The carriage sped towards the Long residence, with Ju Mu'er nestled motionless in Long Er's arms. Long Er lifted her head, letting her rest her head on his shoulder, and adjusted her legs to make her more comfortable.
Her body was still stiff. Long Er patted her back and whispered words of comfort. But as he spoke, he couldn't continue. He imagined her alone, curled up in that dark, cold corner, listening to the sound of the door opening, the sound of the robbers rushing into the house, listening to them being tricked and chasing after her… And then? Was it deathly silence or the cries and struggles of the two village girls who were now seriously injured and dead? How long had she waited for the chaotic footsteps and commotion? It must have terrified her.
Her move was a risky one, extremely risky.
Perhaps it will be recognized at first glance, perhaps it will be found soon, or perhaps no one will think of it for several days.
If the robber had found her sooner and moved her, he might have had a hard time finding her. She was curled up numb and frozen stiff, unable to cry for help or move on her own. What if everyone thought she had run away and didn't consider the possibility of her being trapped under the bed? Wouldn't she have been trapped there and died?
Long Er grew increasingly frightened as he thought about it. Suddenly, he felt a tightness in his chest. Looking down, he saw Ju Mu'er clutching his shirt. Her small hands were frozen and limp; her eyes were closed, and she couldn't speak. Yet, she still held tightly to his clothes.
A thought struck Long Er, and he reached out and placed his hand on the back of hers, pulling her tightly into his arms. They were so close, so very close, that they didn't know when they would be able to reunite.
The two remained silent the entire way, he simply held her in his arms, and she clung tightly to him.
When Long Er returned to the Long Mansion, everything was ready.
The guest room was cleaned, hot water was prepared, and clean clothes were provided. A heater was lit in the room, and the doctor was waiting nearby. Old Man Ju, with tears in his eyes, was also waiting there. As soon as he saw Long Er carrying Ju Mu'er back, he rushed over and kept calling out, "My dear daughter, it's your father! You've suffered so much, my daughter."
Before Long Er could lose his temper, Steward Tie quickly pulled Old Man Ju away so that Long Er could put Ju Mu'er down and let the doctor examine her.
Ju Mu'er was frightened and was in a daze the whole way. When Long Er put her on the bed, she suddenly woke up. She was afraid of being abandoned and grabbed Long Er's clothes tightly with her right hand.
Long Er gently coaxed her while pulling her hand away. Ju Mu'er looked flustered and struggled with sobs, so Long Er had no choice but to hold her hand and repeatedly assure her that he was right beside her.
Old Man Ju, with tears streaming down his face, called out from the side, "Daughter, Daddy's here, Daddy's here."
Ju Mu'er heard this and laboriously turned her head towards her father's direction. Long Er comforted her, saying that they were all there, watching over her. Ju Mu'er tried to nod, but couldn't. When the doctor took her pulse, she fainted.
The doctor's diagnosis came quickly: fright, fatigue, and chills. He prescribed medicine and told her to get some soft, easily digestible food to tide her over, and to keep her warm. He added that her fever might get higher later, so she absolutely had to take her medicine on time and try to sweat it out. Otherwise, if the fever persisted and she became too weak, she could develop a serious illness.
Upon hearing this, Long Er frowned, and the servants of the Long family quickly got to work as instructed.
Long Er ordered guest rooms to be prepared so that Old Man Ju could stay, and also arranged for the doctor to stay at the mansion to wait. Afterwards, Su Qing was brought back by Li Ke. After visiting Ju Mu'er, she hurried home to see her mother.
In the dead of night, Ju Mu'er's illness indeed worsened, and she vomited up all the medicine she had drunk. Long Er's face turned ashen, and the maid who was feeding her the medicine trembled with fear. The doctor took her pulse and was very worried, saying that if she couldn't take the medicine, she might not recover.
Old Man Ju volunteered, saying that he knew his daughter best and he would feed her. But for some reason, Ju Mu'er felt like her throat was burning as soon as the medicine was fed to her, and she couldn't swallow it down and vomited it all up.
She swallowed the pills until her face turned blue and she was covered in sweat. Her pained expression made Old Man Ju cry with heartache.
Long Er couldn't bear to watch any longer, so he snatched the bowl, used a spoon to pry open her mouth, and slowly poured the food into her mouth, covering Ju Mu'er's mouth to prevent her from spitting it out.
Ju Mu'er scratched his hand in distress, but Long Er wouldn't let go, saying, "I know you're upset, but you have to take your medicine. Only after you take it will you get better. Be good, listen to me, and get better soon. I promise you, I will make those evil people pay double for the suffering you endured today tomorrow."
Ju Mu'er was in a daze and her mind was unclear, but she seemed to understand.
She shed tears.
