Chapter 18
Chapter 18
When Zou Yong drove the blade into Xiao Che’s leg, his eyes never left Xiao Che’s face.
But he was disappointed.
He stabbed him twice in a row, once in each leg.
Xiao Che did not even blink. Blood dyed his trouser legs red, soaking the fabric until it clung wetly to his skin, yet he seemed not to feel it at all.
“Sir, every member of my Xiao Family has served with loyalty and valor. How could we ever deceive the emperor or defy our superiors?”
“My husband, the Old Marquis of Xiao, guarded the Southern Frontier for forty years. He was poisoned by enemy spies; his hair turned white overnight, and he died bleeding from all seven orifices.”
“My brother-in-law, Xiao Houzhong, followed my husband onto the battlefield at eighteen. He led five thousand cavalrymen and drove the enemy back a hundred li, only to lose his way in the miasma of the Southern Frontier. When they found him, only a jade pendant could identify him. His body had already become a pile of white bones.”
“My second son, Xiao Lei, went to war at sixteen. He died on the battlefield, wrapped in horsehide. By the time his body was recovered, he was nothing but a mass of torn flesh.”
“My Xiao Family asks ourselves honestly: we have never failed the court, nor have we betrayed His Majesty’s grace. Please, sir, show mercy. In exchange for the meritorious deeds of my entire Xiao Family, would you spare my son any further humiliation?”
Every word from Old Madam Xiao was soaked in blood and tears. Each name she spoke tore open another scar over her heart.
Zou Yong frowned. The broadsword in his hand seemed not to have drunk its fill of blood.
He had no intention of paying Old Madam Xiao any heed, but then the blade in his hand was suddenly snatched away.
“Zou Yong, enough! You’ve already tested him. Xiao Che’s legs truly have no sensation. This matter ends here. Do not bring it up again.”
Zhu Laosan barked the reprimand, then turned and left.
Zou Yong shot Li Duanjiang a vicious glare and cursed under his breath, “Bitch. Got me scolded for nothing. Next time, open your damn eyes.”
Li Duanjiang was still unconvinced. He was certain Xiao Che’s legs were fine. He simply could not understand how, in the space of barely fifteen minutes, Xiao Che had made both legs completely numb.
Li Duanjiang was sure the Xiao Family had done something.
By then, Pei Wanqing and Xiao Jingmo had already surrounded Xiao Che.
“Marquis, how do you feel?”
Xiao Che shook his head and gave Lu Shuangshuang a discreet glance, his eyes filled with gratitude.
Lu Shuangshuang handed her son to her mother-in-law to look after. With her back to everyone in the cave, she reached out and felt Xiao Che’s pulse. A moment later, she urged in a low voice, “Marquis, quickly have the eldest young master and Madam help you wash your legs. If too much time passes, you’ll be poisoned, and then we’ll be in trouble.”
Pei Wanqing did not dare delay. She and her eldest son supported Xiao Che on either side and helped him toward the cave entrance.
Pei Wanqing tore two strips of cloth from her clothes. Under the pretense of bandaging his wounds, she used the rainwater to rinse Xiao Che’s legs over and over.
To outsiders, nothing seemed amiss.
Only the members of the Xiao Family knew that fifteen minutes earlier, Lu Shuangshuang had smeared Datura juice on Xiao Che’s legs.
Every part of the Datura plant was poisonous, but it was also a main ingredient in numbing anesthetic powder. Ordinary people could not touch it lightly.
But Lu Shuangshuang understood these things. As long as the dosage was controlled properly, it could temporarily paralyze the legs. However, it could not be used for too long, or it would easily cause poisoning, even hallucinations.
This time, Xiao Che’s legs had been hidden from them successfully. The only problem was that Li Duanjiang had seen him stand.
Li Duanjiang had to be eliminated. Otherwise, sooner or later, he would bring disaster upon them.
Because Li Duanjiang knew poisons, the matter from moments ago likely would not stay hidden for long. Once Li Duanjiang collected his thoughts, he would realize they had used Datura.
Before that happened, Li Duanjiang had to die.
Outside the cave, the rain showed no sign of stopping.
Xiao Jingmo and Nanny Chen lit another fire inside the cave. Since they had arrived late, they could only sit together near the cave entrance.
Jin Bao was held in Pei Wanqing’s arms. After being washed by the heavy rain just now, Jin Bao’s little face had unexpectedly become clean.
Aside from being a little thin, the child truly grew more beautiful the longer one looked at her.
Her large, dark eyes were bright and lively. Her small, rounded nose glowed faintly red in the firelight, and her fair skin was now tinted pink, making her look like a little powdered dumpling.
Xiao Jingxing looked at Jin Bao, the corners of his eyes creasing with a faint smile.
“We really have Little Sister to thank for that just now. Otherwise, that menace really would have gotten away.”
Xiao Jingxing kept his voice low and spoke rather subtly, but everyone understood what he meant.
All of them turned to look at Jin Bao at the same time.
Jin Bao grew a little embarrassed. She opened her small mouth, showing a row of tiny millet-like teeth, and smiled sweetly and softly. Two deep dimples appeared on her little face, making her indescribably adorable.
