Chapter 131: Token
Shang Wan’s palm swept over the bamboo basket, instantly filling it with herbs.
She hung the bamboo basket on the back of the wheelchair and gestured for Lu Chengjing to wheel himself back.
They had only walked a few steps when movement came from behind, causing them both to turn their heads to look.
“Mom! Daddy!”
Yuan Yuan rode Xiao Hui out from the mountain forest, covered head to toe in mud and leaves, filthy dirty, matching the child Shang Wan was holding.
If Xiao Huan saw her, she would definitely drag her off for a good scrubbing bath.
Yuan Yuan’s big eyes sparkled brightly, one small hand grabbing the fur on Xiao Hui’s back, the other dragging a long strip of fleshy thing.
The little one thought her parents had come to pick her up, grinning to reveal three millet teeth, proudly holding up the long thing for them to see, “Here!”
That long, patterned strip of a thing swayed back and forth with her movement.
Shang Wan’s eye twitched. Wasn’t this Mr. Poisonous Snake, the one she had knocked into the valley?
Turns out she had let it go, and her own kid had killed it.
Mr. Poisonous Snake definitely hadn’t checked the almanac before going out hunting today.
“Good baby, aren’t you tired?” Shang Wan had thought the little one would sleep all day.
“No!” Yuan Yuan shook her little head, full of energy.
She directed Xiao Hui to come closer, trying to stuff the poisonous snake into the bamboo basket full of herbs.
Lu Chengjing took a deep breath. In just how many days had his own soft and glutinous daughter already managed to squash a poisonous snake as thick as an arm?
Should he praise his wife for teaching their daughter well?
Deep breath. Lu Chengjing tried hard to stay calm and explained to his daughter, “This is a poisonous snake. You can’t eat it.”
“Here!” Yuan Yuan kept up the motion of stuffing the poisonous snake, blinking her big eyes.
Lu Chengjing’s tone was helpless, “Good girl, you really can’t eat it. Eating it will make you sick.”
Yuan Yuan pouted her little mouth and turned her little head to look at Shang Wan, only then noticing that her own mother was holding someone in her arms.
She decisively tossed the poisonous snake aside, patted Xiao Hui, and curiously leaned in to look.
Under the healing of the spiritual spring water, the fever on the child’s body had subsided quite a bit, and he slept much more peacefully than before, without any muttering in his sleep.
Yuan Yuan reached out her small hand and poked the child’s cheek. It was soft and fluffy, just like hers.
The little one smiled until her eyes curved, hee hee, another little brother to play with her.
She scooted her little butt back a bit, patted the spot she had specially cleared in front of her, and gestured for her mom to put the little brother up there.
Shang Wan decisively refused. This child still had knife wounds on his body; it wasn’t suitable.
Yuan Yuan puffed out her cheeks in dissatisfaction, but she couldn’t do anything about her mom, and Daddy listened to Mommy.
Like a little adult, she sighed, and the little one decisively abandoned her own parents, rode Xiao Hui off into the distance to play with Uncle Shi Tou.
The brand-new little playmate was thus thrown to the back of her mind.
Shang Wan carried the child home. Xiao Huan heard the movement and looked over, her eyes widening in shock.
“Sis, where did this child come from?”
“Picked him up,” Shang Wan said. “Is there hot water? This child has wounds on his body. Clean him up first before applying ointment.”
“Yes.” Xiao Huan hurriedly went to prepare.
Ever since Yuan Yuan started going into the mountains every day, Xiao Huan would prepare a pot of hot water at the right time. The first thing Yuan Yuan did when she got home was take a bath and change clothes.
Xiao Huan had been worrying: it was fine with the warm weather now, but when it got cold, bathing every day wouldn’t lead to catching a cold, would it?
After stripping the child naked, Shang Wan frowned tightly.
The child had a total of three knife wounds on his body: one on his back, two on his arms, and the rest were abrasions and cuts.
