The Farm Girl and the Executioner (Rebirth) 66

Chapter 66: Breaking the Window

Lin Shuang had a good night’s sleep and felt much better when she woke up.

But Jiang Huaizhen was no longer in bed.

She quickly got up and walked out. When she got outside, she found that the other was sitting on a rattan chair at the main door, her injured leg resting on a small stool, watching Ping’er play with the little rabbits in front of the door.

This was a rare sight of Jiang Huaizhen being idle.

“Why are you up so early?”

Hearing the voice, Jiang Huaizhen turned to look at her. “It’s not early. You were exhausted.”

Only then did Lin Shuang realize that the sun was already high in the sky. She smiled with some embarrassment. “I must have slept like a log. Have you had breakfast?”

“Grandma made porridge.”

“Then I’ll go and wash up first.”

After Lin Shuang had eaten breakfast, she checked Jiang Huaizhen’s wound again and found that it was not purulent. So she said to her, “You rest well at home. I have to go up the mountain.”

After a disaster, there would usually be an epidemic. The few clinics in the city were all extremely busy, and the Everlasting Peace Apothecary was no exception.

Doctor Xue knew that Jiang Huaizhen had been injured while saving people. He had taken the time to come and see her yesterday amidst his busy schedule. Lin Shuang had chatted with him for a while at that time and knew that he was in urgent need of medicinal herbs. The forsythia, gentian, and other medicinal herbs used to treat the plague were now being sold at exorbitant prices, and all the medicine merchants were scrambling to buy them. The Everlasting Peace Apothecary couldn’t get any at all.

“The flood has just receded, and the yamen has sent people to all the clinics to read a notice. Each clinic must send one person to the epidemic prevention shed to treat the patients. I have no choice. But there’s only Doctor Yang left at the clinic, and he’s really too busy.”

Lin Shuang understood his predicament. Doctor Yang was an apprentice and had been with Doctor Xue for over a dozen years. He could already work on his own. Usually, the two of them would take turns seeing patients, and they could manage. But now that Doctor Xue had been transferred, all the work of preparing the medicine, seeing patients, and writing prescriptions at the apothecary was on Doctor Yang’s shoulders. The other apprentices couldn’t help at all, and they were really stretched thin.

Doctor Xue was as anxious as an ant on a hot pan.

To save people to the end, since Lin Shuang was willing to organize the villagers to go down to the river to save people, she could not just stand by and watch at this time. And thinking that she might have to use the Everlasting Peace Apothecary to fight against the Qin family in the future, she volunteered, saying that after Jiang Huaizhen woke up, she would find a way to help him get these few medicinal herbs.

As for the “honey-roasting” process of the medicinal herbs, she knew a little about it and might be able to help.

Doctor Xue had been in contact with her for a long time and had also carefully examined the medicinal herbs she had sent to the shop. Her processing methods were even more skilled than the apprentices at the apothecary. On top of that, with the previous treatment of Jing Lei’s hoof, and this time, the treatment of the wounds on Jiang Huaizhen’s body, it was clear that she was well-versed in pharmacology.

For such a talented person to be willing to help him, he couldn’t ask for more.

Now that Jiang Huaizhen could get out of bed, Lin Shuang naturally had to keep her promise.

Hearing that she was going up the mountain, Jiang Huaizhen was stunned for a moment and subconsciously wanted to go with her. But the wound on her leg was still hideous, and she had difficulty walking, let alone climbing a mountain.

“How long will you be gone?”

Lin Shuang looked at the sun in the sky and said, “If it goes well, I’ll be back in the afternoon. If not, it will be at night.”

Jiang Huaizhen was clearly very worried, but in this situation, she couldn’t stop her from going up the mountain to gather herbs. She could only instruct, “Don’t come back too late. Take a stick and beat the grass by the roadside. It just rained heavily not long ago, so there might be snakes in the grass.”

Hearing the word “snake,” Lin Shuang instantly got goosebumps, but she still endured the nausea and said, “I know.”

Jiang Huaizhen followed her to the back door with her cane, watching her go up the mountain with a huge basket on her back, bit by bit, and finally disappear into the forest.

In the past, when she went up the mountain to gather herbs, Lin Shuang would pick whatever she found. Now that her goal was clear, she no longer stopped for some scattered and common small herbs. She walked for two hours into the heart of the mountain.

Fortunately, she came across a small patch of gentian.

The harvest was good, but it also took some effort.

In the end, she came back almost at dark.

When she got down the mountain, she saw a figure on a large rock at the foot of the mountain. She was startled at first, but it wasn’t until the person called her name that she said with surprise and joy, “Huaizhen—”

“What are you doing here?”

Jiang Huaizhen slowly got up, her plain white clothes rustling in the evening wind. She came down from the rock, leaned on her cane, and walked toward her, answering her question with a question, “You’re back so late.”

Lin Shuang took off the medicine basket and sat down heavily on the ground, panting.

In the past year at the Jiang residence, she had been well-fed, and her originally thin body had filled out a lot. She had also grown two inches taller. But this full basket of medicinal herbs weighed at least sixty or seventy catties, and carrying it all the way was really tiring.

“These few herbs can only be found deep in the mountains. There are none outside,” Lin Shuang said. A thought came to her mind, and she had the idea of transplanting these herbs down the mountain and planting them in the fields.

