My sister-in-law regretted it.
Zhang Chuntian's cries were extremely loud, each one piercing Zhang Chunfeng's skull, and this sound was sure to attract the attention of others.
"Shut up! Stop crying!" Zhang Chunfeng scolded.
In the past, Zhang Chunfeng's mere glance was enough to shut Zhang Chuntian up, but today Zhang Chuntian not only kept crying, but her sobs were even louder.
"Bad sister, bad sister! My wife doesn't want me anymore!" Zhang Chuntian shouted loudly, startling Li Xiuman and Zhang Chunfeng. Both of them knew that Zhang Chuntian didn't understand matters between men and women, but they didn't know that Zhang Chuntian, being a child at heart, loved to listen to what others said. A few days ago, he happened to see Dazhu kissing his wife, and when Dazhu chased him away, he happened to say, "Silly Chun, you've married a wife for nothing. She can't even kiss properly. Be careful she kisses someone else and then leaves you!"
Zhang Chuntian bumped into him today and immediately concluded that Lee Soo-man didn't want her.
He cried loudly, calling out again, "Mother, Mother, I have no wife anymore." Thinking of his mother, Zhang Chuntian turned and ran outside. Zhang Chunfeng and Li Xiuman were both stunned, and then Li Xiuman, ignoring the pain in her body, ran after Zhang Chuntian.
“Spring, stop, don’t run.” Lee Soo-man shouted from behind.
Zhang Chuntian was strong and ran like a leopard; Li Xiuman couldn't catch up even with all his might. Li Xiuman, impatient, stopped paying attention to where he was going and ran even faster.
The path down the mountain was full of pebbles, and Li Xiuman was running too fast, so he tripped over one of them.
"Spring! Ah!" he screamed, his body tilting as if he were about to roll to the ground.
His scream startled Zhang Chuntian, who turned around and saw Li Xiuman fall on the hillside.
"Wife!" Because Li Shi and Da Zhu had told him countless times, "You must treat your wife well and protect her," Zhang Chuntian took three steps in two, just like a leopard, and pounced on Li Xiuman, catching the fallen Li Xiuman in his arms.
The slope was steep, and the two of them clung to each other, rolling down the slope.
This rolling made Li Xiu dizzy and disoriented, and he had no idea what was happening.
With a loud thud, the two were trapped by a huge rock and stopped rolling down. Lee Soo-man struggled to his feet, his body aching all over.
"Spring, Spring!" Li Xiuman called out twice, and was about to pull Zhang Chuntian up when he saw that the big rock was stained with bright red blood!
Li Xiuman's limbs went weak. He looked down and saw Zhang Chuntian's eyes were tightly closed. Li Xiuman's fingers trembled violently. He placed his hand on the back of Zhang Chuntian's head and touched it; his hand was covered in bright red blood!
"Spring! Spring! Wake up!" Lee Soo-man shouted while holding Zhang Chuntian, but he felt that even more blood was flowing from Zhang Chuntian's head.
He dared not move again, and saw Zhang Chunfeng walking towards him from a distance.
"Chunfeng! Go find them quickly!" Li Xiuman shouted at the top of his lungs. Zhang Chunfeng was smart enough to know something was wrong just by hearing Li Xiuman's voice. He didn't go looking for the two of them and quickly turned back.
Holding Zhang Chuntian in his arms, Li Xiuman was met with a sea of crimson blood, feeling the warm blood soaking through his trousers. A chill ran down his spine as he recalled Shen Shi's death, when she was vomiting blood repeatedly. The warm blood gradually turned cold, and tears streamed down Li Xiuman's face.
Was it because of what he did that Zhang Chuntian was in such a state? Zhang Chuntian did this to save him! Countless thoughts swirled in Li Xiuman's mind. When Zhang Chunfeng arrived with the Dazhu and Xiaozhu brothers, Li Xiuman was still in a daze.
Dazhu brought a stroller, and Zhang Chunfeng and Xiaozhu helped Zhang Chuntian get onto the stroller. During the process of dragging, something suddenly fell from Zhang Chuntian's arms.
Through teary eyes, Lee Soo-man looked down and saw a string of candied hawthorns. There was only one left on the string, not the last one, but the very first one.
With a deafening roar, Lee Soo-man felt as if his heart had exploded. Last time on the street, Zhang Chuntian bought candied hawthorns and offered them to Lee Soo-man first. Now, that candied hawthorn belonged entirely to Zhang Chuntian, yet he still remembered to save the first one for Lee Soo-man. It turned out he had come looking for her to give her the candied hawthorns!
Lee Soo-man felt completely weak and followed the car home as if he had lost his soul.
Seeing that Zhang Chuntian was not in good condition, Zhang Chunfeng took the lead and rode his horse at breakneck speed into the city to fetch the best doctor to the Zhang family.
