Chapter 25

In the afternoon, the butcher shop had little business. About half of the livestock had been sold, and given the autumn weather, they could continue selling the next day, so there was no need to worry.
When it was around 3 PM, Butcher Qiao saw that business was slow and there was nothing much to do. He wanted to play dice with some familiar stall owners nearby, so he let his two apprentices off work.
Huo Shu came out of the shop, and there was still a thin ray of sunlight falling on the archway of the street, a piece of golden light.
He looked at the large characters “Zhen Lu Lane” on the archway, squinted his eyes, which were affected by the light, and looked further into the street.
The street was bustling, and his eyes moved slightly. He wasn’t entirely sure, but he still wanted to go check it out.
So, he took out a short knife that he always carried with him, and without changing his expression, made a cut on the back of his left hand. Then, holding his hand, he walked straight into the alley.
“It’s almost winter, you need to add two more layers of clothes in the morning and evening. You’ve gotten thinner again.”
“It’s fine. Winter means it’s almost New Year. I’ll eat a lot during the festival, and I’ll naturally gain some weight.”
Huang Yinsheng couldn’t help but laugh when he heard this. He reached out and patted the young man beside him on the head: “Don’t keep the past in your heart. Look forward.”
“I know.”
Huang Yinsheng nodded and said, “By the way, I probably won’t be able to go to the village to celebrate your birthday next month. I have to go to another prefecture to discuss a medicinal herb business. It will take about ten days to go and come back.”
Tao Yu sighed softly: “Alright. But even if you don’t come to celebrate my birthday, Grandpa, you can’t miss the birthday gift. You have to give me some of the medicinal herbs you bring back from the other prefecture.”
Huang Yinsheng smiled and shook his head: “It’s not like there aren’t enough medicinal herbs in the clinic for you to take.”
The grandfather and grandson, talking and laughing, came from the backyard to the front hall. As soon as they entered the shop, they saw a tall figure standing on the side of the clinic.
Before Huang Yinsheng could clearly see who the person was, whose profile was hidden in the gray and black against the light, he saw the young man beside him quickly walk over.
“Brother Huo, why are you here?”
Huo Shu turned his head and saw the person running towards him. His brows moved slightly. The person was indeed here.
He tilted his injured hand towards Tao Yu.
“What… what happened!”
Tao Yu saw that Huo Shu’s broad hand was bleeding, and a lot of it had already flowed into his fingers, making his large hand look particularly terrifying.
“We need to stop the bleeding quickly!”
Huang Yinsheng took a glance and immediately turned back to get a medical kit from the counter. Just as he was about to disinfect and bandage Huo Shu, his young man snatched the box directly from his hand.
After taking a couple of steps, he seemed to realize his mistake and turned back to say, “Grandpa, please see the other patients first. I can bandage him.”
Huang Yinsheng raised an eyebrow.
But he didn’t say anything more. His eyes fixed on his young man as he went to attend to an old woman.
“Brother Huo, come this way.”
Huo Shu followed Tao Yu to a low examination table in the corner. He straddled the table and sat in front of it, almost covering both Tao Yu and the table with his body.
The examination table only reached his waist. He couldn’t sit comfortably and looked rather like an adult sitting in a child’s seat, occupying the space comically.
However, this examination table was clearly custom-made for Tao Yu. Sitting on the other side, the height was just right.
Huo Shu squeezed into the position, and his brows tightened slightly. But when a pair of soft hands took his left hand and gently wiped away the blood with water, all discomfort disappeared in an instant.
“How did this happen?”
Tao Yu furrowed his brows tightly, carefully wiping with a cotton cloth, afraid that any slight movement would touch the wound and cause further injury.
Huo Shu looked at the young man, who was so close that he could clearly see his thick eyelashes, his serious and worried expression. Unconsciously, he even softened his breathing.
“Does it hurt a lot? Why aren’t you saying anything?”
Tao Yu finished cleaning the blood and was about to disinfect it with alcohol. The wound would inevitably sting. Seeing that Huo Shu didn’t even respond, he couldn’t help but look up.
“It’s nothing.”
Huo Shu said, “I just cut myself in the butcher shop.”
“You came from Master Qiao’s shop? No wonder the wound is still bleeding, as if it just happened.”
