"Oh my, he was fine just now, what happened!"
"We've finally arrived and settled down, please don't let anything be wrong now!"
After all, he was a descendant of the Ji family. Seeing Ji Taoyu like this, the hearts of the Ji family members burned with anxiety.
They feared something had happened to Ji Taoyu, and they also feared there might be a problem with the child he had worked so hard to conceive.
Ji Taoyu was in a daze, it seemed he could hear his family's voices in his ears, chattering about something he couldn't make out.
But soon, he couldn't hear anything anymore, feeling extremely heavy himself.
By the time he woke up again, he had no idea how much time had passed. He only realized he was lying in bed.
His head felt a bit dizzy, and the back of his neck was sore.
However, he wasn't too concerned about these feelings. What caught his attention was the white gauze bed curtain in view, which was exactly the same as the one at home.
He was suddenly bewildered, how could he be in his bed in Tongzhou?!
For a moment, Ji Taoyu was stunned. Hadn't war broken out in Tongzhou? Their entire family, along with many villagers, had fled to Yuchang for refuge.
Disbelieving, he sat up a little and looked at the familiar sights in the room—the window, the cabinet, the clothes rack, including the table—everything seemed to tell him that the war and escape were nothing but a dream.
Yet the memory of enduring wind and rain, sleeping in the open, and the hardships of the journey remained vivid and clear, making him certain it had not been a dream.
Ji Taoyu suddenly thought of something, his eyes reddening. He waved his hands frantically and cried out: "A-Shu, A-Shu!"
Huo Shu had just brought the freshly brewed medicine to the door when he heard a dull thud from inside the room and Ji Taoyu's tearful cries.
His expression changed, and he kicked the door open, rushing in. He saw Ji Taoyu had fallen to the ground, helplessly and desperately trying to crawl outside.
Huo Shu hastily set the medicine bowl down on a nearby table. Before he could even move to pick up Ji Taoyu, the distraught figure on the floor had already flung himself tearfully into Huo Shu's arms.
Ji Taoyu buried his face in Huo Shu's shoulder, holding tightly to the neck of the person in front of him, crying until he was almost breathless.
Huo Shu knelt on one knee, holding the crying person in his arms, feeling only a hot wetness against his neck.
Seeing Ji Taoyu like this, though he didn't know what had happened, his heart felt twisted into knots. He stroked Ji Taoyu's back, repeatedly saying: "It's alright, it's alright, don't cry."
After crying for a while, Ji Taoyu realized the person holding him was radiating warmth all over, his body as solid and reassuringly firm as it had always been.
He sniffled and lifted his head from the crook of Huo Shu’s neck. Gazing at the man whose stubble had grown slightly more pronounced, he blinked several times, a wave of certainty washing over him: this was undeniably real. Huo Shu was truly here, solid and present.
"You... how did we, how are we at home?"
Huo Shu looked at Ji Taoyu's red eyes, his heart aching. He said softly: "This is Yuchang, not home."
"N-not home?"
Ji Taoyu looked around bewildered at the furnishings, they were clearly identical.
"This room was built according to the layout in Tongzhou. I thought you might be unaccustomed to being away from home, and if everything were the same, you might not feel so uncomfortable."
Huo Shu explained: "It was arranged this way when we first arrived."
Ji Taoyu was dumbfounded.
Huo Shu gently held Ji Taoyu's waist: "What's wrong? Don't you like it here?"
Ji Taoyu shook his head, suddenly feeling the emotion of having narrowly escaped disaster. He buried himself in Huo Shu's embrace again and sobbed:
"I've heard people say fallen leaves return to the roots, the soul returns to the homeland. There's a belief that after death, one's spirit will return to the place it yearns for the most, a place the physical body could no longer reach. So, waking up and seeing everything arranged exactly like my room back in Tongzhou, for a moment I was terrified that I had died and this was my spirit returning there."
[落叶归根，魂归故里
(luò yè guī gēn, hún guī gù lǐ): lit. Fallen leaves return to the roots, the soul returns to the homeland. It expresses a deep longing to return to one's ancestral home, especially in old age or after death]
Huo Shu listened and fell silent.
Just moments ago, the person had suddenly fainted and hadn't woken up for a long time, he was the one who thought he was going to die.
He breathed a sigh of relief, having thought something was seriously wrong.
Having been unconscious for most of the night, he had only been gone for a quarter of an hour when he heard the crying and shouting, assuming something major had happened.
He hadn't expected this...
Huo Shu felt both amused and helpless. He picked Ji Taoyu up and placed him back on the bed.
Seeing the person still hiccupping, it seemed he had truly been frightened. He hadn't expected that decorating the place like this would not bring joy but instead cause such a scare, and he felt a pang of guilt in his heart.
"Why would you die when everything is fine? It's alright now, don't be afraid."
Huo Shu comforted: "Tomorrow I will redecorate this place."
But Ji Taoyu climbed back into Huo Shu's embrace, leaning against him pitifully: "I don't mean that this place is bad, there's no need to redecorate."
"It's just that for a moment I thought I would never see you or my father and mother again, and I was scared and sad."
Huo Shu held Ji Taoyu close: "It's alright now."
"Mm."
Ji Taoyu then quickly moved his hand to his own stomach: "The baby..."
"It's fine. Grandfather checked your pulse. You fainted because you were exhausted from the journey. Rest properly for a few days and you'll be fine."
Ji Taoyu breathed a sigh of relief.
He said a bit sheepishly: "I haven't done much during these days of travel, everyone has been taking care of me. I didn't expect it to still be like this."
Huo Shu gently stroked the back of Ji Taoyu's hand: "Anyone with child should be taken care of, and this is especially true for you, as you have always needed to be mindful of your health."
He then added, his voice laced with self-reproach: "The fault lies with me. I have been too preoccupied lately and have failed in my duty to properly look after you."
"I feel like I'm the one who's not good enough."
Ji Taoyu looked at Huo Shu: "And here you are reflecting on yourself."
"If something happened to you, I would feel that everything I've done was in vain."
Huo Shu pressed close to Ji Taoyu: "You are the most important."
After leaving the northern frontier, he neither coveted fame nor was he intent on building a career. Later, making a living through business, paying attention to the current situation, and taking pains to be thorough were all for Ji Taoyu's sake.
If something happened to him, everything would indeed be in vain.
Thank you for the update!!
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