After Exile, I Married the Amnesiac General [Rebirth] Chapter 6

The surroundings fell into complete silence; even Physician Hu’s hand holding the brush stiffened.

Suddenly, with a pat, the brush in his hand fell to the ground. His fingers trembled as he pointed at the newly awakened person, unsure whether from shock or excitement: “You, you…”

“Is this a corpse coming back to life?!”

One of the onlooking wounded soldiers spoke in shock first.

“Go, go! He wasn’t dead in the first place, what corpse comes back to life?” Physician Hu snapped back to his senses and immediately scolded irritably.

The wounded soldier clicked his tongue and said, “Earlier you yourself said he only had one breath left, no different from being dead.”

Physician Hu didn’t bother picking up the brush and hurried forward, trying to take away the knife. “Hey, hey, what are you doing? The young lady is helping treat your injury. Don’t get agitated, put the blade down first. This is the wounded soldiers’ tent. You’ve already returned from the battlefield…”

Some unconscious wounded soldiers carried down from the battlefield would, upon waking, mistakenly believe they were still fighting and instinctively attack the people around them.

Physician Hu had encountered this situation before and understood it well, so he quickly explained.

But after the explanation, the man still did not move.

His expression was not as ferocious as other wounded soldiers in such situations, but… he simply had no expression at all. He only stared blankly at Li Chanxiu, who was closest to him, as if he had not heard any of Physician Hu’s words.

Physician Hu could not help stepping closer to the two of them, looking at him and then at the calm-faced Li Chanxiu, thinking inwardly: Could it be he still hasn’t fully awakened and is delirious?

He raised his hand and waved it before the man’s eyes. The eyes did not move. He then tried to take the blade; still no movement.

“Hiss, this is strange,” Physician Hu muttered in surprise.

At this moment, Li Chanxiu lowered his eyes, glanced from the corner of his gaze, and suddenly said, “Your wound is bleeding.”

His voice was clear and gentle, unhurried.

Finally, the man reacted and slowly lowered his head.

The arrow wound on his chest had split somewhat from his earlier sudden movement, and fresh blood seeped out.

Yet the person who had moved swiftly just now seemed to suddenly become slow to react, staring at the wound without moving.

Only when Li Chanxiu raised his hand and pinched the blade did he react again, lifting his head once more.

However, under his gaze, the blade seemed to lose its ability to resist, slowly being taken away and set down, along with his arm.

He looked strangely at his own arm, then at Li Chanxiu, meeting a pair of cool, delicate eyes.

“Lie down,” said the owner of those eyes, his expression calm.

He did not move, like a beast that had just awakened, full of vigilance.

Li Chanxiu suddenly extended his finger; the slightly cool fingertip touched the skin of his chest, his gaze meeting the man’s.

He froze instantly, staring at Li Chanxiu, and then, just like the blade, he was pushed, slowly lying back down.

As he lay down, his gaze remained locked on Li Chanxiu’s face without moving for even a moment.

The fingertip quickly withdrew, and the coolness on the skin vanished in an instant. His Adam’s apple seemed to move slightly, yet his gaze still remained fixed on Li Chanxiu.

Li Chanxiu felt it was very strange but had no intention of thinking further. He soon took out the needle and thread and continued treating the wound.

Seeing this, Physician Hu finally let out a sigh of relief.

The surrounding air also seemed to suddenly recover from its stiffness, and the murmuring voices of the wounded soldiers faintly returned.

Several curious wounded soldiers even stepped closer. The wounded soldier with the broken leg from yesterday also came over on crutches, his expression shocked and astonished. “He really was saved? How strange!”

“Thanks to Miss Shen, Miss Shen truly is a miracle doctor,” said another person beside him.

“This fellow’s luck is really good, just like that kid Zhang He.”

“Hey, you really should thank Miss Shen properly. If not for her, your life would probably already be gone.”

The intermittent voices did not affect Li Chanxiu’s stitching, nor did they seem to affect the man lying down. Li Chanxiu could feel the other party’s gaze constantly falling on the side of his face.

Treating the wound was very painful; the needle and thread passed through flesh, yet this man did not make a sound. Even his gaze did not move once, he kept looking at him.

If it were Zhang He, he would probably have already cried out “Mother” from the pain.

While placing the stitches, Li Chanxiu somehow still had the spare attention to think about such random things.

Finally finishing the last stitch, he cut the thin thread and couldn’t help raising his head to ask the person still looking at him, “What are you looking at?”

Their gazes collided unexpectedly; his delicate eyes rushed into the other’s vision.

The other party seemed to freeze for a moment, then suddenly turned his head away and stopped looking. But after a while, he turned back again.

Li Chanxiu: “……”

A very strange person, he thought.

