Chapter 114: Gone [seeking Monthly Votes]
Everyone looked at each other in dismay, and no one moved.
Aunt Yao squatted down and pinched Gui Shi’s philtrum. Gui Shi’s eyelids fluttered, and she slowly came to.
Seeing the people surrounding her from above, she closed her eyes again as if about to faint.
Gao Laotai shouted, “Try fainting again! Unless you die right now, you’ll tell us about this adulterer whether you want to or not!”
Gui Shi’s body trembled, but she finally opened her eyes.
She sat up, her face showing utter dejection. “Don’t ask me. I won’t say. Just beat me to death directly.”
Seeing that Gui Shi was still protecting that adulterer even now, Gao Laotai was so angry that she threw her cane at Gui Shi. Gui Shi shrank back but didn’t dodge, letting the solid wooden cane smash into her shoulder, causing her to grunt in pain.
Gao Laotai glared at her furiously: “If you don’t confess the adulterer, I’ll beat you to death, you adulteress!”
Gui Shi clenched her sleeves tightly with both hands, closed her eyes, and said nothing, as if she was determined not to reveal who that man was.
The crowd looked at each other in dismay. What could they do now?
Village Chief Lin sighed and said to the crowd, “Seize her and send her to the officials.”
Perhaps stimulated by the words “send her to the officials,” Gui Shi suddenly screamed and got up to run outside.
She had already run several dozen feet away when Village Chief Lin, furious and exasperated, shouted, “Quick, grab her!”
Only then did the villagers move and chase after her to catch her.
At the same time, a person came running from far away in the direction of the mountain forest.
“Come help!”
Luo Er was running panting heavily. Two men went up to meet him and helped him put down the person on his back.
When they saw that face clearly, everyone was shocked.
Wasn’t this Gao Qi, whom everyone had been searching for without success?
“Luo Er, what happened?”
“I went into the mountains hunting and saw a wild boar piglet, so I chased after it to take a look.” Luo Er wiped the sweat from his forehead and said with a slight gasp, “I didn’t hunt the wild boar, but following the blood trail, I found Gao Qi. Seeing his condition was bad, I hurried back carrying him first.”
He still had a bow slung over his shoulder, and two mountain chickens tied to his waist, clearly proving he had gone hunting.
“My Qi’er!” Gao Laotai wailed as soon as she saw Gao Qi’s miserable state.
Gui Shi, who had been caught and brought back, also struggled free from the hands restraining her and threw herself at Gao Qi crying, “My son!”
Someone ran to the Yuan Family and carried Yuan Musheng over.
Yuan Musheng set his cane aside, sat on a small bench, and took Gao Qi’s pulse. He lowered his head to examine the injuries on Gao Qi’s body.
The upper body only had a few small wounds, nothing serious, but the lower body… Yuan Musheng blinked hard, his face showing incredulous shock.
How had Gao Qi turned into an eunuch?
Gui Shi asked anxiously, “Doctor Yuan, how is my son?”
“I’m afraid it’s not good.” Yuan Musheng said euphemistically, “Injured in a place it shouldn’t be.”
Gui Shi was stunned. “What place it shouldn’t be?”
Although she was Gao Qi’s birth mother, Gao Qi was already grown, and she couldn’t look at her son’s private parts. She only thought the blood on his pants was from an injured leg.
“It’s just…” Yuan Musheng coughed and, under the crowd’s curious gazes, lowered his voice. “His manhood is gone.”
Right, not injured—gone.
Although he had deliberately lowered his voice, everyone was straining to listen, and they all heard it clearly.
The crowd reacted for a moment, then erupted in clamor.
Someone asked in disbelief, “Gao Qi has become an eunuch?”
Yuan Musheng nodded, then ignored others’ reactions and took out silver needles to treat Gao Qi.
Gao Laotai and Gui Shi stood dazed in place, Yuan Musheng’s words echoing repeatedly in their minds.
