I Marry a Wife for my Big Brother, Starting Out With Exile - Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Listen to Sister-in-Law in Everything

Hearing the commotion, everyone looked toward the source and saw Jiang Jinyue walking straight toward Lord Xu.

There was little emotion on her face, but her cold, clear brows and eyes exuded a reassuring calmness.

Xu Xiao scrambled back up to his side, looking at Jiang Jinyue with eyes full of hope, “Miss Jiang…”

“She is Madam Li,” Grandma Li blurted out abruptly from not far away. Since she had already married her eldest grandson, what was this “Miss Jiang” business?

Xu Xiao’s face froze for a moment, and he immediately corrected himself, “My apologies, Madam Li.”

Jiang Jinyue seemed not to hear their words and ignored everyone entirely. Bending down of her own accord, she placed her fingers on Lord Xu’s pulse, closed her eyes, and concentrated on feeling the pulse.

The atmosphere fell quiet for a moment, and everyone’s eyes landed on the cold-tempered woman.

“Boss Gu?” A guard asked softly. Were they just going to watch like this?

Boss Gu raised a hand, signaling him not to speak. If there really was someone in the procession who understood medicine, it was a good thing.

Li Chenghuan hesitated for a moment before lifting her foot to walk toward Jiang Jinyue.

Although safflower oil mainly functioned to reduce swelling, relieve pain, and promote blood circulation to remove blood stasis, the bottle rewarded by the golden finger was clearly extraordinary. Just half a day had passed, and she felt that the wound on her head was almost completely healed.

Perhaps she could be of help, too.

Of course, she understood the principle of self-preservation; the reason she stood out was because of Jiang Jinyue.

In her modern life, Li Chenghuan had read transmigration novels and understood the heavy weight of the word “heroine.” Since Jiang Jinyue was the heroine, her safety was guaranteed, and even when encountering danger, she would surely turn misfortune into a blessing.

What’s more, Jiang Jinyue was the key figure who triggered the golden finger. Whether for the sake of rewards or future safety, following the heroine’s lead in everything would most likely not go wrong.

As Li Chenghuan drew near, Jiang Jinyue also opened her eyes.

“How is my father?” Xu Xiao asked anxiously and eagerly.

Jiang Jinyue slowly stood up and said with unruffled composure, “I’m sorry, I cannot be of much help.”

Xu Xiao’s face turned abruptly pale, and holding onto a shred of wishful thinking, he pursued, “This… this meaning… what does this mean?”

Due to excessive worry and tension, he could no longer string together a complete sentence.

With an unchanged expression, Jiang Jinyue lowered her eyes and said, “Leave it to the heavens.”

The implication was that there was no need to exhaust human efforts anymore.

The last trace of wishful thinking in the depths of Xu Xiao’s heart was completely extinguished, and his knees buckled, sending him crashing straight to the ground. He tightly grasped his father’s hand, unable to utter another word.

“The Li woman, is Lord Xu truly beyond saving?” Wang Yue ultimately failed to hold back, walking over to ask Jiang Jinyue.

Jiang Jinyue’s expression seemed to turn abruptly cold: “Your Highness, this subject’s daughter’s surname is Jiang.”

Wang Yue hadn’t expected this response and subconsciously said, “Didn’t you already marry into the Li family?”

Jiang Jinyue frowned, repeating word by word, “This subject’s daughter’s surname is Jiang, given name Jinyue.”

She was Jiang Jinyue, not some Li woman.

A trace of annoyance flashed in Wang Yue’s heart, and she coldly rebuked, “This prince is asking you, can Lord Xu still be saved?”

The once lofty Crown Prince had gone from having her true identity exposed to becoming a criminal in the span of a single day. She had yet to adapt to the transformation of her identity and instinctively put on the airs of someone in a superior position.

A deep, dark look flashed in the depths of Jiang Jinyue’s eyes. She pressed her lips together and said without a shred of emotion, “Beyond recovery.”

Four words, directly pronouncing Lord Xu’s death sentence.

As soon as these words were spoken, Xu Xiao instantly burst into tears. Seeing this, the other prisoners felt a sympathetic grief, and many began to sob quietly.

