by N/A
Du Xiao Li was shocked. Before she came, the former host was already dead?
"But I gradually discovered, this younger sister was no longer the younger sister I was familiar with anymore. The past her was timid, getting scared when seeing strangers. She also wasn't sensible, often throwing tantrums at home. If things don't go her way, then she'll turn the sky upside down. Whenever she smelled medical herbs, she would feel uncomfortable, so it's simply impossible for her to go to grandpa Niu's place to study how to differentiate medical plants. She doesn't know how to cook, and doesn't know how to treat a snake bite either....." Du Xiu Heng softly muttered the differences between Du Xiao Li and the former host. "But I was scared, scared to face this reality. Scared that mother would blame me if she knew I didn't take good care of younger sister. I promised her that I would take good care of younger sister...."
Du Xiao Li didn't know what to say to comfort him. Du Xiu Heng's words shattered her right to continue being his younger sister, and it also made her genuinely confront for the first time, the fact that she herself wasn't someone of this world. Regardless how she avoided, regardless how well she played this role of the younger sister, she ultimately wasn't her.
In this world, she was just a lonely spirit. Originally, she wanted to find someone to rely on, yet now she was ruthlessly told the truth, she-------wasn't his younger sister. Then what right did she have to live her life using his younger sister's name?
"You....." She wanted to ask him, 'what do you plan to do?'. Perhaps she was scared, scared for him to tell her to leave with his own mouth, so she only said one word. The rest of her words could no longer come out.
Afterwards, the two just sat there, from midday to sun down. No one said a single word.
After the sky grew dark, Du Xiu Heng fumbled back to his own room. Du Xiao Li continued to sit under the eaves, gazing up at the sky full of stars, yet finding herself increasingly lonely.
Was she someone destined to not have a home, not have loved ones? Even if she got another chance at life, was she still not able to have that heartwarming familial love?
Du Xiu Heng stared at the little figure sitting alone outside under the moonlight. He buried his face in his hands and heavily lied down.
Awhile later, Du Xiao Li returned to her own room, but she didn't go to sleep, constantly monitoring the situation outside. She didn't know what kind of decision Du Xiu Heng would make. If he were to run through the night to the village below and tell others that she was a spirit that came back to life possessing a corpse, then according to those people's views, they would definitely burn her to death. That's why once Du Xiu Heng goes out, she will immediately leave.
'Creak---'
When it reached the latter half of the night, Du Xiu Heng's door was opened. Du Xiao Li opened her eyes. There was an indescribable grief in her eyes. Looks like this kind of peaceful life was ending.
After waiting until there were no more movements outside, Du Xiao Li slowly flipped down from the bed. She got a piece of cloth and spread it on the bed, using the moonlight to swiftly pack some clothes. She also had the few taels of silver kept on her put in too. She wrapped it up, carrying it as she headed up the mountain.
When she climbed up to the top, she found a place to sit down, and didn't continue to walk. Entering into the mountains at night isn't a safe decision. Moreover, right now the villagers still haven't ascended the mountain. If they don't come, then she'll just wait until morning before entering the mountains. And if they do come, it wouldn't be too late to go then either.
From beginning to end, it's only been a mere twenty some days since she's came to this world. She didn't expect that her life here will be ending in this short amount of time.
"Ai...." Du Xiao Li couldn't help but let out a sigh.
After sitting for a while, she began to feel sleepy. This once again made her complain about her current body. In her past life, in order to complete missions, she would often not sleep for several days, how was it anything like now.
"Younger sister! Younger sister!" Just when she was about to fall asleep, she seemingly heard Du Xiu Heng faintly calling for herself.
"Must be dreaming!" Du Xiao Li muttered, and decided to continue dozing off for a while.
"Younger sister, where are you?" Du Xiu Heng shouted as he ran up the mountain; his voice filled with heavy worry.
"It really is him." Du Xiao Li woke up this time, seeing the little man running under the moonlight, "Not scared of injuring his wound running like this..."
