Chapter 56: Clear Sky Day Chapter 35: The Child Carried Off by a Wolf

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Protagonist:

Shaowei

Liu Qi

The girl who walked over was about the same age as Ji Jin, her hanging hair bun jet-black, her skin extremely pale.

She walked with light, quick steps, and when she arrived before them, a pair of curved eyes fell on Shaowei first, asking in a soft, gentle voice: "I suppose this must be the Jiang family's younger sister?"

Ji Jin hurriedly spoke to Shaowei: "This is my maternal aunt's elder daughter, named Qingwu."

The girl named Qingwu sat down with them, but not cross-legged; rather, her legs were bent to the same side, her posture demure and graceful. She gently pushed the small bamboo basket in her hand toward Shaowei, lifting the clean cloth covering it: "I steamed some rice cakes; Jiang family younger sister, have a taste and see if you like them."

Shaowei looked over and saw piece after piece of rice cake neatly arranged, wisps of hot steam rising, snow-white, soft and glutinous.

Jiang Fu had never been stingy with food, and Shaowei had once lived in the Chang'an Hou Mansion, so she had also tasted many exquisite delicacies. And Shaowei had her own aesthetic criteria for appreciating good food — compared to the preciousness of ingredients, she cared more about the cook's skill, and whether the portion was filling.

These rice cakes before her happened to suit Shaowei's aesthetics perfectly; she unceremoniously picked up a piece and took a bite, only to feel her mouth filled with dense rice fragrance, clear and sweet, the texture soft but not mushy, just the right firmness, making one want to keep biting after one bite.

Shaowei's cheeks puffed up quickly, and as she chewed she nodded and said: "Delicious."

Though it was a plain, unadorned compliment, it was quite encouraging; Qingwu secretly breathed a sigh of relief in her heart, revealing a joyful, reassured smile.

Lately she had often heard A Jin speak of borrowing books from the Jiang family younger sister to read together; she didn't understand scholarship, but she knew that letting A Jin read was a tremendously important matter, something that could even be called a kindness.

But it wasn't yet the autumn harvest, and her family truly had nothing suitable to use as a proper repayment; the villagers mostly spread rumors that the Jiang family's eldest sister was a nobleman's kept concubine, saying their household never lacked good things to eat or use... she thought and thought, and could only steam a pot of rice cakes to express her feelings, originally still worried this younger sister might be picky and disdainful.

Qingwu relaxed, used a handkerchief to hold up a piece, and was just about to hand it to Ji Jin so he could eat too, when she suddenly saw a black shadow come running over.

The rice cakes' fragrance was not strong, but it could not escape Mo Li's sense of smell.

He had originally been herding cattle not far away, lying in the grass bushes asleep; his nose woke up a step before he did.

Mo Li ran over, saw the rice cake basket, and directly squatted down, his eyes full of longing: "Can you give me one? I'll do anything!"

Qingwu was momentarily stunned, looking at the seventeen-or-eighteen-year-old youth before her.

Mo Li was born with quite a bit of beauty; his face was not a mighty broad face, but excelled in being narrow and handsome, his eyes very large, his nose straight and prominent; because he knew how to pamper himself in matters of food, his blood qi was abundant, his lip color vermilion and moist, his tied-up black hair dense and jet-black, his mental bearing abnormal but very full.

Such a handsome youth squatting pathetically before her, lifting such a pleading face, who could still care whether he was foolish or not; Qingwu's cheeks flushed red with a "zeng", and the rice cake in her hand was also "zeng"-ly extended outward.

Ji Jin was still looking in the direction the villagers had left, and now asked: "Does Elder Sister know what happened in the village?"

Qingwu followed his gaze and roughly explained what she had heard on her way here: "They're going into West Mountain... an outsider passing through had his child go missing; they searched for a long time, but then heard an old woman living in the west say she saw a small child carried off by a wolf into the mountain, with a lot of blood on him!"

Ji Jin was shocked: "How is that possible? Wolves in West Mountain rarely come out of the mountain to forage, and it's just entered autumn..."

"Originally no one believed it either, only hoping that old woman was senile and seeing things, but they said they went to the mountain pass and looked, and indeed saw bloodstains." Qingwu's eyes held a few degrees of fear, her voice becoming even smaller: "That outsider promised a reward and hired ten or so people to go into the mountain together to help him find the child... just don't know if they'll find him or not."

Ji Jin sighed.

Qingwu didn't dare speak more on this topic; she was timid by nature, and even more afraid of frightening the youngest Jiang family younger sister.

She withdrew her gaze, turned her head to look, but saw Shaowei still eating the rice cakes with single-minded focus, the youth on the side also only eating heartily, and looking back at the basket, the rice cakes she had originally worried she couldn't bring herself to give away, were now perilously few.

Shaowei wasn't greedy; she simply had high physical exertion and got hungry easily, while Mo Li perfectly combined both traits.

"Rice cakes are hard to digest, be careful of food stagnation; if you like them, I'll make more another day and send them over." Qingwu raised her hand clutching the handkerchief, and as she spoke leaned close to Shaowei's cheek.

