W Chapter 19

Chapter 19: Fainting

The kitchen cannot be left unattended, so Xu Youfang agreed with what Ling Xing said. She also remembered that since he married into the family, aside from going to town today, he hadn’t left the house.

So, she called out to Shen Xiaochun and said to Ling Xing, “I’m afraid you don’t know the way, so I’ll have Xiaochun go with you.”

Ling Xing agreed and took Xiaochun to find Shen Lai.

On the way, Shen Xiaochun hardly spoke, except for softly reminding Ling Xing which way to go.

Ling Xing didn’t force the child to talk either and quietly followed.

Thinking that Shen Lai had gone to the Wang husband to deliver buns, Ling Xing asked Xiaochun to lead him to the Wang husband’s house first.

The distance wasn’t too far; the Wang husband’s house was at the end of the village, relatively close to the Shen family.

It was an earthen house like the Shen family’s, surrounded by a fence.

Through the fence, they could see a large stone mill in the yard, which was worth a lot of money.

Shen Xiaochun was timid and didn’t dare to knock on the door. Ling Xing patted her head and said, “Thank you for showing me the way, Xiaochun. Ge’er, let me do it.”

He knocked on the wooden door, and a clear voice quickly came from the main room, “Who is it?”

As soon as the voice fell, a person came out of the house.

After knocking, Ling Xing slipped over to the fence and peered inside, seeing the person who came out. The person was quite tall; Ling Xing estimated he was over 1.8 meters. He was slender, with handsome features and tanned skin.

After one glance, Ling Xing immediately announced himself, “My name is Ling Xing, the Shen family’s newly married husband. I’m here to see the Wang husband about something.”

The person quickly came forward to open the door upon hearing this. Ling Xing heard the sound of the bolt moving, and the next moment, with a creak, the door opened.

The person inside said, “I am the Wang husband, my name is Xie Qingya. You can call me Wang husband or Xie Ge’er, whichever you prefer. What brings you here? Come in and talk?”

Ling Xing caught a glimpse of Xie Qingya’s right wrist, which had a gray cloth band tied around it, presumably to cover the pregnancy mole to prevent accidental exposure.

He only glanced at it before looking away, shaking his head, and said directly, “Xie Ge’er, my family’s fifth son said he was coming to deliver something to you, but he hasn’t returned. We’re worried, so I came to ask if you’ve seen him?”

Xie Qingya was stunned, a look of surprise on his face. “Fifth son hasn’t come,” he said.

Ling Xing’s expression changed slightly. Xie Qingya also realized that something was wrong and quickly reassured him, “Fifth son isn’t a child who wanders around. I have nothing to do right now, so I’ll help you look for him in the village.”

Ling Xing naturally knew that Shen Lai was obedient and sensible, so he was even more worried and scared now that he knew he hadn’t arrived.

Having someone help would make it faster to find Shen Lai, so he didn’t refuse Xie Qingya’s help and nodded quickly, “Thank you, Xie Ge’er.”

“It’s nothing. I’ll go inside and tell my husband.”

Xie Qingya walked quickly. Ling Xing took the opportunity to say to Shen Xiaochun, “Xiaochun, go back and tell Grandma that Fifth son is missing, and Xie Ge’er and I are looking for him in the village.”

Knowing that Fifth Uncle couldn’t be found, Shen Xiaochun was also panicked. She received Ling Xing’s instructions and nodded before running quickly toward home.

Meanwhile, Xie Qingya had also come out and was waving toward the main room, “Hurry and get inside, don’t catch a cold again.”

Ling Xing looked up and saw a handsome man standing in the doorway of the main room. Because of the distance, he couldn’t see his expression clearly.

Xie Qingya closed the door and said to Ling Xing, “You probably don’t know the way either. Go to the entrance of the village and follow the road. I’ll look in other places. If I find him, I’ll take him straight to the Shen family.”

“Okay, thank you, Xie Ge’er.”

“It’s nothing, finding him is the priority.”

