Chapter 973
The Wildcat Cornered
Zheng Yi looked down at the scarred face.
Her lips were severely chapped, with tender red flesh showing through the cracks. It didn't look like they were accidentally chapped; it looked more like they hadn't drunk water for a long time, and that her lips had hit something and broken after she was hit.
After cleaning the scabs from the corners of her mouth, the old woman changed the bowl of water and fed the woman spoonful by spoonful with a small wooden spoon. Some water dripped from the corners of her mouth, which the old woman wiped away with a cloth and continued feeding. After five or six spoonfuls, the woman's throat suddenly moved, as if she had instinctively swallowed a little.
The bone-wielding woman stopped, looking at her face.
After a while, the woman swallowed again.
"It's good that you can swallow it," the old woman said, her voice carrying a hint of relief.
Zheng Yi didn't loosen his grip on her shoulder, but he felt the woman's body move slightly. It wasn't a struggle, but a very subtle, almost imperceptible tension—like suddenly sensing someone beside you in your sleep, the body reacting before consciousness.
Zheng Yi loosened his grip slightly, but didn't remove it completely.
"You stay here and watch over her for a while." The old woman stood up and rubbed her lower back. "I'll go cook some porridge. If she wakes up, don't speak loudly, don't touch her, just give her some water."
Zheng Yi nodded.
The old woman carried the basin of pale red water out, her footsteps disappearing into the courtyard.
The woodshed fell silent, save for the faint hissing of the burning oil lamp wick and the occasional crowing of roosters outside.
Zheng Yi squatted there, without moving.
He scrutinized the woman's profile—the swollen side of her face had squeezed her eyes into slits, but the other side still retained its outline. Her nose was straight, her jawline clean, and where there were no injuries, her skin was very white, not the kind of white that comes from being exposed to the wind and sun in the north, but the kind of white that is rarely seen in sunlight, the kind that is kept in seclusion.
The silver bracelet on his wrist slipped again, and Zheng Yi reached out and gently pushed it back.
The woman frowned again, but didn't wake up.
About half an hour later, the old woman returned with a bowl of porridge. The porridge was very thin, the rice grains had all split open, and a layer of rice oil floated on top, giving it a faint aroma of rice. The old woman placed the porridge on the ground to cool, then squatted down and touched the woman's forehead.
"No fever," she said. "Luckily, I survived."
Zheng Yi asked, "How did she get injured like this?"
The old woman shook her head, looked at the woman's face, and then at the tattered clothes she was wearing.
“Judging from the clothes, they don’t seem to be from a poor family. The material, though dirty and torn, is clearly of good quality. Their hands are also delicate, not the kind used for rough work.” The old woman paused. “They seem to be from the south. And they’re not from an ordinary family.”
"A lone person from the south, running up the mountain outside Beining City?" Zheng Yi frowned.
The Bone Woman glanced at him: "You know what's going on?"
Zheng Yi did not answer.
He did have some suspicions, but he didn't want to make any definitive statements until he heard the woman's own explanation.
When the porridge cooled to lukewarm, the old woman started feeding her again. This time, the woman swallowed faster; although she didn't swallow every time, she instinctively swallowed at least half of the porridge.
The old woman fed her a small bowl, then stopped and wiped the corners of her mouth with a cloth.
That's all for today. People who have been hungry for a long time shouldn't eat too much at once.
She stood up, put the remaining porridge aside, and glanced at Zheng Yi again.
"Go back and rest. I'll stay here and keep watch."
When Zheng Yi stood up, his legs were already numb from squatting. He stood at the door for a while, waiting for the numbness in his legs to subside, before slowly walking back to the front yard.
Wu Chen was still standing at the top of the stairs. When he saw him come out, he took two steps forward.
"How about it?"
"He's still unconscious," Zheng Yi said. "The old woman said he's lucky and should survive."
Wu Chen paused for a moment, then suddenly asked, "Should we report this to the authorities?"
Zheng Yi shook his head without even thinking.
"I won't report it."
Wu Chen glanced at him but didn't press the matter. He had been with Zheng Yi for so long that he knew this man didn't need anyone to ask him why he made decisions.
Chiya was still sitting in the lobby, surrounded by Agu and China, the three of them huddled together talking. When Zheng Yi came in, Chiya stood up, opened his mouth as if he wanted to ask something, but then held back.
Zheng Yi walked up to Agu, squatted down, and looked him in the eye.
"You did the right thing today."
Agu was stunned for a moment.
