I Crossed Over with My Enemy, Only to Find Him Running the Empire - Chapter 13

Chapter 13: Feeding the Medicine

Li Qiaoqiao’s laughter gradually subsided, finally turning into gasping sobs.

Supporting herself against the door, she stood up and rubbed her cheeks, which were aching from laughing so hard. She walked to the edge of the kang and, by the flickering lamplight, looked at the motionless back of the “fool.”

She knew exactly what was going on. This fellow was still holding a grudge over her deliberately eating both their portions at noon and leaving him hungry!

“Tsk, petty ghost,” she muttered under her breath, though her lips couldn’t help but curve upward again.

The contrast between Wu Ya’s childish sulking and his earlier “divine spit” was simply too entertaining.

Just then, heavy footsteps approached from a distance, carrying a palpable sense of fury, and stopped outside the door.

BANG!

The door was kicked open violently from the outside, hitting the wall with a dull thud.

Zhang Jinhua stepped inside like a god of wrath, carrying a large coarse porcelain bowl, her face grim.

The bowl was more than half-filled with a brownish-yellow liquid, steaming hot. A pungent, stinging scent of ginger mixed with the cloying sweetness of low-grade brown sugar instantly filled the room.

Without glancing at Li Qiaoqiao on the floor, she walked straight to the bedside and slammed the bowl down on the edge of the kang.

“Get up! Drink it!” Zhang Jinhua’s voice was cold and hard as she commanded the bundled figure on the bed.

As if disturbed by the sudden noise, Wu Tieniu slowly rolled over.

His eyelids were half-drooped, his gaze hazily sweeping over the steaming ginger water, then over his mother’s face—which was dark enough to drip ink—and finally, as if finding his anchor, his dull eyes slowly settled on Li Qiaoqiao.

In the next second, a large, bony hand shot out from under the covers and grabbed Li Qiaoqiao’s hem, gripping it tight.

The force was so great it pulled Li Qiaoqiao into a stumble, nearly making her fall onto the bed.

“Wife…” he drawled, his voice thick and muddled with a child-like, clingy whine. “Feed… want wife to feed…”

Every word was like a heavy hammer slamming into Zhang Jinhua’s taut nerves.

The hand holding the bowl trembled violently, causing some of the scalding ginger water to splash out.

Fine! She knew it!

She knew this little hussy was pulling the strings behind the scenes! It was her instigation, her lack of teaching! She was using this fool as a tool to manipulate her mother-in-law!

Otherwise, how could Tieniu have become like this? How could he be so shameless as to put on such a lowly display right in front of her?

This was a deliberate attempt to embarrass her, a deliberate slap to her old face!

Li Qiaoqiao felt two gazes like ice picks stabbing into her face, making her skin prickle.

The loathing in Zhang Jinhua’s eyes was undisguised and so intense that a layer of cold sweat instantly broke out on Li Qiaoqiao’s back.

She knew that, at this moment, her mother-in-law truly wanted to skin her alive.

However, the arrow was on the string; there was no turning back.

Taking a deep breath, she forced down the fluttering in her heart and looked at Zhang Jinhua with a slightly apologetic smile, as if to say, “Mother, don’t be angry, he’s just a fool who doesn’t know any better.”

“Mother, look at this…” Her voice was soft and gentle, carrying a hint of awkwardness. “Tieniu is just stubborn. How about… I do it? I wouldn’t want you to get burned.”

As she spoke, she reached out quite naturally to take the bowl from Zhang Jinhua’s hands.

Zhang Jinhua’s hand jerked back as if she had touched something filthy.

She stared intensely at Li Qiaoqiao’s outstretched hand, the disgust in her eyes almost overflowing.

After a standoff lasting two or three breaths—watching her son clutch Li Qiaoqiao’s clothes without letting go, and hearing him mumble “wife feed” again—the foul air in Zhang Jinhua’s chest nearly burst through her throat.

She shoved the bowl forward with such force it almost splashed all over Li Qiaoqiao, squeezing words through her teeth: “Hold it steady! Don’t you dare spill a single drop!”

Li Qiaoqiao caught the bowl steadily. Under Zhang Jinhua’s knife-like gaze, she sat sideways on the edge of the kang.

She picked up the wooden spoon in the bowl, carefully scooped up half a spoonful of the dark ginger water, and brought it to her lips, blowing on it with a natural, gentle breath.

The rising steam blurred her lowered eyelashes. Then, she steadily moved the spoon to Wu Tieniu’s slightly parted lips.

“Tieniu,” her voice was light and soft, like she was coaxing a small child. “Come, open up. You won’t be cold after drinking the ginger water, and you’ll get better faster. Be good.”

Wu Tieniu’s cloudy eyes stared straight at the spoon, then at Li Qiaoqiao’s face inches away. An indistinct gurgle came from his throat.

Just as Zhang Jinhua thought he was going to be stubborn again and prepared for another outburst, he actually opened his mouth slightly and obediently took the spoon.

Wu Ya endured the pungent spiciness and the sickly sweetness. He knew full well that while this stuff tasted awful, in an ancient farming family lacking medicine, a hot bowl of ginger water to drive out the cold after falling into water was indeed a life-saving necessity.

He didn’t want to actually make himself sick; that would be a losing bargain.

So, he cooperated perfectly, swallowing the ginger water Li Qiaoqiao fed him, spoonful by spoonful.

Li Qiaoqiao’s movements were unhurried. She fed him with extreme care, occasionally using her sleeve to wipe away the traces of liquid at the “fool’s” mouth.

When the bowl was nearly empty, Wu Tieniu let out a satisfied burp, and his eyelids began to droop heavily as he fell into a drowsy state.

Zhang Jinhua suddenly stepped forward and roughly snatched the empty bowl from Li Qiaoqiao’s hand.

“That’s enough!” she barked. “You sightless creature! Still standing here like a corpse? Expecting me to serve you tea and water? The kitchen! The pigsty! The firewood in the backyard! Are you blind to the mountain of work piled up? Get out and get to work! If it’s not finished by dark, I’ll have your hide!”

Li Qiaoqiao stood up submissively with her head bowed. There wasn’t a trace of anger on her face after being insulted; instead, she was exceptionally calm. Behind her lowered lashes, a flicker of relief passed through her eyes.

“Yes, Mother. I’m going now.”

Without another look at the “fool” on the bed—who had already closed his eyes and was snoring softly—or at her mother-in-law, she turned with a light step. Like a gust of wind, she left the room, gently closing the door behind her.

Work? Why would she fear work?

In the Li family, what kind of bitter, exhausting labor had she not done? She had worked the fields under the scorching sun, carried heavy buckets of manure to water vegetables, and wielded hoes taller than herself to clear land.

The household chores of the Wu family were, to her, nothing more than a way to stretch her muscles!

Besides, the two large bowls of coarse rice she had intentionally overeaten at noon were still sitting heavy in her stomach. Moving around now was the perfect way to digest!

Thinking of Wu Ya’s frustrated expression at noon—where he wanted to lose his temper but had to hold it in because of his “fool” persona—Li Qiaoqiao’s lips once again curled up uncontrollably.

She could even imagine that the “sleeping” Wu Ya on the kang was probably laughing secretly in his heart upon hearing her being kicked out of work!

“Hmph, childish ghost!” she mouthed silently toward the closed door.

Then, she walked briskly toward the kitchen, her back straight and her steps light.