A Life Without Regrets (1)

A fine rain pattered down, shrouding all of Qinglan City in a hazy veil.

On a broad street in the north of the city, a little girl was running with all her strength. She looked about ten years old, thin and frail, dressed in linen clothes that had been washed so many times they had long since turned white, with equally old thin-cloth trousers below. The patches on her clothes proclaimed her family's poverty beyond doubt.

Her bare little feet rose and fell ceaselessly on the icy stone road, splashing up water from every puddle she stepped through. This was the only market in Qinglan City's slums. Rice shops, butcher stalls, pharmacies, and all sorts of other businesses lined both sides of the street, yet compared with the bustling Qinglan market district, this place was clearly dilapidated and deserted.

After all, she was only half-grown. With one careless step, the little girl tripped over a stone and fell to the ground. The pain in her foot mixed with the numbness brought by the cold, making tears whirl in her eyes. Yet as if she had remembered something, she pressed her frost-purple lips tightly together, climbed back to her feet, and ran deeper into the market.

Uncle Fu was seventy-three this year. He had spent most of his life running a pharmacy in the northern market. The weather had been cold these past few days, and the rain had not stopped. There was little business to speak of, so he had put up the pharmacy's door panels early, then sat alone in the inner room, warming a pot of wine and nibbling on a dish of peanuts in leisurely comfort.

Bang, bang, bang...

The urgent knocking shattered the old man's comfortable evening. Thinking that some neighbor must have come down with a sudden illness and needed a few simple herbs, he hurriedly climbed out of his rocking chair and went to the front hall to remove the door panels.

"Xiaoyu? Why are you here, child? It's raining so heavily—get inside, quickly."

The little girl standing outside startled Uncle Fu for a moment. Wasn't this Old Nie's daughter? Why had she come all the way here in such a downpour? Her clothes were completely soaked, and there were obvious scrapes on her legs and arms. One look was enough to tell that she had suffered greatly on the way over.

"Uncle Fu, save my father and mother! Save them... wuwu..."

Nie Xiaoyu, who had gritted her teeth and endured all the way here, finally burst into loud sobs the moment she saw Uncle Fu. With tears and snot running down her face, she begged the old man before her to lend a helping hand.

"Slowly, slowly. Come inside first. It's pouring outside—oh, child, what misery."

Uncle Fu knew Nie Xiaoyu's family situation fairly well. The Nie family was not native to Qinglan City. They had only arrived here twenty years ago. Back then, Nie Liang had brought his wife on a long journey to flee the chaos of war. After surviving nine deaths and one life, they had finally reached Qinglan City, only to discover that this city of extravagant prosperity was far less agreeable than they had imagined.

Without any special skill, Nie Liang could only work as a laborer in the mines outside the western city, earning a meager income to support the Household. His wife had also found work washing clothes for a wealthy family. The couple pinched every penny, and after two years, along with some money borrowed from the bank, they had finally managed to settle down in the north of the city.

Their impoverished days passed one day at a time. Ten years ago, an infant's cry rang out in the Nie family's little house—Nie Xiaoyu had been born. Though Nie Liang was a burly, rough-hewn man, his daughter had been born exceptionally lovely and delicate. From then on, the neighbors saw this upright giant of a man every day, carrying his little girl on his shoulders through the streets, grinning so broadly his mouth could not close.

Yet years of laboring in the mines had also eaten away at Nie Liang's body. At first, his throat was always uncomfortable. Then came the long-lasting cough. Later, he could even cough up blood. But Nie Liang had never told his wife or Xiaoyu about any of it. He knew he was the pillar holding up this Household. No matter how hard things became, he had to endure.

That day, when Nie Liang returned from the mines, he finally collapsed at the door of his home. His whole body was burning hot, yet his face was pale as water. After a violent coughing fit, blood actually sprayed from his mouth. Xiaoyu, who was alone at home, was terrified. She cried and shouted, asking what was wrong with her father. Her cries alarmed the neighbors, and everyone hurriedly carried Nie Liang into the house. But they were all poor folk, and no one knew what illness this straightforward man had caught. They could only watch helplessly.

