“Can’t I come to you for a prescription after I’ve finished?”
“You won’t find me. The world’s my office. I’m here today, but I won’t know where I am tomorrow.”
The old man grabbed the medicine for her, then took out a white paper and wrote a list for her. Bella took a look at it. It was written, “15 grams of prepared rehmannia root, 15 grams of angelica, 15 grams of fruit of glossy privet, 15 grams of Matrimony vine, 10 grams of the fruit of Chinese magnoliavine, 12 grams of placenta, 12 grams of Rhizoma Polygonati … ”
“Thanks.”
She looked up, “But what if I get pregnant later and want to thank you?”
The old man smiled, “That’s not necessary. I’ve been setting up my stall in the King Hills for three days, yet you’re the only customer. If you take my medicine that works in the future, you only need to tell others that there is a seventy-two-year-old physician trained in herbal medicine who is very skillful in medicine.”
Bella believed the old man’s words. If she hadn’t been so desperate today, she wouldn’t have believed a doctor who could promise to help people cure a hundred diseases without any scientific evidence.
Pulling out all the money from her wallet, she handed it to him, “Okay, if I do have a child, I will definitely remember your great kindness.”
Bella said goodbye to the old man, and then prepared to go down the mountain. She imagined that after taking the old man’s medicine she would immediately get pregnant and couldn’t help but be very excited. As a result, she twisted her ankle inadvertently and fell into a pit. She screamed with an ouch, and fell to the ground.
She rubbed her sore foot and tried to stand up, but found that she could not stand up, frustrated, took out her cell phone and dialed the phone number of Kevin.
“Honey, are you busy?”
Kevin suddenly received a phone call from Bella very unexpectedly and said, “No, what’s the matter?”
“Can you come to King Hills for a moment?”
“The King Hills? What’s the point of going to the King Hills?”
“I came to the King Hills for a walk, and I accidentally twisted my foot.”
As soon as he heard that she twisted her foot, Kevin immediately said, “Okay, you stay there and don’t move. I’ll go over right now.”
“Okay …”
Within an hour of hanging up the phone, Kevin arrived and Bella was still sitting on the ground, head down, fiddling with the weeds around her.
“How’s it going? Let me see.”
He lifted her injured foot nervously, and Bella grimaced in pain, “You should be gentle. It hurts.”
“I’m sorry. I was in a hurry.”
“It’s just the ankle. It might be the sprain.”
“Come on, I’ll carry you down the hill.”
Kevin squatted down and grabbed Bella’s arm, letting her lie on his back, and then he lifted her onto her back.
“What are you doing here for nothing?”
Kevin was very puzzled.
“I just wanted to take a break. I’ve been feeling a bit depressed lately.”
“You wouldn’t still be upset about Freya up to now, would you?”
“No.”
Bella denied in a low voice.
“Next time don’t go out alone. There are so many strong men in the house. You won’t twist your ankle if you come with the two of them randomly.”
“Isn’t there no chance you’ll be able to carry me if I go with them at random?”
Kevin was helpless, “If you want me to carry you, you can tell me and I will carry you from the south of the city to the north of the city. But you can’t twist your ankle. Don’t you know I’ll be heartbroken?”
“I just want to make you feel heartbroken.”
Bella said mischievously.
“I’m hungry.”
He stopped his pace and looked at left and right, “There’s nothing to eat here. Wait, I’ll bring you something delicious down the mountain.”
“I don’t want to eat something delicious. I want to eat that.”
Following the direction of her finger, Kevin’s eyes almost pop out, “A string of candied haws?”
“Yes!”
He sighed, “That’s kid’s stuff. You’re too old to eat candy haws and I’m carrying you. People might think you’re my daughter.”
Bella’s body suddenly stiffened, and said, depressed, “Then I won’t eat.”
Kevin’s unintentional words cut her to the quick. She actually wanted to give birth to a son or daughter …”
“Boss, give me two candy haws.”
At some point, Kevin had walked to the place where the candy haws were being sold, and after paying, he shoved the canes into Bella’s hand, “Eat.”
“Why did you buy so many?”
