Ink Blade Chapter 68 (Part 1)
Translated by Sylver
Extra 1.1 Old Place (Part 1.1)
Xiao Wu woke up from a deep sleep due to thirst.
The skinny servant boy coughed heavily twice, lifting his heavy eyelids to look around, seeing two flies buzzing in the unchanging, dilapidated woodshed.
Xiao Wu didn’t know how long he had been asleep. His stomach was hurting from hunger, and his head was throbbing with sharp pain, as if it was about to explode.
It seemed like his fever was worse than yesterday, his limbs felt sour and soft, unable to muster any strength.
What was more painful was the thirst. He hadn’t had a drop of water since he fell ill last night. His throat felt as if it had been harshly cut, burning and dry to the point of smoking. His body was covered in a layer of cold sweat, making him shiver.
Now in the chilly spring, the woodshed was not only damp and smelly, but also almost impossible to keep warm. Many bundles of firewood were squeezed into the small room, and when the wind blew in from outside, dust was flying all around.
“Cough, cough, cough…” Xiao Wu was choked and coughed heavily, his voice hoarse, and it took a long time to stop.
If possible, he would rather fall back into a deep sleep, at least to temporarily escape the endless torment of illness.
But he dared not - he had already owed a lot of work these two days. If he couldn’t finish his work, he wouldn’t have food to eat, and he would be whipped. Today, he had to carry ten buckets of water, chop five bundles of firewood, wash thirty pieces of clothing, and clean most of the chamber pots in the Side Hall…
If he couldn’t finish, the steward would definitely not let him off, what should he do?
“Ugh…” The young boy bit his trembling teeth, supporting his dizzy and painful head, trying to crawl out from the pile of firewood under him, to go outside and do his work.
But his arms were weak, and he lost his strength just as he propped up his upper body. His body tilted and fell heavily onto the cold ground, letting out a helpless cry of pain.
“Ah, hiss… it hurts so much… cough, cough…” Xiao Wu wrapped himself in his thin cloth, curled up on the floor. In front of him was a blur and darting stars, he coughed until tears flew, and he retched, “Cough, cough, cough!!”
The more he coughed, the drier his mouth felt. The skinny boy’s fingers moved weakly, reaching towards his neck and scratching.
It was so uncomfortable, so thirsty, his throat was so dry that it was about to burn him to death, he really couldn’t stand it, at this time even if there was a puddle of mud water in front of him, he would pounce on it and lick it like a dog.
Water, he needed water…
Is there anyone who could give him a sip of water…Just one sip would be good…
But no one ever came to the dilapidated Side Hall, Xiao Wu’s mind was getting more and more confused, his soft limbs spasmed from time to time, this was a premonition of convulsions caused by a long fever.
Was he going to die?
Perhaps, he should have died long ago.
In the chaotic world, life in the Jianghu was as cheap as a blade of grass. A few years ago, his parents couldn’t afford to raise him, so they sold him for three strings of large copper coins. In winter, he ran away from the middleman, fell on the roadside in hunger and cold. If it weren’t for the Jiuzhong Palace picking him up to be a servant in this Side Hall, he would have died long ago.
Now this lowly life might be coming to an end, but he still wanted to live…
Squeak. Just as Xiao Wu was about to fall asleep again, he heard a door sound in a daze.
Struggling to open his eyes, Xiao Wu vaguely saw a slender and tall figure standing outside the door against the light.
Who is it? Xiao Wu thought in confusion.
It’s not the steward, the manager was fat like a ball, nowhere near as good-looking…
The person slowly walked in, and seemed to notice him when he looked this way. He paused, then came over.
Xiao Wu lay on the ground, gasping with difficulty. The young boy squinted his dim eyes and saw a piece of clothing hanging down.
The dark ink color of the fabric was as pure as a soft night, and it was delicately adorned with silver nine heavy cloud patterns. From the fabric to the decoration, they were all exquisite and luxurious that he had never seen before - the daren in front of him must be of a high status in the Inner Hall. (TL: Daren- your Excellency; lordship ;Reverend etc.)
“Wake up.” A cold and calm voice came to his ears, completely different from the noisy scolding he heard in the past, “What’s wrong with you?”
A slender, porcelain-like hand reached out, gently patting his cheek. The cool jade-like temperature made Xiao Wu couldn’t help but groan comfortably.
The eyes of the young servant rolled up weakly, his mouth opened, first making a weak cry, then moaning unclearly, “Water…”
The cool fingertips suddenly paused, then tentatively touched his burning forehead, and withdrew.
