Pampered Consort of the Fragrant Orchard-Chapter 17
He Already Knew!
T/N: This chapter might wreck you, please prepare tissues. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
‘Peng—‘
The bowl in Du Xiao Li’s hand immediately fell to the ground; the milky white soup splashed all over the ground.
“Big brother, what did you say?” For the first time since coming to this world, Du Xiao Li felt somewhat panicked. To be exact, it was the first time she felt panicked, ever since joining the organization in her past life.
Du Xiu Heng looked to that familiar face and said word by word, “You’re not my younger sister, who, are, you?”
“I….” Du Xiao Li was just about to open her mouth, when her words were stopped by Du Xiu Heng.
“Don’t say some immortal deity, I won’t believe it. My younger sister has been scared of snakes since she was small. She wouldn’t even dare to look at them, let alone killing one and cooking it.”
Du Xiao Li opened her mouth, wanting to make up an excuse, but seeing Du Xiu Heng’s clear eyes, she discovered that those words all couldn’t come out. She struggled free from Du Xiu Heng’s grasp and sat down on the ground next to him. Gazing towards the distant fields, she said, “You’re right, I’m not your younger sister.”
“Where’s my younger sister? And who are you?” As if it was within his expectations, Du Xiu Heng wasn’t overly shocked. Or rather, from when he suspected to until now, he’d already subconsciously accepted this fact.
“Your younger sister died, I also died. Afterwards, I came back to life in your younger sister’s body.” Du Xiao Li faintly spoke, “She and I have the same name. However, I’ve lived for twenty some years, and she only lived for a few years…”
“No wonder, no wonder….” Du Xiu Heng appeared as if all the strength in his body was pulled out from under him. He leaned back against the wall.
No wonder? Du Xiao Li skeptically looked to Du Xiu Heng.
Du Xiu Heng suddenly covered his face with his hands and started crying. Saying as he cried, “Actually, at the time, I’d already noticed that she’d stopped breathing. In the beginning, mother stopped breathing just like that too. Younger sister looked exactly the same as her. I didn’t believe it, I didn’t want to believe that younger sister also died just like mother. I went to go cook the medicine. Drinking the medicine, younger sister will be better again. Thus, I ran out. Yet when I came back, I discovered that she was alive and could breathe again. She also was able to open her eyes and call me big brother…..”
Du Xiao Li was shocked. Before she came, the former host was already dead?
“But I gradually discovered, this younger sister was no longer the younger sister I was familiar with anymore. The past her was timid, getting scared when seeing strangers. She also wasn’t sensible, often throwing tantrums at home. If things don’t go her way, then she’ll turn the sky upside down. Whenever she smelled medical herbs, she would feel uncomfortable, so it’s simply impossible for her to go to grandpa Niu’s place to study how to differentiate medical plants. She doesn’t know how to cook, and doesn’t know how to treat a snake bite either…..” Du Xiu Heng softly muttered the differences between Du Xiao Li and the former host. “But I was scared, scared to face this reality. Scared that mother would blame me if she knew I didn’t take good care of younger sister. I promised her that I would take good care of younger sister….”
Du Xiao Li didn’t know what to say to comfort him. Du Xiu Heng’s words shattered her right to continue being his younger sister, and it also made her genuinely confront for the first time, the fact that she herself wasn’t someone of this world. Regardless how she avoided, regardless how well she played this role of the younger sister, she ultimately wasn’t her.
In this world, she was just a lonely spirit. Originally, she wanted to find someone to rely on, yet now she was ruthlessly told the truth, she——-wasn’t his younger sister. Then what right did she have to live her life using his younger sister’s name?
“You…..” She wanted to ask him, ‘what do you plan to do?’. Perhaps she was scared, scared for him to tell her to leave with his own mouth, so she only said one word. The rest of her words could no longer come out.
Afterwards, the two just sat there, from midday to sun down. No one said a single word.
After the sky grew dark, Du Xiu Heng fumbled back to his own room. Du Xiao Li continued to sit under the eaves, gazing up at the sky full of stars, yet finding herself increasingly lonely.
Was she someone destined to not have a home, not have loved ones? Even if she got another chance at life, was she still not able to have that heartwarming familial love?
Du Xiu Heng stared at the little figure sitting alone outside under the moonlight. He buried his face in his hands and heavily lied down.
