Chapter 110 Bo Ge: First night spent outside.

The first night away from home, at Bo Ge’s place.

The evening wind moaned, the fog was thick and cold, and no star could be seen in the deep inky blue sky. Though it was almost late spring, the chill still turned cheeks red, as if winter’s icy claws were still reaching down, bleak and dreary.

Tian Qin tightened her thin cloak and quickened her pace, walking with Nanny Chen and the others through a remote, filthy alley. They were alone and desolate, relying only on the feeble flame of Zhaolu’s fire starter to light the way.

They had been walking for over an hour, and there was still some distance to Bo Ge’s place. The consequence of Bo Ge not being able to pick them up with the ox cart was far more severe than imagined—these delicate women struggled to walk in the cold night.

In the past, when the sky darkens at this hour, the Painting Garden would already have steamed a fragrant bowl of milk custard. Tian Qin would take off her hair ornaments, eating the custard while reading a storybook by the charcoal fire. The Lord would smile, wipe milk stains off the corner of her mouth, and say, “You can’t even eat properly.” Then he would lean down and take away her book. She would stand up to grab it back, and he would produce a new trick—a jade hairpin, a Western music box... They would nestle together under the lamp, their shadows lingering, listening to the quiet crackle of the candle and the soft pop of the wick. That day, the Lord even said, “I’ll raise a cat for you in the Painting Garden, to keep you company when I’m not here. But you must not like it more than me.” Yet the cat had never come, and the Lord had already changed his heart, driving Tian Qin out of the house.

Nanny Chen cast a worried glance back at Tian Qin. What she feared most was that the girl might not be able to let go of the past. Men—all crows are black. The man Nanny Chen married in her youth was just as heartless.

Tian Qin was fine, though. She hadn’t shed a tear, hadn’t complained, hadn’t lost control of her emotions. She was eerily calm, as if she had long accepted that the Xie family would abandon her. But the more she acted this way, the more it worried others.

Tian Qin stumbled, nearly tripping over a stone at a corner. “Miss!” Wan Cui quickly caught her. Lifting her skirt, they saw that Tian Qin’s feet had bled from the blisters—a shocking sight.

The little miss, used to a life of ease, had had her survival skills eroded, whether deliberately or unintentionally. A canary with broken wings, once out of its gilded cage, could not survive in the outside world.

“I’ll carry you on my back, Miss!” Nanny Chen, still strong despite her age, decided at once and tried to lift Tian Qin. But Tian Qin clutched her chest tightly, her forehead beaded with sweat in the biting night wind, her voice weak: “My chest... it hurts...”

The three of them immediately understood—it was the Love Gu acting up.

Why would the Love Gu still flare up?

They had thought that after the young miss was abandoned, the Love Gu would turn into something harmless, like a birthmark.

Nanny Chen and the others didn’t know that the real reason the Love Gu was acting up was that its master had summoned it. They assumed Tian Qin’s long journey had aggravated an old ailment.

Going back to the Xie residence to ask for an antidote was impossible. For now, the only option was to carry the young miss to Bo Ge’s place to rest.

“Miss, get on my back quickly!” Nanny Chen crouched down, while Zhaolu and Wan Cui carefully assisted on either side.

Tian Qin didn’t make a sound or move. After a long moment, the deathly pallor on her face slowly eased. Her hand loosened from her chest, and she took a long breath, as if she had recovered again.

“It’s nothing,” she said hoarsely, stumbling as she stood up on her own.

Everyone was still anxious, but they could only help Tian Qin walk slowly. It seemed the Love Gu did not act up all the time—only intermittently. Perhaps excessive fatigue had angered it, so their pace was particularly slow.

This delayed their arrival at Bo Ge’s thatched cottage even further.

In the distance, they saw a man on a crutch hobbling back and forth at the door, anxiously looking around.

Nanny Chen called out from afar: “Bo Ge—”

Bo Ge was overjoyed and waved back, calling out in response.

He had been waiting too long, his heart in turmoil. Ignoring the sharp pain in his broken leg, he had forced himself to the doorway to look out.

