29. The Mrs. Long San Who Reunites With Her Relatives
Translated by Ju Hua | Edited by Pu Er
Long San was silent for a long time. Feng Ning blinked continuously, and just stared at him. Long San thought for a very long time, then he opened his mouth and closed it, as if he was deliberating on how to answer. In the end he finally said, “That incident, there hasn’t been any confirmation yet.”
“What incident?”
“Since it hasn’t been confirmed yet, speaking about it would be useless.” Long San very dully and quietly avoided the topic. Feng Ning pouted, dissatisfied. Originally she wanted to pry it out of him, and see if they could resolve it, but he wasn’t willing to speak about it so she had no more ideas. She could only say, “Since it hasn’t been confirmed, why on earth have you kept it in mind?”
Long San choked, and Feng Ning then said, “First you should forget about the incident, and then forget about all the other bad things, alright?” Long San struggled for a while, then finally gritted his teeth, and brought her to his chest. Feng Ning’s heart was extremely elated, and she cuddled into his chest and said, “I will also work hard, to not forget the present, and to not become the terrible Feng Ning of the past, okay?”
Long San embraced her, and tried to ignore the uneasiness in his heart. How should he tell her, that there are some things that are just really too hard to simply forget, and some things existed that could not be denied. But he “ah,” once, which could be regarded as agreeing.
Feng Ning quietly nestled in his arms, and then yawned. She finally couldn’t fight against her weariness, and even though she wanted to talk, her eyelids refused to stay open. Finally, on this warm stone bed she fell deep asleep.
Feng Ning slept very comfortably, and when she woke up it was already late in the morning. She opened her eyes, only to find that Long San was already out of bed. Feng Ning was so frightened that she sat up with a ‘whoosh,’ but her two legs were in so much pain that she grimaced. What Long San said wasn’t wrong. With her legs that fell over and over again yesterday, it seemed like today was going to be a lot of suffering.
She lifted off the blanket, and rolled up her trousers to take a look. Her legs were swollen like plump radishes. She whimpered, and enduring the pain, dragged both her feet onto the floor. She looked left and right, and the room had no changes except for a basin of water in front of the bed. She freshened up a little, and saw two pears placed on the table. She smiled, rushed over there, then took a few bites out of the pears.
Just as she swallowed the last bite of pear, Aunt Ma pushed open the door and entered. She saw Feng Ning was out of bed, and laughingly said, “You’re awake? Quickly come eat something.”
Her hands were carrying two large bowls. One bowl had rice and two large mantous* on top of it, and the other was a large bowl of vegetables, lotus root, sweet potato leaves and also a few pieces of bacon. When Feng Ning saw them, her stomach was so hungry it ‘gugu’ called out. Quickly giving thanks, she took them and ate with huge bites.
*Plain steamed buns, google it!
Aunt Ma saw her eating appearance, and laughed. “Zhu Gongzi* said that you eat well. Yesterday you were startled, and to save him you walked for a really long time, so you must be starving. He asked me to prepare more food for you to eat. Do you think this is enough?”
*A t.i.tle used for the sons of n.o.bles or officials.
Feng Ning smiled until her eyes curved, and straightforwardly answered, “Wait until I’m finished eating, and if it’s not enough, I will definitely tell Aunt Ma.”
As Aunt Ma heard this, she was surprised, and then she started openly laughing. This Zhu family’s little wife was interesting. Feng Ning then asked, “Aunt Ma, where is my husband?”
“My husband borrowed a donkey cart, and took him to the neighboring town to see a doctor, and to also purchase a few things.” Aunt Ma replied. “Today at dawn, the mountain bandits you two spoke of really did arrive. They wore black outfits, and carried knives and swords. There were several of them together, asking if we’ve seen a young man and woman.”
Feng Ning was so nervous that she stopped her chopstick movements, and Aunt Ma continued, “My husband said he never saw such people. Someone in that group said, ‘This was far, and suffering from injury, there was no way they could’ve made it this far. They are certainly still hiding somewhere.’ Then they muttered amongst themselves for a while, and left.”
Aunt Ma poured a cup of water for Feng Ning, and motioned for her to eat, then said, “Zhu Gongzi at that moment had already woken up. He waited until they left, and then came out to tell us, that the people chasing after you two to kill you both were them. Afterwards, he and my husband had a discussion, and they went to the nearest town to grab some medicine, and to send a letter home about the situation.”
