A Cannon Fodder Who Became The Future Queen - Chapter 23

“Huh?” Ji Ping’an looked up at Shen Zhiyu, startled.

As she lifted her neck, the motion pulled at her shoulder, and a tearing pain shot down to her waist. She couldn’t help but hiss.

Shen Zhiyu said, “Didn’t you hear me? Do you need me to say it again?”

“I heard you, I heard you,” Ji Ping’an quickly responded, her voice a little smaller. “It’s just… a bit hard to believe.”

Shen Zhiyu’s voice was as cold as her personality, but the words carried a subtle ambiguity.

“Why is it hard to believe?” Shen Zhiyu took the ointment from her hand.

Ji Ping’an looked at the pottery jar in her hand and still felt it was unbelievable, as if she were in a dream.

That’s Shen Zhiyu! She’s helping me put on medicine with her own hands!

“I thought you were going to refuse and tell me to do it myself.”

Shen Zhiyu glanced at her. “How do you know that wasn’t what I meant?”

Ji Ping’an sat on the edge of the bed and looked at her. “Then why…”

Shen Zhiyu took two steps closer to her, her tone flat. “If I don’t help you, should I let the child do it? There’s no need for Suisui to worry.”

The implication was that if it weren’t for her concern for Suisui’s feelings, she would not have helped Ji Ping’an apply the medicine.

Ji Ping’an smiled, not minding at all. After all, she knew Shen Zhiyu was often saying one thing but meaning another.

If Shen Zhiyu had said, “I’m worried about you, that’s why I’m helping you,” Ji Ping’an would have suspected that the person inside her was a different one.

She blinked and said, “Then I’m riding on Suisui’s coattails.”

Shen Zhiyu hummed in agreement and reminded her, “Take off your clothes.”

Her tone was calm, and the last word was said so softly that Ji Ping’an’s heart skipped a beat.

She lowered her head and began to unbutton her clothes. The outer garment only had three cloth buttons on the side of the collar, and the rest was held together by a belt. With a light tug, she could take it off.

She tossed the removed clothes onto a nearby stool, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw Shen Zhiyu still standing there.

My movements, which had been natural, suddenly paused. “Do… I have to take off my inner garments, too?”

Shen Zhiyu thought the Qianyuan in front of her was not very bright. “How else will I put on the medicine?”

Ji Ping’an turned her back to her. “Then when I take it off, you’re not allowed to call me a hooligan.”

She hadn’t forgotten what had happened before. Shen Zhiyu must not like it when her clothes were not put together properly.

Shen Zhiyu was silent for a moment, then said, “I know the difference between applying medicine and being a hooligan.”

Ji Ping’an finally felt at ease. Her fingers rested on the buttons of her inner garment. After unbuttoning it, she pulled the garment down from her shoulders to her waist, then grabbed another piece of clothing and draped it across her chest.

Shen Zhiyu, whose eyes had been on her the whole time, also saw the injuries on Qianyuan’s body.

Ji Ping’an’s back was beautiful and straight, and the curve of her shoulder blades extended down to her waist. With every breath, you could see the rise and fall of her lean muscles and bones.

But a clear wound now ran across her back like a flaw in a piece of jade, ruining its beauty.

The room was very quiet. Ji Ping’an, who hadn’t heard the person behind her say anything, couldn’t help but ask, “Is it serious?”

The longer the silence, the more afraid she was!

“A little,” Shen Zhiyu described her injury. “The left shoulder is just a scrape, but it gets more serious the closer it is to your waist. It’s not bleeding anymore, though.”

Ji Ping’an nodded. “No wonder my waist hurts more.”

“How did you get injured?”

Shen Zhiyu didn’t rush to apply the medicine. Instead, she first got a cloth and helped her wipe the bl00d off.

Ji Ping’an said, “When I went to pick up the rabbit, I didn’t notice that there were thorns on a branch next to me, and I scraped my back on it when I stood up.”

“So you’re just now feeling the pain?”

It would have taken at least two or three quarters of an hour to get from the mountain to the house.

“It did hurt a little at the time, but I didn’t know I was injured, and I wasn’t paying any attention.”

