Chapter 3

She was like a lifeless beauty in a painting whose eyes had suddenly been brought to life, transforming her into an ethereal vision of unparalleled beauty that seemed to step straight out of the painting, leaving anyone who saw her momentarily entranced.

It wasn’t until the newly awakened woman struggled to sit up, pulling at the wounds on her back and causing her brows to furrow slightly, that Lin Ji came back to her senses.

Without betraying her momentary distraction, Lin Ji gently withdrew her fingers from the woman’s grasp and supported her by the shoulders, helping her sit up. She then propped the pillow upright so the woman could lean against it on her side. “The physician said the injuries on your back are very serious. You mustn’t put any pressure on them.”

Wei Yunxi raised her eyes to look at her, confusion appearing on her face.

The moment she jumped off that cliff, she had never expected to survive.

Seeing her confusion, Lin Ji sat down and explained, “My little sister and I went fishing by the river today. We saw you floating downstream, and when I realized you were still breathing, I brought you home. You had a high fever all afternoon. Fortunately, after taking the medicine, you started sweating and your fever began to subside. Once you’ve taken another dose later, it should go away completely.”

She had originally thought the woman wouldn’t wake up until tomorrow. She hadn’t expected her to regain consciousness so soon.

Now that she was awake, there probably wasn’t much else to worry about.

Lin Ji’s voice carried out of the room. Hearing her speaking, Lin Nian abandoned her fish and came trotting inside. “Big Sister, you’re awake!”

Lin Ji turned around and beckoned to her, drawing Lin Nian to her side. “This is my unauthorized copylittle sister. There are only the two of us living here now. I’m also the one who changed your clothes.”

Wei Yunxi understood. It seemed the raging current beneath the cliff had inadvertently saved her life, allowing her to be rescued by someone.

Everything that had happened before she fell from the cliff was still vivid in her mind.

Wei Yunxi lowered her eyes, concealing the sorrow in her expression. She opened her mouth to say “thank you,” but for some reason, all that came out was an indistinct “ah.”

Wei Yunxi raised a hand to her throat and tried to speak again.

She knew perfectly well what she wanted to say, yet no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t produce the correct sounds.2

“What’s wrong?” Lin Ji sensed that something was amiss and stood up, gently supporting her by the shoulders. “Can’t you speak? Is your throat too dry?”

“I’ll get some water!” Lin Nian hurried into the main hall and returned with a cup of warm water.

Wei Yunxi accepted the cup and drank. Then she opened her mouth and tried to speak again. However, no matter how much effort she put into it or how many times she tried, her throat could only produce vague, isolated sounds. She couldn’t string them together into a coherent sentence at all.

“Don’t panic.” A woman’s calm, steady voice sounded beside her.

Wei Yunxi raised her eyes toward Lin Ji. A watery [Read on BaiLianTales]sheen gathered in her almond-shaped eyes, her expression filled with panic and helplessness.

Lin Ji looked at her calmly. “Don’t panic. Repeat after me. ‘I.’”

Wei Yunxi parted her lips. She clearly remembered how to pronounce the word “I,” but for some inexplicable reason, all she could manage was a strained “uh.”

Lin Ji tried several other simple words, but Wei Yunxi couldn’t pronounce a single one. Tears spilled from her eyes, streaming down her cheeks one after another.

Lin Ji took a handkerchief from her sleeve and crouched down, gently wiping the tears from Wei Yunxi’s face. “I know you’re frightened. I’ll go find a physician right away. You’re still recovering from a serious illness, so please don’t cry anymore.”

Wei Yunxi bit her lip. Tears clouded her vision, making it difficult to see Lin Ji clearly, but for some reason, the other woman’s words made her feel a little more at ease.

Seeing that she had stopped crying, Lin Ji took her hand and placed the handkerchief in her palm. “I’ll go get a physician to examine you right now.”

Night had already fallen completely outside. By the time Lin Ji reached the Cui residence under the moonlight, Aunt Cui and her daughter were having dinner.

Hearing Lin Ji call out, Aunt Cui came outside. When she saw who it was, she asked, “What’s wrong? Has that young lady’s fever not gone down?”

“No.” Lin Ji explained between breaths, “Her fever has mostly subsided, and she just woke up. But for some reason, she can’t speak after waking.”

“Can she make any sounds with her throat?” a voice asked from behind Aunt Cui.

Looking past Aunt Cui’s shoulder, Lin Ji saw a woman dressed in blue-green robes approaching. It was none other than Aunt Cui’s daughter, Cui Xin.

