Enduring the Winter

Three

On the way home, Ren Dong really had the urge to find a place where she could get rid of Gui Yan. She did not understand how God had let this gentleman with morals live independently up until now. After walking for an hour, he needed to rest. When he came across water in a lake, he first needed to boil it and then let it cool before he could drink it. He loved sneaking into remote places to find herbal plants, no matter if he ended up tumbling down a steep hill, or hurting his foot from a trap that some hunters had left behind. When that happened, he would miserably call her for help.

Because of him, Ren Dong went down a lot of pointless roads, but it was also because of the routes they took that the people chasing after her to kill her had decreased significantly.

It was night. Due to Gui Yan’s tarrying again, the two had not been able to reach the approaching village in time and thus could only sleep outdoors in the outskirts of the village.

Ren Dong angrily created a fire, with a roaring blaze, and after she put some more  firewood into the fire, she went off to hunt without saying a word. Gui Yan clasped his hands together and sat next to the fire, rubbing his hands while he shivered. He even sighed and kept harping, “I’m so cold and so hungry. Little flowery flower, you have to hurry back! Otherwise your divine doctor will die, ugh die.”

If you die, fine, Ren Dong thus thought.

When she returned with two wild hares, Gui Yan was sitting cross-legged next to the bonfire, holding a pouch embroidered with orchids as he counted his money, his face a picture of anxiety. When he looked up and saw the slowly returning Ren Dong, he immediately laughed, “Little flowery flower, hurry back and warm up. Tonight is so cold!”

Ren Dong stared blankly, her eyes softening. Someone like this… probably always lived life extremely happily.

She sat down and silently began to skin the hare. Gui Yan started to blabber about how pitiful the little bunny was, going to hell without a heart or lungs. But when Ren Dong finished cooking the hare, he was the one who enjoyed his food the most.

“Little flowery flower, will your Sect Leader give me money for treating him?,” Gui Yan asked. After he was full, Gui Yan sat next to a tree and covered up his little embroidered bag.

“How much do you want?”

“Ten golden taels.”

Ren Dong nodded. When he mentioned this topic, she suddenly remembered the conditions he asked for when he saved her. She glanced at Gui Yan, and saw that he was gazing back at her with a burning gaze. Ren Dong turned around and added more firewood to the fire. “What are you looking at?”

“Little flowery flower, after I help your Sect Leader get better, will we get married?”

Ren Dong’s current heartbeat resembled a Martian explosion. Her lips slightly twitched as she looked back at Gui Yan, “What did you say?”

Gui Yan eagerly rushed over and pitifully looked back at her. “Are you trying to go back on your words? That day you said it yourself! ‘If I save you,  you’ll marry me, and you’ll gift me with ten golden taels’,” He said, “I am a magnanimous person. I won’t ask for my wife’s money, but… but even if I don’t want the money, I still want my wife!”

Ren Dong indifferently turned around, as she fiddled with the fire. “I’ll give you money, twenty golden taels to buy your wife.”

Gui Yan’s eyes swelled up with tears. “Little flowery flower wifey…”

The veins on Ren Dong’s temples began to jump as she resisted the urge to beat him up. Gui Yan walked around her, trying to figure out how she was feeling, which made Ren Dong impatiently pick her hand up to push him over. Who would have thought that the moment Ren Dong lifted her hand, Gui Yan immediately held her hand. “Little flowery flower, your finger has so many little cuts!”

To Ren Dong, she was pretty much already numb to the pain from the cuts on her fingers that had formed from the thistles in their path. She tried to take her hand back, but Gui Yan anticipated her move and forced her finger into his mouth.

The warmth from his soft tongue licked over all of Ren Dong’s wounds on her finger. The ambiguity of their interactions made her face turn red.

“After I suck your wounds a little, your fingers won’t hurt anymore and your wounds will get better faster.”

Ren Dong stood up abruptly, and she hurriedly took two steps back, almost as if he was some sort of fierce beast. “You.. you.”

Gui Yan laughed merrily. “Little flowery flower wifey, don’t be shy~.” Before he could finish, something shiny flashed past his eyes, and his expression slightly sank. He looked up at the stars covering the sky and said, “It is said that on a night when the sky is full of stars, a fantastical medicinal herb will grow by places with water. Let’s go pick a few.”

The topic had changed too quickly, and Ren Dong was a bit slow on the uptake for a moment. After some silence, she said, “This place is about ten li from the nearest river. It’s too far.”

“Ah, I’ve remembered. The antidote from the Reborn Turtledoves poison should require that herb.”

Ren Dong pursed her lips and sighed regretfully. “If I would have known that you would be fooling around with me this entire journey… I would have definitely removed your arm and leg.”

Gui Yan laughed harmlessly, and turned around to extinguish the fire. “Let’s leave a bit sooner. The flowers only bloom for a short while, and if we were to miss it, I don’t know what we could do.”