"If you see someone lying on the ground, you should save them first, whether you know them or not," Zheng Yi said. "That's right."
Agu's lips trembled, and his eyes reddened again.
Zheng Yi patted him on the shoulder, stood up, and walked towards the stairs.
After taking two steps, he turned back.
“But next time something like this happens, check if anyone else is around. Only go to rescue her if you're sure it's safe.” His voice was neither loud nor soft. “If the person who hurt her is still nearby, you won't be able to escape either.”
Agu's face turned pale instantly.
Zheng Yi didn't say anything more, turned around and went upstairs.
The woman didn't wake up for the rest of the day.
The old woman stayed in the woodshed the whole time. Except when she came out to change the water, cook porridge, and get medicine, she even ate her meals at the entrance of the woodshed. Boss Sun's wife brought over two clean quilts. The old woman folded one of them and put it under her head as a pillow, and covered her with the other quilt.
In the afternoon, Zheng Yi went down again.
He was carrying a bowl of brown sugar water—the brown sugar was something Boss Sun had spared from the kitchen; in Beining City, brown sugar was more precious than salt. When Granny Gu saw the bowl of brown sugar water, her lips twitched slightly, but she said nothing, took it, and fed it to him.
The woman swallowed a few more mouthfuls.
After feeding her, the old woman wiped her face with a cloth. She wiped very gently, as if she were wiping something fragile. When she reached her forehead, the cloth brushed against the temporary bandage wrapped around her face. The old woman paused for a moment, hesitated, and then untied the bandage.
The wound on his forehead was exposed.
It wasn't a scratch; something hit me. The wound wasn't big, but it was deep, with swelling around it, and the skin at the edges of the wound was turned outwards, revealing the dark red flesh underneath.
The Bone Woman's expression changed.
When Zheng Yi saw the wound, his brows furrowed.
"This..." Zheng Yi asked in a low voice, "What kind of injury is it?"
The old woman didn't answer immediately. She moved closer, carefully examined the shape and depth of the wound, and then gently cleaned the bloodstains around the wound with a cotton cloth dipped in salt water.
After washing, the shape of the wound became clearer.
“It wasn’t from falling.” The Bone Granny’s voice was very low, so low that only Zheng Yi could hear it. “It wasn’t from being hit either. It was from being poked by something…” “Poked?”
“Round, not too thick.” The old woman gestured with her finger. “About this thick. It was quite forceful, but it didn’t go through. The bone is hard and blocked it.”
Zheng Yi remained silent for a moment.
"stick?"
“It doesn’t look like it.” The old woman shook her head. “When a stick pokes you, the flesh will be concave and the edges will be blunt. This one has the flesh turned outwards, like it was twisted by something…”
The two looked at each other but neither spoke.
The old woman took another clean strip of cloth, applied some ointment, and carefully wrapped it back around the woman's forehead. After she finished, she sat on the ground, leaning against the woodpile, and let out a long sigh.
"This girl has gotten herself into serious trouble," she said.
Zheng Yi did not respond.
As darkness fell, the woman in the woodshed woke up.
The old woman discovered it first. She was squatting nearby adding charcoal to the stove when she heard someone move on the haystack. She turned her head and saw that the woman had opened her eyes.
The Bone Woman didn't immediately move closer; instead, she took a step back.
This was a skill she had learned from dealing with wild animals her whole life—when a wounded creature wakes up, its first reaction is not gratitude, but fear. The closer you get, the more afraid it becomes.
The woman opened her eyes very slowly, as if a thousand pounds were pressing down on her eyelids. After opening them, her pupils took a long time to find focus, and she stared blankly and unfocusedly at the crossbeam on the roof of the woodshed.
Then she moved.
The movement was sudden, as if she had just realized she was in an unfamiliar place. She tried to sit up, but the injury to her ribs made her freeze in pain halfway through, letting out a short, abrupt groan before collapsing back onto the haystack, gasping for breath.
The Bone Woman neither moved nor spoke.
Zheng Yi happened to be coming from the courtyard, carrying a bowl of freshly cooked rice porridge. He walked to the door of the woodshed, saw that the woman was awake, paused for a moment, and did not go in immediately.
The woman's eyes finally focused. She saw the Bone Granny, and then she saw Zheng Yi standing at the door. Her pupils contracted sharply.
She began to shrink back. With her back pressed against the wooden wall of the woodshed, she could go no further, so she curled up, hugged her knees to her chest, and gripped the edge of the fur robe covering her with both hands until her knuckles turned white.
