Wen Zhu, a woman collecting herbs in the mountains, picked up a young man covered in injuries by a mountain stream.
She gave him medicine, made him porridge, and got up once an hour to see if he had a fever. When he had a fever, he held her hand and said, "Don't leave." She relented.
But he is no ordinary person. He has secret guards, martial arts skills, and people to chase him. He didn't let her go out, collect medicine, or see anyone. He said "for your safety", but she didn't even have the freedom to open the courtyard door.
She escaped three times.
For the first time, he was stopped at the entrance of the village by secret guards. The second time, he waited in person on the official road to come back. The third time, she used a caravan to escape to a neighboring town, thinking she had finally succeeded - his secret guards were already waiting there.
.
The fourth time, pregnant, she climbed over a mountain in the cold night of the twelfth lunar month and disappeared into the night.
She thought he wouldn't look for her again.
But he squatted on the hillside for a whole month, looking at the direction where she lived every day at dawn, seeing her washing clothes in the ice water, and seeing her squatting in the corner after vomiting, wiping her mouth and continuing to work.
He didn't rush forward.
Because he finally understood - she was not lost, she had escaped. She would rather live like this than stay with him.
"I won't let you go," he said.
"I chose it myself this time," she said when she came back.