The two parted ways. Ling Xing originally wanted to go to the entrance of the village to take a look. He had heard Shen Lai say that the children in the village didn’t like him and had bullied him there today.

If he was there, that would be good. Even if he was being bullied, at least he was in the village.

He was afraid that he wasn’t in the village. Shen Lai wasn’t the type to run around, so if he wasn’t in the village, he must have encountered danger.

Buying and selling people was legal here, and there were many kidnappers.

Ling Xing didn’t dare to think too much and ran toward the entrance of the village.

Because he didn’t want the injury on his heel to be rubbed, Ling Xing was stepping on the heel of his straw sandals.

Running like this was unstable, so Ling Xing had no choice but to take off the straw sandals, hold them in his hand, and continue running.

Thanks to the thin calluses on the original owner’s feet, he didn’t feel much pain stepping on the ground.

When he arrived at the entrance of the village, the intense exercise made Ling Xing feel his eardrums swelling, his heart beating rapidly, his breath heavy, and his blood surging, causing him to see stars.

His vision went black for a moment, and he couldn’t hear the surrounding sounds because of the buzzing in his ears.

Fortunately, after a while, his vision returned, and he could hear clearly.

There were indeed people ahead, quite a few of them.

When he saw the scene before him, Ling Xing frowned.

“Fifth son!”

Shen Lai hadn’t encountered any danger, nor had he been kidnapped.

He was tied to a tree with hemp ropes by a group of children, who were throwing stones at him.

Hearing the familiar voice, Shen Lai stopped cursing and looked at Ling Xing with tears in his eyes, “Ge’er-husband! It hurts, please save me!”

Ling Xing’s appearance made the seven people throwing stones at Shen Lai stop. Among the seven, two were obviously older, looking to be fifteen or sixteen years old.

The other five were about the same age as Shen Lai. They were skinny, but they looked sturdy.

Ling Xing finally understood how Shen Lai had been moved from the end of the village to the entrance and tied to a tree.

Seeing Ling Xing, the five younger ones felt scared and wanted to run away.

But the other two were different; not only did they not want to run, but they also wanted to hit Ling Xing.

In their eyes, Ling Xing was thin and weak, about the same age as them, so why should they be afraid of him?

Ling Xing dodged a stone, and without thinking, he raised his hand and threw a straw sandal accurately hitting the face of the tall, thin teenager who was throwing stones at him.

The other person’s nose was hit, and it hurt terribly, with tears welling up in his eyes.

Ling Xing took the opportunity to quickly untie Shen Lai’s rope.

“Ge’er-husband, be careful!”

Shen Lai’s pupils shrank, and he pushed Ling Xing away, bending over and directly bumping the tall, thin teenager who was holding a stone to hit him.

He bumped him right in the abdomen, causing the person to gag uncontrollably.

Ling Xing was pushed to the ground and stunned for a moment, then quickly got up. He got up too quickly, and he felt dizzy.

But there was no time for him to rest. Shen Lai was no match for those two teenagers.

By the time Ling Xing rushed over, Shen Lai had taken a few punches to the face and body, but the opponents didn’t fare well either.

Although Shen Lai wasn’t tall and didn’t have much strength, he knew this, so he didn’t use his fists, but went straight for biting.

He grabbed the opponent’s hand and bit down as hard as he could, wishing he could bite off a piece of meat.

The tall, thin guy was in great pain. In order to get Shen Lai to let go, he grabbed Shen Lai’s hair with his other hand and pulled it backward, wincing in pain, and warned, “Shen, you better let go quickly, or I’ll beat you to death!”

Shen Lai’s scalp hurt, but he didn’t let go at all.

Hitting him was okay, but hitting his ge’er-husband was not!

He would bite Zhao Erbao, this dog, to death today!

After a while, Shen Lai’s hair was pulled loose, and the cloth strip came undone, revealing the red pregnancy mole on his forehead.

The moment Zhao Erbao saw the pregnancy mole, he panicked, as if he had seen something terrible, and exclaimed, “Your pregnancy mole is showing! Quickly tie it up!”

