16 Dreaming
◎Dreaming with Him◎
Shu Yao put down her chopsticks and said, "Brother Qiao, did something happen in the village?"
Qiao Liu frowned and let out a long sigh: "Miss Shu, wait until you two are better and leave early. Don't ask too much about other things, otherwise it may bring trouble to yourself."
Ah Qi kept his head down and shoveled at the chicken soup in the bowl, absent-minded.
Seeing this, Shu Yao stopped asking questions.
After the Qiao siblings finished eating, they took out the warm chicken from the pot, poured a bowl of rice porridge, and walked towards Ji Shijing's room. Shu Yao drank the last mouthful of chicken soup and hurriedly took it over: "Brother Qiao, you guys go and rest, I'll do it."
Perhaps it was because it was late at night, the cold wind blew in with the white snow, the oil lamp in the house was intermittent, and the human figures were swaying and very blurry.
Shu Yao put the plate on the bedside: "I know you are awake, get up and eat something."
He opened his eyes, turned to look at her, and slowly sat up on the bed. An abnormal blush appeared on his face. Just as his slender pale fingers were about to touch the edge of the bowl, he suddenly started coughing violently, and a layer of mist appeared in his eyes.
Seeing him like this, Shu Yao couldn't help but feel a little worried. She lowered her head and happened to look him in the eye. Perhaps because he had just coughed, there was a faint red mark at the corner of his eye. His originally pale face suddenly became bright because of this red, and with the blush on his cheeks, he looked like a lovable sick beauty.
Shu Yao was stunned for two seconds before she realized that something was wrong with him.
Then she put her hand on his forehead, and was caught off guard and burned. She quickly withdrew her hand, her eyes full of worry.
"You have a fever, lie down."
Ji Shijing didn't have much strength in his body, so he could only let her swing.
"I'll get you some medicine." She said and ran out.
Until the corner of her clothes disappeared at the door, Ji Shijing raised her hand to touch her forehead, sighed softly, closed her eyes, and her forehead still seemed to have the same cold feeling as before. Her hand was so cold.
When Shu Yao came out, she saw Ah Qi washing dishes at the sink. She went over to help her and then asked, "Miss Ah Qi, do you have any herbs at home to treat colds?"
Ah Qi wiped his hands on his apron, looked at Shu Yao again, put his hands on her face, and murmured, "Sister Shu, you don't have a fever?"
Shu Yao smiled bitterly: "He's my little brother."
"Ah?" Ah Qi reacted, "We don't have any herbs at home. I'll go to Aunt Li's house to find my brother and ask him to think of a solution."
"Sister Shu, don't worry. My brother is very capable. He will definitely find a way." After saying that, he took off his apron, took out a torch from the stove, pushed open the door and walked out.
Shu Yao looked at the petite figure and felt a little guilty. The Qiao siblings were truly kind people. She would definitely repay them when she had the chance in the future.
She silently washed the dishes in the sink and put them into the cupboard. Just as she finished these things, she heard hurried footsteps outside the door.
Then, Qiao Liu and Ah Qi appeared at the door. They were both out of breath, having probably run all the way back. Qiao Liu was holding a handful of something that looked like grass. He walked over and showed it to Shu Yao: "Miss Shu, these are herbs for treating colds. People in our village who have caught colds are treated with this medicine."
There was still dirt on the roots of the herbs, and they looked like ordinary weeds. Qiao Liu was afraid that Shu Yao would be suspicious, so he explained to her.
Shu Yao took the herbs and said, "Thank you, Brother Qiao and Miss Qi." After that, she washed the herbs and put them in the pot and simmered them over low heat.
After Qiao Liu brought the medicine back, he went out again. Only Ah Qi sat next to Shu Yao, and the two of them added a few firewood to the stove from time to time.
From Ah Qi, Shu Yao learned that she had lost her parents since childhood, and her five older brothers also died one after another due to natural disasters and man-made tragedies, leaving only her and Qiao Liu to accompany each other until now.
Shu Yao gently touched Ah Qi's head.
