Chapter 160: Chapter 82: Old Illness_3
Xiang Cao stamped her foot in anxiety and hurriedly followed inside.
The courtyard was even more deserted now.
Du Changqing ignored Xia Rongrong who was crying inside the house and looked toward Lu Tong.
"Alright, everything’s been said. Now, let’s talk about you, Doctor Lu. You look so pale with fright. What exactly happened tonight..."
Lu Tong, holding a lamp, turned and entered the room, slamming the door shut with a "bang," leaving behind only the words, "It’s too late tonight, we’ll talk tomorrow."
Du Changqing still held his lantern, standing dumbstruck for a mont before reacting to having the door slamd in his face by Lu Tong, and angrily pointed at the door, "Look at her attitude!"
Yin Zheng tried to smooth things over, "Shopkeeper Du, our lady has been busy all day and then got such a scare tonight. She really should rest well. Whatever you want to ask, we can talk about it tomorrow, look how late it’s gotten. We have to get up early tomorrow to clean up the courtyard, we’ll be very busy."
Du Changqing was so blocked he couldn’t speak, and Ah Cheng also persuaded him to return ho, so he huffed and left reluctantly.
After he left, Yin Zheng stood in front of Lu Tong’s room and gently knocked on the door.
"Lady?"
The light in the room went out, and shortly after ca Lu Tong’s calm voice.
"I’m tired. You should rest early too."
Yin Zheng always did as Lu Tong said and hearing that her voice was normal, she replied and returned to her own room with her lamp.
The shadow outside the window moved away, and the moonlight returned to its cold thinness.
Once sure no one was around, Lu Tong finally relaxed her hand and released the painful moans she had been suppressing with effort.
Large drops of cold sweat beaded on her forehead, her lips were so pale they were nearly translucent, and her normally upright spine was now completely bent. Holding her chest, she couldn’t hold back any longer and fell to the ground, no longer having the strength to get up.
Her old illness had flared up again.
This ailnt of hers would always act up two or three tis a year. Just now, during the confrontation with Pei Yunng in the courtyard, she had almost reached her limit,
but she couldn’t let anyone detect anything wrong with her, so she had to endure it. She bit her lip to keep her cheeks flushed with color, simultaneously enduring the severe pain and keeping a composed front to deal with others.
That was why, after the Pawn Shop Soldiers left and Du Changqing wanted to talk to her, she did not hesitate to give him the cold shoulder.
It wasn’t that she was arrogant; it was just that if she waited any longer, she would give herself away.
Pain radiated violently from her heart, alive and moving recklessly from her chest to every limb, as if soone was peeling away her flesh with a blade, or as if a giant hand had grown inside her abdon, seizing her internal organs and brutally kneading them.
Lu Tong collapsed to the side in pain, curling up and biting down hard on her teeth to keep from making a sound. Her sweaty, long hair stuck to her cheek.
The room was a ss from the soldiers’ hasty search, and the discarded sheets of paper were strewn about, falling to the ground like big snowflakes.
She lay amongst the scattered "snow," pain clouding her consciousness, and in her hazy state, she thought she saw a figure appear before her eyes.
The figure approached slowly, clothed in rouge-red padded jacket and white brocade pleated skirt, with a slender waist and rustling garnts.
She descended unhurriedly from Luoi Peak, adorned with blooming red plum blossoms, holding a carved lantern that lit up the muddy snow, looking like a fleeting firefly in the cetery at night.
Lu Tong murmured, "Lady Yun..."
The woman looked down at her, smiling faintly with a calm yet eerie tone.
"Little Shiqi, where do you think you’re escaping to?"
...
That was Lu Tong’s second year at Luoi Peak.
She decided to run away.
The young Lu Tong couldn’t adapt to the cold climate of Luoi Peak, nor could she bear the pain brought by Lady Yun’s trials of new dicines every few days. One night, after enduring the tornt of a new dicine again, the sweat-drenched Lu Tong lay on the ground and, looking at the bright moon outside the window, resolved to escape from this haunted place.
When Lady Yun was not making new dicine, she spent most of her ti away from the mountain. In that small hut at Luoi Peak, there was only Lu Tong.
She took a long ti to find a safe route and prepared enough dried at and clean water, thinking she had enough patience and caution.
The next ti Lady Yun went down the mountain, Lu Tong packed up my belongings and followed her down.
She thought, once down the mountain, she would be able to return to Changwu County. Su Nan was so distance from Changwu County, but she figured she could find a way along the journey, whether by boat or on foot. In ti, she would surely return to her hotown.
The night Lu Tong escaped was a spring evening.
The snow on Luoi Peak had just lted, the mountainside was covered with blood-red plum blossoms, and the air was fragrant. She traveled day and night and, just as she reached the foot of the mountain and the town below was within reach, a sudden pain arose in her chest.
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