Chapter 12: A Smile Wipes Away Past Grudges and Resentment

  Zhu Wu listened to the woman's words and didn't care whether they were true or false, but instead asked: "In this chaotic war, everyone is hesitant to take action, but you, a weak woman, what skills do you have to come to Shaohua Mountain stronghold?"

  The woman also didn't have a bad temper, and gently said: "This afternoon you came to our village and caused trouble, Big Brother chased after you, and didn't return until late at night. This made everyone in the village uneasy, and Grandfather was afraid you would come again, so he arranged for guards from each village to escort me from East Village to Back Village before he went to the county to ask for soldiers. But unexpectedly, soon after Big Brother returned, the soldiers also arrived, and without saying anything about the reason, they wanted to come and kill Big Brother. The villagers of Back Village all followed them out to fight to the death."

  At this point, Chen Da thought to let Zhu Wu put his mind at ease earlier and also prove that he was not careless. But when his sister-in-law said so, she feared that it would make her brother even more suspicious. So she interrupted: "Sister-in-law, just say what's important!"

  The woman listened and smiled somewhat embarrassed, paused for a moment and said: "I also heard the shout to kill, afraid that Dalang would have an accident, so I took the bow and arrow, secretly followed behind Lao Wang, climbed onto the roof, and looked at Dalang in trouble, then secretly shot a cold arrow..." As she spoke, her voice became lower and lower, and her face became hotter and hotter.

  Zhu Wu took one look at the situation and knew that it wasn't something anyone could fake, so he believed her a bit more. A woman as beautiful as a flower, yet unexpectedly climbing up to shoot arrows from the roof - truly, you can't judge by appearances. Although she was shooting cold arrows, which wasn't very glorious, but under duress, this not only didn't affect her image, on the contrary, it made the three leaders secretly admire and respect her even more.

  "I didn't come down until I saw Daling being rescued by you and carried back to the manor. I wanted to see Daling's injuries, but unexpectedly, he was taken out again by that group of rascals from the rear village. I was worried and followed them from a distance, but soon realized they were heading towards Shao Huashan."

  The woman's face turned red again: "How did I know you were good for the big master? At that time, I thought you wanted to take him away, so I strung my bow and hid in the dark, shooting down a few people. However, soon after, I was discovered, and with knives drawn, they wanted to kill me. Just at this moment, a team of government soldiers happened to arrive..." As she spoke, she slightly turned around and glanced at Chen Da.

  Zhu Wu was extremely good at observing words and expressions, so this action naturally fell into his eyes. He was shocked to hear that at the time he was only fighting in the village, where did he know they still had such a dangerous thing? As soon as he heard it again, he encountered government soldiers, and his heart seemed to have guessed something, and he blurted out: "These government soldiers are..."

  At this point, Chen Da took over and said: "I'll take care of the rest. The soldiers who came back were us. On our way back, we happened to meet them, stopped the looting, cleared up the misunderstanding, and sent people to escort you back together. Sister-in-law said that the villagers and you fought each other, so I rushed back in a hurry and performed such an act."

  Yang Chun also recalled the scene at that time, when he was fighting with the Dongzhuang team, just when the killing was about to happen. Suddenly, a group of government soldiers came from afar, carrying torches and long guns, and rushed around them like fire snakes. At that time, Yang Chun should have been adding frost to snow, ready to risk his life to break through and escape, and then make new plans with Zhu Wu to report the news.

  Unexpectedly, the officers and soldiers not only did not take action, but the leader of them suddenly shouted out the secret password of Shao Huashan, and Yang Chun listened carefully to find that it was Wu Sandog, a subordinate of Chen Da. After this group of "officers and soldiers" managed to stop both sides from fighting, Yang Chun saw flames rising from the direction of Hou Zhuang.

  At this point, Zhu Wu's heart was already clear, and he immediately showed a ashamed expression, clasped his fists and said: "I, Zhu Wu, have eyes but fail to recognize gold and jade, sister-in-law please don't blame me." Yang Chun also followed suit and apologized.

  Yang Chundao said: "It's late at night and I shouldn't be disturbing you, but is Brother Shi all right?"

  The woman said: "I have stopped the bleeding for the young master and applied some medicine. He is now sleeping peacefully. Why don't you go take a look?"

  Zhu Wu hastily waved his hand and said seriously, "Everything is fine, we can rest assured now. Let's invite the doctor to come together again tomorrow. It's getting late, I'll take my leave!" After saying that, the three brothers bid farewell and left Shi Jin's courtyard.

  As soon as Zhu Wu came out of the ward, he immediately pulled Chen Da and asked in a low voice: "When you came back, did Brother Shi wake up?"

  Chen Daoyi walked and replied: "When I came back, he woke up. He was injured so badly, but still fought with all his might. What a real man!"

  Zhu Wu's expression eased slightly as he asked, "Brother, when you woke up, did you see those two?"