Li was leisurely sunbathing in a rocking chair in the yard when the door suddenly opened, and she saw Zhang Chuntian lying on a cart with his head covered in blood. Li was so frightened that she fell off the rocking chair.
She couldn't even stand up, and struggled on the ground three times before Li Xiuman helped her up.
Only then did Li let out a heart-wrenching cry: "Spring! My child!"
The fifty-year-old woman burst into tears, her cries like the mournful lament of a cuckoo.
The house was filled with weeping, but Zhang Chunfeng remained extremely calm and composed. He quickly sent Xiaozhu out with his mother, asked Li Xiuman to boil water, and accompanied the doctor into Li Xiuman's room to examine Zhang Chuntian.
Li Xiuman brought over hot water, and the doctor found scissors, disinfected them, and cut the hair at the back of Zhang Chuntian's head. Without the hair, everyone in the room immediately saw a large wound on the back of Zhang Chuntian's head.
The doctor examined the wound carefully again, confirming it was just a bruise with no debris. He then instructed Li Xiuman to boil some white wine and clean the area around Zhang Chuntian's wound. Afterward, he began to use needle and thread to seal Zhang Chuntian's scalp. Li Xiuman stood aside, watching the thin, gleaming needle constantly piercing and moving across Zhang Chuntian's scalp. He was truly terrified, as if the needle were pricking his own scalp.
The bed was stained red with blood, and the smell of blood filled Li Xiuman's nostrils.
Zhang Chunfeng had some knowledge of pharmacology and knew that Zhang Chuntian had lost too much blood and needed some blood-boosting medicine. He then took out the medicine that Magistrate Zhou had given him and asked Li Xiuman to cook it all.
After finishing all these tasks, Zhang Chunfeng escorted the doctor to the courtyard, where Li Shi hurriedly came to greet him.
"Doctor, my son..."
"The main problem is excessive blood loss. If the bleeding stops by tonight, there will be no problem."
When will he wake up?
"The blood loss is excessive; it might take a while." The doctor finished speaking, then hesitated, "Head injuries are different from other injuries; this could also be..."
Before the doctor could finish speaking, Li let out a sharp scream.
"Doctor, I beg you, you must save my son! I can't live without him!"
The doctor shook his head. "Everyone has their own destiny, and life and death are in the hands of fate. It's not something I can save you. Don't cry. Judging from your son's physique, he should be able to wake up."
"However..." the doctor looked at Zhang Chunfeng again, "is your elder brother mentally challenged?"
Zhang Chunfeng nodded, "I must have consulted you a few years ago. You said that this mental illness could only be cured by opening the brain."
The doctor nodded. "That's right. This injury has probably worsened his dementia. He can still understand what you're saying now, but when he wakes up this time, he'll probably be as mentally impaired as an infant."
Just as Lee Soo-man was about to turn off the hot water, he overheard this conversation from inside the room.
Li quickly shook her head, "It doesn't matter if he's mentally impaired, as long as he wakes up."
The doctor nodded. "I just wanted to ask if you're sure you're ready to have this brain surgery."
Before Zhang Chunfeng could speak, Li immediately said, "No, no, we won't do it. How can a person live if their head is opened? What if something goes wrong? My son would be gone. I would rather he stay by my side for the rest of his life than lose his head because of this."
The doctor sighed, "He's so young; it's pitiful if he stays mentally impaired for too long."
"May I ask, doctor, what are the chances of success for brain surgery?"
"Seventy to eighty percent."
Upon hearing that it was only 70-80%, Madam Li once again spoke seriously to Zhang Chunfeng: "Chunfeng, don't have any such thoughts. That's my son. I don't want him to have this surgery. Never mention this matter again. My son is mentally challenged, and I will take care of him for the rest of my life."
Zhang Chunfeng curled his lip, thinking to himself, "Now that you're still alive, the responsibility of taking care of Zhang Chuntian is entirely on Li Xiuman. But if you die in a few years, it won't all be Li Xiuman's fault."
If Zhang Chuntian had been able to understand before, Lee Soo-man wouldn't have been so tired. But if after this, Zhang Chuntian truly becomes like an infant, unable to understand a word, and turns into a complete idiot.
Zhang Chunfeng wasn't worried about supporting Zhang Chuntian in the future; he was only afraid that Li Xiuman would feel guilty about it and want him to support Zhang Chuntian instead.
Seeing that Li was adamant, the doctor didn't say much. After leaving some medicine, Zhang Chunfeng saw him out.
When Li entered the room, she saw Zhang Chuntian lying on the bed with a pale face, and she started crying again.
