In the main house.
Tao Yiru was sitting beside the desk, examining a little child. She usually stayed in the main room to see patients, but now the small area in the main room and the side room was occupied by Xie Shiguan and his two attendants.
She herself was not very scared, but if the villagers were not careful and ran into the attendant with the long sword and the master who would suffer from hysteria from time to time, the villagers who came here would be scared to death even if they were not sick.
But some diseases come on very aggressively and cannot be delayed any longer, so Tao Yiru had to open a side door and ask those who came to see the doctor to go directly into the main house through this door to avoid the three people.
The one who came today was an old woman with her little grandson. She was sitting beside the table just fine, but when she saw Shen Que come in, she acted as if she saw a ghost. She almost didn't even bother to take the medicine, and stood up with her little grandson in her hand.
"Let's take the medicine back and take it first," the old woman said as she hurriedly retreated to the door. "I'll buy the medicine on credit first, and I'll ask Ye Ye to deliver it to you later..."
Before she finished her words, she saw her dragging the boy out of the house at a trot.
These villagers had no idea why this family of gentry had fallen into decline. They only thought that Shen Que was a disaster or demon, and that anyone who came into contact with him would be unlucky. If her little grandson had not been so ill today, she would not have dared to bring the child to visit.
Shen, however, has always been sensitive, and he could see what was written in her eyes. Therefore, his steps paused for a moment, and he slowed down, but still went straight to the side of the tables.
Tao Yiru also glanced at the old woman's back and deliberately said, "She's walking so fast, isn't she afraid of spraining her ankle? Last time, the old man from her family also came to me for treatment of his cough, and now he's still refusing to pay the money he owed me."
After she finished speaking, she raised her head again, peered behind the mute, and asked him in a low voice: "How did you find time to come here? Is he willing to let you out?"
After a pause, he asked again: "Where is Silai? Why didn't you bring any with you?"
Shen Que lowered his eyes and looked at her, but did not move.
"What's wrong?" Tao Yiru smiled, "Why are you so serious? You're going to scare me."
Shen Que then slowly untied the purse that the prince had thrown to him. The brocade bag that the prince always carried with him never contained small change. It was heavy, filled with gold ingots, and there was even a layer of pearls at the bottom, which was quite luxurious.
He didn't dare take more, so he only took one ingot from the top, which weighed about five taels, and solemnly put it into Tao Yiru's hand.
Tao Yiru looked at the gold, stunned for a moment, then raised her head and asked, "What are you giving me this for?"
"I'm leaving." Shen was afraid that she wouldn't understand, so he moved his hands very slowly.
"Where are you going?" Tao Yiru immediately asked, "Back to Beijing?"
Shen nodded.
"When are we leaving?" she asked again.
"Tomorrow morning." He wrote gently in the palm of her hand.
Tao Yiru was silent for a moment, then asked in a low voice: "Why are you in such a hurry? Isn't your leg injury not healed yet? Did he force you to do that?"
Shen shook his head, paused for a moment, and then signed: "I still have relatives in Kyoto, and it's not good to let them worry all the time."
Tao Yiru didn't know whether she understood what he meant, but she didn't say anything more. She put away the prescriptions on the table, then stood up and stuffed the gold ingot back into Chen Que's hand: "This gold is too valuable, I can't find the change."
At first glance, one could tell that the gold ingot was of extremely good quality. Even if it was exchanged at the market price, it could at least be exchanged for fifty taels of silver. Although Tao Yiru was diligent and thrifty and had some savings on hand, she couldn't come up with such a large sum in a short period of time.
Shen was stunned for a moment and refused to take it. He tapped her hand and wrote on her palm: It's back to you.
"You only owed me twenty-five taels originally, and you helped me with the work and collecting herbs a few days ago, so I'll give you the other five taels," Tao Yiru said. "If you really can't pay the change, you can come back here and pay me back when you have time. I won't charge you interest."
But the mute was stubborn and refused to accept it. He was a stubborn person and never said euphemistic words to coax people, so he raised his hand and said honestly: "I'm afraid I won't be able to come again in the future."
Tao Yiru lowered his eyes and still refused to take the gold. It was not because it was too valuable. He knew who gave him the bag of money. It was free money, so he would rather take it than not take it.
But she wanted to keep some memories. Kyoto was thousands of miles away, and it was even farther away for southerners like them. This separation would be almost forever, but based on the temperament of this mute, if the money was not repaid, he would definitely come again.
After hearing his words, Tao Yiru was silent for a rare moment. She was busy with her own things for a while. After a long while, she continued, "The day they came, they gave me a silver hairpin, and later gave me a bag of silver, saying it was rent money. It was already enough. I was not at ease with it. I shouldn't have been asked to pay back the half ginseng money."
But the mute still looked at her stubbornly: "What he gave is his, what I have is mine, don't resist."
Tao Yiru was about to say something else when she saw Guyu outside suddenly holding the crying Silai and shouting in through the open window: "My lord, my lord!"
Shen Que's mind was immediately drawn away. He turned around, said goodbye briefly, and then hurried out.
The death warriors in the palace are different from the personal guards and servants. They are all orphans and born in poverty. When they come, a sum of money buys out their lives. They are destined to never get married and have no offspring, so they can't have any ties at all.
Therefore, Guyu had never had the opportunity to take care of such a tiny kid. Just now, when he was holding him and playing with him, he suddenly felt a heat on his chest. He looked down and found that the kid had wet his collar and arms.
It would have been fine if she had just peed on him, but she also started crying like the thief crying, and her crying was so heartbreaking, as if she had suffered some terrible injustice from him.
Guyu wanted to cry even more than he did, but this kid was not some nameless baby. He was the only bloodline of His Highness. Although his identity could not be confirmed yet, he was much more precious than these death warriors.