Manhood gone… turned into an eunuch…
The Gao Family’s sole heir was ruined!
Gao Laotai, who had just been chasing her daughter-in-law to beat her, couldn’t withstand the blow. She made a long “heh” sound from her throat, as if a phlegm hadn’t come up, rolled her eyes, and fainted.
Her body crashed onto Gui Shi, snapping the dazed Gui Shi back to her senses.
“This isn’t real, it’s a dream! A dream!” Gui Shi pushed Gao Laotai away and stood up, her face twisted ferociously. “My son is fine, it’s a dream! All a dream!”
“Hahaha, all a dream! All a dream!”
She pushed through the crowd and ran out, laughing shrilly, her hair disheveled, her steps staggering. She fell now and then but got up again, her mad figure gradually disappearing from the crowd’s sight.
Shang Wan gave Shi Tou a look, and Shi Tou quietly followed.
“Two people come help carry Gao Qi to my house.”
Gao Qi’s condition was complicated; Yuan Musheng needed to suture his wounds, which would be easier at home.
Luo Er and another man stepped forward. Shang Wan kindly provided a wooden board to make it easier for them to carry him.
The crowd sighed endlessly; no one had expected things to develop this way.
Now the Gao Family had some fainted, some gone mad, some crippled; their days ahead would probably be even harder.
Some people secretly glanced at Shang Wan and her group, thinking that the Xiucai Scholar’s family had something uncanny about them—no one who opposed them got any good out of it.
More than one person had this thought, and many resolved not to provoke this family for no reason in the future, lest they lose their wife and soldiers too.
Gao Qi suddenly becoming an eunuch disrupted all of Village Chief Lin’s plans. His face ashen, he arranged for people to send the unconscious Gao Laotai back to the Gao Family, and threw some sarcastic remarks at Shang Wan and the others, clearly trying to shift the blame for Gao Qi’s injury onto Shang Wan.
Unfortunately, no one believed him; they believed Luo Er.
After all, Luo Er was the first to find Gao Qi. He guessed Gao Qi’s injury was caused by that wild boar, which had been rooting next to Gao Qi at the time, indeed munching on something with grunts.
As for why the wild boar targeted the two ounces of meat under Gao Qi, that was unknown.
Everyone sighed over Gao Qi’s bad luck. Without the skill, why go poking into the mountain forest? Staying put honestly, how could this have happened?
As for what happened between Gao Qi and Xiao Huan by the riverside, the crowd tacitly stopped mentioning it.
There was no deep hatred; no matter what, they couldn’t force a good girl to marry an eunuch—that would just ruin her.
They didn’t mention it, and Village Chief Lin had no support even if he wanted to stir trouble, so he could only leave with a dark face.
Once the crowd left, He SIZhi and his disciple contentedly went back to work, thinking the village dramas were one after another, truly exciting.
Xiao Huan was still a bit dazed. It was over just like that?
Shang Wan reached out and patted her head. “Come back to your senses. Later, remember to borrow a kitchen knife from the Zhang Family.”
Their own kitchen knife that had been used to chop off that thing couldn’t be used to cut vegetables anymore.
Xiao Huan only now began to worry. “Sis, what if Gao Qi wakes up and fingers us?”
She could go to jail, but she couldn’t implicate her family.
“No such possibility.” Shang Wan smiled. “How can a mute speak?”
Since she had decided to spare Gao Qi’s life, she naturally wouldn’t give him a chance to identify her family.
From now on, Gao Qi could enjoy his karmic reward. Hopefully he lived a long time.
Admiration shone in Xiao Huan’s eyes. She suddenly spread her arms and gave Shang Wan a solid bear hug, shouting excitedly, “Sis!”
“Good girl.” Shang Wan comfortingly patted the back of her head.
A little later, Shi Tou, who had quietly followed Gui Shi, ran back.
Shang Wan asked, “How’d it go?”
