41: Old friends visit

Just as the palm was about to hit Zhuang Yue's face.

Su Xin coldly met her husband’s bulging eyes:

“I have a way!”

A strong gust of wind swept past Zhuang Yue’s pale face, ruffling the bangs on her forehead.

“What did you say?!”

Zhuang Bai’s voice rose by three tones.

“I said, I have a way to make you win against your elder brother, even if your father doesn’t like you!” Su Xin said with certainty, her bright red lips curving into a confident arc.

“Hmph!”

Zhuang Bai withdrew his hand and laughed uproariously.

“If you had a way, someone as proud as you wouldn’t have knelt with me. Do you think I’ve really drunk myself silly?”

“Divorce these three vixen, and I’ll tell you the method. If you don’t believe me, our lives, mother and daughter, will guarantee it.”

Seeing Su Xin’s seriousness, the smile on Zhuang Bai’s face froze.

“At least tell me half of it, then I’ll consider.” Zhuang Bai gazed at Su Xin. They hadn’t shared a bed for a long time, and now seeing his woman like this, it had a different charm.

Facing the man’s lustful eyes, Su Xin pointed towards the main door.

“No matter who has a grudge with you, in the entire Medicine Field, you are the only one named Zhuang.

As long as you can stay here, the Medicine Field will be yours sooner or later.”

A word to awaken the dreamer. That’s right, in the entire Medicine Field, he was the only one named Zhuang.

As soon as that old man Du Qingfu died, the only one in the Medicine Field to inherit his mantle would be his wife, Su Xin.

No matter how many people Big Brother and the others tried to place, they couldn't compare to him in this regard.

At that time, as long as he followed Su Xin and learned how to Cultivate Spiritual Plants.

Even if his father was unwilling for him to take over the Medicine Field, he would have to accept him.

After all, the Medicine Field was now the Zhuang family’s main focus.

Handing it over to an outsider, no matter how much they trusted them, there was still a different surname, making complete trust impossible.

This was the last resort, and an open scheme that couldn't be broken.

Zhuang Bai looked at his wife. Ever since she married in, he had hardly given this official wife a proper look, thinking she was just a dirty farmer, dealing with smelly fertilizer all day.

But now, Zhuang Bai knew that if he wanted to turn the tables, there was only one path—to follow behind his wife.

“They made you unhappy. I’ll make you happy right now.” Zhuang Bai turned and left.

A moment later, three alluring beauties in cool attire knelt on the ground, their feet bound with ropes.

“Clap clap clap ~”

Zhuang Bai held a whip and lashed them with gusto, red welts appearing on the women’s bodies.

Their tender cheeks were stained with terrifying scars like centipedes.

“First Madam, we were wrong. Please be merciful and spare us.”

“First Madam…”

His daughter had been coaxed to sleep, and his son was studying with his grandfather.

Facing the wailing, Su Xin crossed her arms, coldly watching her husband beat the three women half to death.

Zhuang Bai, halfway through the beating, saw Su Xin’s still indifferent expression, and a chill wrapped around his heart.

His wife had waited over a decade for this day.

He knew very well how he had treated her all these years.

“Su Xin, I’m sorry for how I treated you before…”

In front of the three concubines, Zhuang Bai sincerely apologized with deep emotion.

The maid clenched her fists, her face pale. Was this the last chance the Madam spoke of?

After a while, Su Xin nodded and helped her husband up.

“You and I are husband and wife; a little grievance is nothing. From now on, let’s live a good life together.”

“Good, let’s live a good life!” Zhuang Bai saw his wife finally smile, and the fear in his heart vanished. Just a moment ago, he had seen that pure coldness in his wife’s eyes, and he truly feared that one day, he would die by Su Xin’s hand.

“Let’s go, I’ll teach you how to Cultivate azure spirit grass.”

“Alright!”

The two attending maids widened their eyes in surprise. The sun must have risen from the west; this was the first time the couple had gone to the fields together!

The setting sun, accompanied by a cool breeze, blew as Zhuang Bai wiped the foul sweat from his forehead and sat on the field ridge.

Looking straight ahead, a path of straight, dark green stretched out, with azure spirit grass raising its head from the soil every meter.

Beside him, Su Xin had changed into a black fitted outfit, perfectly outlining her exquisite figure.

Although she no longer possessed the purity of her youth, she was well-preserved, and the unique fullness and charm of a married woman surpassed the naivety of her younger days.

She was like a brilliantly blooming peony, lacking the elegance of a green lotus, but rich with vibrant color, stirring the primal desires surging deep within a man’s heart.

His woman had always been by his side, protecting this home.

It was he who, in his self-proclaimed cleverness, almost ruined this home.

If he could continue like this in the future, with his wife and children around a warm bed, that wouldn’t be bad either.

“Su Xin, let’s bring our son back tomorrow. It’s not good for him to always be at the old master’s place.

From now on, I’ll farm, and you teach our son to read.”

