The people in this small mountain village have always been simple and honest, and there are rarely such petty thefts.
Jing Li stood there in a daze for a moment before running after him: "Stop!"
The other person ran very fast, and in a blink of an eye he had already run to the distant ridge of the field. Jing Li was not used to walking on this kind of field path, and he tripped over the gravel in the field and fell to the ground.
The gravel scratched his palm a little and Jing Li frowned in pain.
"Isn't this Qin Zhao's husband? What happened?" Li Dali saw Jing Li fall from afar and hurried forward to help him up. "Are you hurt? You don't even know how to be careful when you walk. Why are you so anxious?"
Jing Li didn't care about him at all, he raised his hand and pointed to the distance: "Brother Dali, that guy—"
Before he finished speaking, he heard a scream from the front.
The man, who had been running far away, was tripped by something, fell from the side of the ridge, and rolled into the ditch.
Jing Li: “…”
Jing Li: “???”
Isn't it a flat road there
Li Dali helped him walk over, and saw the man lying on the rocks beside the ditch, dying.
"Ayu? What are you doing here?" Li Dali recognized the man and shouted into the ditch.
Jing Li asked: "Do you know him?"
"This is my cousin."
That man was called Li Hongyu, the son of Li Dali's father's younger brother, and also...A Xiu's biological brother.
It took Jing Li a while to sort out the complicated relationship between relatives and roughly understand why he did this.
Qin Zhao had rejected Ah Xiu's advances before, and neither he nor Qin Zhao took this episode seriously. But from the brother's perspective, he probably felt that his sister was being bullied.
Today happened to be the day when Li's second uncle was visiting Qin Zhao's house, so Li Hongyu took this opportunity to do something bad in his field.
Who knew that instead of accomplishing any bad deed, he would end up like this.
"Are you trying to take revenge on us?" Jing Li asked.
Li Hongyu fell quite hard and his left forearm must have been fractured, so he couldn't move.
Hearing Jing Li ask this, he said angrily: "I didn't—"
"Don't move!" He just opened his mouth and was scolded by Doctor Ge who was helping to bandage the arm, "Don't you want your arm anymore?"
Li Hongyu shut up in dismay.
He is only one year older than A Xiu, has not yet started a family, and looks childish.
They were now at the village chief's house. Li Dali moved a stool and sat by the door. After listening to the whole story, he angrily slapped Li Hongyu on the head and said, "You useless little bastard!"
His grip was too strong, and Li Hongyu cried out in pain: "Brother Dali, why are you siding with outsiders? They treated Ah Xiu like that—"
"Shout louder, do you want the whole village to hear it?" Li Dali interrupted coldly.
The more he thought about it, the angrier he got. "This matter was originally the fault of Aunt He and my aunt. Qin Zhao was very polite by not telling anyone about it. Why are you still not quiet? Why do you have to make it known to the whole village?"
"I didn't, I just..." Li Hongyu's voice gradually weakened, "I just wanted to teach him a lesson."
Li Dali: "You bastard—"
"Da Li, calm down first." The village chief brought them a few cups of tea and said calmly, "I just went to check. Fortunately, Qin Zhao's husband found it in time. The roots of the seedlings were not damaged. If they are planted in time, they can still survive."
Li Dali nodded: "Okay, I'll go replant the seedlings in a moment."
"As for Hongyu, according to the village rules..."
Before the village chief finished speaking, footsteps were heard outside the door.
"You bastard, you've been making trouble since I last saw you for a few hours!" A strong voice came from outside the door, and a big man walked in.
Li Hongyu didn't care about his unwrapped arm and jumped up from the chair.
Unexpectedly, he felt a piercing pain in his arm. His face turned pale with pain, and his father caught him in the act: "Dad, stop hitting me. My arm is broken! Ouch!!"
The wailing sound was horrible. At this moment, Qin Zhao also hurriedly walked in.
Jing Li waved at him: "Qin Zhao, I'm here!"
He paused for a moment, then walked up to Jing Li and looked at his bandaged hand: "How did you get hurt? Does it hurt?"
Jing Li wanted to say that he was fine, but when the words came to his lips, he changed his tone and whispered, "I fell down, it hurts."
The young man, who was clean before going out, now had a lot of mud on his clothes, and his face and hands were dirty, looking quite pitiful.
Jing Li's injury was actually not that serious, he just fell and scraped his skin a little, and after it heals there won't even be a scar.
But his skin was white and tender, and the injury looked particularly terrible, so Doctor Ge simply applied medicine to him and then bandaged it up.
Qin Zhao wiped the stain on his chin with his fingertips and led him up: "Let's go home first."
