Sweet Rebirth: The Little Healer

Hua Yusen froze for a moment before it dawned on him. His relationship with Zhao Nuanyue was a secret. They hadn’t gone public for the sake of their mission, so nobody else knew.

That being the case, it really wasn’t appropriate for him to walk Zhao Nuanyue home.

”Heh heh... I almost forgot!” Hua Yusen chuckled sheepishly. ”My apologies, my apologies. Sorry to trouble you, Aunt Li!”

Li Guihua smiled, her eyes darting between Hua Yusen and Zhao Nuanyue as if she had figured out their secret.

Zhao Nuanyue felt a little awkward. She hadn’t been in the water long enough to pass out, but she was cold and couldn’t help but shiver.

”Thank you,” Zhao Nuanyue said quietly. ”ACHOO!”

”Hurry back. Aunt Li, could you make some ginger soup for Nuanyue?” Hua Yusen added. ”Thank you for your trouble!”

”It’s no trouble at all, it’s what I should do.” Li Guihua led Zhao Nuanyue away, heading toward the Dragon King Temple.

Along the way, Zhao Nuanyue sneezed several more times. Her face was flushed, and it looked like she was catching a cold.

When they reached the Dragon King Temple, Li Guihua said to Zhao Nuanyue in a low voice, ”We have you to thank for today. Otherwise, our village would have been thrown into chaos.”

”Sigh, I was terrified when I saw it too. But then I thought, if they succeeded, our Nianqiao Village would be plunged into chaos,” Zhao Nuanyue said humbly. ”This is our home, and I don’t want anything bad to happen to it.”

Li Guihua patted Zhao Nuanyue on the shoulder. ”That’s right. We can’t control the big picture, but we have to take care of Nianqiao Village. Enough talk. You get some rest, and I’ll go make you that ginger soup. But something like what you did today... it works once. Any more than that, and it’ll lose its effect. The village might use this incident to deal with Zheng Delin later. Oh, I forgot to tell you—that Zheng Delin is Wang Dadan’s brother-in-law. You know they’re no good. If they get what they want, Miao, you, me, Mr. Hua, the elders... all of Nianqiao Village will suffer.”

”Mm, I understand. I’ll cooperate with the village’s decision,” Zhao Nuanyue nodded. ”I know they’re not good people. They don’t care if we live or die.”

”Good, as long as you understand.” Li Guihua nodded. ’It’s good that Nuanyue gets it. She’s clever, too, and seems loyal to Nianqiao Village. We should try to bring her into the fold.’ ”I’ll go make the ginger soup!”

’Wait a minute. Hua Yusen jumped into the river to save me. My clothes are wet, so his must be too! If I’m catching a cold, he probably is as well!’

After changing her clothes, Zhao Nuanyue went to the kitchen to help Aunt Li with the fire. ”Aunt Li,” she said with a smile, ”please make some extra ginger soup. We should have Mr. Hua come back for a bowl too. He jumped in the water to save me earlier.”

Hearing this, Li Guihua’s lips curved into a smile. She gave Zhao Nuanyue a knowing look and said quietly, ”That Mr. Hua certainly is a good man. He cares about you a lot. You’d better treat him well!”

Zhao Nuanyue nodded eagerly, but when she looked up and saw the expression on Aunt Li’s face, she blushed. ”I... I will...” she stammered softly.

”Haha...” Li Guihua laughed heartily. ”Ah, it’s wonderful to be young! Look at you, getting all flustered!”

”Aunt Li!” Zhao Nuanyue’s face turned an even deeper shade of red. ”What are you talking about!”

”You’re so thin-skinned! I haven’t even said anything, and you’re already blushing. If I said what I was really thinking, you’d probably want to dig a hole and hide in it!” Li Guihua said with a grin. ”You’re both young. He’s not married, you’re not married. What’s there to be shy about?”

A wave of sadness washed over Zhao Nuanyue when she heard this.

’She wasn’t married, and Hua Yusen wasn’t married, but there were still obstacles between them.’

”Aunt Li, you’re teasing me. If you keep going, I’m going to get angry for real,” Zhao Nuanyue said, her face flushed, in feigned annoyance. She didn’t like her feelings being picked apart and joked about.

’It might make others think I’m being petty, but I am. I’m just that sensitive.’

Even though Aunt Li loved to gossip, she never wanted to make anyone truly angry. She quickly apologized, ”Alright, alright, I’ll stop. But if you do have your eye on someone, you can tell me. I can be your matchmaker!”

”Aunt Li, you take your Women’s Federation duties very seriously. You even handle things like this?” Zhao Nuanyue retorted, changing the subject.

”But of course!” Aunt Li said proudly. ”This is part of my work with the women! Anything in the village concerning women and children, all the neighborhood gossip... that’s all part of my job.”

”You must be very busy then, Aunt Li. But it’s thanks to dedicated people like you that Nianqiao Village is so harmonious. Even with a few bad apples, it doesn’t spoil the bunch,” Zhao Nuanyue said, complimenting her.

”Of course. Nianqiao Village has been a place of excellent feng shui since ancient times,” Aunt Li said proudly. ”We have hundreds, even thousands of years of history. We even have a clan genealogy record that says our village has never suffered from disaster or war.”

”Maybe it’s just because Nianqiao Village is so remote?” Zhao Nuanyue said, half-sceptical. ’Could it really be the Old Dragon King, watching over this land and protecting its people?’

”Remote? Willow Bay is less than ten li from here, and their village was devastated. But nothing happened to Nianqiao Village. In fact, lots of people came here seeking refuge,” Aunt Li said. ”Then again, this is all what my father-in-law told me; I hadn’t married into the family back then. Still, our ancestors have always lived in peace, without any major upheavals. You can probably tell from the houses here in Nianqiao Village. They’re all made of stone, and many of them are decades, even centuries, old, but they’re still incredibly solid...”

The more Aunt Li spoke, the more amazed Zhao Nuanyue became.

”It sounds incredible!” Zhao Nuanyue exclaimed. ”Since my younger brother came to Nianqiao Village, his health has slowly returned, he’s started talking again, and now he can even work with Hua and Yang without me needing to watch over him. And since I’ve been here, I feel like I’ve gotten stronger and have more energy, too...”