Fish Meat – Chapter 214
by Little PandaThe Fifth Year of Zhao Wu
Jointly Chasing The Lost Deer (10)
In the depths of the dream abyss, struggling, the burning sensation was not unbearable, but the extreme cold was the most fatal. Zhen Wenjun instinctively hugged that soft, warm thing, unwilling to leave it for even a moment. This feeling was very subtle and wonderful, as if time had reversed, returning to Qi County, returning to that simple yet warm florist’s hut that carried all her childhood memories. Returning to the very beginning of life, in her mother’s body, before descending upon the mortal world.
There was no struggle, no injury, no conspiracies or grudges, just simple, blissful sleep in warmth.
The burning and the cold receded like a layer of aging skin, slowly fading from Zhen Wenjun’s youthful body, full of vitality. After sleeping for a long, long time, Zhen Wenjun, finally having slept her fill, slowly woke up amidst a slight jolting.
Her skin pressed against an extremely soft fur blanket. The sunlight outside the carriage window seeped in, illuminating a landscape painting, adding a unique charm.
Zhen Wenjun sleepily looked at this painting, recognizing that the painting was mounted on a three-fold screen. The screen and thick curtains separated the place where she slept from the outside world, creating a private area undisturbed by anyone.
The jolting sensation was familiar. She was lying in a huge and steady horse-drawn carriage. Outside the screen, there was the sound of stringed and woodwind instruments, and faintly, someone was singing. What true exuberance.
Zhen Wenjun recognized it. The person singing was none other than Ah Liao. This carriage was her Qingluan, which she drove wherever she went.
She couldn’t remember how she ended up inside the Qingluan. Trying hard to recall, she could only remember the life-and-death situation in Yanxing City. Her memory stopped in the narrow underground passage.
Everyone was crawling on the frozen ground. Wei Tingxu was in front of her, her legs injured and a heavy blow to her waist, making her progress slower. Zhen Wenjun was afraid that the pursuers would catch up. The poison on her neck had already begun to spread. If the pursuers arrived at this time, she was afraid that everyone would die there.
She desperately urged Wei Tingxu to move faster, supporting her body to help her speed up. The anxious feeling was still as fresh as if it were at a stick of incense ago [一炷香 | Yī zhù xiāng | It varies in length depending in the incense, but generally approximately 30 minutes].
It seemed that Ah Liao had arrived in time, and they were saved.
She should get up and thank Ah Liao and the Qingluan Ladies.
With a slight movement, a sharp pain in the back of her neck came along with a light groan from beside her. Zhen Wenjun pressed her carefully bandaged neck in surprise, and this was what finally cleared her head.
It turned out that besides her, there was someone else under the soft and warm bedding!
Zhen Wenjun had no idea who was in the same bedding with her, but she was very clear whether she was wearing clothes or not.
The soiled outer garments had been taken off, and the mud and bloodstains had also been carefully cleaned. Most of the members of Qingluan were women, so removing clothes for healing was not a big deal.
But sharing a bed wearing only inner garments was a completely different matter.
Could it be that one of the ladies in Qingluan had gotten into the wrong bed and came to her? Or was it that the space inside Qingluan was limited, there was nowhere to sleep, and they shared a bed? Thinking of this, Zhen Wenjun’s face flushed red. Zhen Wenjun could guarantee that she had not behaved improperly towards anyone. Even if someone was in the same quilt, she was innocent. But if this matter reached Wei Tingxu’s ears, the saying “the innocent are naturally innocent” would not apply.
How angry would she be then?
No… even if she was angry, she wouldn’t show it directly on her face. That would make it even more terrifying. How would she deal with the Qingluan Ladies? At the beginning, Ah Zheng had just looked at her a few more times and was misunderstood by Wei Tingxu, almost staying in the Liuhuo Kingdom to be the queen. If this scene was seen today, she didn’t know what kind of waves would be caused.
