I Will Repay You with My Entire Life
The officers arrived just after the black-clad youth disappeared. They hauled up the unconscious man tied in the alley, compared him carefully to the wanted sketch, and confirmed he really was that heinous rapist who committed countless crimes. They immediately prepared to take him back to the yamen.
Only then did Su Jingyang realize they had been searching everywhere for that utterly vile scum.
Seeing everything was handled, Su Jingyang held Ah Xuan, who was slowly waking up, and hurriedly prepared to go home. Ling Li was still unconscious, and Su Jingyang couldn’t put his mind at ease.
The captain, however, stopped him and told him to come collect the bounty.
There was a bounty too? Su Jingyang had never even thought about that. He froze for a moment before saying, “I didn’t catch him. The one who did already left.”
“You know him?”
“No.”
The captain had actually seen the black-clad youth just now. Seeing that Su Jingyang was honest and not trying to steal credit, he felt a bit of goodwill toward him. After thinking for a moment, he said, “That person was surely a wandering young hero of the jianghu who doesn’t wish to leave a name behind. He won’t covet money or worldly things. Speaking of it, you did help us discover this criminal. Otherwise we wouldn’t have caught him so quickly. Come with us and take that bounty.”
Su Jingyang honestly couldn’t believe it. Something like that could actually happen?
Still, he was worried about Ling Li, so he didn’t go with them. He didn’t delay for even a moment and instead brought the child straight home.
Ling Li, who should’ve been lying in bed, had somehow struggled up at some point. His strength failed him, and he collapsed right at the threshold.
Su Jingyang set Ah Xuan down, unharmed, then bent down and quickly lifted Ling Li into his arms and carried him inside.
Ling Li’s face was as pale as a ghost. His eyes were half-open, half-shut. Weakly, he called Su Jingyang’s name.
Su Jingyang was drenched in sweat. He hurriedly said, “I found him. The child’s back. He’s completely fine, so don’t worry, don’t worry.”
The moment the words left his mouth, Ling Li’s head tilted to the side, and he fainted again.
Ah Xuan, silly as ever, seemed not to understand what had happened at all. He sucked on his fingers and toddled after Su Jingyang, entering the room with him. After Su Jingyang laid Ling Li on the bed, Ah Xuan also climbed up, wanting to crawl onto Ling Li.
Su Jingyang quickly lifted him down and said in a stern whisper, “Papa doesn’t feel well. Don’t bother him.”
Ah Xuan blinked his eyes and stayed still by the bedside.
Su Jingyang checked Ling Li’s body and found the injury on the back of his head, with blood still there. Anxiety clenched his chest. He was afraid Ling Li had a concussion.
Su Jingyang picked up A Xuan, locked all the doors and windows, and rushed to the nearest place to hire a physician to examine Ling Li. That physician likely knew who Ling Li was, yet perhaps because a healer’s heart should show mercy, he didn’t reveal anything unusual. He properly examined Ling Li and wrote a prescription.
Su Jingyang was deeply grateful. He paid double the consultation fee and escorted him to the door.
After the physician left, Su Jingyang brewed the medicine, fed it to the half-conscious Ling Li, and cared for him. Ling Li vomited several times. Su Jingyang wiped his face with hot water and cleaned the floor.
Once Ling Li was settled, Su Jingyang carried Ah Xuan to the kitchen, sat him to the side to play, and cooked noodles for the two of them to make do for dinner. He also cooked a little porridge and kept it warm on the stove, worried that Ling Li might wake at night and feel hungry.
Ever since Su Jingyang had moved in, Ling Li had been the one taking care of him far more. Cooking, washing clothes, chopping wood, hauling water, everything in daily life, Ling Li refused to let Su Jingyang touch. He would even bring Su Jingyang his wash water every day right to his hands. Su Jingyang felt like he was being spoiled rotten.
Now that he could turn around and care for Ling Li like this, he did it meticulously, down to every detail, without the slightest carelessness.
While washing Ah Xuan, who was yawning repeatedly, Su Jingyang kept frowning and rubbing his chest. That spot felt wrong, a dull, stifling ache, as if something were lodged there. When the physician came earlier, Su Jingyang had forgotten he had been hurt too and hadn’t asked the man to look at him as well.
Su Jingyang sucked in a pained breath, dried Ah Xuan’s little feet, and picked him up. “Let’s go. Sleep with your uncle tonight.”
Su Jingyang was older than Ling Li, so he had been having Ah Xuan call him “uncle,” even though the child had never actually said it before.
Ah Xuan squirmed in his arms, then suddenly lifted both hands to rub Su Jingyang’s face. With clumsy, unclear pronunciation, he said, “Li-like… like Uncle. Xuan likes… Uncle.”
The words were still blurry and broken, yet Su Jingyang understood. His spirits jolted up in a rush. He stared at the child in his arms, delighted.