Shen Zhiyu felt even more that the person in front of her was a bit foolish. “Didn’t you say it wasn’t dangerous before you left?”

When Ji Ping’an had left the house, she was so confident, but in less than half a day, she had returned with an injury.

Ji Ping’an coughed, trying to explain herself. “I really didn’t encounter anything dangerous on the mountain. The injury was a complete accident…”

Before Ji Ping’an could finish her sentence, she felt the touch of the cloth change. Shen Zhiyu’s slightly cool fingertips touched her back directly.

“I’m applying the medicine,” Shen Zhiyu said.

The ointment was cool, and Shen Zhiyu’s fingertips were not warm either, but Ji Ping’an’s body temperature was a bit higher, so the sensation was especially clear.

She could distinctly feel the other’s fingertips landing on her shoulder, gently making circles through the ointment until it became a thin layer.

The original pain turned into a slight numbness and itchiness. Ji Ping’an couldn’t help but curl her fingertips, and her back became even straighter.

Shen Zhiyu asked her, “Why are you flinching?”

Ji Ping’an felt the numbness and itchiness travel from her shoulder, down her arm to her palm, and even her speech was a little distracted. “Did I flinch? No, I didn’t.”

She said she didn’t flinch, but her body had honestly moved away from Shen Zhiyu.

Shen Zhiyu: “…”

“Don’t move,” she said, pressing down on the shoulders of the person in front of her.

The touch of her hand was obvious, and her cool voice reached Ji Ping’an’s ears. She felt as if even her ears were infected, carrying a sense of warmth and unease, but she still obeyed. “I won’t move.”

Shen Zhiyu put a little more of the milky-white medicine on her hand and began to apply it to the wound on her waist.

Ji Ping’an’s waist was even more sensitive than her shoulder. When the cool ointment was applied to the torn skin, Ji Ping’an wanted to move as soon as Shen Zhiyu touched her.

Shen Zhiyu noticed, but she didn’t stop. “Is it very painful, or are you afraid of me applying the medicine?”

“It’s a little painful,” Ji Ping’an said honestly. When she felt a little more comfortable, she tried to joke, “But you wouldn’t put poison on me, would you?”

Shen Zhiyu’s gaze was fixed on the wound on her waist. She said flatly, “It might not be poison. It could be a medicine that makes your skin rot or prevents it from healing.”

When Ji Ping’an heard this, she became much more alert. “You wouldn’t, would you?”

After all, Shen Zhiyu’s favorability wasn’t low enough to kill her!

Shen Zhiyu: “Why not?”

“The family is too poor to afford that kind of medicine,” Ji Ping’an said honestly.

Shen Zhiyu: “…Shut up.”

Ji Ping’an said “oh” and hugged the clothes in front of her tightly, imagining herself as a poor little thing being bullied by Shen Zhiyu.

After the medicine was applied, Ji Ping’an changed into a new set of clothes. Shen Zhiyu was no longer in the room; only the ointment was left on the table.

When I entered the kitchen, Suisui had already made dinner. Seeing me, she quickly asked, “Sister, are you okay?”

Ji Ping’an smiled and said to her, “Sister Jiu helped me put on the medicine. It doesn’t hurt.”

“Then eat a lot of dinner tonight, Sister.”

After saying that, Suisui ran out of the kitchen, looking a bit anxious.

“Suisui?”

I couldn’t call her back and could only ask Shen Zhiyu, “Did Suisui finish eating?”

Shen Zhiyu shook her head. “Dinner was just made. She hasn’t eaten yet.”

I was curious. “Then what is she going to do?”

Shen Zhiyu looked at the kitchen door. “I’m not sure.”

Usually, Suisui wasn’t this anxious and wouldn’t leave without saying anything.

“Should I go out and check on her?”

Shen Zhiyu glanced at my back. “I’ll go.”

As soon as she spoke, Suisui had already returned to the kitchen.

“What did you just go do?” I asked her.

Suisui came to me and opened her palm. It was a bag of malt candy. “I got some candy for you to eat, Sister.”

