Xiao Shan quickly helped her up.
"Slow down, slow down, you bastard!"
Xue Niang was actually cursing; she must be furious. Xiao Shan felt Xue Niang's state was not right; she was trembling quite violently.
When Xue Niang slowly withdrew her hand from behind her back, Xiao Shan's blood ran cold.
"Don't move, don't move!"
Terrified, he grabbed Xue Niang's wrist, stopping her movement. A needle had pierced his right palm, with a thread still attached, leaving only half of it exposed.
It had almost gone all the way through!
No wonder she had cried out so loudly earlier. Damn it, he hadn't even noticed the difference; his brain must have been kicked by a donkey.
"I told you not to move!" Xiao Shan roared.
Xue Niang was about to pull the needle out, but Xiao Shan held her hand, preventing her from moving, and even shouted at her!
Stupid man, brute!
"Be careful, what if the needle breaks inside!"
Despite Xiao Shan's explanation, Xue Niang was still furious. If it weren't for him, she wouldn't have to suffer this! He was so rough, pouncing on her without a word.
Xiao Shan observed the angle of the needle insertion, held her hand, and carefully pulled the thread along the direction of the needle, slowly drawing it out.
This was simply torture amplified. Xue Niang cried from the pain, and blood welled up from the needle's entry point.
Xiao Shan applied ointment and wrapped her hand with bandages, turning it into a "zongzi."
"Don't touch water for the next few days."
"Stay away from me."
Xiao Shan hung his head. This was indeed his fault. What was supposed to be a good thing had been ruined. Who would have thought Xue Niang had a needle in her hand, mending his clothes!
Even though the stitches on the clothes were uneven, large and small, Xiao Shan still felt a warmth in his heart.
This was the first time a woman had sewn clothes for him since his mother passed away.
"Xue Niang, as long as you are willing to be with me, I'll give you my heart."
Xue Niang, holding her inexplicably injured right hand, sniffled and looked at him with tear-filled eyes. "What if I don't want to be with you!"
"If you don't want to be with me, I'll pester you forever."
How long is forever?
She felt that her past experiences had felt like a lifetime, painful and long.
But if she were to be with Xiao Shan, perhaps forever wouldn't be that long.
"Is the fish almost burnt?"
"Ah? Oh no!" Xiao Shan's deep, passionate gaze suddenly shifted. He flustered for a moment, a hint of foolishness in his demeanor. He slapped his thigh and strode out of the room with great haste, almost forgetting to lower his head and bumping into the doorframe.
"So silly."
The usually composed Xiao Shan, who possessed the demeanor of a great wave that could overturn mountains yet remained steadfast, could become flustered over a fish. It was quite amusing.
And very real.
Xue Niang found eating this meal exceptionally difficult. Xiao Shan was too slow at picking out fish bones, examining a piece of meat several times before placing it in her mouth. Xue Niang was getting impatient. The stew had been cooking for a long time, and the water had almost evaporated, yet it turned out to be surprisingly delicious.
The way he picked out fish bones reminded her of how he cleaned his arrows, as if treating it as a very serious matter.
"Xiao Shan, you can do everything. When did you learn it all? When you were a child, or in the army?"
Xue Niang suddenly realized she knew very little about Xiao Shan. She only knew he had been a soldier and, for some reason, had retired to this poor mountain village. She knew nothing else.
"A bit of both. I joined the army when I was 13. On a farm, I was already the pillar of the family. Things like farming and building houses, I learned them then. Later, when I joined the army, I followed them everywhere. Sometimes, after the troops marched, we had to find our own food on the road, catching birds and wild rabbits in the woods, learning to cook for ourselves."
"What? Don't armies have cooks? You had to cook for yourselves?"
"That's when we weren't fighting. When we were guarding the camp. If we were at war, we fought wherever we went. Who cared about you? Everyone looked after themselves. Only the general had attendants."
Ah! It was that tough!
At 13, he was even younger than Yutou! Wasn't he still a child then? His parents had already passed away!
When Xue Niang asked, Xiao Shan would tell her. It made people feel sad, but he spoke of it with a sense of detachment, as if it were a matter from a thousand years ago. He had been sad when his parents and sister first died, but people had to move forward. To eat, he joined the army. In the barracks, there was no time for melancholy; the excessive training was exhausting enough.
Those painful memories of his parents had faded away.
After that, life became somewhat numb. Killing, killing, and more killing.
When they won battles, they celebrated wildly, living as if there were no tomorrow.
Fine wine, dancers; they enjoyed moments of peace and revelry amidst the chaos of war.
Thinking back now, besides the goal of driving the Turks and the Northern Di completely out of Da Jing, he truly had no other pleasures. He didn't care for beauties, nor did he need jewels. Therefore, the enemy forces constantly tried to find his weakness.
In the end, they discovered he had no weakness.
During that time, he experienced a brother's betrayal and was ruthlessly executed by him. He was the cold-faced god of death, feared by the enemy.
However, in the end...
Now, he knew that he wasn't made of stone, but he simply hadn't met his destined person before.
"When the new house is built, I'll give you a wedding."
He wanted to tell everyone, proudly and openly, that they were husband and wife, blessed by heaven and earth.
Xue Niang gazed at Xiao Shan blankly, feeling as if he were radiating light.
The next day, Xiao Shan had Yutou boil mung bean water.
Xue Niang and Yutou walked towards the village entrance together. On the way, they met Villager Jia, who was heading to the fields.
"Yutou, delivering water again! Can your skinny frame even carry that?"
"Can't you see I'm carrying it just fine?" Yutou retorted impolitely. Was he blind?
"Hey, you little... truly ill-mannered. Xiao family's wife, what happened to your hand?"
Yutou choked out, "It's injured. Can't you see it's bandaged!"
Villager Jia: "......"
That brat is even more arrogant than before!
"She was pricked by a needle," Xue Niang replied calmly.
Pricked by a needle? He thought she had been cut by a knife! He hadn't believed his wife when she said Xiao Shan was a wife-slave, but now he had truly witnessed it.
If his wife were so overly dramatic, he would teach her a lesson.
"Sister Xue, don't pay attention to that person just now. He just loves to brag. No one in Bozi Village is more capable than him. He's so annoying."
"You still shouldn't speak ill of others. You just need to deal with him casually. Look at you, like a hedgehog. You're already 14, you need to watch your words."
Yutou mumbled, "I'll pay attention from now on."
Wang Cuilan watched Xue Niang and Yutou gradually walk away. When she turned around, her son was nowhere to be seen.
Just as she was looking around, Liu Donghuai appeared behind her.
"Mom, are you following me?"
No wonder she had felt something was off these past few days. It seemed his mother had been following him.
Wang Cuilan showed no embarrassment at being discovered.
If she didn't follow, how could she have discovered this? He had hidden well the past few days, but today he was exposed. Her son had indeed come towards the village entrance.
"Hmph, you saw it just now, didn't you? That woman is mingling with a beggar. Truly immodest, not caring about dirt or smell."