Chapter 316: Chapter 316: Have You Ever Been Married?
Aunt Kang and Ji Xiu’e left, filled with doubt.
On one hand, they didn’t believe Ji Huan. They thought she was just trying to stall—what were the odds? She asks for three days, and her wedding just happens to be in three days?
On the other hand, they were half-convinced. Ji Huan had looked so certain. Besides, even if she was stalling, she could only delay until the end of the year at most, which would be pointless.
Ji Huan even called out to Ji Xiu’e in a very accommodating tone, "If you change your mind and want cousin Juncai to marry into my family, I can make room for him. In three days, just have him pack a few changes of clothes and come on over!"
Ji Xiu’e’s face was livid as she left.
When Ji Huan turned around, Widow Xie and the siblings were still completely stunned, as if they’d short-circuited.
They were with Ji Huan every day. How could they possibly not know she was getting married?
Ji Huan sighed. "To be honest, I only found out today myself."
They wanted to ask more, but Ji Huan refused to say another word, only telling them to wait for news.
After making lunch, Ji Huan had Dabao start eating, then she picked up a food basket and headed for the earthen house.
Unexpectedly, the vagrant wasn’t there.
Every other time she had come, the vagrant had been waiting in the yard. She had never arrived to find him gone before.
She searched everywhere—inside and outside, in front of the house and behind it—but didn’t find a single trace of him.
’Did he go out to exercise?’
Ji Huan waited for another half an hour, but he still didn’t show up, so she had no choice but to head back first.
The afternoon passed in a flurry of activity.
After the day’s work was done and dinner was over, Ji Mingfang came to give Dabao his lesson, and Ji Huan went to the earthen house again.
She pushed open the door to the main room, but it was still empty.
The bedding on the kang was neatly folded, and on the table lay a book he had finished copying.
Ji Huan walked over, flipped through a few pages, then closed it again.
It was strange. The vagrant had been living here for so long, yet the room still had no lived-in feel to it. It was as cold and desolate as if he had never been there at all.
Ji Huan walked to the doorway of the main room and gazed for a while at the path she had taken to get there. Then she sat on the threshold, propped her chin in her hands, and stared blankly at the slowly setting sun.
The sky slowly darkened, and the moon gradually climbed above the treetops.
A chill ran through her, and Ji Huan sneezed.
She rubbed her nose and muttered to herself, "He’s really gone..."
’Honestly, this guy. Does he have any manners? He didn’t even say goodbye before leaving.’
’Then again, I guess I can’t completely blame him. I’ve been in a bad mood lately, basically just dropping off the food basket and leaving. I haven’t had a proper conversation with the vagrant in over half a month. He probably didn’t even have a chance to say goodbye if he wanted to.’
Ji Huan buried her face in her knees, her hand unconsciously tracing patterns in the dirt. Her mood suddenly plummeted.
’It’s not that I’ll miss the vagrant, it’s just that...’
"What are you doing?"
A deep, slightly hoarse voice suddenly sounded from above her head. Ji Huan froze for a moment, then looked up and shot to her feet.
"Y-You... you didn’t leave?"
Before the vagrant could reply, she said excitedly, "That’s great! I thought you’d left, I was so worried!"
The vagrant paused. "I didn’t leave, and you’re very happy about it."
Ji Huan thought, ’Happy? Of course I’m happy! If you had left, my plan would have been completely ruined!’
Fortunately, she still had enough sense not to say that out loud.
The two of them went into the main room, and an oil lamp was lit.
Ji Huan’s gaze lingered on the vagrant for a long time, as if she were weighing and calculating something.
Anyone else being stared at like that would have gotten the creeps long ago, but the vagrant was unflappable. He just stood there and let Ji Huan size him up.
In truth, there wasn’t much to see. The vagrant was still wearing the same coarse, short robe, the typical attire of a farmer. It was just that his powerful build and ramrod-straight posture didn’t quite fit the part. And then there was his face...
