On the way back, Xie Changgeng asked someone to bring him some food.
When the child saw the food, his eyes lit up. He took it, lowered his head and ate it in big mouthfuls.
Xie Changgeng took out his water bag, uncorked it, and handed it to him.
The child drank a few sips of water and finally recovered. He looked up and said, "Thank you, sir!"
Xie Changgeng asked him why he got lost that night.
The child whispered, "That night, I was awakened by the noise outside and saw that the stable was on fire. I was afraid that the fire would burn over there, so I wanted to ask them to bring my pony over to join me, but they were all gone. I ran over by myself and saw a group of big horses breaking through the fence and running out. The pony's reins were entangled with a big horse. I chased after it and called it. It heard my voice and looked back at me. I knew it wanted to come back, but it couldn't stop on its own. It was dragged forward by the big horse. I was afraid that it couldn't keep up. If it fell, it would be trampled to death by them. I wanted to cut its reins, so I chased after it..."
He grabbed the sickle that was usually used to cut grass in the stable and chased in the direction the horses were running. However, there was no way he could catch up with the group of frightened horses and he was soon left behind.
It started to rain and the ground was muddy, but the boy was worried about his pony and wanted to find it. He forgot all his fears, grabbed the sickle, and continued to chase forward.
He chased farther and farther, stopping and starting, and at dawn, he heard a miserable neighing sound coming from afar.
He followed the sound, searched over there, and finally found his foal.
The reins that had entangled it and the horse were wrapped around the trunk of an old poplar tree in the wilderness. They circled around several times, but it couldn't get free and stopped there.
The foal's neck and mouth were covered with bloodstains from the rubbing of the reins. When it saw him appear, it leaped its front hooves into the air and neighed excitedly.
The child forgot his fatigue and hunger, and immediately went up, cut the reins with the sickle in his hand, and untied the two horses.
As soon as the big horse was free, it ran away. The child hugged his scarred pony, and after the excitement, he found that he was lost and could not find the way back to the stable.
He wandered in the wilderness for a long time and remembered that there was a river flowing behind the horse farm. He hoped to find the river and walk upstream along the river, maybe he could return.
Next, the man and the horse walked around in this vast wilderness, looking for flowing water.
The next day, they ran into a lone wolf head-on near a muddy swamp.
The wolf did not attack the foal, which was much bigger than it, but jumped out and pounced on the child. The foal, which was a few months old, ran over and kicked it away. The wolf was enraged, jumped up, bit the foal's butt, and after being thrown away, bit its neck.
The foal was dragged to the ground, and its throat was about to be torn by the wolf's claws. The child got up from the ground, rushed forward, raised the sickle in his hand, and stabbed it down with all his strength.
The sharp round hook blade stretched from the wolf's neck to its belly, cutting its stomach and causing its intestines to flow out.
The wolf opened its mouth. Facing the pony opposite with its hooves raised and the child holding a weapon tightly in his hand and shouting at him angrily, the injured wolf felt fear.
After a brief standoff, it turned around and fled, its intestines leaking out.
The child was afraid that the wolf would come back, so he immediately ran in another direction with the injured foal, without even noticing that one of his shoes was missing.
After escaping from the wolf's mouth, his and his foal's luck seemed to have finally improved.
That night, he found an old, dead, collapsed poplar tree and curled up in the gap under the trunk. After a night, he found a river beach the next morning.
One man and one horse, they went upstream along the wasteland, stopping and starting, and had been walking for two days until this moment, when they met Xie Changgeng and his group who were catching up with them.
"What do you eat these days?"
At first, the boy ate whatever grass the pony ate. Later, his stomach kept rumbling, and he had no strength in his body. He couldn't walk anymore. He remembered that when he was working for his master in Junshan Medicine House, his master told him that earthworms in the ground, also known as earth dragons, could not only be used as medicine, but also be dug up by the people to satisfy their hunger during famine years.
"I don't want to die here... I want to go back... I was so hungry that I couldn't walk anymore, so I dug earthworms from the land near the riverbank and ate them, which gave me the strength to walk..."
The child answered quietly.