“I’ll give you enough.”
Bella’s eyes got wet with tears and she took a fierce bite. It tasted very sweet. Then her tears fell down.
It became hot, and Kevin only wore a shirt, feeling the cool liquid on his back. He was surprised and asked, “I bought it for you. Why are you still crying?”
“Because it’s so delicious.”
Kevin was speechless and placed her to sit down on a stone block to the side, and asked in a tangle, “Do you have to cry even if it’s delicious? Are you just too easily touched right now?”
“You don’t know what a candy haw means to me.”
“What does it mean?”
“When I was a child, my mother took me to the King Hills once, and I was very hungry at noon, so she used the only one dollar she had to buy me a candy haw. I knew that she was also very hungry, so I wanted to share it with her, but she didn’t agree. So I got in a rage that she wouldn’t eat it and I wouldn’t eat it. I watched the sun baking the candy on top of it, and she finally gave in and shared it with me. That was the first time mom raised the white flag to me, and I was happy for a whole week. I still can’t forget mom’s helpless and spoiling eyes that day and what she said, ‘under heaven, there is no parent who can win over her child’.”
Kevin listened to her, smiled with the same spoiled eyes and stretched out his hand, stroking her forehead, “Bella really made people love and hate herself when she was little.”
Bella also laughed and handed him another candy haw in her hand, “This one is for you.”
Kevin looked around, embarrassed and said softly, “I won’t eat it. I’m such a big man. If I ‘m squatting here chewing on a candy cane and the paparazzi see it, it will definitely be the headlines of B City tomorrow …”
“It’s okay. There isn’t any paparazzi in this wilderness, so you just eat.”
“Look how embarrassing it is to be next to so many small traders.”
Bella raised eyebrows, “Do you want me to threaten you in the way that I threatened my mother?”
Kevin looked at the brown sugar smeared on the side of her mouth, caressed his forehead and sighed, “What a defeat!”
He took the candy cane, tore the bag, and gnawed off two of them quickly. But the stick wearing the hawthorn was so obtrusive, otherwise, he would have swallowed all five in one bite so he wouldn’t be embarrassed like a woman in broad daylight.
“Go buy me that.”
Bella pointed, and Kevin almost choked by a mouthful of candy haw, “What do you want to buy again?”
“That one.”
Bella pointed to a small stall selling jewelry less than five meters away from her, “I saw a couple buying a couple bracelet over there just now. I want it too.”
Kevin pinched his eyebrows and begged, “Will you just spare me? I’m the president of a big company, and you’re asking me to go shopping for floor goods. You’re trying to make me the joke of the whole country, aren’t you?”
“Are you going to buy it or not?”
Bella was ready to stand up, “If you don’t buy it, I’ll crawl over and buy it myself.”
Kevin touched her forehead, “You shouldn’t have a fever today, right?”
“You’re the one with the fever.”
She slapped his hand away, relishing this way of making things difficult for Kevin.
“Honey, don’t torment yourself. I’ll buy a carload of jewellery for you later. We don’t care about the fakes on this stall, okay?”
“I like it.”
It was as if Bella had wrangled with him, and Kevin breathed a long, painful sigh and said, “Fine, I’ll go buy it!”
“Wait a minute.”
“What now?”
“You carry me over. I want to pick it myself.”
Kevin helplessly carried Bella to her designated spot, her eyes shining with a faint glow as she picked and chose a hand-knitted couple bracelet, which was actually just a few strings of random thread.
“Here, I’ll put it on for you.”
Kevin shook his head in horror, “I don’t want it.”
“Put it on.”
Bella forcefully dragged one of his hands over, then brought the male one to him, solemnly warning, “Don’t take it off.”
Kevin was simply going crazy as he leaned close to her ear and said, “Can we go down the mountain now? Ma’am!!!”
“Yes, let’s go.”
Bella nodded contentedly and got on top of Kevin’s back.
“You’ve really challenged me today to an act I would never attempt in my life.”
Kevin said to Bella with a slight sideways glance. They ate a candy haw and bought a groundnut. Oh my god! It was going to be crazy.