Medicinal herbs were more valuable than grain. If they could be grown, it would be very profitable. And when she was gathering the herbs, she would be right at her doorstep and wouldn’t have to go deep into the mountains.

Just as she was thinking, she looked up and met Jiang Huaizhen’s worried gaze. Her heart sweetened. “Are you worried about me?”

Jiang Huaizhen hummed in agreement.

Lin Shuang bit her lip. “What if I don’t come back?”

“Then I’ll go and find you with my cane,” Huaizhen said seriously, not knowing the devastating effect of her words.

Lin Shuang chuckled, but her eyes were a little hot. “You’re at home. How can I bear not to come back?”

These words were so lingering, so full of ambiguity.

Jiang Huaizhen lowered her eyes and reached for the medicine basket.

Lin Shuang sighed in her heart and stood up. “Your wound hasn’t healed yet. I’ll do it.”

With that, she shouldered the medicine basket again, and the sore shoulders didn’t seem so uncomfortable anymore.

When they got home, Old Madam Jiang was nagging at the stove. “You’re so late from gathering herbs. You can’t just risk your life to save people! You’re just like that stubborn girl…”

Lin Shuang could hear her worry and leaned against the door, smiling. “I know, I know. I won’t do it again next time.”

It wasn’t until that night.

After she had sent Ping’er back to her room, Lin Shuang was about to lie down and sleep.

She saw that Jiang Huaizhen had found a small porcelain bottle from somewhere and said to her, “Don’t lie down yet. Let me apply some medicine for you.”

She was stunned for a moment and subconsciously touched her shoulder. “It’s alright.”

But Jiang Huaizhen’s voice was very stubborn. “It will hurt.”

Lin Shuang had wanted to say that a little scrape was nothing, but she also felt that this feeling of being cared for by her was too good, so she sat up.

Looking at the other’s serious expression, she suddenly had the thought of teasing her.

She slowly pulled open her collar, revealing half of her round shoulder.

Jiang Huaizhen’s gaze flickered, and then she sat over, scooped out a little ointment with her left forefinger, and applied it to the scraped area.

The ointment was slightly cool, and the sting made Lin Shuang shiver all over. Her shoulder suddenly shrunk, and she let out a low “hiss.”

It seemed that she had overdone it.

“Does it hurt a lot?” Jiang Huaizhen quickly bent over and gently blew on the wound.

The warm breath brushed against her skin. Lin Shuang’s eyelashes trembled, and she looked up at her, her eyes watery.

Jiang Huaizhen’s fingertips paused. “…I was too rough.”

Lin Shuang snorted, turned on her side, and brought her other shoulder over.

“Pull your clothes down a little more…” Jiang Huaizhen said.

Lin Shuang, wanting to be mischievous, deliberately pulled it forward. With her force, the collar revealed a large patch of snow-white skin, which was very eye-catching under the candlelight.

Jiang Huaizhen didn’t look and continued to apply the medicine for her.

But Lin Shuang sensitively noticed that her fingertips were trembling slightly.

“Are you… thinking of taking revenge on the Qin family?” After she had finished applying the medicine, the person next to her suddenly spoke, her voice seeming a little tight.

“Why do you suddenly ask this?” Lin Shuang asked.

“I heard you asking about the Qin family,” Jiang Huaizhen lowered her eyes.

Lin Shuang was silent for a moment. “That doesn’t mean anything. You don’t want me to have a grudge against the Qin family?”

“Not really,” Jiang Huaizhen said.

“Why?” Lin Shuang stared at her, her gaze burning.

Jiang Huaizhen was silent for a moment and finally said in a low voice, “…I’m afraid you’ll get hurt.”

This sentence was like a spark that instantly ignited the long-suppressed feelings in Lin Shuang’s heart. She propped herself up and suddenly moved closer, her breath almost touching Jiang Huaizhen’s lips. “Jiang Huaizhen…”

Jiang Huaizhen’s breath hitched, but at the last moment, she turned her head, avoiding her kiss.

The air suddenly froze.

Lin Shuang froze, her heart as if it had been squeezed tightly, her voice hoarse. “…No?”

Jiang Huaizhen clutched the small porcelain bottle tightly but did not answer.

Lin Shuang remembered her desperate eyes in the flood, her gentle and considerate nature, and her tacit approval of their “husband and wife” status… and just now, when she was applying the medicine for her, her subtle trembling movements and expression.

She had thought that at this point, they had a tacit understanding.

“I thought… you had me in your heart,” Lin Shuang’s voice trembled slightly. She asked again, unwilling to give up, “Do you really not like me?”

But the silence was like a blunt knife, cutting her heart bit by bit.

She was extremely disappointed, and also a little embarrassed. She let go of her arm, turned on her side, and lay down with her back to the outside, closing her eyes.

It was a long time before she heard Jiang Huaizhen’s muttered voice from behind, “Can’t we… just be sisters… or good friends for the rest of our lives?”

Jiang Huaizhen really didn’t like women.

Lin Shuang felt as if a basin of cold water had been poured over her. She opened her eyes and forced a smile.

“…Of course we can, Sister Jiang.”

Behind her, Jiang Huaizhen lay on the bed, motionless, staring at the dark beams of the roof.