"Here's the ointment for the lady's external wounds. I've bandaged the sprain on her right ankle, don't let it come in contact with water in these few days."
Doctor Xie said as he handed Jiang Zelin the ointment bottle. When he saw the young man's dispirited face, he couldn't help but tell him a few more words out of good intentions.
"The lady's having a hard time accepting the reality of her brother's disease. You better watch her carefully lest she tries to attempt something stupid."
Jiang Zelin nodded. After thanking Doctor Xie, he sent the old man away before he returned to the room.
"Lingling…" Jiang Zelin intended to comfort her but immediately shut his mouth when he saw the devastated look on her face.
In that instant, he fell on his knees beside the young woman who had kept her silence since her little brother's condition was announced, his head hanging low as he dared not to let out any sound.
A moment later, Nie Ling's head robotically moved to land her sight on the man's pathetic figure. Although Nie Xiaoyun wasn't exactly her little brother, Nie Ling could feel the pain the previous owner would have suffered if she was standing in her place.
The least she could do for the pair of brother and sister was to find out about the truth and give the previous owner a proper explanation.
Thus, she turned her focus to the only man who seemed to have known something. Nie Ling asked him in a soft and emotionless voice, as if she no longer had the energy to care for anything else in this world.
"Tell me honestly, what happened?"
Jiang Zelin shuddered when he first heard her cold voice. For a moment, he had kept his silence as if not knowing from where to start.
Then, with remorse written all over his face, he raised his head and relayed what had exactly happened before the tragic incident.
"Xiao Yun came to me a few hours ago, demanding for my family to cancel the engagement between us. He shouted countless times that you're not the shameless person the villagers claim you to be. He insisted on canceling the engagement, saying that his sister would never use someone to extort money.
At that moment of impulse, I pulled him aside to calm him down, telling him that the 2 taels of silver I gave you are nothing like he had imagined. I told him that it was the betrothal gift my family had prepared in advance but, after he heard about the 2 taels, he started to lose control.
I… I didn't know what to do… He started to make a scene, shouting louder and louder for us to break the engagement. I was aware of his condition. I didn't want to incite him more, so I tried to bring him into the house but he bit me and out of instinct I…"
When his explanation reached this point, Jiang Zelin no longer dared to continue. He kept his gaze lowered to the ground, apologizing incessantly.
"I'm sorry, I didn't expect that this would happen. If I'd known beforehand, I would've….. I'm sorry, Lingling… I'm sorry…"
His tears fell down like rain as he begged for her forgiveness, the rhythmic sound of them hitting the hard ground resounding starkly against the deadly silence enveloping the entire darkening room.
A moment later, Nie Ling nodded her head, saying calmly. "I understand."
She then stood up and supported the fallen man to his feet, before showing him to the door. "The sky is turning dark. You should return home first, we'll talk again later on. I want to be alone for a while."
"Lingling, I…"
Nie Ling didn't let the man continue, opening the door and pushing the man out before she quickly slammed the door shut. With her back against the door, she slowly slid down, her two legs gradually losing strength.
"You… Do you really resent him this much?" Nie Ling mumbled to herself as she raised her trembling fists.
Back then, if she hadn't quickly pushed the young man out of the room, this fist of hers would've long flown straight to the young man's tear-stricken face, sending him KO'ed to the ground.
Nie Ling sighed. If the man had spoken the truth, this matter couldn't be entirely blamed on him. It was just an accident no one wished for it to happen but, was it truly so?
Unfortunately for now, Nie Ling held no answer to that doubt of hers.
As she struggled to control the crazing impulse in herself that was threatening to take over her body, she casted her eyes on the pale young boy lying on the bed. And it was only then did she manage to calm herself down.
Nie Ling closed her eyes and regulated her breathing, before she stood up and approached the bed. Simultaneously, her hand reached out to touch the pendant on her chest.
Pulling the pendant out of her clothes, she examined the dim jade stone carefully.
In her first lifetime, whenever she got herself hurt, the jade would emanate a blinding green glow that felt exceedingly cold to the skin. This green glow would gradually expand to wrap her whole like cocoon, pouring out a stream of pure energy that would heal her wounds in the count of seconds.
However, after it had transmigrated her once, the vibrant glow of the green jade evidently lost some luster and looked far weaker, though it still retained its healing properties.
In her second lifetime, due to her identity as a precious human panacea of the royal family, she would be exposed to an abundant amount of Heavenly Treasures on a daily basis.
With this privilege, she was able to feed the jade stone a lot of precious resources, gradually nourishing it back to its prime state. And yet, at the moment when she faced her death for the second time, the jade had instead spat out an eerily bright red glow that nearly burnt her on spot.
At that time, she thought that the jade had lost its magical capabilities. She thought that by emanating this bright red glow, the jade intended to swallow her whole, just like the resources she had fed it with in the past. But, since she was now still here enjoying life in the third lifetime, it was obviously not the case.
The pendant was still working well so, its healing properties should've been retained as well. Although she never tried to use the pendant to heal someone else and wasn't entirely sure that it would work, Nie Ling intended to use the pendant to solve Nie Xiaoyun's illness.
The only problem was, the energy in the pendant had been entirely depleted. In the past, she could easily fix this by redirecting a part of the precious resources given to her to the pendant.
But, times had changed. The current her was no more than a poor village girl with a sickly brother to raise, having to trade herself with the money needed to save her little brother.
From where would she be able to gather that much resources to relight the magic pendant?