The Plough – Chapter 16

Ling Shu has amnesia.
When Ling Shu opened his eyes. He seemed to be in a state of shock.

All he could see was white before his eyes.

A vast expansiveness of white which had a certain familiarity to it. In his puzzled state, he seemed to have returned to a world of snow and ice.

That kind of feeling was etched in his memory.

Someone who has just jumped into the ice and snow does not feel the cold. Used to seeing the flowing water under the bridge, people from the South who see the deep and majestic nature of the ice and snow for the first time; aside from awe-inspiring, they can’t find any other adjectives to describe it.

But this feeling won’t last long, and soon the whole body will be permeated with the cold. First from the clothes that are not thick enough, into the skin and muscles, and then finally deep into their bones, people finally understand that the icy cold is not just an adjective, but it is a state of being.

Hands that are left exposed for more than five minutes will start to feel numb and painful, but it’s not possible to put that hand back into his pocket to warm up. Because he still had a gun in his hand. He also couldn’t stand up to shake the snow off of his body, nor stomp his feet to warm up. Working hard to hide in the snow and ice, trying to blend into the snow until the moment he can open fire.

Dizzy as if time and space were reversed, switching back and forth between illusion and reality, even if his body was still lying down, it was difficult to control the chaotic thoughts in his mind. Ling Shu couldn’t help frowning and closing his eyes again.

“You’re awake!”

He heard a familiar voice.

It sounded a little excited but also a little cautious, in case if she spoke too loud it would worsen his injury.

Ling Shu didn’t open his eyes, but raised his hand in Ling Yao’s direction.

A slight tingling came from the back of the hand.

“Don’t move, you’re hooked up to an IV!”

Ling Yao hurriedly stopped him, holding his hand and then using as little force as possible, put it back beside him on the bed.

“Are you able to speak, do you feel any discomfort?”

This other voice was male, it was deep and pleasing to the ear, but not too deep.

Like the ice water leftover after the snow melted, it brought with it a steady calm, unable to be easily shaken by anything.

Ling Shu finally opened his eyes.

His movements were very slow and his discomfort was clearly visible.

The two people in his room were quiet and did not dare to rush him.

They saw Ling Shu’s gaze slowly turning around them, with a puzzled expression on his face.

Ling Yao’s heart skipped a beat, hanging in the air.

Then she heard Ling Shu say something unexpected, she didn’t dare to believe it and she couldn’t believe it.

“You two, who are you?”

Ling Yao’s legs suddenly weakened, if Yue Dingtang hadn’t caught her in time, she would have fallen straight on to her back.

Xiao-di!”

Ling Yao’s eyes were full of tears, letting out a sob.

Yue Dingtang’s face dropped, he helped Ling Yao to sit down.

“You don’t remember anything? Well, do you still remember who you are?”

Ling Shu stared at him blankly, and then shook his head.

Ling Yao couldn’t help pouting and shaking her head.

The doctor had told them before that the patient had suffered an injury to his head. When he awoke, he might suffer from temporary memory loss. But hearing this and seeing it for herself, Ling Yao thought since the fall of the Ling family she had not received such a big shock since, she was not sure if she could endure it.
“Your name is Ling Shu, the Ling in thick ice1凌冰 Lingering – again, Chinese doesn’t have an alphabet and different characters can sound the same so they just have to “spell” it out with words., the Shu like in Dubhe of the Plough constellation2=The Big Dipper (US)/Beidou (CN). 樞 (Shu) refers to one of the seven stars in this constellation in English – known as Dubhe or Alpha Ursae Majoris.

This is your elder sister. Her name is Ling Yao,like Yao in remote3遥远 Yaoyuan, far away.”

“The doctor said that you were hit in the head and you had ten stitches. For a short while, you may be confused and your memory might be fuzzy.”

“Now don’t be too worried, once you’re a bit better, you will slowly remember.”

Yue Dingtang had a gentle face, spoke slowly, in case Ling Shu couldn’t understand him properly.

Pity that Ling Shu still looked as perplexed as before.

“And who might you be?”

He looked towards Yue Dingtang.

