Against the Current - Chapter 220
Chapter 220 - Falling Ill
Xianglan was still shaken with lingering fear. Stealing a glance, she saw Lin Jinlou's face shrouded in a layer of perpetual frost, carrying a venomous and ferocious expression. With his neck stiffened, his chest heaved heavily as if he were trying to forcibly suppress the pent-up rage in his heart, yet his tightly clenched fists were trembling slightly.
Xianglan shrank further back into the corner, her heart in turmoil, completely at a loss for what to do. Her head felt heavy and dizzy, and she could not figure out how Lin Jinlou had suddenly appeared like a divine soldier descending from the heavens. Having been subjected to one terrifying ordeal after another, she felt like a stiff block of wood, yet her body could not stop trembling while her ice-cold face was covered entirely in tears.
Gritting his teeth, Lin Jinlou stiffened his neck and turned his face away, refusing to even spare Xianglan a sidelong glance. He feared that if he so much as looked at her, the blazing fury in his ribs would erupt from his throat, mixed with a bitter heartache that even he could not fully articulate. This sensation was all the more unbearable, feeling as though a ladle of oil had been poured over a blazing fire, crackling as it scorched his heart and lungs.
The carriage was dead silent, save for the creaking and groaning of the wooden wheels.
After traveling for a short while, the carriage came to a halt. Then came the creak of an opening door, and the carriage moved forward just a bit further before stopping again. Someone spoke respectfully from outside the carriage curtain, "Master, we have arrived."
Lin Jinlou let out a slow breath, lifted the curtain, and stepped out. He then turned around, lifted the curtain with one hand, and stared directly at Xianglan. Pinned by that gaze, Xianglan felt chilled to the bone. With her limbs still weak and limp, she obediently lowered her head and slowly crawled over. With a cold face, Lin Jinlou reached out and grabbed her, hauling her forward. He tugged at the large crane-cloak wrapped around her, hastily covered her head with it, and scooped her up into his arms.
Once inside the house, passing through the main hall and walking into the inner chamber, he finally set Xianglan down.
As soon as her feet touched the floor, Xianglan hurriedly poked her face out. She saw that this was a bedchamber with simple furnishings. Though not as luxurious and extravagant as the Zhichun Pavilion, the decorative items and furniture were nonetheless exquisite pieces. She had no leisure to examine them closely, fearing that Lin Jinlou would settle accounts with her. Keeping her head lowered, she quietly slipped toward the door, pressed herself against the base of the wall, and kept her eyes fixed firmly on the floor.
Seeing her looking like a little mouse that had just laid eyes on a cat, Lin Jinlou's anger dissipated slightly, though resentment still lingered in his heart. In a cold voice, he said, "Look at your foolish demeanor, you thoroughly deserve to be sold into a brothel to peddle your flesh! If you hadn't saved the mistress, even if I had gone blind, I wouldn't have dug you out of there!"
Xianglan shrank back slightly as a string of teardrops fell, dampening the hem of the heavy crane-cloak trailing on the ground.
Feeling a tightness in his chest and a shortness of breath, Lin Jinlou snarled harshly, "What are you crying for! You still have the nerve to cry!" With a flick of his sleeve, he strode toward the inner room, reaching out with one hand to tug at his lapel and loosen the collar of his inner garment. He did not want to scold her, but the thought that she had run off on her own and almost lost her purity, coupled with the sight of her disheveled and wretched appearance, made it impossible for him to contain himself. Yet as soon as he finished snapping at her, he saw that Xianglan looked even more terrified; if she hadn't been standing, she probably would have curled up into a tiny ball. Lin Jinlou closed his eyes, clenched his fists, and let out another long breath.
This place was a residence Lin Jinlou had acquired in Yangzhou, staffed by only two young maidservants, two matrons, two manservants, and an old gatekeeper. The two young maidservants had wanted to come forward to serve when their master returned, but seeing Lin Jinlou stride in carrying someone with a face full of fury, they all shrank back, not daring to court disaster. Now, seeing Lin Jinlou walk out from the bedchamber, they had no choice but to bite the bullet and step forward to offer tea and arrange refreshments.