Lin Ji immediately nodded. “Yes. I asked her to repeat words after me, but she couldn’t pronounce them properly. She could only make sounds like ‘uh’ and ‘ah.’”

Cui Xin took a step forward, then turned toward Aunt Cui. “Mother, go back inside and finish your dinner. I’ll go take a look.”

“All right.” Aunt Cui went inside, retrieved Cui Xin’s medicine chest, and handed it to her. She reminded her, “I’ll save some food for you. It’s dark out, so be careful on the road.”

“All right.” Cui Xin accepted the medicine chest and nodded.

The two hurried toward the Lin residence. Along the way, Cui Xin asked Lin Ji detailed questions about Wei Yunxi’s condition, and Lin Ji answered them one by one, telling her everything she knew.

Cui Xin was clearly in much better physical condition than Lin Ji. She walked with long, brisk strides.

Following Cui Xin’s pace, Lin Ji found herself growing increasingly breathless. This scholar’s body was truly unbearably weak, a world apart from the physical stamina she had possessed before.

Even so, Lin Ji didn’t slow down.

Every moment she delayed meant another moment of fear for the person waiting at home.

The two quickly reached the Lin residence, and Lin Ji led Cui Xin into the eastern room.

Hearing footsteps, Wei Yunxi instinctively raised her head and looked toward Lin Ji.

Lin Ji stepped forward and explained, “This is Physician Cui, who practices at a medical clinic in the county town. Let her examine you.”

Wei Yunxi raised her eyes toward Cui Xin, then extended her wrist for the physician to take her pulse.

Only then did Lin Ji finally have a chance to catch her breath. She had barely managed to calm her breathing when she suddenly remembered the porridge in the kitchen. Just as she was about to head outside, someone gently tugged at her sleeve.

Beside her, Lin Nian whispered, “Big Sister, are you worried about the porridge? I already went and stirred it.”

Lin Ji affectionately stroked the little girl’s head. “Our Nian Nian is so capable.”

She had been so busy that she’d completely forgotten about it. Fortunately, the little girl had remembered. Otherwise, the porridge would have burned at the bottom of the pot.

Lin Nian didn’t think stirring porridge was anything particularly impressive, but she was delighted to receive her big sister’s praise. However, when she turned and saw the sickly, haggard young woman lying on the bed, worry once again appeared on her little face.

Lin Ji went outside and brought in two stools. She and Lin Nian sat down together to wait.

Cui Xin spent quite some time examining the woman’s pulse. When she finally withdrew the pulse cushion, her expression was grave. “This young lady’s constitution is extremely weak. Although most of her high fever has subsided, it has taken a considerable toll on her vitality. From now on, she mustn’t expose herself to cold winds or become chilled again. She’ll need to be carefully nursed back to health.”

Hearing this, Wei Yunxi lowered her eyes, and the light in them dimmed.

She was no longer the eldest young lady of the Wei family from the Marquis’s household. Now, she had nothing left but a body riddled with illness and injuries.

Carefully nursed back to health? With what could she possibly afford such care? She would only become a burden to others. Rather than living like this, perhaps it would have been better if, at the moment she jumped from the cliff, she had simply…

Suddenly, she felt a slight weight settle over her shoulders.

Wei Yunxi looked up and saw Lin Ji draping an outer robe around her. The woman’s warm palm rested lightly on her shoulder, interrupting the chill that had begun spreading through her heart.

Lin Ji looked toward Cui Xin and said, “That was my oversight. I’ll remember everything you’ve said, Physician Cui. Could I trouble you to examine her inability to speak as well?”

“Bring the candle over here,” Cui Xin instructed as she stood up. She gently lifted Wei Yunxi’s chin. “Open your mouth wide, miss. Let me see whether there’s any injury to your throat.”

Lin Ji held the candle beside them to provide light.

Cui Xin examined her carefully, then placed her bailiantales.comfingers against Wei Yunxi’s throat and gently pressed several spots. “Does it hurt when I press here? What about here…?”

Wei Yunxi shook her head each time.

“There are no injuries in the young lady’s throat,” Cui Xin concluded. Then she asked, “Miss, can you write?”

This time, Wei Yunxi nodded slightly.

Lin Ji set down the candle and brought over paper and a writing brush, placing a book underneath the paper for support.

Cui Xin sat down. “I’ll say something, and you write down what I say. Then try repeating it aloud for me.”

Cui Xin recited several everyday expressions in succession. Although Wei Yunxi couldn’t speak them, she could write each one perfectly clearly.

Looking at the line of beautiful, delicate regular-script calligraphy on the paper, Lin Ji raised her brows slightly.

