The course of events seemed to have veered slightly off its normal track, but in the end it was only a minor issue and not important.
More importantly, Gu Qing now had a more pressing problem to deal with.
Qiu Niang had developed a fever, not long after the medicine was applied.
From the very first time he saw the festering wounds covering the girl’s body, Gu Qing had worried about this. But after a full day and night passed and her condition seemed relatively stable, he gradually let his guard down. He never expected that in the end, it still couldn’t be avoided.
Fortunately, Gu Qing himself was a physician. Relying on his memory, he quickly put together a prescription to clear heat and reduce the fever, then went to the storeroom to fetch the herbs and lit the stove to brew the medicine.
During this time, another visitor came to the small courtyard. A young visitor.
She had come to deliver naan bread. She was the daughter of the South Bridge tailor shop, and everyone called her Xiao Huan. Usually clever and well-behaved, she was well liked by the neighbors.
Gu Qing had treated her mother before, so this time Xiao Huan had come specifically to thank him and also to take his measurements. Yesterday, Gu Qing had ordered a set of winter clothes from their shop.
“Mr. Gu, please accept these flatbreads. Last time, it was thanks to your help that my mother recovered so quickly…”
The girl held a naan bread bigger than her own face, her little head peeking out from behind it, her large eyes bright and unblinking.
“Thank you. But I’m afraid I can’t take measurements today. I’ll have to trouble you to come by again tomorrow.”
Gu Qing smiled and didn’t refuse this time, then told Xiao Huan about Qiu Niang’s fever.
“It’s fine, it’s fine…no trouble at all!”
Xiao Huan nodded vigorously. She placed the naan bread on a nearby table, but instead of leaving right away, she crouched beside Gu Qing, passing him firewood and tending the flame.
After that, the two chatted idly.
“Was she bought by Mr. Gu?”
“Mm.”
“Then she must be very pretty!”
“What kind of logic is that?”
Gu Qing couldn’t help but laugh, half amused, half exasperated. Carrying the freshly brewed medicine, he stood up and walked toward the room.
Xiao Huan followed behind him, standing on tiptoe as she carefully peeked inside.
Children were naturally curious, so Gu Qing simply beckoned to her. “Come help me out. Give me a hand holding her up.”
“Okay!”
Hearing that, Xiao Huan’s eyes lit up. She hurried to the bedside and helped Gu Qing support the girl.
At the same time, she widened her big eyes, curiously observing the girl before her.
A head of jet-black hair, a profile as pure as fresh snow, long and thick eyelashes trembling slightly. Even with only half her face visible, it was still hard to look away.
“This big sister is so pretty. No wonder Mr. Gu likes her!”
Xiao Huan couldn’t help but exclaim.
Gu Qing thought to himself that she clearly hadn’t seen what the girl looked like when he first bought her….dirty from head to toe, like a little beggar, nothing like how she looked now.
He reached out and gently pressed a hand to Qiu Niang’s forehead.
Burning hot.
Even her cheeks were flushed with a faint red. She hadn’t lost consciousness from the fever, but her whole body felt weak and heavy, her mind hazy.
Now, hearing Xiao Huan’s voice, her eyelashes trembled as she barely managed to open her eyes.
“Come, drink the medicine.”
Gu Qing scooped up a spoonful of the herbal broth and brought it to her lips.
“Mm-hmm! Big sister, hurry and drink it. With Mr. Gu here, you’ll definitely get better soon!”
Xiao Huan cheered from the side. This little girl seemed to have an inexplicable confidence in Gu Qing.
After finishing the medicine, just as she was about to leave, the little girl lingered by the bedside, reluctant to go. She blinked at Qiu Niang and said, “Big sister, you have to get better soon. I heard that Mr. Gu bought you to raise you as, um… let me think….oh right, as a little wife!”
“Shoo, shoo, shoo! Where did you even hear that nonsense?”
