Chapter 40: Chaos

Nagu expected the shocked expression on Duogaluo’s face, but she remained calm and patted his shoulder. “Hamoyin is quite ill right now. I don’t think hearing this news is good for his recovery, so…”

“So?” Duogaluo responded blankly, still not fully comprehending.

“So I want to wait until he gets better before telling him. What do you think?” Nagu asked cautiously. “I’ll tell him as soon as he’s well!”

Duogaluo couldn’t find the words to respond to Nagu’s questioning gaze. He agreed with her suggestion, but most of his thoughts were now storming over what was going on between Hamoyin and Nagu.

When he saw her being rescued by Hamoyin before, her intimate attitude didn’t seem like it was their first meeting. Duogaluo thought he knew Nagu’s character well enough; she was somewhat distant with strangers, maintaining a polite but not overly warm demeanor. So even if someone saved her life, she wouldn’t cling to them like a lover.

If she really treated her saviors with such intimacy, then logically, her relationship with him should be closer, too, since he had saved her from drowning in the sacrificial pool. Yet, their relationship remained relatively calm. Not that calm was bad, but Duogaluo sometimes wished Nagu relied on him more because he liked this polite, smart girl, who was willing to learn to read with him.

“What’s wrong? Do you think it’s better to tell him now?” Seeing Duogaluo’s thoughtful expression and lack of response, Nagu became anxious. “But I still think…”

“No, I was just thinking about something else.” Duogaluo shook his head. “If you think it’s better to tell him later, then let’s do that. But why is he staying in the storage room behind your house while he’s sick?”

When I was half-dead from a leopard attack, I stayed at his house, Nagu thought, touching her nose. “He came to get medicine from the witch. I saw he was sick and persuaded him to stay in the village because his home was quite far. Walking back while sick and getting caught in the rain would be bad. Our backyard storage room was available for him to sleep in…”

“So he stayed?”

“Yes!” The lie was flawless, with no apparent loopholes. “He’s probably sleeping now. You can go check on him.”

“No need… You take care of him. Do you need any medicine? I can bring it to you tomorrow.” Duogaluo was a bit frustrated. He had tried multiple times to persuade Hamoyin to stay in the village without success, yet he stayed at Nagu’s first request.

“I already got some medicine from Granny…” Nagu thought for a moment and decided to ask Duogaluo, “But can you give me some painkillers?”

“Painkillers? Did Hamoyin get injured?”

“No, it’s just that when I was helping him clean his body, I noticed the wound on his tail still hurts. Just touching it causes pain.” Hamoyin would endure such pain without asking for painkillers, so Nagura had to ask for him. “Can you give me some, either oral or topical?”

Cleaning his body???

Duogaluo knew his focus had strayed from Nagu’s words, but cleaning his body? Who cleaned whose body? Did she clean Hamoyin’s upper body or the whole body?

No, it must be the whole body. Otherwise, how would she know the wound on his tail still hurts? Wait, now is not the time to think about this. Nagu is seriously asking him a question.

Duogaluo forced himself to stop thinking, though his voice was still shaky. “Sure, I’ll bring it to you tomorrow…”

Nagu looked at Duogaluo, who suddenly stopped talking in confusion. “You mean you’ll bring it to me tomorrow?”

“Wait, you mean Hamoyin’s wound still hurts?” Duogaluo, who had been shocked earlier, now began to ask, “Does it hurt a lot?”

“I think it hurts quite a bit.” Just a light touch on the swollen area made Hamoyin whimper, and Nagu couldn’t imagine how it felt for him to walk around. “So he really needs painkillers.”

Duogaluo thought for a moment, then nodded. “I understand. I’ll bring some painkillers tomorrow, and we’ll discuss the rest during the ritual.”

“Huh?” Nagu looked at Duogaluo, puzzled. “What is it? Can’t we discuss it now?”

“It’s not too late to discuss it then, and I need to prepare to see if it’s feasible.” Duogaluo stood up from the grass. “I need to go now. I need to think about Gongduo’s situation alone. You should continue looking after Hamoyin.”

“Okay…” After talking with Duogaluo in the shadows for a while, Nagu felt much calmer, knowing she had a reliable ally in him. “I’ll come to your house for the medicine tomorrow. I don’t want to trouble you to bring it over.”

“That’s fine. Come in the afternoon. I’ll be at home waiting for you.”

“Okay!”

…

…

About ten minutes after Duogaluo left, Nagura finally saw Gongduo leaving the witch’s house, carrying a bag.

What will he do next?

Watching Gongduo’s hurried figure, Nagu was genuinely worried he might retake some extreme actions, but Gongduo’s matters could only be resolved by Duogaluo himself.

After Gongduo left, Nagu didn’t immediately return to the house. She first went to the backyard to gather some dry firewood, then went inside.

“Granny, I’m back.”

