Chapter 127: Winter Solstice
Cheng Ge thought Wen Ling had returned, but before he could even feel relieved, he saw Wen Ling looking incredibly tense and fierce, relentlessly pelting fruit at his grandfather.
“Xiao Wen, Xiao Wen! Stop! Thatās my grandpa!”
Cheng Ge was scared half to death; an old man’s fragile frame was no target for such things.
Yet Wen Ling seemed completely trapped in his own world. His gaze was ferocious, like a small beast desperately defending its territory. He was being impossibly stubborn, unable to hear anyone else.
To Wen Ling, Grandpa was nothing but an intruder. Grandpa, seeing the danger, kept trying to shield Cheng Ge, which only increased the risk and pushed Wen Ling further past the point of reason.
Cheng Ge hurriedly changed his approach, telling Grandpa to back away first. “Grandpa, it’s okay! Heās a friend, heās just too worried. Just step back and itāll be fine.”
Grandpa stood frozen for a moment, but having no other choice, he moved away. Slowly, Wen Ling stopped throwing the fruit and stared at Cheng Ge in a daze.
Two seconds later, the fruit slipped from his hands and hit the ground. Wen Ling rushed to Cheng Ge’s side and knelt on the mat, hugging him tight. His body was rigid, his breath suppressed, and he struggled to stifle his sobs.
“Itās okay, itās okay. Heās not a bad person. Iām fine. Weāll be out of here soon. Donāt be afraid, Iām okay, Iām right here.” Cheng Ge held him firmly, pouring all his effort into comforting him until the tense boy began to soften.
Eventually, Wen Lingās crying subsided. He remained buried in Cheng Ge’s chest, only hiccupping occasionally, even reaching out to stroke Cheng Ge’s back in return.
Cheng Ge let out a sigh of relief. Fortunately, Wen Ling’s aim wasn’t great, and because Grandpa had been so close to him, Wen Ling had held back for fear of hitting Cheng Ge by mistake. Aside from an initial “glancing blow” to Grandpa’s backside, no one was actually hurt.
Wen Ling was simply too terrified; his logic had vanished, leaving him only able to recognize Cheng Ge.
“Don’t be afraid.” Cheng Ge wiped away Wen Lingās tears. He habitually moved to kiss him in consolation, but catching Grandpaās worried gaze nearby, he restrained himself and simply pulled Wen Ling into another embrace.
“Don’t kneel, sit down. Lean on me.”
After a while, Cheng Ge helped Wen Ling sit. Wen Ling pulled his knees up and buried his face in Cheng Ge’s shoulder.
“Thatās my grandpa. Don’t worry, weāll all get out of here together. Don’t attack him, okay?”
“…Mn.”
“The person coming to pull the cart is a good person too.”
“Mn.”
“Shall we apologize to Grandpa in a bit?”
“…Mn.”
Cheng Ge rubbed his head and signaled for Grandpa to come over.
“Grandpa, Iām sorry.” Wen Ling kept his head low, staring at the mud on the tips of the old man’s shoes.
Cheng Ge pulled the old man down to sit on the other side of the grass mat. “Grandpa, are you okay? Does it hurt anywhere?”
“Iām fine, Iām fine. It didn’t hurt me.”
“I’m so sorry, Grandpa. He was just so worried and thought you were going to hurt me. He didn’t mean it; heās just been under a lot of pressure. Please don’t blame him.”
“Itās nothing,” Grandpa waved his hand. “Any friend of my grandson is a friend of mine. You’re both just kids, itās no problem.”
Grandpa was the type to love anything associated with his grandson; once he understood the circumstances, he naturally wouldn’t hold a grudge.
Cheng Ge stroked Wen Lingās back with one hand while the other was held by Grandpa as he listened to the old man talk.
Grandpa had been up the mountain cutting wood with A-Sheng, a young man from next door. Grandpaās eyelid had been twitching all day, so he decided to go pray beneath the thousand-year-old tree near the cave. He never imagined he would find a “half-dead” Cheng Ge there.
Cheng Ge also felt that life was unpredictable. To think such a coincidence would bring him face-to-face with his grandfather like this.
Before long, the legendary A-Sheng arrived outside the cave pulling a small flatbed cart piled with wood. Wen Ling and A-Sheng helped prop Cheng Ge up against the wood, and together they carefully pulled the cart down the mountain.