Tao Yu’s brows remained furrowed, and he chattered incessantly: “I’ve seen the knives in the butcher shop always shining silver, they must be very sharp. You must be careful when using them.”
Huo Shu exhaled indifferently, his expression unchanged, but his words were a bit sour: “It’s my first day learning, my hands are a bit clumsy.”
Tao Yu quickly said when he heard Huo Shu say this: “You must not be discouraged. Everything is difficult at the beginning. For skilled work, no one can do it well from the start. You’ll get used to it with more practice.”
“Especially professions like butchers and hunters, they have a high barrier to entry and are not easy to learn. If you try to rush and hurt yourself, it’s not worth it. Being efficient is good, but you shouldn’t rush and hurt yourself. Isn’t that putting the cart before the horse?”
As Tao Yu spoke, he suddenly lowered his voice: “If Master Qiao scolds you for being slow, I’ll ask Grandpa to go and say a few good words for you.”
Huo Shu’s eyes moved, and something swept through his heart. He looked directly at the person comforting him, and never before had he felt such an uncontrollable urge to pinch Tao Yu’s face.
He withdrew his gaze: “En.”
Seeing that he was no longer dejected, Tao Yu said, “Bear with the pain, I’ll disinfect the wound.”
He took a breath and used cotton dipped in alcohol to wipe the wound on Huo Shu’s hand, which was about the length of his little finger, back and forth three times. When he released the cotton, he also breathed a sigh of relief.
Then he applied herbal medicine and wrapped it with bandages for several turns.
“Do I need to change it?”
“Yes, you do. Come back in two days to change it. When it scabs over, I have a scar-removing ointment, and it won’t leave a scar.” Tao Yu comforted him.
“I don’t care if it leaves a scar.”
After speaking, his brows suddenly tightened, and he asked, “Do you mind scars very much?”
Tao Yu raised his eyebrows in confusion: “Young ladies and young men like to be beautiful, so of course they mind scars. Quite a few young ladies and young men in the village ask me for scar-removing ointment.”
Huo Shu didn’t respond, but his brows tightened even more.
Tao Yu thought he had tied it too tightly, so he quickly loosened it and rewrapped it twice.
Huang Yinsheng, on one side, glanced at the two of them a few times. Although he couldn’t hear what they were saying, he saw his young man’s expression change from stern to tender and comforting.
Moreover, Huo Shu was allowing himself to be lectured and ordered around, as if they were very familiar with each other.
He couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow.
“Alright, is it tight?”
Huang Yinsheng asked the young man, who came back to put away the medical kit after bandaging the wound.
“It’s an external injury, just a cut from a knife.”
Tao Yu said, “Brother Huo is an apprentice at Master Qiao’s shop ahead. It’s his first day, and he injured his hand just now.”
Huang Yinsheng couldn’t help but look at Huo Shu when he heard this, somewhat surprised: “You found a job?”
Tao Yu nodded.
Huang Yinsheng stroked his beard and praised: “That’s a good thing.”
“Go and pour some tea for Mr. Huo.”
Tao Yu responded and eagerly ran to pour tea for Huo Shu again.
As Huang Yinsheng was watching the two of them, a prescription was handed to him.
“Doctor Huang, please get some medicine according to this prescription.”
Huang Yinsheng took the prescription handed to him and glanced at it. While taking medicine from the medicine cabinet behind him, he said, “Does someone in Mrs. Zhang’s family have an external injury?”
“Indeed. It’s bad luck. My husband returned from another place a couple of days ago. Who knew that on the border between Yangqiao County and Tongzhou City, he encountered a group of bandits. They seemed to have ambushed a merchant caravan, and even the passing peddlers were not spared.”
“My husband saw that the situation was not right and quickly hid on the steep slope below the official road. However, he slipped and fell down the mountain. Fortunately, he was not seriously injured, only scratched his skin and flesh.”
The woman spoke with lingering fear and kept thanking heaven for protection.
As soon as she said this, another person waiting to see the doctor leaned in and said, “I also heard that it hasn’t been very peaceful outside recently. With the increase in taxes this year, banditry has become rampant again. They even dare to run wild on the prefectural border.”
The woman shook her head: “Qiaoyang County suffered a locust plague this year, and the grain harvest was poor. However, the imperial taxes increased. Farmers who couldn’t make ends meet turned to banditry. When people become desperate, how can they not come down from the mountains and become fierce?”
