October 29th, light snow.
In the hut, Shen Que lowered the curtain, holding a crying little baby with a red face in his arms. He shook his arms slightly, still with a helpless look on his face. He hurriedly loosened his clothes and leaned forward, and the baby immediately stopped crying.
Because he stopped taking the medicine without permission, the child was born before full term. On the day he was born, he refused to cry. Chen touched his face in a daze, thinking that he was mute like himself, and his heart was broken immediately.
Danxin didn't believe it, so she bent down and pinched the kid's butt hard. The kid took a deep breath and immediately started crying.
Shen Que felt relieved at this point, it's fine if he doesn't do whatever he wants.
The child was a good child, a complete and healthy boy, and when he opened his eyes, his eyeballs were amber brown. Under the candlelight, he had seen Lin Xie's eyes, which were also this color, very similar to the prince's...
Xie Shiguan's biological mother was a foreigner, and he had half foreign blood. Among the assassins he recruited, there must be foreigners, but Shen did not suspect anything at that time.
He didn't know if he was seeing things, but he always felt that the child didn't look like Lin Xie. Instead, his eyebrows and eyes were somewhat similar to those of the prince when he was a child.
Shen didn't dare to think too much. When the kid cried, his face was wrinkled and red like a monkey's butt. How could he tell anything? He must have missed the prince too much, so his eyes were blurry.
After the kid had eaten his fill, he fell into a deep sleep, but Shen patted his back gently. Suddenly, he heard several knocks on the door outside, so he carefully put the kid on the couch, put a long pillow beside the bed, and then got up to answer the door.
The one who came was Danxin, she came into the room with a bowl of medicine in her hand.
"Sister Yiru said that you only need to take this medicine for a few more days, and then you can stop," she said lightly, "You have martial arts skills and your foundation is good. If you hadn't stopped taking the medicine later, you wouldn't have suffered this."
Yi Ru was the village doctor who saved him and his child's life in the mountains that day. After her husband passed away, she had been living with her mother in her natal family, treating minor illnesses and pains in the village.
That day, Danxin first went to the town to look for the doctor who had treated Shen Que before. Unexpectedly, the doctor had gone out to see patients early in the morning and it was unknown when he would be back. After asking around, she learned that there was a midwife in the nearby village. So she hurriedly went to ask for help and led the doctor all the way up the mountain, which delayed her until dark.
When Shen Que had just given birth, he was weak and often had attacks. Those scoundrels could come again at any time. He is not in good health now, and if they make trouble again, he will probably suffer.
Fortunately, the mother and daughter were kind-hearted. Knowing their difficult situation, they invited them to live in their small courtyard at the foot of the mountain so that they could keep an eye on them from time to time.
Shen held the medicine bowl and drank the medicine in one breath. When he put the bowl down, he saw Danxin suddenly took out two taels of silver from his sleeve and pushed it to the side of the bowl.
"Thank you for that day on the boat."
Shen was stunned for a moment, his hands didn't move, and he stared at her blankly.
"I'm leaving," Danxin said slowly, "I got lost when I was young, so I was sold to Tongzhou by a trafficker. I only vaguely remember that my hometown is in the south, and I've never seen snow in winter, so it shouldn't be here."
"I don't know if my home is still there, or if my parents are waiting for me to come back. But my hometown is always in my mind, haunting me. Even if I can't find it in my dreams, I can at least fulfill my wish."
Chen nodded, pushed the two taels of silver to her, and then raised his hand to gesture: "Keep this silver for your journey."
Danxin didn't reach out to take it, but looked up and stared into his eyes: "If you don't want to accept it, you won't let me leave."
She had been staying with the mute just to repay the two taels of silver. Now that she saw that he had safely given birth to a child and was no longer alone, she decided to leave.
Danxin pushed the silver over again, then stood up and said, "You keep it."
Chen's heart sank. He had said goodbye to Kyoto, the prince, and his senior brother along the way. Now he finally had such a companion again. Danxin was leaving, and he was actually reluctant to let her go.
But she also had her own ties, and Shen knew that he couldn't keep her.
So he also stood up, but not to stop her. Instead, he took out a cloth bag from the box, which was filled with poison needles that he had tempered when he had free time in the past few days.
The whole yard is filled with herbs that Tao Yiru and her daughter picked up from the mountains. A few days ago, he also went for a walk in the mountains with them and brought back some poisonous herbs. The poison needle has been tempered and was originally intended for self-defense. If he had known that Danxin was leaving, he would have prepared more.
"Take this," Chen gestured to her, "If you meet a bad guy on the road, stab him in the neck and he will faint."
Danxin was not polite to him. She was a weak woman who had spent half her life in brothels and taverns. She was good at singing and playing the piano, but she was not familiar with wielding swords and guns. The journey would definitely be difficult and dangerous, and she would feel more at ease with this thing on her.
However, Shen followed closely behind her and sent her out.
She wore a wooden hairpin given to her by Chen Que in her hair, with her long hair tied up low. She walked a few steps away, and suddenly her feet stopped. She tilted her head and whispered: "I will remember you..."
She walked away, but Shen was still standing there in a daze. The setting sun in the distance reflected a different kind of loneliness in his heart.
At this time, two women passing by caught a glimpse of his appearance, suddenly stopped, and stood by the roadside whispering: "Is he the man Xiao Tao brought back that day? He looks strange."
A widow shamelessly brought a man back from the mountains. It would have been fine if she had just brought a man back, but I heard that when the man came, he was holding a newborn baby in his arms.
