Chapter 118 Encounter: “Is he good to you?”

Chapter 118 Encounter: "Is He Good to You?"

Their marriage had been agreed upon before, but was temporarily postponed due to Tian Qin's severe injuries. Now that Tian Qin had recovered physically but lost her sight, they decided to proceed with the wedding. That way, she would have a man by her side to care for her.

"Don't wear my old wedding gown, the one I wore when I was young."

Nanny Chen took away the faded robe, considering it deeply unlucky. After all, Nanny Chen had worn that gown when she married a merchant, only to be abandoned by him later, spending the rest of her life in bitter servitude. Tian'er and Bo Ge's new marriage needed a fresh start, and new things would help ward off bad luck.

"Buy a new wedding gown. In any case, we're not holding a banquet. We must preserve at least this bit of dignity."

Zhaolu and Wan Cui were troubled. Miss had once been wealthy, but all her money had been spent on medical treatment, leaving them deeply in debt to the medical clinic. Nanny Chen wanted to dote on her daughter-in-law but lacked the means.

Bo Ge was silent for a moment, then left with determination.

The next day, he was gone the entire day, returning late at night covered in mud, his linen clothes torn to shreds by branches, his face bruised, and his arms and legs scraped with wounds of varying depths.

"Jiulongpan!" Nanny Chen's eyes widened in shock; after a wave of fear, she struck Bo Ge through tears. "Are you crazy? How dare you climb the cliff to pick that stuff!"

Bo Ge wiped the mud off his face and grinned innocently. "It's fine. The cliff is dry this season. I tied myself firmly with a rope and lowered myself down. I got it in no time."

Even though it was only half a plant, it could sell for dozens of silver taels, allowing Tian Qin to buy a wedding gown.

"You fool, you fool."

Nanny Chen hugged her son tightly, overwhelmed with remorse. "Do you realize that one wrong move and you'd never come back? What would Tian Qin do then? What would your mother do?"

Bo Ge had long wanted to pick Jiulongpan from the cliff, but Tian Qin had persuaded him not to. Now that he was about to marry and couldn't even afford a new wedding gown for her—what kind of man was he? He risked his life to pick the expensive medicinal herb. Fortunately, heaven took pity on him, and he returned safe and sound.

"Mother, don't tell Tian Qin, or she'll blame me. I don't want her wedding to be so shabby."

Nanny Chen secretly shed a few bitter tears and warned Bo Ge never to do it again. Heaven had favored him once, but might not favor him a second time.

Nanny Chen went to Tian Qin's room and told her they had money to buy a wedding gown, lying that she had sold an heirloom bracelet.

As expected, Tian Qin scolded her: "Nanny, how could you! Selling an heirloom? At least keep it as a keepsake."

The next day, Bo Ge took Tian Qin to town to have a wedding gown tailored.

Tian Qin had trouble seeing, so she used a blind cane, and Bo Ge stayed by her side, never leaving her.

In the clothing store, various high-quality fabrics with raised embroidery were on display. Tian Qin chose the cheapest bolt of cloth. Bo Ge told her to buy a few more phoenix hairpins, but Tian Qin refused, saying she would just pick some fresh mountain flowers to tuck in her hair.

Bo Ge was unhappy: "Miss Tian, don't be so frugal. A person only gets married once in a lifetime."

Tian Qin, though blind, was sharp-minded: "I know, but we still have to live our lives afterward, don't we? Forget those flashy, impractical things. Let's buy more flour and sesame seeds, and I'll help you make more flatbreads. In the future, we'll buy a big, bright house, okay?"

Bo Ge was convinced. After all, she would be the one managing the money; he'd listen to her.

"I don't want to put you through hardship."

Tian Qin smiled serenely with virtue. "I'm not suffering."

They bought the wedding gown, a red veil, firecrackers, incense candles, longan, peanuts, and other items. Bo Ge and Tian Qin returned home joyfully, the breeze along the way seemed tinged with auspicious colors.

