Chapter 3 — General, It's No Time Anymore... My Wife Has Remarried

If the vegetables we planted were bitten by worms, he would quietly help us catch them all. The village's aunts and uncles began whispering in my ear.

"A Ly, you see Tham Khoat really cares about you. The two of you, a 'widow' wife and a 'widow' husband, living together is not very good, isn't it?"

“That's right, if a woman lives alone, she still has to have someone to rely on in the end.”

After hearing that, I just laughed and didn't answer. Based on what? I used to think that Hoac Dien was my heaven, my lifelong support. What about the results? When the sky fell, it was his hand who pushed me into that abyss. I would rather live alone in poverty than put my destiny in the hands of someone else again. I began to deliberately avoid Tham Khoat. When he brought something, I placed money or something of equivalent value at the door and refused to meet him. When we accidentally met in the village, I just nodded from afar, then quickly left. It seemed that he also realized my distance, the number of times he came to find me gradually decreased. I can't say clearly what I feel in my heart, a bit of loss, and a bit of luck. Until that day, I fell ill. I don't know whether I was infected with a cold or not compatible with the water and earth. I vomited and had diarrhea, my whole body was cold, and I had a fever to the point of coma. I lay on the bed, feeling that perhaps I would die just like that in this small corner that no one knew about. While my consciousness was vague, I seemed to have returned to the General's palace again. Hoo Dien stood in front of me, looked down from above, and said coldly:

"A Ly, a woman like you cannot live without me."

We can live on. We must continue to live. I used the last bit of my strength to struggle to get up from the bed and go get some water to drink, but my whole body suddenly fell to the ground. When I woke up again, I discovered that I was lying on Tham Khoat's bed. The charcoal burning room was very warm, and the air still had a faint herbal scent.

“Are you awake?”

Tham Khoat's voice came from the side. I turned my head to look over and saw him sitting on a chair at the edge of the bed, holding a small piece of wood in his hand, attentively sharpening a wooden statue.

“Why are we here?”

My voice is hoarse and scary.

"She had a fever. The lady named Vuong came to find me, I immediately carried her here."

He put down the small knife and piece of wood in his hand and poured me a cup of warm water.

"The villager came to see her. She said her body was weak and infected with wind and cold. She needed to take good care of her."

After drinking water, my throat feels much more comfortable.

“Thank you so much, I'm bothering you again.”

He was silent for a while, then suddenly opened his mouth, his voice somewhat low:

“A Ly, are you… afraid of me?”

I paused, not knowing how to answer. He raised his head, his dark eyes looking at me quietly. There are emotions in those eyes that I cannot completely understand.

“A Ly, follow me and live.”

I was completely stunned, thinking I was so feverish that I must have misheard. But he was extremely serious, repeating word by word:

"Follow me to live. I have the strength, I know how to hunt, I also know how to grow crops, I won't let you starve. I don't know how to say beautiful words, but I promise, just If I still have a bite to eat, I will absolutely not let you drink porridge."

His words were so simple that they couldn't have been more simple. There are no sworn vows. There is no glory or wealth. Only a piece of rice, a bowl of porridge. But those simple words made my eyes turn red in an instant. For six years at the General's Palace, I wore brocade and jewels, but often sat alone at the cold dinner table, waiting from dawn until dusk. Huo Dien is always very busy, busy training soldiers, busy socializing, busy with his great ambitions. But what we want has never been those things before. What I hope for is just having hot porridge in the morning, coming back late at night with a light waiting for me, and next to me there is someone who knows how to be cold and knows how to be hot and cares for me. I looked at the quiet man in front of me. Maybe he can't give me the whole world, but he is willing to give his entire world to me.