CH 16

Chapter 16 – A Promise

Do not be mistaken that he looks like a woman because that face is indeed a man’s face.  With just a glance from him, the cold light in his eyes could make a person freeze.  From the beginning until now, no one had ever dared to take advantage of him verbally.

Zhou Jingyu, who came from a family that treats poison, has excellent medical skills and is an expert in poisons.  For him to detoxify the bee venom was simply using a talented person to do an insignificant job and he prefers to be the one who directly poisons other people.

“I can’t do anything even if you rush me and I can’t help you until I find the cause.”

31 stings……….this little thing is indeed powerful.  Even as thin as a strand of hair, it can kill a cow.

When Chen Dasheng heard this, his face stiffened.

“Old Zhou!  Don’t scare me, I hope you can save him.  The brothers in this battalion are begging you to save his life.”

After years of fighting, the country had become impoverished.  The few small countries could not continue to fight anymore and were afraid of going to war again, so they proposed to hold a peace talk and sign an armistice agreement.

General Chen Rong who rarely suffered defeats was the Commander-in-chief that headed the peace talk.  He attended the peace talk on behalf of the Imperial Court and hoped that the war would cease as the losses suffered were too heart-wrenching.

It was just that one must never harbor the thought of harming others but must always have the awareness of guarding against others.

Feng Country, a country situated next to the border of Jing Country, was not satisfied with the terms and conditions of the peace talk and wanted to make a comeback and go to war again.

Therefore, General Chen Rong made two sets of preparations.  First, he sent 200,000 troops to intimidate the small countries that were about to make their moves, and then transferred his trusted aides to the guard bases and linked up the defense lines similar to the Great Wall.  If the enemy forces strike, they support each other and could block them together.

Sanhe Guard Base was one of them.  The original troops numbered 2,000 but this time, it had increased by 3,000 and in total, there were 5,000 soldiers.  The Jingyiwei Commander, Qin Yinfang divided his subordinates, Tongzhi, Qian Shi, Zhenfu, Zhishi, Qianhu, Baihu, etc., into two groups.  One group was led by Court Officials assigned by the Imperial Court while the other group was led by Military Attaches.

The Imperial Court Officials looked down on the Military Attaches for their recklessness and crudeness while the Military Attaches could not tolerate the double-sided swords* of the Imperial Court Officials.

(Double-sided sword means insidious and cunning people who use two-sided ploys to instigate others.)

Although both groups held different views and did not like each other, they still acted appropriately within the expected norms.  They knew each other’s bottom line and occasionally challenges were raised but they would stop at a certain point so that peace would still reign.

However, everyone has the desire to dominate and outdo the other party.  With this surging undercurrent, the only outcome is to see who could emerge as the winner.

“I’m not that old.”  Zhou Jingyu looked much older than him, Chen Dasheng.

Chen Dasheng stopped laughing and explained.

“It’s an honor to be old.  Wishing this old man well…….wishing you, this Laozi, Zhuzi, Lao Caizi, Laozi, well……..”

(All these words, Laozi, Zhuzi, Lao Caizi and Laozi mean old man or elderly man.)

“You can keep those titles for your own use later.”

Another one……..the 35th sting.

Zhou Jingyu laughed dryly.  With his face covered with a beard, it was inevitable that he looked old.

“Alright, just take it as I didn’t say anything and have a cheap mouth.  However, our Xiao Erlang, weren’t you looking for your wife?  How did you end up with your head full of bee stings?  Can it be that you have nothing to do and poked a beehive for fun?”

“It’s difficult to explain.”

It is hard to talk about the bitterness he experienced.

If they were told that he was outplayed by his wife and ended up in such a miserable state, it would be enough for people to laugh at him for several years.  Even after his daughter is married off, he would still be teased over this.

“It’s alright, you can give a brief narrative since I’m free to listen to your past.”

He brought out a plate of sunflower seeds from nowhere and it seemed he really want to have an idle chat with him.

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

He had obviously cleansed his body with the Divine Doctor’s honey water seven times but the stench of a rotten corpse seemed to still linger on his body.

When Chen Dasheng heard this, he slapped the table heavily.

“Are you playing with me?!  Xiao Erlang, I helped to ward off the superior’s wrath and designated minor duties to you.  It was to give you a chance to get together with your wife so that you don’t have to rush back to the camp.  Are you repaying me with such ungratefulness?”

“If you chased after your wife and then only discovered that your wife is superior to you and had fled leaving you behind……..would you want to tell others?”

Not to mention there were also those shameful incidents.

Upon hearing this, Chen Dasheng was so shocked that his mouth grew wider and wider and it took him a long time to recover.

“You mean………uh, this……….was caused by your wife?”

With a stiff neck and stiff shoulders, Xiao Jingfeng nodded.

“Aiya, she is indeed capable!  Without even making a move, she could defeat one of us, the Five Tigers of Sanhe Base, who is a Baihu.  Hurry up and get her to teach us a few tricks so that in the future, we will be able to defeat the enemy on the battlefield………”

Ha, ha, ha, this is so funny!  He can’t even win a fight with a woman!

*Cough, Cough*

Xiao Jingfeng coughed a few times unhappily to remind someone not to get carried away.

There will be times when rivers and mountains meet, and the days ahead are still aplenty*.

(‘Times when rivers and mountains meet’ means that there will always be opportunities to meet and deal with each other.  ‘The days ahead are still aplenty’ means that anything can happen in the future.)

The laughing Chen Dasheng who was almost out of breath quickly restrained himself.

“Uh, I mean that after you’ve recovered from your injuries, you should pick a few of your men to break the array.  How can a dignified man accept this?”

No matter how he still has to help his brother regain face.

“A gentleman’s promise?”

Chen Dasheng finally said something pleasing.

