Chapter 53: Best Friend
Anning Village, Su family.
Zhang Zhaodi sized up Jiang Jing, pulled Su Yaoguang to the corner nearby, and said in a low voice: “My good daughter, although we’ve temporarily made some money, we’re still supporting a scholar at home. Where would we get spare silver to support another one? You have to change this habit of casually bringing people back.”
“Mom, Jiang Jing is very skilled. She knows medical skill,” Su Yaoguang said. “With her help, our skincare cream will definitely improve further.”
“She looks about your age, maybe even younger than you. What medical skill could she have? Don’t be fooled,” Zhang Zhaodi frowned. “I’ve heard you talk about her situation. Don’t make her pay back the money for burying her father. Let her go, she can go anywhere, just not follow us.”
“Mom, she’s really great.” In her previous life, when she had just become the top scholar’s wife, she fell seriously ill. If not for Jiang Jing saving her, she would have died long ago.
At that time, she discovered she had been poisoned, reminded her, and told her to check the people around her. She trusted Xiao Yanci too much and told him about it. The next day, Xiao Yanci killed the cook in the mansion, saying that the cook’s daughter had originally been Xiao Yanci’s girl who wanted to climb into his bed but was chased away by her, so she held a grudge and tampered with her food.
Later, Jiang Jing was invited to West Continent City to see a doctor and left the capital for three months, and it was during those three months that she became critically ill until her death when she finally learned Xiao Yanci’s true face.
Besides that incident, at a certain noblewoman’s banquet, she was drugged by someone, and it was Jiang Jing who gave her the antidote, so she didn’t make a fool of herself. Jiang Jing had done her a favor, and now encountering her in her destitute state, she couldn’t ignore her. Not to mention that in their previous lives they were already close friends, so it was even more impossible to ignore her.
Jiang Jing knelt before Zhang Zhaodi, kowtowed, and said: “Yaoguang sister helped me bury my father, which is equivalent to buying me. From now on, I am Yaoguang sister’s girl.”
“I don’t want a girl, you be my younger sister.” Su Yaoguang pulled up Jiang Jing and said, “Mom, look how well-behaved little Jing is. Haven’t you always said it’s too lonely having only one daughter? Now it’s good, I’ve found you a little daughter.”
Zhang Zhaodi looked at Su Yaoguang, then at Jiang Jing, waved her hand and said: “Fine, I’m afraid of you two. Stay! But let me say this first: if you don’t behave, or do anything bad to our family, I’ll drive you out immediately. You’ve seen our family conditions aren’t good. You won’t have a good life following us. Think it over before deciding.”
“My mom has agreed, quickly call her godmother.” Su Yaoguang urged.
“Godmother above, please accept a bow from your daughter.” Jiang Jing kowtowed.
Zhang Zhaodi softened her expression: “Get up! I’ll go make dinner.”
“We were just saying to empty out my room for Wangshu, but now it seems that’s not going to work. Next time we go to the city, I’ll tell Wangshu. He’s living at the academy now, comes back only once a month, so we’ll have to trouble him to continue staying in the wood shed. Little Jing and I will sleep together. Once we earn more silver, we’ll move to the city, rent a shop front, and then find a place with more rooms.”
“Little Jing, come with me later to pick vegetables.” Zhang Zhaodi called out.
“Okay, godmother.”
Zhang Zhaodi took Jiang Jing out the door and walked around the village. Before long, everyone in the village knew that Zhang Zhaodi had taken in a sworn sister, and this sworn sister had a black birthmark on her face.
Zhang Zhaodi had been observing Jiang Jing. When villagers showed disgust toward her birthmark, her expression didn’t change at all.
“Don’t you mind?” Zhang Zhaodi asked.
“Godmother, this birthmark of mine isn’t congenital.” Jiang Jing said, “My family has been practicing medicine for generations. One day my parents went to the city to see a doctor, leaving me alone at home to watch the house. That day, a few strange people came, searched our house, and took away a box. Before leaving, they fed me a poison pill. I was in excruciating pain. Luckily my parents rushed back and gave me an antidote before I stopped breathing. But that medicine could only save my life. When I woke up, these black marks appeared on my face, just like a birthmark.”
“My father said it was because there was still residual poison in my body, so over these years he kept making various antidotes. Unfortunately, before he could make one, a flood hit our hometown, washing away all our possessions and leaving my mother there forever. We fled disaster, escaping death time and again, until recently my father fell seriously ill with no cure.”
“These black marks are indeed ugly, but without them, I wouldn’t have survived the various calamities on the road fleeing disaster. Godmother, human nature is really terrifying on the road fleeing disaster!”
Zhang Zhaodi’s eyes reddened, she took her hand, her eyes showing less vigilance and more heartache: “You’re also a pitiful person. No need to be afraid anymore. From now on, we’re family.”
Su Yaoguang noticed that after Zhang Zhaodi took Jiang Jing out once, her attitude changed. She leaned close to Zhang Zhaodi and mysteriously asked what happened and how she suddenly came around.
Zhang Zhaodi said irritably: “She called me godmother, of course I have to treat her as a daughter. You’re the older sister, so yield to your younger sister from now on.”
Su Yaoguang: “…”
It was over, she was going to lose favor.
In her previous life, when Su Yaoguang met Jiang Jing, there were no black marks on her face. Now there was an extra black mark, obviously for a reason. She didn’t ask about it, since no woman doesn’t care about her appearance, no need to bring it up deliberately.
Su Yaoguang gave her own clothes to Jiang Jing to change into.
At this time, Jiang Jing already had the aloof temperament of the later Jiang Jing. She didn’t talk much, and when she spoke, it was always to the point. She didn’t joke around, perhaps by nature, or perhaps because she had experienced too much and lost the innocent liveliness of a young girl.
Jiang Jing thus stayed in Anning Village and became Su Yaoguang’s sworn sister. Su Yaoguang took her everywhere no matter what she did. The villagers went from initial pointing and whispering to getting used to it. Once the novelty wore off and people paid less attention to Jiang Jing, Su Yaoguang stopped taking her everywhere.
“Little Jing.” Su Yaoguang walked toward the well and saw Jiang Jing carrying water, so she strode over and took the bucket from her hand. “Who told you to carry water? You don’t have the strength for this.”
“You’re a girl too. How can all the work of carrying water be done by you?” Jiang Jing said. “If you can do it, I can too. From now on, you carry one day, I carry the next.”
“Are you silly?” Su Yaoguang laughed. “This kind of heavy chore is something to avoid if possible, yet you insist on competing with me to do it.”
“You’re even sillier.” Jiang Jing pursed her lips. “All the rough chores at home are done by you. You’re a young girl too, you shouldn’t work so hard. Since I’m the younger sister, I should share the burden with you.”
“Look how lucky I am, picking up such a great younger sister right away.” Su Yaoguang said with a grin. “But little Jing, you really don’t need to carry water. If you really want to help, I’m working on a scar removal skincare cream. Help me think how to modify the prescription so it can both skincare and achieve scar removal effect.”
“If it’s scar removal ointment, I know how to make it. But I don’t know how to make nourishing cream, so I’m not sure if I can help.” Jiang Jing said. “Let’s go back and try first.”
