There was a moment of silence in the room, filled only by the irritable patter of rain against the eaves.
Finally, the figure on the bed moved.
Without a word, he propped himself up and slowly donned his blood-stained, tattered inner tunic. Then, leaning against the wall for support, he walked out of the house one step at a time.
She had exhausted herself dragging him out of those deep mountains, yet before she could collect a single copper of the silver he owed, she had sent him away with nothing more than a few sharp words.
In this world, many things truly defied logic.
The corners of Qin Jiuye’s mouth twitched; for a moment, she didn't know whether to laugh or cry. She blew out the oil lamp and stood motionless in the darkness.
After a while, Jinbao’s footsteps sounded at the door, and half a head peeked tentatively around the frame.
"He’s gone."
"I know. I’m the one who told him to leave."
"Are you really letting him go? In his state, he probably won't make it half a mile. If someone is hunting him..."
She shot him a fierce, sidelong glare. "Shut up."
Perhaps because the room was too dark, Jinbao failed to sense the emotion in her eyes and spoke again. " I just feel that if Old Qin knew, he’d definitely scold you."
Qin Jiuye fell silent.
If there was anyone who could restrain her without even being present, it was Qin Sanyou. This fellow Situ Jinbao certainly knew her sore spots, actually bringing up her grandfather to pressure her.
She looked at him coldly. "If you don't say anything, how would Grandfather know?"
Jinbao fell silent as well. Ultimately, he still had to rely on Guoran Ju. As long as he remained there, he had to live according to Qin Jiuye’s whims.
The silver was gone, but life had to go on.
Qin Jiuye glanced at the sky outside and suddenly remembered a pressing matter. "Did you put the basins in the west room?"
The leaks in the west room were getting worse. Previously, one basin could last the night; now, it had to be emptied halfway through. Whenever such troublesome matters were raised, Jinbao was usually reluctant to answer.
But today, he wore a look of smug satisfaction. "Go see for yourself."
Qin Jiuye didn't have the energy to ponder his meaning. she hurried to the west room, looked down at the dry floor, and then looked up at the roof.
"These tiles..."
Qin Jiuye paused, then suddenly turned around and grabbed Jinbao by the ear.
"Did you buy new tiles? Where did you get the money for new tiles? Huh?! Tell me the truth—did you touch my silver..."
Jinbao howled under her hand, his face turning the color of pig's liver. "Who touched your silver?! You stingy woman, why are you snapping at me!"
"Then what’s the deal with the tiles? Don't tell me they grew up, became sensible, and decided to fix themselves!"
"It was him!" Jinbao pointed a stubby finger toward the rain-slicked doorway. "He fixed them."
"What?" Qin Jiuye didn't react immediately, her anger still directed at Jinbao. "What nonsense are you talking..."
"I said he fixed the tiles! The one you just kicked out!"
As Jinbao recounted the events, the hand gripping his ear finally loosened, though her tongue remained sharp. "He can barely get out of bed; how could he fix the roof? Don't take me for a fool like yourself."
"He fixed them from the bed. He asked me for a broken wooden board we used to level the table, carved a 'tile' out of it with that rusty blade of his, and had me place it on the roof."
This time, Qin Jiuye truly fell silent.
She had imagined countless possibilities, but never this one.
Earlier, Jinbao couldn't recall his name and could only refer to him as "him." In truth, she couldn't name him either. She hadn't even bothered to ask.
Perhaps that was because, from the very beginning, she had never intended to view him as a person. She had merely treated him as a golden goose to be plucked for profit. That was the extent of her expectations for him.
She looked up instinctively at the eaves, where the decorative end-tiles were half-missing and jagged.
It had been a long time since anyone had shared her burdens under this roof. Jinbao was unreliable; for the longest time, she had accepted the fact that if she wanted to maintain these roof tiles and support this household, she could only rely on herself.
The rain continued to fall, seemingly growing heavier.
The sky had turned completely dark. The small path outside Guoran Ju was pitch black, revealing nothing, as if there were nothing in the darkness but the rain itself.
Qin Jiuye stood for a moment, and then she finally moved. She walked out of the house, picked up the battered oil-paper umbrella, and stepped into the rain.
"I’m going out for a bit. I’ll be back soon."
***
Li Qiao forged ahead through the rain with great difficulty.
It wasn't that he had never been in such a wretched state before. Over the past ten years, he had suffered worse injuries, encountered more dangerous people, and walked more treacherous paths than this.
Yet, he had always survived. He did not believe in destiny. He only believed in himself.
Today, as he watched the approaching rain from the window and offered to fix that tile, he had already staked everything on this gamble. He was betting on what kind of person she was; betting that he had seen enough faces over the years to not misjudge her.
But perhaps, in the end, she was the same kind of person as he was. Because she had suffered too much, seen too many people, and walked too long a road, she trusted no one and could only rely on herself.
As he thought, he suddenly smiled.
Then, in the next moment, he heard footsteps behind him.
The sound of those old cotton shoes treading through the mud sounded heavy and sluggish. With such a pace, she should never have been able to catch up to him.
Li Qiao caught his breath, clutching the wound at his waist that had begun to bleed again, and slowly turned around.
Qin Jiuye stood a few paces away, holding that tattered umbrella.
After leaving Guoran Ju, she realized she didn't know which direction he had gone. Only a few scattered houses in the village had lamps lit; the surroundings remained shrouded in black.
