Qingshan Wild Man Valley

Chapter 61

Xu Yi's words still echoed in my ears, but I kept everything I heard to myself and didn't ask the savage a single question.

After all, Qingyou's brother's half-life was equivalent to taking the savage's life.

Leaving aside the mystery of the murder case involving the Yan family's treasure, and not bothering to ask about what happened between the Wild Man and Aunt Shao back then, a few days ago, when Qingyou's younger brother was critically ill, the Wild Man was so nervous that he couldn't speak. He kept scratching at the edge of the wooden bed with his fingers until his fingertips were swollen.

Xu Yi said I was a dog that only barked but never bit, seemingly arrogant most of the time, but when I was with the savage, I didn't even dare wag my tail much—that's why he couldn't stand it and insisted on following me. Because some secrets are better left unknown, some things can only be said last. The savage had already promised to see me off, but he clung to me tighter and tighter, unable to let go…

It's not that the savages intentionally used me or were being hypocritical towards me; it's just that Shao Qingyou is the best example. No one who stays around the savages will have a good ending. So Xu Yi added that if one day this divine doctor suddenly disappears, there's no need to be surprised or search everywhere, because things will inevitably turn out this way someday.

As it turned out, Xu Yi really disappeared a day and a night ago.

Chapter 82

Even when I'm asleep, I can still vaguely sense that I've actually slept for a long time.

When he woke up, he grabbed the sleepy-faced savage and demanded, "Where is Xu Yi?!"

When the savage saw that I was awake, he did want to say something, but I was faster than him. I asked first, and he opened his mouth, his lips were dry and cracked, and he made a soft sound like an animal's whimper. As soon as he got closer—"Ah!!!" I screamed in fright.

"What's wrong with you?!" I struggled for a while, only managing to shake the back of my head off the soft pillow. Needless to say, the wild man's skin was deathly pale, but his eyes were swollen like two big peaches, meaning they were so swollen that he couldn't open them wide, only able to squint through a slit to look at me. His cheeks were swollen like steamed buns soaked in water, making any scars or flaws appear doubled. Oh... I was all too familiar with this state; it was the result of staying awake for over seventy-two hours straight—except for his eyes!

Back when he was a wild man, he wasn't this frightening—"Are you alright?!" I reached out and carefully touched his face, then suddenly it occurred to me—"Could something have happened to Qingyou?!"

When that thought popped into my head, I felt the blood drain from my face to my heels in an instant, as if I had been thrown into an ice cellar, except for my stomach—my stomach?!

Looking down, I noticed that the savage's hand had been resting on my lower abdomen the whole time. Whether he was using his powers or something, his palm was warm. No wonder I'd been feeling a surge of energy rising from my lower abdomen. Could I be having my period? I guessed it was because of all the things that had happened lately; I hadn't bled in a long time. Whatever, that wasn't the point.

The key point is that Qingyou is unharmed—the wild man's silent, blank stare at me is enough to prove that. But it is precisely this unusual reaction that makes his behavior all the more suspicious, given that Qingyou is alright and I am unharmed.

I squinted to observe him, and he used his free hand to brush the hair from my face, leaned his head closer, buried it in the hollow of my shoulder blade, and stopped moving.

"Honey, what's wrong..." I asked in a softer tone, patting his back like I was comforting a child.

The child remained silent, and I began to regain my senses. How did I end up lying here? It seems I was fighting with the savage over Xu Yi, but I lost and was instead knocked to the ground. So... the savage felt guilty?

This doesn't seem like it. Last time he almost strangled me to death, and I didn't see him like this. Now, I hear him panting, and for no reason, his panting is getting louder and louder, like he's having a seizure.

"Where's Xu Yi?" I nudged him, not wanting him to actually betray the divine doctor.

He raised his head without a word, straightened my blanket, placed my hands comfortably, and stood up sullenly—"You come back here!" I cried, "Savage!!"

He walked through the room with his head down, and as soon as he closed the door, I suddenly realized that it wasn't him who was acting strangely, but me!

So tiring... Spending all day with someone like this, either having to rack my brains to appease him or racking my brains to figure out what he's up to. He's never actually been honest with me, yet I still have to fawn over him like I owe him something. I inexplicably faint, then inexplicably fall into a long sleep. Now that I've woken up, the world hasn't become any better; instead, it's become even more inexplicable. I'm utterly exhausted... Having a husband like this has left me physically and mentally drained...

So, I'll take over being the boss, I thought resentfully, and I'll start acting resentfully from this second, this moment!

...

The savages' perversion is beyond words; I'm speechless.

