Chapter 192: Chapter 194: It’s What You Wanted to See Yourself
“Yuxin, where have you been?” Zhang Yindi asked with a smile. Even though Yuxin spent most of her time outside of Li Tang Village, Zhang Yindi was her classmate and fellow villager, which gave them a more intimate relationship than with others.
“I was just on the mountain.”
Tang Yuxin grabbed Zhang Yindi’s hand.
“Yindi, I found a wounded man on the mountain, he was bleeding profusely. I’m going to get my father to help him down the mountain.”
“Really?” Zhang Yindi’s eyes sparkled. “What does he look like?”
Tang Yuxin shook her head, “I don’t know, I didn’t get a good look at him. But he is a soldier, and quite tall. As for his looks, he should be quite handsome.”
“Well, you should go,” Zhang Yindi appeared uninterested, and nudged Tang Yuxin to leave.
“Alright,” Tang Yuxin quickly rushed off to find Tang Zhinian for help. By the time she returned, the man was no longer there.
Not long afterward, Zhang Yindi left the village, saying she was going to Beijing.
As for Tang Yuxin, who was also leaving Li Tang Village, she tasted her first cake without the protection of her father. She then started to endure a tormented life.
She lived an unloved and unnoticed life until she met Zhang Yindi again, who by then had transformed into an unrecognizable woman, and a powerful Lady Zhang Xiaomei.
The place where they met was a hospital. Yuxin witnessed Gu Ning donating her kidney to Zhang Yindi, and how Zhang Yindi ruthlessly abandoned Gu Ning after an accident compromised her remaining kidney.
As she was lying on her deathbed, she gave both of her kidneys to Gu Ning. Yuxin couldn’t understand the shock and regret Gu Ning showed in her eyes.
Could it be?
Tang Yuxin just stared at Zhang Yindi, who still had small eyes and nose. Zhang Yindi reached to touch her own face, “What are you looking at?”
“Nothing much,” Tang Yuxin lifted the bamboo basket she was carrying on her back.
“Yindi, I found something fascinating today, do you want to know ?”
“What is it?” Zhang Yindi was young and naïve, unlike the haughty and arrogant Lady Zhang Xiaomei she would become in the future.
“It’s this,” Tang Yuxin pointed at the bamboo basket on her back.
“I dug up something very interesting.”
“Let me see,” Zhang Yindi hastened. She had heard that sometimes you could find valuable ginseng in the mountains, wondering if Yuxin had found one. Even a tiny share of its value would be enough for her school fees.
“I think it’s better if you don’t see it,” Tang Yuxin hesitated.
“Why?” Zhang Yindi was upset at these words. Thinking Yuxin was being miserly, she stormed off.
“You won’t steal it, right? It’s mine since I found it.”
Angry and upset, Zhang Yindi snatched her own clothes and left, criticizing Tang Yuxin for being selfish and greedy.
Tang Yuxin bit her lip.
“Alright, you’re the one who wanted to see, not me forcing you.”
She took off her bamboo basket, placed it on the ground, and took out something from it.
“Here, catch.”
Zhang Yindi thought Yuxin would pull out a giant ginseng.
Instead, a red object was thrown into her arms. She instinctively caught it, then realized what she was holding. A shiver went through her, as she wondered, “Since when did ginseng turn red?”
Then she felt an icy cold sensation, accompanied by a foul stench.
She looked down and let out a scream. She threw the object away and fled, disappearing in an instant.
“I told you not to look. You’re the one who insisted,” Tang Yuxin muttered, her mouth in a pout. But there was no sign of grievance on her face, only a chilling intent in her eyes that others couldn’t understand.
She picked up the snake from the ground and put it back into her basket. This was a valuable supplement for medicinal wine.
Tang Yuxin returned home and found a large transparent jar to keep her snake. She had collected quite a few of these jars used for medicinal wine over the years. Some were already buried under the large tree in the courtyard at home.
They would become valuable with time.
She carefully cleaned the jar, then put in the snake, and some medicinal herbs. She planned to keep the snake till it was detoxified, then have her father buy some wine for soaking it.
“When did you get this creature?”
Tang Zhijun was curious. He was courageous; in his childhood, he caught such creatures often as they could be sold for a good price. But as he grew up, his focus turned to farming and he rarely engaged in such activities anymore.
“I caught it on the mountain. Does it look good?”
Tang Yuxin squatted on the ground, asking the also squatting Tang Zhijun.
“Yeah, it’s a beautiful, but venomous snake,” Tang Zhijun rubbed his hands together. “Wait till Uncle Li brings some wine, and we can make medicinal wine with it.”
“Daddy…” Before Tang Zhijun could react, a small, soft voice called out, and a figure was already on his back.
Sisi spotted the red snake in the jar.
She opened her mouth wide, then began to cry loudly.
Tang Zhinian hurriedly covered her eyes, “Sisi, don’t be afraid, it’s just a piece of red string.”
But Sisi kept crying, her screams echoing in the room.
Tang Yuxin quickly took the snake out from the jar, tossed it into a corner, then took out a red string from her room and threw it into the jar instead.