Lin Jinlou instructed, "Go boil plenty of water for a bath. Ask Jixiang for that calming prescription, brew it into a decoction, and bring it in." The maidservants acknowledged the order.
Lin Jinlou sat down on a chair outside to drink a cup of tea. Once his emotions had steadied, he turned back into the room. He found Xianglan curled up against the base of the wall with her arms wrapped around her knees. His clothes were far too large for her, and with her head still covered by the cloak, she looked like a silkworm cocoon, as if she were desperately trying to isolate herself entirely from the world. With his brows furrowed, Lin Jinlou took two strides forward, hauled Xianglan up, and demanded, "What are you doing sitting on the floor? Were you thinking that if you froze and fell ill, I wouldn't punish you? Huh?" He was met with Xianglan's terrified gaze as she frantically tried to dodge away, raising one hand to protect her head and face.
Lin Jinlou paused, unsure of what to make of it. His heart softened instantly, and he stared at her in silence.
With her head throbbing as if it would split, waves of chills wracking her body, and a suffocating nausea rising within her, Xianglan felt dizzy and weak as she croaked hoarsely, "I beg the master to remember that I once saved the mistress, and spare me from punishment..."
Seeing her swollen face beneath the disheveled dark hair, and catching glimpses of her torn and ragged garments beneath the cloak, the surge of anger and resentment flared up in Lin Jinlou's chest once more. He gritted his teeth and said, "I beat you? Count on your fingers how many times I've ever hit you? Which of the injuries on your body right now was caused by me? It seems in your heart I will never escape a bad reputation, and I'm only ever capable of beating you, is that it? In that case, I might as well give you a thorough beating so I don't bear this foul name for nothing!"
Xianglan had spent enough time with Lin Jinlou to have a fair grasp of his temperament. Although Lin Jinlou was impervious to both soft and hard tactics, going head-to-head with him was a surefire way to court self-destruction. Xianglan had a resolute and stubborn nature, but she was also intelligent, and having endured these trials, she knew how to adapt. Submissively and softly, she murmured, "I didn't mean it that way... I know the master came to rescue me, I was just terribly frightened..."
The moment Lin Jinlou saw Xianglan wiping away tears, his temper subsided a fraction further. He stared at her for a long moment before suddenly pulling her into his embrace and rubbing her shoulders. "Terribly frightened? Are you trying to trick me? You were so daring that you actually took advantage of the chaos to slip away from the temple on your own. No wonder I turned Jinling upside down and couldn't find you—so you ran off to Yangzhou to live the high life. Did you enjoy yourself away from me all this time? Did you figure that by saving the mistress and the fourth young lady, you and I were finally even?" His tone was soft and gentle, yet laced with an eerie, chilling menace.
Xianglan had not expected Lin Jinlou to settle accounts with her right then and there, nor had she anticipated that he would correctly guess she had slipped away during the chaos on her own. Her heart leaped into her throat once more, and she hurriedly waved her hands, stammering, "No, no, I didn't mean to run away..."
Lin Jinlou pressed his index finger against Xianglan's lips and said, "You didn't live the high life? Yet you passed the days quite comfortably in that little temple, even painting pictures. I had no idea my little Xianglan was so skilled with a brush." Staring into Xianglan's eyes with a half-smile, he continued, "Don't try any clever tricks with me here; I've told you before, those little schemes of yours aren't worth much in my eyes. If you had any intention of staying, you would have found a place to hide when the guards stormed the temple to rescue people, or returned to the Lin or Chen household once you were out of danger. Instead, you ran off entirely on your own without a word. We'll settle accounts for this ungrateful behavior later; for now, tell me—who helped you?"
