Chapter 25: Whose House Is This Exactly?
“Mmm~ Too delicious, girl, your cooking skills are top-notch,” the old man cradled his belly while slumping down, leaning against the Big Tiger’s soft abdomen behind him, giving Yan Yue a thumbs up, “at least my seasoning wasn’t wasted.”
“Alright, you’ve finished eating, hurry up and pack to go back! This rain looks like it’s about to come down, and if there’s a pit or something on the way back that traps your carriage wheel, you’ll be calling to heaven with no response and to earth with no reply.” After Lin Xin packed up, she started shooing them out.
“You stinky girl, what’s wrong with me staying a bit longer? If it rains, I’ll just crash at your house!” The little old man had eaten too much, too full to move, his eyes rolling as he came up with an idea.
“Don’t even think about it, my house has just one room, not enough for you.”
As Lin Xin’s words fell, bean-sized raindrops started pattering down. The place where they ate was under the eaves, so it wouldn’t affect them for a while.
“See, what did I say? Now what?” Lin Xin had a headache. Seeing the raindrops already forming rain lines, if she let the little old man go back now and something really happened halfway, even if the culprit was the heavens, she couldn’t escape the title of accomplice.
“Hehe, girl, how about this?” The old man grinned until all his wrinkles bunched up, looking anything but well-intentioned.
“Speak!” Lin Xin said irritably.
“How about this: tonight my little disciple and I take your younger brother to sleep, and we give you the horse carriage?”
“Not happening. I say, old man, do you know your abacus beads are practically hitting my face? Now tell the truth: why do you insist on coming back with me? If you don’t tell the truth, I’ll let the Big Tiger eat you and your disciple.” Lin Xin finally realized this old man was doing it on purpose.
The Tiger didn’t know if it understood or it was coincidence, but it just happened to open its bloody mouth toward the old man and his disciple, scaring the little disciple into jumping high and darting behind the old man, trembling all over.
“You useless thing!” The little old man slapped his little disciple on the palm in frustration, looking at Lin Xin’s taut pretty face, he sighed and said aggrievedly: “I just want to follow you into the mountain! You won’t dig wild ginseng to sell to me, so what’s wrong with me going to dig it myself!”
Lin Xin laughed in anger, “And then what? With your old arms and legs, you’re going into the mountain? Besides, do you think wild ginseng is like radishes in the backyard, available whenever you want?”
“I just wanted to try my luck! This old man has always been lucky, what if I get lucky this time too? I really need wild ginseng urgently, it’s very useful!”
“Hmph!” Lin Xin kept a straight face, not wanting to pay him any attention.
Seeing her like this, the old man knew there was a chance, so he quickly sidled up fawningly, “You take me into the mountain, and I’ll teach you medical skill, how about that?”
“What do I need that for?” Lin Xin asked irritably.
“How is it useless? If you learn it well, you can regulate your younger brother’s body! And in the future, if there’s any illness or disaster, you won’t need to find a doctor, you can handle it yourself, no time wasted, how great!” The little old man persuaded her patiently.
“Not interested!” Lin Xin turned her head away, then suddenly turned back, “Wait, that’s not right. We agreed before: I cook for you, and you regulate my younger brother’s body. How did it turn into me learning medicine to regulate his body myself? So you were deceiving me before!”
“How could that be! I meant in the future, in the future, got it? For your younger brother’s minor issue, I can handle it right now,” the little old man felt a twinge of guilty conscience, but quickly covered it up, then waved to Lin Nan: “Little guy, come over and let Grandfather take your pulse.”
“Oh!” Lin Nan climbed over the Big Tiger’s body from the other side and stretched out his thin little hand to the old man.
“This child wasn’t nourished well in the womb, and because the mother was startled leading to premature birth, after birth the food didn’t keep up either, his body has severe deficiency, it’s really not easy for him to survive, but what have you been feeding him lately? The internal deficiency has actually been filled somewhat.” The little old man let go of his hand and looked at Lin Xin in surprise.
Lin Xin couldn’t respond to that; what she used on Lin Nan was wood element ability, not medical skill.
The less she said, the more curious the little old man became, scratching his liver and lungs in itchiness, finally in a huff he turned and entered the room, then directed his little disciple to put on a raincoat and move her bedding to the horse carriage, then carried Lin Nan back to the room. The Big Tiger narrowed its eyes and followed behind the little old man into the room, but just lay at the doorway without going inside.
Lin Xin looked at the bedding in the horse carriage and didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Whose house was this? He openly kicked her out just like that? Didn’t he know her courtyard couldn’t fit the horse carriage, so she had to sleep outside?
If this were the apocalypse, this little old man would have died eight times over, with grass overgrown on his grave.
After grinding her teeth for a while, Lin Xin finally spread the bedding in the horse carriage, searched in her space for a long time, found a seed of diamond vine, grew a whole diamond vine, completely enclosing the horse carriage inside, then lay in the bedding and slept.
Truth be told, this horse carriage seemed much more comfortable than the kang in her room, not very spacious but at least not so hard; it was just that the raindrops hitting the roof were a bit noisy. If only she had a big house—that was Lin Xin’s last thought before falling asleep.
The next morning early, the rain had stopped at some point, the air filled with the scent of mud and moist water vapor; the early autumn morning brought a hint of chill.
Lin Xin rubbed her arms, first withdrew the diamond vine, got off the horse carriage, and went home to wash up.
By the time she set out millet congee, fried egg, pickled vegetables, and meat buns on the small table in the kitchen, the medical hall’s little disciple came out of the room yawning in a daze, only to trip over the Big Tiger at the doorway, instantly scaring him awake—not just awake, but jumping three feet high, yelling as he ran back into the inner room.
Then came Lin Nan’s whiny voice looking for his older sister after being woken up.
“Look what you’ve done.” Lin Xin patted the Tiger’s head, “Your injury is pretty much healed too, today I’ll send you back to the mountain, no slacking off, got it?”
Soon, the little old man came out of the room, holding the sleepy-eyed Lin Nan in his arms.
“Sis~” Last night when sleeping he knew his sister wasn’t sleeping with him, and he even followed the little old man reciting Soup Head Song for a while, but upon waking up he forgot; opening his eyes to see an old wrinkled face, he immediately started whining. Seeing his sister now, he felt so wronged, rubbing his little face in her neck for a long time.
“Hurry and wash up, then I’ll take you into the mountain; no matter the harvest, you get out by afternoon.” Lin Xin said coldly to the little old man, then carried Lin Nan to the kitchen.
“Hey hey hey, wait wait, I have something to tell you.” The little old man grabbed Lin Xin.
“No matter what, it’s off the table. Hurry and wash up, eat, then, go, into, the mountain.” Lin Xin turned back with an eye roll, shook off his hand, and entered the kitchen.
“This stinky girl, won’t even let me speak. I’ll wait for you to come begging me later, hmph hmph hmph······” The little old man got upset too, humming as he washed up under his little disciple’s service, then went to the kitchen with a cold face to eat breakfast.
But once the fresh bun entered his mouth, salty, fragrant, and savory; a sip of millet congee, thickly aromatic and sweet; a bite of fried egg, crispy outside and tender inside; crunching a pickled vegetable, crisp and refreshing—it instantly lit up his eyes, making him forget the anger he just felt, grinning as he gave Lin Xin a thumbs up.
Fixed two errors pointed out by Baozi yesterday, thank you very much Baozi for reading carefully; in the future I’ll diligently catch bugs too, thanks again!
Also thanks to caroletu for the reward and the monthly ticket sent, thank you!