Wei Yunxi’s handwriting was exceptionally beautiful. Like the woman herself, it was graceful and elegant.

Yet with every failed attempt to speak, Wei Yunxi’s face grew increasingly pale.

“Don’t be anxious, miss,” Cui Xin reassured her. “I’ll ask you some questions now. You only need to write down your answers. First, I’d like to know whether [read the original at bailiantales.com]you’ve ever suffered from an inability to speak before.”

Without hesitation, Wei Yunxi wrote, “Never.”

“Then when you were injured this time, did you suffer any impact to your head?” Cui Xin continued.

Wei Yunxi held her brush, hesitating for several moments before writing, “I fell from a great height into the water and lost consciousness from the force of the current. While I was drifting downstream, my head may have struck a rock.”3

So she wasn’t certain.

Cui Xin didn’t ask any further questions. She stood up and examined Wei Yunxi’s head, parting her hair and carefully inspecting her scalp. Before long, she found a small mark from an impact just above her left temple.1

Standing beside them with the candle, Lin Ji finally noticed that the scalp in that area was slightly red. It was difficult to spot because it was concealed beneath her hair.

Upon finding the injury, Cui Xin reached a conclusion. “I once read about this type of illness in a medical text. Most patients develop an inability to speak because the speech faculties in the brain have been damaged. I noticed that you have dark spots and patches along the edges of your tongue, and your pulse is thin and choppy. These are signs of blood stasis. Since you can still understand speech and write, I believe the impact to your head caused stagnant blood to obstruct the brain’s speech faculties, resulting in your inability to speak.”*1

“Since you’ve identified the condition, Physician Cui, is there a way to treat it?” Lin Ji asked.

Cui Xin shook her head. “The medical text didn’t provide a detailed treatment method. It only mentioned that medicine could be used to disperse the stagnant blood, combined with acupuncture to restore the speech faculties. However, I don’t know precisely which medicines to use or how the acupuncture should be performed.”

Hearing this, Lin Ji instinctively looked toward Wei Yunxi.

A faint glimmer of hope had already appeared in the woman’s eyes, but those words, “I don’t know,” extinguished it once again. She looked like a luminous pearl veiled in shadow, a sight that made one’s heart ache.

Lin Ji raised her head and pressed further. “Physician Cui, is there really nothing at all you can do?”

“The flow of blood and qi in her body is currently disrupted. For now, I can only prescribe medicine to promote blood circulation and bring the rebellious qi back down, helping restore their proper flow. But I can’t guarantee that it will resolve the blood stasis in her brain,” Cui Xin replied.

Lin Ji immediately handed her paper and a brush. “Then please write down the prescription, Physician Cui. I’ll go to the county town tomorrow to have the medicine prepared.”

Cui Xin sat at the table and began writing the prescription.

Lin Ji turned toward Wei Yunxi. The woman’s eyes were lowered, and she sat quietly leaning sideways against the pillow, her expression dazed. She wasn’t even shedding tears anymore. Her silence was so profound that it was almost unsettling.

Lin Ji walked over, crouched down, and gently placed her hand over the back of Wei Yunxi’s hand.

The sudden warmth against her skin startled Wei Yunxi out of her daze. She looked toward Lin Ji, the corners of her lips twitching as she tried to force a smile. Yet no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t manage one.

Lin Ji softened her expression and comforted her. “It’s all right. Good people are blessed with good fortune, and I’m sure you’ll be fine. Your fever was so severe earlier, yet it still went down. This is only a little speech disorder. I’m certain it can be cured.”

Wei Yunxi looked at Lin Ji. She had wanted to hold back her tears, but the moment she heard those comforting words, the grief buried deep in her heart seemed to find an bailiantales.comoutlet, spilling forth as an endless stream of tears.

Cold teardrops fell one after another onto the back of her hand.

Lin Ji stood up and gently gathered Wei Yunxi into her arms, shielding her tears from the eyes of others.

After finishing the prescription, Cui Xin said nothing. She merely beckoned to Lin Nian, inviting the little girl to leave the room with her.

Only Lin Ji and Wei Yunxi remained inside.

Lin Ji gently patted Wei Yunxi’s back and spoke in a soft, soothing voice. “If you want to cry, then cry. No one will see.”

Wei Yunxi bit her lip. She didn’t want to appear so miserable and helpless in front of a stranger, but her tears flowed like a breached dam, impossible to stop.

Lin Ji said nothing more. She simply held the woman gently in her arms, allowing Wei Yunxi to weep soundlessly against her chest.