In truth, the scene was a bit awkward and comical, but Cheng Ge was in too much pain to care. He struggled to maintain a neutral expression because Wen Ling was watching him with such knitted brows and intense concern.
They moved from the rugged mountain paths to a smooth dirt road, and gradually, uneven rows of houses came into view. Once they reached the paved road in the village, Grandpa hailed a “convertible” cargo truck to take Cheng Ge into town.
Grandpa brought Cheng Ge to a clinic. It was around two or three in the afternoon, and the small clinic was deserted; the doctor had just finished lunch.
Conditions in the town were far inferior to the city. They pushed Cheng Ge into a small room, gave him a local anesthetic, and the doctor began the reset.
Wen Ling initially wanted to stay by his side, but the doctor forbade family members from watching. Cheng Ge thought he would have to coax him for a while, but surprisingly, Wen Ling was quite receptive. Once the doctor explained that bystanders could interfere with the procedure, he immediately gave up and waited obediently outside the door.
Cheng Ge watched the clock on the wall. He thought about everything that had happened over the last two days, and wondered what Wen Ling was doing outsideāwhether he was pacing back and forth in worry. Slowly, he drifted off to sleep.
The overwhelming weight of the unknown had finally been lifted, and the pain in his leg had dulled. Combined with the lack of sleep from the previous two days, Cheng Ge fell into a deep slumber. By the time he woke up, the hour-long reset was already finished.
The doctor moved Cheng Ge into position. “We need to put on a plaster cast to keep it stable.”
“Okay.”
“It will hurt a bit once the anesthetic wears off, but it will get better after a while.”
“Alright, thank you, Doctor.”
The doctor appeared quite refined and was very young, likely not even thirty.
However, after chatting with him for a bit, “refined” no longer seemed like the right word. He was humorous, loved to joke, and seemed like a very casual and free-spirited person.
By the time the cast was finished, it was nearly five o’clock. Grandpa and A-Sheng brought in a wheelchair and helped Cheng Ge into it.
Cheng Ge would have to rely on this wheelchair for the next few days.
“Whereās Wen Ling?” Cheng Ge felt something was wrong; why wasn’t Wen Ling the first person he saw?
“Heās resting at my place,” Grandpa said.
Cheng Ge found this novel. “Heās asleep?”
“Yes. Your friend has a weak constitution; he fainted from a fever just now…”
“What?! Fainted from a fever?” Cheng Ge was so startled he nearly stood up.
A-Sheng held him down to prevent him from injuring his leg in his agitation.
“Brother, don’t get worked up. Your friend is fine now. The doctor looked at himāheās just too exhausted. He just needs to rest and recover. Both of you need to take it easy.”
“Thatās right,” Grandpa added with a frown.
There was no way an old man wouldn’t feel pained seeing his healthy grandson return covered in injuries. He was determined to feed the boy up and help him recover.
Even though they said Wen Ling was fine, Cheng Ge couldn’t put his mind at ease. He hurried Grandpa and A-Sheng along, and they all rode the truck back to Grandpa’s house.
In the room, Wen Lingās already fair skin was now deathly pale. His eyes were closed, and his long, curled eyelashes looked limp. The light cast soft shadows beneath his eyes.
He had a fever-reducing patch on his forehead and looked utterly exhausted.
Despite his height, he looked like a tiny, curled-up ball beneath the covers.
Cheng Ge sat in his wheelchair and reached under the quilt. He took Wen Lingās somewhat cold hand and rubbed it to warm it up.
According to A-Sheng, Wen Ling had been crouching by the door before he simply keeled over. His face had been flushed and burning hot. They gave him an IV drip, and his fever had finally started to recede after sleeping for a long time.
Thinking of Wen Ling crouching on the ground while burning with fever made Cheng Ge’s heart ache with tenderness. He looked like a homeless child.
At the same time, Cheng Ge felt a wave of self-reproach. The high fever must have been caused by Wen Ling constantly going out to forage in the wind while keeping his nerves wound tight.
“Xiao Cheng, eat something first.” Grandpa entered with a bowl of hot tangyuan. He set it on the small table and spoke in a hushed voice, warning Cheng Ge to be careful of the heat.
Cheng Ge managed a smile and whispered back, “Thank you, Grandpa. You didn’t have to go to the trouble of cooking tangyuan.”
“Itās no trouble, you silly child. I didn’t make them specifically for you. Yesterday was the Winter Solstice, so Grandpa made them myself. I made plenty. Eat some to line your stomach.”
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