This series of thoughts and thoughts brought about facial expressions, from surprise to embarrassment. Zhen Wenjun, who had just woken up from the dream, expressed all her emotions on her face, allowing the person beside her to see everything clearly.
“Your expression is so vivid, have you thought of something outrageous?”
The quilt was lifted. At the moment of seeing Wei Tingxu’s pale but smiling face, Zhen Wenjun’s heart, which was like a prairie with ten thousand horses galloping, instantly returned to tranquility. All the galloping horses stopped in various poses, and the expressions staring at Wei Tingxu also solidified.
“What kind of expression is this? Are you surprised or disappointed to see me?” Wei Tingxu tried to maintain her usual calm and composed way of speaking, lying on her side and trying to support her upper body. But at the moment of getting up, she froze, a weak expression of enduring pain appeared between her eyebrows, and the two patches of purple under her eyes indicated that while Zhen Wenjun was sleeping soundly and quickly recovering her physical strength, Wei Tingxu was not able to sleep soundly.
Recalling the various dangers of Yanxing, Zhen Wenjun knew that she was seriously injured. Wei Tingxu, who had always been weak, was different from her. After a few stabs, she could sleep and sweep away fatigue, but it might take a long time to recover.
Knowing that Wei Tingxu was trying hard, Zhen Wenjun didn’t try to get anything cheap verbally, and said very sincerely: “I’m relieved to see you. Let me see how your injuries are.”
Zhen Wenjun’s rare sincerity was beyond Wei Tingxu’s expectation, and Wei Tingxu shook her head: “It’s just a small injury, it’s nothing.”
Zhen Wenjun didn’t mess around with her, lifted the quilt and looked at the injury on her waist. Wei Tingxu frowned slightly and tried to avoid it. Zhen Wenjun said: “I know you have strong self-esteem and don’t like others to see your injuries, but if you don’t treat your injuries properly, it will take more time to recover, and it will delay more important matters. Yanxing is just the beginning. Since the Yao family has already jumped to the front, there will definitely be a longer-term and more complete plan and deeper schemes. You need to recover quickly.”
When the word “Yanxing” was mentioned, Wei Tingxu’s eyes lost their usual confidence and agility, as if trapped by memories in Yanxing, still surrounded by the glitter of swords and the shadows of weapons.
As Zhen Wenjun expected, Wei Tingxu’s wound began to bleed again.
Wei Tingxu was not wearing clothes. When Zhen Wenjun was checking her wound, she was very gentlemanly and only looked at the wound. After groping for a while, she finally found where her clothes were. Strangely, it was not under Wei Tingxu’s side of the bed, but under her own bed.
Zhen Wenjun suddenly realized that the warm thing she was holding in her dream was Wei Tingxu herself. Feeling that it was not warm enough to be separated by a layer of cloth, she specially opened the cloth.
What was opened was not the cloth, but Wei Tingxu’s clothes.
Wei Tingxu just let her act mischievously…
Zhen Wenjun turned her face to the other side to pick up the clothes, and at the same time secretly lowered the temperature of her cheeks. After confirming that she would not reveal any flaws, she finally found the clothes. She handed the clothes to Wei Tingxu and covered her with the quilt to prevent her from catching a cold. Zhen Wenjun asked her to wait here for a while, and she went to find Ah Liao for some hemostatic medicine.
Wei Tingxu lay down again, touching her forehead with the back of her hand, seemingly feeling a little feverish.
“The arrow that hit you was coated with poison. Ah Qin said that this poison would make people feel hot and cold, which is very difficult to endure, especially the cold. I was afraid that it was already winter, and you couldn’t resist the cold, so I…”
“You don’t need to say so much, I know. The name of that poison is Intertwined Cold and Fire, and it is a deadly poison. If you hadn’t risked your life to suck out the poisonous blood for me in time at the beginning of the poisoning, I’m afraid I would be dead now.” Zhen Wenjun paused and said, “Thank you.”
With her arm blocking her eyes, the smile on the corner of her mouth fluctuated several times. Wei Tingxu said: “Your mother is just outside, go see her first.”
