She temporarily took shelter under the eaves, wearing a wedding dress.
Tang Feng, clutching his neck, punched Zhou Ziliang hard, leaving a bloody mark on Zhou's shoulder. "Why were you so slow! I almost died!" Zhou Ziliang pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and grabbed Tang Feng's hand covering his wound. "Okay, okay, I was wrong. It's all my fault for not taking good care of you. Take your hand away, let me see your wound." Zhou Ziliang removed Tang Feng's hand, dabbed the blood around the wound with the handkerchief, and frowned slightly. "The wound isn't deep, just a bit long. It might rain today; we need to find shelter quickly. Can you get up?"
Tang Feng tried to stand up, but a sharp pain shot through his right ankle as soon as he exerted force. "Ouch~ I think I twisted my right ankle." Zhou Ziliang grabbed Tang Feng's ankle and gently squeezed it. "Ouch, that hurts!" Tang Feng jolted in pain and quickly pulled his foot back.
"It's swollen, maybe it's something to do with the bones inside. Come on, let me carry you." Zhou Ziliang squatted down in front of Tang Feng, took his hand and put it on his shoulder, stood up, and bounced Tang Feng up a bit. "You always seem so thin, I never imagined you had some weight on your upper body."
After listening, Tang Feng punched Zhou Ziliang's shoulder hard. "No one will think you're mute if you don't speak!" Zhou Ziliang carried Tang Feng up the embankment. "Your horse is dead."
"Do you need to tell me? I'm not blind." Tang Feng rolled his eyes. The wound on his neck was still throbbing, but at least the bleeding had stopped. Tang Feng wrapped his arms around Zhou Ziliang's neck and rested his chin on his shoulder. At that moment, thunder rumbled in the sky, and large raindrops began to fall. "Look at your jinx! You insisted it would rain, and it really did!"
"Xiao Feng, does your wound still hurt?"
"If I stab you, will it hurt?" Tang Feng wiped the rain from his face. "Isn't there a house over there?" Tang Feng pointed ahead. Zhou Ziliang peered over and saw a house with a light on. He walked a few steps quickly, knocked on the door, and waited for a long time without anyone answering. "Is no one home?" Tang Feng muttered.
"That shouldn't be the case. The lights are on inside; there's no way no one's home." Zhou Ziliang, worried that Tang Feng might fall ill again, knocked on the door again. "Is anyone home?" He had barely finished speaking when he heard a voice from inside.
"Oh dear! What if something really happens to them? If you're scared, I'll go drive."
"Brother Bao, let's not go! They're covered in blood, it's scary. What if they're thieves?"
"What kind of bandit is so polite as to knock on the door? Besides, with me here, what are you afraid of?"
Just then, the door opened, and the man who came in was quite handsome, but his skin was a bit dark. He was holding a rake, his eyes were wide open, his eyebrows were furrowed, and he slammed the rake on the ground. "What are you doing here so late at night!"
Zhou Ziliang cupped his hands in greeting and said, "We came from Daze, intending to return to Lanxi. However, we were robbed on the way, and my wife was injured, spraining her ankle. Then it started raining heavily, and I was worried she would catch a cold and fall ill, so I came to bother you."
The man sized up Zhou Ziliang and Tang Feng, who were clinging to his back, and, making sure they didn't seem like bad people, tossed the rake aside and stepped forward, saying softly, "Please come in quickly. Injuries easily cause fever, so don't blame us for coming out late. My husband is a weak scholar with no strength to even kill a chicken. He was terrified when he saw you covered in blood through the crack in the door."
They went inside. Zhou Ziliang placed Tang Feng on a stool before tying Hongdou outside. Tang Feng looked around the room; besides a few large vats and the table and chairs, there weren't many other large items in the hall.
“Our family isn’t very well-off, so please make do with what we have!” The man rubbed his hands together. “My name is Li Bao’er, the elders in the village call me Brother Bao’er. This is my husband, Cheng Yitian.” Li Bao’er pulled the person behind her forward. The man, dressed like a scholar, looked rather weak and unassuming. He bowed to Tang Feng. “I’m sorry about what happened earlier; I got soaked in the rain. Let me make you some ginger water to warm you up! Brother, could you find some clothes for you two? You’ll really catch a cold if you keep wearing these.”