She didn't make a sound. Not even once.
But her mouth was trembling, her chin was trembling, her whole body was trembling. Her eyes were fixed on Zheng Yi, as if staring at a knife hanging over his head.
Zheng Yi stood at the door, not going inside.
He placed the bowl of porridge on the ground next to the threshold and took two steps back.
“We are not bad people,” he said.
His voice was soft, and he spoke slowly.
The woman's eyes did not leave him; she remained fixed on him.
The old woman coughed and took a step back.
“You fainted on the mountain outside the East Gate. It was the young men from the ministry who carried you back.” The old woman’s voice was low and hoarse, as if she was afraid of frightening some little creature. “You are now in Beining City, in the backyard of an inn. No one wants to hurt you.”
The woman's lips moved slightly, as if she wanted to say something, but in the end she only made a slight breathy sound and didn't utter any words.
Her eyes darted back and forth between the old woman and Zheng Yi several times, then quickly swept over the woodshed—the woodpile, the hay, the oil lamp, the broken wooden door, the porridge bowl on the ground. She scrutinized every corner, as if confirming her location, who she was facing, and whether there was an escape route.
Finally, her gaze fell on the bowl of porridge.
The porridge was still steaming, and the aroma of rice wafted through the cramped woodshed. It was faint, but it seemed particularly jarring in that space filled with the smell of dirt and blood.
The woman stared at the bowl of porridge for a few moments, her Adam's apple bobbing up and down.
Zheng Yi saw it, but did nothing. He didn't bring the porridge over, didn't say "Have something to eat," and didn't even change his expression.
He simply retreated to the outside of the woodshed, stood against the wall, and faced the courtyard.
The old woman also stood up, dimmed the oil lamp next to the stove, and then carried the basin of dirty water out.
The woman was left alone in the woodshed.
And the bowl of porridge on the ground.
After about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, Zheng Yi heard a very soft sound coming from the woodshed—the sound of a porcelain bowl rubbing against the ground.
He didn't look back.
After a while, the bowl was empty.
When the old woman returned from the front yard, she saw the empty bowl and her lips twitched slightly. She glanced at Zheng Yi, who shook his head slightly, indicating that she shouldn't say anything.
The old woman took the empty bowl away and placed a bowl of warm water in the same spot.
This time, the woman didn't have to wait that long.
Zheng Yi leaned against the wall outside the woodshed, watching the shadow of the old locust tree in the yard be swallowed up little by little by the night. The moon hadn't risen yet, and there were a few stars in the sky, not very bright, but enough for him to make out the outline of the courtyard wall.
I heard a very soft sound of someone drinking water behind me.
Like small animals.
That evening, Zheng Yi had the empty guest room in the backyard cleaned up. It wasn't big, with a wooden bed, a table, and a chair against the wall. The window was covered with paper, so it let in a draft. But it was much warmer than the woodshed. He called Wu Chen over, and the two of them worked together to move the wooden bed from the wall to the window. The old woman had said that patients with broken ribs shouldn't sleep on hard beds, but this was the only bed they had, so they put on two extra layers of bedding to make do.
“Go tell Boss Sun that I’ll pay double the room rate,” Zheng Yi said to Wu Chen.
Wu Chen nodded and went out.
The old woman helped the woman from the woodshed to the guest room. The woman could walk, but very slowly, and each step caused pain in her ribs, so much so that the cloth strip on her forehead was soaked with blood. The old woman held her waist with one arm and supported her arm with the other, almost dragging and carrying her into the guest room.
Zheng Yi did not go in.
He stood in the corridor, through the half-open door, and heard a very soft groan from the woman as she was helped onto the bed, followed by something the Bone Woman whispered, which he couldn't make out.
The door closed.
Zheng Yi stood in the corridor for a while, then turned around and went downstairs.
The next morning, the woman still didn't say anything.
The old woman said she could sit up on her own now, but she couldn't sit for long before lying down when she got tired. Her eyes were clearer than yesterday; they would follow people's movements and examine everything in the guest room—the windows, the doors, the bowls on the table, the string of dried chilies hanging on the wall.
But he just wouldn't say anything.
When Mr. Sun's wife brought breakfast, the woman huddled in the corner of the bed, wrapped herself tightly in the blanket, only her eyes showing. Those eyes stared at the tray in Mr. Sun's wife's hands, then at Mr. Sun's wife's face, like a wildcat cornered against a wall. (End of Chapter)