Army Outside the City Gates (4)
T/N: Chapter sponsored by Nikita, Anon, Gilly, and Jayer! Thank you for sponsoring!
Hearing the little beggar's words, Du Xiao Li suddenly felt somewhat sad inside. If Xiao Gui had parents, she wouldn't have had to suffer these hardships. Just like the past life her, so small. If not for that distant relative's family, she also would have more or less ended up like this.
"How old are you?" Du Xiao Li asked.
"Grandpa also don't know when's my birthday, so he just had the day he found me picked as my birthday. The day before yesterday, I'd just past my twelfth birthday." Xiao Gui said.
"Then you're a year younger than me." Du Xiao Li said. Looking to her current appearance, she asked, "Are you a girl or boy?"
"I'm a girl." Xiao Gui said, "Grandpa said my appearance is handsome, so he let me dress like this, letting others be unable to see my true appearance."
Du Xiao Li laughed. Although she couldn't see her true appearance, those bright eyes of hers still drew people in. At least, she herself got drawn in, no?
The horse carriage traveled according to Xiao Gui's directions and arrived at a broken down house. Seeing this house, Du Xiao Li recalled the placed she lived when she'd just arrived in this world. Comparing the two, she discovered that the place the beggars lived was indeed much better than her house at the time.
Because the old beggar's situation was rather dangerous, Du Xiao Li directly entered the house and saw an old beggar laying on top a pile of dry straw. Next to him also stood a doctor and a guard. The two seemingly were conversing about something.
"Let the guard have the doctor sent back." Du Xiao Li said to Xia Yuan. Xia Yuan went forward and spoke to the two, and soon after, the guard went out with the doctor.
"Grandpa." Xiao Gui came to the old beggar's side. Seeing him only just breathing, not having any energy to speak, her tears that had been stopped with great difficulty began streaming down again.
"Let me see. You stand to the side." Du Xiao Li came to the old beggar's side and crouched down, grabbing his dirty right hand and began taking his pulse. Soon after, she began examining his body.
"Miss, can my grandpa still be saved?" Xiao Gui held her breath as she watched Du Xiao Li give the old beggar a check up, and asked when she finished.
"He's okay." Du Xiao Li accepted the silver needle Xia Yuan handed over, saying: "In a bit, when you're watching, don't make a sound."
"En, en." Xiao Gui looked to Du Xiao Li's appearance, and instinctively believed that she can save the old beggar. Perhaps it was also because Du Xiao Li was the last straw in her grasp.
Du Xiao Li injected the needles into the old beggar, afterwards had the water in the bowl fed a little to him, then took out from another case a slice of cut ginseng and put it in his mouth.
"Alright, he'll be able to wake up soon. He previously wasn't that seriously ill. Just, because it wasn't treated in time, and in addition to the starvation, it thus became dangerous. Once he wakes up, feed him some porridge....." Du Xiao Li finally recalled that they didn't have anything here. Where would they get porridge and pot?
'Bang---'
Xiao Gui instantly knelt down by Du Xiao Li's foot, continuously saying: "Thank you miss, thank you miss. Now that miss saved my grandpa, Xiao Gui is willing to follow miss, asking miss to think of a way to completely cure grandpa."
"Miss, I heard Ying Ge say the estate we bought isn't far from here, how about we go there tonight?" Xia Yuan said.
"You know where it is?" Du Xiao Li asked.
"That guard knows. Our forces in the capital more or less all know." Xia Yuan replied.
"Then we'll go to the estate once he returns."
A while later, the guard had the doctor sent back before the city gates closed, and soon after, returned to the beggar's place. Learning that Du Xiao Li wanted to go to the estate, he thus voluntarily drove the horse carriage for them, bringing them to the estate.
Right now, it was already nighttime. Du Xiao Li smelled the scent coming from the yet to ripen grapes, feeling soothed inside.