To her, eating a piece of candy would make her feel much better if she were injured or sick.

I patted her head, took a piece of candy out, and put it to Suisui’s mouth, smiling. “Thank you, our Suisui.”

“You’re… welcome,” Suisui’s words were muffled by the candy. She put it in her mouth and then continued, “You should eat some too, Sister.”

I nodded, took two more pieces of candy out. I put one in my own mouth and handed the other to Shen Zhiyu.

I smiled at the person in front of me. “Thank you, too, Sister Jiu. This is my thank-you gift for helping me with the medicine.”

Shen Zhiyu glanced at me before taking the candy from my hand.

That night, the three of us still slept in the same room. It was dark, and all we could hear was the sound of the wind and rain outside.

Because of the injury on my left shoulder, I could only sleep on my side, which meant I was facing Shen Zhiyu.

The injured area ached when I lay down, so I couldn’t sleep. I first looked at the system panel.

[Shen Zhiyu’s current health: 47 (max 100)]

[Shen Zhiyu’s current favorability: -30 (max100)]

[Current draw card count: 15]

I looked at the number of card draws and felt a strong urge to use them, but I remembered what had happened last time with the dropped items. I would have to wait until the house was repaired before I could draw.

Shen Zhiyu’s health was also increasing steadily. Ji Ping’an closed the system panel and her eyes, thinking again about the medicine from earlier.

The lamp was still lit then, and Shen Zhiyu’s shadow fell in front of her.

Although she had said she would apply poison, Ji Ping’an actually felt that her movements were very gentle, and she didn’t feel any unnecessary pain.

The next day, Ji Ping’an woke up and saw a cold, beautiful face.

The bed itself wasn’t big, and with three people in it, the quilts were practically touching, with very little distance between them.

Seeing that she was awake, I greeted her first. “Morning.”

Shen Zhiyu didn’t reply. She just said, “Lift your head.”

My mind hadn’t caught up, but my body already moved according to her words.

After I lifted my head, Shen Zhiyu sat up from the bed. A strand of her hair brushed across my neck, a faint itchiness that disappeared as quickly as it came.

I now realized what had happened. “Did I lie on your hair?”

Both of us had long hair, which fell to our waists when not pinned up.

Shen Zhiyu hummed in response, not thinking much of it. She just asked, “Should we still apply the medicine tonight?”

Suisui woke up then too, her little head turning to look at me.

“…Okay.”

I was surprised that Shen Zhiyu was more casual about this than I was.

Because of my injury and the continuous rain, I gave up on the idea of going back up the mountain for a while and stayed home to recover.

I had wanted to make breakfast, but Suisui wouldn’t let me. “Sister, you should rest. Sister Jiu and I can do it.”

I laughed. “Are you telling me I just have to sit back and be waited on?”

Suisui thought for a moment, understood what I meant, and nodded. “Yes, Sister.”

The smile on my face grew even wider. “Alright then, I’ll sit over here and remind you two about the heat.”

Shen Zhiyu was helping, and Suisui was carefully watching the porridge boiling in the pot. The rain pattered down, and Xiao Huang the chick hid under the eaves, occasionally pecking at the wild grass we had thrown to it.

I suddenly remembered that when I first started as a video blogger, some fans suggested that I feature family or cats more often, as it would make my videos feel more authentic.

At the time, I wondered why. My videos were all about daily life—waking up, cooking, planting and harvesting vegetables, tending to flowers and pulling weeds… How could that not be authentic?

But now, I understood a little better.

I couldn’t help but say, “Sister Jiu…”

When she heard her name, Shen Zhiyu was trimming the pea shoots in her hands. She used her fingertips to remove the bad leaves and then snapped off a small piece of the stem near the bottom. The vibrant green of the pea shoots made her skin look even paler.

A simple action, yet Shen Zhiyu did it with a unique grace.

“What is it?” Shen Zhiyu looked at me.

I paused for a moment before saying, “Let’s pick more pea shoots. I want to eat them.”

Picking pea shoots didn’t require using her shoulders or back, but Shen Zhiyu wasn’t going to indulge me. She handed me a bunch of pea shoots and said, “Do it yourself.”

