Chapter 1566 Extra Chapter: Life's Many Forks in the Road (Part 1)
At the end of the sixteenth year of Yanhuang.
A few days before the ceremony to seal his pen.
The city of Huangting was covered in silver, and the world was a vast expanse of white.
Lin Feng held a cup of hot tea, watching the snow fall outside the window. Lin Chun frowned, engrossed in studying the account book, her brows furrowed into a tight knot. A moment later, a clanging sound of metal clashing came from outside. The maid lifted the heavy curtain, letting in a gust of wind and snow.
Lin Feng didn't need to look up to know who it was.
"Sister-in-law, have you come to take my brother back?"
Since Lu Ji and Lin Chun's marriage, she had spent money to buy another house. The house wasn't large, but its location was good, close to both the Lin family residence and her nephew's house, making it convenient to take care of both. Lu Ji's nephew wasn't particularly talented; after his coming-of-age ceremony, he was engaged, and his wife was the orphan of one of Lu Ji's comrades. She didn't want to interfere with her nephew's wife's household affairs, so she generally didn't go back home, instead spending more time with Lin Chun and the Lin family.
There weren't many people in the Lin family either.
Lin Feng then kept the side courtyard where Lin Chun had lived.
It will be convenient for my older brother and sister-in-law to come and take care of my great-grandfather and the others.
"I'm not going back today." Lu Ji took off her snow-covered cloak and handed it to the maid. She took the hot tea brought by the maid and sat down. Seeing that Lin Chun was almost buried in the accounts, she teased Lin Feng, "The accounts for this year are piling up like a mountain. Doesn't your father do the math himself?"
Lin Feng: "I have never liked these trivial matters."
In her childhood, her mother taught her how to manage the household and keep accounts, but after decades, she had forgotten everything. Coupled with her busy daily affairs, her great-grandfather helped Lin Feng with these trivial matters. This year, winter came suddenly, and the old man fell ill. A traditional Chinese medicine doctor came to their home, only to say that the old man was of advanced age and that age-related illnesses were inevitable. If he could be properly cared for, he should have two or three more years to live.
This news silenced everyone in the Lin family.
My great-grandfather, on the other hand, was very open-minded.
He said he was the oldest person in the Lin family's eighteen generations, and had no regrets. He then turned and instructed the servants to prepare the necessary items for his future wedding and funeral in an orderly manner. Lin Feng couldn't trouble the old man with these things, so he turned and saw his elder brother, and dumped them all on him.
My elder brother has been helping my sister-in-law with housework for the past two years, and he's been quite good at it.
Lu Ji thought for a moment and said, "Indeed, I don't like it either."
No wonder men in the past liked to get married.
She likes it too.
After marrying Lin Chunhe, she had someone to help her with some of the things she used to have to worry about. She no longer had to stay up all night to sort out the year's accounts. The accounts were done perfectly, the farm's output was clear, the warehouses were in good order, and all the maids and servants in the mansion received their own winter gifts to celebrate the New Year. They were even more diligent in their duties the following year, which made things much easier for her.
She doesn't like all those calculations and calculations.
In the past, her nephew was too young to help, so she had to manage both her household and external affairs, which made her extremely stressed at the end of the year.
Lin Chun's head peeked out from the piles of ledgers.
She said softly, "My two ladies, I'm right here."
He may not be as busy as those two, but that doesn't mean he's not busy.
They work in a competitive environment when they're on duty, and they still work when they're off duty.
Lu Ji smiled and said, "Yuanzhi, Yuanzhi, you have worked hard and made great contributions."
She asked her colleagues how to please their wives/husbands, and they all said to buy them things and be generous with money. Lu Jishen agreed. Lin Chun was already stunning before marriage, and after getting married, she gained even more mature charm, which made her even more deserving of beautiful adornments.
[Five Elements Lacking Morality] Starting from the fourteenth year of Yanhuang, she took a year off. During that time, she was highly productive for two years, producing seventeen or eighteen wonderful new works a year. There was a sentence she agreed with very much: "Loving someone is like growing flowers. You need to put your heart and soul into cultivating flowers and plants in order for them to bloom."
Lin Chun: "..."
He took a deep breath and turned his face away.
Lu Ji took a sip of hot tea, and the two best friends snuggled together to watch the snow and relax: "Does Lingde know that something has happened to the Chiwu family?"
Lin Feng shook his head: "I don't know, I've never heard of it."
It's normal that she didn't know.
Su Shiyi Lu spent most of his time in Wuzhou. Thanks to his diligent efforts, the outflow of population from Wuzhou has finally stopped in recent years. Of course, the real reason is that the four continents have been unified. Wuzhou's size no longer poses a substantial threat to Kangguo, nor can it be considered a hidden danger. The die-hards who survived in Wuzhou back then have mostly died. Only then did the court secretly stop the small-scale population dilution measures that had been going on for many years. The Duke of Chiwu was ordered to guard the capital a few years ago and should be in Wuzhou now.
Since the two places were far apart, Lin Feng naturally didn't pay much attention to it.