Nanny Chen rushed forward to scold him: “You reckless child! You’ll hurt yourself worse, coming out on a broken leg!”

The windy entrance wasn’t a place to talk. The group helped the two injured ones—Bo Ge and Tian Qin—and walked toward the thatched cottage, which gave off a dim, warm yellow light.

Once inside, they saw that the light wasn’t from a candle—a candle cost five wen, and even more expensive ones at thirty or forty wen. The poor couldn’t afford that. At night, they just went to sleep. The biggest sources of light were moonlight and firelight.

When Bo Ge learned that the noble Miss Tian was coming, he was ecstatic, as if he had found a treasure. He thought the house shouldn’t be pitch black, so he caught many fireflies and put them in a pouch made of translucent paper to serve as light. The ox cart was also cleaned, originally intended to pick up Tian Qin. But who would have thought he’d meet with misfortune and break his leg?

“It’s all my fault for renting such a remote place, making the young miss walk so far.”

When he heard about Tian Qin’s foot blisters, Bo Ge asked his mother, Nanny Chen, to boil some water for the young miss to soak her feet and pop the blisters. The young miss’s room was in the adjacent thatched cottage. To prevent drafts, the windows were sealed tightly with mud at the four corners.

Nanny Chen sighed. “Don’t worry. Your mother knows what to do.”

Tian Qin sat down in the dim little room. The firefly light was faint, casting her beauty—like spring water reflecting peach blossoms—as if a black veil had been draped over a pearl. Her ten fingers were slender, her skin fair and pure. She looked like a girl well-nurtured in a wealthy household.

Bo Ge felt as though she were a sacred princess, breathtaking. He lowered his head in shame and modesty, his dark face faintly reddening.

He had secretly gazed at Miss Tian from afar many times, but she saw him for the first time now. Back then, she was still the little miss of the Xie residence, standing beside another man as radiant as the sun, shining like a pearl.

“Bo Ge...” Tian Qin spoke weakly, startling Bo Ge, who promptly answered. She took out a few silver ingots from her bundle and pushed them toward him. “Here’s some money. First, take it. Tell Nanny Chen you saved it yourself. Tomorrow, ask her to buy medicine and get a cast for you.”

While Nanny Chen had gone out to boil water, Tian Qin took out the money.

Bo Ge was deeply moved, but he was stubborn and proud. He absolutely refused to accept Tian Qin’s money, even if it meant staying lame. “Miss, this is your money. My leg is fine. I’ll be better after lying in bed for two days!”

Tian Qin compromised: “How about I lend it to you? You can pay me back later.”

Bo Ge shook his head repeatedly, entranced. That the heavenly Miss Tian could grace his humble home was already a dream come true. How could he take advantage of her in her time of hardship? It was fine—he still had an ox. If he really had no money for a doctor, he could sell the animal.

Tian Qin studied the stubborn man. He had a square face, thick, dark eyebrows, and strong, sun-tanned skin. A thin bandage wrapped around his head. Under his coarse linen clothes, his muscles were toughened by smoke and labor. He was honest and dependable, his voice low and gruff. He stood there as if he could shoulder any burden in life.

Wan Cui grew anxious: “Bo Ge, why are you being so stubborn? You’re making the young miss worry.”

Zhaolu also chimed in: “That’s right, Bo Ge. The young miss is staying with you. If your leg gets worse, she’ll feel guilty.”

Bo Ge was about to refuse again when Nanny Chen walked in with hot water. Tian Qin quickly tucked the silver back into her hand, afraid Nanny Chen would scold Bo Ge if she saw it.

Nanny Chen set down the water but then left again. It was better for Tian Qin to soak her feet and pop the blisters in her own room. Men and women should keep their distance, for a girl’s feet should not be seen by any other man, lest it bring dishonor upon the young miss.

Seeing this, Tian Qin led Zhaolu and Wan Cui out of Bo Ge’s cottage. Secretly, she placed the silver by his pillow. As she bent down, something poked her—it was the bamboo rib umbrella. She had been holding it all the way from the Xie residence until now. Suddenly feeling disgust, she tossed it to Wan Cui.