I sighed. “…”

What is this “authentic daily life”? It’s all oppression.

*******

Two or three days later, the continuous rainy weather finally cleared up. The sun hung high in the sky, and without even looking up, its light was dazzling.

Suisui was squatting by the vegetable patch. “Sister, they’re growing so fast.”

The vegetables in the yard were growing at an incredible speed. They looked different every day. Just a few days ago, they were seedlings barely out of the soil, but today they were already up to my ankles, with four or five more leaves.

The sunlight hit the leaves, and the water droplets on them instantly evaporated.

I said to her, “When the yard-long beans grow a little more, we’ll build a trellis, and the vegetable shoots will be able to grow up the wooden frame.”

Shen Zhiyu heard this and asked, “Grow upward?”

For some reason, when she heard my words, her mind didn’t form a corresponding image. She could only imagine something like the branches of a flowering crabapple tree.

I explained to her, “That’s right. The beanstalks can grow even taller than a person. Building a trellis will also make it easier to pick the vegetables later.”

As I spoke, I used my hand to show her the height so she could get a clearer picture.

Taking advantage of the good weather, we also took out the wet bedding.

After a few days of resting, the wound on my back had begun to scab over, and I couldn’t feel any pain. “Let’s move the bed out to dry too.”

“Sister, we’ll help you too.” Suisui and Shen Zhiyu followed me into the room.

I didn’t stop them. “Alright, just let go if your hands start to hurt.”

I lifted one side, and Suisui and Shen Zhiyu lifted the other. The three of us worked together to move the bed out into the yard to dry.

“Sister, why did the bed feel so light?” Suisui asked curiously. She hadn’t put much effort into lifting it.

I laughed. “That’s because our Suisui’s strength has grown.”

Shen Zhiyu glanced at me. She knew that most of the bed’s weight had been on my side. The combined strength of her and Suisui probably couldn’t compare to mine.

That night wasn’t a fluke. I really did have the strength to lift a whole bed.

Suisui believed me and was especially happy. “Sister, really?”

“Of course. Why don’t you try lifting the bed by yourself?”

I made way for her and then gave Shen Zhiyu a wink: Don’t expose me.

Shen Zhiyu: “…”

Even tricking a child.

Suisui stood in place, clenched her little fists, and then placed her hands on the bottom edge of the bed, trying her best to lift it.

After a while, Suisui was almost out of strength and had to let go. She looked up at me, her voice no longer happy. “Sister, why can’t I lift the bed?”

“What do you mean you couldn’t? You actually lifted a leg of the bed just now, you just didn’t see it.”

“Sister Jiu and I both saw it,” I said, looking at Shen Zhiyu. “Isn’t that right, Sister Jiu?”

Shen Zhiyu: “…Yes.”

She had become a liar to a child, too.

I smiled. “Suisui has been eating well these past few days, so her strength has also grown. You still have to eat well from now on so you can get even stronger. Maybe one day you’ll be able to lift the whole bed by yourself.”

The previously dejected Suisui now had a lot more confidence. “I will, Sister.”

After that, I took the miscellaneous grass and straw mats off the bed. “These get damp easily even after being dried, so we’ll just burn them in the kitchen. We’ll find some new ones to lay down.”

Suisui nodded. “Sister Jiu and I will go outside and find some thatch.”

I smiled and patted her head. “Find a lot of thatch. We’ll fix the roof today too.”

Shen Zhiyu heard this and asked, “Can we fix it today?”

I estimated the area that needed fixing. “We should be able to.”

Shen Zhiyu asked, “Then we can go back to our room tonight?”

“We still can’t. We’ll have to crowd in tonight.”

Shen Zhiyu: “Why?”

“The bed won’t dry today. It needs to dry for one or two more days until it’s completely dry. Otherwise, wet wood is easy to get bugs.”

“Bugs?” Shen Zhiyu frowned.

For some reason, a fragment of a memory flashed through her mind, like many bugs swarming toward her.

But before she could react, the fragments disappeared, leaving her unable to remember anything at all.