The village chief stopped him: "Qin Zhao, the Li family..."
"My husband is injured. I have to take him home first. As for other matters..." He glanced at Li Hongyu and said calmly, "Let's talk about it another day."
After saying that, regardless of other people's attitudes, he took Jing Li out the door.
The sun had completely set, with only a little afterglow of the setting sun remaining in the sky. Qin Zhao wiped the sweat off his forehead and walked on the stone road with Jing Li.
Jing Li gently pulled his sleeve: "Did you run here?"
"Yeah." Qin Zhao whispered, "The village chief sent someone to tell me that you had a conflict with Uncle Li's son. I'm worried about you."
Qin Zhao couldn't do strenuous exercise, so his face was a little pale and his breathing was not very stable.
But Jing Li was secretly happy in his heart.
Qin Zhao was very worried about him.
Qin Zhao held Jing Li's uninjured hand. His palm was dry and warm, but very strong.
He covered his mouth and coughed lightly, hiding the corners of his mouth that couldn't help but curl up, and said seriously: "You just left like this, won't Li Hongyu pursue the matter?"
Qin Zhao asked back: "Do you want to pursue it?"
Jing Li thought for a moment: "The village chief said the seedlings can be saved, and Dali Ge also said he would help us replant them, it seems like we didn't suffer any loss..."
Qin Zhao paused and looked at his bandaged hand: "Then it's not a loss?"
"This is just..." Jing Li paused and changed his words, "Yes, this is also a loss, we can't just let it go like this."
Qin Zhao asked: "So?"
"Um?"
Qin Zhao said calmly: "He offended you. It is you who should decide how to pursue the case, not me."
Jing Li hummed and didn't answer for the time being.
When Jing Li first saw someone messing around in his field, he was really angry, but when he realized there was no loss, he wasn't so angry anymore.
As for falling, it was just because he ran too fast and didn't stand firmly. It had nothing to do with that person.
He really didn't seem to know what to do.
Qin Zhao seemed to see his hesitation and said gently, "It's okay. You still have a few days to think about how to vent your anger."
Jing Li didn't understand: "What do you mean?"
Qin Zhao said: "This matter will not be let go like this."
"This incident itself is not a big deal. The village chief has to mediate countless minor frictions between neighbors every day. But the nature of this incident is different from the others."
Jing Li blinked: "Because of Miss Xiu?"
"Yes." Qin Zhao said, "For the Li family, they are worried about whether this matter will be exposed, because it will affect Miss Xiu's reputation."
Jing Li asked worriedly, "You won't tell anyone about this, will you?"
People in the village care the most about women's reputation. If the matter really gets out, not only A Xiu, but also Li Hongyu and his family will find it difficult to gain a foothold in the village.
He felt... Qin Zhao shouldn't be that kind of person.
Qin Zhao shook his head: "Of course not."
Jing Li breathed a sigh of relief: "Then why did you say..."
"But the Li family doesn't know."
Jing Li understood everything: "So you deliberately refused to accept the village chief's mediation today just to disgust them?"
Qin Zhao tilted his head to look at him and smiled softly: "Is it not possible?"
Jing Li: “…”
He found that although Qin Zhao looked serious, he was actually a dark person at heart.
As they were talking, they had already walked back to the door of their new home.
Qin Zhao had moved all the things from the cottage a few days ago, and the cottage has now been returned to its original owner, left for Chen Yanan to use for his studies.
Pushing open the bamboo gate, the small courtyard in front of you is quiet and warm. A gravel road leads from the gate to the stone bridge, and from the stone bridge to the main house.
It was still daylight before they went out, so there were no candles in the house and the whole yard seemed a little dim.
There was no time to plant flowers or plants on both sides of the gravel road, so there were only bare patches of soil.
Qin Zhao took Jing Li by the hand and sat him down on a bamboo chair beside the pool. He went into the house and got a towel to wipe his face.
"I told you not to go out by yourself. After you went to the fields, you turned from a little fish into a cat." Qin Zhao chuckled.
Jing Li whispered: "This is an accident."
After calming down, Jing Li was still a little angry.
He clearly wanted to perform well today and change Qin Zhao's impression of him, but who knew that such a thing would happen before he could even do any work.
As expected, we cannot let the guy named Li go.
After cleaning up her little husband, the two of them had dinner and went to bed early.
Qin Zhao was making the bed in the inner room. Jing Li poked his head out from behind the wooden screen and looked at him eagerly.
Fang Tianying was very considerate and changed a double bed for them, which was big enough for Jing Li to roll around on. However, Jing Li had just moved here and felt fresh, so he slept in the pool in the yard for the first few days.