“Are you holding a funeral? Everyone get moving for me, hurry up!” Boss Gu spat out a mouthful of phlegm and cracked his whip against the ground. It was just past noon, so there was no way he would let the prisoners rest indefinitely; they still had to march for the rest of the afternoon.

With a sharp snap of the whip, the prisoners could no longer afford to shed tears, scrambling to their feet one after another.

Wang Yue was also dragged away by Grand Tutor Yu toward the front of the procession.

The procession set off. No one paid any more attention to the Xu father and son—not because they were cold-hearted, but because they were either starving or injured, struggling even to protect themselves and completely lacking the extra energy to care about others.

Xu Xiao looked at Jiang Jinyue and Li Chenghuan, who were still standing in place without moving, and said through his tears, “Li… Miss Jiang, Miss Li, might I trouble you to help me lift my father up?”

With that, he squatted down, adopting a posture ready to carry someone on his back.

Jiang Jinyue said nothing and stepped forward directly to help support Lord Xu.

Having made up her mind to closely follow the heroine’s footsteps, Li Chenghuan bent down to help without a second word.

Grandma Li and Li Chenglale, who had walked over at some point, also remained silent and silently lent a hand in supporting him.

With his father firmly on his back, Xu Xiao bent over with difficulty, tears in his eyes as he said, “Many thanks to you all.”

“No need,” Jiang Jinyue said indifferently. Without even glancing at the three members of the Li family, she took a stride forward.

Grandma Li curled her lips, “That jinx…”

“Grandmother, let’s hurry up and catch up too.” Li Chenghuan timely interrupted the old lady’s words and strode forward to catch up with Jiang Jinyue.

Grandma Li opened her mouth, wanting to scold her ill-fated granddaughter for not knowing inside from outside, but the words reached the edge of her lips and she swallowed them back.

That jinx definitely still had good things on her; they had to coax her. She would endure it.

With this delay, the three members of the Li family and Jiang Jinyue all fell toward the back. Behind them were Xu Xiao, carrying his father on his back, and Zhou Yuan, the bailiff stationed at the very tail end of the procession.

After walking for half an hour, Li Chenghuan thoughtfully sized up Jiang Jinyue, who was walking straight ahead without looking aside. Her cold-beauty sister-in-law wasn’t injured, yet she wasn’t walking fast either, as if she were deliberately slowing her pace.

She looked back at Xu Xiao, who was walking slower and slower, and formed a guess in her heart: Was Jiang Jinyue trying to help Xu Xiao?

Yet in the original body’s memories, there was no particular friendship between the Jiang family and the Xu family; these two didn’t look close at all. Moreover, the Jiang family had just defected to Wang Yue, and the Minister of Revenue had previously acted as an enemy to Wang Yue, frequently attacking officials in Wang Yue’s faction.

Then why would Jiang Jinyue want to help Xu Xiao?

Yes, after sorting through her thoughts a little, she had already confirmed her suspicion.

Jiang Jinyue was a clever person whose temperament was notoriously cold, disliking social interaction with others.

Such a person had nevertheless taken the initiative to step forward and diagnose Lord Xu’s pulse, risking the trouble it might bring. Li Chenghuan did not believe Jiang Jinyue had simply been overcome by a sudden burst of benevolence.

She was more inclined to believe that Jiang Jinyue had her own calculations. As for what she was plotting, Li Chenghuan couldn’t quite tell yet.

Amidst her musings, an exclamation rang out from behind.

It turned out that Xu Xiao’s physical strength had failed him; he stumbled, half-kneeling onto the ground, and almost fell over.

Li Chenghuan involuntarily looked toward the person beside her. As she expected, Jiang Jinyue paused her steps, turned around to help Xu Xiao up, and then calmly moved forward again as if nothing had happened, her expression lacking the slightest bit of fluctuation.

A thought stirred in Li Chenghuan’s heart, and she tentatively asked, “Sister-in-law, should we help Young Master Xu support Lord Xu? Otherwise, sooner or later he won’t be able to keep up.”

“I see you’re like a salted turnip worrying about salty things,” Grandma Li retorted, letting out a long breath of relief.

She could finally be comfortable; she had been enduring for an awfully long time.