He was afraid I'd get bored, so he put me and my younger brother Qingyou side by side in a room with two beds so he could take care of both of us at once. But I had to grit my teeth and listen to Qingyou's cries of pain every day. And even though I wasn't sick at all, he wouldn't let me get out of bed. Later I realized that he was actually putting me under house arrest.

Sister Hongbao said I was in a daze for more than ten days, which scared me again... "Then who fed me, who bathed me, who changed my clothes?"

Sister Hongbao replied that she did it in collaboration with the savage.

I asked again if he had some terminal illness, otherwise why would the wild man suddenly become like this... so dejected and negative. Sister Hongbao interrupted me sharply—"Don't talk nonsense!" she criticized me.

"What about Xu Yi?" I asked.

“As soon as you passed out, they arrested you,” she replied.

This time I'm completely speechless about that savage. I really want to beat him up.

But he just wouldn't give me that chance. Sometimes he wouldn't see me all day, and sometimes he would try to feed me medicine but I wouldn't drink it. He even dared to smash the bowl in front of me. After many days, for some reason, my hoarse voice was finally able to speak again. He held me and tried to force-feed me medicine—"I won't drink it!" I turned my head to the side and resisted.

The savage put down the medicine and released me, saying in a low voice, "...Then go die."

"What did you say?!" I was confused. "You actually dare to tell me to die?!"

He wouldn't look at me. There were outsiders all around, and a rather inexperienced doctor was giving Qingyou's younger brother acupuncture—"Go to hell!" the savage shook off my hand. "Leave me alone, and you all go to hell!!"

I was completely baffled. I sat up abruptly and yelled, "Shao Yeren, what's wrong with you now? What did I do to you? Wait a minute, stop right there!"

Having almost driven him to despair, I turned back, stretched out my hand to the other bed, gritted my teeth, and shamelessly pinched Shao Qingyou hard—"Ah!" Qingyou screamed in pain, and I wanted that sound effect. As if afraid it wasn't enough, I pinched him again.

The savage stopped when Qingyou called out to him. "Shao the Savage," I rushed towards his back, "Let's get this straight today. Are you just going to leave it like this? Are you trying to suffocate me? What's wrong with you?!"

He suddenly turned around, and I recoiled in fright. He immediately softened, lowering his eyelids as he said to me, "You...you're not feeling well, go back to bed...be good..."

"I won't listen to you, you big idiot!" This time, she was determined not to be swayed. "You tell me clearly, um, do I have some incurable disease?!"

The savage's body suddenly trembled, and I was dumbfounded. "Am I really going to die?!" I screamed. "How come you didn't die but now it's my turn? Is there no justice in this world?!"

The savage reached out to interrupt me, "Don't talk nonsense!" He even covered my mouth with his finger, "You're not sick, you've just been overworking yourself these past few days..." He frowned halfway through his sentence, stared at me blankly for a while, and asked me, "Who said you're sick?"

"ah?!"

Before I could answer, he glanced at the doctor who was taking Shao Qingyou's pulse. The next day, the doctor whose eyebrows were joined together never appeared again.

This guy is mentally disturbed. I don't know if he treated the doctor or not. Anyway, thinking about all the things he's done behind my back, I have less and less to say to him. We even argue when we talk about Xu Yi, and I make him feed me watermelon. In the end, the two of us can turn the scene into a bloodbath. I don't even know what I want anymore. He's even more depressed. He's not as sweet-talking as others, and he doesn't talk as much as they do. If I ignore him, he can stay silent for half a day without saying a word.

So ultimately, the crux of my problem with the savages lies with Xu Yi. He didn't mention going anywhere again, as if he had made up his mind to leave me and Qingyou here to recover—speaking of Qingyou, he was even more pitiful than me, his situation could only be described as horrific. Being guarded by the savages, he was living a life worse than death. Actually, he didn't have any major illnesses, just pain all over his body, especially his blood vessels, bones, and internal organs. He was constantly wailing and wanted to die. I was quite sympathetic to him at first, but in the end, it turned into watching a newly adapted comedy. Listening to him banter and banter with the doctor every day was much more interesting than sitting in silence with the savages.

But actually I know that I'm the only one who finds it funny. It's probably because my mindset has changed. Because I was angry with the wild man, I stopped thinking what he was thinking. He was sullen, and there was nothing I could do. Summer is over, and I've become less impatient and no longer get angry at him so easily. In short, I feel relaxed and at ease now.

"Sun Qingshan..." my younger brother Qingyou called to me, "Give me a hand...and...the blanket...to cover my head..."

"Why are you covering your head?" I asked, biting into an apple.

"It's so stuffy..." Qingyou, the younger brother, was sweating. "...I'm suffocating..."