Li Bao'er nodded in agreement, rummaged through the drawers for a while, and finally found two red dresses. After Li Bao'er shook them out, Tang Feng realized they were two wedding gowns. At this point, Li Bao'er said somewhat embarrassedly, "My husband and I don't usually have any decent clothes. My husband only has one decent outfit, and I'm even worse off. But luckily, we brought back the wedding dress that Zhang Mama made a few days ago. You can just make do with these for one night!"
Tang Feng glanced at Zhou Ziliang sitting next to him. "This isn't quite right! You haven't even worn your wedding attire yet, and you're already making us..."
Zhou Ziliang also felt it was somewhat inappropriate. Although he was worried about Tang Feng getting sick, it wouldn't be proper for him to wear someone else's brand-new wedding clothes. Li Bao'er pushed the wedding clothes in front of them and waved her hand, "We country folk don't care about such things. Take it and wear it! Besides, it's only for one night, what's there to be afraid of?" Then she said to Tang Feng, "If you get sick again, your husband will be worried sick. Leave the clothes here, you can change. I'm not going to watch them, I'm going to go check on my husband. Why is it so difficult to make ginger water?"
Seeing Li Bao'er leave, Zhou Ziliang picked up the wedding dress. "Since that's the case, there's no other way. Hurry up and change! It's easy to catch a cold if wet clothes stick to your body." Zhou Ziliang picked out a relatively small dress and handed it to Tang Feng. Tang Feng took it without hesitation, but didn't change. He just glared at Zhou Ziliang and said, "Wife? Wife my ass! How can you even say that? Couldn't you just say it's a friend?"
Zhou Ziliang laughed and said, "Why are you still arguing about this? I just blurted it out in the heat of the moment! Besides, aren't you my betrothed? It's perfectly reasonable for me to call you my wife!"
When Li Bao'er came out, she saw Cheng Yitian squatting in the corner with a bowl of ginger soup, listening intently. "Why are you still squatting in the corner?" Li Bao'er lowered her voice, afraid that Zhou Ziliang and Tang Feng inside the house would hear her.
"Bro, those two sound like they're arguing! I told you not to let them in; they're definitely not a couple."
"Nonsense! Does arguing mean you're no longer a couple? I see you arguing with me quite a bit sometimes, even calling me a bastard."
"Brother, that's called being ungrateful."
"Alright, alright, you think you're so cultured? Give me the ginger soup." Li Bao'er knocked on the door with the ginger soup in hand. "Gentlemen, have you changed your clothes? I'm coming in." Seeing no response, Li Bao'er pushed the door open. "Oh my! You look much better in this than a rough fellow like me!" Li Bao'er's eyes lit up when she saw her wedding dress on Tang Feng. Tang Feng had a slender waist and delicate features; the wedding dress gave him a unique charm. Li Bao'er put Tang Feng and Zhou Ziliang's wet clothes into the washbasin. "You two can make do like this for the night. Tomorrow morning, I'll have my husband go and get a doctor for you."
Zhou Ziliang cupped his hands in greeting, "Then I'll have to trouble you two." Li Bao'er quickly waved her hand, "I'm a rough man, I don't know many characters, but I still understand the principle of seeing things through to the end. I don't even know your names!"
"My surname is Zhou, and my given name is Ziliang. This is my wife; her surname is Tang, and her given name is Feng."
"Alright, then I won't disturb you any longer. You should get some rest," Li Bao'er said before leaving, leaving Tang Feng and Zhou Ziliang staring at each other. "Get some rest! Let me help you over." Zhou Ziliang helped Tang Feng step by step to the bedside, and after helping him sit up, he took off his shoes and socks. His ankle was swollen and bruised. "It looks pretty serious. Can you move your ankle now?" Zhou Ziliang gently pinched it, afraid of hurting Tang Feng.