Like a wolf-dog that follows someone along the road, once discovered, it quickly hides, but after a while, cannot help coming out again to continue following.

But this seemed to have nothing to do with him.

Li Chanxiu packed up his tools. As he stood, he suddenly felt a wave of hunger in his stomach and only then realized a long time had already passed.

The army only provided two meals a day, and it was not yet time for the second meal. Fortunately, when he ate breakfast, he had secretly hidden half a coarse cake. There was hot water in the pharmacy; he could just soak it there and eat.

So he hurriedly told the man a few things to pay attention to regarding the wound. Whether the other party listened or not, he then told Physician Hu that he had something to do and needed to leave for a while.

Physician Hu waved his hand and said, “It’s fine, go take care of your business. I’ll go check on the other wounded soldiers.”

To see if there was any lucky one he could grab to stitch a couple of times for practice.

The wounded soldiers were completely unaware that “danger” was approaching. As soon as Li Chanxiu left, they gathered around, some to watch the excitement, others to ask questions out of curiosity, 

“Brother, you really survived a great disaster this time! Out of more than a thousand people, you were the only one carried back alive. You were almost gone, and then you met Miss Shen and were saved by her, your ancestors must really be burning high incense.”

“By the way, we haven’t asked your name yet.”

“Where did you get that blade in your hand?”

The newly awakened young man only glanced at them once, then shifted his gaze away, remaining silent. Only that hand continued gripping the black iron curved blade.

“Brother?”

“Why aren’t you speaking?”

“Oh right, you were recruited not long ago, weren’t you? I’ve been in the camp for quite a while, and you look unfamiliar.”

Several more people asked him questions, but he still did not answer. He simply lay flat, quietly staring at the top of the tent. Put nicely, it looked like he was staring blankly at the tent roof; put bluntly, it looked like he didn’t understand what anyone was saying at all.

If not for those ink-black eyes remaining open, he would look no different from when he had been unconscious before.

“Could he be mute?” someone guessed in a lowered voice.

Just as the words fell, a “gurgle” sounded in the air, it was his stomach.

“……”

Someone handed him half a steamed bun, but he still didn’t move, continuing to quietly stare at the tent roof.

“Hiss, maybe he’s also an idiot! He’s hungry and doesn’t even know to eat.”

“Physician Hu! Physician Hu! Stop grabbing people to stitch, come take a look, something’s not right with this person!”

***

After returning to the pharmacy, Li Chanxiu did not go back to the wounded soldiers’ camp in the afternoon.

After being transferred to the pharmacy, much of the work in the wounded soldiers’ camp no longer required him. With nothing to do after eating, he went to the medicine hut to help Aunt Xu decoct medicine for a while.

Physician Hu had not returned. It was only at night that Hu Yuan’er, who had gone to ask for news, came back and said that he had been called away by General Chen, together with the person who had awakened at noon.

“It must be about the grain supplies being robbed. My grandfather went along to take a look. He should be back before long,” Hu Yuan’er said brightly.

Li Chanxiu weighed things in his mind. He did not want to return to rest in the women’s camp. First, it was inconvenient; second, he was disguised as a woman after all and not truly female. If he could avoid staying there, it would be better to avoid it.

So he used the excuse that he still had prescriptions left to copy and stayed to wait together with Hu Yuan’er.

However, it was not until late at night, when the oil lamp had burned down to only a bean-sized flame and Hu Yuan’er had fallen asleep on the table, that Physician Hu finally came in from outside carrying a chill.

When he looked up and saw that Li Chanxiu had still not returned at such a late hour, he was clearly surprised.

Li Chanxiu put down his brush and stood, pointing to Hu Yuan’er who was asleep on the table, and explained with a smile, “Hu Yuan’er said you would be back soon. It just so happened that I still had some prescriptions to copy, so I stayed to wait with him. I didn’t expect…”

As he spoke, he glanced at the darkness outside, meaning that he had not expected to wait so late.

Physician Hu immediately understood and sighed. “This kid said he’d wait for me, but he fell asleep first.”

Then he thanked Li Chanxiu, saying, “You’ve troubled yourself.”

He thought Li Chanxiu had stayed because Hu Yuan’er was young and he was worried about leaving him alone. After carrying his grandson into the inner room, he came out and thanked him again.

Li Chanxiu shook his head, indicating it was unnecessary. Although he had indeed been somewhat worried about Hu Yuan’er being alone, he also had his own private motives.

At this moment, Physician Hu sighed again and said, “It’s good that you didn’t leave. I was just about to tell you something. Today General Chen called in that wounded soldier who had just awakened to ask questions, and he also called me along…”

Li Chanxiu had not expected him to bring up this matter on his own and followed the topic: “I heard from Hu Yuan’er that it was about the grain supplies being robbed earlier.”