In the adjacent cottage, Nanny Chen had already prepared the bed for her, just like the ornate, carved, gilded, perfumed canopy bed with four corners in the Xie residence. The straw bed was the one Bo Ge had given up for Tian Qin. As for Zhaolu and Wan Cui, they had to make do on a temporary stone platform.

“Hurry and soak your feet, Miss.” Nanny Chen brought a needle, ready to lance the blisters.

The gleam of the needle in the cold light made Tian Qin flinch. In her memory, long needles were linked to that man’s miraculous hands—a vivid sight. Back when the Love Gu was planted, he had used countless such needles on her acupoints. Now, whenever she saw a needle, she shuddered. The pain of the past involuntarily resurfaced.

“No need to pop them. They’ll heal in a few days if I soak them,” she said, instinctively refusing.

She quickly dipped her feet in the water, then passed the water to Zhaolu and Wan Cui, who were also exhausted. As night fell, Nanny Chen went to take care of Bo Ge with his broken leg. Zhaolu and Wan Cui closed the wooden door, plunging the place into the desolate silence of the night.

“Go to sleep early,” Zhaolu said after a long while, comforting Wan Cui, who was tossing and turning, bothered by fleas.

Tian Qin lay still, her beautiful eyelashes open. The firefly lamp had been extinguished. The bright moon shone like a pool of water, leaving her wide awake.

This was her first night away from the Xie residence, sleeping outside. Though conditions were cramped, there was no danger of freezing to death. Her stomach, accustomed to late-night snacks, grumbled emptily. Crab-shell pastries and pear soup seemed to slide down her throat in a daydream, that man fed her spoonful by spoonful, accompanied by his bright laughter and warm, rising steam.

Tian Qin turned over, pressing her stomach. She quietly took a few sips of the water Nanny Chen had left by the bedside to stave off hunger. The water, of course, was not the cool, sweet cardamom-infused water, but murky, muddy well water.

Yet she did not complain. In her current situation, just surviving was enough. Stripped of the blinding veil of wealth, she felt a real sense of being alive, solid and grounded.

Tomorrow morning, Nanny Chen said they would have watery porridge and wild vegetables to eat, along with the buns Bo Ge made himself.

Tian Qin’s thoughts drifted further and further away, and before she knew it, she fell asleep hungry.

...

The next morning, the harsh sunlight streamed through the thatched cottage, waking Tian Qin roughly.

She curled up like a stray cat in a corner of the bed. Because the night was cold, she had pulled the covers tight. Her cheeks were pale with a frosty pallor. She was grateful it wasn’t deep winter but late spring—the weather, though chilly, couldn’t be too cold. Otherwise, they would have frozen to death.

Zhaolu and Wan Cui were already awake early, their situation even worse—they hadn't slept all night due to the flea infestation.

Bo Ge was a rough man, unafraid of fleas and too busy to spend all day washing his bedding, which made it especially unbearable for Wan Cui.

At the crack of dawn, the two tiptoed as they dragged their bedding to the riverbank to wash it, and also scrubbed everything in the house that might harbor fleas.

Nanny Chen cheerfully called Tian Qin to eat. She served sweet potato porridge with wild vegetable flowers, along with the cakes Bo Ge had saved days ago, which she had toasted until fragrant and crispy. Placing them before Tian Qin, she said, "Awake? Have something hot quickly."

At the same time, the silver Tian Qin had secretly slipped in last night was returned untouched by Nanny Chen. "Miss, please don't do this. We said we didn't want your money."

Tian Qin was helpless. Nanny Chen was clever enough, so why couldn't she get this simple math straight? Since she intended to match Tian Qin with Bo Ge, she should treat Bo Ge's leg—first, because Bo Ge was the family's pillar, and without him they couldn't survive; second, because Tian Qin didn't want to marry a cripple.

"If you don't take the money to treat Bo Ge's leg first, I won't eat this meal."

She put her foot down. Nanny Chen was startled, her heart turned to mush, a lump formed in her throat and she couldn't speak.