Villainous Fake Eunuch (4)
Sounds of sorrowful music from drum beats and gong strikes mixed with mournful cries echoed around, the loud sounds of the gongs and drums seemed to make the brain buzz with ‘clang-clang’ noises.
“Water——”
After waking up, Song Xuyi only felt a severe headache, her whole body weak and her throat feeling like it had been scorched by fire.
A hand was extended from beside her.
The owner of that hand hesitated for a moment, instinctively moved back a bit, seemingly very unaccustomed to touching others.
But then that person still leaned closer, stiffening their body and restrainedly propping up Song Xuyi’s back, bringing the teacup to Song Xuyi’s lips.
Song Xuyi did not notice these small movements of the person beside her.
The sweet spring water flowed down her throat, greatly soothing the dryness in her throat. Song Xuyi took a deep breath, and gradually became fully awake.
This was a very dilapidated adobe brick house. Apart from the table in the middle and the bed where Song Xuyi was lying, it was almost bare. Spots of sunlight shone through the leaky roof tiles, illuminating the ordinary face of the man beside her.
“Xuyi! You have been unconscious for two days!”
The man met Song Xuyi’s gaze, his pale lips pressed into a straight line. He said nothing, silently placing the cup back on the table and sitting to the side, while the system in her mind spoke in a tone of sighing.
“These past two days, it’s been this man taking care of you.” Song Xuyi was momentarily stunned, not expecting that she had been unconscious for so long, and then heard the system continue: “Although this man doesn’t look like a good person, he seems to be quite decent. You and he met by chance, yet he didn’t abandon you. Seeing you unconscious, he followed you to Wang Family Village to find a doctor, got medicine prescribed for you, and when Aunt Wang didn’t have time to take care of you, he took over the task. While taking care of you, he behaved properly without any inappropriate actions…”
“Thank you very much!” Hearing this, Song Xuyi hurriedly got up and expressed her gratitude to the man beside her.
The man nodded lightly, still not saying anything. He glanced at Song Xuyi, and seeing that she had nothing more to say, he turned his head to look out of the window, and Song Xuyi could sense that he seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.
“The people of Wang Family Village are very warm-hearted. These past few days, they have been trying to talk to him, but he seems to have social anxiety and is quite fierce, not used to their enthusiasm. He even scared a few children to tears. Probably to avoid scaring more people, he spent most of his time in the room taking care of you.” The system spoke in Song Xuyi’s mind with a hint of schadenfreude: “He was probably worried about how to explain things to you, and now that he sees you haven’t asked him, he’s probably secretly happy…”
As it said this, the system also laughed.
The villains it had encountered before were all glib-tongued and deceitful, but this person seemed somewhat clumsy, disliked communicating with others, and looked nothing like the cunning and sinister villains it had seen before. It must have been mistaken.
After all, this person had taken care of Song Xuyi for several days, so asking Xuyi to distance herself from him seemed a bit ungrateful. Thinking this, the system decided not to remind Song Xuyi to stay away from this man. Moreover, the immediate priority was not to worry about the man’s identity.
“Xuyi, staying at Wang Family Village is just a temporary measure, but now that you are awake, you should find an opportunity to leave as soon as possible,” the system restrained its laughter, its voice becoming more serious, knowing that the man would not explain the current situation to Song Xuyi, so it took the initiative: “Wang Family Village indeed seems to have an epidemic. Over the past two days, more than ten people in the village have died, and there are funerals everywhere…”
“This illness is strange. Initially, it only caused fatigue and coughing, but later people started coughing up blood and became bedridden, eventually wasting away and dying. I’ve heard that this epidemic has been going on for one or two months. Although this place is not far from the capital, the local authorities sent people to investigate a while ago. Epidemic prevention has always been something that all dynasties paid attention to, but strangely, no measures were taken afterward…”
“Doesn’t the imperial court care?” Song Xuyi frowned. “This does sound quite strange.”
“I have a bad feeling about this.”