Then he hesitated. “But was that person tortured, and his injuries worsened?”

After all, Physician Hu’s expression at the moment did not look very good.

Physician Hu shook his head. “There wasn’t any torture. Rather…”

He seemed to consider his words before continuing, “This person has lost his memory.”

Lost his memory?

Li Chanxiu was startled upon hearing this, then recalled the man’s blank expression when he had first awakened and how he had kept staring at him afterward. He suddenly understood somewhat.

No wonder the man’s reactions after waking had been so strange, it turned out he had lost his memory.

It was said that when some birds first broke out of their shells, because they knew nothing of the world, they would develop affection for the first animal they saw. Presumably, this amnesiac person was similar to those birds, only because the first person he saw upon waking was him did he keep staring.

However, Physician Hu’s purpose in saying all this was certainly not just to inform him that the person had lost his memory. Could it be…

Sure enough, Physician Hu soon said, “General Chen hopes he can recover his memory and wants me to treat him, but I’ve never treated someone with memory loss before and truly don’t know where to begin. Do you have any experience in this area? Could you try examining him?”

Li Chanxiu hesitated upon hearing this. He also had never treated someone with memory loss, but…

“It’s only to try first, you don’t need to worry about not curing him. I think General Chen himself isn’t holding much hope anyway. And you’re only helping me. If it doesn’t work, I’ll explain it to General Chen,” Physician Hu added when he saw his hesitation.

Only then did Li Chanxiu nod. “Then I’ll give it a try.”

Then his gaze shifted slightly, and he took the opportunity to add, “But treating memory loss requires going over frequently for acupuncture. The women’s camp is quite far from here, could I stay in the pharmacy from now on? It would make going back and forth more convenient.”

Physician Hu had just been about to say that it was already late and ask whether he wanted to make do for one night in the pharmacy. Unexpectedly, Li Chanxiu spoke first, and even asked to stay here from now on. He quickly said, “Of course, of course! Move over whenever you like. I’ll have someone place a wooden bed in the inner room of the pharmacy.”

The pharmacy was connected to where he and his grandson lived but was not the same space, so there was no need to worry about the young lady staying here affecting her reputation.

Moreover, he had previously felt that the women’s camp was too cold and far from the wounded soldiers’ camp. If something urgent happened and they needed to call the young lady late at night, it would not be convenient.

However, the other party was, after all, a young lady and not a man, so he had previously found it difficult to say such things. He had not expected Li Chanxiu to take the initiative to propose moving over, so he naturally agreed gladly.

Seeing that he agreed, Li Chanxiu also relaxed slightly, feeling that he could finally move out of the women’s camp.

Only, he had once again made use of the person who had just awakened today, though the other party did not know it.

***

The next day, early in the morning, Li Chanxiu first returned to the women’s camp to move his luggage.

There was actually not much, just some old clothes and worn bedding. Only a string of Buddhist beads, which he had deliberately hidden inside the quilt lining, could not be lost.

Those were polished one by one by his father before he left the capital, hoping they would keep him safe.

He still remembered that in the few days before the plan to leave the capital was carried out, his father often stayed awake all night. Sometimes when he woke in the middle of the night, he could see the other party come to his bedside, sighing as he tucked the quilt tightly around him.

Back then, he had first faked his death to leave the Crown Prince’s residence, then slipped away like a cicada shedding its shell, being switched out of the coffin and leaving the capital under the identity of an exile.

That day, after taking the fake-death medicine, he lay uneasily on the bed, waiting for the moment he would lose consciousness, and for the unknown future.

At that time, his father placed this string of Buddhist beads on his wrist, gently stroked the top of his head, and sighed, saying, “Chan Nu’er, don’t be afraid. Your father will soon come to fetch you. When the time comes and we father and son reunite, it will be like ‘fish entering the great sea, birds soaring into the blue sky, never again bound by cages or nets.’①”

Yet in the dream, after that farewell, the two of them never met again.

Li Chanxiu held the Buddhist beads he had found in the bedding, his eyes slightly reddening.

Fortunately, his father was still in the capital at present. Though trapped, his life was not in immediate danger.

As long as the northwest did not fall, and as long as he did not wander into the Western Qiang as in the dream, causing his father to mistakenly believe he had died and grieve excessively, shortening his lifespan, they would be able to reunite.

So the current difficulties were nothing. Moreover, relying on those dreams, his situation had already changed greatly, and it would only get better in the future.

Li Chanxiu quickly composed himself and regained his spirits.

Suddenly, footsteps sounded outside the tent as someone approached. He hurriedly put away the string of Buddhist beads.