The Yu Dynasty didn’t have many laws protecting ge’ers and women, but one of them was: if a man other than the husband intentionally exposes a ge’er’s pregnancy mole for others to see, the ge’er can report it to the authorities, and the man will be punished with ten strokes of the cane and a fine of ten taels of silver, half to be confiscated and half to go to the ge’er.

At the same time, if the ge’er makes a false report, he would face even more severe penalties.

Zhao Erbao knew this law completely because the county magistrate sent people down every now and then to read various laws.

Their ears were about to grow calluses from listening.

Although no ge’er would really dare to report it to the authorities, after all, it was a matter of damaging one’s reputation. Being seen by a strange man, it’s hard to even talk about.

Who would want to ruin their reputation? If they were seen, they would endure it and solve it privately.

Zhao Erbao didn’t think Shen Lai would report it to the authorities; he was afraid that the Shen family would blackmail their family for money.

Feeling a coolness on his forehead, Shen Lai also felt uneasy. He was about to let go when he heard Fang Baogen scream, “It’s not good! This person is dead!”

He turned his head and saw Zhao Sancai, Fang Baogen’s third cousin, at a loss, about to run away.

Previously, Zhao Sancai saw Ling Xing going to help Shen Lai, so he came forward to stop him.

Who knew that he only pushed him lightly, and the person went limp like a noodle, falling to the ground.

He thought he was pretending and kicked him twice, but there was no reaction, scaring him half to death.

Could he really have been pushed down and killed?

Fang Baogen and the other four had been hiding on the side, looking back and forth.

Fang Baogen saw Ling Xing suddenly fall to the ground, and seeing that his third cousin kicked him but there was no reaction, his mind went blank, and he shouted it out.

Zhao Sancai heard his cousin’s voice and his teeth itched with anger, wishing he could cover his mouth with mud.

“Ge’er-husband!”

Shen Lai rushed towards Ling Xing, gently pushed him, and when he saw that there was no response, his eyes turned red.

He looked up and glared fiercely at Zhao Sancai, rushing up like a wolf cub, opening his mouth to bite.

Zhao Sancai saw the blood in his mouth, coupled with his man-eating eyes, scaring him.

He reacted quickly and hurriedly said, “I tried your ge’er-husband’s breath, he’s not dead, but if you don’t call a doctor to see him, it’s hard to say.”

Shen Lai stopped abruptly, he could only let go of the other person first.

But he was weak, couldn’t move the person, and didn’t dare to leave, afraid that Zhao Erbao and Zhao Sancai would do something to Ling Xing again.

Just as Shen Lai was thinking of a way, he heard his mother’s voice.

“Fifth son! Why did you run here!”

Xu Youfang saw Shen Lai sitting on the ground at the entrance of the village, and her heart finally settled.

Looking closer, her heart suddenly rose again.

How did this child’s pregnancy mole get exposed? Why is there someone lying on the ground?

Looking carefully, Xu Youfang’s eyes widened.

“Ling Xing!”

…

When Ling Xing opened his eyes, it was pitch black in front of him.

If there wasn’t a faint light, he would have thought he was blind.

Supporting himself with his arms, he sat up, and again, he saw stars.

It was embarrassing to say, but today he wanted to take Shen Lai and run away, but his low blood sugar caused him to faint.

This body had been malnourished for a long time, as thin as a hemp stalk. Today, he was busy and tired, and the food he ate was not only without any nutrition, but he couldn’t even eat enough.

Moreover, he did intense exercise without eating, and then suddenly stood up and squatted down.

It was already very difficult to persist for so long before fainting from low blood sugar.

Ling Xing paused for a while and heard what seemed to be a noisy sound outside.

He got out of bed and found that he didn’t have his straw sandals, so he had to go out barefoot.

It was dark in the house, and he couldn’t see anything. Ling Xing walked carefully.

The moon was very large outside, and moonlight poured down, enough for people to see their surroundings.

Ling Xing went out and heard a sharp female voice shouting, “Look at what your Zhao Erbao bit! Pay money!”