Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Bear With It

Looking at him, Chun Zhi said in a cool voice: “Whether I believe you or not, you have already married someone else.”

Lu Jing Yun wanted to say more.

Chun Zhi said: “Now these words mean nothing. Leave, and do not come to me again.”

No matter how much she once longed to formally marry Lu Jing Yun, now she would not tangle herself with a married man.

“Chun Zhi,” Lu Jing Yun called to her softly, “are you truly this heartless?”

“I am heartless?” Chun Zhi gave a laugh of anger.

When sorrow reaches a certain point, feelings twist out of order.

She asked Lu Jing Yun: “Why did you come here? What do you want to do?”

Lu Jing Yun fixed his eyes on her and said: “Chun Zhi, I want to take you home.”

“Home?”

Chun Zhi remembered the year she was nine. Human traffickers had kidnapped her, but when she burned with a fever that would not break, they dumped her on the road. She curled on the street waiting to die, hungry and cold, and Lu Jing Yun saved her.

He was still a youth then. He carried her on his back and said: “I will take you home.”

So she stayed with the Lu Clan for ten years.

Because of the long fever, she forgot everything from before she was nine, even her own name.

The name Chun Zhi was given by Lu Jing Yun.

He said the name came from Wang Wei’s poem: “Red beans grow in the southern land; in spring they sprout on many branches. I hope you gather them in plenty. This thing is most full of longing.”

Back then, Chun Zhi did not know what longing was.

She only knew that Lu Jing Yun treated her well. At the Lu Clan she had a room to sleep in and hot soup and rice to eat.

Lu Jing Yun even taught her to read and write.

The neighbors teased that Lu Jing Yun had picked up a child bride for himself. He did not get angry, and he said: “I picked her up, so she is mine.”

By saying that, he acknowledged her as his child bride.

From then on, Chun Zhi knew that when she grew up, she would marry Lu Jing Yun and become his wife.

But now, the Lu Clan was no longer her home.

Forcing down the flood of memories, she said hoarsely: “This is my home. Go.”

Lu Jing Yun said: “How does this look like a home? Come back with me. I will speak with madam and marry you as co-wife.”

There is no such thing as co-wife. It is only a pretty word for concubine.

Chun Zhi was very clear-headed and did not even pick up his words.

Thinking she had softened, Lu Jing Yun spoke again at once: “Madam is highborn. She is only a little proud, but her heart is not bad. As long as you apologize to her and coax her, the days will not be hard.”

He said: “I will protect you. When I make my way in the Capital, you will not have to watch her face anymore.”

“Enough.” Chun Zhi could not listen any longer. She pointed at the door and said angrily: “Go. Go now.”

“Chun Zhi…”

Lu Jing Yun did not understand why Chun Zhi suddenly turned on him.

This time, Chun Zhi did not wait for him to say anything. She pushed him out, and once he was outside, she shut the door with a thud. Leaning back against the door, she raised her head and looked up.

Tears filled her eyes. She kept her head tipped up, trying to pull the tears back and refusing to let them fall.

She did not know when Lu Jing Yun had changed.

As a youth he had been gentle and kind, full of lofty ambition and great talent.

Now, there was only weighing profit and loss, only calculation.

Chun Zhi leaned against the door for a long time to steady herself. She remembered there was still a man inside, so she wiped her eyes with her sleeve and went back to sewing.

Sitting in his wheelchair, Huo Zheng had watched Chun Zhi argue with someone, then hold back her tears at the door, and now start sewing again. He thought: [This girl… she is tough, not ordinary.]

He picked up the medicine Chun Zhi had just bought for his wounds. He meant to change his own dressing, but the wound on his back was hard to reach, so he rolled to the small room’s door and tapped twice.

Chun Zhi looked up at him and asked: “What is it?”

“Change the dressing,” Huo Zheng said, simple and blunt.

Chun Zhi set down her needle and thread and said: “Go into the room first.”

Huo Zheng pushed his wheelchair into the next room. Chun Zhi found some white cloth and followed.

When she entered, Huo Zheng was already taking off his clothes.

She came in and saw his strong chest. The white cloth over his back wound had soaked through with blood.

It looked frightening.

He had endured it this long without changing the dressing.

Chun Zhi stepped up and said: “Pants too.”

His legs were hurt badly as well.

Otherwise Chun Zhi would not have brought out a wheelchair for him.

Huo Zheng glanced at her, loosened his belt, and slid his pants down.

She set the clothes aside and began to untie the bloody bandages.

Last night, when she had applied medicine, it was dark and the man was unconscious. She had been focused on saving a life and had not thought much.

Now it was daytime.

The man was awake. His narrow phoenix eyes watched her closely, and his breathing was a little rough, close at hand.

Chun Zhi’s heartbeat sped up beyond her control.

She could only tell herself over and over: [This is saving a life. Do not fuss about the difference between men and women.]

She forced all her attention onto his wounds.

The cut on Huo Zheng’s back was deep.

Before applying the medicine, Chun Zhi said: “It will hurt a little. Bear with it.”

Huo Zheng hummed in reply, fully braced, yet when the medicine touched his back he still sucked in a sharp breath.

“What is it, does it hurt a lot?” Chun Zhi asked as she blew gently over the wound, trying to ease his pain.

A hard-to-describe tingling spread from the cut, and Huo Zheng’s back went stiff.

Layer by layer, Chun Zhi wrapped the white cloth and said softly: “Relax a little. Do not hold your back so stiff. If you do, the wrapping will be too loose.”

They were very close, close enough that Huo Zheng caught a faint, pleasant scent from her.

A country girl who sold tofu, and yet, [what scent is this?]

Huo Zheng held his breath and would not let himself be swayed.

Chun Zhi quickly finished bandaging his upper body. She crouched in front of him to apply medicine to his leg.

When he looked down, he saw her fine brows and her lips slightly puckered when she blew.

Chun Zhi was truly beautiful. Her brows were dark without paint, and her lips were red without balm.

Seeing her rosy lips so near his leg, something in him stirred out of control.

His mouth suddenly went dry.

“I will do it myself,” Huo Zheng said, snatching the strip of cloth from her hand and wrapping his leg on his own.

“Good, if you can do it yourself,” Chun Zhi said. She had no idea what he was being stubborn about. She capped the medicine, gathered the bloody cloth, and went to wash her hands.

“Open up! Open the door!”

Someone knocked on the courtyard gate again.

Chun Zhi went to open it, and saw several yamen runners standing outside.

The leader asked: “Are you Chun Zhi?”

Chun Zhi stood bracing the door and said: “I am.”

“Then you are the one we are looking for,” the leader declared loudly: “By the laws of this dynasty, any woman who is eighteen and still unmarried will be heavily fined and forcibly matched by the Magistrate’s Office. If she refuses, she will sit in jail and eat prison food.”