4 Chapter 4

Just as Lu Chen strode into the hut, his forefoot was caught under a man's outstretched leg. His body could not stop his motion in time and the momentum propelled him forward, nearly causing him to plant his face into the ground.

Fortunately, Lu Chen reacted in time. He planted his other foot on the ground and managed to regain his balance, only stumbling forward a few feet before he straightened himself back up. 

With a near-explosive temper, he turned and glared at the perpetrator, but he soon discovered that the man at the door, Big Shu, was carelessly asleep with an open jar of the locally brewed alcohol beside him.

Lu Chen frowned, not expecting to see...well, this kind of fairly peaceful scene.

Then, he heard a soft whimper and he looked the other way. Chang Ying was dangling like wet noodles, her hand tied above her head to an old iron hook. Her body was frail and weak with exhaustion. Her hands were stained with bright crimson blood that was escaping her body.

Lu Chen inhaled sharply, his breath was caught in his chest. His body moved before his mind to react. When his voice cried out, he was already in front of her, his face stricken with panic. 

"Yingying!" His fingers were already moving, scrambling to quickly undo the ropes and free her. 

His cold rage from earlier had melted into panic when he saw her. His eyes were drawn to the copious amount of blood running down her arm.

The blood rushed out quickly. It had already stained her entire lower arm. If it kept flowing like this, she could lose too much blood and die.

At this time, Lu Chen didn't care to look closely at things such as whether the ropes tied her up in a suspicious way. He quickly loosened her hands and removed the dirty cloth from her mouth. "Yingying, are you okay?"

Chang Ying weakly nodded as he held her close to him, tightly hugging her weak body. Chang Ying really felt dizzy at this time, her frailty was no longer an act.

Nevertheless, laying in his arms, her skin tingled as a soothing sensation welled within her. His warm body elicited a faint, comforting scent of work and sunlight that she had long forgotten. She pressed her face closer into his embrace as tears wet her eyes.

She was back home.

The villagers curiously craned their necks into the hut to look at what was happening inside. The scene was nothing like the heated romantic affair they expected.

There was a strong smell of alcohol in the hut and Big Shu was passed out in a corner. The villagers took a look at the unconscious man and the wine beside him, and they did not waste many brain cells to make a simple inference in their heads.

They clicked their tongues in disappointment at first. But when they peeped inside the hut, at the other corner, there was finally some gossip material!

Lu Chen's new wife, Chang Ying was tied up and gagged. Looking at her hand, there was so much blood, this was obviously not a simple affair!

"Big brother, someone has gone to call the doctor." a soft voice called out as Feifei entered the hut. She approached the man hugging his injured wife cautiously and gently asked, "Is sister-in-law alright?"

Lu Chen did shook his head. "Are you sure the doctor did not go to town?"

His voice was moderated with the usual indifference and bit of coldness as he spoke. Feifei grimaced, her face said all the bad news he needed to hear.

"He...he should be back at this time," her voice slowly faded off without hope towards the end.

"Not good enough," Lu Chen muttered.

He took off his vest and tore it into strips. Then he started bandaging his wife's hand.

The villagers still stared inside the hut. There was nothing they could do now but talk among themselves. None of them had any good medical knowledge, whether traditional Chinese medicine or conventional western medicine. So they could not help Lu Chen.

They sadly shook their heads and clicked their tongues at the unconscious Big Shu.

Big Shu was already in his early forties but he was still acting like a rascal. He had not gotten even a little bit more responsible as he aged like the villagers had expected. Instead, he drank constantly, lied and cheated whenever he traded goods. Occasionally, he even stole other people's chickens to eat. But this time, he tied up another man's wife while her husband was away.

Truly detestable.

From the scene of Chang Ying's being tied up and bleeding, the villagers temporarily dismissed the adultery notion in their head.

"Big brother, Big Shu...he didn't touch sister-in-law, did he?" Feifei asked nervously.

Lu Chen froze and his cold eyes turned up to look at Feifei in warning. His annoyance was so vivid, the air around him seemed to cool down.

His icy glare abruptly shut up Feifei and the villagers who were about to open their mouths. The area immediately fell quiet. Lu Chen looked back at Chang Ying's wound and kept bandaging it tightly to stop the blood flow.

The villagers didn't dare comment but what was said was already said. Even if they didn't say the rest out loud, they were still thinking it in their hearts. They won't talk in Lu Chen's front but malicious people would still mock him later that his wife was soiled behind his back now.

"He didn't," Chang Ying's weakly spoke for the first time.

Lu Chen frowned at her. "Reserve your energy. I know he didn't touch you."

Chang Ying blinked weakly and cleared her throat before she said in a clearer voice. "No, I will say it now. He didn't touch me. Please call the village midwife, Mama Zhou, to check."

"Sister Ying, you are still weak. Please don't exert yourself, your wound will get worse. Don't worry, no matter what others say, we trust you," Feifei stepped forward and gently tried to dissuade her.

Chang Ying ignored Feifei and looked at Lu Chen. "My reputation...today, Mama Zhou must check me and clear my reputation."

Lu Chen saw the resolution in her gaze and he softly sighed. A sad, comforting smile touched the edges of his mouth as he knotted the bandage on her hand. "First, the village doctor will look at you. Mama Zhou can come in after you are fine. Your life is more important than anything. Don't worry, I am your husband. Even if the sky falls today, I will hold it up for both of us."

Tears misted Chang Ying's eyes. The way he was looking at her right now, with eyes that said she had his concern and trust, it was what she had longed for before,

In her past life, when this day happened, she could barely keep up with what was happening because of the drugged wine that muddled her head. She could not say anything to him to prove her innocence. Meanwhile, on his own end, he had walked into the hut to find his naked wife under a naked man. Lu Chen could never look her in the eye after that, not like now.

For this moment alone, to wash herself clean, being reborn was worth it.

Chang Ying steeled herself. She could not lose this chance.

So she continued to speak in a weak but clear voice, "That man, Shu...he tied me up and someone came here to pay him some money to defame me. Lu Chen..."

"Ah, look, it is the money on the floor!" a villager near the door shouted, interuppting Chang Ying.

Many villagers redirected their eyes to the place and saw the small heap of coins that was scattered by Shu's body. But afterwards, they still turned back and glared at the loud mouthed villager. The face of the embarrassed villager reddened and he timidly tucked his neck in.

Lu Chen had finished taking care of her wounds, so he sat on the ground and hugged her in his arms. "Yingying, don't worry. Just get better now, leave the rest to me."

Chang Ying looked at Lu Chen and smiled sadly. "I'm glad you came to rescue me."

Lu Chen held her in his embrace as if the world only had the both of them and everyone else was excluded. "I am sorry. I should not have left you alone for so long. You have suffered so much, Yingying."

Chang Ying weakly closed her eyes as she settled into his warm embrace. So this was what it took for him to believe her, she had to play the frail victim, tied up and bleeding, to get his trust?

In her heart, Chang Ying was disappointed with Lu Chen. It was not just this, it was all the accumulation of years of hoping they could resolve things.