Horrible Bruises

The room next to hers belonged to her younger cousin, Gu Minmin.

So, she and her younger cousin stayed in the two rooms in the right residence respectively, while her grandfather stayed in one of the two rooms in the left residence.

Her uncle and aunt, as well as her elder cousin, Gu Jiajie, each stayed in the rooms that were located in the main residence.

Therefore, a family of six were staying together in that small courtyard house.

Gu Jin held An Mingji's hand, brought him to her room, and sat him on the bed. "Just a moment, I'll get you some salve."

An Mingji nodded quietly. She spun around and rummaged through some boxes, as well as her cupboard, for a black salve.

She had forgotten where she had placed the black salve after twenty years.

There was a bed that had been painted red with neatly-folded blankets on top of it in the room. There was also an old cupboard at the corner, beside which was a large carton, a small table, and two stools. The room's layout was as rudimentary as it could be.

That was considered good in such a village. At least, she had her own room and furniture, albeit rudimentary ones.

"Found it!"

In her hand was black, unctuous ointment wrapped in a circular cloth. She then walked toward the uneasy An Mingji.

"Undress," she said to the boy.

An Mingji pursed his lips together as he took off his tattered shirt, revealing his skinny body. It was covered in horrible old and new bruises and wounds, which were a result of bullying over the past several years.

Gu Jin tightly clenched the black salve in her hand, her heart sinking as she examined the terrible condition of his body.

An Mingji looked down and shuddered uneasily from her stare.

Gu Jin took it all in and forced herself to calm down. She then crouched down and applied the black salves on the parts of his body with the most serious wounds.

"Urgh!"

He could not help but groan in pain when Gu Jin touched his wounds.

She did it as gently as possible.

Gu Jin glanced at the dirty and tattered clothes that he had put aside. After that, she walked to the cupboard and took out a set of clothing that she used to wear many years ago.

"Put this on, An. These are my clothes. I used to wear them a couple of years ago. They're clean."

An Mingji looked up at the clothes that had been placed in front of him. The color on the green clothing had almost faded into white.

He extended his hands to take the clothes.

Just then, he realized how dirty his hands were and quickly pulled them back; they were soiled and stained with blood.

Seeing this, Gu Jin knew that the boy was afraid of dirtying the clothes.

She sighed softly and put the clothes aside. Then she spun around to take an enamel basin from the basin stand before she walked out of the room.

An Mingji looked up. His eyes reddened when he saw her leaving.

Did she despise him?

He reached up to rub his almost tearful eyes.

He told himself to not feel disappointed, as he had gotten used to this.

An Mingji got out of bed and picked up his dirty clothes. He was a little hesitant when he saw the clean clothes on one side.

He had not worn any clean clothes since his father and grandmother's deaths, as well as since his mother ran away.

His eyes welled up as he gritted his teeth and looked away from the clean clothes. He was ready to put his dirty clothes back on.

"Don't wear those dirty clothes again. Put the clean ones on."

Gu Jin walked back in with a basin of clean water in her hand. She had gone out to fetch water from the well earlier.