Fifteen minutes later, when Huo Shu had finished dressing and stepped out, he saw Ji Taoyu washing his feet again, crouching down as if about to pour out the water.
He strode forward, silently took the basin, and carried it out along with the bucket.
When he returned, he found Ji Taoyu still standing dumbly by the table.
Huo Shu steadied his breath. "Father and Mother are back. Go to bed."
Ji Taoyu stared at Huo Shu, now fully dressed and no different from usual, yet the sight from earlier still lingered in his mind, refusing to fade.
He stepped forward, flustered. Sensing that something was off, he worried that his earlier actions had upset Huo Shu and tried to explain, "I-I just wanted to see you."
"Your wounds... I-I brought you some good medicine for external injuries."
"They're all old scars. They're healed years ago."
Seeing the young ger's unsettled expression, Huo Shu said, "If you're afraid, from now on... I'll always keep my clothes on."
"I'm not afraid!"
Ji Taoyu quickly protested. "It's just... I never knew you had so many scars. I was startled when I saw them all at once."
He raised his eyes to Huo Shu, pleading softly, "Let me take a look, please."
Noticing the genuine concern in the young ger's expression, Huo Shu - without even realizing it, let out a quiet sigh of relief. He reached up and undid his sash.
Fresh from his bath, Huo Shu carried a faint scent of soapberries, clean and pleasant. His skin, flushed from the hot water, still radiated warmth.
But Ji Taoyu could focus on nothing else besides the mottled scars covering his chest and back. Any other thoughts vanished, replaced by a sudden tightness in his chest.
From the nape of his neck down, Huo Shu’s back was a crisscrossed tapestry of scars - some long, some short, some deep, some shallow. Among them were knife wounds, spear wounds, arrow wounds.
Ji Taoyu had only ever read or heard trivial descriptions of war. But the scars on Huo Shu’s body revealed its true brutality.
"Do you remember when you got these?"
His fingers traced over wounds wider than his fingertips, where the flesh had twisted into ridges and hollows. His heart ached so much he could barely breathe.
For an ordinary person, even one of these wounds might have cost half their life.
He couldn’t fathom how Huo Shu had endured such injuries on the battlefield, time and again. Some were especially horrifying, seven or eight scars alone looked like they should have been fatal.
His upper body was barely untouched.
"It's all in the past."
As for whether he remembered... At first, he did. Flesh and blood, wounds on his own body, how could he not remember? But as battles piled up, as old wounds were reopened, he stopped keeping track.
The frontlines were merciless. Each battle became a desperate struggle to live - a whirlwind of severed limbs and spilled blood where friend and foe blurred together in the carnage.
Each time he returned alive, he was riddled with holes. As long as he made it back, what did a few more scars matter?
Ji Taoyu knew he wouldn’t speak of the hardships of those ten years, so he didn’t press further.
As he studied the scars more closely, he realized even the shallower wounds had left permanent marks—a testament to the battlefield's brutal conditions where medicines ran thin and proper care was but a distant hope.
"I’ll apply some scar-reducing ointment to help them fade. Even though they’ve healed, having so many scars for so long can lead to complications later."
Huo Shu didn’t much care about the scars. But Ji Taoyu’s voice had already thickened with tears. When Huo Shu turned, he found Taoyu's eyes glistening with unshed tears - just as he'd expected.
He brushed his thumb under Ji Taoyu’s lashes. "Don’t cry. I’ll listen to you."
Ji Taoyu hurriedly fetched his treasured ointment and carefully smoothed it over each scar. By the time he finished, half the jar was gone.
Once the ointment dried, Huo Shu dressed, his body now carrying a faint herbal scent.
That night, Ji Taoyu couldn’t stop thinking about Huo Shu’s wounds. Normally, he loved burrowing into his arms to sleep, but tonight he held back.
Huo Shu simply pulled him close. "Don’t overthink it. It’s fine."
Ji Taoyu pressed against him. "I’m not scared at all. From now on, I’ll be your personal physician."
Huo Shu’s eyes softened slightly, and he held him tighter.
After seeing Huo Shu’s scars, Ji Taoyu dragged out the medicine stove he’d neglected for days. Soon, the room was constantly filled with the smoke of brewing herbs, he was truly making good on his promise.
A few days later, on the 23rd, the Little New Year arrived, bringing with it a temple fair.
The Little New Year fair bustled with exceptional energy. After autumn's harvest, when granaries were full and leisure time plentiful, villagers opened their purses wider than at any other festival. Thick coils of incense smoke curled skyward as worshippers piled altars high with offerings - the air itself seemed richer here than at common market gatherings.
Ji Taoyu had long wanted to attend the Little New Year fair, but in the harsh winter, his parents never let him go.
As the village head, Ji Yangzong had endless social obligations. During the New Year period, he had to attend every family’s events, often feasting for days on end, leaving no time to take Ji Taoyu to the fair.
But this year, with Huo Shu around, Ji Yangzong and Huang Manjing had no objections to wherever Ji Taoyu wanted to go.
At dawn, when Huo Shu got up, Ji Taoyu - contrary to his usual sleepyheadedness, didn’t laze in bed. He rose with him.
By the time they set out, the sky had just brightened. Riding out on Dahei, they noticed a light snowfall from the night before, the vegetable patches in the hollow were dusted white.
Huo Shu glanced at the overcast sky. If it didn’t rain later, the wind might bring more snow.
He tied an oil-paper umbrella to his belt, just in case.
He’d thought the weather might keep people away, but as they joined the path to the temple, they found it crowded with carts, horses, and pilgrims. The closer they got, the livelier it became.
Thank you for the update!
ReplyDelete