The knife wounds on the arms were relatively minor, but the one on his back was extremely deep, with flesh flipped out, looking especially horrific on his fair little body.
Shang Wan sighed again at how tough this child’s life was, managing to hold on with one breath despite injuries like this.
However, to strike a deadly blow against a child probably meant seeking revenge, right?
As Lu Chengjing said, this child was trouble.
Helping Xiao Huan wash the child clean, Shang Wan unexpectedly found that the child was quite handsome, with a bit of the look of a little celestial child.
Xiao Huan looked worriedly at the child lying on the soft cushion. “Sis, the wound on this child’s back is long and deep; it needs stitches. I should still go find Doctor Yuan to come take a look.”
“No need.” Shang Wan stopped her. “Just apply the ointment your brother-in-law uses on him.”
Since he was trouble, naturally the fewer people who knew, the better.
Xiao Huan naturally listened to Shang Wan, fetched the ointment and applied it to the child, and only wrapped it with gauze after the ointment had mostly dried.
Shang Wan walked out of the wooden shed and headed toward Lu Chengjing.
Lu Chengjing was sorting the picked herbs when he heard the movement and turned to look. “How is that child?”
“Injured quite badly, but his little life is fine.” Shang Wan handed over the bloodstained sachet she had picked up. “This should be that child’s. Take a look.”
Lu Chengjing wiped his hands clean and took it, holding the sachet upside down to pour out the contents one by one.
There were two things in total.
A translucent white jade pendant, round in shape, relatively simple in style, with a circle of hollow floral patterns around the edges, and a “Chu” character engraved in the center, with two bats below.
A square copper token the length of a little finger, with no patterns, only three words engraved in the center in seal script: Fortune, Prosperity, Longevity.
The three words were aligned in a column, uniform in size, evenly spaced.
Shang Wan had already looked ahead of time and only asked after Lu Chengjing finished looking: “Did you notice anything?”
“Chu.” Lu Chengjing’s fingertip rubbed the bat patterns on the white jade pendant. “This jade pendant has a clan emblem.”
Great clans generally had clan emblems. Sure enough, this child’s background was not simple.
“What about this one?” Shang Wan pointed at the copper token.
Lu Chengjing shook his head, indicating he also didn’t know what the copper token was for.
Shang Wan took it and examined it closely, frowning after a moment. “There are words on it, right?”
“It’s the three words Fortune, Prosperity, Longevity.”
Lu Chengjing had recently been teaching Shang Wan to recognize characters and gestured for her to spread her palm.
His finger lightly traced, slowly writing the three words once to help Shang Wan remember.
Shang Wan: “…Next time, just dip water on the table and write.”
Lu Chengjing was slightly stunned. “Why?”
Shang Wan thought, who writes characters on someone’s palm like a good person? That was only used for flirting, right?
Lu Chengjing: “…”
His ear tips flushed red, and he uncomfortably turned his face away, pretending to study the copper token.
Shang Wan grabbed his hand and pinched it, smiling as she asked: “Still writing?”
Lu Chengjing pursed his lips, and when Shang Wan was about to let go, he grabbed back, held tight, and softly hummed “mm.”
……
Where was this?
Chu Xu struggled to open his eyes and saw a little turtle bobbing its head in front of his face, feeling dazed.
Hadn’t he jumped off a cliff? The King of Hell’s palace didn’t look like this, right?
“So much!”
A chubby little face suddenly appeared in his view. The little girl tilted her little head to look at him, her big eyes blinking like stars.
Chu Xu opened his mouth twice before making a faint sound. “Who are you?”
Yuan Yuan ignored him and quickly crawled out to tell the adults that the little brother had woken up.
Liang Liang sat to the side and saw that Chu Xu’s lips were dry and peeling. He silently poured a cup of water and handed it to him.
Chu Xu then realized he was lying prone. He shifted slightly, and drilling pain came from his back.
His face paled, and looking at the bamboo water cup, he didn’t take it. He stared at Liang Liang and asked: “Where is this?”
