Chapter 64: Eternal Encounter Song (Part 3)
“That day, I saw him beneath the execution platform. He threw himself forward, shielding his teacher. That’s when I realized he was Xu He Xue,” the young man said, gesturing with his thin hands. “I saw you take him away.”
His eyes moved slowly, his gaze fixed on the medicine basket she carried.
“What do you want?”
Ni Su cautiously took two steps back.
“He’s severely injured. Mortal medicine, incense, and candles can’t heal him.” The young man’s eyes clearly saw the shimmering white light through the woven gaps of the basket. “But I can.”
Ni Su’s heart stirred, but she remained cautiously observant of this mysterious young man who had suddenly appeared.
The young man pulled down his hood. A thin cloth was wrapped around his head. Beneath the cloak, his body was incredibly thin. His dark eyes stared at her. “Do you have any steamed buns?”
There were no steamed bun vendors on the street at this hour. Ni Su bought him a paper-wrapped package of flatbreads. He didn’t seem to mind the heat of the freshly baked bread, grabbing one and stuffing it into his mouth.
On the short walk from the food stall to the clinic, Ni Su climbed the steps and turned around to see the young man standing below, smacking his lips, the paper package already empty.
Ni Su had to turn back and buy him another one.
The young man sat under the eaves, devouring the flatbreads, his speech muffled and slow. “You gave me two steamed buns before.”
“That day, I saw him standing beside you. But at that time, I didn’t know he was Xu He Xue. I thought he was in Youdu.”
He said.
“Do you know him?” Ni Su sat down on the other side, tilting her head to look at him.
“No.”
The young man shook his head, taking a bite of the flatbread. Then he added, “But my mother knew him.”
“Who is your mother?”
The young man finished half a flatbread before wiping his mouth and saying, “My mother was from Daizhou. Eighteen years ago, on her way to Yongzhou to get married, she encountered a small group of barbarian soldiers. They killed everyone in the wedding procession, including my maternal grandparents. Only my mother was taken by them and used as a prostitute.”
“They were infiltrating the northern border to gather intelligence. General Yu Jie, Xu He Xue’s lieutenant, Xue Huai, discovered them and led his soldiers to eliminate them. That’s how my mother escaped.”
The young man continued, “My mother’s family was destroyed, and she had nowhere to go. Lieutenant Xue Huai brought her back to Yongzhou. But when the family who was supposed to marry her heard about this, they wanted to drown her in a well.”
He had heard from his mother that it was a bright, sunny day. The wind and sand in Yongzhou were strong, stinging her face. She was captured by her husband’s family, her hands and feet bound, and forced to the edge of the well.
“A defiled woman, especially one used by barbarians, how can our family accept her? After such a thing, you shouldn’t have come to Yongzhou!”
Her mother-in-law’s face was flushed from the sun, her eyes like hooks, digging into her flesh.
“Who would want such a bride?”
“Better to die and be done with it…”
“I don’t know why she even came here…”
The surrounding crowd murmured, their words sharp and cruel.
“I didn’t want to enter your family’s home again…” She trembled as she spoke, but the crowd was noisy, no one paying attention. She repeated, “I didn’t want to enter your family’s home again, I just… had nowhere to go.”
“You still want to live?”
Her mother-in-law was astonished, incredulous.
“Can’t I?”
She asked.
Her mother-in-law didn’t want to bother with her, her brow furrowed tightly. She gestured for the men to grab her and push her into the well.
A long spear pierced the air, embedding itself with a thud into the tree trunk beside the dry well. The spear vibrated, glinting with a cold, silver light.
The onlookers scattered in panic. They saw the young general in red robes and silver armor, a sword at his waist, holding the reins of his horse, approaching them. He looked down at the two men holding her shoulders, and they immediately went weak in the knees, shrinking back.
“Of course you can.”
The young general sat on his horse, his vermillion robes edged with silver scales. No one had answered her question, but he did, his voice clear and strong. “You haven’t been entered into their family registry, so they cannot bind you with their local customs. And frankly, I believe such customs shouldn’t exist.”
“Today, anyone who dares to throw you into this well will be sentenced to death.”
The woman stammered, “General, her family accepted our betrothal gifts, how can she not be considered…”
“Xue Huai, do you have any money?”
The young general turned to his lieutenant behind him.
“…”
Xue Huai reluctantly reached into his armor, took out a money pouch, and tossed it to the woman. “I don’t have much on me, General. Remember to pay me back.”
The young general grunted, stroking his horse’s mane, his cold eyes glancing at the woman. “Is that enough?”
“This…”
The woman weighed the pouch. It was actually more than the betrothal gifts she had spent.
“Xue Huai, untie her.”
The young general, no longer bothering to look at the woman, tilted his chin towards Xue Huai.
Xue Huai responded and stepped forward. But unexpectedly, the woman by the well looked back at the deep, dark well and suddenly threw herself in.