She spoke to the old witch who was sorting bones. The witch glanced at her, then put the bones back on the table. “Where did you go? You’ve been gone for so long.”

If I had returned earlier, I would have walked in on your evil meeting, Nagu thought, raising the firewood in her hands. “I went to the backyard to chop some firewood, and then I went to see Momoli. I’m sorry. I should have come back earlier.”

The witch didn’t say anything, just slowly walked towards the inner room, indicating she was going to sleep.

Nagu was glad she didn’t ask more questions. She immediately started heating water and making the witch’s bed. After the witch fell asleep, she took some stone tablets and the animal skin scroll Duogaluo had given her and went to the backyard. She planned to study while watching over Hamoyin tonight.

“I’m back.” She gently lifted the thick curtain in front of the storage room and slipped inside. The firewood in the brazier was almost burnt out, making the storage room dim.

After placing her things on the ground, Nagu threw some dry firewood into the brazier and checked on Hamoyin. He seemed to have been awakened by her entrance and was looking at her with half-open, sleepy eyes. “Nagu…?”

“Go back to sleep.” Nagu touched Hamoyin’s forehead. Maybe because he had just taken medicine, his forehead wasn’t as hot. Is the medicine here really that effective?

Hamoyin shook his head and tried to open his eyes: “I’m awake.”

He didn’t want to stay in a state of constant sleep; it was too dangerous. Nagu, if she found him sweating, she would definitely wipe him with a cloth. Thinking this, Hamoyin decided to find something to keep himself awake, and then he saw the stack of stone tablets Nagu had placed on the ground: “What are these?”

“They’re for me to read. I plan to look at them while watching over you tonight.” Nagu handed the stone tablets to Hamoyin. “Didn’t I say I wanted to learn to read? Duogaluo kindly gave me his writings on animal skins, which he said he wrote specifically to teach Momoli.”

Hamoyin looked down and flipped through the stone tablets: “How much do you recognize?”

“Not much…” Nagu pointed at the stone tablets with her finger. “I can recognize up to this row.”

“That’s quite little.”

“I’m still learning…” Nagu smiled sheepishly.

Hamoyin coughed twice, then gently touched Nagu, signaling her to change positions and sit beside him.

“What’s wrong?” Even though Nagu didn’t know what Hamoyin wanted to do, she still complied and sat beside him. Their arms were almost touching, just a finger’s width apart.

Hamoyin spread the stone tablets on his crossed legs: “I’ll teach you.”

“!” Nagura’s eyes widened in surprise. She turned to look at Hamoyin. “You can read?”

“Yes.” What had he done to make her think he couldn’t read? Hamoyin felt a bit frustrated but didn’t show it.

Having someone teach her made her very happy, but…

“But you’re still sick. Let’s talk about it later. For now, you should rest.”

She seemed overly worried; it was just an illness. Hamoyin had been more seriously ill before. Back then, he lay alone in his treehouse for a few days and recovered, so he didn’t quite understand why Nagu was so worried. Was she afraid he would die like others who couldn’t recover from their illnesses? He wasn’t that easy to kill.

Hamoyin shook his head: “Lying down and sleeping all the time makes me dizzy. It’s good to find something to do.”

“Really?” Nagura was still worried, hearing Hamoyin’s weak voice. “But…”

“When I’m tired, I’ll tell you.” Hamoyin smiled gently. “Don’t worry so much.”

“…” Nagura was stunned, her mouth half-open.

Did she just see Hamoyin smile?

He smiled??

The smile was faint and disappeared quickly, but in that brief moment, Nagu truly felt what it meant to be radiant.

Hamoyin felt very uncomfortable under Nagu’s intense gaze. He coughed and looked down at the stone tablets, his face flushed. However, because he had a fever, the blush from embarrassment couldn’t be noticed.

“This is the first time I’ve seen you smile.” Nagu, happy, moved closer to Hamoyin until their arms were completely touching. Hamoyin even had shallow dimples when he smiled!

So cute.

Nagura resisted the urge to hug him. He was still sick and didn’t have the strength to be shaken by her.

“Look here.” To divert Nagu’s attention, Hamoyin pointed to a few characters on the stone tablets. “Do you recognize these?”

“I recognize this one, it’s ‘lake.'”

Nagu’s gaze finally shifted to the stone tablets, which made Hamoyin breathe a sigh of relief. “The next one means ‘almost extinguished flame'”

“Yes, yes!”

“And this one is…”

The fire in the corner brazier crackled, and the slightly damp and warm night was filled with the sounds of insects outside, the rustling of the wind through the backyard crops, and the sticky smell of the soil after the morning’s heavy rain.

It wasn’t a beautiful night. But because of Hamoyin’s low voice and slightly higher body temperature next to her, Nagu couldn’t help but feel a sense of belonging. Only when she was by Hamoyin’s side did she think that things weren’t so bad as to be.