Chapter 23 – Are You Avoiding Me (1)

Shen Fe could not wait any longer; he struggled to count the days patiently. Four days left, then three…

Zhao Xi, meanwhile, had been so busy hunting, that she had little time to think of anything else.

*

A couple of days later, she returned home early in the morning to find Ping An waiting for her outside the cave, in great anguish. It had hurt himself and, evidently in too much pain to be patient, was throwing tantrums rather petulantly, hitting its head against the door and making loud whimpering noises.

Zhao Xi, hurried to comfort Ping An and herded it outside the courtyard, her main concern not to wake Shen Fei.

Ping An, unable to express its pain, held her legs as if begging her to extinguish its misery and to not leave it.

Zhao Xi, left with no other choice, sat next to him and consoled him with almost maternal affection, rubbing its neck and making comforting, sympathetic cooing sounds. The bear, appeased, was suddenly so peaceful that it almost fell asleep in her arms.

Zhao Xi decided to take this opportunity to fetch medicine for the injured animal.

She crept in stealthily, trying her utmost to not make a sound. Almost like a thief, she tiptoed to the drawer to silently withdraw the medicine. She opened the drawers with great precision, and searched for a long while, unable to find it. She looked around the place, and suddenly spotted the medicine in a jade-like hand. The bottle of medicine, which Zhao Xi had prepared herself was composed of a lot of medicinal herbs and was extremely effective. Since the herbs were difficult to procure, she used the medicine stingily.

There was just this last bottle left, Zhao Xi, worried that there would not be any medicine left for the man, scooped out a little bit with a bamboo stick and put it into another small bottle for her use.

The medicine was rarely ever used too much; only occasionally when Ping An suffered large wounds was the medicine visibly diminished. Zhao Xi came to refill the bottle, since she needed a little bit for herself too.

She reached out to grab the medicine from Shen Fei’s hand. As soon as her hand touched the bottle, the bottle, to her surprise, moved back on its own. Her eyes stared at the bottle in silent disbelief for a while, then reached out to grab it again, when the bottle backed away yet again.

She looked up and realized that it wasn’t that the bottle had backed away by itself, but the man, holding it, who moved it away from her grasp.

“Are you awake?” Zhao Xi asked, embarrassed.

The first thing she had done when she returned was to burn incense. However, she had not expected him to be roused from sleep by the noises that Ping An had made.

Shen Fei stared fixedly at her and shook his head. His penetrating gaze unnerved her; Zhao Xi felt herself flush beetroot-red with embarrassment.

Hunting in the mountains had made her filthy: there was a big slash in the front of her dress from the distressed beast and several small cuts from the branches, that poked her in the forest. There was hardly time for her to stitch them.

Her clothes, rugged and torn, were worn by her only when she went into the hills to gather medicinal herbs or while hunting for Ping An. Her face was not much better either; it had tiny cuts, earned along with her living. She had no doubt that she looked ugly.

“I didn’t sleep all night,” he said.

It was the first time when Shen Fei had initiated a conversation.

Zhao Xi, stunned for a moment, recovered herself. “Why not? What’s the matter?”

“I was waiting for you.”

Her eyes widened in disbelief; Did he miss her when she didn’t appear for a few days?

“Why were you waiting for me?”

“I haven’t had a bath in four days.”

Oh. Of course, she had known he wouldn’t miss her.

Zhao Xi snatched the medicine from his hand with a sigh, “Wait a moment, I need to apply medicine on Ping An.”

Shen Fei lay on the bed quietly, and watched her walk out, like the most well-behaved patient.

There was a window beside his bed, within his reach, that Shen Fei opened. He saw Zhao Xi in the courtyard, carefully applying medicine on the big black bear. She scooped the ointment on the back of her hand with a bamboo board, and then applied little by little onto Ping An’s body. Ping An, whom the ointment stung, rolled all over the ground to avoid Zhao Xi’s hands.

Zhao Xi grabbed its ears and pressed it on the ground, then finished applying the medicine. After bandaging it, she simply drove away the bear. Exhausted from the restless night it had spent, the bear, walked back unsteadily as if it was drunk, to its own nest.