Zhen Wenjun lifted the curtain and saw that Ah Xu and Ah Qin had prepared the medicine box and paper and pen.
Ah Qin said: “Ah Qin just knows a little bit of medical skills. Lady Wei’s injury still needs Lady Zhen to look carefully and reapply the medicine.”
Ah Xu told Zhen Wenjun in detail what happened yesterday. Zhen Wenjun thanked Ah Qin. After a brief conversation between the two, Zhen Wenjun returned to the back of the screen to help Wei Tingxu reapply the medicine and bandage her. She allowed her to sleep for a while.
Wei Tingxu closed her eyes and didn’t know if she fell asleep. Zhen Wenjun waited until her breathing was stable. She was worried about her mother and came out to ask where her mother was. Ah Xu said she would take her there.
Inside the Qingluan, eight rooms and a large hall were separated by screens and curtains. Each room had a different style. There were elegant bamboo, tracking snow to find plums, long wind in the summer night… Whether it was bamboo or plum, they were all real, cultivated by Ah Liao one by one. The starry sky in the “Long Wind in the Summer Night” was transformed from the All-Encompassing Sphere. If Zhen Wenjun had come to Qingluan earlier, she would have known earlier that Wei Tingxu’s best friend, who was like another Lu Ban [鲁班 | Lǔ Bān | Legendary craftsman/inventor; the patron saint of Chinese builders and contractors], was Ah Liao.
Usually, the ladies could go to their favorite rooms to rest. In most cases, everyone was in the hall, singing, dancing, drinking, and composing poetry, only talking about romance and not about politics. How many poets, heroes, strange people and strange things from ancient and modern times were all topics they talked about all night long. When Zhen Wenjun came out, Ah Liao had just fallen asleep for the time of a stick of incense. She was still holding the little tiger doll in her arms. She had drunk a lot of wine, and her cheeks were flushed.
When Ah Xu saw Zhen Wenjun looking towards Ah Liao, she was a little embarrassed and said: “You know that Ah Liao is the most casual. She wanted to wait until you woke up, but she couldn’t resist Ah Qin’s wonderful songs. She said that good songs should be paired with good wine, otherwise it would be a waste. She drank without limit. Lady Zhen, please excuse her, when she wakes up, I will definitely make her apologize properly.”
Zhen Wenjun said: “Since I met her, she has been such a free-spirited person. Sometimes I envy her unrestraint. Let her sleep.”
Ah Qiong was placed in the “Long Wind in the Summer Night” because she liked to look at the stars on the roof that were transformed by The All-Encompassing Sphere. It could eliminate her anxiety and prevent her from walking around anxiously or even running around aimlessly. When Zhen Wenjun lifted the curtain and went in, Ah Qiong was holding her knees and looking at the “starry sky”. Li Feng was sitting beside her with a bowl of medicine in his hand. Ah Qiong said a sentence and he responded, and then coaxed her to take a sip of the medicine.
Ah Qiong’s mind was not on the medicine at all. The medicine that was fed into her mouth flowed out from the corner of her mouth from time to time. Li Feng took a handkerchief to help her wipe it off. It was not meticulous, but for a ten-year-old boy, it was already very difficult.
Seeing Zhen Wenjun and others coming, Li Feng took the almost empty medicine bowl and went out. When he left, he put his hands behind his back and said to Zhen Wenjun with a mold and appearnce of an adult: “Ah Po likes the starry sky, so let her look. It’s better than her talking nonsense and hurting herself. You must take good care of her.”
Zhen Wenjun didn’t have any feelings for this young ruler, but he and her mother had shared adversity and were considered to be truly treating each other. There would be many interactions in the future, so she gave a great bow.
