Country Maiden: Fields and Fortune

21, Pre-Lawsuit Sentiments (2 more updates)

She brought with her an old set of undergarments on this outing, but considering her current condition, what was there to nitpick? Having clothes to wear was already fortunate enough.

This was also why she needed to earn money.

At one point, she had thought about taking some cloth from her space and making a couple of undergarments, but those fabrics were too splendid and valuable. She had caressed them for quite a while, unable to bring herself to cut into them.

After her bath, as she sat in the chair, a little maid dried her hair.

“What’s your name?”

“This servant is called Azhu, named after the pearl in ‘pearl’!”

Azhu came from a poor family and couldn’t even afford food, leading to her being sold to the Yuan Family as a maid. Her daily chores involved washing clothes, sweeping, or helping out in the kitchen by picking vegetables. She got to eat her fill every day, wear warm clothes in winter, and sometimes when there were leftovers from the restaurant’s patrons, she could take some meat back home for her parents.

Yuan Cheng and Lady Yuan were both kind-hearted people, and they did not forbid Azhu from visiting her home. Because of this, Azhu was even more grateful and worked all the more diligently.

“That’s a beautiful name,” Zhinuan said softly.

She combed her hair gently with a comb.

She wished to buy a maid: someone tall and strong, with the strength of an ox, preferably skilled in martial arts, with no family ties to weigh them down, someone who could spend their life supporting her through thick and thin.

If she could also adopt a boy to raise, not aiming for wealth or prestige, but just hoping for a peaceful life, or perhaps finding a man to father a child…

All these thoughts were too distant, best not dwell on them for now.

Once her hair dried, Zhinuan crawled into bed. Seeing Azhu preparing a bed on the floor, she smiled and said, “No need to make a bed on the floor, come sleep with me up here!”

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After a moment of hesitation, Azhu happily agreed, and went to wash her face and feet.

The standards of a small maid from a noble household were quite impressive.

Enjoying the scent of soapberry in the bedding, Zhinuan found it pleasing and thought about buying some the next day.

Fengping County, the posthouse

The dishes on the table were exquisite. Xie Qian was alright, eating in small bites.

Li Hengyi, however, did not touch his food at all and kept drinking wine in large gulps.

Xie Qian put down his chopsticks and asked softly, “Still cannot eat?”

“Um!”

Li Hengyi responded with a hum.

“…”

Xie Qian’s brows slightly furrowed, “Hengyi, the past is behind us, you shouldn’t…”

Li Hengyi remained silent.

After several cups of wine, his eyes tinged with red, he said, “I can’t get over it, Qian, I just can’t!”

One hundred and twenty-one lives: everyone thought that to survive the desert, the two of them must have resorted to cannibalism, but only they knew the truth: they hadn’t, they had only eaten their horses.

Eating raw horse meat, drinking raw horse blood; at that time, to stay alive, they would consume anything they could, no matter how rotten the horse meat or how putrid the stench, regardless of the various venomous creatures in the desert…

So having survived death by a thin margin, he became the cold and heartless King Han, and the gentle, refined Li Hengyi seemed no longer to exist.

Xie Qian reached out and held Li Hengyi’s wrist, “Stop drinking, too much alcohol is harmful to your health!”

“What’s the use of this ravaged body?” Li Hengyi retorted.

He wanted to eat, but couldn’t.

Even if he managed to swallow, he would throw it up. For the past three years, he never had the desire to eat, never felt hunger.

The pain in his heart never lessened.

No, today there had been a brief respite; the scent of Leng Zhuxiang had offered him a moment’s relief. But just for a fleeting moment, then the breeze scattered that fragrance away!” Li Hengyi said as he withdrew his hand, grabbed the wine jug and poured it into his mouth.

He was once conspicuous and proud, galloping through the streets and alleys of Chang’an, envied by all as the prince. Now, he was no more than a rat hiding in the shadows, shunned by the light, shunned by people.

Chapter 23