She stood at the gate for a moment before turning left. She didn't know why she chose left—perhaps because the road was easier to walk, perhaps because there were more lights from the houses on that side, or perhaps because she had brought him back along that same path a few days ago.
Before she had walked far, she saw that staggering silhouette through the curtain of rain. The light was dim, and she could only see a faint outline, but his stature was so different from the other villagers that she recognized him instantly.
Before she could even get close, he stopped.
Qin Jiuye steadied herself and asked, "Do you have somewhere to go?"
It was a question she already knew the answer to. She knew perfectly well he had nowhere to go. If he had a place to turn to, he wouldn't have endured her temper.
But she wanted to hear his answer. She wanted to hear what he would say.
Li Qiao remained silent in the rain for a moment. When he looked up again, a faint smile lingered on his lips. "The world is vast; there is always a place to settle."
The hand Qin Jiuye used to hold the umbrella trembled imperceptibly.
She thought he would use a pity play to beg her to let him stay, just as he had when they first met. But he didn't.
In truth, when she asked the question, her mind was already made up. If he had answered that he had nowhere to go and begged her to take him in, swearing to serve her like an ox or a horse, she would have stuck to her previous decision. She would have merely pointed him toward the road out of the village and never looked back.
But he said, "The world is vast; there is always a place to settle."
In that instant, he seemed different from the thugs who faked illness to beg for porridge outside Great Compassion Temple, or the pickpockets who begged while stealing on Bobo Street.
Compassion could buy a bowl of porridge, a piece of flatbread, a place to stay, or even a few taels of silver—but it often required one to sacrifice their dignity.
Had she not been the same all these years? Though she mocked herself as a mercenary merchant who cared only for profit, in reality, true profiteers fared much better than she did. She was merely an ordinary person often caught in dire straits, yet unwilling to bow her head and surrender that small spark of dignity.
In truth, he and she were kindred spirits.
She walked closer, stopping two or three paces from him, and for the first time, she studied his face carefully.
In the darkness, the youth’s features, dampened by the rain, appeared pale and faint. Combined with his bloodless lips, his face looked like a meticulous brushwork painting on rice paper that had been soaked, his very silhouette seemingly threatening to dissolve into the rain.
"What is your name?"
"Li Qiao," he murmured, enunciating each word. "Li as in 'plum,' Qiao as in 'woodcutter.'"
Qin Jiuye nodded. After a moment of silence, she spoke as if having reached a final resolution.
"Fine. Li Qiao, listen well. Aside from patients, Guoran Ju does not support idle people. I can let you stay for three months to give you some breathing room. But since you have no silver, you cannot eat and drink for free. There are no rest days for working at Guoran Ju. Your pay is one string of coins a month, settled monthly. You will live and sleep in the pharmacy. You eat what I eat; if I don't see meat for a month, you eat vegetarian along with me. You start work at the first cockcrow and finish only after the last patient is sent away. After closing, the tasks of decocting, preparing, and inventorying medicine cannot be neglected. If someone comes for an emergency consultation in the middle of the night, you must light a lamp and receive them..."
She spoke almost without pause, laying everything out in one breath. She only stopped at the last sentence, seemingly checking if she had missed anything.
Li Qiao looked at the woman before him. Her mature, world-weary demeanor was at odds with her age. For some reason, he was reminded of the Sect Leader of the Xuanjin Sect, a woman he had fought years ago and nearly died at the hands of.
With this stingy, unyielding personality of hers, managing just a broken pharmacy was truly a waste of talent.
"Is there anything else?"
Qin Jiuye glanced at him and summarized in a low voice. "In short, life at Guoran Ju might be a hundred times harder than sleeping in the wild or enduring hardships for revenge. Think it over. Don't say later that I took advantage of your weakness to force you to stay, making it my fault."
"How could I? I am a person who believes most in repaying kindness." The youth lowered his eyes slightly, clutching his wound as he performed a slow, respectful bow. "Manager Qin’s kindness is etched in my heart. One day, I shall surely repay you with my life."
Just when she thought he wouldn't say those nauseating things, they popped out of his mouth anyway.
Qin Jiuye frowned. "It’s just business; there’s no need to repay me with your life. We owe each other nothing."
The youth nodded, adopting an obedient "whatever you say" expression. Qin Jiuye felt inexplicably annoyed. After a thought, she added a final instruction.
"You’re a fresh face. Now that you’re at Guoran Ju, the villagers will surely be curious. If anyone asks, you say..." She paused, looking at his appearance. "Say you are my younger brother, a distant relative. Say you’re in poor health and came here to recover, while helping out with chores on the side..."
The villagers saw each other every day and loved to gossip about trivial matters. It was fine if it was just for their own amusement, but she feared someone with ulterior motives might notice something. Being targeted would be a disaster.
Thus, Qin Jiuye put a great deal of effort into rounding out the lie, confirming the origins of this "sickly younger cousin seeking refuge with his elder sister," even detailing the circumstances of the "younger brother’s" family.
She fabricated the story with a cold, hard tone, and he listened obediently, never uttering a word of protest.
Finally, she felt there was nothing left to add and stopped. "Do you understand everything I’ve said?"
In the misty rain, the youth’s light brown eyes shone with moisture, like two pieces of melting honey candy.
"I understand."
He suddenly took a step forward. Before she could react, he was standing under her umbrella. Rain fell through the holes in the paper canopy, wetting half of his face.
"Sister, I’m hungry. Let’s go home."