Bo Ge silently vowed to earn more money in the future and hire a famous doctor to cure Tian Qin's eyes.

Back home, Nanny Chen, Zhaolu, and Wan Cui were decorating the new room. The thatched hut, drafty from all sides, was transformed with red silk ribbons. Nanny Chen had put away the white cloth traditionally used to catch the bride's virgin blood, who knew with regret that Tian Qin no longer had a maidenhead to offer.

"Just now, a job came in. Master Chen, the Juren, needs three hundred catties of firewood urgently. If we can deliver it on time, there will be a generous reward."

Zhaolu handed the note left by the customer to Bo Ge.

Bo Ge was thrilled: "No problem. I can cut three hundred catties in two days."

The family was poor and short on money. He was young and strong, and besides selling flatbreads, he sometimes took on private work as a woodcutter.

Nanny Chen had heard of Master Chen—the Chen family was a medical dynasty. Since Tian Qin was blind, pleasing the Chen family could bring great benefits.

"Eat something and then go up the mountain to cut firewood. I'll handle arranging the new room."

Nanny Chen told Bo Ge.

Tian Qin vaguely felt something was off. The job had come too easily. The Love Gu in her heart pounded fiercely, as if warning her that her ominous premonitions were not groundless.

A strong man like Bo Ge nearly exhausted himself to the point of vomiting blood to gather the three hundred catties of firewood. One cartload wasn't enough; they had to go back and forth at least twice to deliver it all. Nanny Chen accompanied the cart and even made the frail Tian Qin come along, for no other reason than that the Chen family's masters and nobles were medical practitioners—perhaps they could be coaxed into treating Tian Qin's eyes.

They had to seize every opportunity.

Nanny Chen laid a mattress on a small area of the oxcart for Tian Qin to sit on, filling the rest with thick firewood. It was more than three hundred catties—a full three hundred and fifty, generous in measure and weight. The ox had been sold, so Bo Ge pulled from the front and Nanny Chen pushed from behind.

At the Chen residence, Bo Ge and Nanny Chen went inside to deliver the firewood, while Tian Qin waited at the second gate. Nanny Chen had already rehearsed a story to elicit pity, hoping to move the benevolent and merciful Master Chen the Juren into treating Tian Qin's eyes.

A solitary wild goose called out, and the winter wind whistled over the tips of the grass. The frozen pond was covered with snow, and a gloomy wind wailed. A hazy, ethereal mist drifted through the courtyard. A sickly, aged plum tree weakly put forth flower buds.

Tian Qin could not see any of this. A thick darkness filled her entire vision; her life made no distinction between day and night. She obediently stood and waited, not daring to move. This was a stranger's home—one wrong move and she might offend the owner or trip over a stone.

The winter wind howled emptily over the frozen lake. Tian Qin waited alone for a long time, growing cold, but still no sign of Bo Ge and the others.

She leaned on her blind cane and cautiously climbed down from the oxcart, groping her way, when a clear male voice suddenly came from nearby:

"Getting married?"

Tian Qin flinched instinctively.

She recognized that voice, an unexpected encounter.

Her hands and feet froze in place, momentarily lost.

The person seemed to approach her, casting a shadow that might have meant nothing. He looked down, his gaze lingering on the red flower tucked at her temple, and after a long while said, "Congratulations. Your illness is healed, and you've found a good man. Double happiness."

Tian Qin was tired of dealing with him, her expression grave: "We came to deliver firewood."

The implication was that she was not deliberately tracking him down to "extort" him. After all, they were a bunch of greedy lowlifes, lazy and gluttonous, who would immediately try to extort money from nobles at every meeting.

Xie Tanwei seemed to understand, having already known.

Her eyes, wrapped in thick gauze, their meridians blocked, were the thread he had deliberately left loose that day. He had only saved her life, but had not treated her eyes. Admittedly, deep down, he did not want her to be happy and joyful with another man.

Today's meeting was no accident.

He said, "It's been a while since we parted; we've grown distant."