Ah Qi looked up at her and asked her, her tone full of longing: "Sister Shu, what is the capital city like?"
She heard from the older generation in the village that the capital was where rich people lived, that it was full of restaurants and teahouses, and that everyone wore silk and satin clothes.
The prosperous capital is full of money and wealth.
Shu Yao was stunned for a moment. She didn't know that the owner of this body of hers originally lived in the countryside and only came to the capital on the day of their wedding. She herself had never really seen the prosperity of the capital.
So when faced with Ah Qi's question, she was speechless for a moment, but after a moment, she smiled and said, "When there's a chance in the future, I'll take you to the capital to play, okay?"
"Okay." Ah Qi smiled brightly, "Sister Shu, let's make a pinky promise."
Shu Yao smiled and stretched out her hand.
The little girl was so happy that she didn't even notice the sparks fell on her clothes. When she realized what was happening, a hole had been burned in her clothes. Shu Yao hurried to help her put out the fire.
Ah Qi was a little embarrassed: "Sister Shu, I'm just too happy."
The process of decocting the medicine was long, and the little girl next to him kept dozing off. Shu Yao asked her to go and rest first, and Ah Qi yawned and went back to the room.
Seeing that the medicine was almost done, Shu Yao scooped out a bowl.
Ji Shijing's whole body was burning hot at this time. He frowned, muttered to himself, and beads of hot sweat dripped from his forehead.
Shu Yao was startled and called him twice, but there was no response.
She hurriedly fed him the medicine, but it didn't go down his throat and flowed out from the corners of his mouth.
Seeing that this didn't work, she picked up the bowl with one hand and pinched Ji Shijing's cheeks with the other, forcing him to open his mouth, and then slowly poured the bowl of medicine into him.
Ji Shijing's Adam's apple rolled and he choked a few times, but fortunately he finally managed to drink it.
Shu Yao breathed a sigh of relief, used her sleeve to wipe the medicine juice from the corner of his mouth, then brought a small stool and sat beside the bed to watch over him.
Given his current condition, she didn't dare to leave even a step.
Ji Shijing clutched the bed sheet tightly with both hands, his face became uglier and uglier, his lips moved in and out. Shu Yao leaned closer to listen, but could not hear anything clearly.
She forced herself to cheer up, leaned her head against the edge of the bed, and stayed with him quietly.
It was past midnight and Shu Yao was drowsy. Her eyelids were drooping and she finally couldn't hold on any longer and fell asleep.
That night, she had a very long dream.
The dream was very dark, with thick fog everywhere. She walked alone in the fog for a long time, and finally saw a little light flashing not far away. She was delighted and ran towards the light.
The light became smaller and smaller, and finally gathered into a tiny flame. The surrounding scene changed drastically. It was no longer an ethereal world that stretched as far as the eye could see, but a small, shabby house.
The room was dark, with only the faint light of a candle on the table.
Shu Yao looked around. The house was empty and in tatters. It was winter, and the walls were leaking everywhere. There were also a few tiles missing from the eaves. The snow had taken the opportunity to fall into the bedding on the bed, soaking large areas of it.
She wanted to open the door and go out, but no matter how hard she tried, the broken door in front of her remained motionless. Just as she took a few steps back and prepared to kick the door open, the door slowly opened from the outside.
I saw a very beautiful woman walking in slowly, holding a wooden basin in one hand and supporting her waist with the other.
Her pregnant belly was big and she seemed to be about to give birth.
The woman was very beautiful, even without makeup she was still incredibly beautiful, especially her eyes, which were like black gems from the Western Regions. What shocked Shu Yao the most was that the woman's appearance was 80% similar to Ji Shijing. She seemed to have guessed something vaguely.
The woman rubbed her waist, took the wooden basin and walked to the bed, walking straight past Shu Yao.
She placed the wooden basin where the snow water fell, looked at the wet bedding, and sighed helplessly.
Then she took out the unfinished needlework from the cabinet next to her, dragged her heavy body to the table and sat down. In the dim candlelight, she opened the unfinished embroidery in her hand and began to embroider.