Shaowei saw from the corner of her eye that she was raising her hand toward herself, and subconsciously turned her head to dodge.

This was a vigilance action born of instinct; when Shaowei looked up and saw the gentle expression of the girl before her bringing her handkerchief-holding near again, she temporarily suppressed her instinct, wanting to try and see what the other party intended to do.

Qingwu gently wiped away a grain of rice cake crumb stuck on Shaowei's face.

Shaowei slowly blinked, through a strand of pleasant autumn wind, looking at Qingwu seriously and earnestly.

Qingwu was about the same age as the two elder sisters in the Feng family, but aside from age, they were completely different in every way.

Qingwu's eyes were not large, black and curved, her nose and mouth both small and delicate; her temperament was like a stream in autumn, not contending with spring for brilliance, lacking summer's fervor, quietly flowing on its own, emitting a peaceful, clear, gentle, and leisurely air.

And this atmosphere of interaction made Shaowei feel strange and novel; she couldn't help but also try extending an index finger and gently wiping it across Qingwu's cheek twice.

Ji Jin witnessed Shaowei's action from the side, and that feeling — named as a strange creature imitating human conduct — arose once more; this feeling was novel and unique, and also somewhat amusing.

Qingwu, however, let out a soft "ai ai" cry, turned her face to avoid Shaowei's finger, so embarrassed she covered that half of her face with her sleeve.

Shaowei noticed something, looked at the thin powder stuck on her fingertip, and asked: "Is this lead powder?"

Qingwu's face was a bit red; hearing this she felt surprised: "Jiang family younger sister knows this too? But everyone calls it hu powder..."

"This thing is not suitable for applying to the face." Shaowei's expression suddenly turned serious: "Lead powder is poisonous; it may cause the skin to ulcerate."

Qingwu's eyes widened slightly: "Where did Jiang younger sister hear this from? Everyone uses it nowadays... it was exchanged from an immortal master, how could it be poisonous?"

She normally absolutely wouldn't bear to use it; only today, coming to deliver rice cakes, did she specially apply some.

"... My elder sister said so." Shaowei didn't want to expose Jiang Fu's specific characteristics too clearly, such as understanding medical theory and refining medicine, but wanted to increase persuasiveness, so she only vaguely praised and affirmed: "She understands these cosmetic things very well."

Jiang Fu had said, lead powder is purely natural with no additives, but it's all poison, and cannot be put on the face.

Qingwu, however, didn't take it to heart, only thinking Shaowei's elder sister at home had heard some unreliable words; she lightly used her hand to even out the mark Shaowei had wiped, then just nodded, brushed past this topic, and asked Shaowei: "Still don't know how old younger sister is this year?"

Shaowei answered truthfully: "I am already thirteen."

"Then I'm two years older than you." Qingwu said, smiling as she looked at Ji Jin: "A Jin and I are originally the same age, only because I'm one day older than him, he has to call me Elder Sister; don't know who actually loses out in the end."

Hearing this sentence, Ji Jin didn't know what he thought of, inexplicably his ears grew a bit hot, a slightly awkward smile appearing on his face, his gaze shifting away.

As his gaze shifted, Ji Jin couldn't help but look again toward West Mountain's location, clearly still worried about that child said to have been carried off by a wolf.

That night, nearby villagers gathered at the bridgehead crossroads holding rice bowls, and most were discussing this matter.

In West Mountain, torches flickered in the distance; those were the villagers hired to go search.

Next morning, after Shaowei finished sweeping the courtyard, she stood at the courtyard gate clutching her broom, and happened to see on the crisscrossing village road not far away, that group of villagers who went into the mountain to search returning; they had searched all night, now some angry, some sighing; the Village Head had also come, helplessly persuading them: "Forget it, all go home..."

Shaowei didn't know the details, and didn't go forward to inquire; she turned and returned to the courtyard.

By afternoon, Ji Jin naturally explained the specific situation; he was always gentle, but at this moment rarely showed a few degrees of anger: "That outsider who lost his child, seeing he couldn't find him anywhere, actually took advantage of the mountain's night darkness and quietly slipped away without a sound."

The point of Ji Jin's anger was: "Not paying a single bit of reward, making the villagers risk danger and run about in the mountain all night for nothing, how could he so easily abandon his own child; there actually exists such a father in this world..."

Shaowei looked at him: "Is a father like this rarely seen?"

Ji Jin sighed: "Not merely rare — born yet failing to protect, truly unworthy to be a father, even insufficient to be human."

Ji Jin was not a person who possessed only anger without action; he tossed and turned through the night, his heart never able to settle, so at dawn the next day he entered the mountain.

Thus, when Shaowei saw Ji Jin again in the afternoon, she could not help but stare dumbfounded: "... Who beat you?"

Half of Ji Jin's face was swollen high, and blood traces were still visible at his brow bone; only because he remembered the appointment with Shaowei to lecture on history today did he force himself to prop up and keep the engagement.

Seeing Shaowei's startled expression, he felt somewhat embarrassed: "I entered the mountain early this morning..."