The well was deep. Everyone heard the heavy thud as she landed. No one expected her to jump in herself.
“My mother said that when Lieutenant Xue Huai rescued her from the barbarians, she thought she could still live. But that day, seeing so many eyes, hearing so many people say she should die, that she shouldn’t live, she felt she couldn’t live anymore.” The young man spoke slowly, even playing with the oily paper in his hands slowly.
“Then you…”
Ni Su hesitated.
The young man looked up at her. “You know what I am, right?”
“When General Xu ordered his men to retrieve and bury my mother’s body, they discovered countless bones buried in the mud at the bottom. It looked like mud, but underneath were the bones of women. From then on, he strictly forbade this cruel custom in Yongzhou. Under his rule, no one in Yongzhou or the surrounding towns dared to privately dispose of women in their clans, otherwise they would be punished by law.”
“Because of this, he offended many clans in Yongzhou.”
“Although my mother’s body was buried, the well still contained talismans left by families who had drowned their childless daughters-in-law, meant to trap their souls. My mother couldn’t leave the well because of these talismans, until my father, drunk, accidentally fell into the well.”
The young man scratched his head through the cloth. “Their story is a bit cliché. My father was saved by my mother, preventing him from falling to his death. Then, somehow, the living and the dead fell for each other.”
“And then, you were born?”
Ni Su finally found an opportunity to interject.
“Yes, and they both regretted it,” the young man nodded.
“Why did they regret it?”
“A ghost fetus… they didn’t know I would look like this, that I would grow faster than normal people, without any hair, and that I wouldn’t live long.”
Ni Su was startled. No wonder, according to him, he should only be seventeen or eighteen, but he looked like a young man in his twenties.
“Then why did you come to Yun Jing?”
She asked.
“My mother asked me to deliver a letter to Minister Zhang. It was the day you gave me the steamed buns. I happened to deliver the letter to him.”
“What letter?”
“She said that General Xu didn’t betray his country, and someone needed to know this. Not everyone in this world should condemn him, ruin him.”
“But Minister Zhang had been exiled for many years. My mother waited a long time for him to return to Yun Jing as an official. She asked me to deliver the letter to him. Although it wasn’t enough evidence to overturn the case, at least it could raise doubts in Minister Zhang’s mind, and perhaps one day, clear General Xu’s name.”
He said, his voice tinged with melancholy. “Unfortunately, Minister Zhang is also dead.”
Ni Su remained silent for a long time before asking, “What’s your name?”
“Qing Qiong. Battle blood stains my sword, this sword breaks the blue sky.”
His features weren’t as expressive as ordinary people, even his smile stiff. “My mother said this is General Xu’s poem.”
The youthful spirit of a young general was fully embodied in this poem.
Ni Su repeated it silently in her heart, lost in thought.
“Miss, if we want to save General Xu, we have to leave quickly,” Qing Qiong’s voice broke through her thoughts.
Ni Su looked up abruptly. “Leave?”
“My mother is now in Youdu, but my father can often hear her speak. He has difficulty walking and couldn’t come to Yun Jing with me. If we go back and see my father, there must be a way in Youdu to heal his injuries.”
Qing Qiong said.
Ni Su didn’t hesitate and immediately nodded. “Alright, I’ll leave for Yongzhou with you immediately.”
“You…”
Qing Qiong hadn’t expected her to agree so readily. “That’s the border. If you’re afraid, I can take General Xu there.”
“He was summoned by me, he can’t leave my side.”
Ni Su looked up at the eaves, the light gold paint shimmering like lacquer. “I want to save him.”
Qing Qiong watched her stand up and quickly walk into the opposite room. She came out shortly after, holding a pulse pillow, and walked towards him, gesturing for him to extend his hand.
Qing Qiong was taken aback, then said, “This isn’t an illness, you can’t treat it…”
Ni Su’s fingers gently pressed against his pulse. “Although you are a ghost fetus, your father still gave you a flesh and blood body. As long as it’s flesh and blood, I can at least alleviate some of your pain.”
Although Ni Su specialized in gynecology, she wasn’t limited to it. She had ways to alleviate his sensitivity to cold, poor circulation, and joint pain.
“As long as your mother can save him, I will buy you many steamed buns and flatbreads along the way. You can have anything else you want. This is my way of thanking you.”
Ni Su said.
Qing Qiong didn’t speak, looking at her after a while. “Aren’t you afraid of me?”
He looked strange, and no one dared to approach him like this.
Ni Su withdrew her hand, having a general understanding of his condition. “I don’t know why I should be afraid.”
She glanced down at the medicine basket at her side, the shimmering light flickering inside. She reached into the basket, and it nuzzled against her fingertip.
“Ghosts are not ghosts, humans are the real ghosts.”
“In this world, there’s nothing more terrifying than humans.”
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