“Ugh…water…save me…” Xiao Wu was already confused by the fever, and almost driven mad by thirst. His skinny hand trembled and reached for the robe in front of him, “Cough, begging Daren…to reward this servant… a sip of water… cough, cough, begging Daren…”
If he was sober, he would never dare to do so. Such a delicate dress, if touched by his dirty hand, where could his little life afford to pay for it?
Sure enough, before he could touch the hem of the dress, his wrist was grabbed and he couldn’t move forward at all.
The cold and aloof daren in front of him let go of his hand and stood up, turned around without hesitation, and walked steadily towards the door of the woodshed.
“Daren…!” Xiao Wu cried out hoarsely, he weakly stretched out his hand, watching the figure leave with his eyes wide open, only feeling the despair of darkness engulfing him.
At this time, he regretted extremely, he was too reckless. Like him, a lowly, dirty, and smelly servant, could actually have such a noble daren willing to touch him, and care about him with a few words, this should be what a blessing!
But what about him? He didn’t know what was good for him and offended the daren, both demanding and grabbing. The daren must have been annoyed by him, and finally even that bit of merciful cool temperature was gone.
There was no hope at all…
His heart ached for no reason, the young man could no longer support himself, his eyelids flipped, and he fainted crookedly.
Xiao Wu fell into a heavy darkness. He was struggling in the not very clear purgatory with a dying breath, his body was both hungry and thirsty, sometimes cold and sometimes hot, one moment as if being roasted by fire, the next as if drowning at the bottom of icy water.
He had no doubt that he would soon die of fever here, and the next day, his body would be rolled up in a straw mat and thrown out. After a few days, it would be gnawed by wild dogs to reveal the bones, and pecked by vultures until there were no eyeballs left.
…After he died, probably no one would live in this ghost place again.
This thought suddenly popped up in Xiao Wu’s consciousness in the chaos. After all, this woodshed was already so dilapidated, so dirty and smelly, and it would collapse in half a year or a year - to tell the truth, where is this a place for people to live?
The thought was just a flash, and the next moment, he sank into a deeper chaos.
****
Footsteps came from far to near.
In a semi-coma, Xiao Wu felt as if someone was holding up his neck, with cool and comfortable fingers.
The sick boy hadn’t been able to react, and in the next moment, his chapped lips touched a moisture, it was warm water.
As soon as his lips touched the water, his throat itched unbearably. The numb thirst woke up again, Xiao Wu tried hard to open his mouth, and a stream of warm water carefully poured into his dry mouth. He closed his eyes, greedily gulping down, gulp, gulp…
The cool water was like sweet dew from heaven, his thirst gradually soothed, the discomfort on his body seemed to lighten a bit, and he even felt a sense of light happiness in his heart.
“Don’t move, drink water.”
This is…the voice I just heard…
Xiao Wu’s tightly closed eyes heated up.
He knew that he must be dreaming, he must have dreamed of the noble and kind daren before he died.
He wanted to slap himself - too presumptuous, simply audacious, daring to dream of a daren serving such a humble servant like him to drink water.
But he didn’t want to wake up, didn’t want to wake up and struggle alone in that cold and cruel woodshed, until he painfully vomited his last breath.
Forget it, forget it. Xiao Wu thought self-abandonedly, anyway, he was going to die, just enjoy a good dream that he had never had before…
With this thought, Xiao Wu drank up the water that was fed to him with peace of mind, and at the end, he even boldly rubbed his burning face on the slender arm that was holding him.
“…” The person holding him obviously tensed up, his breathing paused, but he did not stop his movement.
After a while, Xiao Wu heard the daren sigh softly, and gently stroked his messy hair with his hand.
This time, Xiao Wu was completely relieved, if this is not a dream, it would be too scary.
So the young boy laughed foolishly in confusion, smacked his lips a few times, as if he was still savoring the sweetness of the clear water just now, and muttered, “Dream… wake up later…”
Before he fell asleep again, Xiao Wu heard a soft laugh in his ear.
****
“Ugh…”
When Xiao Wu rubbed his eyes and got up, it was already quite late - at least he saw the red sun sinking in the west at a glance, making the surrounding piles of firewood all red.
This meant that there was less than an hour left, and the steward would come to supervise, and it also meant that he was about to be done for.
Xiao Wu cried out in surprise, breaking out in a cold sweat, and jumped up, staggering towards the door.