42. Fearing a change in the Second Master's schemes
After staying up all night, Ju Mu'er's fever subsided.
Of course, the process of the fever subsiding was also the process of Long Er struggling with her. Others wouldn't dare to touch her, so Long Er did it himself. He forced medicine down her throat, pressed a thick blanket down on her to make her sweat, and she struggled and cried, but he ignored her.
While wiping away his tears, Old Man Ju was relieved that, fortunately, Second Master Long was more hard-hearted than him.
After a whole night of fussing, the doctor finally announced that Ju Mu'er had recovered and that as long as she took her medicine on time and recuperated, she would be fine. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and went back to their own business.
When Ju Mu'er woke up, it was already dawn. But time was something she could never judge; she blinked, and all she saw was darkness.
For a moment she didn't know where she was, but soon she found her hand was being held by a large hand. She didn't move, and she remembered what had happened.
The one holding her hand was Second Master Long. She knew it.
That warm and safe feeling always traveled through his palm into her heart. She didn't know what time it was, but she felt he was asleep because his palm hadn't moved.
So Ju Mu'er didn't move; she even closed her eyes again. For her, opening or closing them made no difference.
She slowly and carefully recalled what had happened.
She remembered the fear she felt crawling under the bed. The empty room was so quiet it was maddening. She tried to shrink herself down to a tiny size. She struggled to breathe, and she could even feel the chill of the floor seeping into her bones.
She thought she heard the door open, but it didn't. She realized she was just hallucinating because she was too scared. When the actual sound of the lock being opened came, she almost screamed.
She held it in. Then she heard the robber who opened the door shout that everyone had escaped, and then several people rushed in. She knew she was trembling; she was afraid of making a noise, but she couldn't control it.
Fortunately, after what felt like a long and agonizing wait, the robbers fell for her trap and chased after her in the direction she had thrown the bamboo cane.
Then came deathly silence.
She felt that time was endless, without end. She thought she would die in that corner under the bed, either from freezing, from fright, or from being trapped there and dying because no one could find her.
A long, long time passed, and suddenly it became very noisy outside. She didn't know what was happening. She couldn't move and dared not make a sound. She thought she heard Su Qing's voice, but she told herself it must be a hallucination. Qing'er must have escaped. She was so smart; she must know the way. She must have escaped.
She thought she was really going to die there. But suddenly she heard that familiar voice, it was Ryuji's voice, he said, "It's me, I'm here."
It was like heavenly music.
Ju Mu'er suddenly realized that she shouldn't have dragged him down because of his words. What was she thinking back then? Why did she propose to him in the first place?
He's stingy, vengeful, calculating, and naive, yet he's so good to her.
It was so good that it scared her.
That fear was as intense as the sense of security she felt holding his hand at that moment.
She's gone mad.
She's died once, so she's gone mad.
"What's wrong? Are you feeling unwell?"
Ju Mu'er was startled, then felt herself being embraced. Long Er's voice rang in her ears, and his hand stroked her face, wiping away her tears.
So she was crying. Ju Mu'er simply hugged Long Er and burst into tears.
"Don't cry, don't be afraid. They've all been arrested, no one can hurt you anymore."
"Second Master, actually I'm not good at all."
Long Er frowned. Were they talking past each other again?
"They kidnapped you because you weren't good enough? To rid the people of a scourge?" Long Er teased her; he didn't like her tears.
Unfortunately, Ju Mu'er wasn't in the mood to try and cheer him up this time. After hearing his words, she cried even more bitterly.
Long Er frowned again, then had to become serious: "Alright, you can cry for a bit first, and then it'll be time to take your medicine."
Ju Mu'er's crying immediately subsided. Long Er smiled: "You must take the medicine."
Ju Mu'er stopped crying, sniffling, and quickly lay down in bed: "I'm sleepy, I'll sleep a little longer." All those sad, tangled, and messy emotions from before were gone.
Taking medicine? That's terrifying. How could she forget about that?
Just then, someone knocked on the door, and a maid's voice rang out from outside: "Second Master, Miss Mu'er's medicine is ready."
"Bring it in." After instructing her, Long Er looked amusedly at the girl on the bed who had immediately "fallen asleep," and began to dig her up. "Take your medicine. Last night you were half asleep and I had to force-feed you, and now that you're awake, you still want me to force-feed you?"
Unable to pretend to be asleep, Ju Mu'er asked pitifully, "Where's my dad?"
"Your father can't save you from taking the medicine. You have to!"
“I’m not trying to avoid taking my medicine, I just miss him.”
Long Er turned to look at the maid who brought the medicine. The maid was quick-witted and replied, "Miss, Old Master Ju stayed with you all night and only went to rest at dawn. He's still asleep now."
