Luzhou Moon - Chapter 3
Yue Ruzheng grew increasingly weary and panicked with each step. Darkness had completely fallen, and strange birds cried out in the mountains. Something darted out of the darkness, startling her so much that she screamed and quickly disappeared into the forest. Looking around, she sensed endless danger lurking in the shadows, and forced herself to hurry on. The mountain path grew steeper, and the rain lingered. Yue Ruzheng used her sword to poke at the damp soil on the hillside beside her, trying to climb the steep slope. Suddenly, the soil crumbled, and she lost her footing, falling with a cry of alarm down the high hillside.
In the instant she fell, she seemed to retain a sliver of consciousness, filled with utter despair. But with a dull thud, she crashed down the mountainside, and her last remaining senses vanished.
Chapter Three: The First Geese Fly South – Where Do They Go?
Night had fallen, and the mountain rain was gradually subsiding.
The rain came and went, and the misty clouds that had been like smoke gradually dissipated. The fine rain, however, was blown about by the swirling winds in the mountains, turning into a transparent rain mist.
Cold raindrops slid down the rocks, hitting Yue Ruzheng's face. She felt a chill through her hazy state, but her body felt as if it no longer belonged to her, drifting aimlessly. She even wanted to reach out and press her body down to keep herself from flying away.
In that moment of emptiness, she vaguely felt someone kicking the soles of her feet. Her feet, which were almost numb, finally regained a dull pain.
She was lightly kicked a few more times in the calf. At this moment, the stinging pain slowly began to awaken. Although the person didn't use much force, Yue Ruzheng's legs couldn't help but twitch slightly. The person seemed to notice this and stopped kicking.
In a daze, Yue Ruzheng heard rustling sounds. She groggily opened her eyes, her vision still blurry. In her hazy state, she saw someone squatting in front of her, seemingly checking her injuries. She tried to sit up, but as soon as she raised her back, she choked on the blood and coughed violently.
"Don't move."
A young voice rang out, light and cold, devoid of any emotion.
Yue Ruzheng breathed heavily, the damp, cold air gradually bringing her back to consciousness. Looking up, she saw a dark night sky with low-hanging clouds. By the faint moonlight, she saw a boy of about seventeen or eighteen years old squatting in front of her, wearing a dark blue, slanted-front coarse cloth short jacket, with a bamboo basket slung over his shoulders. He looked like a herb gatherer from the mountains.
However, his skin was not as dark as that of ordinary mountain people; instead, it appeared somewhat pale in the rainy night. Coupled with his eyes, which were as cold as ice and snow, it made people afraid to look directly at him.
The boy looked at her, who was covered in blood, without any surprise or fear. He simply knelt silently in front of her.
Yue Ruzheng thought he would help her up, but after waiting for a long time without him making a move, she had no choice but to take a deep breath, bend her arms, and lift her upper body with all her might. This movement caused her to break out in a sweat from the pain, and her shoulder blades felt as if they were broken.
She bit her lip, finally managing to sit up. Looking at the boy again, she saw he remained squatting motionless, silently watching her. After catching her breath, she looked at him and whispered, "Brother, I'm badly injured. Could you please help me?"
The boy simply said, "There's a tree behind you; you can hold onto it and stand up." He spoke with a local accent, but it wasn't entirely the same as the difficult and obscure language Yue Ruzheng had heard; at least she could understand it.
Yue Ruzheng felt a lump in her throat. She hadn't expected him to say that, but she couldn't blame him. She could only grit her teeth and move her body. She leaned against the big tree behind her, grabbed the trunk, and pushed off with her legs. Unexpectedly, a sharp pain shot through her right foot, and she gasped for breath before falling to the ground again.
At this moment, the young man frowned slightly, knelt on one knee, looked down at her, and said, "Your right foot is injured, so switch to the other foot to put weight on."
Yue Ruzheng was hugging her right leg when she heard him speak so casually. She looked up at him with resentment. He, however, turned his gaze cold and turned his face away.
Annoyed by the boy's indifferent attitude, and ignoring her trembling legs, she pushed off the ground with all her might, putting all her strength into her left leg, and finally managed to stand up. But as soon as she took a step, she lost her footing and fell forward. At that moment, the boy quickly stood up and blocked her way. She was falling on top of him, and in her haste to regain her balance, she reached out to grab his elbows. But where her hands touched, there was nothing but empty air. Looking down, she realized that what she was holding were just the empty sleeves of the boy's clothes hanging down at his sides.
Yue Ruzheng's mind went blank. So he didn't have hands?! She couldn't help but exclaim "Ah!" and hurriedly withdrew her hand, causing his sleeve to fall down again.
The boy had already managed to steady himself by supporting her with his right shoulder. She leaned awkwardly against him, and he looked down at the ground, saying, "You can hold onto my shoulder."
"No...no need..." She felt her face must be turning red and white in turns.
He looked up at her coldly and said, "Do you think you can still walk?"
Yue Ruzheng was speechless, so she could only hold his right shoulder and lean her body against his shoulder. Only then did he lead her slowly up the slope.
The night air was chilly, and a light drizzle occasionally drifted by. Yue Ruzheng was covered in wounds and walked with great pain. She glanced at the young man from time to time; his bamboo basket on his shoulder was full of herbs, and he was carrying her, someone with mobility issues, so he must be struggling a lot. But he kept his head down, looking at the road ahead with a cool gaze, walking slowly but steadily.