Shaowei: "You encountered a fierce beast?"

"That wasn't it... there are few fierce beasts in Xi Shan, wolves are also rarely seen." Ji Jin explained haltingly: "Only monkeys are commonly seen; I ran into several monkeys."

Shaowei found it very hard to understand how a person could be bullied by monkeys to this extent: "You didn't bring anything for self-defense?"

An ordinary person, if empty-handed and unprepared, might be bullied a bit by monkeys, but having entered the mountain, why make no preparation in hand?

Ji Jin: "I brought one... I brought a long staff, precisely to drive away monkeys."

Shaowei: "... Then why?"

Ji Jin: "A monkey snatched away my long staff."

Shaowei: "??"

Ji Jin: "It held the long staff and clamored, chasing and beating me all the way."

Shaowei: "..."

The monkey-driver was instead driven by the monkey; not bringing a weapon might not even have led to such a plight... what kind of complete reversal is this ultimately?

Ji Jin also felt incapable himself, but those monkeys were truly fierce, squeaking and clamoring, leaping both fast and high; when they pounced at his face, he didn't even dare open his eyes, only daring to wave a sleeve to drive them with one hand and hug his head and face with the other.

His expression was dejected and embarrassed; Shaowei then felt her words would sound harsh, so she simply stopped speaking.

Ji Jin obviously had no mind to lecture on history; he came only to tell Shaowei not to let her wait in vain. At this moment his mind was still in Xi Shan; though his person was driven back by monkeys, his heart still yearned for it.

"... Villagers say that outsider didn't lose a child at all, entered the mountain with who knows what scheme, and made the villagers run errands for nothing." Ji Jin said to Shaowei: "But I indeed discovered some fresh bloodstains in the mountain."

Shaowei subconsciously asked: "Could it be your own?"

"..." Ji Jin's expression turned awkward for a moment, yet he firmly shook his head: "No, those bloodstains were ahead in a place I had not yet set foot."

"After returning from the mountain, I have already informed the Village Head, hoping to ask him to let hunters familiar with the mountain terrain enter again to help search." As Ji Jin spoke, he looked toward the Village Head's residence: "But no reply has been heard yet..."

The villagers all have their own farm work or labor to be busy with, and they resent being played by that outsider, and moreover few people would believe Ji Jin's words.

Shaowei gripped the bamboo slip, asking the restless Ji Jin: "If that child or his corpse cannot be found, you won't be able to settle your mind to accompany me in reading?"

Ji Jin: "Jiang Sister, I... Jiang Sister!"

Before he finished speaking, he saw Shaowei suddenly turn and run away in large strides.

Ji Jin thought she was angry at him, hurriedly pulled his legs to chase, but his whole body ached from the monkey beating, and he couldn't run fast.

And he had only run a few steps when, in the blink of an eye, Shaowei's figure was already gone; Ji Jin almost thought he had been struck in the head by monkeys and was hallucinating, involuntarily shaking his head hard and blankly scanning left and right searching for Shaowei's trace.

Shaowei had already run back home.

She casually picked up a long staff used to prop the door in the courtyard, turned and was about to leave.

Jiang Fu, sitting cross-legged in the corridor fiddling with medicinal herbs, hurriedly called to her: "Hey, where are you going in such a rush!"

Shaowei gripped the staff, feet not stopping, head not turning back: "Into the mountain!"

Jiang Fu's eyes flickered slightly.

Mo Li, squatting by the well using wood ash to beat and wash clothes, turned her head like an owl and asked Jiang Fu: "Head of Household, can I go together!"

Jiang Fu waved his hand.

Mo Li didn't even bother to wipe her hands, hurriedly following Shaowei.

Jiang Fu withdrew his hand after waving a few times, pinched his fingers to calculate before his eyes, rested his arm on his knee, looked thoughtfully at the now empty courtyard gate, and narrowed his eyes at the sun-blocking grey clouds, muttering: "It seems cause and effect are about to manifest."

Ji Jin had only chased halfway when he saw Shaowei turn back, an extra long staff in her hand.

Ji Jin suddenly felt uneasy: "Jiang Sister, you are going to..."

"Enter the mountain." Shaowei ran past his side in quick steps, concise and to the point.

Ji Jin's mind went boom with a loud sound; he hurriedly called out to advise against it, but saw that figure sweep away like the wind.

Seeing Mo Li follow, Ji Jin hurriedly grabbed one of Mo Li's arms: "Little Brother Mo Li, Jiang Sister wants to enter the mountain, quickly stop her!"

Mo Li shook him off in one throw: "I'm going into the mountain to pick fruit!"

Ji Jin's mind thundered even louder — done for, done for!

Originally just a lost child, now won't another be added!

If anything happens to Jiang Sister, the crime falls on him alone, and he would have no face to live on!

Ji Jin panic-stricken, in a flash thought of many ways to atone with death; he chased on with legs flying, shouting along the way for passersby to inform the Jiang family's eldest sister.

Bearing a body full of injuries, Ji Jin had never run this fast in his life, even faster than when being bullied and chased by monkeys.