"Ouch, much better, but I still can't move, it hurts if I move." Tang Feng braced himself on the bed with both hands, one foot dangling on the ground, and the other foot resting on Zhou Ziliang's knee. "How about we leave it like this for now? I've sprained my ankle before, it's probably nothing serious, maybe it'll be fine by tomorrow."
Zhou Ziliang nodded, took a quilt from the bed and spread it on the floor. "What are you doing!" Tang Feng asked quickly upon seeing this.
"Didn't you say you didn't like me sleeping next to you? I'll sleep on the floor." Zhou Ziliang smiled, got up to get a pillow from the bed. "Besides, I'm afraid I'll press on your wound if I'm next to you. Listen to me, go to sleep early." Zhou Ziliang picked up the pillow and was about to put it on the floor, but Tang Feng grabbed the other side of the pillow.
"I...I'm fine. Come on up and sleep here tonight! It's not unreasonable of me to make you sleep on the floor after getting soaked in the rain, but if you get sick, it'll just be a burden on Bao'er and the others. Besides, it's not a big deal for two grown men to sleep together for one night." Tang Feng tugged at Zhou Ziliang's pillow, head down. After all, Zhou Ziliang had saved his life today, and making him sleep on the floor again would be too much of a fuss. Then Tang Feng patted the bed. "Come on up! I really don't mind tonight."
Zhou Ziliang was pleasantly surprised and nodded in agreement, "Okay, then you can sleep outside tonight. I'm afraid I'll roll over on you." After saying that, he picked up the blanket from the floor and put it on the bed. Then he turned around and took a stool and placed it in front of Tang Feng. "Come on, let me help you sit on the stool. I'll make the bed first. Wait for me."
Zhou Ziliang was quick and efficient, making the bed in no time. After settling Tang Feng in, he climbed onto the bed himself, sat up, covered Tang Feng with the blanket, and said, "Sleep peacefully, I won't touch you." Then he turned his back to Tang Feng and lay down to sleep. The wounds on his ankle and nose were still throbbing, and Tang Feng couldn't sleep at all. He lay stiffly on the bed, listening to Zhou Ziliang's gradually even breathing, staring blankly at the roof beam. He remembered the line Han Jiuhua had written for him: "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, for ye may ye have no flowers left to pluck." Tang Feng turned his head to look at Zhou Ziliang. He seemed quite nice, but whether he liked him or not, he didn't know. Perhaps he liked him a little bit! However, this kind of love, which could never be recognized in real society, was something he couldn't accept for a while. Perhaps because he had been frightened that day, Tang Feng's eyes started to droop, and he vaguely didn't know when he fell asleep. He slept soundly all night, and when he opened his eyes again, it was already dawn. Tang Feng slowly opened his eyes and saw Zhou Ziliang staring intently at him.
He sat bolt upright, pulling the covers up. "You... are you crazy?! What are you staring at me for?" Tang Feng was terrified. Who would open their eyes to find a living person staring at them? Luckily, he wasn't in martial arts mode, otherwise he would have given him a good beating.
Zhou Ziliang felt quite aggrieved. "I didn't mean to scare you! But you snuggled into my arms in the middle of the night, and I didn't dare move, afraid of disturbing your sweet dreams, so I had to wait for you to wake up." Zhou Ziliang raised his arm; half of his body was numb.
Tang Feng looked at Zhou Ziliang, his face filled with disbelief. "Me? Snuggled into your arms? How... how is this possible? Really?" Just as Tang Feng was wondering, Li Bao'er called from outside the door, "Have the two young masters woken up? I asked my husband to fetch a doctor early this morning to examine Young Master Tang's wound."
Zhou Ziliang agreed, got out of bed, opened the door, and said, "Brother Bao'er, are our clothes from yesterday dry? My wife is shy, and when the doctor comes later, she'll probably throw a tantrum in her wedding dress."
"Oh dear, look at my memory! You wait, the clothes! They were dry this morning, but it's spring now, and I went out to plow the fields. I came back covered in mud, and I was worried about getting your clothes dirty, so I just forgot. Wait here!"
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