Dongzi had a worry. As soon as they arrived at the destination, he looked at Dashu and said, "Dashu, from now on, you better not get too close to me, otherwise your mother will scold you again."
Dashu's stepmother was no pushover. Every time she saw Dashu having any interaction with Dongzi's family, she would deliberately incite Dashu's father to beat Dashu, while she herself stood by and scolded him, straight up painting Dashu as an unfilial son.
Dashu was stubborn. Even if he was beaten and scolded by his family, he absolutely refused to agree to distance himself from Dongzi. Seeing this, Dongzi felt both deeply touched and burdened with guilt, which was why he had urged Dashu to keep his distance.
Dashu firmly replied, "Don't mind them. If they want to hit me, let them. I'm definitely not going to listen to them."
He planned to marry Dongzi in the future, how could he run away when the one he liked was having difficulties?
"But..."
"Dongzi, this is Dashu's choice." Li Jin interrupted Dongzi, "If you keep saying things about making Dashu distance himself from your family, won't that hurt Dashu's feelings?"
"......"
Dongzi fell silent, seeming to take Li Jin's words to heart.
"Dongzi, I want to be close with you forever, so, please don't say those hurtful things anymore, okay?" After saying this, Dashu's gaze never left Dongzi, as if waiting for his answer.
"Alright."
Since Dashu had said this much, Dongzi finally gave up on trying to persuade him further.
"Brother Jin, I'll go on ahead with Dongzi." Dashu, blushing, grabbed Dongzi's wrist, "Dongzi, let's go in quickly. It's still early, maybe we really can find some food."
"Who would have thought that after this incident, Dashu would become much more proactive."
Watching the two figures gradually disappear into the distance, Ying Yuan couldn't help but shake his head and chuckle.
"Yes."
Li Jin nodded in agreement, sharing a smile with him.
Suddenly, a gust of wind swept through, catching Ying Yuan's loosely tied headband and sending it fluttering to the ground, revealing the shuang'er red mark on his forehead.
"Shi Weixu's medicine is truly excellent. This red mark is still as beautiful as when I first painted it." Li Jin reached out and gently stroked the mark he had personally painted for Ying Yuan. A strange, indescribable feeling inexplicably arose from the depths of his heart.
Ying Yuan hadn't expected Li Jin to suddenly get so close. Therefore, when Li Jin's hand touched the mark on his forehead, Ying Yuan's cheeks involuntarily began to grow warm.
Strange, why are my cheeks getting warm for no reason? Could I have caught a chill? But Zhuzhou is so hot, it shouldn't be possible.
As soon as Li Jin let go, he noticed something was off with Ying Yuan's cheeks and quickly asked, "Hmm? A-Yuan, why is your face red? Could you be allergic to these plants?"
"All...allergic?"
Li Jin's sudden question immediately confused Ying Yuan.
What in the world is an allergy?
Having accidentally used a modern term, Li Jin wasn't flustered. Instead, he calmly explained the meaning of allergy, "Hmm, it means when you touch these plants, does your body feel itchy?"
"Itchy? No, not at all."
"That's good then." Li Jin nodded, picked up the headband from the ground, "But if you feel any discomfort after we go in, you must tell me. You absolutely must not hide it."
"Okay."
Ying Yuan detected Li Jin's concern for him and immediately nodded in agreement.
"Here, don't move for now, let me help you put the headband on."
"Uh... I can do it myself..."
Ying Yuan snatched the headband and hastily tied it around his head.
For some reason, being in such close contact with Li Jin felt strange to Ying Yuan, but he couldn't quite pinpoint what exactly was strange about it.
"You didn't tie it tight enough."
After saying this, Li Jin walked behind Ying Yuan and helped him retie it properly.
"Thank you."
Ying Yuan lowered his head in embarrassment, not daring to meet Li Jin's gaze.
"Let's go, we should hurry in too."
"Mm."
___
They said they were going into the mountains to look for food, but because the drought in Zhuzhou this year was more severe than in previous years, anything edible on the mountain had long been scavenged by people.
"A-Jin, everything around us is yellowed grass and trees, can we really find any food?"
"It's very difficult."
Li Jin looked at the many trees with their roots dug up, his expression somewhat grave.
"A-Jin, what are you looking at?" Li Jin's inspection of the tree roots caught Ying Yuan's attention.
Li Jin immediately pointed at the roots and said, "Look at these tree roots, there are traces of people digging them up. If I'm not mistaken, there's nothing edible left in these mountains. Otherwise, the people coming here wouldn't be digging up tree roots to eat."
However, Li Jin had already anticipated this before coming.
The fact that this mountain lacked any dangerous large animals was known not only to the villagers of Liujia Village but also to the villagers of nearby villages. Therefore, the chance of finding anything edible was minuscule.
"A-Jin, since you noticed this, did you already guess that coming here with Dongzi wouldn't yield any results?"
Ying Yuan had even more questions in his heart.
"Mm," Li Jin acknowledged with a nod. "Our true objective for coming here was to survey the land."
"Survey... the land?" Ying Yuan asked, his confusion evident.
"A-Yuan, feel this tree root."