Ju Mu'er pursed her lips, at a loss for what to do. Long Er sat down with the medicine, scooped out a spoonful, blew on it, and took a sip to test the temperature. The nauseating taste of the medicine made him hold his breath, secretly thinking how lucky Mu'er couldn't see. He turned to Ju Mu'er and said, "Drink your medicine."
Ju Mu'er had already smelled the medicine. Her face scrunched up like a bun. After thinking for a while, she made a condition: "Second Master, I'll drink the medicine and then go back, okay?"
"Go back where?"
"Go home."
"Why?"
"I'm not used to living here. My eyesight isn't good, so it's inconvenient for me," Ju Mu'er came up with a reason.
"You're not allowed to go home until you've finished all the medicine the doctor prescribed. Don't think I don't know that if you go back, your father will coax you and then stop forcing you to take the medicine." Long Er directly exposed her intentions, and Ju Mu'er's face immediately fell.
"And one more thing," Long Er added, "You'll be moving in soon anyway, so you should get used to it as soon as possible. Or should I move you into my room so you can get used to it earlier?"
The maid standing nearby blushed slightly upon hearing this, pursing her lips and giggling. Ju Mu'er, however, stared blankly with her mouth wide open. Long Er noticed this and his heart stirred. He changed the subject, saying, "Drink your medicine."
This time, Ju Mu'er didn't say anything else. She just frowned and swallowed the medicine with a look of grim determination.
She drank most of the bowl, but couldn't swallow any more, so Long Er stopped. He had a maid bring some candied plums to cleanse Ju Mu'er's mouth of the bitterness, and then watched her drink half a bowl of porridge before letting her lie down to sleep.
Ju Mu'er didn't say much and closed her eyes to sleep. Long Er leaned down and whispered that he needed to go to the government office to see how the interrogation of the robbers was going. Ju Mu'er's brows furrowed and her eyelids twitched.
Long Er sighed and stroked her face: "Don't be afraid."
Ju Mu'er nodded and reached out to hold Long Er's hand. Long Er looked at her hand, remembering how she had clung tightly to his clothes when he rescued her. He couldn't help but lower his head and kiss her forehead.
Ju Mu'er was taken aback, then smiled and said, "I'm going to sleep." Then she let go of her hand, turned over halfway, and buried her head in her sleep.
Long Er looked at her for a while, then turned to instruct the maid beside him to take good care of her before leaving.
Long Er came out, but didn't go out immediately. Instead, he went to find Granny Yu. He told Granny Yu that he wanted to move the wedding date forward.
Granny Yu opened her mouth wide in surprise: "But, but everything was prepared according to the original schedule. If we move it forward, I'm afraid it will be too late. The New Year is just around the corner, and it will be difficult to handle some things at the end of the year."
"Granny, there's always a way. Let's hold the wedding in the first month of the lunar year, taking advantage of the festive atmosphere of the New Year."
"The first month of the lunar calendar?" Granny Yu was quite shocked. Not only was it earlier, but it was so much earlier! How could there be enough time to hold the ceremony in the first month of the lunar calendar?
"Second Master, actually, February isn't that much of a difference in dates," Granny Yu tried to persuade Long Er.
"Let's do it in the first month of the lunar calendar. Thank you for your hard work, Granny." Long Er didn't want to hear her words. He interrupted her and made a firm decision. He knew it wouldn't be long, but Ju Mu'er hesitated. He could sense that this might be the kidnappers' purpose in abducting her: to ruin her reputation, to destroy her innocence, and to prevent her from marrying him.
So those two village girls died, but she didn't.
There must be a reason why the robbers didn't attack her right away. They must have someone behind them, and he suspected it was Yun Qingxian. He wanted to confirm that.
But he wouldn't allow her to back down before that. She was the one who proposed to him, and he agreed. Now the power was in his hands, and he wouldn't allow her to push him away.
Long Er instructed Granny Yu: "Don't tell Father and Mu'er about the wedding being moved up."
Granny Yu was dumbfounded again. Not tell them? What about all the things that needed to be arranged together?
"I'll tell them once I've made the arrangements," Long Er said, understanding Yu Mama's concerns. Seeing his response, Yu Mama, not knowing what else to say, could only nod in agreement.
After explaining everything, Long Er left the manor and went to the government office. He was determined to find out who had kidnapped his Mu'er. But Long Er never expected that the government office was in an uproar because all eight kidnappers who had been arrested had died suddenly in their cells.
Author's Note: The power went out again last night and into the night, so I couldn't write all day. I was able to continue writing this chapter after the power came back on tonight, and I'm posting today's update now. I hope there won't be another power outage tomorrow; it's so frustrating.
43 Father-in-law and son-in-law set wedding date