But that didn’t matter. In fact, that face would be even better for scaring off all the ghouls and goblins.
The more Ji Huan looked, the more satisfied she felt. At the same time, she noticed something unusual.
She pointed at the vagrant’s shoes and pant legs. "Why are these wet? Did you go in the river?"
The vagrant glanced down, then said calmly, "I was coming back from the mountain. It’s just dew."
"You weren’t here when I came by at noon, and you’re only just now getting back. Don’t tell me you’ve been on the mountain all day?"
When the vagrant didn’t answer, Ji Huan’s brow furrowed.
"I told you that you could do light exercises like jogging and brisk walking, but I never said you should be running up mountains and exerting yourself like this! You..."
The vagrant said, "I did not go into the sea."
Ji Huan was speechless. ’Even if you wanted to, Dafeng Village would first need to have a sea for you to go into.’
Deflated once again, Ji Huan couldn’t be bothered to speak. She just pointed to the long bench next to the kang.
The vagrant walked over with practiced ease, sat down, and rolled up his pant legs and sleeves.
Ji Huan checked him over and found nothing amiss.
"Did you hike or walk for more than eight hours straight?"
"I took breaks in between. I don’t feel any discomfort."
"Which mountain did you go to?"
"The one behind your house."
Ji Huan looked up at him. "When did you leave? You didn’t run into anyone on the mountain?"
What she really wanted to ask was whether the vagrant had scared anyone.
"No, I stuck to the smaller trails."
His tone made it sound like he was very familiar with the mountain’s terrain. ’But no matter how familiar he is,’ she thought, ’could he be more familiar than the local villagers?’
’But considering his likely profession, being familiar with the terrain and avoiding people probably wasn’t that difficult for him.’
So, Ji Huan didn’t ask any more questions. She walked over to where the medicine was kept, rummaged around for a moment, found the bottle of medicinal liniment, and turned to hand it to the vagrant.
The vagrant took it and began rubbing the liniment into his wrists and ankles.
Ji Huan had told him to apply the liniment after every brisk walk or jog. It seemed he hadn’t let her words go in one ear and out the other.
The conversation returned to the vagrant’s injuries.
At this stage, even though there was still weekly progress, the improvements were already very small.
Aside from the daily dorsiflexion and ankle flexibility exercises, which had to be a constant part of his rehabilitation, other systematic training was no longer essential. He only needed to do some single and double heel raises occasionally; the rest of his recovery would come from walking.
"So far, your recovery is going well. When you walk, you can barely tell there’s anything wrong with your leg. That’s great..."
The vagrant just grunted in response, not looking particularly happy, nor did he continue the conversation.
Ji Huan leaned against the table with both hands, her ten fingers drumming a rhythm on the surface. She appeared calm and composed, but inside, she was frantic.
’Why was she beating around the bush so much? It was all to lead into the main topic, of course.’
’The problem was, the main topic was a bit shocking and unconventional. It wasn’t easy to bring up.’
’She had been building up to it perfectly, but now the words were stuck on the tip of her tongue. She was terrified that the moment she spoke, she would scare the vagrant away.’
"You..."
Ji Huan shifted her position, leaning her back against the edge of the table. She twisted a lock of her hair behind her back, pulling until her scalp hurt, before finally squeezing out that single word.
Then she got stuck again.
The vagrant had finished applying the liniment.
He set the bottle aside and slowly, methodically, rolled his sleeves and pant legs back down. Only then did he raise his eyes to look at Ji Huan.
"You have something to tell me."
It was clearly not a question. Given how restless Ji Huan was, even a blind man could see it.
Ji Huan’s spirits lifted. ’You’re the one who asked,’ she thought.
"I do have something important to discuss with you... but before I say it, I need to ask you a few questions, and you have to answer them truthfully."
The vagrant gave a noncommittal grunt, which Ji Huan took as a silent agreement.
"First." Ji Huan held up one finger. "Have you... ever been married?"