Chapter 6 — Rules of Thanh Lien Coc

After returning to the valley, Bui Ngoc Duong ordered someone to tie up Mo Yeu, lock her in a private room, and lock the door. Mo Yeu inside cried and scolded: "Let me go! Bui Ngoc Duong, you dare to lock me up!" "You forced Trieu Tri Linh to leave, how can you vent your anger on me!" Bui Ngoc Duong stood outside the door on crutches, with no expression on his face. He told me to pour in three doses of copper medicine. Mo Yeu inside gradually stopped moving. Bui Ngoc Duong coldly instructed: "Bring it to the prince of Tran Nam Vuong." "Just say that she voluntarily sacrificed herself and became a slave for the prince." Duoc Dong hesitated for a moment: "Coc master, the crown prince will kill her." "Up to him." Bui Ngoc Duong turned around. Hobbled back to Trieu Tri Linh's hospital. The next time I heard news from Bui Ngoc Duong was half a year later. There were people talking in the tea shop, saying that the god-like god of Thanh Lien Coc had been crippled, an arm and a leg were broken, and in the future, I'm afraid he wouldn't even be able to hold a silver needle anymore. Some people also said that the doctor's wife had left, and the doctor was almost crazy looking for her. I carried a basket of vegetables and stood there, listening for a while, but there was no ripple in my heart. Turn around immediately. My new house is at the foot of the back mountain, a small courtyard, three tiled houses. I buried my father under an old eucalyptus tree behind the hospital. Every day, I woke up early to light a stick of incense for him and poured a cup of cloudy wine that he liked to drink when he was alive. The days pass very slowly. We wash rented clothes for people, mend old clothes, and sometimes go to the mountains to dig up some herbs to dry and sell. It's not much, but enough for one person to get by. Next door, there is a woman named Ly. She is old but her body is still very good. Every afternoon, she would bring a bowl of hot porridge over, making sure to watch me drink it all before leaving: "Young lady lives alone, you have to take good care of your body." I smiled and took the bowl of porridge. There are sweet potatoes added to the porridge, which is sweet. In the blink of an eye, winter is here, the snowfall is heavier. I stacked the firewood neatly in the yard, then used old cloth to stuff the window slits. This winter is much warmer than in Thanh Lien Coc. Mrs. Ly came to visit and talked about many things. Said that there was a crippled doctor in town who had just arrived, and everyone he met asked if he had seen his wife. "That person looks like a fairy-like character, just one arm and one leg are disabled, looking quite pitiful." "Girl, tell me, is he the magic doctor who can bring the dead back to life, with white bones growing flesh?" I added a stick of firewood to the stove, but did not answer. Yes or no, to me, it doesn't matter. But early the next morning. As usual, I went to the riverbank to wash my clothes, and in the corner of my eye, there was another person. The other person stood on the opposite bank, his left sleeve empty, leaning on a rough wooden crutch. It's Bui Ngoc Duong. After only a year of not seeing him, he had become so thin that he was almost no longer human. There was no way for anyone to connect this person in front of them with that bright and clear divine physician Thanh Lien. Bui Ngoc Duong didn't pass by, just stood there looking at me. I didn't look at him either, I bowed my head and continued to rub my clothes. I don't know how long it took, but I finally heard him call out in a hoarse voice: "A Linh." I don't raise my head. He called out again: "A Linh, I'm here to take you home." Welcome me home. These four words make me suddenly want to laugh. I wringed out the last piece of clothing, picked up the basin, stood up, and walked away. He panicked and staggered after him: "A Linh, don't go! I know it's wrong." "It's about your father, sorry." "Please listen to me, just a few words..." I stopped. Perhaps he didn't expect that I would actually stop, and was so happy that he staggered forward one step. I turned around and looked

him: "Bui Ngoc Duong, you know about my father's story?" "Yes." "So do you know that my father is the one who died for you?" His lips moved, he said nothing, the corners of his eyes gradually turned red. "But what if you know?" I looked into his eyes, my voice calm. Bui Ngoc Duong closed his eyes, his face full of pain. Yes, how can it be? His father-in-law died, he saw that he was dead and couldn't save him. Mo Yeu wanted to test his blood, and he personally put A Linh in a coma. His father-in-law's body had barely formed a human shape. He watched A Linh hold a needle and thread and sew stitch by stitch, stitching for a whole day... He opened his eyes, his eye sockets were full of blood, his voice trembled to the point of not forming: "A Linh, I'm sorry..." I looked at him, my voice very calm: "Bui Ngoc Duong, between you and me, there are three lives: my mother, my child, my father. Do you feel that admitting mistakes can be made up for?" I saw his whole spine instantly collapse. Right after that. Bui Ngoc Duong, tall and tall, kneeled down on one knee, his broken leg tilted to one side, struggling without any appearance. "A Linh, it's me who deserves to die." "Every day I open my eyes and close my eyes, it's you. I was wrong, you beat me, scold me, hate me, it's okay. Please, don't be without me..." At the end of the sentence, tears mixed with snow flowed down. I looked at him for a moment.