“I am Yue Dingtang, Yue in Yue Fei. I’m from a family of three boys and one girl. All the boys have names according to previous dynasties. I’m the third, I have two older brothers, they are Dingqin and Dingjin. My older sister is Yue Chunxiao, you’ve also met her before,she really likes you and even asked if you would like to come over for dinner when you’re free.”

Yue Dingtang used unprecedented patience and tolerance to explain his name in detail.

Ling Shu was puzzled: “Who is Yue Fei?”

Yue Dingtang: “A famous general in history.”

Ling Shu: “What is the relationship between you and I?”

Yue Dingtang sighed: “We were high school classmates, in the past we got on really well, so close that we were like brothers. Every time you had something good to eat, you’d share it with me. When we had exams you would let me see your answers. One time I was late, you even covered for me to not let the teacher know. Later, you asked to borrow five hundred yuan from me, you said it was to go to the brothel to discover the world. I didn’t ask further and gave it to you, even though you still haven’t paid me back, I never asked for it back.”

Ling Yao stopped sobbing and suddenly looked up.
“What brothel? What five hundred yuan?”

Yue Dingtang looked serious: “Da-jie, since Ling Shu is like this, let’s not talk about all that, we can discuss it later, anyway I’m not in need of that five hundred yuan.”

Ling Yao: “No way, five hundred yuan is not a small amount, I didn’t know that he asked you to borrow so much money behind my back, you wait here, I’ll go home first to get the money, even if I have to scrape it together from others, I must return it to you!”

Ling Shu:……

Yue Dingtang got up to stop her.

“Da-jie, don’t be like this, however much you have is fine for now, the rest we can just wait for Ling Shu to get better and sort it out!”

“A debt must be repaid, this is a just and unalterable fact. Even though our Ling family is not as wealthy as before, I won’t let anyone say that the Ling family doesn’t pay back their debts!”

“Pay back my *ss!”

Ling Shu couldn’t take it any longer.

“I have never borrowed money from the one surnamed Yue, and I’ve never been to any brothel. You don’t even believe your own brother, you’re getting led by the nose by the one surnamed Yue!”

Ling Yao stared blankly for a short moment and then flew into a fit of fury.

“So you’re pretending to have amnesia?!”

She had raging flames coming out of the back of her head and then she took a few steps over to him and grabbed him by the ear!

“You’re grown up now or have you just got too much courage. Do you know how worried I was about you! You’re out there getting into trouble everyday, now you’ve even been accused of murder. You even wanted to keep me in the dark! This time it’s good, your head has been cracked open, you’re in hospital and that’s how I find out! Have you even thought about how scared I was when I saw your injuries! Why don’t I kill you today in the name of our parents, and have you go down there first and accompany them to play Mahjong!”

Ling Shu’s face was pale and shaky, even the IV on the back of his hand began to flow backwards.

When Yue Dingtang saw that the situation was going South, he hurried up and pulled the angry Ling Yao away.

“Da-jie, if you have something to say, don’t get too worked up, he just had some stitches in his head and he’s still dizzy.”

“No way will I let it go, if he doesn’t die today, I’ll probably die from anger!”

Ling Yao wasn’t in a good mood, but her voice quietened down a bit.

Luckily the nurse came in at this moment, seeing that Ling Yao was still pinching the patient’s ear, she frowned.

“What are you doing, don’t you know that the patient needs rest now?”

Ling Yao let go, embarrassed, she said: “Sorry.”

The nurse went over to Ling Shu to change the IV.

“How are you feeling?”

“A bit dizzy.”

“My hand hurts, and so does my ear.”

“Nurse, my whole body hurts.”

Ling Shu’s face was pale, his breathing slowed down, he looked up at the nurse like he had seen an angel who had descended down from the sky.

The nurse glared at Ling Yao and Yue Dingtang.

“Family members, please take good care of the patient, don’t make loud noises, which will affect the patient’s recovery, otherwise I can only ask the doctor to come.”

When she turned her head to face Ling Shu, she returned to her soft-spoken tenderness.

“Don’t be afraid, if they continue to cause trouble, you just need to ring the bell and we will come immediately.”

