章 5: Episode 4 Is This What You Call a Good Flatbread?
Hua Xiaomai lay on the ground in an extremely disheveled position, coughing from the dust that filled the air, hastily lifting her eyes to look for Jing Taihe.
The scene had been both sudden and chaotic, and she had no idea how she had fallen. At the moment, she didn't feel any pain in her body, but felt a sense of loss so intense that she was on the verge of tears.
This wall... it really collapsed, huh? Luckily she had been standing far away, otherwise, had those crumbling bricks hit her head, could she have been off to meet the King of Hell again? Who knows if she would have the same good luck to travel through time once more!
What karma had she created? Wanting to live a peaceful life for just a few days seemed so hard.
Broken bricks lay everywhere, most of which had fallen on the large iron furnace, shaking out the charcoal ash that had accumulated over who knows how many years, forming small black specks before her eyes and covering her head and face. The wood racks placed against the east wall had been crushed, and all sorts of jars and pots lay shattered on the ground, leaving debris all over.
"Little sister, are you okay?" Jing Taihe's voice came hurriedly from near the iron furnace, "Are you hurt anywhere? The dust is too thick, I can't see you, hurry over to the furnace!"
Hua Xiaomai quickly replied and steadied her spirit, about to get up when suddenly someone rushed in from outside the door. The flying dust mixed with the sunlight seeping in from outside slowly coalesced around him, creating a halo of fractured light, making his whole figure seem very hazy.
Wow, he comes with a built-in soft light or what? Hua Xiaomai muttered to herself in amazement without raising her head to get a clearer look, but the person had already approached swiftly, grabbing a piece of cloth from somewhere and waving away the floating black specks, calling out loudly, "Taihe, are you here?"
"Yuhuai brother!" Jing Taihe's call was filled with delight, but then he quickly became gloomy, "Yuhuai brother, my forge has collapsed!"
"Don't panic, it's just half a wall." The man replied calmly, "I heard the commotion over here from my house and came to take a look. Are any of you hurt?"
As the dust in front of her gradually dispersed, Hua Xiaomai saw the man clearly—it was Meng Yuhuai, who had startled her and Uncle Pan with his horse the day before.
"We're okay, we're okay." Jing Taihe replied quickly, "Sun the Great Saint's foot was injured by a brick, and he can't move right now. Please help me check on my little sister."
Meng Yuhuai indeed bent down to look at Hua Xiaomai.
The girl lay on the ground in a pitiable position, small and slim, with shoulders and arms so delicate they seemed as if they would break at the slightest touch. She was covered in black ash from head to toe, and her face was too, masking half of her features so that one couldn't tell whether she was pretty or not. But her eyes, the ones that were visible, shone like broken stars in the night sky.
"... You're pressing your hand on the iron charcoal slag." Meng Yuhuai frowned slightly but didn't come over, just looked at Hua Xiaomai's face and said.
Hua Xiaomai exclaimed 'Ah' and then rose from the ground. She opened her palm to see that indeed, plenty of black slag had stuck to it, some even embedded into her flesh, oozing a bit of blood. It was only then that she felt some pain.
Jing Taihe also heard Meng Yuhuai's words and immediately got a shock. He no longer cared about Sun the Great Saint and hurried over, grabbing Hua Xiaomai's hands to check them. He became anxious at once, "This is terrible, how did it get this bad? If your second sister finds out, she'll never forgive me! I... should I go home to get some medicine for injuries?"
The "home" he referred to was not the little courtyard he shared with Hua Two-Mothers but the old house where his parents lived nearby.
"I'll go back to grab it. You stay here and take care of the Great Saint, and also tidy up the mess around here a bit. We need to rebuild this wall quickly; otherwise, it will delay your business. It's all right, I'm not busy, I'll come over in a while and help you, we should be able to fix it in an afternoon." Meng Yuhuai gave him a look and then instructed Hua Xiaomai, "What are you waiting for? Hurry to the backyard and wash the coal slag off your hands."
Jing Taihe thanked him profusely, but the man had already strode out. In no time, he returned with a bottle of medicine and set it on the ground for Hua Xiaomai to apply by herself.
Sun the Great Saint had only a scrape on his leg and it wasn't serious—country men are robust and don't make a fuss over such things. After applying the medicine, he immediately rolled up his sleeves and joined Meng Yuhuai and Jing Taihe in repairing the wall. Meng Yuhuai mysteriously procured a cartful of bricks, and the three men enthusiastically set to work. And indeed, by the afternoon, the wall was reconstructed. Hua Xiaomai had applied the ointment to her hands, but she didn't idle, helping out by serving tea and water, occasionally giving the three men breaks.
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