Everyone around was silent. Liang Tuan looked at the child with a surprised look on his face and said, "Sir, this young master is not only blessed with a good fortune, but also blessed by heaven. At such a young age, he has such energy. This is the first time I have ever seen such a thing. I admire him very much! This young master is a genius, and his future is bound to be limitless!"
Xie Changgeng lowered his head and looked at the child in front of him who was looking up at him. His gaze stayed on his dirty little face for a moment. Without saying anything, he slowly raised his hand and rubbed the little head in his arms.
He took off his cloak and completely wrapped the little body in front of the horse, letting him lean on his arms, and said, "It's okay. It's still a long way back from here. If you are tired, just close your eyes and go to sleep."
He paused.
"When you go back, you will be able to see your mother."
…
It was raining late at night. In a row of houses behind the horse farm, a warm dim light was still shining through a window.
The room was warm with a stove to keep out the cold. Xi'er, who had just been sent back by Liang Tuan, took a bath and sat on the edge of the bed. Mu Fulan cleaned the wounds on his legs and feet and carefully applied plaster. When she saw his toes shrink, she stopped immediately.
"Does it hurt?"
She raised her red and swollen eyes, looked at the child and asked him.
"It doesn't hurt."
"Don't cry, mom. I'm fine, don't be sad."
Xier shook her head, stretched out her hand and wiped her tears.
This was her son. So well-behaved, so caring, and yet braver and more fearless than she could have imagined. He was alone in the wilderness, eating earthworms raw, walking barefoot with his scarred feet, step by step, staggering forward with his pony.
She held back the tears that were about to burst out again, smiled and nodded: "Mom is not sad, she is just too happy. Just bear with it for a while, and it will stop hurting soon."
She continued to gently apply the ointment on the child, blowing on him as she did so. After applying the ointment, she wrapped his little feet with clean, soft cotton cloth and lay down holding him.
"Mom, please don't leave. Can you sleep next to me?" the child begged Mu Fulan.
Mu Fulan had let him sleep alone before.
She lay beside her son, holding him in her arms, and coaxing him to sleep with the sound of the night rain in her ears.
After a long time, Xier moved in her arms, opened her eyes, and whispered, "Mother, I didn't listen to you. When you were away, I talked to that Mr. Xie."
"Will you be mad at me?"
Mu Fulan was stunned, then shook her head.
She hesitated for a moment, and finally asked a question that had been making her uneasy and worried for the past few months.
"Xi'er, after he took you away, did he treat you badly on the way? How are you doing now that you're here?"
Xi'er didn't even blink and immediately said, "Master Xie is very good to me. After I arrived here, he was very busy and I was alone in his house. He asked someone to take care of me. Later he took me to the horse farm. I liked ponies, so he gave the pony to me."
Mu Fulan was a little surprised. She looked at her son's clear eyes. After a moment, she slowly breathed a sigh of relief and a smile appeared on her face.
She touched her son's little face, kissed him, and said, "I'm glad you're okay. Go to sleep. When your injury is healed, we can go back."
The light in the window went out, and the surroundings became dark. The voices of the mother and son in the room also became quiet.
The man stood outside the door for a while in the rainy night, put the ointment in his hand at the door, and turned away.
Mu Fulan turned off the lights and closed her eyes. Suddenly, she heard a slight noise outside the door. She hesitated for a moment, put on her clothes, stood up, and went downstairs to open the door.
There was something new on the ground at the door.
She picked it up and saw it was a small medicine bottle. She opened the lid, smelled it, and knew it was the best golden medicine.
She held the medicine bottle and looked around in confusion.
Under the cover of night, the autumn rain was drizzling, and there was no one outside the door. It was pitch black all around, with nothing there.
The next day, the steward of the Jiedushi Mansion who had returned a few days ago hurried to the horse farm to pick someone up.
Mu Fulan took Xier back to Guzang in a carriage and brought the foal back with her.
In the following days, Mu Fulan never saw Xie Changgeng show up. He seemed very busy, and she didn't ask him. She just took care of Xi'er in the Jiedushi Mansion.