“Thank you nurse.” Ling Shu smiled at her gratefully.
Ling Yao, Yue Dingtang:……

After finally waiting for the nurse to change up the IV, the nurse repeatedly told them not to affect the patient’s rest, and then left with the medicine tray. Ling Yao was so angry that she wanted to screw Ling Shu’s ears off.

Under her deathly stare, Ling Shu clutched his head and said weakly, “I am afraid of you scolding me.”

Ling Yao was angry and distressed: “Don’t think I won’t scold you if you’re like this! Now the major newspapers and tabloids have all reported on it. There are even some malicious ones who have released your name out there, even if you didn’t tell me, there’s no way to hide it! ”

Ling Shu: “If I could have caught the culprit before the newspaper were able to report it then I wouldn’t have had to tell you. Don’t worry, we’ve already made some headway in the case.”

Ling Yao: “If you rest well, I’ll be less worried!”

She wanted to say a few more words. Seeing Ling Shu holding up his forehead with an uncomfortable expression, she shut up quickly.

“Jie, I want to eat oranges.” said Ling Shu coquettishly.

“It’s freezing outside, who’s going to be selling oranges!”Ling Yao finished talking and then added: “I’ll go out and take a look, you can drink up the chicken soup first!”

Then she said to Yue Dingtang: “I’ve prepared two bowls of chicken soup, you can have one with my brother, you also need to rest so stop running about!”

Yue Dingtang smiled: “Don’t worry da-jie, my arm was just grazed by the bullet. It’s not serious, I’ll look after him so you can go now.”

After Ling Yao left, the two of them started staring at each other; not knowing what to do.

In the room, there were two sick beds, one for Ling Shu and one for Yue Dingtang.

Ling Shu was lying on the bed, and as soon as he moved he’d get dizzy.

Whilst aside from a bandaged arm, Yue Dingtang hadn’t even changed into a patient’s gown, and he could still move freely.

The more he looked the more out of sorts he felt.

“How did you know I was pretending?” He couldn’t hold it in any longer.

Yue Dingtang was unperturbed: “The doctor said that you might have short term memory loss but you were questioning the origins of my name and you didn’t even know who Yue Fei was. So weren’t you blatantly pretending? How could I bear da-jie to keep on worrying about you?”

Ling Shu snorted and said in his heart – it was you I wanted to mess with.

“I risked my life to save you, is that how you speak to your saviour?”

Yue Dingtang nodded: “In order to repay you for saving my life, I have already discussed it with da-jie.”

Ling Shu: ?

Yue Dingtang: “Once this case is solved, I thought of a way to get you a safe and steady job, as my teaching assistant.”

Ling Shu: ???

Yue Dingtang:“You don’t need to be so touched, it seems like you are also really pleased with this arrangement, I’m relieved.”

Ling Shu put on a fake smile: “In what world would I be happy about this? I will never work for you, so you can just forget that now.”

Yue Dingtang was astonished: “But da-jie is really pleased about it, isn’t she the matriarch of the family?”

Ling Shu: “Stop calling her da-jie like you’re so close, that’s my da-jie.”

He was dizzy with anger, his eyes blackened over and he couldn’t help but tilt to the side.

He felt his head being supported by a firm hand, and a warm body behind his back.

“Okok, it’s your da-jie, not my da-jie. Regarding the job, let’s talk about it later. There a new development in the case, let’s wait for you to get better before we discuss it.”

Yue Dingtang was really afraid that he would faint on the spot, causing himself to be scolded by the nurses again, it was a rare compromise.
Author Note:

Ling Shu :F*ck it,the one surnamed Yue is digging pits for me everyday.

Yue Dingtang: Ahah, you were just trying to dig a pit for me but you didn’t succeed.

4 thoughts on “The Plough – Chapter 16”

  1. I’ve been enjoying reading this, and this chapter made me laugh. I love Ling Shu and Yue Dingtang’s interactions.

    Reply
  2. I love their interactions so much. Ling Shu is lucky to have such a gentle (future) boyfriend lol.
    Thank you for the chapter!

    Reply

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