“I won’t go back on my promise.”  Chen Dashesng bumped fists with him.

“Good.”

Jing Niang, just you wait!

“Good?………what’s so good?  This Divine Doctor is exhausted!  There’re a total of 47 bee stings.  If you hadn’t met me, you would have lost your life.”

Zhou Jingyu lightly wiped off the illusionary sweat on his forehead.

“Thank you for Divine Doctor’s help.”

Gratitude for such great kindness can’t be expressed with words and will definitely be repaid in the future.

“Take a pill every 3 hours for 3 consecutive days.  This bottle contains 24 detoxification pills and after you finished the pills, the poison should be cleared……..”

As soon as the green porcelain bottle was opened, the fragrance instantly wafted into their noses.

***☆☆☆***

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Thud!

Thud, thud!

Thud!  Thud, thud………

Once……once again……once more……..very regular.

It was approaching autumn, the climate was getting cooler and the temperature in the mountain was even lower.  After the Mid-Autumn Festival was the Chongyang Festival*.  Without the need to climb the mountains, a lazy person would have already felt the chill of the autumn wind.

(Chongyang Festival is also known as the Double-Nine Festival as it falls on the ninth day of the ninth month of the lunar calendar.  It is a day to honor and commemorate ancestors and according to tradition, everyone in the family would climb the mountain together and sweep the ancestors’ graves.)

The stone house was sheltered by the mountain and located at the point where the two mountains converged.  Therefore, although the air was cool, the cold winds could not blow in and the heavy snow in winter rarely falls there and the place would only be covered by sporadic snowflakes.  The stone house that was not in the path of the winds was like a small world on its own, separated from human society and undisturbed by the outside world.

The slightly dark iron-colored stone bed was covered with a mattress sewn from fur.  It was mostly made up of rabbit fur, followed by fox fur, squirrel fur, and other miscellaneous furs.  The colors were white, gray, and dark iron red and all the furs were sewn together to form a large piece.  It was spread on the huge bed, warm and comfortable.

The two quilts were very large.  Shuangming, who thought he had grown up, used one of the quilts to cover himself and rolled up into the shape of a shrimp to sleep.  He was wrapped up from head to toe in the quilt with only the black hair on top of his head exposed.

The way he slept showed his insecurity and he was particularly dependent on his mother.  He would follow wherever his mother goes and feels uneasy as soon as she leaves his sight.

The three people, mother and daughters, were sleeping under the same quilt.  Little Sister Yue would always kick away the quilt, so whenever Li Jing’er sleeps, she would press the edge of the quilt with her elbow.  Shuangzhen would always dream and she would toss and turn all night long.  From time to time, she would shout………Father, Mother, Elder Brother, don’t leave me behind……..

In fact, a deep dark shadow persists in her little heart.  Among the three children, she is the only child who still has the memories of fleeing from the calamity.  Although she can no longer recognize her biological parents, the feeling of being cruelly abandoned persists.  The fear still resides in her heart and cannot be eliminated in the next 3 to 5 years.

As usual, Li Jing’er, who was used to getting up early, woke up around 5-7 in the morning.  Without a clock, she relied on her body instinct and would always open her eyes around the same time.

A ray of light streamed in through the small square window.  The outside was not very bright and foggy………it was close to dawn and only slightly bright.

Thud!  Thud!  Thud………

Yi?  What is that sound?

Li Jing’er who had been busy in the mountain for half a month wanted to laze around for a day.  Even office workers have two days off a week, so it shouldn’t matter if she sleeps in once in a while, right?!   A tired body needs to rest and the revitalized energy should be enough to cope with the start of the day.  Once the children start to make noise it would become very noisy.

However, there was something unusual today.  She did not know if there was something wrong with her ears or if she was too sensitive.  She seemed to hear a strange sound coming from outside the stone house and it was like the sound of chopping wood.

But this is in the wilderness and deep in the mountains, who would come to cut wood here?  It’s not like one has nothing to do after eating…….or it was just to train up and strengthen one’s arms.

When she thought about the traps she had set up, she felt at ease and closed her eyes with peace of mind.  She wanted to have a good sleep and planned to get up around noon.

When she was Li Shuangjing, she had to carry heavy loads and run 10 kilometers almost every day, rain or shine.  Firefighters needed a lot of physical strength and could not afford to be lazy.  In a fire, she was a rescuer that people relied on.  If she could not put out fires to save people, then she would have failed in that sacred job.

After traveling through time, she made it just in time to give birth to a child and following that she went into confinement so there was no chance for her to do any running or any other forms of physical training.  However, whenever no one was paying attention, she would still do crunches or some slimming yoga exercises.  As a result, the qi and blood in her body slowly recovered and she tried her best to restore her body to a healthy state.

In actual fact, cutting and chopping up hogweed was also a kind of physical training.  Whenever Mother Wu called her, she would walk faster than anyone else.  She would wave her arms and continue to cut the hogweed and the action of chopping the hogweed increased her body’s strength and trained up her originally weak body to be able to lift heavy objects.

It was also thanks to the months of self-training that she was able to survive the months of fleeing while shouldering the burden of taking care of the children and enabling her to live in a stone house.

Thud!  Thud!  Thud!  Thud………

Can it be a woodpecker?

Li Jing’er woke up once again due to the repeated sounds.  She could not stand it anymore and decided to get out of bed and take a look.  If the sound keeps on disturbing her, she would eventually have a nervous breakdown.

Without lifting the quilt, she slipped out from under the quilt lightly and then lowered her head to look at the cute and innocent faces of her two daughters as they slept.  After placing a kiss on their foreheads, she pulled the quilt up and then tucked in the sides so that the two little girls would not catch a cold.  She then slowly climbed out of the huge bed.