease.
But he still endured the pain and staggered out of the house, wrapped himself tightly in the only coat that covered his body, and hid behind the thick-branched peach tree in the middle of the yard in a panic.
He poked his head out a little and glanced at the man who was limping out of the house.
This mountain cottage is like a paradise. The peach trees in the yard are in full bloom. When the wind blows, crimson peach blossoms fall from the sky, like a gentle rouge rain, covering the cold bluestone path.
Under the peach tree, He Shu pressed his entire body tightly against the rough trunk, with only a pair of eyes showing from behind. Like a frightened deer, his eyelashes were long and trembling violently, with a layer of vigilant light in his eyes, and his fingertips were unconsciously scratching the bark.
The loose and baggy coat on his body could not cover anything at all. The crisscrossing wounds on his exposed shoulders and chest were still a dark red. Some had already scabbed over, while others still had unhealed tender flesh. He looked extremely pitiful.
The person opposite stood quietly a few steps away, his figure blurred by the falling petals. A faint smile flickered between his brows, and his tone was filled with unconcealed joy:
"Brother He? Is that Brother He? I'm glad you're okay..."
He Xiong? Is that his name? It doesn't sound good at all...
"Do you...know me?"
"He Xiong... is that my name?"
The man was slightly startled when he heard this, a flash of understanding flashed across his eyes, and then was replaced by a deep sense of heartache, and his tone softened:
"No, you are He Wuming."
"He Wuming..."
He Shu lowered his head and muttered to himself. These three words rolled over his tongue, but the sea of memories in his mind remained calm and did not stir up any waves.
He was so lost in thought that he didn't notice the person opposite him coming closer.
The chill of March had not yet passed, and the cool breeze blew the petals down again, some of which touched his hair and neck, bringing a slightly cool touch that made the corners of his eyes curl slightly.
Most of his coat had slipped off again, revealing a thin and harsh back. The slightly cold air instantly invaded his exposed skin, causing him to shiver unconsciously.
"What's your name?"
"My name is Li Qingshan, and I'm your friend."
"Friend? Qingshan, yes, friend?"
He Shu blinked, and the tense lines in his shoulders and neck seemed to relax a little. The trembling in his eyelashes gradually subsided, and the vigilance in his eyes melted away bit by bit like thin ice soaked in spring water, revealing a light as clear as a stream underneath:
"Yes, a friend."
Li Qingshan's voice was soft and his tone was gentle. He Shu gradually relaxed under his comfort.
When he saw the person who said he was his friend walking towards him, brushing away the petals falling from his shoulders, and putting his coat on himself, he did not resist.
Although he didn't quite understand what "friend" meant, He Shu still accepted the man's advances.
"Brother He, it's cold outside. You're injured and you won't be able to handle it. If you have anything to say, let's go back to the house and talk, okay?"
He Shu nodded, and the two returned to the east wing. Li Qingshan helped him sit back on the bed.
After all this ordeal, many of the wounds on his body had opened up again. Also, because he had been running barefoot on the gravel road, the soles of his feet were covered with mud and grass debris, and the wounds caused by the stones were oozing blood.
When the slightly cool fingertips touched his sensitive ankle, He Shu's body trembled instinctively and he subconsciously retracted his foot.
"Brother He, your foot is injured and needs to be treated."
He Shu stopped moving when he heard that. He obediently let someone lift his foot up to check the wound, and stared straight at the top of the head of the person squatting in front of him.
He was a little absent-minded, but was brought back to life by a sudden stinging pain in the soles of his feet.
He curled his toes in pain but didn't make a sound. However, Li Qingshan noticed it keenly and immediately slowed down his movements.
"Sorry, did I hurt you?"
"But don't worry, I used to bandage my naughty sister at home. If you're more careful next time, it won't hurt so much."
Li Qingshan stood up after speaking, fetched a basin of water from outside, and walked back in. He dipped a towel in the water and wiped away the mud and sand around the wound bit by bit, revealing the reddish flesh on the sole of Heshu's foot.
"Just bear with it for a moment."
He Shu met his gaze as he looked up at him and nodded. Then he saw Li Qingshan take out the ointment from the medicine box beside his feet, dipped some on his fingertips, and carefully applied it to his wound.
The ointment has a fresh herbal fragrance. When it touches the skin, it feels slightly cool at first, and then a slight burning pain, bringing a strange sense of relief.
He Shu's tense instep gradually relaxed, and when he looked up again, he happened to see the sunlight coming through the window falling on Li Qingshan's hair, overlapping with his focused profile.
"alright."
Li Qingshan also raised his head, and their eyes met. He Shu suddenly turned his head away and rubbed his hot earlobe with his hand in an attempt to cover up his guilt.
"Brother He, is there anything else that makes you uncomfortable?"
Li Qingshan asked, he picked up He Shu's legs, carried him to the bed, and covered him with a quilt.
"Are you hungry? Do you want something to eat?"
"I want to eat...I want to eat fish."
After hearing this, Li Qingshan smiled and said hello, then left the room.
He Shu took this opportunity to carefully sort out his memories. Some vague fragments about the sky and the reed marshes flashed through his mind quickly, but he could not grasp the entity.
I don't know why I came to this forest, I don't know why I have so many painful wounds on my body, and I don't know how I met my friend Li Qingshan...
He Shu sat on the bed, his thoughts like a tangled mess. Time slipped away quietly, but his mind was still blank. At this moment, Li Qingshan came to his side with a bowl of fish porridge in one hand and some clothes in the other.
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