  Chen Da couldn't help but laugh and said: "Brother, how did you become so suspicious? Of course I've seen it, Shi brothers were quite moved."

  Zhu Wu felt relieved after hearing this and put down another worry. The three of them chatted all the way, then each returned to their own place to rest.

  The rooster crowed three times.

  It seemed like someone was calling out in the room, but it also sounded like a murmur from a dream. The repeated calls of "Ling'er" woke Zhong Ling up from her dream, and she suddenly realized that she had fallen asleep unintentionally on a pear-wood carved silk-patterned chair in the hall.

  Zhong Ling heard Shi Jin calling out and quickly got up, coming to the inner room. She saw that Shi Jin was still sleeping soundly, but his forehead was densely covered in large beads of cold sweat, and he was still murmuring softly, sometimes calling out the name of her childhood playmate, and sometimes calling out "Father".

  Zhong Ling sat quietly beside Shi Jin's bed, gently taking a handkerchief to wipe away the cold sweat on his forehead, carefully erasing it bit by bit. Seeing the bitter expression on Shi Jin's face, her heart felt like it was being cut by a knife, and she involuntarily stretched out her jade-like hand, tightly grasping Shi Jin's palm while softly saying: "Husband, don't be afraid... I'm here."

  Zhong Ling looked at the man in front of her and couldn't help but think of Shi Jin's usual playful appearance, which was quite different from his majestic appearance on the battlefield.

  It's probably hard to believe, but a man in his early twenties would climb trees to catch yellow birds just to make her happy. Sometimes she'd go watch him practice martial arts, and when Shi Jin was dodging and weaving, he'd still flash her a smile, sneakily making a silly face, and every time he'd get caught by Wang Jin and teased with a sentence, but even so, he never changed his ways, always grinning from ear to ear.

  Actually, Shi Jin is just like a child in front of her every day, very lovely and also very mischievous, sometimes it really makes people worry to death.

  Actually, with his skills, those worries were unnecessary, but she still couldn't convince herself. Every time he practiced, she would remind him to be careful, but even so, she had to keep a close eye on him by her side, only then could she put her mind at ease.

  After all these years in Shijiazhuang, although it's not as good as Tokyo or Bianjing, it's still her best haven. She still remembers when she was five years old, her father was implicated in a case of impeaching an evil person and had to flee with his family, wandering around and begging for food, experiencing the coldness and warmth of life, and tasting the ups and downs of human relationships.

  It wasn't until the end of the year when I was seven that I met the kind-hearted Old Man Shi, who took me in and allowed me to settle down here. It was also at the end of that year, on the thirtieth day of the twelfth lunar month, that I saw Young Master Shi for the first time. He had come out from behind a screen in the front hall, holding two pieces of crispy sugar cake, eating one and making crunching sounds with his mouth.

  It was also Shi Jin's first time seeing Zhong Ling. At that time, when Shi Jin saw his father helping up a girl who had fallen and hit her head, he felt curious in his heart. The girl had big, bright eyes, and in his heart, he couldn't help but feel comfortable. Just as the adults from both families were chatting and catching up, Shi Jin quietly walked over to Zhong Ling's side, pulled on her sleeve, and put the last piece of sesame seed candy into her palm, then quickly ran off into the back room.

  Zhong Ling thought about the past, and couldn't help but stare at Shi Jin as he gradually fell into a daze. It wasn't until Shi Jin came to that he saw her adorable, vacant expression, and grasped her hand tightly, that Zhong Ling finally snapped out of it. She looked up to see Shi Jin already gazing at her with narrowed eyes. Zhong Ling asked softly, "Husband, does your body still hurt?"

  Shi Jin slept soundly for a night, except for some pain in several places, and felt that there was nothing seriously wrong. At this moment, he feared that Zhong Ling would worry, so he had to pretend to be carefree.

  Shi Jin pretended to be in pain and said, "Of course it hurts."

  Zhong Ling didn't know Shi Jin's trick, but took it seriously, her eyebrows slightly furrowed in concern, and asked: "Is it still on your leg?"

  Shi Jin said with a smile, "It's not on the leg, it's clearly hurting in the hand." As he spoke, he took the two hands that were holding each other and waved them back and forth in front of Zhong Ling.

  Zhong Ling couldn't help but smile wryly and immediately scolded, "You rascal, not a single decent word." She then tried to pull her hand back, but Shi Jin wouldn't let go.

  Zhong Ling couldn't help but laugh at his mischievousness and said, "Big Brother must be hungry, I'll go make something delicious."

  Shi Jin heard this and suddenly realized that his stomach was growling loudly, and he had already started to crave food. He drooled on his face and said: "Ling'er, I want to eat the duck porridge old pot congee you made."

  Zhong Ling smiled and said: "Okay, I'll go now. You just rest here obediently." With that, Zhong Ling got up and walked out.

  When I pushed open the door of the house, I saw those people and was really shocked.