A Farm Girl: Three Acres of Fertile Land Can Be Exchanged for a Country

The newcomer was Shan, who had only recently come down from the ground. Both of her hands, from the wrists down, had been broken with bamboo splints by Duan Lingyun's men. The doctor set her bones one by one and secured them with straps around her neck to prevent them from shifting or becoming dislocated.

Shan suffered greatly and lost a lot of weight. Although Wutong had people take meticulous care of her after she returned to Chuanzhou, she still couldn't recover quickly.

She was wearing a light red dress, and her slightly pale face was made more rosy by the dress, making her look relatively healthy.

Shan walked over and asked cautiously, "Sister Wutong, are you busy right now?"

Wutong put down her pen and said, "No rush, just say what you want to say."

"That's good... I was just afraid of bothering you." Shan said apologetically, "Actually, I came to apologize to you."

"apologize?"

"Your kidnapping by the King of Western Qi, and the war between Eastern Qi and the borderlands, were all caused by me. If I had been more careful back then and hadn't fallen for their schemes, none of this would have happened now. And the King of Southern Xinjiang wouldn't have..."

The mountain couldn't utter the last half-sentence; it turned into a sigh.

Wutong felt extremely sorry for her when she saw how thin and fragile she looked. She went over and gently hugged her, avoiding her arm.

"Are you stupid? The King of Western Qi has ulterior motives. Even if he didn't arrest you, he might have arrested someone else, or even me directly. Things are all preordained. You're taking all the blame on yourself. You really don't treat me like your older sister."

Shan rested his face against her shoulder, rubbed his eyes against her clothes, and whispered:

"I know you're just trying to comfort me, Sister Wutong. You're a good person, but I don't want to be a burden to you anymore."

"What do you mean?"

Wutong suddenly became alert, stood up straight, and looked at her seriously, asking.

Shan didn't dare to meet her gaze, and said with her head slightly lowered, "I want to leave. If I stay here, I'll always be the one holding everyone back..."

She thought that by learning the Ten Thousand Poisons Manual, she would be able to fight alongside Wutong and protect her when she was in danger.

In the end, however, she almost caused Wutong's death.

How could someone as incompetent as her have the face to stay by Wutong's side?

Wutong asked in surprise, "You want to leave? Where are you going?"

Looking out the window, Shan's once bright and lively eyes now seemed to have lost their souls, unfocused.

"The world is so vast, how could I not find a place to go? It's just that I don't know when my hand will recover, so I'll have to trouble you to give me some travel expenses and two maids."

"What nonsense are you talking about?"

"Is that too much? Well... how about one maid? At least let her help me carry my bag."

Wutong was almost laughing in exasperation. She pinched Wutong's cheek and said, "I thought you'd grown up and become more sensible, but I didn't expect you to still be so unreliable!"

Shan stared at her blankly.

Wutong said, "Even if you hadn't been injured and your hands and feet were fine, I still wouldn't have let you go alone, let alone now that you're injured.

Shan Dao: "But..."

"No!" Wutong said sternly, her face grim. "Since you call me 'sister,' you have to listen to me in everything. I order you to stay here and recover from your injuries. You are not allowed to go anywhere, and you are not allowed to think about anything. Do you understand?"

Shan mustered up her courage to come here, thinking that as long as she talked to her properly, she would definitely agree.

Unexpectedly, the goal was not achieved, but instead...

I was given a warning.

Although it was meant as a warning, it somehow felt warm and comforting to me.

She stared intently at Wutong, who suddenly flinched and asked, "Are you not convinced? Want to hit me?"

Shan smiled hesitantly, said he was sleepy, and ran out the door.

Wutong looked at her back in the night and pursed her lips speechlessly.

Shan is a shrewd girl, but she's insecure and very difficult to please. I'll have to spend more time with her when she has more free time.

Back in her chair, Wutong felt a headache coming on just looking at the pile of official documents.

Her ideal life is to live in a house by the river, with flowers and trees in the yard, and cats and dogs. When it's hot, she can go fishing in the river, and when it's cold, she can stay at home by the fire pit. Ideally, she could also have a sweet and soft sweet potato to eat.

How happy those days were!

After finishing processing the official documents, it was already past midnight. Wutong stretched and went out, intending to go back to her room to sleep.

Under the cool moonlight, she walked towards her bedroom, followed by two guards carrying lanterns.

As she passed a pavilion, she heard a familiar chanting sound from afar. She raised her hand, signaling the guard to stay put, and tiptoed over, intending to scare him.

As she drew closer, she saw a white paper lantern on a stone table inside the pavilion. The lantern's light flickered in the breeze, casting the shadow of the person sitting at the table in and out of the light, occasionally revealing half of their handsome profile—a detached and abstinent figure, seemingly untouched by worldly concerns.

Wenxin is a person who is sometimes quite mature and steady, but at other times he is like a child. He doesn't sleep in the middle of the night, but sits here chanting scriptures in the wind, not afraid of catching a cold.

Wutong took a few more steps and entered the pavilion, where he could only hear him recite the last sentence.

"No self, no person, no sentient beings."

Like a dream, like an illusion, like a bubble.

The four kinds of non-attachment can keep the mind constantly pure; practitioners should contemplate in this way.

No self, no others, no sentient beings...

Like a dream, like an illusion, like a bubble...

As Wutong repeated these two sentences in her heart, the troubles that had been weighing on her mind for many days seemed to dissipate instantly, and she even had an urge to cry.

When she looked up, she saw that Wenxin's right cheek was illuminated by the candlelight, and a crystal-clear tear slid down his handsome face and disappeared into his collar.

Her heart skipped a beat, and she opened her mouth, but before she could speak, the other person turned around and revealed a face that was always stunning, no matter when or how many times she had seen it.

The red mole was so perfectly placed that it made his face beautiful without being gaudy, and full of Buddhist radiance.

Upon seeing the sycamore tree, his thick, dark eyebrows furrowed. "Why are you here?"

Wutong walked over, pretending not to see the tear, and said in a light tone, "I finished my work and was about to go back to my room to sleep when I saw you sitting here. Why aren't you asleep yet?"

Wen Xin turned his face to the pond outside the pavilion, where the full moon in the sky was reflected on the water, like twins.

"After months of fighting, the stench of blood is too strong, and I want to perform a ritual to help the dead pass on."

"Do you believe that people are reincarnated after they die?" Wutong asked as she sat down.

He asked himself, "Probably."

“But there’s a saying in my hometown that people don’t have souls. What we call a soul is just consciousness. Once you die, the soul dissipates.”

Wenxin recalled all the things she had said before and couldn't help but say, "Your hometown is truly a wonderful place."

1 = Lao Qu said