“Fortunately, we are in the prefectural city, so these bandits wouldn’t dare to rob and kill.”
“It’s hard to say. I heard from peddlers from Linhe Fang that they have seen these bandits within Tongzhou territory. They all have beards and rob anyone they see. Now, people in Linhe Fang dare not go out alone rashly.”
The more they talked, the more uneasy people felt. The old man, who was always worried about the future, began to mutter: “With autumn harvest behind us and the year-end approaching, this is the time when business should be good. How can people live like this?”
Tao Yu’s mouth was open, and he forgot to close it. His eyes were fixed on the direction of their discussion. After a long while, he swallowed and came back to his senses.
Although Tongzhou was a peaceful place, it was common to encounter bandits and thieves every few years. While incidents of arson, murder, and robbery rarely occurred in the prefectural city, unsettling events were occasionally heard from the smaller counties.
People in the city would always pass on the news. Although they would be worried for a moment, they ultimately felt that it was far from themselves. It was just a sigh of regret. The sparks didn’t land on their feet, so it didn’t hurt.
Tao Yu ran to Huang Yinsheng: “Grandpa, what everyone is saying sounds very scary. Why don’t we postpone the medicinal herb business negotiation for now?”
Huang Yinsheng tapped Tao Yu on the head: “Grandpa is going to the prefectural city, not a small place. Besides, if the bandits really dare to invade and cause chaos, disrupting the peace of entry and exit, the prefectural yamen is not vegetarian.”
“But the bandits have already appeared within Tongzhou and are robbing. How terrifying! Even if the government intends to eradicate them, it will take some time.”
Huang Yinsheng said, “There’s still some time, no rush. We’ll see the situation then. If it’s really not peaceful, I’ll send a message.”
Tao Yu breathed a sigh of relief at this.
“By the way, are you going back to the village today?”
Tao Yu was a little hesitant. It was fine if he went back, and it was fine if he didn’t.
“If you want to go back, then go with Mr. Huo. It’s to avoid it getting dark and me being worried when you go back. I’m afraid you might encounter other villagers on the way who will bully you because you look weak.”
Huang Yinsheng glanced at the person calmly drinking tea beside him.
Tao Yu pursed his lips: “Alright then.”
Huang Yinsheng said, “Since it’s said that it’s not peaceful within the territory, then don’t go out alone during these days after you go back.”
Tao Yu nodded obediently: “I know.”
“Mr. Huo, are you returning to the village? Can you take Brother Tao with you?”
Huo Shu stood up when he heard this: “Yes.”
Huang Yinsheng stood at the doorway, watching his young man excitedly walking beside the tall Huo Shu, making him look even more frail and small.
“You’re worried about him?”
Huang Yinsheng shook his head. When he learned about the You family’s affairs, although he was surprised, he also felt it was reasonable. He didn’t regret the engagement too much, he only worried that little Tao would be heartbroken and unable to get over it.
However, seeing him today, he felt he had worried too much. Tao Yu was much better than he had imagined.
The pharmacist said, “Is it okay for Brother Tao to go with that northerner?”
“They seem very familiar with each other, and little Tao is happy to go with him.”
Huang Yinsheng said, “That’s good. Life has to go on.”
The pharmacist knew what Huang Yinsheng meant: “Are you intending to set them up? But I’m afraid the village head Ji won’t agree.”
“Whether he agrees or not depends on the children’s fate. If they have feelings, even difficult things can be achieved. If they don’t, even a marriage at the last moment will fall apart.”
Huo Shu didn’t bring a horse when he came to the city today. When he returned, he rode in a cart with Tao Yu.
He stood alone on the cart. Seeing his cold face, everyone else on the cart was afraid to speak. The usually lively cart was surprisingly quiet.
Tao Yu sat opposite Huo Shu. He didn’t speak either. In this silence, talking would undoubtedly be for everyone on the cart to hear.
He saw Huo Shu’s three-white eyes looking straight at him. Although he wasn’t looking around randomly, he felt inexplicably embarrassed. In the past, if he looked at someone like this, it would scare people. Now, he didn’t know why.