Gu Qing who was holding the empty bowl had a face full of black lines as he grabbed the brat by the collar and tossed her out.
When he turned back, he saw that the girl had already closed her eyes again. Her lips were pressed together, probably pretending she hadn’t heard anything, but that half of her face was flushed red as blood.
Whether it was from the fever or something else, who could say.
***
In the days that followed, the small courtyard returned to its usual quiet.
Qiu Niang’s high fever wasn’t a big issue for Gu Qing. As long as it was handled promptly, it wouldn’t pose any serious problem.
However, her limited mobility was something Gu Qing didn’t have a good solution for. Still, she couldn’t just lie in bed all the time. Not only would it risk bedsores, it wouldn’t be good for her mental state either.
So whenever the weather was clear, Gu Qing would bring out a reclining chair and place it beneath the apricot tree in the courtyard, then carry Qiu Niang outside. As the saying goes, a change of scenery brings a change of mood.
When he had free time, Gu Qing would tell her interesting stories from around the city or read her popular storybooks, hoping to bring a few more expressions to that usually cold, expressionless face.
As the days passed like this, the girl’s wariness toward Gu Qing gradually faded. She even began to grow dependent on him. It was completely unlike the distant and indifferent person she had been at the start.
Once, when Gu Qing went out to gather herbs, he returned a bit later than usual. Although he had already asked Xiao Huan to come look after her in advance, when he arrived home, he was still greeted by the following scene in the courtyard.
Beneath the apricot tree, Xiao Huan hovered anxiously around the chair, pacing back and forth in a panic, muttering nonstop under her breath.
The girl in the chair, however, said nothing. She simply stared blankly at the courtyard gate, her gaze hollow and unfocused. A faint tear streak marked her cheek—she had clearly just been crying.
All of this lasted until the moment she saw Gu Qing appear. Only then did life return to that empty eye.
Later, Gu Qing heard from Xiao Huan that Qiu Niang’s crying had been the silent kind.
She hadn’t made a sound or caused a fuss, just quietly let her tears fall. No matter how Xiao Huan tried to comfort or coax her, it had been useless.
That kind of silence was suffocating.
Thankfully, Gu Qing had returned.
After that incident, Gu Qing rarely went far from home again. He remained by Qiu Niang’s side to help her recover.
On pleasant days, he would often stand beneath the tree and chat idly with her. But there wasn’t much to talk about in the courtyard, and sooner or later the conversation always circled back to the tree above them.
“Don’t be fooled by how it’s shed all its leaves now, the branches all dark and bare. When spring comes next year, they’ll be completely covered and become dense and full. Apricot trees bloom early; before the leaves even grow, it’s nothing but blossoms.”
“Is it pretty?”
“Very. White… though not entirely. At the base there’s a faint blush of pink, like rouge. When the wind blows, the petals fall in soft flurries.”
The girl fell silent, only tilting her head up to look at the bare branches.
“Then we’ll have to wait a long time, won’t we?”
The man gently patted her head. “Not that long. Once the new year passes, spring arrives, and after a couple of rains, it should bloom.”
But in the end, they never lived to see the blossoms bloom nor even the arrival of the new year.
When Gu Qing bought Qiu Niang, it was early December. Now, after a month of recovery, all of the girl’s external injuries had healed completely. Aside from her difficulty walking, she was no different from a normal person.
Only the dark marking on her lower leg had grown deeper, and there were faint signs of it spreading upward.
They couldn’t delay any longer.
At the beginning of January, Gu Qing sold the courtyard, scraped together enough travel funds, and shouldered a bamboo basket with Qiu Niang inside.
They were setting out from Xiqi, heading for the Red River three thousand li away, in search of that legendary spiritual herb said to restore life.
“Am I heavy?”
The girl’s soft voice came from his back.
“How heavy could you be? It’s no different from carrying a basket of herbs from Xiqi to the Red River.”
The young physician stepped forward, letting out a light laugh.
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