Su Xin’s body trembled, and she slowly turned her head to look at Zhuang Bai.

“Okay.” She slowly nodded… As the couple reconciled, on the other side, in Jiang Hanwen’s medical hall, bright lamps shone.

A man lay on the sickbed, his face dark, his gaunt face covered in wrinkles.

His hair was a mix of black and white, emitting a foul odor, clearly unkempt for a long time, showing the wear of hardship.

After a while, the man on the sickbed woke up.

Jiang Hanwen, who had been sitting by the bed, spoke: “There’s no big problem; you’ll be fine after two days of rest.”

The man was silent for a moment, then struggled to raise his head, looking up at Jiang Hanwen’s face in the soft lamplight, a face both strange and familiar.

“Thank you, Lord Jiang.”

Jiang Hanwen said nothing, and the room fell into a deathly silence.

The sourness and grievance in his throat fermented, a glimmer of tears welled in his eyes, and two clear drops slid down the corners of his eyes. The man on the bed wiped away the moisture and said hoarsely:

“I have nowhere to go. I wonder, Lord Jiang, would you be willing to take me in?”

What were their statuses once, and what were they now?

Jiang Hanwen tried his best to make his tone gentler:

“Steward Luo and I have a good relationship. If you don’t want to be in the Medicine Field, I’ll ask him to look after you. From now on, no one will bully you again.”

“Lord Jiang, what do you think I can still do outside?”

The man threw back the quilt, revealing two legs, one long and one short.

The severed one was cut cleanly at the knee, smooth and bright.

Realizing his tone was off, a bit aggressive, the man’s cheeks flushed, and he quickly added:

“Lord Jiang, I appreciate your kindness.

I just want to live out my old age in the Medicine Field, not starve to death. Can you grant me that?”

The man before him was weathered, exhausted, and dispirited; where was the vigor he had shown when they first met?

“You get some good sleep. I’ll come see you tomorrow.”

Jiang Hanwen tidied the quilt, covering the empty left leg, then pushed the door open and left.

After dinner, in his own courtyard, Jiang Yong looked towards the medical hall and asked curiously.

“You treat him differently from others. Is he a friend?”

Friend?

Jiang Hanwen didn’t know what to say; his heart felt heavy.

He simply followed his father’s lead and recounted the entire story of how he and Gong Qing met.

“That year…”

After hearing his son’s story, Jiang Yong sighed.

“Poor child.”

If, in his previous life, a man without money had no backbone.

Then here, a man without strength was worse than a dog.

Jiang Hanwen had heard about Gong Qing’s story years ago; he left the Zhuang family to learn martial arts, but due to meridian issues, he ultimately stopped at the seventh stage of Transcendence, making no further progress.

Because of his eagerness for quick results, he encountered problems in Cultivation, his Dantian was damaged, and his Qi and blood were severely depleted.

After that, his brother was ambushed and killed by bandits, and his father went for revenge.

Although he killed people, he was seriously injured and passed away just three years later. After that, Gong Qing was constantly targeted.

Fortunately, the Zhuang family, out of old sentiment, kept him.

It wasn't until recently that Gong Qing was beaten again, forced to crawl through someone’s crotch, and only then did he say he wanted to find a way to survive in the Medicine Field, to leave the troubled outside world.

The former young master had become a cripple, and now had to humbly beg his once “betrayed” friend for a path.

Late at night, Jiang Hanwen sat cross-legged on his bed, Cultivating the “Divine Breath True Scripture.”

In his heart, a wisp of iridescent Qi flowed, pulsating with his heartbeat.

“Cough cough cough ~”

His breath unsteady, Jiang Hanwen awoke from his meditation.

Thump thump thump ~

He vigorously patted his chest with his right hand to regulate his breathing.

Gong Qing’s situation churned in his heart, unable to settle.

As soon as he entered meditation, past memories were like a branding iron, searing his calm heart chambers.

Sincerity, kindness, innocence—each shining quality was obliterated by a face covered in wrinkles.

Gong Qing was arguably the first friend he truly acknowledged in this world.

Jiang Hanwen felt no guilt in his heart; even if time rewound, he would still do the same.

His distress stemmed from seeing his friend’s good life, through too much effort, turn into this.

Pushing open the door, the cool early winter wind whistled, filling his nasal cavity and descending his throat, and the anxiety in his heart eased somewhat.

It was a temporary fix, and in the blink of an eye, the internal heat surged up from his organs again.

He walked out of his room and went to the back hall of the medical clinic.

The lamp in the room was still lit, and the faint yellow light filtered through the paper window, casting a light veil-like glow on the ground.

The blurred ground was uneven, with tiny tender grasses growing in the cracks of the bricks.

The twisted tender grasses, having chosen the wrong place to grow, constantly faced death, yet stubbornly clung to life, much like Gong Qing’s life in the room.

“Thump thump –”

He knocked on the door.

“Are you asleep?” He asked, though he knew the answer.