Chapter 199: A Bout of Retching

Chapter 199: Chapter 199: A Bout of Retching

After seeing Widow Xie and Hu Dacheng off, Ji Huan returned to find Dabao propped up, craning his neck to peer outside.

When he saw Ji Huan appear at the doorway of the east room, he ducked his little head and quickly lay flat. His attempt at feigning ignorance couldn’t have been more obvious.

’He’s only been on mandatory bed rest for half a day, and he’s already this impatient?’

Ji Huan walked over and tapped him on the forehead.

"You better behave. This sprain might not be serious, but it’s the same leg you broke before. If you’re not careful..."

Ji Huan’s eyes darted about. Deciding to scare him a little, she deliberately made the situation sound worse than it was.

"If you’re not careful, you might never get out of bed or walk again. Then, no matter where I go, you won’t be able to come. You’ll just have to lie in this room all by yourself, watching wistfully, just like you were doing a moment ago."

Dabao’s dark eyes froze in place, and his small body went ramrod straight.

Satisfied, Ji Huan turned and went to the kitchen to cook.

Widow Xie had brought over a dozen eggs and two large marrow bones.

She and her family had bought the bones when they returned from town yesterday, but they had been too busy to cook them. So, she brought them over for Ji Huan to make soup for Dabao.

Ji Huan first placed the cleaned pork marrow bones into a pot. She added chunks of carrot, mountain mushrooms scored with a cross, and three or four thick slices of ginger. She brought it to a boil over high heat before lowering it to a simmer, letting it stew into a rich, fragrant bone broth.

She then washed a few handfuls of rice and put it on to cook in the adjacent pot.

Once the bone broth cooled, she skimmed the fat from the surface. She scraped half the meat off the bones, then tossed the other half—bones, meat, and all—to Dahuang, who had been watching covetously for what felt like half the day.

"Go on, eat up, you great hero!"

This was the only time since last night that the dog had paid her any mind. The rest of the time, he was busy fawning all over Dabao.

Ji Huan figured he’d wag his tail so much he’d eventually shake it right off. If not off, then at least bald.

Dahuang snatched the bone and pattered outside. She didn’t even have to guess; he was surely heading back to his "doggy villa."

At first, he’d stubbornly refused to move from his old spot. Turns out he just hadn’t thought it was good enough.

Ever since the doggy villa was built, he had completely changed his tune.

Ji Huan shook her head, added the rice to the bone broth, and put it back on the fire.

She let it simmer over medium heat for about fifteen minutes, until the grains of rice had fully absorbed the broth. Then she threw in a few leafy greens, seasoned the mixture, and turned off the heat.

Before serving, she sprinkled on chopped scallions and cilantro. The dish was incredibly fragrant, and Dabao ate a whole bowl until his little belly was round and full.

Seeing Ji Huan take the bowl to leave, Dabao grew anxious and grabbed onto her. "No... go."

He was afraid Ji Huan would go out without him.

Ji Huan turned her head and called for Dahuang.

As if he had super-hearing, Dahuang came pattering in, sat down by the kang bed, and started panting and winking at Dabao.

"You probably don’t know this, but it was all thanks to Dahuang last night. If he hadn’t led us, we would never have found that cave."

Ji Huan pointed at the insufferable Dahuang, conveniently omitting the sordid details of how the scoundrel had played hard to get and demanded a higher price for his help. Instead, she painted him as a peerlessly loyal and courageous dog, a righteous companion who shared his master’s worries.

’Well, the situation called for it.’

"He worked so hard to find you. Shouldn’t you show him a little gratitude? You two can chat for a bit. I’m going to take a bowl of food to your other benefactor. I’ll be right back."

But Dabao clutched the corner of her clothes, still refusing to let go. His little face was a mixture of anxiety and grievance.

Ji Huan sighed in resignation. ’Now that he’s a patient, Dabao’s fussiness has reached a whole new level.’

"Dabao, what have I always taught you? You must know how to be grateful. You can’t take it for granted when someone helps you. Nothing in this world should be taken for granted. You should be the one delivering this food, but I’m doing it on your behalf. If it weren’t for that uncle, you would have been abducted by traffickers. You would have never seen me again. Aren’t you scared of that?"

Dabao looked up at her, then lowered his gaze a moment later, his long eyelashes drooping.

"Well, I was scared to death. We’re lucky the vagrant brought you back to me. We both owe him a debt of gratitude, do you understand? Can you let go now?"

Dabao slowly released his grip.

Ji Huan ruffled his soft hair. "Good boy."

After Ji Huan left, Dahuang must have sensed that Dabao was in a bad mood. The dog moved its large head closer, trying to nuzzle him, only to be smacked hard by the boy.

"Scum... dog."

Dahuang whimpered twice, instantly looking dejected.

Ji Huan brought a large bowl of the bone broth rice to the vagrant. This time, she didn’t hurry away.

The vagrant was in the exact same position as the previous night. Ji Huan suspected he hadn’t moved an inch.

In fact, she had secretly wondered before how vagrants took care of their personal needs.

Now she had her answer. Since the man wasn’t paralyzed, relieving himself naturally wasn’t an issue.

"Um..."

Ji Huan squatted at the entrance of the low shelter and peered inside.

Through the gaps in the matted strands of his hair, she could vaguely see that his eyes were open, though she couldn’t make out his expression or tell where he was looking.

"Can I take a look at your wounds?" Ji Huan asked, pointing to his wrists and ankles.

However, the vagrant didn’t even move, let alone reply.

’This is a bit awkward.’

Ji Huan leaned in a little further.

"You can talk, can’t you? Just like you can walk?"

"Hey, you’re making this very difficult for me. I feel like the big bad wolf..."

"Don’t be so reserved. Let’s just talk. I don’t mean any harm, I just want to thank you on behalf of my Dabao..."

"We did have at least one friendly exchange before, didn’t we? You don’t have to be so cold and aloof, really..."

As she spoke, Ji Huan had already edged her way over to the vagrant, her shoes inevitably stepping onto the tattered straw mat laid out beneath him.

’I was originally going to take my shoes off.’

’No matter how you look at it, this shelter is his home now, and this mat is basically his bed. Stepping onto it with my shoes on... phrasing it like that sounds a bit odd.’

’In any case, I knew it wasn’t polite to step on someone’s mat.’

’But for one, it wasn’t proper for a woman to casually remove her shoes here.’

’And for another, this mat was filthier than the soles of my shoes...’

’So, I decided to just forget it.’

’Great men don’t sweat the small stuff, and neither do I.’

Her creative conversation starters having been met with a cold shoulder, Ji Huan decided to stop wasting her breath and get straight to the point.

"I just want to take a look, I have no other motives, so don’t worry, I..." she said as she started rolling up his filthy sleeve.

Her rambling words came to an abrupt halt.

Ji Huan’s eyes were glued to the vagrant’s right wrist, her face a mask of horror.

She immediately grabbed his left arm.

After rolling up the sleeve, she found the same thing in the same place: an identical knife wound, the flesh around it curled back and scarred.

Following the same pattern, she rolled up both of his pant legs.

There were identical knife wounds around his ankles, but they were clearly much more severe than the ones on his wrists.

Moreover, perhaps because he had been running the day before, the flesh that had begun to scab over had split open again. What oozed out was not blood, but pus streaked with red.

The visual shock of the red and white gore, accompanied by an indescribable stench, assaulted her senses.

Ji Huan clutched her churning stomach, turned her head away, and began to dry heave.