"Come on!" I continued biting into my apple. "If I suffocate you, your brother would drag me down with him. Why would I bother?"

“He wouldn’t…” Qingyou insisted, “He only listens to…you…”

"P—!" I cried, choking on the apple, pounding my chest. "Actually, the savage went to find a doctor for you. Don't worry, just hang in there, maybe you'll be fine in a couple of days—"

"How can I not be anxious?!" Qingyou's younger brother immediately became anxious again.

"Okay, okay!!" I soothed him. "Don't get agitated. I'll get your brother over here now. When he gets here, I'll hand him the blanket and order him to suffocate you... Don't rush me...!" I got up and walked out. Behind me, Shao Qingyou rattled off a string of "heartless," "It's all your fault," "Who told you to use that crystal clear pill?" "Bastard Xu Yi," "Why did you invent that kind of pill?"... His words were indistinct, but that was the gist of it.

I smiled bitterly after closing the door. After all, everyone was feeling bad, especially Yeren. He hadn't slept in bed for a while, always lying on the edge of the bed fully clothed, listening to Shao Qingyou's "I don't want to live anymore" remarks every day. He couldn't take it out on his precious younger brother, so it's no wonder he took his anger out on me, telling me to die. He probably couldn't take it anymore and was pushed to the limit.

"Never mind," I sighed, "I'll take a walk around the backyard of the inn and see if I can find any wild men."

Who knew that things would turn out so coincidentally? No wonder there's a saying: "Catching someone in the act."

Chapter 83

In Yanzhou, Qianfeng County (Tai'an), the market was brightly decorated with lanterns and colorful decorations, and the citizens were dressed in red and green, celebrating with great joy.

"Wait a minute—" I grabbed Song Guan, the man in black, "Let me see what day it is today first."

I pulled out a simple chronicle from my backpack... It all started in 1004 AD, the early years of the Jingde era. The Liao people moved their horses south and fought against the Song army in Chanyuan, Henan. Song Chancellor Kou Zhun strongly advised against resisting the Liao. Emperor Zhenzong personally went to the scene. The Song Dynasty agreed to pay the Liao an annual tribute of 100,000 taels of silver and 200,000 bolts of silk, and signed a non-aggression pact with the Liao, known in history as the Treaty of Chanyuan.

Four years later, Emperor Zhenzong of Song, feeling deeply ashamed of the humiliation of the treaty signed under duress, performed the Fengshan ceremony at Mount Tai, using auspicious omens as a pretext to "pacify the four seas and boast to foreign countries." In other words, a wave of feudal superstition swept through the court and the public from the beginning of this year; otherwise, the grand spectacle of the auspicious omens would not have been adequately portrayed.

In the first month of the first year of the Dazhong Xiangfu era (1008), Emperor Zhenzong of Song told his ministers: "A divine being in crimson robes appeared in my dream and bestowed upon me a 'heavenly book.'" Immediately, a yellow silk banner was dragged up the roof ornament of Chengtian Gate. Emperor Zhenzong bowed to welcome it and issued an edict: granting a general amnesty, changing the era name, renaming the left Chengtian Gate as Chengtian Xiangfu, bestowing favors upon the ministers, and granting the capital a special permission to hold a three-day feast...

In March of this year, civil and military officials, elders of Yanzhou, and monks and Taoists from various vassal states petitioned Emperor Zhenzong to perform the Fengshan ceremony. Emperor Zhenzong issued an edict: "The ceremony will take place at Mount Tai in October of this year." Subsequently, a huge sum of money was spent on construction projects, with the Salt and Iron Bureau, the Ministry of Revenue, and the Ministry of Finance jointly borrowing 100,000 taels of silver from the Imperial Treasury to fund the Fengshan ceremony.

In May, a divine being appeared in Zhenzong's dream twice, saying: "In the first ten days of next month, a heavenly book will be bestowed upon Mount Tai."

In the same month, the Hebei Transport Commissioner transported 490,000 taels of gold, silk, fodder, and grain to the capital to aid in sacrificial rites; Sun Shi, the Capital Official and Outer Attendant, was sent to Liao to announce that the Fengshan ceremony at Mount Tai was imminent.

In June, Emperor Zhenzong issued an edict: a pavilion was to be built on the "Liquan" spring at the southwest foot of Mount Tai, named "Lingye" (Spiritual Liquid). North of the pavilion, a yellow book was found trailing on the trees. It was indeed a celestial book, and its full name was "The Celestial Book Descends Again with Auspicious Omens".

In July, Emperor Zhenzong issued an edict: a palace shall be built north of the Lingye Pavilion on Mount Tai, at the site where the Heavenly Book was descended again, and named "Tiankuang".