“Madam is truly blessed. You picked up such a cute and clever daughter. Now you have both sons and a daughter.”
Lu Shuangshuang looked at Jin Bao’s little face and praised her sincerely.
The smile never left Pei Wanqing’s face, but when she looked at Lu Shuangshuang, there was a hint of puzzlement in her eyes.
“Sister-in-law, you seem to know medicine?”
That was what everyone was curious about.
Back in the woods, the situation had been too urgent for anyone to think about anything else. Now that they had sat down, they finally had time to ask Lu Shuangshuang.
Lu Shuangshuang’s expression stiffened, and she looked toward Madam Liu.
Madam Liu gave a slight nod. “Shuang’er, you can tell the truth. Our future is uncertain, and we don’t know whether we’ll live or die. No one will pry into your past. If you tell us now, it might even help us later.”
Only then did Lu Shuangshuang reveal her background.
She was the daughter of Lu Yuandao, the former director of the Imperial Medical Academy.
When she was thirteen, her father became entangled in a palace secret. A few days after he returned home, he suddenly died.
Her family had practiced medicine for generations. She had grown up surrounded by it, and with her exceptional talent, before she was even ten, she could recite texts such as The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon, Shennong’s Classic of Materia Medica, and Collected Herbs backward and forward.
Her father had once sighed that if only she had been a boy, their family would have had someone to carry on its legacy.
After her father’s accident, however, the family declined, and her mother never allowed her to touch medicine again.
When she came of age, her family arranged a marriage for her to the Xiao Family.
“So Auntie is actually Director Lu’s legitimate daughter. No wonder.”
The Xiao Family members were secretly delighted. With a physician among their group, their chances of reaching the Northern Frontier alive had increased by a few more points.
The road ahead was long, and the farther north they went, the colder it would become. With two children among them, illness would be the hardest obstacle to overcome.
Before this, Lu Shuangshuang and her family of three had not believed they could make it to the Northern Frontier at all. So whenever she saw medicinal herbs along the way, she had simply ignored them. They were going to die on the road sooner or later anyway.
But now things were different. With the care of the Main Branch, her chances of surviving to reach the Northern Frontier had doubled. From here on out, she would need to gather more medicinal herbs along the road for emergencies, especially herbs for external injuries and wind-cold illnesses.
The heavy rain continued until noon, showing no sign of stopping.
Zhu Laosan walked to the cave entrance and took one look outside, anxiety stirring in his heart.
At this rate, they might have to spend the night in the cave.
The troublesome part was that all the food they had brought had been soaked through by the rain. It had turned into a bundle of paste. If they could not reach the relay station, they would have no way to replenish their food, and no one knew when this rain would stop.
“Brother San, what do we do? We don’t have any food, it’s pouring outside, and we’re trapped in this cave?”
At some point, Li Si had also arrived at the cave entrance.
“Let’s wait and see later. It can’t rain the whole day, can it? Once it stops, we’ll go into the woods and see if we can find something to eat.”
The bailiffs were not the only ones in trouble. The food the Xiao Family clansmen had brought was also basically soaked into sludge by the rain. But they could not bear to throw it away. Their stomachs were growling with hunger, and something was still better than nothing.
Mixed with rainwater, they licked the paste clean.
The steamed buns the Xiao Family Main Branch had stocked up on a few days ago had long since been eaten. The dozen or so taels of silver they had carried had already been spent. Even if the bailiffs had steamed buns, they no longer had the money to buy any.
The adults could endure skipping a meal or two, but the two children were already so hungry they were weak and listless, their heads drooping.
Jin Bao curled up in Pei Wanqing’s arms, sensible enough not to make a fuss.
She understood that no one had anything to eat. She could not say she was hungry, or Mother would feel bad.
Jin Bao licked her cracked lips, pursed her little mouth, rubbed her small belly, and stared toward the cave entrance with her big eyes.
A scene suddenly appeared at the cave entrance.
[Everyone in the cave was drowsy and half-asleep. Outside, the heavy rain had stopped at some unknown point, and a bright, clear moon hung high in the night sky.
The leaves, washed clean by the rain, reflected the brilliant moonlight.
Everything looked so peaceful. But just then, little green lanterns appeared one after another in the woods.
The little lanterns drew closer and closer. They were actually a pack of wolves.
They approached the cave in utter silence. The Xiao Family Main Branch was positioned closest to the cave entrance and bore the brunt of the attack.
The wolf pack lunged forward. Xiao Che’s legs were injured, greatly reducing his ability to fight.
Xiao Jingxing had internal injuries, yet he stood alone in front of the Xiao Family members, shielding them behind him. In one careless moment, one of his arms was bitten by a wolf. Another wolf instantly pounced over, opened its jaws, and clamped down on Xiao Jingxing’s thigh.
The others in the cave were frozen in place by this sudden turn of events. When they finally reacted, chaos erupted inside the cave.
The wolves attacked from outside, blocking everyone inside the cave. It was like a slaughter. Screams rang out as blood sprayed everywhere, the scene unbearably tragic.
Of the sixty or seventy people there, half fell in less than fifteen minutes. Some finally managed to escape the cave, but outside, the alpha wolf had long since cut off their path. There was only one road left for them: death.]