Tian Qin's voice was low and icy: "Thank you for treating my illness and giving us medicine and gold. Although the doctor didn't say it, I knew it was you."

Xie Tanwei hummed in acknowledgment, not concerned about that. After a long pause, he asked, "Is he good to you?"

Tian Qin paused to ponder the meaning of "he", naturally referring to Bo Ge, and replied earnestly, "Very good."

"Do you two have things to talk about?"

"We get along fine. He is also a good match for me, and he understands me well."

"A match,"

Xie Tanwei picked up on the word offhandedly, then suddenly let out a chilling smile, his voice soft with resentment, "I spent money and time grooming you for so long, only for you to say in the end that you are a match for some poor bun-selling man."

Tian Qin said distantly, "The silks and riches I once had all came from you. Aside from that, this is who I truly am."

Xie Tanwei's heartstrings quivered, and he fell silent for a few moments.

Something vague and terrifying stirred deep in his heart; after losing her, he realized that the things he once cared about—like legitimacy, official rank, reputation, the dignity of scholar-officials—weren't as important as he had imagined, at least not as important as her.

He let out a breath, his gaze cool, piercing through the thick gauze to see into her heart, slow with a hint of scrutiny and the look of a predator. Then, he smiled serenely and asked, "When is the wedding day?"

Tian Qin seemed wary, keeping her mouth shut.

"Being cautious against your lifesaver? What if I asked you to repay the medical fees and the cost of the herbs?"

He twisted the knife, making a mountain out of a molehill.

Tian Qin was troubled, her face growing even paler: "The third day of next month, five days from now."

Xie Tanwei sighed with a flat calm: "It's a good day. But are you willing to spend your whole life in a thatched hut, just muddling through with buns and firewood?"

Bo Ge was honest, loyal, and capable. But he was also timid, incompetent, poor, and even doted on his mother, Nanny Chen, more than his wife, and he desperately wanted children to carry on the family line, meaning Tian Qin, who had been heartbroken by children in her past life, would have to start having children again right after the wedding.

Tian Qin said matter-of-factly, "Very willing. I'm more than satisfied just to have enough to eat; when living under someone else's roof, you have to accommodate others."

She desperately hoped that Bo Ge and Nanny Chen would return soon; she had been forced to talk with Xie Tanwei for an uncomfortably long time. But the more she hoped, the more the two seemed to disappear off the face of the earth.

Xie Tanwei took the initiative to explain: "Some of the firewood was damp. The Chen family ordered them to go back up the mountain and re-chop it immediately, or they won't get paid. I'll take you home later."

To Tian Qin's ears, it sounded like a great disaster.

"No need!" She refused politely but firmly. "In that case, I'll go back on my own."

With that, she began to fumble her way with her blind cane along the uneven cobblestone path.

Xie Tanwei raised an eyebrow: "Are you sure?"

He snapped his fingers, and a carriage clattered over. "Just taking you home; it'll be over in a jiffy. Don't worry, I won't enter your new house, nor will I make an appearance and affect your relationship."

Tian Qin stubbornly refused; being alone with him in the enclosed carriage was unacceptable to her, too dangerous. She would rather feel her way back blind than accept his so-called kindness. Relying on her cane, she felt her way toward the Chen family's main gate.

"Yu Tianqin—" Xie Tanwei called after her from behind, the sound lingering, "Do you hate me that much?"

He didn't stop her; a cold-blooded scheme blazed in his eyes, a faint smile playing on his lips. "Very well. If you won't even do me this favor, I'll just have to tell that bun-selling man of yours to repay the debt."

Same old trick. A boring but effective scheme.

Tian Qin froze.

She whipped around, through gritted teeth: "May I ask what exactly you want, Lord Xie?"

"To take you home," Xie Tanwei answered simply. Two maids promptly took her and forced her into the carriage.

Tian Qin was no match for him, let alone blind and alone. In an instant, she was locked into this small space like a coffin, alone with him.