Chapter 86 (First published on Jinjiang Literature City)
The doctor quickly put a cast on Long Buxi.
It was Long Buxi's first time having a cast on, and she was very curious, moving around a lot.
Cheng Ying grabbed his arm: "Behave yourself, or you'll hurt yourself again and we'll have to take it off and put on a new cast."
Long Buxi swung her arm as if nothing had happened. "It doesn't hurt as much now. This cast on my arm is really heavy. Can I take it off now?"
"No way." Cheng Ying glared at him. "Do you think getting a cast is a joke? You can just put it on and take it off whenever you want? What's the point of having doctors then! Why did you have to fight with Wei Muchen? You should have given him some non-lethal Gu worms so he couldn't move you. Now you know how uncomfortable it is to have a cast on, right?"
Long Buxi lowered his arm and said, "It's alright. You told me not to use the Gu on him before, afraid that I would kill him. I didn't like him, so I had to fight him. I didn't expect to break my own leg. He's not in much better shape. I'm sure his leg is also broken, even more so than mine."
Cheng Ying was speechless. "You still think you're so great, don't you? Wei Muchen is such a scumbag, he's not worth wasting even a little bit of your energy on! Let it go this time, but if he dares to lay a hand on you again, just let Alan bite him. There's no need to hurt yourself."
Long Buxi nodded obediently: "I understand."
Cheng Ying was still furious. After leaving the clinic with Long Buxi, she went to the town's police station, found the officer on duty, reported the incident, and demanded that the assailant be arrested and detained for compensation.
Without hesitation, the town's police went to the town's only guesthouse that very night, found Wei Mucheng's room, showed their identification, and explained their purpose: "We received a report from the public that you caused a fight at Comrade Cheng Ying's doorstep around 5 p.m., and broke Comrade Cheng's partner's bone. We will now arrest you in accordance with the law. Please cooperate with our work and come with us to the police station for investigation."
Wei Muchen was still in the cramped guesthouse room, rubbing gentian violet, which he had asked the guesthouse staff to buy for him, onto the back of his right knee, wincing in pain.
He hadn't expected that the seemingly frail young Miao man would be just as good as him, a veteran of countless battles. In fact, he was at a disadvantage, getting kicked in the back of the knee by the man. He didn't know if it was broken, but the pain made him break out in a cold sweat.
He hadn't even thought about confronting that man, but Cheng Ying, on the other hand, actually called the police to have him arrested!
Wei Muchen was furious, his eyes burning with rage and jealousy. He wanted nothing more than to rush to Cheng Ying's house, grab her, and demand an explanation: how could she love that man so much that she would try to capture him, disregarding his reputation and life or death?
She's really grown up! She thinks that finding a Miao man will allow her to escape his clutches? She's dreaming!
Wei Muchen's eyes flashed with a cold light as he looked at the two policemen in uniform and said, "There's a misunderstanding here. Cheng Ying and I are dating. The person I beat up was a third party who ruined our relationship. He deserved to be beaten! I can go to the police station with you, but I need to say something to my guard first. Also, I need to make a phone call."
The two police officers exchanged glances but said nothing. They stepped aside and watched him walk out of the room, exchanging a few words with the guard in the next room...
That night, Long Buxi and Cheng Ying slept in separate rooms, and the night passed peacefully.
The next morning, Cheng Ying woke up from her dream and heard a faint sound of pots and pans rustling in the kitchen.
She thought her house had been burgled, or that Wei Muchen had returned and climbed over the wall to cause trouble. With her hair disheveled and not caring about her appearance, she rushed into the kitchen and saw Long Buxi making breakfast.
Long Buxi was dressed in a dark blue Miao costume. Her right hand was in a cast. Her shoulder-length hair was casually tied with silver bell hair ornaments and draped over her left shoulder. She was cooking noodles with her left hand.
Seeing her run into the kitchen, Long Buxi smiled brightly at her, "You're awake? I've cooked noodles. Once you've washed up, we can eat."
Cheng Ying was dazzled by his good looks and smile. "Why are you cooking noodles so early in the morning instead of resting? You're still injured."
"I couldn't sleep after moving to a different place, so I got up to cook noodles. My injury isn't serious," Long Buxi said, struggling to pick up the noodles with her left hand.
Cheng Ying quickly went over and took the chopsticks from his hand. "Don't you have anything to do all day? You're injured and still not behaving yourself. Doesn't your wound hurt?"
Long Buxi didn't try to take the chopsticks from her. She stood behind her and watched as she scooped up the noodles. "It hurts quite a bit."
Cheng Ying paused, unable to resist turning back to look at him, "Then you still have so much energy to mess around with other things!"
Long Buxi was slightly taken aback, but quickly understood what she was talking about. Her eyes turned deep and dark, and she said in a calm voice, "You said it yourself, that's a normal physiological phenomenon for me. I like you, and I want to do that kind of thing to you, is that not allowed?"
Now it was Cheng Ying's turn to be stunned. Her face flushed red as she pushed him away. "What nonsense are you spouting so early in the morning? You're not allowed to say such ambiguous things in front of outsiders, do you hear me!"
"Yes, I heard you." Long Buxi's voice was deep and seductive as he whispered in Cheng Ying's ear, "I'll say it in front of you from now on."
Cheng Ying's ears turned even redder. She picked up the bowl of plain noodles and carried it outside. "Let's stop talking nonsense and go out to eat noodles."
Long Buxi followed her into the living room and sat down in the chair opposite her. She looked at her right hand, which was in a cast, with a vulnerable and aggrieved expression. "My hand hurts a lot, so I can't eat noodles."