Very soon, Du Xiu Heng noticed the person at the top and hastily ran up, saying as he gasped for breath, "What are you doing walking around in the middle of the night? Don't you know it's very dangerous?"
"I....."
"Look at me, in order to find you, this wound is even bleeding." Du Xiu Heng said, his eyes motionlessly stared at the bundle of luggage at her side, "You're leaving?"
"I thought you went to go find the villagers to come burn me to death. I thought, once you learned the truth, you wouldn't want me anymore. That's why, when I heard you opened the door and went out, I packed my things and hit the road." Du Xiao Li said.
"I just went to the toilet!" Du Xiu Heng said. When he'd opened the door, he was indeed just going to the toilet.
After knowing the truth of the matter, he kept tossing and turning restlessly in bed, not knowing what to do. He did consider telling this matter to the village chief, but when he'd wanted to make a decision, he also recalled how well Du Xiao Li treated him during this period of time. That's why, he still decided to let her continue being his younger sister. When he returned from the outhouse, he wanted to go see whether or not Du Xiao Li had gone to sleep. If she wasn't asleep, then he wanted to tell her his decision.
But, when he went to Du Xiao Li's room, he discovered that she wasn't inside. Thus, his entire person panicked. Feeling that her bed was still slightly warm, he knew that she hadn't been gone long; thus he quickly chased after her.
"Your body is my younger sister's, so in the future, you're still my younger sister. Don't assume that just because you've lived longer than me, I'll call you big sister!" Du Xiu Heng shot a glare at Du Xiao Li, and said somewhat awkwardly.
Du Xiao Li saw his angry appearance under the moonlight, and immediately burst into laughter. She nodded her head and said, "En, in the future, you're my big brother, and I'm your younger sister. As the big brother, you need to protect the younger sister!"
Du Xiu Heng picked up Du Xiao Li's luggage in one hand and held her hand in the other, slowly heading down the mountain, "That is of course. With you all alone in this world, if I don't protect you, who else will protect you? Besides, I'm the older brother, older brothers should protect little sisters...."
Du Xiao Li looked to the moon in the sky and knowingly smiled.
Du Xiu Heng turned around, and just happened to see the smile on her face. He thought, for his whole life, he'll always remember tonight's beautiful scenery.
This night, the moonlight like water, her smiling face like a flower.
T/N: To be honest, I didn't expect the reveal to happen this early on, but overall this novel is mostly wholesome and heartwarming. Although don't hold me to that because I didn't read very far ahead. Also please check out my other translation project on my personal site: Tyrannical Wang's Beloved Wife!
Ch. 018 – Discovering a Tangerine Tree!
Discovering a Tangerine Tree!
When they returned, Du Xiao Li burned a pile of firewood in the courtyard, borrowing the light to treat Du Xiu Heng's split open wound. Afterwards, the siblings each returned to their own room to rest.
At sunrise, Du Xiao Li got up to make breakfast. Yesterday, they didn't eat well all day. Before the sky got bright, her stomach was already grumbling.
"What, over at your place there's machines that can fly in the sky? And people can even sit in them?" Du Xiu Heng ate breakfast while letting Du Xiao Li tell him about her past life. When he heard about airplanes and c
ars, his eyes widened.
"Not just airplanes, there's also satellites." Du Xiao Li said, "However, you won't understand even if I explain it. Besides, a lot of things at our place can't be compared to the things now."
Although her past life wasn't a happy one, some things she still rather missed, for example, air conditioners. At present, the weather was getting increasingly hot. She exceedingly missed air conditioners, electric fans, and what not.
"You were a physician in your past life?" Du Xiu Heng asked.
"We don't say 'physician', we say 'doctor'. However, it's also someone that treats illnesses." Du Xiao Li shrugged, as she explained.
(T/N: In Chinese the old term for doctor is 'dai fu'; this is a very feudal way of addressing. The modern term is for doctor is 'yi shen'. However both terms translate to English the same so lines like these make translating quite headaching.)