"My son, he's always been so healthy, he's rarely even had a fever or a cold, how could he be like this today!" Madam Li cried as she looked at Li Xiuman, "What happened to Man'er?"
Li Xiuman's lips were deathly pale, and his heart was filled with bitterness.
"He was chasing a butterfly, and in his haste he tripped and fell, tumbling down the hillside with his sister-in-law," Zhang Chunfeng, who had just seen the man off, said as he entered, replying to Li's words.
Lee Soo-man, his eyes red, glanced at Zhang Chunfeng. His answer shifted all the blame onto Zhang Chunfeng.
“Man’er, why didn’t you take good care of him? My son!” Li cried again.
"Alright, Mother, the leg is on my brother's body, it's not like he can keep an eye on it. My brother needs to rest, don't bother him." Zhang Chunfeng pulled Li Shi away, telling her to go and rest.
Li refused, but Zhang Chunfeng said coldly, "If you don't want to, Mother, just cry outside, so as not to worsen your brother's condition."
These words were spoken so bluntly that Li was taken aback and was about to point her finger at Zhang Chunfeng in anger.
Zhang Chunfeng turned and went into the house, pulling Li Xiuman, who was sitting in a chair, up.
"You're injured too, come to my room and apply medicine."
Lee Soo-man shook his head, "It's just a superficial wound, nothing serious."
“Your clothes are all worn out, how come you’re okay? Go away.” Zhang Chunfeng tried to pull him away again, but Li Xiuman pushed him away.
"Spring Breeze! Don't do this, don't pull me anymore. Don't you understand that Spring has become like this because of me? The pain in my body makes me feel better. Go and rest. Let's not do anything like this for the next few days..." Li Xiuman said, trembling all over.
Zhang Chunfeng frowned; the scene he least wanted to see had still happened.
She released Lee Soo-man and softened her tone.
"Don't worry, your brother is strong and will wake up. This is not your fault, it's my fault. As for your brother's mental disability, I will take care of him for the rest of my life. Don't blame yourself."
“Spring Breeze, we all thought that spring, strong and healthy, would naturally wake up. We never thought that he was also a person, and that he could feel pain. Just like, we all thought that he didn’t understand love and didn’t know what we were doing. We never expected that he would actually understand and be so heartbroken.” Lee Soo-man shook his head, crying.
“We were ultimately too unfair to him,” Lee Soo-man said.
Zhang Chunfeng disliked Li Xiuman's behavior of abandoning herself for others. Her face immediately turned cold.
"Why doesn't my sister-in-law think about whether it's fair to me? I was the one who married her that day! I was the one dressed in my wedding clothes, riding a tall horse, and went all the way to Aunt Liu's house to greet her, and helped her into the sedan chair! I was also the first person she met! We slept together in the rain and fell in love at first sight! Why is my sister-in-law now pushing me away for my brother!"
Li Xiuman kept his mouth tightly shut, completely at a loss for words. His mind was in turmoil. Wasn't he pitiful? To bury his mother, he was sold for twenty copper coins. When he heard Zhang Chunfeng's voice as he got into the sedan chair, he was filled with joy and anticipation, but when he lifted the veil, it was someone else entirely. And after countless twists and turns, he fell in love with the man who was to marry him. In his entire life, his father ran away before he was even born, and his mother sold him shortly after he was born. Finally, when his mother returned, she didn't recognize him. And now, he had finally met someone he liked at first sight, only to find out it was his sister-in-law.
Seeing Li Xiuman's lost and dejected appearance, Zhang Chunfeng simply pressed him down into a chair, forcefully rolled up Li Xiuman's sleeve, and applied medicine to him.
"Don't rush to conclusions about our relationship. I didn't like what you just said." Zhang Chunfeng said this and turned to leave.
Zhang Chuntian remained unconscious for five days. Li Xiuman was extremely anxious and exhausted. Originally, Zhang Chuntian had been the sole caretaker of the Zhang family's fields, but now that he was gone, the burden of the Zhang family's land, along with his own, fell entirely on Li Xiuman's shoulders. Moreover, Li's wife cried incessantly at home. Li Xiuman worked in the fields during the day, cooked three meals a day for Li's wife, and then washed the household clothes at night.
Ever since he spoke with Zhang Chunfeng that day, he had been deliberately avoiding Zhang Chunfeng. Being so tired, he thought less about things. Li Xiuman said self-deprecatingly.
That evening, Li Xiuman was cooking at the stove when suddenly there was a noise at the door.
Lee Soo-man and his wife hurriedly went to look, and saw a row of guards leading soldiers standing on both sides, and a fair-skinned man getting off a magnificent sedan chair at the door.
Lee Soo-man immediately recognized him as the young master of the Zhou family who had gone to Zuixianlou with Zhang Chunfeng that day.
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