Sweet Rebirth: The Little Healer

”That’s right!” Liu Lanhua nodded, as if she had just made a crucial discovery. ”Let’s go. We’ll follow them.”

Their two families had suffered too many losses at Zhao Nuanyue’s hands, and they still hadn’t managed to pay off their debts. They had been nursing that grudge ever since, unable to let it go. Now Hua Yusen was gone, leaving only Zhao Nuanyue with her foolish brother. And that woman, acting like some kind of White Lotus, had even adopted a worthless little girl.

So, Liu Lanhua and Wang Cuihua stopped gathering wild vegetables and started following Zhao Nuanyue.

Little Red Carp was very alert. Cradled in Zhao Nuanyue’s arms, she spotted Liu Lanhua and Wang Cuihua behind them. Knowing her sister had bad blood with these two women, she whispered in her ear, ”Sister, Liu Lanhua and Wang Cuihua are following us. They’re about fifty or sixty meters back.”

Zhao Nuanyue froze, startled. ”Could they have seen us coming out of that cave?”

”No!” Little Red Carp shook her head. ”They didn’t see us. We were over three hundred meters away from the cave when they spotted us. Should we try to lose them now?”

Without turning around, Zhao Nuanyue smiled faintly. ”No need.”

These two women hated her with a passion, and Zhao Nuanyue despised them right back. Since they were delivering themselves to her on a silver platter, she certainly wasn’t going to hide. It was time to teach them a lesson.

Zhao Nuanyue kept walking, weaving her way around the mountain. In the blink of an eye, an hour and a half had passed.

”Agh, I’m dead tired! Where in the world is that little demon Zhao Nuanyue going?” Wang Cuihua plopped onto the ground, unable to walk another step. As much as she hated Zhao Nuanyue, a part of her was impressed. How could she walk so fast and for so long, all while carrying a child?

Liu Lanhua also sat down, pounding her legs and panting heavily. ”This Zhao Nuanyue is really something.”

”If she were simple, would both our families have been bested by her?” Wang Cuihua said angrily. ”We still can’t get back on our feet. The higher-ups don’t care about us anymore, and now that Hua Yusen has left with that old man, Zhao Nuanyue is still here in our village. We have to find a chance to get our revenge.”

”Of course. We can’t let Zhao Nuanyue off the hook,” Liu Lanhua said. ”She’s gotten far ahead. Should we still follow?”

”Follow! We keep following!” Wang Cuihua insisted. ”My Dadan and your husband are stuck doing hard labor now. When were their lives ever this hard before!”

Hearing this left a bad taste in Liu Lanhua’s mouth.

If not for that, Wang Dadan wouldn’t have become Zhao Nuanyue’s enemy.

But what was done was done. Her family and Wang Dadan’s family were allies now. They both knew each other’s secrets, so cutting ties was impossible even if they wanted to.

So they continued the chase. Another hour passed.

Little Red Carp saw the sweat on her sister’s face and reached up to wipe it away. ”Sister, you must be tired, right? Why are you leading them around in circles?”

Zhao Nuanyue smiled. ”To mess with them!”

”Hehe, it is fun seeing them so out of breath, but you’re tired too, Sister,” Little Red Carp said softly, planting a kiss on her sister’s forehead. ”I don’t want you to be so tired!”

”You’re so sweet, Little Red Carp!” Zhao Nuanyue also kissed her little sister’s chubby cheeks. ”Let’s go find Brother!”

With that, Zhao Nuanyue took a large step across a small stream.

By the time Liu Lanhua and Wang Cuihua arrived, they couldn’t cross.

The stream was two meters wide, surprisingly deep, and the current was swift. They couldn’t jump it, and they didn’t dare wade through.

Wang Cuihua, refusing to be beaten, tried to wade across anyway, only to be swept dozens of meters away by the current. Liu Lanhua had no choice but to go rescue her, forgetting all about chasing Zhao Nuanyue.

Zhao Nuanyue turned around and gave Liu Lanhua a half-smile, her eyes filled with contempt.

’If they want to cause trouble, I’m not afraid. I can handle anything they throw at me!’

Zhao Nuanyue’s smile provoked Liu Lanhua. That vixen had known they were there all along, deliberately leading them in circles to play with them.

”Zhao Nuanyue, you don’t have a backer anymore, yet you’re still so brazen!” Liu Lanhua pointed at her. ”This is Nianqiao Village. You’d better watch your step.”

”Hehe, I’m always careful,” Zhao Nuanyue laughed. ”You two have always wished me ill, so I can’t let my guard down for a second. As for that sordid business between you and Wang Dadan, you may have swept it under the rug with some unspeakable deal, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. Heaven knows, Earth knows, you know, and I know. If you dare to touch me, I’ll make you pay the price. If you’ve got the guts, bring it on. I’m ready for you.”

”Help! Help!” Wang Cuihua cried out repeatedly. She couldn’t get her footing in the water and could only cling to a small sapling on the bank, screaming for help.

Liu Lanhua had been about to curse Zhao Nuanyue out, but seeing Wang Cuihua’s predicament, she quickly found a large branch for Wang Cuihua to grab so she could pull her up. But maybe Wang Cuihua was too heavy, or maybe the moss by the stream was too slippery, because Liu Lanhua slipped too. She tumbled into the water and crashed into Wang Cuihua. Just as Wang Cuihua had managed to steady herself, the impact sent her flying, and she continued to tumble downstream.

The two of them flailed and tumbled in the water until they finally came to a stop in a shallower, wider part of the stream.

”Oww, that hurts like hell!”

”My back!”

The two of them were a complete mess—disheveled and filthy, their clothes dirty and torn. They finally managed to crawl ashore and sat on the ground, gasping for air.

Wang Cuihua was panting, saying between ragged breaths, ”I’m not going to let Zhao Nuanyue get away with this... I’m not going to let her get away with this...”

For the first time, Liu Lanhua didn’t find Wang Cuihua annoying. At that moment, she also wanted to kill Zhao Nuanyue.

”I won’t let her get away with it either.” Liu Lanhua looked in the direction Zhao Nuanyue had gone, trembling with rage. ”We’ll wait right here. She has to come back this way. I’m going to push her and that damn kid into the water and drown them.”

Feeling a bit cold, Liu Lanhua shivered and quickly moved into a sunny spot, hoping to dry her clothes as soon as possible.

Singing a song, Zhao Nuanyue took Little Red Carp to the cave where Zhao Nuan Yang was.

Zhao Nuan Yang had already finished drawing and was now adding color. When he saw his sisters arrive, he smiled. ”I’m almost done!”

”Nuanyang, can you draw a little animal for Little Red Carp? I want to make her a kite and a pinwheel,” Zhao Nuanyue said. Since Little Red Carp liked such things, she would do her best to make them for her.

When Little Red Carp heard that her sister was going to make her a kite, she was overjoyed. She hugged her sister, gave her a big kiss on the cheek, and said, ”Muah! Sister, I love you so much! You’re the best!”

”So only Sister is good, and Brother isn’t!” Zhao Nuan Yang said with a fake sigh, pretending to be very disappointed.