She didn't tell him that she was also an assassin in her past life, fearing she would scare him if she told him. However, for him to know her real identity now was also a good thing. That way, she can relax her hands.
In the days after, Du Xiao Li began exercising her body at home. Sometimes she would even teach Du Xiu Heng some body strengthening exercises. And Du Xiu Heng no longer restricted her from entering the mountains alone. However, majority of the time, he still accompanied her.
"Big brother, the time is still very early today, let's go a bit further in the mountains." In the dense forest, Du Xiao Li looked towards the deeper parts of the mountain and said.
Du Xiu Heng didn't chop wood today. He only entered the mountains to accompany Du Xiao Li, because Du Xiao Li said there were a lot of rare medical ingredients in the mountains. If they were to dig up a good one, a single one can make up for several days of chopped firewood. That's why, she told him not to chop firewood for the time being, and just focus on studying at home.
At first, Du Xiu Heng didn't agree. Afterwards, he asked Niu Jing, learning that there really were a lot of valuable medical ingredients in the mountains. And moreover, even an ordinary medical ingredient, if dug a lot of, then it would still be more worthwhile than for him to chop firewood. Just the medical ingredients Du Xiao Li dug up last time, all sold for several hundred copper coins. Comparing the two sides, he thus agreed to Du Xiao Li's words.
It has already been half a month since that day. After a period of training, Du Xiao Li's body distinctly improved quite a bit. She also recovered some of her previous agility. But because this body was still too small, she couldn't achieve the same standards as when she first started training in her past life.
"How about we don't? What will we do if we encounter a vicious wild beast?" Du Xiu Heng urged. In the basket on his back, there were already a lot of medical herbs. Today's harvest was rather abundant.
"Don't worry, I brought this." Du Xiao Li waved the dagger in her hand.
Two days ago, she went with Du Xiu Heng to the city again. This time the two of them directly headed towards the blacksmith shop. Blacksmith Wang had already finished forging her things, just waiting for her to come fetch the goods.
"This dagger is very sharp. I made a sheath for you for free." Blacksmith Wang took out the prepared things and explained.
"Thank you." Du Xiao Li took the dagger and pulled it out for a look. And just as he said, it really was very sharp. One could feel the chill coming from it without even touching it. The barb hook and blood grooves on back side were also like how she'd imagined them. She nodded her head in satisfaction and said, "Not bad."
(T/N: The 'blood groove' is an old term for the fuller, which is a rounded or beveled longitudinal groove or slot along the flat side of a blade.)
Blacksmith Wang also took out the silver needles. The silver needles were carried in a container. Du Xiao Li looked them over, and aside from one or two that needed additional work from him, the others were all quite good. Overall, she was still satisfied.
Once she got the sliver needles and dagger, she finally felt at ease. After they returned home, she used a piece of cloth to sew herself a little knapsack. Although her skill wasn't good, her stitching crooked, she still had her dagger and silver needles placed in, taking it with her whenever she went out.
She waved the little knapsack on her back towards Du Xiu Heng, telling him that she'd brought the dagger. Du Xiu Heng then reluctantly followed her deeper into the mountains.
The two walked for a long while before finally climbing over their current mountain. The further in they went, the rarer the medical ingredients Du Xiao Li found. This made her extremely happy.
"Big brother, let's go down below." Du Xiao Li saw how the area below was practically unexplored by anyone before, and suspect that there should be even more good things below.
Seeing how excited Du Xiao Li was, and knowing that these medical ingredients that she dug up were all not bad, Du Xiu Heng also surmised that there were probably good things below, but seeing the dangerously steep cliff, he was also a little worried. But his objecting words were swallowed back down when he saw Du Xiao Li's excited look.
The siblings mutually supported each other as they went further down. After finally coming down with great difficulty, she instead discovered that there weren't any valuable ingredients like she'd imagined here. This made Du Xiao Li somewhat dejected.