Ling Li was usually quiet, and even with the child, he rarely talked much. Su Jingyang was different. After moving in, he would constantly talk to Ah Xuan, whether or not the child could understand. Su Jingyang believed language needed an environment. Even if the child’s head had been injured and he couldn’t speak well, hearing it often might still help. Perhaps one day, the child would pick up a few words, and that would be a new gain.
The effect had always been minimal, yet Su Jingyang kept at it anyway. Whenever he got his hands on Ah Xuan, he’d talk and teach, never getting tired of it.
He never expected the results to show up at a moment like this.
Su Jingyang was so happy that even the ache in his chest seemed to ease at once. He pecked Ah Xuan’s soft, pale cheeks again and again. Ah Xuan copied him, smacking a few kisses onto Su Jingyang’s face, then giggled with bright delight.
If Ling Li hadn’t been unwell and asleep, Su Jingyang would’ve run over to shake him awake and brag shamelessly.
That night, Su Jingyang didn’t feel at ease leaving Ling Li alone, so he spread bedding on the floor and slept in Ling Li’s room. After the chaos of the evening, he endured the pain in his body, fell asleep, and forgot that today was the five-day deadline again.
Something he had more or less grown used to now felt like torture tonight.
He panted in misery, his body trying to shrink away, yet he had no strength.
Each time the person on him moved, it felt like his organs were turning over. The stifling tightness in his chest grew more intense, as if something were about to burst out.
Finally, before it was even over the first time, Su Jingyang’s body shuddered and he suddenly vomited a mouthful of blood. He choked and coughed as he slowly opened his eyes. His lower body still felt sticky, and the swollen ache of that foreign sensation seemed to remain, yet he realized he was already back on the floor bedding.
This was the first time anything had forced him to exit in the middle like that. Su Jingyang was stunned too. He lay there hugging the quilt for a while before sitting up, then wiped the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand.
He didn’t know if it was his imagination, yet after vomiting blood, he actually felt much better.
Using the candlelight left in the room, Su Jingyang got up and checked the two on the bed. Seeing that the bigger and smaller one were both sleeping peacefully, he lay back down and went to sleep again.
He thought the system would send him back again, yet he ended up sleeping straight through until he woke naturally.
Before getting up, Su Jingyang’s mind drifted in a messy haze. That man’s spring dream had been cut off midway. Su Jingyang couldn’t help wondering what kind of reaction he would have.
In the pale morning light, Su Jingyang, hair loose and disheveled, was rinsing his mouth in the courtyard when Ling Li actually got up. His steps were unsteady as he walked to Su Jingyang’s side.
Ling Li glanced at him. Before Su Jingyang could react at all, Ling Li dropped to his knees with a heavy thud.
Su Jingyang sprayed the water from his mouth and coughed hard. He hurriedly pulled Ling Li up, only to see tear tracks on Ling Li’s cheeks.
“Ah Li…” Su Jingyang froze.
Ling Li’s tear-filled eyes stared deep into him. “Thank you. Thank you, Jingyang. You’ve helped us, saved us, again and again.”
“Come on, why are you saying that between us?” Su Jingyang said helplessly. “Go lie back down and rest.”
Ling Li’s hand gripped Su Jingyang’s arm, fierce and tight. His head was wrapped in bandages. His face was still pale, his body still swaying with weakness, yet his damp eyes looked straight at Su Jingyang, and his voice was firm and resolute when he spoke.
“Jingyang, I’ll repay you with my whole life. I will, no matter what. I’ll do what I say.”
It was a simple sentence, yet it carried a weight that couldn’t be ignored.
Su Jingyang ended up feeling oddly embarrassed. He let out an awkward little laugh and supported Ling Li back inside. “Sure, sure, repay me. Cook delicious food for me every day and that will do… not now, not now. You’re injured. Heal first, then we’ll talk.”
“…All right.”
Ling Li didn’t want his stubbornness to worsen his injuries, so he listened gently and lay back down to rest.
Ling Li asked whether Su Jingyang was hurt. After vomiting that blood, Su Jingyang felt much lighter in body. He didn’t want to make Ling Li worry, so he shook his head and said he was fine. He then told Ling Li about the black-clad youth.
He skipped over their misunderstanding and the part where he got beaten like a dog. He only said that a very kind, highly skilled young hero had saved A Xuan.
Ling Li was naturally extremely grateful. Hearing that the youth had left right after saving the child, Ling Li sighed with regret and said that if they ever met again, he would invite him to a meal.
Su Jingyang answered, “Of course, of course,” yet in his heart he thought: that youth had said he wasn’t even worthy to know his name, so how could he be worthy to sit at the same table and eat? Su Jingyang didn’t want Ah Li to be mocked too.
Meeting again would be best avoided.
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