Chapter 29 – A Comforting Gesture (2)
It was almost winter. If he miraculously conquered death and lived, he would definitely need those things, but in case he died…it would be a futile practice to waste all that money in the preparations. Zhao Xi considered this dilemma, and went to browse the wheelchair, in the end.
There was such a variety of them: bulky ones, lightweight ones, expensive ones and cheap ones. Originally, she had only planned on taking a look and eventually buying one that she could afford.
But when saw the first one and imagined herself wheeling Shen Fei around on it, the mental image gave her such unadulterated pleasure, that she decided to buy it immediately, even though it far exceeded her budget, costing nine tails. Afterwards, she felt a little pang of pain at the expenditure but consoled herself with the images of the future she envisioned with Shen Fei.
Zhao Xi went grocery shopping, then and ended up buying everything she decided Shen Fei would relish eating.
Soon after, she stumbled upon a clothing store, which she stepped into without a second thought. Their salesmen were clever enough to spot Zhao Xi as an easy target and persistently convinced her to buy things she didn’t necessarily need.
She struggled as a ‘necessity vs luxury’ conflict raged within her, but eventually gave in to temptation as she bought a light blue men’s suit for no other reason than it would look great on Shen Fei. The money she had hard earned by selling caterpillar fungus was spent, but she declared to herself that it was worth it, as long as Shen Fei looked great.
However, Zhao Xi’s excitement was short lived.
As she was leaving the city gate, she saw a woman in front of her get arrested and being dragged away by a guard because she had bought a men’s suit. No matter how much the woman tried to explain that she had bought it as a gift for her fiancé, the soldiers did not heed her and mercilessly dragged away even as she yelled in fright and panic, attracting a lot of people as spectators.
Zhao Xi took advantage of the chaos and retreated, rushing to the store to exchange her menswear for something else. After considering, she exchanged the suit for a white silk with red maple leaf patterns. It was extraordinarily gorgeous and obviously made for women; the guards would not suspect anything.
As for the wheelchair, she was a doctor; she often received patients with injured legs or feet, she justified. The wheelchair wasn’t specially for men or women. Plus no one paid attention to wheelchairs anyway, therefore, to her relief, she was allowed to leave.
She had wanted to go to other cities to buy some more clothes but now she didn’t want to go away for two days at a time when Shen Fei needed her with him the most. To leave him alone in the mountains with no food and no one to talk to, just pure silence; it felt like she was waiting for her imminent death.
Therefore, Zhao Xi chose to take the risk. Fortunately, the guards only checked men’s supplies, not women. If any of the fabrics she bought were men’s, they would immediately take her away.
Realization suddenly dawned on Zhao Xi. That day, when Aunt Liu said that a group of soldiers came in, searched for things and left without saying anything. They were not searching for things, but a person, a man. All masculine belongings were taken away by them, and suspicious targets would be imprisoned. For example, the woman who bought men’s clothing out of the blue, claimed that it was for her fiancé when her fiancé was not present, which, of course aroused suspicion.
Zhao Xi often went back and forth to the city, carrying medicines with her; the soldiers recognized her as the only female doctor in the village. There was nothing suspicious about her buying a wheelchair. Otherwise, Zhao Xi would have to spend time in prison, as well.
*
She wheeled the wheelchair up the hills, carrying it midway. Upon reaching home, the wheelchair did not fit the entrance, so Zhao Xi had to use the shovel to make the passage bigger and dragged the wheelchair in.
Ping An had already caught a prey and having fed itself, lay near the entrance of the cave, waiting for her. When it saw her, the huge bear rushed over and stumbled on Zhao Xi, trying to embrace her. She gave a slight yield and let Ping An fall on the wheelchair. She didn’t know exactly where Ping An fell, but it was wailing in pain. Zhao Xi didn’t care about it.
Her primary concern was the wheelchair! Fortunately, the five-hundred-kilo black bear hadn’t damaged it.
The store did sell good-quality wheelchairs, she happily noted.
Zhao Xi wheeled the wheelchair to the door, and instead of showing it to Shen Fei first, she opened the door empty-handed and went in. Without a word, she lifted Shen Fei’s quilt and holding him tightly, lifted him up.
Shen Fei, who had been reading the book again, had learned the lesson from last time and he held the book tightly so that it did not fall, but instinctively he reached out to hold onto Zhao Xi, afraid of falling.
She didn’t show any emotions on her face, but on the inside, she was grinning with delight. She loved it when Shen Fei showed dependence on her, whether it be passive or not. She would be happy as long as he relied on her.
“I saw a woman who bought men’s clothing was arrested today.”
The medicine basket was placed at the foot of the wheelchair with a piece of cloth in it. “I also bought men’s clothing in the first place but had to replace it because of that. Otherwise, you wouldn’t see me now.”
“Shen Fei,” Zhao Xi asked him, suddenly very serious, “Are those people coming after you?”