In September, at the Chongde Hall, Emperor Zhenzong led his ministers in a rehearsal of the Fengshan ceremony.

In October, Emperor Zhenzong, carrying an imperial edict, departed from the capital, accompanied by hundreds of officials and tens of thousands of servants. His journey took him through Changyuan, Weinan, Chanzhou, Puzhou, Yunzhou… until he reached Mount Tai. He fasted for three days at the foot of the mountain. On the twenty-first day, riding in a light palanquin, Emperor Zhenzong ascended Mount Tai, performed the Fengshan ceremony at the summit of Riguang Peak, and offered sacrifices to the Supreme God of Heaven…

"Today?!" I threw away the one-sentence chronology booklet long ago and asked the alien village chief, "How did you know?! Don't forget, you didn't even experience the first half of this year!"

The alien village chief rubbed his forehead. "Some things... don't necessarily require being there in person; you can also hear about them."

"Then it might not be true?" I turned to Song Guan and asked, "Is it true?"

Song Guan replied, "The matter is indeed correct, but who is Emperor Zhenzong?"

"Isn't he just your supreme ruler?" I replied, "He'll become Emperor Zhenzong of Song when he dies."

Song Guan's expression froze, like a small yellow flower blooming on my face. He glared at me and didn't say another word for a long time.

“I told you the savage is in Mount Tai, not Liangshan…” He and two other men walked along the street lined with vendors. Not long ago, they rushed from Liangfeng Manor to Liangshan Marsh, only to find that the Liangshan stronghold was deserted. Apart from a few robbers, everyone else had come to Mount Tai to join the fun. In any case, this was a major event that the whole country was celebrating, and no celebrity in the country could miss it.

"Young lady, young lady..." A vendor with a headscarf beckoned to me from the bookstall. "Buy a copy of the Analects to read. The Emperor will be going to the Confucius Temple to worship Confucius after he comes down from Mount Tai. Read the Analects—" The vendor shoved the book into my hand. "Even if you can't read, you can still join in the fun."

"You say I can't read?!" I turned to the alien village chief and frowned. I was about to put the book down, but then I thought about it and, unwilling to give up, picked it up again and opened the first page—"Hahaha!" I laughed.

This is a handwritten book. The first page is mostly blank, with only a preface in the center: "Confucius said: Auspicious Buddha Map Heavenly Book".

“I can guarantee,” he pressed his finger heavily on the page, “that Confucius absolutely did not say that!”

The alien village chief smiled without saying a word. The vendor snatched the book back: "Whose young lady is this, pretending to know everything when you don't? How dare you question the words of Confucius?!" He then glared at me, not bothering to argue with me.

"Song Guan!" I waved my hand. "Buy this book!"

Song Guan received the order and went up to snatch the books from the vendor. The vendor refused to sell, and Song Guan managed to grab all the Analects from the stall. Just then, a familiar voice called out from afar: "Sun Qingshan—!"

I turned around, and at the other end of the street, the savage stood behind the crowd.

...

The reunion with the wild man was surprisingly delightful.

He practically ran and pulled me into his arms, weaving through the crowds and ignoring the stares of onlookers, rushing over and holding me tightly.

I really thought he would coldly say, "Why are you back again?" or tearfully pour out his heart to comfort me: "Sun Qingshan, please, please leave..." When he buried half his face in my neck, his breathing rapid and hot, I could clearly feel that almost boiling joy, without any hesitation, without caring about anything else.

"Wild man, I..." Actually, I wasn't very excited, but he was holding me so tightly that I couldn't breathe.

I almost laughed. It turns out that keeping him in suspense is so simple; all you have to do is go and come back. Not far away, Sister Hongbao chased after me like a madwoman, her face as black as the bottom of a pot. She looked at me with a dark expression, then at the savage with a dark expression. After staring at him for a long time, she sighed and turned to leave.

"On the street!" I tried to push the person off me.

Then he heard him say, "Qingshan is back..." He was overjoyed, and even stammered a little, "...Qingshan...is back..."

Before dinner in the evening—

"What?!" My legs went weak, and I almost collapsed to my knees. "Shao Qingyou is dead?!"

With a "clang," I turned to look at the doorway. The savage was carrying a bowl of some kind of soup into the room. The blue and white porcelain bowl shattered on the ground, leaving behind a pile of shards, still steaming.

The savage squatted down to pick up the fragments. I looked at the man and woman in the house. Song Guan glared at me, and Sister Hongbao glared at me too. The meaning was: You're not stupid, but you're really stupid—come over here! The two of them gestured with their eyes.