Therefore, Gu Yu did not even dare to get angry, and hurriedly ran to find His Highness with Si Lai in his arms. When His Highness saw how embarrassed he was, he first raised his hand to cover his nose and avoided him, but then smiled and said, "This is just right, you can go and find him back."
Guyu then went outside the main house with the foul smell all over his clothes and started calling for help.
Chen didn't mind the dirtiness, he came out and took the kid into his arms, using the fashionable cotton cloth as a diaper, but it was too expensive and he couldn't afford it. He could use the coarse cloth as a pad, which would make the kid's butt red.
He was reluctant to suffer the consequences, so he cut the only presentable garment in his suitcase. The material was barely usable, but there were only a few pieces of it that could be used.
His Highness had not allowed him to go out these past few days, and the dozen or so diapers he had cut were all soiled, but he had been unable to go to the river to wash them, so today he had no choice but to let the kid take care of himself.
Shen was calculating the time and was going to take the kid to the yard, but even so, there were still times when he was not prepared, like now.
His body was wet, so how could he feel comfortable? Chen had no choice but to carry him back to the side room, and then asked Guyu embarrassedly if he could help him boil some hot water.
Guyu saw his lip shape, understood, and quickly responded: "I'll go right away. Are you going to wash this, this... young master? Why don't you go find a small basin?"
Si Lai was making a big fuss, but Shen had no time to correct him. Besides, if His Highness really wanted him, it would not be wrong for him to call him the young master.
When I entered the room, I saw Xie Shiguan still leaning on the couch. He tilted his head when he heard the voice and asked, "Are you back?"
He frowned again: "Why are you still crying? It's so annoying."
The prince occupied most of the bed and didn't know how to give way. Shen Que had no choice but to put Si Lai at the end of the bed, and then coaxed him while hurriedly preparing clothes and cotton towels for him to wipe his body.
Xie Shiguan was too lazy to move, but when he saw the mute dragging his injured leg around, he felt annoyed.
So he didn't plan to sleep anymore. He stood up, held the mute's waist, and pushed him onto the couch: "What do you want? I'll get it."
How could Shen dare to order him around? He raised his eyes slightly, but did not dare to meet his gaze. He just glanced at the tip of His Highness' nose.
Then he shook his head and tried to stand up again.
Xie Shiguan pressed him: "I told you to be obedient, right?"
Shen hesitated for a moment, then raised his hand and gestured slowly: "The cotton towels used to wipe his body are in the suitcase, together with those small clothes..."
His Highness then turned around and went to the windowsill to rummage through the suitcase.
Shen was sitting on the couch, coaxing Si Lai in his hands, but his eyes unconsciously moved towards Xie Shiguan.
The small window was half open, and a little cold light in the winter penetrated through his body, revealing a faint outline of a backlit figure. Just looking at his back, my heavy heartbeat would occasionally skip a beat.
Once upon a time, he had thought that if he could get a single glance from His Highness, he would die without regrets.
He had never dared to dream of such a scene before, and felt it was blasphemy to think about it.
Therefore, now I have to be alert in my heart countless times, take out those unforgettable memories, and turn them over again and again, so as not to fall into them easily again.
But when Xie Shiguan turned around, Shen had withdrawn his gaze earlier than him. His Highness seemed to have some annoyance in his eyes: "Where did you put it? Is it really in this suitcase?"
Without waiting for Chen Que's consent, His Highness simply carried the entire suitcase over and placed it beside the couch. The suitcase that Chen Que had just sorted out was turned into a mess again by him.
The dumb man didn't get angry. He bent over and turned it over, and easily found a cotton towel underneath.
Just at this moment, Guyu also brought in a basin of hot water. Chen stood up and thanked him. Then he looked at his robe that was soiled by Silai and gestured guiltily: "Change it? I'll wash it for you..."
Guyu guessed what he meant, but in front of His Highness, even if he had a hundred courage, he would not dare to ask this mute to wash clothes for him.
So he interrupted him and said, "Don't bother, don't bother! Just go get some water and rub it yourself for a while."
Perhaps because he was frightened, his tone rose unconsciously. The mute seemed to be startled by his resistance and his eyes were stunned for a moment.
Guyu immediately went back to make amends, saying, "We do rough work here, so it's okay to get a little dirty. It's just the kid's urine, it's not that dirty."
"I will wait outside this door. If Your Highness or the Lord needs anything, just call me."
After saying this, he leaned over and walked out hastily.
The kid on the couch was still making a fuss, but Chen didn't have time to think about Guyu's unusual reaction. The hot water he brought was too hot, so he had to fetch cold water to mix it.
Seeing that he was about to go out again, Xie Shiguan grabbed his wrist and asked, "Where are you going now?"
"The water is here, won't you wash him?"
Shen was in a hurry to go, he just turned back and moved his lips: hot.
Xie Shiguan pushed him back again, then went to the door and gave Guyu an order. Guyu left immediately after receiving the order.
"If you have anything else to ask, just tell me," Xie Shiguan stretched out his hand and gently hugged the back of his neck, suppressing the annoyance of having his nap interrupted in his tone, "Your leg injury hasn't healed yet, don't toss around like that."
He bent his eyes like this and spoke gentle words. When he stared at him, Shen Que always had an illusion that he really kept him in his heart.
It seemed like he really loved him, really... there was a little bit of sincerity in his heart.
But after just a moment of stunnedness, Shen came to his senses. The sincerity of His Royal Highness Prince Yan was something that even those young men from aristocratic families, and even the man in the Mingtang, were not worthy of.
How could a mute like him be so self-indulgent and delusional as to think that he was worthy of her?
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