Li Feng left, leaving the room to the mother and daughter. When he walked to the hall, he couldn’t help but redden his eyes. Thinking of the current war, he didn’t know where his parents were and whether they were safe. Even living in a small county town, everyone knew a saying, “While one’s parents are alive, one should not travel far,” but he was going to Runing to be the emperor and could not accompany his parents. He hadn’t been able to experience much of the majesty of being the supreme ruler, but he had already begun to feel the helplessness of being a lone individual. Li Feng sobbed twice, then took a fur-lined coat and walked out of the carriage, sitting beside the driver.
The driver glanced at him and didn’t treat him as an emperor. He greeted him casually: “Your Majesty.”
“Ah.” Li Feng also responded casually, “How far is it to Ru County?”
“We’re almost there.”
“Is there a war there too?”
“At present, there are wars everywhere in the country. No matter where you are, there is the possibility of war.”
Li Feng frowned, facing the cold wind and snow and the ink-like mountains and rivers. The slender corners of his eyes were slightly raised.
After taking the medicine, Ah Qiong calmed down a lot. Zhen Wenjun asked Ah Qin about the prescription, which was a good medicine for Gu poison.
Connecting with the symptoms described by Xiao Xiao, it indeed seemed like she was poisoned by Gu.
Zhen Wenjun borrowed a set of silver needles from Ah Qin and performed acupuncture on Ah Qiong. Her needling technique was not proficient, but she had a good memory and remembered the method of pricking acupuncture points to force out Gu worms.
She had once seen the The Yellow Emperor’s Canon of Eighty-One Difficult Issues in Wei Tingxu’s study, which recorded pulse diagnosis, meridians, internal organs, yin and yang, acupoints, acupuncture and other techniques, as well as charts and examples, far exceeding the part recorded in Wang Shuhe’s The Pulse Classic. After reading it, she was greatly inspired and deduced that what Wei Tingxu had was the true biography of Bian Que [扁鹊 | Biǎn Què | A famous physician from the period of the Warring Kingdoms. Considered by some to be the founder of Chinese medicine]. She spent a lot of time memorizing the Eighty-One Difficult Issues in her mind. Now recalling them one by one, she gazed intently at them and she stuck the silver needles one by one into Ah Qiong’s acupoints. At first, Ah Qiong was a little resistant, and when she felt pain, she hit Zhen Wenjun’s face with her backhand.
She was afraid that a misplaced needle would endanger Ah Qiong’s life. Zhen Wenjun did not move, and said in a soft whisper: “Alai knows it hurts, Ah Mu, bear with it, it will be over soon.”
Ah Liao also woke up at this time. Seeing this, she proposed to temporarily tie up Ah Qiong’s legs and hands to avoid hurting Zhen Wenjun.
Zhen Wenjun held Ah Qiong’s hand with one hand, still not looking away, and shook her head: “My mother’s hands and legs are disabled, and she has gone through this Gu poison ordeal. I don’t know how Li Yanyi treated her. Now that she is finally back, I don’t want her to suffer anymore.”
Ah Liao also knew about Ruan family’s Ah Qiong’s past glory in Da Yu. Looking at the thin old woman in front of her, she felt unwilling and especially sorry, so she didn’t insist anymore. She just asked Ah He to help by her side, and be sure not to let anyone get hurt.
After all the acupoints were stabbed, Zhen Wenjun held the boiled medicine in her hand, dipped some cotton balls in it and pressed it on Ah Qiong’s lips. Ah Qiong lay on the bed with her eyes straight, and the medicinal juice gradually entered her mouth through the seam of her lips. After fifteen minutes. The pale complexion is slowly changing, and a painful state gradually emerges from the wooden expression. Under the skin of the exposed arms, there are successively some strange movements, like long insects stimulated, constantly bowing and wanting to break through her skin.
The surging became more and more frantic, and the Gu worms were frightened and wanted to return to the familiar body. But every acupoint that could be sneaked was blocked by silver needles, and the Gu worms scurried around like a group of headless flies.
The severe pain caused by the Gu worm made Ah Qiong extremely unbearable, and at the same time, her consciousness returned. Seeing Zhen Wenjun, she called out “Alai”!