Cheng Ying looked up at him and said, "If you can't eat with your right hand, use your left. Weren't you just cooking noodles with your left hand?"
Long Buxi looked at her innocently with clear eyes and said, "I can cook noodles with my left hand without any problem, but I can't pick them up to eat."
As he spoke, he grabbed the chopsticks with his left hand and clumsily tried to pick up the noodles from the bowl. After a long time, he only managed to pick up one noodle and then turned his hand upside down to put it into his mouth.
Cheng Ying was at her wit's end. She knew he was pretending to be like this on purpose to gain her sympathy, but she still couldn't bear to watch him not eat his noodles for so long.
Ultimately, his injury was purely because of her; he suffered an undeserved misfortune.
I had no choice but to compromise, so I sat down next to him, took his chopsticks, picked up the noodles from his bowl, and fed him little by little.
Long Buxi ate the noodles she fed him with elegant manners, a smile on his face the whole time. When he had almost finished eating, he said, "It's been a long time since anyone fed me anything. When I was very young, my mother would only be gentle with me and feed me medicine and porridge when I was injured or sick. But ever since she decided to make me practice Gu, she has changed when I get sick. She pretends not to see it and continues to force me to practice Gu... Cheng Ying, I like you very much. You have a warm and reassuring scent about you, just like my mother when she wasn't sick."
Cheng Ying had a complicated mind. She understood Long Buxi's possessiveness and obsession with her. It stemmed from his unhappy childhood and his strange and disharmonious family members. So much so that when he met her as a child and heard her say that she wanted to marry him, he considered her his possession and insisted on keeping her by his side regardless of her wishes.
In fact, Long Buxi had confessed his feelings to her many times, but she didn't believe that he liked her. She thought that his feelings for her were just based on a promise she made when they were children. She felt that he was still a child and couldn't distinguish between a promise and love.
But it wasn't until yesterday, when Long Buxi reacted to her and pressed her down at the courtyard gate, doing something beyond reason, that she truly felt that he really loved her.
Although his feelings came out of nowhere, and although he was just as stubborn and obsessive as Wei Muchen, his feelings for her were pure and untainted by any materialism or betrayal. Despite his many problems, Cheng Ying was willing to try to accept him and spend more time with him and work things out.
Cheng Ying took out a new, clean handkerchief and handed it to him so he could wipe his mouth. "I'll only feed you this once. If you deliberately fight with someone again and hurt yourself, see if I'll take care of you."
"Yes, I know. I won't get hurt again next time." Long Buxi picked up her handkerchief, looked at the checkered pattern on it, didn't wipe her mouth, but silently put it back into her pocket and kept it.
His submissive demeanor made him resemble a meek and submissive wife.
Cheng Ying found it both funny and heartbreaking, ignoring his little gestures, and said, "I was just saying that out of anger. If you're really sick, injured, or in pain, of course I'll take care of you. Otherwise, if you die, where will I find such a handsome man to be my husband?"
Long Buxi laughed, her dark pupils gleaming, her eyes filled with a burning flame. "I knew it, Cheng Ying, you wouldn't abandon me."
Cheng Ying awkwardly turned her face away. "Go wash up. It's getting late. We need to go home early to help my parents with the engagement banquet. Otherwise, the guests will arrive before we've even finished cooking, and we'll be laughed at."
An hour later, they returned to Qingshui Village.
The Cheng family home was bustling with activity. Three newly built earthen stoves had been erected outside the Cheng family courtyard. The aunties and uncles that Wan Shuhui had invited were using the wild boar that Long Buxi had carried to cook various dishes in front of the three stoves.
Groups of relatives, friends, and neighbors invited by Wan Shuhui sat or stood in the courtyard, chatting with her.
Dressed in her newest attire, Wan Shuhui stood amidst the crowd, chatting loudly and cheerfully with the guests who had come to attend the engagement banquet, exuding a sense of triumph.
Cheng Jiantong was dressed in new clothes today. He sat on an armchair in front of the house with a smile on his face, talking with the post office branch manager and two old colleagues who had taken time off today.
Cheng Xue, still dressed as a female student in her usual braided pigtails and long autumn skirt, was with her boyfriend Sun Qinghui and a few other educated youths (two women and one man) who were close to her. They were busy serving tea and water, washing dishes and wiping tables, and occasionally helping with the cooking.
In contrast, the Cheng family, who live just a wall away, are so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
The Cheng family learned yesterday that Cheng Ying had started dating someone from a Miao village and had brought back a wild boar.
Yesterday, Huang Cuizhi, her mother-in-law, and her daughter-in-law came to the Cheng family's house in batches to beg for money.
Ever since Cheng Ying returned to her hometown, Wan Shuhui has had Cheng Ying's support, so she has become more assertive and has unceremoniously driven the three women—mother-in-law and daughter-in-law—out of the house who were trying to take advantage of her.
When the three of them failed to get anything from Wan Shuhui, they started making all sorts of sarcastic, vulgar, and cynical remarks about her. They implied that Cheng Ying was blind to choose a poor Miao man from a remote and impoverished area, and that she would suffer if she married into a remote mountain village. They said she was a disgrace to the Cheng family.
This angered Wan Shuhui so much that, unusually, the usually good-tempered woman got into a fight with the three women, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law.
Without hesitation, Cheng Xue stepped forward to help. Using the military boxing and grappling techniques she had learned from Cheng Ying over the past few months, the mother and daughter beat the three women, mother and daughter-in-law, until they were bruised and battered. Their tantrums and cries were useless, and they lay on the ground on the verge of death before finally calming down.
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