Tao Yu averted his gaze and quietly looked at Huo Shu’s hand, thinking about when the wound would heal. As he thought, his mind drifted, and he remembered the wild chrysanthemums Huo Shu had picked for him a few days ago, which could be dried by baking them overnight. He thought about the book “The Investigator’s Collection” on his bedside table that he hadn’t finished reading, and wondered if his mother had found it…
“We’re here.”
Tao Yu was stunned for a moment. He looked up in a daze and saw the small road leading into the village. He quickly got off the cart.
Huo Shu took out some money from his person and gave it to the cart driver. Tao Yu quickly fumbled for his purse: “I have…”
Before he could finish speaking, the driver had already driven the cart away. Tao Yu seemed to see the people on the cart heaving a sigh of relief when Huo Shu finally got off.
“I’ll give you the money.”
Huo Shu didn’t pay attention to Tao Yu when he heard this. He walked straight towards the village road: “If you don’t leave now, I won’t be responsible if the bandits steal your crossbow.”
Tao Yu’s hand trembled when he heard this, and he quickly ran to catch up: “Wait for me.”
Huo Shu didn’t respond, but he stopped, allowing the young man behind him to run to his front.
Looking at the soft top of the young man’s head, Huo Shu’s lips curved upwards.
“You’re not allowed to come here again from now on. What is this? You’re still associating with others like this, what do you take our Zhou family for?”
“If I had known their family was like this earlier, I would never have mentioned this matter to you. Fortunately, I came today and heard about this family’s reputation in the village. Otherwise, we would have suffered a great loss.”
As the two entered the village, they saw two figures coming along the village road.
From a distance, they looked somewhat like the village head of the neighboring village, Zhou’s father and son.
“Father, is there some misunderstanding? Otherwise, we should personally go and ask Village Head Ji what’s going on.”
“What misunderstanding could there be? Even if you ask him, do you expect him to admit that his own son is not self-respecting? People who have broken off an engagement like this, don’t ask about them again in the future.”
Zhou, the village head, was angry, and his voice was not quiet. Huo Shu and Tao Yu, who were walking head-on towards them, heard these words.
Tao Yu saw the two from afar and was thinking whether to say hello. When he heard these words, he was suddenly speechless.
“Tao… Brother Tao…”
Zhou Zheng was about to refute his father’s words. When he looked up and saw Tao Yu on the village road, his tongue suddenly tied itself in knots.
However, Zhou, the village head, was not ashamed of being caught talking ill of others. Instead, he pulled Zhou Zheng beside him and said, “Don’t be blinded by lust. If you marry someone with such a reputation, your stepmother will surely be angered to death.”
“What kind of reputation is that? Speak clearly.”
Huo Shu’s eyes sank, and his tone suddenly turned cold.
Zhou’s father and son saw the tall and fierce Huo Shu suddenly speak, their hearts tightened, and their previous momentum suddenly disappeared. However, they still stubbornly maintained their composure: “Who are you? What are you talking to me about?”
Huo Shu’s eyes narrowed, and he suddenly clenched his fists.
Tao Yu saw this and quickly grabbed Huo Shu’s clothes. Although he had never seen Huo Shu hit anyone, given his strong physique, if he were to act, it would likely be irrecoverable.
Although he didn’t understand what the Zhou family meant, out of rationality, he looked into Huo Shu’s eyes and shook his head gently.
Zhou, the village head, felt his face somewhat lost. But on someone else’s territory, seeing Huo Shu’s icy gaze, which seemed to look at people as if they were not alive, he felt a bit cowardly. He didn’t continue arguing and quickly left.
Seeing the Zhou father and son walk away, Tao Yu instinctively felt that something had happened. He hurriedly raised his legs to leave: “I… I’ll go back first.”
Huo Shu said, “I’ll escort you.”
“No need. It’s only a few steps in the village, it’s okay.”
Huo Shu saw the unconcealable unease on the young man’s face. He reached out to grab Tao Yu’s hand, but when it reached his hand, he turned and grabbed his clothes instead: “No matter what happens, don’t cry. I’ll help you.”
Tao Yu hadn’t felt wronged before, but when Huo Shu said this, his nose became a little sore. He pursed his lips and nodded heavily, then ran towards his home.
Huo Shu watched until the person’s figure was no longer visible, then he turned back.
“You’re back?”
Yuan Huiru had just carried her hoe back from the fields. When she saw Huo Shu, she quickly put down her carrying basket: “It’s terrible!”