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“You are currently staying at Aunt Wang’s house,” the system sighed. “Aunt Wang is the woman you saw on the carriage. She rushed back only to see her relatives for the last time and then began to arrange the funeral. Yesterday, Aunt Wang’s family just finished the funeral, and today her neighbor’s family has started another one…”
“I know your nature. Now that you are a princess in this dynasty, enjoying the people’s offerings, you won’t turn a blind eye to the people’s suffering. But before you care for these people, I hope you first protect yourself. As you humans say, ‘A gentleman does not stand under a dangerous wall…'”1
These were the words the system had carefully considered for a long time to persuade Song Xuyi. After saying them, the system suddenly felt a little embarrassed, curled its claws, and nestled deep in Song Xuyi’s mind.
Song Xuyi did not expect the system to speak in this way either—as they experienced more worlds, the system seemed to become more human-like, and what it said made a lot of sense.
“I understand, thank you, system.” Song Xuyi solemnly thanked the system, and at that moment, she made a decision in her heart.
“Big brother, thank you for taking care of me during this time. How should I address you?”
Song Xuyi pursed her lips and looked up at the man who was staring out the window thoughtfully: Probably due to his slender figure, the man’s profile looked extremely handsome. If she didn’t know what the man looked like beforehand, just by looking at his profile, Song Xuyi would even think that this person was a top-tier beauty.
The man turned to look at Song Xuyi, remained silent for a while, and then in a hoarse voice said, “Zhao San.”
This name was obviously a pseudonym.
Song Xuyi did not intend to probe into others’ privacy. Hearing what Song Xuyi said, she didn’t take it to heart and slowly sat up from the bed: “To be honest, thank you for taking care of me during this time, but I have urgent matters to attend to elsewhere. Could I trouble you to help me call a carriage?”
“This village has only one road out. When we arrived, the coachman saw the funeral procession at the village entrance and absolutely refused to come in. He dropped us off at the village entrance and left. It was Aunt Wang who carried you in.” The man spoke in a hoarse voice: “There are only three carriages in this village. Recently, many people have died in the village, and two of the carriages are being used to transport coffins. The remaining carriage belongs to the village’s old doctor, who said he was going to the city this afternoon to get medicine—”
Song Xuyi listened attentively, but the system wondered aloud in her mind: “How strange! He didn’t seem to go out much these past few days, so how does he know so much?”
The man stopped speaking at this point and looked up at Song Xuyi. Even without further explanation, Song Xuyi understood what he meant. She straightened her back and said softly, “I’m fine. If I can leave the village this afternoon, then please help me contact the old doctor—”
“Okay.”
The man nodded but closed his eyes and sat by the window to rest, not going out to contact the old doctor as Song Xuyi had expected.
Recalling the system’s assessment of this man, Song Xuyi knew he was not good with words and thought he might not want to communicate with others. So, she decided not to force him and began to rest with her eyes closed to conserve her strength, imitating his behavior.
The surroundings were extremely quiet, allowing her to hear the noises around her clearly: The sound of gongs from next door gradually faded away, indicating that the family had started their funeral procession. However, in the distance, it seemed that the sound of gongs was starting up again from another household.
Before long, Aunt Wang came in carrying two bowls of rice.
Probably due to the loss of her close relatives, Aunt Wang’s face looked somewhat pale, and she seemed to have aged significantly.
“Dear guests, you have seen the situation in my home,” Aunt Wang said, somewhat embarrassed as she rubbed her hands together. “After the funeral, there’s not much left to eat. Please make do with this…”
Song Xuyi lowered her head and glanced at the two bowls of rice: They were clearly made of coarse grains, and there were even some stones that hadn’t been removed.
Having been accustomed to be clad in silks and eating delicacies, Song Xuyi found it hard to swallow such food. Just as she was about to ask Aunt Wang to help her contact the old doctor for a carriage out of the village, she walked out to the outer room with Aunt Wang.
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In the outer room, two emaciated children were squatting by the wall, also eating. Song Xuyi looked at the clear, almost empty porridge in the children’s bowls and then thought of the rice in her own room, feeling a sudden discomfort in her heart.
Aunt Wang did not notice the change in Song Xuyi’s expression.