Good news doesn’t travel far, but bad news travels a thousand miles. After that day, the news spread throughout the village.
Some people in the village said that the child was born to the slave girl beside the man, but the next day the slave girl followed Tao Yiru to water the fields. How could a woman who had not yet given birth have such a physique?
Soon after, someone spread the rumor that the cub was born by the man himself, and that the man was a monster that was neither male nor female.
But the man hid himself very well. He hadn't been seen for more than a month. The villagers were going crazy about it. They were curious and at first they gathered at the door of the widow's house, hoping to get some information.
Others would deliberately come to see a doctor, and as soon as they entered the yard, they would look around with a dazed look, so that the young widow would notice something and drive them out. As a result, a month passed and no one had seen the true appearance of this "monster".
"He looks like a man," the woman on the roadside laughed softly, and said in a voice she thought was very light, "He looks quite handsome, but he has been here for more than a month, and I have never seen him work in the fields. I wonder if he is just a useless person, good-looking but useless."
The woman next to her also said, "Tsk, I think the child is probably the child of this young widow who stole the man's love and she just refuses to acknowledge him for the sake of face."
"From what you said, you mean this man is the adulterer?"
"Nine out of ten, he has already moved into the house of the widow Tao. Isn't it strange for a widow who has lost her husband for many years to bring such a man into her home?"
The other woman moved the basket hanging on her arm and said, "But I heard someone say that Erlang from the Miao family in the next village came back from the mountain on the 28th. It seems that he was hit by some evil spirit. He lay on the bed sick for many days, mumbling something. There is a big-bellied man on the mountain, a man-eating monster."
Shen came back to his senses and heard them gossiping. Before he could react, a person suddenly squeezed out from beside him, with a hint of herbal scent on his body: "How shameless! You are old, and you still go to someone's door to gossip?"
"You, you little widow, what are you talking about?"
Tao Yiru pushed the phone back and slammed the door shut. The two women outside were embarrassed and made a few more sarcastic remarks at the tightly closed door before going home with their vegetable baskets.
"Ignore them," Tao Yiru said, as if she was used to it. She closed the door and said, "It's going to rain, so let's collect the herbs in the yard."
She didn't ask why Danxin left. After spending more than a month together, she had already realized that the two were not master and servant. It was more like they met by chance on the road and supported each other for a while.
However, Shen was thinking about what the two women had just said. As a man, if he stayed here and refused to leave, he would probably bring trouble to Tao Yiru's reputation.
As soon as he raised his hand, Tao Yiru interrupted him: "Although I am a half-baked village doctor, I can't read sign language. You don't have to bother to sign with me."
As if she had guessed what he was thinking, Tao Yiru said to him while collecting the winnowing basket: "Besides, if I cared about my reputation, I wouldn't have asked you to stay. Just let them talk. If someone in their family gets sick, they will come here and beg me."
She said she was open-minded, but him living here with the child had caused a lot of trouble for the mother and daughter.
Seeing that he was still there, Tao Yiru sighed, "The room is empty anyway, but don't forget that you still owe me half a ginseng. Even though the ginseng is not good, that half is worth twenty taels. Add the tonic you use every day, and it will be twenty-five taels. If you want to go back to the mountain, pay me the money before you leave."
But Shen was currently in dire straits, so how could he afford to give her money? Therefore, he did not mention the matter any more, and obediently picked up the baskets of herbs on the shelf and carried them to the main hall one by one.
He was quick and agile, and soon collected most of the winnowing baskets in the yard, but he kept frowning as he went back and forth.
He was an honest man, and he was worried about owing them such a large sum of money. Now he was not in the palace, where he received a monthly salary. Even if he went back to the mountains to hunt, he was afraid that he could not save so much money in a year.
Besides, the cub was still too young and needed someone to look after him all the time. It was not convenient for him to carry the cub with him to go hunting in the mountains.
If he goes for a walk around the town, there might be work he can do. Now that he is over a year old, Your Highness should just think he is dead and will not go out of his way to look for him like before.
But then he was back to the little cub, who still needed to feed, and he couldn't get away.
Tao Yiru glanced at him from time to time, thinking that if this mute could speak, she would have heard him sigh several times.
"Don't worry about it," Tao Yiru couldn't bear to see him like this, "When you have some free time someday, carry the child and go up the mountain to pick some herbs. I'll pay you at the market price. If you're lucky, you can pick some Ganoderma lucidum and ginseng, and you'll be able to pay it back soon..."
Before she finished her words, she heard the sound of a baby crying from the side room. This kid might be making trouble. He was stupid and couldn't cry when he was born. After making Danxin feel upset, he started making trouble day and night.
Hearing him crying, Shen Que's heart ached, and Tao Yiru hurriedly chased him in: "Go and comfort him quickly."
Shen Que hurriedly put the winnowing basket in his hand into the main room, and then hurried into the house.
I don’t know if this kid got frightened a lot while in his belly, following him all the way, but he’s always startled, and any noise outside can wake him up.
He is also very clingy. Once he opens his eyes and doesn't see Chen Que, he will start yelling and making a fuss.
However, Shen's impression of children was still on the little girl from Ge Zheng's family. She thought that all children in the world were as well-behaved as her, who would fall asleep after feeding and open their eyes and look at people obediently when they woke up.
I didn't expect that the child I gave birth to would be so unlovable, just like a debt collector. His facial features are not like Lin Xie's, but his temper is very similar, both are annoying.
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