I said, “Damp places are prone to bugs, and when the weather gets warmer, there will be mosquitoes. I have some insect repellent medicine. I’ll sprinkle some in your room in a little while.”

Shen Zhiyu hummed in response and went outside with Suisui to gather thatch.

I turned in a different direction from the house. We didn’t have a ladder, so I had to go to Fugui’s house to borrow one.

Unexpectedly, when I went to Fugui’s house to ask for the ladder, Fugui’s mother insisted that Fugui come along to help.

“I can do it myself. Fixing a roof isn’t difficult,” I told Fugui’s mother.

Fugui’s mother’s attitude toward me was now completely different from before. “You haven’t fixed a roof by yourself before, have you? Sister Jiu and Suisui don’t look like they can do this kind of work either. It’s better to let Fugui go with you and take a look. She does this all the time.”

“If the roof isn’t fixed well, and the wind or rain comes another day, your room might start leaking again. Wouldn’t that be more troublesome then?”

Fugui’s father was carving wood, but that didn’t stop him from talking. “That’s right. Look at our roof. Fugui fixed it, and we didn’t have a single problem during this rain.”

“Fugui isn’t working today and has nothing to do at home. The two of you can fix it faster, and you won’t have to worry about the rain anymore.”

Fugui’s mother and father spoke one after the other. I was left speechless and couldn’t refuse. In the end, I went with Fugui to carry the ladder.

On the way, I said to Fugui, “I’m sorry for the trouble.”

“It’s no trouble.” Fugui was a bit more talkative in front of someone her own age. “At home, my parents are always talking about me getting married.”

Following me gave her a moment of peace and quiet.

I laughed. There were people pressuring others to get married in every era.

When we arrived home, Shen Zhiyu and Suisui had also returned with armfuls of thatch. They had found a lot, and it was piled up in a large heap.

Shen Zhiyu simply nodded to Fugui as a greeting. Suisui, who was originally following beside Shen Zhiyu’s leg, hesitated when she saw Fugui, then poked her head out from behind Shen Zhiyu’s leg and quietly called out, “Sister Fugui.”

Seeing Fugui respond, Suisui let out a sigh of relief, and a very small smile formed on her lips.

I noticed and smiled. “This thatch should be enough. You two should rest and drink some water.”

Fugui and I then went to dig up some mud from outside the yard. We mixed it with some ashes and water to make the clay for repairing the roof.

I asked Fugui, “Is the clay ready to be used?”

Fugui nodded. “Yes. I’ll go up and fix it later, okay?”

I didn’t agree. “Just tell me how to fix it later. I can do it myself.”

The house was old, and it could start leaking in a different place another day. It was better for me to learn how to do it myself so I wouldn’t have to keep bothering Fugui in the future.

Fugui understood this and began to explain how to fix the roof. “First, you lay some dry thatch on the leaky spot on the roof, lay two rows vertically, and tie them tightly with straw rope. Then you spread a thick layer of the clay on top. Finally, you lay some fine thatch or straw on top of that and press it down firmly.”

Shen Zhiyu was taking small sips of water on the side, but she was listening intently.

After I asked a few more specific questions, I felt that I had a good grasp of it. I climbed up the ladder, ready to fix the roof.

I started with the roof of Shen Zhiyu and Suisui’s room. Fortunately, the damaged area wasn’t too big and could be fixed with thatch.

“Ping’an, take the clay.” Fugui handed me the pottery jar filled with clay from below.

I bent down to take the jar, but at that moment, as my body shifted to one side, the ladder began to sway.

Before I could say anything, I felt the ladder become stable again.

I placed the jar on the roof and looked down at the eaves, meeting Shen Zhiyu’s gaze.

I blinked and asked, “Did you hold the ladder just now?”

“It was on my way,” Shen Zhiyu said.

She was close by and instinctively reached out when she saw the ladder sway. After saying that, she let go.

I smiled. “Thank you, Sister Jiu~”

Shen Zhiyu didn’t want me to misunderstand. “I just didn’t want to get hit.”

I said, “Oh,” but the smile in my eyes remained. I said slowly, “I still have to thank you~”