“You eat first, I’ll go ask the old doctor for you,” Aunt Wang said, wiping her sleeves and heading out the door immediately after hearing Song Xuyi’s request.
Song Xuyi returned to the room. The man hadn’t touched the food Aunt Wang brought in either. He took out two extremely clean-looking roasted cakes (flatbread) wrapped in oil paper from his bag and handed one to Song Xuyi.
“Thank you, Brother Zhao,” Song Xuyi said, accepting the roasted cake but not eating it. She went out and broke the cake into halves, giving them to the two children, then returned to the room, picked up the bowl of rice, and slowly began to pick out the stones, taking small bites to swallow the rice.
The coarse grains were hard and very difficult to chew. With her cheeks puffed out, Song Xuyi looked like a little squirrel eating…
For some reason, the man also reached out, took a grain of rice from his bowl, and chewed on it.
But he immediately frowned, stopped looking at the coarse rice, and slowly began to nibble on the roasted cake.
“Are you not going to eat the rice?”
Seeing the man’s actions, Song Xuyi blushed, raised her head, and asked somewhat embarrassed, “If you don’t want to eat the rice, can I have your bowl?”
The man glanced at Song Xuyi again.
Song Xuyi didn’t know if it was her imagination, but she felt she had upset the man. His lips were tightly pursed, and he looked at her in a very strange way. However, he finally nodded.
Song Xuyi then carried the rice outside and divided it among the two children. The children indeed hadn’t had enough to eat, and seeing the joy in their eyes, Song Xuyi couldn’t help but smile as well.
A strong sense of presence came from beside her. Song Xuyi turned around and saw that the man had also come out at some point.
There seemed to be something in the man’s eyes, but Song Xuyi couldn’t see clearly because he immediately lowered his head and, with a hoarse voice, asked, “Have you packed your things?”
Song Xuyi didn’t have much to pack. Her bundle was neatly placed in the corner, with nothing missing.
Song Xuyi changed out of Aunt Wang’s clothes and put on the clothes she had worn when she escaped. She also prepared some money to help Aunt Wang’s family and placed it under the pillow.
Song Xuyi did not hide her actions from the man beside her. After all, if the man had any bad intentions, he would have had plenty of opportunities when she was sick and wouldn’t wait until now.
However, it seemed that Song Xuyi’s plan to leave had fallen through. Not long after, Aunt Wang returned, her eyes filled with guilt as she looked at Song Xuyi. “Little sister, the old doctor said the horse has been sick these days and can’t carry too many people…”
Song Xuyi hadn’t expected this outcome and was contemplating whether to make another plan when the man’s expression suddenly changed. He grabbed Song Xuyi’s hand and started walking outside—
At the end of the road, a carriage slowly came into view.
Although the carriage was small, the two horses pulling it looked extremely strained, and the carriage moved slowly. An old doctor with white hair and a white beard sat at the front of the carriage…
The man pulled Song Xuyi to stand in the middle of the road.
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Seeing someone blocking the road, the old doctor’s face instantly changed. “Where did these rascals come from! How dare they block the way…”
Song Xuyi had heard from Aunt Wang that the old doctor was a renowned physician within a hundred miles, who practiced medicine to help the world and was happy to assist others. Recently, he had been offering free consultations to people showing symptoms of the epidemic, and was considered a pillar of reassurance to the people during this time.
Song Xuyi had a good initial impression of the old doctor and was about to explain her situation with emotion. However, the man beside her was not as patient. Somehow, in just a few steps, he had climbed onto the shaft of the carriage and lifted the curtain.
Inside the carriage, an elderly woman and a child looked over in terror.
Seeing the bulging luggage inside the carriage, Song Xuyi instantly understood—the old doctor was fleeing with his entire family!
The author has something to say:
Gu Ruyu: What on earth is this little princess up to? How can she eat such terrible food?
Why… do I suddenly find her smile somewhat beautiful?
LP: Re-translated on August 12, 2024
Footnotes
- A gentleman does not stand under a dangerous wall (君子不立危牆之下): A wise person avoids unnecessary risks.