The horse carriage stopped before a courtyard. The guard went and knocked on the door. Once the door opened, he took out a token, and the gatekeeper thus opened the door. The guard returned to the horse carriage and drove it into the courtyard.
While entering the courtyard the old beggar woke up. Xia Yuan instructed the kitchen to cook some porridge over for the old beggar to eat. Luckily, at night, what everyone ate was precisely porridge, so there was still some left, and a bowl was directly brought over.
The old beggar, learning that Du Xiao Li had saved his life, repeatedly thanked her. Afterwards, he finally had the porridge that was brought over finished. Soon after, he also ate two pieces of pastries before stopping.
Xiao Gui, seeing that the old beggar, who was still at his dying breath less than an hour ago, at this moment, able to eat on his own, incessantly thanked Du Xiao Li with continuously running tears. Watching the old beggar eat the porridge, her own stomach also began crying out.
"Xia Yuan, first take her to go wash and change." Du Xiao Li looked to Xiao Gui and said.
"Yes, miss." Xia Yuan said, "You follow me."
Xiao Gui followed Xia Yuan out. However, this was also Xia Yuan's first time here, so she could only call a servant girl from the estate to lead them.
Du Xiao Li knew that the estate has some commonly used medical ingredients, and thus prepared a prescription for the old beggar, letting someone cook the medicine for him. Afterwards, she also prescribed a medicine bath, letting him soak in the medicine bath, while also cleaning his dirty body.
Xiao Gui although was around the same age as Du Xiao Li, her body however was much smaller than Du Xiao Li's. Wearing the servant girl's clothes, it looked very unfitting.
After a while, once Du Xiao Li and them finished eating dinner, and the old beggar also tidied up, Du Xiao Li had the steward here arrange a room for him, letting him go to sleep first.
"Miss, miss, think of a name for me too." Xiao Gui giddily looked to Du Xiao Li, appearing different from the sobbing girl from this afternoon.
"Why?" Du Xiao Li asked.
"Won't I be following miss now? Then I'm miss's person. Xia Yuan and them all have nice sounding names, so I also want one." Xiao Gui said.
Du Xiao Li thought for a moment and said, "Then you'll be Qiao Zhu then."
"Qiao Zhu? Okay, from now on, I'm called Qiao Zhu." Xiao Gui, now having changed her name to Qiao Zhu, knelt before Du Xiao Li with a thud, saying: "Thank you miss, if not for encountering miss, Qiao Zhu would have turned into an orphan again. Grandpa is very important to Qiao Zhu. Miss is like Qiao Zhu's second parent. Qiao Zhu from now on will definitely properly repay miss."
"Miss, Qiao Zhu's life contract has been drafted." At this time, the steward walked in with a sheet of paper.
(T/N: Literal name of it would be 'selling body to slavery' contract.)
Du Xiao Li skeptically looked to the steward. She didn't let him prepare one though.
Seemingly guessing Du Xiao Li's doubts, the steward explained, "This servant heard miss Xia Yuan say that Qiao Zhu will be following miss, and thus wrote up this life contract. The name was filled in just now."
"Life contract, I know, but I don't know how to write. How about I stamp my fingerprint?" Qiao Zhu said. She then stamped her own fingerprint onto the life contract and had the life contract handed to Du Xiao Li.
Du Xiao Li looked it over, then gave it to Xia Yuan.
Just then, a clamor sounded outside the door. Xia Yuan asked, "Steward, what's going on outside?"
"It's like this, since this is miss's first time coming to the estate, I wanted everyone come meet miss. But everyone had already gone to bed, so just now I had someone go call them. Right now, it should be them." The steward explained.
"Eh--" Du Xiao Li originally wanted to say no need, but thinking that they'd already gotten up, thus said, "Then let's just meet them."
T/N: I was literally halfway through this chapter and was about to go to bed when I saw the notif for kofi, so decided to stay up another hour to finish it. Anyways, finishing up the last part to this chapter tomorrow, and I can finally start translating the fluff with ML. I want to cry.
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