Chapter 29 (1/2)

29. The Mrs. Long San Who Reunites With Her Relatives

Translated by Ju Hua | Edited by Pu Er

Long San was silent for a long time. Feng Ning blinked continuously, and just stared at him. Long San thought for a very long time, then he opened his mouth and closed it, as if he was deliberating on how to answer. In the end he finally said, “That incident, there hasn’t been any confirmation yet.”

“What incident?”

“Since it hasn’t been confirmed yet, speaking about it would be useless.” Long San very dully and quietly avoided the topic. Feng Ning pouted, dissatisfied. Originally she wanted to pry it out of him, and see if they could resolve it, but he wasn’t willing to speak about it so she had no more ideas. She could only say, “Since it hasn’t been confirmed, why on earth have you kept it in mind?”

Long San choked, and Feng Ning then said, “First you should forget about the incident, and then forget about all the other bad things, alright?” Long San struggled for a while, then finally gritted his teeth, and brought her to his chest. Feng Ning’s heart was extremely elated, and she cuddled into his chest and said, “I will also work hard, to not forget the present, and to not become the terrible Feng Ning of the past, okay?”

Long San embraced her, and tried to ignore the uneasiness in his heart. How should he tell her, that there are some things that are just really too hard to simply forget, and some things existed that could not be denied. But he “ah,” once, which could be regarded as agreeing.

Feng Ning quietly nestled in his arms, and then yawned. She finally couldn’t fight against her weariness, and even though she wanted to talk, her eyelids refused to stay open. Finally, on this warm stone bed she fell deep asleep.

Feng Ning slept very comfortably, and when she woke up it was already late in the morning. She opened her eyes, only to find that Long San was already out of bed. Feng Ning was so frightened that she sat up with a ‘whoosh,’ but her two legs were in so much pain that she grimaced. What Long San said wasn’t wrong. With her legs that fell over and over again yesterday, it seemed like today was going to be a lot of suffering.

She lifted off the blanket, and rolled up her trousers to take a look. Her legs were swollen like plump radishes. She whimpered, and enduring the pain, dragged both her feet onto the floor. She looked left and right, and the room had no changes except for a basin of water in front of the bed. She freshened up a little, and saw two pears placed on the table. She smiled, rushed over there, then took a few bites out of the pears.

Just as she swallowed the last bite of pear, Aunt Ma pushed open the door and entered. She saw Feng Ning was out of bed, and laughingly said, “You’re awake? Quickly come eat something.”

Her hands were carrying two large bowls. One bowl had rice and two large mantous* on top of it, and the other was a large bowl of vegetables, lotus root, sweet potato leaves and also a few pieces of bacon. When Feng Ning saw them, her stomach was so hungry it ‘gugu’ called out. Quickly giving thanks, she took them and ate with huge bites.

*Plain steamed buns, google it!

Aunt Ma saw her eating appearance, and laughed. “Zhu Gongzi* said that you eat well. Yesterday you were startled, and to save him you walked for a really long time, so you must be starving. He asked me to prepare more food for you to eat. Do you think this is enough?”

*A t.i.tle used for the sons of n.o.bles or officials.

Feng Ning smiled until her eyes curved, and straightforwardly answered, “Wait until I’m finished eating, and if it’s not enough, I will definitely tell Aunt Ma.”

As Aunt Ma heard this, she was surprised, and then she started openly laughing. This Zhu family’s little wife was interesting. Feng Ning then asked, “Aunt Ma, where is my husband?”

“My husband borrowed a donkey cart, and took him to the neighboring town to see a doctor, and to also purchase a few things.” Aunt Ma replied. “Today at dawn, the mountain bandits you two spoke of really did arrive. They wore black outfits, and carried knives and swords. There were several of them together, asking if we’ve seen a young man and woman.”

Feng Ning was so nervous that she stopped her chopstick movements, and Aunt Ma continued, “My husband said he never saw such people. Someone in that group said, ‘This was far, and suffering from injury, there was no way they could’ve made it this far. They are certainly still hiding somewhere.’ Then they muttered amongst themselves for a while, and left.”

Aunt Ma poured a cup of water for Feng Ning, and motioned for her to eat, then said, “Zhu Gongzi at that moment had already woken up. He waited until they left, and then came out to tell us, that the people chasing after you two to kill you both were them. Afterwards, he and my husband had a discussion, and they went to the nearest town to grab some medicine, and to send a letter home about the situation.”

Feng Ning nodded, and once more gave a heartfelt thanks towards Uncle Ma and Aunt Ma. As her sweet-talking mouth spoke, it made Aunt Ma blossom with joy, so she sat with her for a while chattering about the daily affairs of running a household. Waiting for Feng Ning to finish eating, she very politely asked if she was full yet? This resulted in Feng Ning touching her belly, and after thinking, she said, “I also want to eat pears.”

Her honesty and bluntness caused Aunt Ma to loudly ‘haha’ laugh. “We have them, we have them. They were personally planted by us, and are extremely fresh, and very delicious.” Feng Ning incessantly nodded in agreement, and Aunt Ma said, “Zhu Gongzi was right, your appet.i.te is really good.” When Feng Ning heard this she ‘hehe’ smiled, and Aunt Ma continued, “He instructed that you stay in the house, and to not let anyone see you. I’m going to pick some pears for you, so don’t go outside.”

Feng Ning happily responded, and Aunt Ma hurriedly went to work to get her pears.

When she woke up again, she saw Long San beside the bed smiling at her. Feng Ning blinked, and was drowsily half-awake. She stretched her hands towards him, and tenderly called, “Husband…”

Long San brought her into an embrace, “I heard you slept for a whole day.” He was really a little worried. How come she didn’t even have a bit of wariness? It’s lucky that he had quickly rushed back. Feng Ning rubbed her eyes, “After eating I just slept.” Suddenly she remembered proper business, “Where did you go earlier? How did everything go?”

“Everything has been arranged.” Long San walked over to the side of the table. On one side he started to open up a package of medicine, pouring it into a basin, and on the other he poured some yellow wine into it. Afterwards, he grabbed a wooden roller and crushed the few herbs.

A whiff of stinkiness pa.s.sed over, and Feng Ning covered her nose. Long San followed up and said, “We’ll stay here for two days, to wait for our wounds to heal a bit before travelling on the road. As for those people who attacked us, I already have an idea, so we can figure it out later. We’ll first return home.”

“Was it to steal that case from your family?”

“No, I have already arranged for someone to send it back. It’s not on me.”

“Why is that?”

“The two of us sort of make a big target. It was better to find someone inconspicuous to take it to safety.” Long San also seemed to be affected by the stinkiness that a.s.saulted his nose, and his eyebrows knitted together extremely tightly.

“No, I wasn’t talking about the case. What incident was this for? Did you stir trouble in someone else’s stronghold?”

“No.”

“Did you steal someone else’s treasure?”