Huo Shu’s brows tightened: “What’s wrong?”
“In the afternoon, I heard people in the fields…”
As she spoke, Yuan Huiru found it a bit difficult to say. She raised her eyes and looked at Huo Shu with difficulty.
Huo Shu saw this and asked, “Is it about Tao Yu? Tell me, dry mother.”
Yuan Huiru nodded: “The villagers don’t know why it suddenly started spreading that Brother Tao had too much contact with You’s second son during their engagement period, and that they had already secretly communicated. They said… they said it very nastily.”
“Then the second son of the Zhou family from the neighboring village was very satisfied after meeting Tao Yu, but the village head did not ask him to come again, so he brought Zhou, the village head, here today to discuss the marriage and test the Ji family’s intentions.”
“Unexpectedly, the father and son just happened to hear the villagers gossiping on the road. Zhou, the village head, heard these nasty words and was instantly enraged. Feeling disgraced, he cursed a few times on the village road and didn’t even go to the Ji family’s door, but turned around and left.”
Yuan Huiru happened to be in the fields and heard these words. She didn’t dare to make a sound and hurried back to tell Huo Shu.
How could a young man who hadn’t even married yet suddenly have such a reputation? How could he live?
Yuan Huiru was almost worried to death.
When Huo Shu finished listening, he immediately said coldly, “Impossible.”
Let alone the fact that Tao Yu’s constant talk about etiquette and principles would prevent him from doing such a thing, even if he didn’t attach so much importance to etiquette, You Lingxiao’s sweet talk and various temptations would not have led to these things.
“If the two of them really had these things, the Ji family would never have agreed to break off the engagement. Even if the You family had other better prospects and used means to break the engagement, the Ji family would not have agreed, even if it meant public embarrassment for both families. How could they have broken it off so readily and peacefully?”
Yuan Huiru’s eyes were suddenly enlightened when Huo Shu said this:
“Yes. At that time, the village head only mentioned it briefly at the gathering. Although this matter was new, it was not a big deal compared to the heavy taxes. Although the villagers discussed it, they didn’t say much. They all thought that You had passed the imperial examination and risen in status, and his heart had changed. But after all, he was a new scholar from a prominent family in our village, so no one dared to speak too much about it openly.”
“Looking back, it seems the village head intended to announce the broken engagement at that time, just to prevent the villagers from discussing it too much.”
Knowing that the current rumors were false, Yuan Huiru didn’t understand: “Then why did everyone suddenly spread such talk? They clearly knew he was the village head’s child, yet they weren’t afraid of offending the village head.”
Huo Shu immediately asked when he heard this: “Why would you offend the Ji family? Is it not offending the You family?”
“The outside says… it says Brother Tao is very attractive and intentionally used this to keep You’s second son, saying that perhaps the reason for breaking off the engagement was that someone like Brother Tao would delay You’s second son’s studies…”
Yuan Huiru sighed: “People just love to listen to such gossip, regardless of whether it’s true or not, just for amusement. They don’t realize that while they’re idly chatting, they’re already ruining someone.”
Having said that, she looked at Huo Shu: “Ah Shu, what should we do about this?”
She tentatively asked, “Now the Ji family has become a hotbed of gossip. If you prefer peace and quiet and dislike trouble, then… then the previous plan can be put aside.”
Huo Shu’s brows tightened. The wind was blowing in one direction, which was too biased. He replied to Yuan Huiru: “I’m not afraid of trouble.”
Yuan Huiru immediately understood his intention and nodded even more approvingly. If Huo Shu disliked the trouble and stayed away from the Ji family, she would feel a little strange.
If he expressed his admiration and then retreated when faced with difficulties, it would be too unmanly.
“Then why don’t dry mother prepare to invite a matchmaker to propose to the Ji family?”
Yuan Huiru thought, “We can’t let the villagers think that Brother Tao is unwanted.”
“Proposing at this time is no different from taking advantage of someone’s misfortune.”
Huo Shu said, “Even if we are to propose, it cannot be at this juncture. We must first resolve this matter.”
Yuan Huiru frowned: “One person speaking with their mouth, how can it be resolved? We can’t block their mouths, can we?”
Huo Shu didn’t respond. After a moment, he said, “I’ll find a way.”