Li Chenghuan forced a smile: “Grandmother, I’m asking sister-in-law. In our family, sister-in-law is the one who has read the most books. From now on, let’s listen to sister-in-law in everything, how about that?”

Grandma Li gnashed her teeth, squeezing out a single word after a long pause: “Fine.” To coax all the good things out of Jiang Jinyue’s hands, she would endure it.

However, her ill-fated granddaughter was being far too eager to please. Even though she could endure it, she felt suffocated to death.

Jiang Jinyue cast a scrutinizing look at Grandma Li, then shifted her gaze to Li Chenghuan’s face, her eyes filled with wariness.

This pair of grandmother and granddaughter was abnormal. One was showing uncalled-for goodwill, while the other cursed her as a jinx in one breath only to turn around and agree to listen to her words.

And then there was Li Chenglale, who had risked her life to protect her—all three members of the Li family were deeply abnormal.

Noticing Jiang Jinyue’s gaze, Li Chenghuan twitched the corners of her mouth and smiled slightly, “Sister-in-law, what do you think of my suggestion just now?”

The cold beauty’s guard was simply too high! Not only was she unmoved by their words, but she had even started raising her guard against them.

What should she do if she suddenly felt that the golden finger’s rewards were becoming harder to farm? She knew she was being too impatient, but their current predicament simply did not allow her to take things step by step.

She was currently in urgent need of obtaining rewards and rapidly stockpiling useful supplies so she could have an easier time going forward.

Jiang Jinyue thought for a moment and nodded gently: “Alright.” No matter what the Li family wanted to do, as long as it didn’t get in her way, that was fine; and if it could offer some assistance to her, that would be even better.

As soon as her voice fell, Li Chenglale, who had remained silent all this time, volunteered herself: “Sister-in-law, I have a lot of strength, I can carry Lord Xu.”

Gritting her teeth, Grandma Li chimed in, “Let the third one take turns carrying him with the Xu boy.”

Seeing that Grandma Li had also said this, Li Chenghuan knew the old lady must have already applied the safflower oil to Li Chenglale, so she didn’t stop her.

Jiang Jinyue, however, disapproved: “Third sister has injuries on her back, let’s take turns supporting him instead.”

Regardless of what the Li family’s motives were, Li Chenglale had blocked four whip lashes for her; she could not return kindness with enmity for her own selfish reasons.

Li Chenglale grinned broadly: “Sister-in-law, my injuries are all better.”

While Jiang Jinyue was diagnosing Lord Xu earlier, her grandmother had reached right inside her clothes and applied medicine to her; she didn’t feel any pain now at all, just as if she had never been injured.

A look of astonishment flashed across Jiang Jinyue’s eyes. The young girl was smiling sincerely, not seeming to lie, but how could whip wounds heal so quickly?

Abruptly, she remembered Li Chenghuan asking her earlier if she was injured and mentioning that she had healing medicine with miraculous pain-relieving effects.

Her gaze deepened. It seemed the healing medicine in the hands of the Li family was out of the ordinary…

Thinking of this, Jiang Jinyue looked at Li Chenghuan: “Do you still have healing medicine?”

Although Lord Xu was infected with illness, the primary reason he had passed out was the whip wounds. If those whip wounds could heal early on, there was still a possibility he might wake up.

If the Xu father and son brought medicines for curing illnesses, Lord Xu might not fail to pull through.

Li Chenghuan answered without hesitation: “I do.”

“Might you lend it to me? If there is an opportunity in the future, I will definitely—” Before Jiang Jinyue could finish speaking, a medicine bottle was shoved into her hand.

Li Chenghuan interrupted her words, saying earnestly, “Sister-in-law, from now on, you’re the one who calls the shots in our family; you don’t need to stand on ceremony with me.”

[Heroine’s corruption value reduced by one, rewarded with a box of fever medication.]

Jiang Jinyue gave her a deep look, tightened her grip on the medicine bottle, and turned to walk toward Xu Xiao.

Li Chenghuan immediately followed. The reward this time was fever medication; without needing to guess, she knew who it was meant for.

Only, this time’s reward wasn’t something she urgently needed herself, but rather something Jiang Jinyue urgently needed. It seemed her golden finger had deep ties with Jiang Jinyue indeed.