"Let's walk out through the ravine and return by going around that other mountain." Du Xiu Heng surveyed the terrain and discovered that the place they came down from was the steepest. The other mountain beside it appeared much more leveled.
This place was the dark side of the mountain. The trees here weren't that dense. Compared to the other side of the mountain, it was practically like two different places.
Du Xiao Li originally wanted to go explore the mountain across from them too, but after seeing the already west leaning sun, she eventually gave up, following Du Xiu Heng through the valley in the direction back home. However, her eyes still looked around all over the mountain, digging up anything good to take back.
"Ah!" She suddenly shouted, startling Du Xiu Heng, who thought something had happened to her. Yet when he turned around, he saw her pointing to a short tree at the waist of the mountain, unable to say anything due to excitement.
"What's wrong?" Du Xiu Heng turned back and asked as he looked to the unfamiliar tree.
"That's, that's a tangerine tree!" Du Xiao Li excitedly said.
"Tangerine tree? You recognize it?"
Du Xiao Li nodded. When she was at her rural relative's home in her past life, their family were precisely planting this kind of tangerine tree. Every year, they could get several thousand in income. For the rural village, this was already considerably difficult.
At the time, she often followed her relatives up the mountain to work. Towards how to manage this kind of tree, she was very knowledgable.
She arrived at the slope and saw the fist sized underripe fruit hanging from the tree. She suddenly had a kind of kindly feeling. This was something she was familiar with, and was also be something that might make her rich in the future!
"Can this be eaten?" Du Xiu Heng also climbed up and asked as he looked to the fruit on the tree.
"It still not ripe right now. Need to wait until eighth or ninth month." Du Xiao Li said, "Big brother, after the fruits ripen, let's have this transplanted back on to our mountain, how about it?"
"Okay, but that mountain isn't ours. If we want to use it, then we need to go ask the village chief, and have that mountain bought." Du Xiu Heng said.
"Then let's go back." Du Xiao Li roughly calculated. There were a hundred different types of tangerine trees here. Once the fruit ripens, it should be able to sell for quite a lot of money.
When Du Xiao Li returned home, the sun was more or less already setting. Just as the two placed down the basket on their back, they saw Leng Er, frantically charge into the courtyard. He pulled over Du Xiao Li and ran, saying: "Quickly come save our young master!"
Ch. 019 – He's Poisoned!
T/N: I thought I'd dodged the poisoned ML troupe with this novel ;v; curse you clichessss
Du Xiao Li finally came to realization after getting pulled out of the courtyard by Leng Er. Was this considered getting kidnapped?
"What are you doing!?" Du Xiao Li twisted her wrist, struggled free from Leng Er's hand, and coldly shouted.
Leng Er didn't ponder on how Du Xiao Li was able to struggle free from his grasp. With an anxious look, he tried to pull her hand again, saying: "Our young master fainted, quickly come save him!"
"Isn't grandpa Niu home? Besides, last time didn't I teach you guys a method?" Du Xiao Li said.
"It's not young master's diseases that's acting up. He just suddenly fainted. Doctor Niu still haven't found the cause." Leng Er said. "Quit wasting time, quickly come with me."
Du Xiao Li unwillingly followed Leng Er down the mountain. She didn't know whether exposing her medical skills like this would be good or not.
"You walk so slow!" Leng Er, who was already far ahead, saw Du Xiao Li still dillydallying, and hastily walked back. He scooped her up, and with the tap of his foot on the ground, they directly flew down from the mountain.
"Ah....." Du Xiao Li unconsciously closed her eyes and screamed. By the time she realized Leng Er was using the legendary 'qing gong' and carrying her through the air, she entirely became excited.
Very soon, the two of them arrived at Niu Jing's courtyard. As soon as they entered, Leng Er said, "I brought the girl."
"Why did you bring her here at such a time?" Leng Yi shot a glare at Leng Er, and berated in a low voice.
"Last time wasn't it her that saved young master? Let her try this time too." Leng Er said, completely with the attitude of treating a dead horse like a living horse*.