The tree root Li Jin referred to wasn't the ones visible above ground, but the remnants left in the pits dug up by people.
"Tree root?" Although Ying Yuan was puzzled by Li Jin's non-answer, since Li Jin said so, there must be a reason. Therefore, Ying Yuan still did as Li Jin said, taking some of the roots from the pit and examining them in his hand.
"How does it feel?"
"Huh? How come it's wet?"
Ying Yuan's eyes widened in astonishment. During such a severe drought, the tree trunks should have been parched and brittle, yet the roots he held were damp with moisture. It seemed completely unbelievable.
"I suspect there is groundwater beneath here."
"Gr...groundwater? You mean well water?"
Li Jin kept mentioning things Ying Yuan had never heard of, and Ying Yuan felt overwhelmed.
"You could say that."
Li Jin feared going too deep into concepts Ying Yuan wouldn't understand, so he gave a general explanation without going into detail. After all, the detailed content would be difficult for Ying Yuan to comprehend and could easily lead him into misunderstandings, so Li Jin simplified it.
"Does A-Jin plan to have the people of Liujia Village dig a well here?"
"It's too far, not practical." Li Jin shook his head, "It would be better if we could channel the water into the villagers' fields."
"Does A-Jin have a method?"
"Yes, but I don't know if this method will succeed yet. It also requires the Emperor to agree to deploy manpower. It's difficult."
Li Jin shook his head helplessly.
In his previous life, although Li Jin hadn't come to Zhuzhou himself, he had sent people to survey Zhuzhou and knew of the existence of groundwater. He had also thought of ways to help the common people and had even suggested methods to Ying Ziqi at the time, hoping Ying Ziqi could persuade Ying Zhengjing to implement them.
However, Ying Ziqi had just gained Ying Zhengjing's trust back then; how could he dare propose such an uncertain method? If it went wrong, he could lose everything he had worked so hard to gain. Therefore, Ying Ziqi tactfully refused Li Jin's proposal. Later, when Ying Ziqi held great power, Li Jin brought it up again, but Ying Ziqi still didn't dare take the risk, saying they needed to wait longer.
But this 'waiting' continued until Li Jin was pursued and killed by Ying Ziqi. Even then, Ying Ziqi still had no intention of implementing the plan.
Ying Yuan thought for a moment and resolutely replied, "I will go and speak to him."
"A-Yuan, if I tell you the possibility of failure is far greater than success, do you still intend to speak with the Emperor?"
"Yes. If I fail, I might be punished by my father. But if we succeed, the people of Zhuzhou won't have to live in constant fear of not knowing when the drought will return. They won't have to endure the pain of separation that could have been avoided."
Since entering Zhuzhou, and even Liujia Village, Ying Yuan had witnessed many partings caused by death. Therefore, he wanted to help them within his capabilities.
Li Jin asked again, "What if A-Yuan cannot persuade the Emperor?"
"I will reason with my father until I persuade him."
Ying Yuan had certainly considered this, as he was the least favored prince among all the imperial sons. But even so, he never thought of giving up easily.
Li Jin responded with a smile, "A-Yuan, if you cannot persuade the Emperor, you still have me."
You still have me.
Hearing these four words suddenly, Ying Yuan was instantly stunned, unable to speak for a long time.
Li Jin himself was also stunned by these four words that had subconsciously slipped out.
"A-Yuan..."
"You..."
Just as both of them spoke at the same time, wanting to say something, Dashu's voice suddenly burst in, interrupting their unfinished words, "Brother Jin, where are you? Brother Jin..."
Perhaps Dashu's interruption had unintentionally resolved the awkwardness between Li Jin and Ying Yuan. Both subconsciously avoided mentioning those four words again.
"A-Yuan, let's go over. We mustn't keep Dongzi and Dashu waiting."
Li Jin was the first to speak, breaking the deadlock between them.
"Mm." Ying Yuan nodded like a chick pecking at rice, "After we return, I will immediately write a letter to my father."
In a short while.
Li Jin and the others reunited with Dongzi and Dashu.
Dongzi didn't stand on ceremony and asked directly, "Brother Jin, did you find anything edible?"
Li Jin smiled, "Found nothing at all."
"Dashu and I are the same, we found nothing." Dongzi shrugged and smiled wryly, "But then again, I had already thought of this possibility before coming, so I'm not too disappointed."
"Dongzi, what is that Dashu is holding..."
Li Jin was stunned when he saw the white prismatic crystal in Dashu's hand.
If he remembered correctly, that was saltpeter.
"Brother Jin, you mean this?" Dashu scratched the back of his head sheepishly, "I thought this stuff looked quite interesting, so I brought a piece back. If you want it, Brother Jin, I can take you to get some. There's quite a bit more at that spot, and besides, it's still not late."
Dashu brought this piece of saltpeter back out of frustration. He and Dongzi had walked very far, hoping to find something edible. Unfortunately, apart from this strange white stone, they found nothing. Unwilling to leave empty-handed, Dashu took a piece as a token of their journey.
Unexpectedly, Li Jin was actually interested in this stuff.
Li Jin glanced at the saltpeter in Dashu's hand and smiled slightly, "Good, then please lead the way, Dashu."
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