Zhen Wenjun held her hand tightly and said: “Ah Mu, your child is here! Hold on! It will be fine soon!”
Ah Qiong gritted her teeth and endured the huge pain as if her body was being cut. All the Gu worms that had been hiding in her body for a long time were all aroused. At this moment, Zhen Wenjun smeared a spoonful of honey on Ah Qiong’s lips, nose, ears and face. Those Gu worms, who didn’t know where to go, immediately smelled something and quickly swam upwards.
Under the skin, you could see the movement path of the Gu worms rushing to Ah Qiong’s mouth. Ah He, who was standing aside, had seen a lot of big scenes over the years, but she couldn’t stand the terrible scene in front of her, and she moved her head away with difficulty.
Just when the Gu worms were about to gather at the exit, Zhen Wenjun shouted “Fire”, and immediately turned Ah Qiong over and aligned her with the glass jar that had been placed on the ground. When vomiting frantically, countless green, shiny, fat worms drilled out of her mouth, nose and ears, and fell into the jar. Ah He, who was holding the torch, did not dare to look, and the action of delivering the fire was half a beat slower. It was Ah Qin who was quick enough to deliver the fire.
Zhen Wenjun inserted the torch into the glass jar at the first moment. The thickness of the torch was selected to match the mouth of the jar, which could block it tightly and prevent the Gu worms from escaping.
Only the sound of insects chirping in the jar could be heard, as well as the sound of vigorous impact on the wall of the jar. Soon, the sound became weaker and finally subsided.
After confirming that all the Gu worms were burned to death, Zhen Wenjun wiped the sweat from her forehead and patted Ah Qiong’s back. Ah Qiong was still breathing, looking very weak, and her reaction was still not fast, but she was conscious and could recognize Zhen Wenjun.
A cry of “Alai” made Zhen Wenjun’s heart warm. She planned to send Ah Qiong to the Sudu granary to avoid the flames of war.
Finally arrived in Ru County, Zhen Wenjun settled everyone down, treated Wei Tingxu’s injuries, and had a good rest for a few days. The Wei family received the news that Wei Tingxu had arrived safely in Ru County, so they found a hidden place to set up camp. They did not immediately attack Runing, but settled down and waited for the opportunity.
The cold wind finally stopped at the end of the year.
One morning, the golden sun shone on the earth. Zhen Wenjun received a fast letter from Guan Xun, saying that just after the army left Nanya, the Yao family began to attack Huaiyang. After conquering three cities in a row, Jiang Wang personally went to the front line to defend the key points.
Zhen Wenjun mobilized 150,000 troops back to Nanya for support. Huaiyang was her backing and must not be lost. She also let Zhu Maosan and Ah Xi escort her mother to Sudu to reduce worries.
She kept the remaining 100,000 troops in Ru County and did not rush to attack. She temporarily observed the situation and discussed the next step with Bu Jie.
She and Bu Jie walked through the courtyard, and saw Wei Tingxu sitting in a four-wheeled cart trying to get out of the house, but was blocked by the high threshold and could not get out.
Zhen Wenjun asked Bu Jie to wait for her in the front hall, and walked quickly to pick up Wei Tingxu.
“Wherever you want to go, just tell me.” Zhen Wenjun carried her to the place in the garden with the most abundant sunlight. This action caused her wound, which had not yet healed, to crack slightly. She endured the pain and did not speak, quietly put Wei Tingxu down and sat on the cloister, then turned back to move the four-wheeled cart.
“Will you think of Lingbi?”
Just as she moved the four-wheeled vehicle out of the threshold, Wei Tingxu’s emotionless voice fell into Zhen Wenjun’s ears.
Looking up at her, she saw that she was leaning against the vermilion-painted round pillar, her face pale, unprecedentedly haggard.
What exactly happened in Yanxing, and how Wei Tingxu was defeated, Zhen Wenjun had been waiting for her to speak for herself.
0 Comments