Bella giggled, “Actually, these are ordinary people’s ways of falling in love, and you can’t accept them because your life is too privileged.”
“Do you like it that way?”
“Yes. The normal way of falling in love always makes people feel warm and impressive. You think embarrassing today, but I think it’s a great day. Will you remember in one night decades later that when you once took me out for a candlelit dinner, or which jewelry store you visited? You won’t, right? You won’t remember that, but today is different. I believe that no matter how much time passes, you won’t forget the candy haw we ate together today on the King Hills, and the couple bracelet worth eight dollars and fifty cents that we’re wearing on our hands now.”
“Well, that makes sense, but could you please not mention the eight dollars and fifty cents?”
“What’s wrong?”
“Mentioning eight dollars and fifty cents, I’d love to die.”
Bella couldn’t help but laugh out loud. Today’s trip to the King Hill was not in vain at all. Even if the doctor who promised to cure her of infertility was lying, she still felt it was worth it. Because at this moment, she truly forgot all the unpleasant things and felt happy from the bottom of her heart.
“Shall we go back?”
“Aren’t we on our way back now?”
“No, I mean let’s go back up the hill.”
Kevin stumbled and almost fell to the ground. He steadied his pace and asked in shock, “Are you kidding me? But I’m already halfway there.”
“I’m serious.”
Bella nodded in seriousness.
“Why? What are you going back for when the sun is setting?”
“It’s not like I’m going back to find the sun. I’m going to stand on top of the hill and let out my frustrations.”
“Can you stand now?”
“You can carry me. From now on, you are my legs. Didn’t you say that no matter what, I can always rely on you as my support?”
Kevin was completely speechless. He turned around, “Fine, today I’ll be your driver. I won’t complain about anything even if I undergo the most severe trials.”
They came back to the mountain again and found a secluded place. Kevin put Bella down and gasped, “You look quite skinny. How come you’re heavy on my back?”
“Knowledge gives weight.”
Kevin was speechless, “It’s the first time I’ve ever seen someone with so much knowledge.”
Bella gazed at the clouds within reach in the distance and said leisurely, “Am I tall and topped off now?”
Kevin took a deep breath of the aura between the mountains and replied, “It is not that he who is at the top of the mountain is high in himself, but that the cliffs he conquers make him higher. Conquering an inch of high mountain, he is an inch higher. The length of all his past journeys has been transformed into the height of his present moment. Time cannot be retained, and it will slip through your fingers, but you can leave it at your feet and turn it into your height.”
“That’s so profound. I can’t understand it.”
“That’s what Mr. Jobson told us back when he took us to climb the Castro Mountain.”
“Mr. Jobson? Is he Brent Jobson?”
“Yes.”
“What else did he say?” Bella asked with interest.
“He also said … “Kevin paused, “When you forget your past, are satisfied with your present, and ignore your future, you stand at the highest point in life. When success doesn’t make you too happy, failure doesn’t do anything to you, and mediocrity doesn’t drown you, you stand at the top of life. When you think of the past with a smile, look forward with hope, look down with generosity, and look up with an open heart, you are standing at the highest place in your soul.”
Slapping-.
Bella applauded and said with emotion, “Mr. Jobson is worthy of being someone who can influence someone’s life. His words are truly expansive and exquisite, giving one the feeling that listening to a gentleman’s words is better than reading a book for ten years.”
“Yes. That’s why I’ve always respected him.”
“Honey, will you take me to meet Mr. Jobson next time and let him psychologically enlighten me?”
Kevin raised his eyebrows, “What do you psychologically need to enlighten?”
“I have mental problems.”
“What kind of problems? Are you a pervert?”
Bella suddenly glared at him and pushed him, “Oh my god, what are you talking about? You can totally prove that the pervert is you.”
They frolicked, and Kevin hugged her from behind, “Well, stop it. The terrain here is treacherous. I’m not responsible for falling down.”
“I’ll also pull you down if I fall down.”
Bella leaned on his arms, closed her eyes, not to think about those distracting things. Those clouds covering the dark overhead, actually like a gold edge, became much lighter.