“Lord Chiwu returned secretly three days ago. I ran into him on the road and saw him briefly. He looked incredibly old.”
Martial arts masters can maintain their prime for a long time thanks to their martial energy, until their physical functions begin to decline uncontrollably as their lifespan nears its end, at which point their true age will be revealed. Su Shiyilu's talent and comprehension were once comparable to Chu Jie's, and even though he later encountered obstacles and his martial arts progress slowed, he was still no ordinary person. It's completely unexpected that Su Shiyilu's black hair has turned entirely white.
Wrinkles appeared on her face that couldn't be concealed.
However, Su Shiyi's life force remained strong and vigorous, so it shouldn't be a sign of impending death. It was more likely that she had suffered severe trauma and damage to her heart and lung meridians, causing such a drastic change. Lu Ji knew that her sister-in-law had a deep-seated grudge against Su Shiyi.
The two served in the same court for many years and even collaborated several times in their early years.
This hatred is also mixed with a lot of affection.
Lin Feng was stunned for a moment.
She said softly, "Ah, I understand."
"The snow scene is beautiful, but looking at it too much can easily make one feel depressed... No wonder most of the words that describe the snow scene are filled with loneliness..." Lu Ji sighed as he looked at the white snow on the eaves, shook his head, and got up to pull Lin Feng up, "I'm not looking anymore."
"aunt--"
Before long, a string of silvery laughter came from outside again.
I've come to wish you a Happy New Year in advance!
Lin Feng laughed and cursed, "Which rascal is shouting from so far away?"
Over the years, she has established a special fund within the clan to support and care for the poor and vulnerable. There are very few people in this world with cultivation talent, and the remaining members of the Lin family can't find many promising individuals. The daughter of a cousin in the same clan is quite good; Lin Feng had intermittently looked after her when he was still in Fengluo. This child didn't enter officialdom after graduating from the academy, but she still has a promising future.
He would come over to be close to Lin Feng at all times of the year.
She didn't know if her niece's parents or elders had any ulterior motives, but as long as the child was sincere, that was all that mattered. Sincerity was the most important thing.
After nightfall, I sent my personal maid to the storeroom to prepare some things.
The maid asked her, "What is the purpose of a parent?"
Lin Feng said, "I'm visiting a colleague."
Some of the best medicinal herbs in the manor were taken out and packed into gift boxes.
She planned to visit Su Shiyilu's residence early after finishing her shift the next day—based on what Lu's sister-in-law had said, Lin Feng had basically deduced who the person in Su Shiyilu's family had encountered trouble with was either the child or the child's birth mother—but before she could even leave, Su Shiyilu knocked on her window. At first, Lin Feng didn't know who it was, so she grabbed the sword from the bed, picked up some clothes, put them on, and went to open the window.
"Which lecherous scoundrel is tired of living!"
Holding a sword, I opened the window, and the smell of alcohol hit me.
Lin Feng asked in surprise, "Lord Chiwu?"
The person knocking on the window was Su Shiyilu, who had been standing upside down from the eaves. He had messy white hair, red and swollen eyelids, and his face showed unconcealed fatigue and old age. Seeing that the window was open, he jumped down and said in a hoarse voice, "Lin Lingde, come with me."
Lin Feng said, "Let me wash up."
Su Shiyi Lu turned around and went to wait under the corridor.
The two walked in silence, their footsteps crunching through the snow.
Before long, we arrived at our destination.
Su Shiyilu didn't stay at the Phoenix Court for long, and the mansion was mostly empty. Even with the underfloor heating blazing, it couldn't dispel the chilling atmosphere of a lifeless place. Su Shiyilu led Lin Feng into the house, and the strong smell of medicine that hit her made her frown.
A young man, barely twenty, sat beside the bed and carefully fed the medicine.
His appearance clearly bears the characteristics of Wuzhou.
His facial features looked vaguely familiar.
Lin Feng couldn't help but recall a young boy from Wuzhou he had killed in his youth, or rather, a boy from the Ten Wu tribe, the twelfth prince of the Ten Wu tribe.
The young man stood up upon hearing the noise: "Uncle."
He then bowed to Lin Feng and said, "This humble subject greets Lord Lin."
Su Shiyilu said in a hoarse voice, "You...show her."
The young man stepped aside to make room for Lin Feng, who then placed his hand on the woman's wrist on the sickbed. Her pulse was weak, indicating that she was on her last legs.
She shook her head at Su Shiyilu.
Su Shiyilu said, "You can't either..."
Has any physician in the medical field examined him?
Su Shiyilu said, "More than a dozen people have arrived."
No one could offer a cure, and he could only watch as the woman on her sickbed withered and died, her life fading away. He sat on the footstool, his back hunched, his eyes vacant. After a while, he used his martial energy to briefly bring the woman back to her senses: "She has something to say to you. No matter what unpleasant things she says, she hopes you will consider her remaining days and forgive her."
Lin Feng nodded: "I know."
She had met the woman twice.