Feng Ning nodded, and once more gave a heartfelt thanks towards Uncle Ma and Aunt Ma. As her sweet-talking mouth spoke, it made Aunt Ma blossom with joy, so she sat with her for a while chattering about the daily affairs of running a household. Waiting for Feng Ning to finish eating, she very politely asked if she was full yet? This resulted in Feng Ning touching her belly, and after thinking, she said, “I also want to eat pears.”
Her honesty and bluntness caused Aunt Ma to loudly ‘haha’ laugh. “We have them, we have them. They were personally planted by us, and are extremely fresh, and very delicious.” Feng Ning incessantly nodded in agreement, and Aunt Ma said, “Zhu Gongzi was right, your appet.i.te is really good.” When Feng Ning heard this she ‘hehe’ smiled, and Aunt Ma continued, “He instructed that you stay in the house, and to not let anyone see you. I’m going to pick some pears for you, so don’t go outside.”
Feng Ning happily responded, and Aunt Ma hurriedly went to work to get her pears.
When she woke up again, she saw Long San beside the bed smiling at her. Feng Ning blinked, and was drowsily half-awake. She stretched her hands towards him, and tenderly called, “Husband…”
Long San brought her into an embrace, “I heard you slept for a whole day.” He was really a little worried. How come she didn’t even have a bit of wariness? It’s lucky that he had quickly rushed back. Feng Ning rubbed her eyes, “After eating I just slept.” Suddenly she remembered proper business, “Where did you go earlier? How did everything go?”
“Everything has been arranged.” Long San walked over to the side of the table. On one side he started to open up a package of medicine, pouring it into a basin, and on the other he poured some yellow wine into it. Afterwards, he grabbed a wooden roller and crushed the few herbs.
A whiff of stinkiness pa.s.sed over, and Feng Ning covered her nose. Long San followed up and said, “We’ll stay here for two days, to wait for our wounds to heal a bit before travelling on the road. As for those people who attacked us, I already have an idea, so we can figure it out later. We’ll first return home.”
“Was it to steal that case from your family?”
“No, I have already arranged for someone to send it back. It’s not on me.”
“Why is that?”
“The two of us sort of make a big target. It was better to find someone inconspicuous to take it to safety.” Long San also seemed to be affected by the stinkiness that a.s.saulted his nose, and his eyebrows knitted together extremely tightly.
“No, I wasn’t talking about the case. What incident was this for? Did you stir trouble in someone else’s stronghold?”
“No.”
“Did you steal someone else’s treasure?”
“No.” Long San had pounded the medicine until there wasn’t much left, poured medical powder in, and turned around. Feng Ning stared at the dark, sticky, gooey like it would stick on your tongue medicine, and alarmingly asked, “What does that do?”
“It’s to apply on your legs to get rid of the swelling.” He carried the medicine basin closer to her, and hinted at Feng Ning to roll up her trouser legs.
Feng Ning’s face was scrunched up because of the stinkiness, and she rapidly shrunk back into the bed. “No, no, my legs will be fine after eating a few more meals, and sleeping twice. You mustn’t let that touch me by all means.”
Long San’s faced stiffened, and in a calm voice said, “It’s already become swollen like this, and the blood vessels are blocked. If you don’t apply medicine to it, it will leave behind a lingering pain. Try moving a little and see for yourself. Doesn’t it hurt tremendously?”
Just now when Feng Ning shrunk back she already knew that her own legs hurt a lot more compared to before, but that medicine was really just too smelly*. But right now, even more terrible* was Long San’s face. He said, “Come down, sit on the edge of the bed, and roll up your trousers.”
*The word used to describe these two instances is the same one, which can mean smelly, or terrible depending on context. Feng Ning is making a play on words lol, like his face looks even more “stinky” than the medicine.
His voice was not very loud, but was strangely imposing. Feng Ning curled her lips, but didn’t dare disobey, and very slowly shifted over to the edge of the bed. In the middle of the process her legs truly hurt so much that she took in a sharp breath, then afterwards when she rolled up her trousers, she was frightened into taking another breath. These were her legs? They were green and swollen, and bulged like they were going to explode.
As Long San saw her legs, his eyes darkened. He quickly placed the medicine basin beneath her legs, and then used his hands to grab the medicinal powder and spread it over her legs.
Feng Ning was hurting so much that she pulled her leg back, but Long San held it down. The stench of the medicine rapidly rose, and it a.s.saulted her nose until she didn’t even dare to breathe. After a while, she could no longer endure it and started to complain, “Long San, I’m going to die from the stench soon.”
“Endure it.” Long San’s face was closer to the medicine basin, where the smell a.s.saulted him even more, and he didn’t even say a single thing. What was she complaining about?