Xianglan's heart sank. Terrified of implicating Abbotsess Dingsu, she bit her lip and dared not say another word, burying her face against Lin Jinlou's chest as she wept. Her body felt chilled to the bone, and she grew increasingly miserable, feeling as though Lin Jinlou's voice was drifting further and further away while her consciousness began to slip into a hazy blur.
Lin Jinlou pressed her with a few more questions, but after waiting a moment and receiving no response other than the violent trembling of her frame, he finally realized something was wrong. He picked her up, carried her onto the bed, and reached out to touch her forehead. Finding it burning hot, he let out a low curse, snatched a pattern quilt from the bed to wrap her up tightly, and got up to summon a doctor.
Lin Jinlou possessed a robust constitution and always felt like a walking furnace. The moment he pulled away, Xianglan felt an intense wave of cold wash over her. In her delirium, she threw her arms around Lin Jinlou's neck and murmured frantically, "Don't go..."
Lin Jinlou had been about to pull her arm away, but hearing those words, he paused. He stared at Xianglan's face for a moment before slowly lowering his hand.
Half-asleep in a feverish haze, Xianglan only knew there was a blazing stove beside her, so she pressed close and held onto it for dear life, trapped in a chaotic web of dreams. In her dream, countless people were chasing her. She fled in blind panic everywhere she could, yet no matter how hard she tried, she could not run fast. Then someone rescued her, though their face remained blurred and indistinct. Someone spoke by her ear, and after a moment it grew quiet again, followed by the administration of an intensely bitter medicinal brew. Perhaps the medicine was too bitter, or perhaps her heart was filled with too much anxiety and despair, but another teardrop spilled from the corner of her eye. Someone wiped it away with a finger and awkwardly patted her back, evidently trying to comfort her, but the force was too heavy and made her feel even worse. She began to struggle instinctively, only to be trapped and held immobile within a pair of arms. Overwhelmed with grievance and sorrow, she felt she could not even find peace in sleep, yet she was utterly exhausted, drifting deep into slumber with lingering teardrops clinging to her eyelashes.
Seeing that she had fallen soundly asleep, Lin Jinlou gently moved her arm away, rolled off the bed, and pulled another quilt over her. Xianglan's entire face was swollen, with tear tracks still staining her cheeks and a reddened, delicate nose that made her look remarkably pitiful. Staring at her sleeping face, Lin Jinlou chuckled coldly. "Ungrateful, heartless woman—you're even acting aggrieved!"
After cursing a few more times and finding it pointless, he sighed and sat down on the edge of the bed. Only now did the genuine joy of finding Xianglan truly well up from the depths of his heart. For three whole months of days and nights, every single day that passed had plunged him deeper into despair—until Han Guangye came bounding over to report that he had spotted Xianglan at a temple in Yangzhou. Unable to believe it, he had nevertheless immediately packed up and set off on the road, racing day and night while constantly changing horses to reach Yangzhou as fast as possible. All along the way, he had wondered what he would do if the person turned out not to be Xianglan, and what her reasons could be if it truly was her. The more he pondered, the angrier he grew, but he had pushed those thoughts aside, putting the search above all else. Now that she was finally found, however, he could not quite identify what he was feeling; he felt an urge to shout at the top of his lungs or smash something to vent his frustration. Yet looking at Xianglan's furrowed brow in sleep, he felt that as long as she was safely back in his arms, nothing else mattered anymore.
He stared at Xianglan's face with a complex, indescribable expression.
Suddenly, a young maidservant timidly piped up, "Master, the hot towel is here."
Jolted back to reality, Lin Jinlou uttered an "oh," took the warm towel, and clumsily wiped Xianglan's face. He then ordered someone to fetch a small box. Unscrewing the lid revealed a milky-white ointment, which Lin Jinlou scooped out with his fingers and gently applied to Xianglan's bruised and swollen cheeks. Leaning close to her ear, he murmured, "Since I saved you this time, you still owe me. Thinking you can wipe the slate clean and be even with me—keep dreaming."