As Nie Liang continued coughing up bloody froth, Nie Xiaoyu forced herself to calm down. She remembered that Uncle Fu, who ran a pharmacy in the northern market, was familiar with their family. Her father often went to Uncle Fu's pharmacy to buy plasters for her mother's back pain. Perhaps he could help. Entrusting Nie Liang to the neighbors, she stretched her legs and ran for Uncle Fu's pharmacy.

After listening to Xiaoyu's simple account, Uncle Fu knew the situation was urgent. He said no more, merely picked up his medicine chest and plunged into the rain curtain with the pitiful little girl.

"Everyone, disperse. Don't crowd into this room. Old Nie needs to rest now."

The cramped room was simply furnished but extremely neat. Nie Liang lay quietly on the wooden plank bed. His coughing had eased, but his complexion was still poor. His eyes were tightly shut, and his breathing remained somewhat rapid.

Seeing that there was nothing more to be done, the gathered neighbors gradually left. Only Nie Xiaoyu, the Nie family's wife who had rushed back, Uncle Fu, and Nie Liang remained in the room.

"Uncle Fu, what illness does Father have? Is he better now?"

Seeing that her father was no longer coughing blood, the innocent Xiaoyu assumed his sickness had already been cured. While feeling grateful to Uncle Fu, she also became deeply curious about the white pill the old man had fed her father.

"Uncle Fu, what happened to Liang? He's always been perfectly healthy. How did he suddenly become this sick?"

The woman beside her knew that her husband had not been cured, only that the medicine had eased his symptoms. Seeing Uncle Fu's grave expression, her heart tightened. She hurriedly wiped away the tears on her face and asked the old man about Nie Liang's condition.

"Ah... he has a lung disease, and he has had it for a very long time. I suspect his lungs are almost completely ruined by now. I've temporarily eased his symptoms with medicine, but curing him... that's simply impossible."

The kind old man hesitated for a long while before finally telling the mother and daughter this cruel, dreadful news. The man on the bed did not have long to live. He truly could not bear to keep deceiving this pitiful family.

The old man's words left the woman unable to control her emotions any longer. She collapsed directly onto the floor. She could not understand why her family had fought so desperately just to live, yet still suffered such misfortune. Why in the world did Heaven have to punish them like this?

"Uncle Fu, is there really no way to save Father? There must be, right? Xiaoyu doesn't want Father to leave."

Looking at the little girl clutching his sleeve, Uncle Fu's heart ached beyond measure. What sin had this family committed for Heaven to treat them like this? They only wanted to survive. Was that wrong?

"It's not that there's no way, only..."

At Uncle Fu's words, the little girl's eyes lit up at once. She quickly clung to the old man and asked what she had to do to save her father's life.

"At this stage, ordinary medicinal herbs no longer have the power to turn things around. But true medicinal pills can. I've heard there is a high-grade pill called the Jade Screen Immortal Spirit Pill, specifically used for lung diseases like your father's. But its price is an astronomical figure, something we common people cannot even imagine. That's why I did not mention it before."

The hope that had just risen in the little girl's eyes was doused by Uncle Fu's words like a basin of icy water. Children from poor families grew up early. She understood very clearly what an astronomical figure meant—it meant that even if she fought with all her life for several lifetimes, she might never earn that much money.

"Uncle Fu, where can I buy this medicinal pill?"

The old man's face was full of sorrow as well. He carefully took the pulse of the woman slumped beside him and found that she was merely short of breath from excessive grief. Only then did he feel somewhat relieved, when a sudden question came from behind him.

"Hundred Herbs Hall should have it, though I can't be certain. I've never seen a medicinal pill of that grade either. Ah, Xiaoyu, where are you going? Xiaoyu..."

Amid the old man's astonishment, Nie Xiaoyu once again plunged headlong into the torrential rain outside. At that moment, Qinglan City seemed so cold and desolate, utterly devoid of human warmth...

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