Children's skin and flesh heal quickly, and with careful care, within a few days, the wounds on Xier's legs and feet scabbed over and slowly fell off, and the flesh on her little face that had lost weight quickly grew back as well.
That evening, Xie Changgeng came back from outside and discussed matters with Liu Guan and several other officials in the study. After they were done, everyone left and he continued to work at his desk.
A moment later, a small figure appeared outside the door.
The child hid outside the half-open door, poked his head out, and quietly looked at Xie Changgeng who was still busy in the study, as if he wanted to come in but didn't dare.
Xie Changgeng had already noticed it, and without stopping writing, he said, "Come in!"
Xier was startled at first, but then she came to her senses and realized that he was talking to her. She said "oh", stepped over the threshold, walked in, and stopped in front of the adult.
"What's up?"
Xie Changgeng asked him.
After he asked, he didn't hear any answer for a long time. He looked up and saw the little man looking at him awkwardly, wanting to say something but stopping himself, so he quickly stopped writing.
"Don't be afraid. If you have any problem, just tell me."
This time, he tried to soften his voice.
Xier shook her head at first, then nodded, and finally said hesitantly: "The foal's injury is almost healed. I want to give it a name, call it Little Dragon Horse. Sir, do you think this name is good?"
Xie Changgeng was stunned. He didn't expect that he would ask him about such a thing.
For some reason, he suddenly became happy.
He looked at the little boy standing in front of him and said seriously, "It's as brave as you. It's a very suitable name for it. From now on, we'll call it Little Dragon Horse."
Hearing him praising him, the little man showed a shy joy in his eyes and said, "Then I'll call it Little Dragon Horse from now on!"
Xie Changgeng looked at the smiling face of the child in front of him and finally couldn't help but waved to him.
Xier walked to his side obediently and looked at him.
Xie Changgeng said, "I heard what you said to your mother the night you came back. Why didn't you tell her that you were sick here before?"
Xier said: "If she knew, she would cry again. She would also be angry with you."
Xie Changgeng paused, hesitated for a moment, then picked up the child and put him on his lap.
"I brought you here and made you sick. Don't you hate me?"
The child was silent for a moment, then raised his head and whispered, "I don't hate you anymore."
"Why?"
"You gave me a pony. And you brought me back to my mother."
Xie Changgeng looked at his beautiful eyes that were very similar to that of the woman, and said slowly: "But your mother still hates me very much. She almost killed me the day you disappeared."
Xi'er was stunned and immediately shook her head: "Thank you, sir, my mother won't kill people! She only saves people!"
Xie Changgeng held him and sat him on the desk, took off his clothes, turned around, and showed him the wound on his back.
He had been running around these days, and the wound on his back was inconvenient for him to apply medicine himself, so he didn't take it seriously. In addition, he was caught in the rain the day before, so instead of healing, the surrounding area showed signs of swelling and festering.
"See? This is what she stabbed."
Xi'er was shocked, with a look of pity in her eyes: "My Lord, are you in pain?"
"It hurts! Not only does it hurt, but I got caught in the rain the day before yesterday and now my head hurts too!"
He motioned the little man to touch his forehead.
Xier touched his forehead, then touched her own forehead seriously, and her eyes suddenly widened.
"My Lord, you are ill! I don't know how to treat illnesses! Wait, I'll call my mother to come!"
He climbed down from the table and ran out quickly.
It was getting dark, and the light in the study was becoming dimmer and dimmer.
The woman's figure finally appeared at the door of the study.
She walked in, lit the candle on the table, and said to the man who was still writing furiously, "Take off your clothes." Her voice was flat.
Xie Changgeng put down his pen, stood up, silently took off his clothes, and turned his back to her.
Mu Fulan stood behind him, checked the wound, and cleaned it for him, not very gently. Then she took out a silver knife, burned it for a while, and ordered him to lie on the table and cut off a small piece of rotten flesh from his wound.
Xie Changgeng lay prone, his hands tightly grasping the corner of the table, his back aching. Seeing her cold attitude and her lack of gentleness, he could not help it and gritted his teeth and said, "If there was a knife nearby that day, wouldn't you have used it to stab me?"