Chapter 10

That night, strangely enough, he didn't have any nightmares. Chen Jue actually slept all the way until broad daylight. When he opened his eyes and saw such bright light coming through the thick paper window covering, it gave him a start.

He lay in bed, still groggy, stretching his arms, feeling incredibly refreshed.

So this was what a good night's sleep felt like—it had been ages.

Chen Jue got out of bed, pushed open the door, and saw the rooster on the tree with its head drooping.

Chen Jue paused. Did it die?

So that's why he'd slept like a log last night—this rooster hadn't crowed at all.

Chen Jue went over, grabbed the rooster by the neck to see if it was still alive. He pulled it down from the tree. The chicken's eyes opened once and shut again, its tiny, bead-like eyes rolling slightly.

Chen Jue checked it all over. No wounds.

It didn't seem to have eaten anything toxic either... poison...

Chen Jue looked over at the dodder vine and fleeceflower root he had laid out to dry on the bamboo tray, and understood—this greedy chicken had gotten into the sleeping herbs.

"You know how to dose yourself now, huh?" Chen Jue didn't know what else to say to it.

He put it back on the tree branch to let it sleep it off. Since this chicken was going to be the New Year's dinner anyway, he might as well let it live for now. Maybe it could help him test his herbs on in the future.

Chen Jue went to the vegetable garden and picked some greens for boiling. With his current skill level, he wouldn't attempt anything advanced like stir-frying—boiling was safer.

He boiled eggs and greens. The egg in the chicken coop was still warm, so he boiled it together with the three wild eggs left over from yesterday.

Once cooked, he brought them out and set them on a wooden stump that doubled as a dining table. He had to let them cool a bit before eating. The smell of the eggs kept hitting his nose.

This hadn't happened before. He used to eat boiled eggs too—Director Zhou boiled eggs for him and Dean Chen every morning. He didn't dislike eggs, but for some reason, the smell was so strong now.

Even worse than last night.

He couldn't take it anymore. Chen Jue went over to the basin beside him and retched for a bit, bringing up nothing but water.

Chen Jue leaned against the wall, his eyes red at the corners. He thought, being pregnant is no joke.

The rooster on the tree was awakened by his dry heaving and flapped down awkwardly.

When it finally looked at where Chen Jue had thrown up and found nothing, it tilted its head and looked at him, its tiny eyes full of suspicion.

Chen Jue ignored it and slowly turned away.

This rooster, like it had some kind of spirit, had gotten used to freeloading, waiting all day for him to puke.

He still needed to kill it.

Chen Jue thought about this as he drank a few sips of warm water to settle his stomach. Then he sat down at the wooden stump and ate two eggs with the pickled peppers Uncle Liu's family had made.

Although pregnant folks should go easy on pickled veggies, as long as he could get something down, anything was fine.

After breakfast, Chen Jue shouldered his basket and, while it was still early, headed back up the mountain.

Today he took a different route. This mountain was big enough to keep him exploring for half a month without ever taking the same path twice.

Along the way today, he ran into villagers coming back from the fields in dribs and drabs. Yesterday he'd gone up the mountain near noon and hadn't encountered these people going home to eat.

The villagers greeted him. Chen Jue didn't recognize most of them—his predecessor hadn't left him many memories. He couldn't even remember where his vegetable plots were, let alone these villagers. But since they were so friendly, he just nodded back.

He didn't know how well the original Chen Jue had gotten along with these villagers, but from now on, this was how things would be.

His personality was naturally like this. Even if he forced himself to fake it, he couldn't keep it up for more than a few days. So he might as well let things take their natural course and let them get used to it sooner.

A plump auntie carrying a hoe greeted him enthusiastically: "Jue Geer, you're heading up the mountain to gather herbs? Aren't you something!"

Another woman, thinner, also looked him over: "Jue Geer, aren't you pregnant? Almost three months now, right? Let me tell you, you need to be extra careful in these first three months."

A young man with a kind face also said: "That's right, you even had the doctor come look at you. You should rest properly."

Chen Jue's steps paused slightly. It seemed the whole village knew he was pregnant. Wasn't that only four days ago?

Just as he was thinking about this, a dark-faced young man who had passed him turned back and said: "I heard you also fell into the river and passed out, right? You should be even more careful. You men sure don't have it easy carrying a child."

A plump woman further ahead turned around and hollered: "Mind your own business! What, are you feeling sorry for him because he fainted?! Is that baby in his belly yours?! He's got a father who dotes on him—don't go trying to be his daddy. His father just hasn't come back yet, he's not dead, you know..."