Shu Yao also came to the table and stretched out her hand to wave in front of the woman's eyes. The woman did not respond at all. She tried to call out twice, but there was still no response.
She understood that the woman couldn't see her at all.
Why was she here? Looking at the cold surroundings, she swallowed and tried to call the system: [System, where am I now?]
The system sounded tired, as if it had just woken up: "Master, don't panic. You are in Ji Shijing's dream. The scene you are in is exactly the Ji Mansion from more than ten years ago."
Shu Yao understood. Looking at the woman in front of her who looked 80% similar to Ji Shijing, she became more certain of her guess.
She asked again: "How can I get out of here?"
The system fell silent. Shu Yao shook her head. It was really unreliable.
She wanted to go outside to take a look, but as soon as she reached the door, she was bounced back by an inexplicable force. She didn't believe it and tried a few more times, but each time the bounce was stronger than the last, and the last time she fell directly to the ground.
Shu Yao rubbed his butt and stayed obediently beside the woman.
The woman was embroidering small purses, and there were already several embroidered ones in the basket. Shu Yao sat beside her, looking at the lifelike patterns on the small purses. She picked one up to take a look, but as soon as she picked it up, she saw the woman's face full of horror.
Shu Yao reacted immediately. The woman couldn't see her, so she could only see her purse floating in the air inexplicably. Anyone who saw it would be scared.
She quickly put the purse back.
The woman was stunned for a moment and then continued embroidering.
In the middle of the night, the candle had burned out and Shu Yao dozed off while leaning on the table. The woman rubbed her dry eyes, put away the embroidered purse and went to bed.
The next day, there was a loud knock on the door. Shu Yao stretched and yawned.
The woman hurriedly got out of bed and took out the ten purses she had embroidered yesterday from the cabinet.
When she opened the door, two fierce-looking old women stood outside. They looked at the woman with disdain, snatched the purse from her basket, and said dissatisfiedly, "Only ten?"
The woman may not have gotten enough rest last night, so her tone was weak, but her voice was unusually pleasant: "I haven't been feeling well these past few days, so I've been a little slow."
The two old women looked at each other and took out fifty cents and handed it to the woman.
Just as they were about to leave, the woman grabbed one of them by the sleeve and said excitedly, "A purse is ten coins, and there are still fifty coins left?"
The old woman pulled back her sleeves and said in a very arrogant tone: "You are a lowly bastard from a brothel. The things you embroider are disgusting to others. I am grateful to give you some charity."
After saying that, he threw two steamed buns at her feet.
Another one also helped to echo: "If you hadn't used your seductive tricks to seduce the master and let him welcome you into the mansion, our eldest lady wouldn't be sick until now. What a jinx, bah."
Watching the two old women walking away, the woman seemed to have lost all her strength. She slid to the ground against the door panel, covering her face with her hands and sobbing softly.
Shu Yao felt a little uncomfortable and wanted to comfort the woman, but in the end she just sighed.
Fortunately, the woman didn't cry for long. The next moment, she picked up the steamed bun that fell on the ground and prepared to go into the house. But as soon as she stood up, she saw a large stain of blood gushing out from where she had just fallen. At the same time, her stomach began to hurt severely.
The woman fell to the ground again, her hands tightly protecting her stomach, and kept calling for help.
Shu Yao was anxious. She squatted beside the woman and wanted to help her up, but when she thought that the woman couldn't see her and that her rash actions might scare her, she gave up the idea.
She stood up and wanted to find someone to help, but there was no one around. Hearing the woman's painful voice, she was so anxious that she turned around in circles.
The woman's voice gradually became softer, and finally she fainted.
Just then, a servant came to a tree not far away to sweep the snow, but he didn't pay any attention to the situation here. Shu Yao picked up a small stone on the ground and threw it over.
The pebble fell right at the servant's feet, but the servant just kicked the stone away, then lowered his head and continued sweeping the snow.
Shu Yao ran towards him, but the force brought her back to the woman.
The woman's face became increasingly worse.
When Shu Yao saw the copper coin tightly held in the woman's hand, he immediately had an idea.
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