Passing through a peach grove, a clear stream gurgles from between the rocks, turning several bends before flowing into the distance past a small bamboo-fenced courtyard not far ahead.
The boy led Yue Ruzheng to the front of the courtyard, gently kicked open the bamboo fence, and went to the house in the center. He also kicked open the unlocked door. The main house was simply furnished with only a table and two chairs, and there was a half-open side door. Yue Ruzheng followed the boy into the bedroom behind the door. The boy led her to the bed and bent down to help her lie down.
Yue Ruzheng leaned against the bed railing and whispered, "I'd better go outside..."
"What?" the boy asked, looking at her.
"I'm very dirty..." Although she was exhausted, she still couldn't let go of her pride.
The boy pursed his lips, his shoulders sinking as he pressed her against the headboard, saying, "You can wash it if it gets dirty."
She then lay on her side on the bed, carefully moving her injured right foot to the edge. The boy had already turned and walked out. She secretly breathed a sigh of relief. For some reason, this unusually indifferent boy brought her an invisible pressure, making her very reserved.
A short while later, the boy came in again. The bamboo basket behind him was gone, and a sandalwood medicine box was hanging on his right shoulder. He walked to the bed, slumped his shoulder, placed the medicine box on the bedside table, and then, with a flick of his foot, hooked a wooden chair next to the table to the bedside.
He sat in the chair, leaning back, took off his straw sandals, and then used his feet to open the medicine box. With practiced ease, he took out various medicines and white bandages, placing them neatly on the shelf. Yue Ruzheng watched him anxiously as he used his feet instead of his hands, both amazed by his skillful movements and indifferent expression, and deeply saddened by his lifelong disability at such a young age. The boy suddenly looked up at her, and asked calmly, "Are you afraid of pain?"
Yue Ruzheng was taken aback, then said, "I'm not afraid."
The boy gave her a meaningful look, then stretched out his left foot to lift the hem of her skirt, while his right foot held a sharp short blade. With a light slash, he tore open her stocking boots. Only then did Yue Ruzheng see that her right ankle was a bloody mess, with the broken silver dart still embedded inside, only now deeper.
The boy frowned slightly, gently touching the broken sword with the short blade in his foot. Yue Ruzheng felt as if a thousand arrows were piercing her heart and couldn't help but cry out in alarm. The boy said in a very soft voice, "Bear with it," pressing his feet firmly against both sides of her wound. He quickly bent down, bit the tip of the broken sword that was slightly protruding from the flesh, and pulled it out swiftly.
Before Yue Ruzheng could even scream, he had already spat out the blood-stained broken knife, grabbed a white cloth with his left foot and pressed it forcefully against her wound to stop the bleeding, while his right foot held a medicine bottle to his mouth and bit off the stopper with his teeth. By this time, the white cloth was already soaked with blood. He lifted his foot and threw the cloth away, pouring the white powder from the bottle onto her wound. Yue Ruzheng let out another wailing cry, the pain almost making her faint. In her dazed state, she felt him bandage the wound with another white cloth.
Although the wound had been bandaged, she was in excruciating pain, tears mingling with sweat streaming down her face. The young man packed up his medicine kit, sat in a chair for a moment, and seeing that her breathing had calmed down slightly, he said, "If I had known this would happen, I would have used acupuncture needles to stimulate your acupoints first, which would have relieved some of the pain."
Yue Ruzheng gripped the bedsheets tightly with both hands, wishing she could tear them to shreds, and gasped, "You...you're only saying now that it can relieve pain?!"
"Didn't I already ask you? You're just being stubborn." He didn't seem to realize anything was wrong and answered calmly and composedly.
Yue Ruzheng was extremely aggrieved. She turned her body heavily to the side, which aggravated her injured shoulder. At this moment, she had nothing to say and could not speak. She could only gasp for breath.
"Behave yourself and stay still," the boy said, then got up and walked out.
Yue Ruzheng lay alone on the bed. Perhaps because of the medicinal powder, the wound on her right foot throbbed with pain, accompanied by a burning sensation. She was utterly exhausted, yet the excruciating pain prevented her from sleeping. Turning her head to look out the window, she saw faint moonlight filtering through the white paper windowpanes. The rain had stopped sometime earlier. She endured the pain, lying silently for a while. She heard no sounds outside, only the night wind rustling the windowpanes, adding a touch of desolation to the silence.
Yue Ruzheng lay there helplessly, her mind a jumble of thoughts. One moment she thought of her master, the next of the Valley of Bliss, then of her senior brother and uncle... She was suddenly jolted, wondering where her senior brother was at the Dragon Pool Waterfall and whether she could make it back to Luzhou with them in time.
Just as she was getting anxious, she heard footsteps, and the young man, carrying a bamboo basket slung over his shoulder, entered the room. He knelt down beside her bed and said, "Help yourself."
Yue Ruzheng was taken aback. She slightly lifted her hand and reached into the basket, revealing a light gray short-sleeved shirt. Holding the shirt, she looked at the boy with a hint of surprise.
"Your clothes are all wet, change them before you sleep." The boy stood up and was about to leave again.