Their first meeting was many years ago. The woman learned Lin Feng's true identity and lost control of her emotions, screaming so loudly that even a military general like Su Shiyilu almost couldn't restrain her. The hatred for the murder of her son was indeed difficult to quell. That meeting was mostly unpleasant and far from friendly.
The second side is now.
The woman slowly woke up and looked at the three people in front of her sickbed.
Their gaze shifted from the young man's face to Lin Feng's.
Surprisingly, she didn't go crazy.
This behavior made Su Shiyilu's heart skip a beat, fearing it might be a final burst of energy before death. The woman dismissed both the young man and Su Shiyilu, then sighed and asked Lin Feng to sit down. After a long while, she murmured, "My son's death, I have never, ever been able to accept it..."
“I know.” Looking at the woman’s gaunt face and swollen, high belly, Lin Feng softened his voice. “Children are born from their mother’s ten months of pregnancy. From the moment they are born to their first steps and grow into handsome young men, only they know how much effort they have put in. Although I have never given birth and have never been a mother myself, I know that severing the blood ties between mother and child is no less than skinning them alive.”
The woman instantly shed two streams of tears.
She said, "Over the years, to heal my heartache, my brother opened an orphanage in Wuzhou named after my son, taking in many orphans without parents. Some are children of commoners, and some have parents who were once slaves of the Ten Wu... At first, I felt angry and disgusted when I looked at them, but after spending more time with them, I only hugged one of the children once, and that one hug made her attached to him..."
"It feels like there are two versions of myself pulling at each other in my mind."
"One of me was saying, why can these lowly children grow up happily while my poor son suffers a terrible end? Why not kill them all? Another of me was saying, given the circumstances, these children are even more innocent than my son... How can we blame them?"
"When they pull, I get a terrible headache."
The woman kept talking, her voice sometimes loud and sometimes soft.
"I've been wondering if my son's tragic death was because I was too arrogant in my youth, committing heinous crimes that deserve such punishment. But what can I control?" She has a ruthless reputation; how many lives does she have on her hands? Can they compare to the bloodshed accumulated from constantly waging wars?
She was not the one who started the war, yet she had to bear the consequences of the war's killings; these thoughts trapped her deeply and she could not find relief.
only--
As she held the children from the Salesian Bureau, she felt a strange sense of peace.
"...I've thought a lot during my illness. The children at that orphanage knew I was sick and wrote me many letters. I read those letters over and over again...The letters were all about ordinary days and the most mundane things. But one day, I suddenly felt like the clouds had parted and the sun was shining through. Everything became clear, and my mind was at peace...The ordinary, commonplace things I see now were incredibly precious back then. As a human being, I can't blame you, but as a mother, I can't forgive you."
Having raised these children in the sales bureau, she couldn't help but feel grateful to the person who had single-handedly created everything she had today. Otherwise, those children would have long since perished. She might not be alive now, and she wouldn't have been able to witness the beautiful scenery she had enjoyed over the years…
Lin Feng looked at the stack of letters beside the woman's sickbed, their edges frayed from being constantly stroked by their owner, and said softly, "I know."
The woman was exhausted and fell asleep again after talking for a while.
Lin Feng tucked the blanket around her, then got up and went out.
Su Shiyilu and the young man looked up at the same time when they heard the noise.
Lin Feng summoned the maid who was taking care of the woman and asked her several questions in detail. Her brows furrowed at times and relaxed at others.
Which physicians did Lord Chiwu consult?
"They are all among the best in the medical department," Su Shiyilu said, listing a series of names, including the Imperial Physician Dong Dao.
Lin Feng also recognized these individuals; they were indeed all highly skilled physicians.
only--
None of them specialized in women's diseases.
Lin Feng took out his token and gave it to Su Shiyilu: "Take this and go to the Grand Tutor's mansion to find Jun Qiao and have her give it a try."
There are not many doctors in Kangguo who specialize in gynecology.
Qi Miao is one of the best among them.
Thanks to her powerful father, who showered patients with money, she handled countless cases. Perhaps Qi Miao's opinion would lead to a different conclusion. Su Shiyi Lu: "The Jun Qiao you're talking about is the lady from Grand Tutor Qi Shan's household?"
"Um."
"She was also a physician."
"They are still a small number of medical professionals specializing in gynecology."
Physicians in this field don't have a particularly high profile, mainly because people are quite reluctant to discuss gynecological issues—well, and men's health issues are also treated discreetly. Even if a patient is cured, they won't go around telling others, because that would be admitting they had that problem. Naturally, the spread is limited.
Lin Feng stopped Su Shiyilu.
"Let's at least wait until dawn to go and invite them."
Qi Shan is not like herself. If Su Shiyilu dared to knock on Qi Miao's window in the middle of the night, the Grand Tutor would be so angry that he would fight to the death with her.
Su Shiyilu: "Okay... thank you."
|ω`)
I'm so frustrated! Why are there so many characters... I could never finish writing all the side stories!
P.S.: I think I'm pretty good at picking durians. Today I bought a 4.5-pound durian and got 2.8 pounds of flesh from it.
P.S.: The new book is being rushed to the delivery room; hopefully, it won't be a difficult birth.
(End of this chapter)
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