Chen Jue frowned slightly. That stung. Especially since Huo Lin really was dead.

Seeing Chen Jue staring at her, the woman snorted, turned around, grabbed the dark-faced young man, and strode off.

After the two of them left, the auntie carrying the hoe shook her head and said: "Jue Geer, don't mind Hehua. She's a jealous one. If her man so much as looks at another man or woman, she gets all bent out of shape."

Quite the jealous one, huh.

Chen Jue just nodded and kept going up the mountain.

He heard the people behind him talking behind his back again about how rude he was.

"What's wrong with this Jue Geer, acting like he's mute? He used to greet people, but now he won't even say a word?"

"This Jue Geer was always like a block of wood. He's been living in our village for a year now, and I've hardly heard him speak more than a few times. Don't bother trying to get close to him in the future. What's the point? He lives so far from everyone. No point in dealing with him."

"I was just thinking, since he's pregnant and living all alone at the foot of the mountain, I'd go talk to him. Who knew he'd still be like that."

"He and that Huo Lin really are two of a kind—both so cold. That Huo Lin was the same way, rarely had anything to do with us villagers. Look at his husband this time when he fell into the river—besides the village head's wife and that widower Liu next door coming to visit him, who else set foot in his house? His family just keeps to themselves."

"Alright, enough. Let's go. Time to head home for lunch. Wonder if the missus has it ready."

That widower Liu was probably Uncle Liu. Chen Jue didn't know what to make of that title. Probably before long, he'd be given the same one—Widower Chen.

At the thought of that term, the corner of Chen Jue's mouth twitched a little.

Whatever. Let them call him whatever they wanted. They were all saying it behind his back anyway, and he couldn't hear them.

Chen Jue turned off onto another mountain path. Today he felt much better, he felt noticeably lighter on his feet. Although the child in his belly was almost three months along, it wasn't even close to showing yet, so when he felt good, there was no difference from usual.

His harvest that day was pretty good. He'd covered most of the front side of the mountain, learning where the medicinal herbs were. He found the spots where honeysuckle and chrysanthemum grew, picked half a bag of each while the sun wasn't too strong, and also gathered a small half-basket of angelica root and a ginseng plant about fifteen years old.

Chen Jue sat under a tree looking at the ginseng, brushing the dirt off the root.

This was pure wild ginseng—even at fifteen years old, it was only as thick as a pinky finger, though it had plenty of thin roots. That was characteristic of wild ginseng; it didn't grow as fast as farm-grown ones.

He was in a hurry to turn it into silver, so he couldn't wait for it to grow any bigger.

Once he'd cleaned the ginseng off, Chen Jue tucked it into the inner pocket of his clothes, against his chest.

Then he leaned against the tree and had a bite to eat.

He was planning to eat small meals more often. Since he'd thrown up an egg at noon, Chen Jue felt, for the first time, a pang of guilt about wasting food.

After finishing another egg, he also ate a handful of the milk berries he'd picked today—milky white and fragrant.

He was probably really craving them. In the past, he'd disliked milk the most; he wouldn't even put it in his coffee.

But now, he was drooling over these little berries that smelled like milk.

Chen Jue bit into a berry with a crunch, savoring the sweet, milky taste exploding in his mouth.

He let out a soft sigh, unexpectedly remembering something Jiang Xinhe had said before—she'd said that once she got pregnant, her tastes changed completely. She used to hate cilantro, absolutely couldn't stand it—couldn't smell it, couldn't even look at it. It had driven her dad crazy, since he loved cilantro, but he gave it up completely for her.

Now I can't eat a meal without cilantro. It seems the child takes after him—and that's a good thing...

Jiang Xinhe's topics always looped back from the child to her dad. There was no complaint in her words, so Chen Jue had nothing to say.

He had no good impression of Huo Jilin, the father of Jiang Xinhe's child. No normal person would let his wife risk her life to have a baby.

Even if that child was crucial to their interests.

In a doctor's eyes, life comes before everything.

So thinking of Huo Jilin was also a depressing matter. Chen Jue took a deep breath and pushed the thought away.

After eating the entire handful of milk berries, Chen Jue leaned against the tree and watched a few little squirrels frolicking happily on the branches.

It was late spring in the fourth lunar month—neither hot nor cold. The little creatures, just out of hibernation, were full of energy; they didn't need to scramble for food right now...

Chen Jue watched with a hint of envy, his head growing drowsier, until he closed his eyes against the thick tree trunk.

The afternoon sunlight filtered through the leaves and fell upon him, like scattered bits of silver on the ground, but Chen Jue didn't pick them up—he had fallen asleep.