“This way of dying is too tragic.” Feng Ning’s mouth didn’t stop.
Long San really wanted to reply to her, but it was really too smelly, and he could not follow up. Holding his breath, he quickly and carefully applied the rest of the medicinal paste on her legs. However Feng Ning once again displayed a spirit of not giving up, and suddenly said, “Long San, I’ve just remembered something.”
This phrase made Long San lift his head, “What did you remember?”
“When I was very young, I had once let out a really, really smelly fart, and it a.s.saulted the noses of the entire house of people, and everyone then chased after me to kill me. I ran and ran, ran all the way into the melon field to hide.”
Long San astonishingly looked at her, and asked, “Are you telling me a joke?”
Feng Ning glared at him, “What joke, I’m serious. Didn’t you say if I remembered anything I needed to tell you? This stench is so stinky that it made me remember.”
“You farted, and then everyone chased after you to kill you?” Long San tried really hard to control his facial expression; can’t laugh, must endure.
Feng Ning nodded, “Yeah, and they also carried sticks. That time a few of us kids were sleeping together in one room, so how were they able to see that I was the one who did it?” Feng Ning held onto her chin and tried really hard to remember. “Did I return from the melon field afterwards? Where was that place? I think I also let out another big, smelly fart at the melon field.”
As Feng Ning was deeply immersed within her own memory, Long San really couldn’t hold back any longer and loudly ‘haha’ laughed out. He laughed to the point that he couldn’t squat anymore, and his b.u.t.t fell onto the floor. He simply sat on the floor like that, and ‘hahaha’ laughed enjoyably.
Feng Ning saw him laugh, and was annoyed. “How could you not have some compa.s.sion towards this? I was embarra.s.sed and bullied, and you’re actually laughing.”
Long San was really laughing so much that he couldn’t close his mouth, “Then what should I do?”
“You should at least express some sympathy.”
“Alright, I really do sympathize with you.”
“Yeah, really, how pitiful I was, being chased out of the room by my young companions, and crouching outside unable to sleep.” Feng Ning was being long-winded, but Long San thought there was something a bit off. Feng Ning was the only daughter, and as a child her family was well off. From the way she was speaking, it seemed like she had lived in the countryside, slept with other children in one room, and there were even melon fields? Long San lowered his head and continued to apply medicine on Feng Ning, and his mind nevertheless started to deliberate. They really should make a trip to the Feng family.
But Long San didn’t expect that he didn’t need to go to the Feng family, that they would take the initiative to send themselves over.
When he had settled things, he took Feng Ning and rushed back home. This trip was really delightful, and Feng Ning had quietly, bit by bit, knocked open his heart. He was a bit perturbed. In the end, what should he do?
Feng Ning also felt that this journey was wonderful. Luckily she didn’t want to go home at the time, and thinking in a very simple manner had followed Long San the entire way. She was not stupid. She was aware of Long San’s feelings towards her, and was also able to tell from experience that he still held some reservations. Even though she had repeatedly said she didn’t want to be a pig, but she couldn’t deny that she liked Long San, liked him more and more, and that he was the husband she would be glad to have. She felt that she needed to put in more effort to win him over. Long San treated her so well, and the way he looked at her was so gentle. If she added more enthusiasm, she would definitely be able to get rid of his misgivings, and make him forget about the bad things of her past.
When they returned to the Long family, just as they entered the house, an announcement was made at the door, “Lord Feng and Lady Feng have arrived.”
Feng Ning’s heart stirred, and as she looked over at Long San, sure enough his complexion was not good. He nodded his head at her and said, “It’s your father and mother.”
Feng Ning was a bit nervous. She pulled on Long San’s hand and said, “I don’t remember them, what should I do? What should I say? Long San, you need to accompany me over there.”
Long San patted the back of her hand, and holding her, walked together through the manor. On the way, there were already servants who reported to Long Er that Long San returned to the manor, so Long Er had sent some people over to guide them over to see the Feng family’s married couple.
Walking into the reception hall, Long Er was sitting directly across from the Feng family’s married couple drinking tea with an atmosphere that couldn’t be called harmonious, but he still carried a smiling face. Feng Ning looked, and the Feng family’s married couple seemed to both be around forty years of age or so. The man’s appearance was upright, but his tightly knit brows made him appear slightly severe. The woman was as beautiful and alluring as a flower, but her countenance nevertheless expressed a bit of craftiness.
Feng Ning stared, and had an indescribable feeling in her heart. This, was her father and mother?