Awhile later, Du Xiao Li returned to her own room, but she didn’t go to sleep, constantly monitoring the situation outside. She didn’t know what kind of decision Du Xiu Heng would make. If he were to run through the night to the village below and tell others that she was a spirit that came back to life possessing a corpse, then according to those people’s views, they would definitely burn her to death. That’s why once Du Xiu Heng goes out, she will immediately leave.
‘Creak—‘
When it reached the latter half of the night, Du Xiu Heng’s door was opened. Du Xiao Li opened her eyes. There was an indescribable grief in her eyes. Looks like this kind of peaceful life was ending.
After waiting until there were no more movements outside, Du Xiao Li slowly flipped down from the bed. She got a piece of cloth and spread it on the bed, using the moonlight to swiftly pack some clothes. She also had the few taels of silver kept on her put in too. She wrapped it up, carrying it as she headed up the mountain.
When she climbed up to the top, she found a place to sit down, and didn’t continue to walk. Entering into the mountains at night isn’t a safe decision. Moreover, right now the villagers still haven’t ascended the mountain. If they don’t come, then she’ll just wait until morning before entering the mountains. And if they do come, it wouldn’t be too late to go then either.
From beginning to end, it’s only been a mere twenty some days since she’s came to this world. She didn’t expect that her life here will be ending in this short amount of time.
“Ai….” Du Xiao Li couldn’t help but let out a sigh.
After sitting for a while, she began to feel sleepy. This once again made her complain about her current body. In her past life, in order to complete missions, she would often not sleep for several days, how was it anything like now.
“Younger sister! Younger sister!” Just when she was about to fall asleep, she seemingly heard Du Xiu Heng faintly calling for herself.
“Must be dreaming!” Du Xiao Li muttered, and decided to continue dozing off for a while.
“Younger sister, where are you?” Du Xiu Heng shouted as he ran up the mountain; his voice filled with heavy worry.
“It really is him.” Du Xiao Li woke up this time, seeing the little man running under the moonlight, “Not scared of injuring his wound running like this…”
Very soon, Du Xiu Heng noticed the person at the top and hastily ran up, saying as he gasped for breath, “What are you doing walking around in the middle of the night? Don’t you know it’s very dangerous?”
“I…..”
“Look at me, in order to find you, this wound is even bleeding.” Du Xiu Heng said, his eyes motionlessly stared at the bundle of luggage at her side, “You’re leaving?”
“I thought you went to go find the villagers to come burn me to death. I thought, once you learned the truth, you wouldn’t want me anymore. That’s why, when I heard you opened the door and went out, I packed my things and hit the road.” Du Xiao Li said.
“I just went to the toilet!” Du Xiu Heng said. When he’d opened the door, he was indeed just going to the toilet.
After knowing the truth of the matter, he kept tossing and turning restlessly in bed, not knowing what to do. He did consider telling this matter to the village chief, but when he’d wanted to make a decision, he also recalled how well Du Xiao Li treated him during this period of time. That’s why, he still decided to let her continue being his younger sister. When he returned from the outhouse, he wanted to go see whether or not Du Xiao Li had gone to sleep. If she wasn’t asleep, then he wanted to tell her his decision.
But, when he went to Du Xiao Li’s room, he discovered that she wasn’t inside. Thus, his entire person panicked. Feeling that her bed was still slightly warm, he knew that she hadn’t been gone long; thus he quickly chased after her.
“Your body is my younger sister’s, so in the future, you’re still my younger sister. Don’t a.s.sume that just because you’ve lived longer than me, I’ll call you big sister!” Du Xiu Heng shot a glare at Du Xiao Li, and said somewhat awkwardly.
Du Xiao Li saw his angry appearance under the moonlight, and immediately burst into laughter. She nodded her head and said, “En, in the future, you’re my big brother, and I’m your younger sister. As the big brother, you need to protect the younger sister!”
Du Xiu Heng picked up Du Xiao Li’s luggage in one hand and held her hand in the other, slowly heading down the mountain, “That is of course. With you all alone in this world, if I don’t protect you, who else will protect you? Besides, I’m the older brother, older brothers should protect little sisters….”
Du Xiao Li looked to the moon in the sky and knowingly smiled.
Du Xiu Heng turned around, and just happened to see the smile on her face. He thought, for his whole life, he’ll always remember tonight’s beautiful scenery.
This night, the moonlight like water, her smiling face like a flower.
T/N: To be honest, I didn’t expect the reveal to happen this early on, but overall this novel is mostly wholesome and heartwarming. Although don’t hold me to that because I didn’t read very far ahead. Also please check out my other translation project on my personal site: !
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