"I do not know where the young lady is from?" Doctor Xiao also asked, "Meeting is destiny. I have no remarkable talents, except that my medical skills are quite decent. If someone in your family needs medical care in the future, you can come to Kaoshan Village to find me."
Dong Huiying thought to herself that she was a doctor, and not only practiced both internal and external medicine but was also proficient in both traditional Chinese and Western medicine, yet she didn’t contradict Xiao Qingyao’s kind offer.
"Cough cough, to tell you the truth, I too am from Kaoshan Village. It seems I am indeed quite fated with Doctor Xiao."
Xiao Qingyao was startled, "Kaoshan Village?" He inwardly clicked his tongue. He was a widower whose wife had passed away early, had traveled all over the vast reaches of Jiangnan, and could be described as exceptionally knowledgeable. Eventually, he grew tired and settled down in Kaoshan Village, where he’d lived for several years now.
Kaoshan Village had once had several prominent families, but early years of drought, floods, and epidemics claimed many lives. Nowadays, in the large village, only a few dozen households remained. However, Xiao Qingyao combed through his memory and couldn’t match up the people’s names with anyone.
He could swear he had never met Dong Huiying before, with her delicate skin and good looks, beauty beyond compare. Even though she seemed a bit young, if he had really seen her before, he definitely would not have forgotten.
After pondering for a moment, suddenly, Xiao Qingyao looked up sharply at Dong Huiying, his lips trembling and his body shaking like a sieve.
"No, no, no, impossible, right?"
That height, that figure, and Dong Huiying once said with a gloomy face that she was eighteen years old. He thought about it, and only the marriage contractor Dong Dabao from the Liang family of Kaoshan Village seemed to fit.
But Dong Dabao was a little dark-skinned rascal, with a perpetually grim face darkened by pockmarks, really — barely passable in appearance! Compared to this lively and pretty young lady, it was like night and day.
"Cough," Dong Huiying coughed awkwardly, and with a smile without showing her teeth, she said, "Well, to introduce myself, my name is Dong Huiying, but I used to go by Dong Dabao, the fiancée of the Liang family’s six brothers?"
"My heavens—" Doctor Xiao moaned, looking as if he’d seen a ghost.
Life’s fate and a tree’s shadow, he really felt like getting up and fleeing. Indeed, because this person had committed so many atrocities, resulting in fights at the drop of a hat. The Liang family brothers had been mistreated so often that even he, an outsider, sometimes found it hard to watch. Yet every family has its own troubles, and no matter how Dong Dabao was, it was their own family matter, not something he, an outsider, should intervene in.
Dong Huiying grinned, revealing a set of pearly whites, her bright and sparkling eyes full of humorous intent, but it almost made Xiao Qingyao pass out. That smile that should have been incredibly sweet seemed terrifying to him.
Doctor Xiao slapped his own mouth.
Serves you right, let you eat, let your gluttony have its way, now do you regret it?
"That is—" he grasped his basket more tightly, "Miss Dong? I have some matters to attend to, so I must be leaving first!"
He jumped to his feet and ran off with his basket, as if his tail was on fire.
Am I really that frightening?
People say I’m quite cute.
Destiny really can’t be stopped when it arrives.
Doctor Xiao ran away, and Dong Huiying didn’t take it to heart, but two days later, the two unexpectedly ran into each other again.
Well, the incident went :
That day, Dong Huiying had crafted a basket by hand, which turned out quite ugly. Although she was adept at medical skills, cooking, and proficient in various forms of military boxing, judo, and other martial arts, her handicraft skills were somewhat lacking, truly a disaster.