The Gusu Mistake - Chapter 23

“My child, my child!” When he heard that Jiang Yilan and Yuan Ruo had returned with his son, Squire Zhong stumbled out, practically crawling on his hands and knees. He hurriedly took the boy into his arms but, seeing that he was unconscious, he was so distraught he was on the verge of tears. “Why isn’t he waking up?” he cried.

“Don’t worry, he’s fine!” Jiang Yilan comforted him. “The most urgent thing now is to remove the (gu) from his body.”

Hearing this, Squire Zhong felt a bit relieved. “I’ve already had people prepare the medicinal ingredients. They’ll be ready soon. I wonder, my lady…?”

“We can start as soon as the ingredients are ready!” Jiang Yilan replied. “For now, please take your son back to his room.”

“Alright!”

“Wait!” Jiang Yilan called out again. “I need you to prepare one more ingredient for me. Don’t wait for the others; just bring it directly to me as soon as it’s ready!”

Though confused, Squire Zhong agreed. “Understood. The two of you, please rest in the guest room. I’ll have someone bring the ingredients once they’re ready!”

After arriving at the guest room, Jiang Yilan insisted that Yuan Ruo sit down. She then took her hand and carefully examined the wound.

“I’m fine, you don’t need to be so thorough,” Yuan Ruo tried to pull her hand away, but Jiang Yilan wouldn’t let go.

“You can’t be careless with these (gu) worms. If the poison is potent, even a small wound could be deadly!”

Yuan Ruo said, “Didn’t you already treat it with your powder?”

“That powder is only for common (gu) poisons,” Jiang Yilan sighed. “There’s no guarantee that that scoundrel didn’t use some horrific, inhumane concoction.”

Yuan Ruo, however, wasn’t worried and even joked, “If I die, won’t you be a widow?”

“Bah!”

Yuan Ruo was taken aback by Jiang Yilan’s reaction, thinking she disliked the word “widow.” Just as she was about to explain that it was a joke, she heard Jiang Yilan say:

“You’re too young to be saying such inauspicious things!”

“Heh,” Yuan Ruo chuckled softly. “You don’t mind me calling you a widow, but you mind me talking about dying?”

“Of course not!” Jiang Yilan said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “I’ve never been this close to anyone my whole life. You’re the first, so of course, I want you to be well!”

Hearing this, Yuan Ruo smiled even more brightly. “So, I’m special to you?”

“Naturally!” Jiang Yilan looked up, deep in thought. “If I had to find someone to spend the rest of my life with, I’d rather be with you than with a husband.”

Yuan Ruo’s eyes filled with a smile. “I’m going to remember you said that!”

“Remember it, go ahead and remember it!” Jiang Yilan swayed her head. “I’m just afraid that one day, when you find your ideal husband, you’ll be eager for me to be far away!”

“No, never!”

“Huh?”

“My lady, here are the ingredients you requested!” The servant’s voice interrupted their conversation.

“So fast? That’s great!” Jiang Yilan took the package, which contained a bottle of gray powder. She poured some out, then took Yuan Ruo’s hand again. “This will hurt a little; bear with it!”

Yuan Ruo wanted to say she wasn’t afraid, but the moment the powder touched her wound, she couldn’t help but gasp.

“It hurts, doesn’t it? Don’t be tough,” Jiang Yilan put away the remaining powder and wrapped the wound with a strip of cloth. “You can cry out a little, no one will laugh at you!”

Yuan Ruo frowned in pain but held back her cries. However, the gritting of her teeth when she spoke revealed the immense pain she was enduring. “What is this?”

“It’s an antidote for the (gu) poisons. The pain will subside in about a quarter of an hour,” Jiang Yilan gently blew on the wound through the cloth, trying to soothe her.

“It’s fine now!” Yuan Ruo pulled her hand away and held it herself. “You still have to cure the child’s(gu), so I’ll just endure this little wound on my own. You’ve been on the road for so long; you must be tired. Get some rest!”

“Ha, it’s just a small thing, it won’t be complicated,” Jiang Yilan said nonchalantly, sitting on a chair and pouring tea. “Once everything is ready, it won’t take long to solve the problem!”

“It’s that simple?” Yuan Ruo also wanted to sit down but noticed the servant was still there. After sending him away, she finally sat down. “I don’t know much about (gu), so I thought it would be very complicated!”

“It’s not complicated,” Jiang Yilan handed the poured tea to Yuan Ruo. “In comparison, I’m more worried about that scoundrel coming back!”

Yuan Ruo thought about it. “It’s a definite problem that we let that man get away!”

“But he was injured by me!” Jiang Yilan said. “That blow wasn’t fatal, but it’s enough to make him suffer. He’ll need some time to recover!”

“I’m just afraid that he won’t give up once he’s healed,” Yuan Ruo sighed. “The Zhong family will always be here, but we can’t protect them forever.”

Jiang Yilan asked, “So what should we do? Should we go look for him?”

“The world is vast; where would we even begin to look?” Yuan Ruo shook her head. “That’s not a feasible plan!”

“Then this is troublesome,” Jiang Yilan said, spreading her hands, at a loss for words.

As the two of them were discussing how to prevent the square-faced man from returning to take revenge on the Zhong family, they were completely unaware that he had collapsed on the roadside from blood loss. A group of people led by Wu Yunfei happened to be passing by and kicked him.

“What’s this?” Wu Yunfei didn’t notice at first. When he looked down, he saw what looked like a corpse and kicked it again with displeasure. “How unlucky to run into a corpse!”

“Ugh!” To their surprise, the “corpse” came to life and slowly raised a hand. “Please… please save me… I’ll… I’ll do anything…”

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