But…
Qin Zhao noticed his gaze and asked with a smile, "Don't you want to sleep in the pool today?"
"No, no, it's just..." Jing Li was a little flustered by his gaze, and said at a loss, "It's just that Doctor Ge said that I can't touch water because I'm injured!"
Qin Zhao: “…”
Jing Li: “…”
A fish cannot touch water when it is injured. Even if you tell it, it won’t believe it.
Qin Zhao didn't expose him, and chuckled, "Come up quickly, I'm going to turn off the lights."
Jing Li: "Hmm..."
The candle went out, and the room was suddenly shrouded in moonlight.
Jing Li curled up with his back to Qin Zhao, but his breathing did not calm down for a long time.
Qin Zhao asked: "Why aren't you asleep yet? What are you thinking about?"
Jing Li turned over, and there was really no sleepiness on his face: "Doctor Ge said today that Li Hongyu broke his arm and it will take more than three months to heal."
Qin Zhao frowned slightly and asked, "Why are you still thinking about him?"
"No, I was thinking about something else." Jing Li sighed. The more he thought about it, the more puzzled he became. "Do you think I really bring bad luck to others? Why would I be in trouble even for pulling up our rice seedlings?"
Jing Li said: "I saw it clearly today, he fell flat on his face!"
Qin Zhao: “…”
Those beautiful eyes looked particularly bright in the moonlight. Qin Zhao stared into them and asked softly, "Have you... always been worried about this?"
Jing Li was stunned.
He looked away, his voice trailing off: "Also... not always..."
In fact, this is not the first time this has happened to Jing Li.
Jing Li's parents died early, and he grew up in an orphanage. He had few friends and was not liked by others. He was always unlucky, and those who were too close to him would also encounter all kinds of bad luck.
As time went by, fewer and fewer people were willing to play with him.
In his entire life, Qin Zhao was the first person who had stayed with him for such a long time.
Jing Li lowered his eyes, his expression hidden in the darkness and not very clear.
A warm hand fell on his head.
"You are a koi, little fish. You won't bring bad luck to others." Qin Zhao's voice was very soft and gentle. "Just think about it. After you came to my side, my life has become much better than before."
“But all that… is because you are so awesome.” Jing Li said.
"No matter how powerful I am, I can't find the black mountain ginseng, nor can I make the old lady of the Chen family wake up overnight, and I can't just save the lost young master of the Fang family." Qin Zhao said, "The so-called luck is not to give something directly to others, nor to fulfill others' wishes, but to create opportunities."
"As for the bad luck you mentioned..." Qin Zhao smiled softly, "Why don't you think about whether those who have suffered bad luck have done anything bad to you?"
When the orphanage was on a picnic, the boy who shared a dormitory with Jing Li was involved in a car accident. Only that boy was hospitalized because of a head injury. This was because he had locked Jing Li out of the house the whole night before the picnic.
After going to school, his deskmate lost money several times in a week because he slandered Jingli for cheating in the exam.
There are neighbors who speak ill of him, teachers who look down on him, and classmates who always tease him...
Jing Li had never thought about it this way before, but now thinking about it, it seems... to be true.
Jing Li was a little surprised: "You...how do you know?"
"Guessed." Qin Zhao said, "Xiao Yu, there are many things in this world that cannot be explained, but you have a special physique, so you don't need to doubt it."
"I don't know if you've ever experienced anything that made you accustomed to worrying and accustomed to associating these so-called bad lucks with yourself, but those things are not your fault."
He lowered his head and gently stroked the other person's cold and soft cheek with his fingertips: "If you don't believe me, let's make a bet."
Jing Li asked: "What bet?"
"... If you stay with me, no bad luck will ever happen to me."
Jing Li opened his eyes wide: "But what if—"
"Nothing will happen." Qin Zhao smiled and said gently, "But speaking of it, even if I don't tell you this, are you really willing to leave? If you leave here, who will cook for you in the future?"
Jing Li pursed his lips and whispered: "...It seems that he is reluctant to let go."
He doesn't want to go to the river to eat small fish, shrimps and water plants.
Qin Zhao smiled and patted his head, then pressed him into his arms: "Now that we have talked about our worries, it's time to go to bed."
Just... just sleep like this
The herbal aroma of Qin Zhao filled his nose. Jing Li blinked, but the person in front of him didn't move for a long time. He mustered up the courage to look up, but Qin Zhao had closed his eyes.
He curled his fingertips lightly, hooked them around the corner of Qin Zhao's clothes, and closed his eyes.
A good night's sleep.