Chapter 492: The gentleman finds out
That woman went to the Han Estate!
Long Feiye had finally calmed down, but now he was swallowed by his rage again! He wanted her to go home, but she’d gone to the Han Estate instead. What does this mean? She’s not planning to go back to the Duke of Qin’s estate anymore? Does she want to leave me?
Long Feiye’s fury seemed to coat his already frigid face with a fresh layer of ice. A dangerous aura emitted from his body as he nearly crushed the medical pouch in his arms.
But he ended up not saying a word.
Outside the carriage, Chu Xifeng was shaking with fright. He had no idea whether His Highness had heard Xu Donglin’s words, but he’d have to report them regardless! After all, His Highness had left him with the task of escorting esteemed wangfei home. Chu Xifeng glared extensively at Xu Donglin before bolstering up his courage to speak. And yet, Long Feiye suddenly said, “Still not going inside?”
Chu Xifeng jumped in fright before quickly directing the carriage through one of the side gates. As for whether or not His Highness was planning to track Han Yunxi down, he didn’t dare to ask. But a part of him was still expecting His Highness to acknowledge it in some way.
Instead, Long Feiye simply went straight to his rooms and shut the doors without saying a word.
Zhao mama, Baili Mingxiang, and Su Xiaoyu all surrounded Chu Xifeng, each of them worried about different things.
“Where’s esteemed wangfie? Wasn’t she rescued back?” Zhao mama asked anxiously.
“Guard Chu,” Su Xiaoyu asked rather curiously, “Did they rescue back that Pill Fiend too?”
Baili Mingxiang was most concerned about His Highness Duke of Qin, who had looked unwell when he got off the carriage—even a little pale. Chu Xifeng didn’t answer any of their queries, but simply flipped out of the circle formed by the trio to head for the Han Estate. Although there were guards there to stand watch, it was better if he went personally as well.
The assassins shouldn’t have the guts to launch another attack now, but what if they did?
In truth, Chu Xifeng dearly wanted to tell esteemed wangfei that His Highness Duke of Qin had suffered internal injuries, and serious ones at that, but he could never share much about His Highness’s personal affairs.
The current Han Yunxi was in the Han Estate’s Idle Cloud Enclosure. After Lady Helian became the head of house, she transformed the various courtyards of the estate, renting out all of the empty rooms and leaving three for the family. One of them was specially reserved for Han Yunxi. Because Han Yunxi lived in the Leisurely Cloud Pavilion (云闲) at the Duke of Qin’s estate, she reversed the characters to call this place the Idle Cloud Enclosure (闲云). Now Lady Helian and little Yi’er were standing guard by the door, both of them oblivious to what could have happened. Esteemed wangfei had been rescued, so why did she end up coming here?
Lady Helian had tried to coax out her multiple times; in the end, she shot her son a few looks, hinting that he should try instead.
“Big sis, come and open the door!”
“Big sis, did His Highness Duke of Qin bully you?”
“Big sis, can you please open the door? Yi’er’s begging you.”
Finally, Han Yunxi spoke up. “Seventh Madame, you two should go back and rest. I’m tired and want to sleep.”
Without a choice, Lady Helian took little Yi’er and went away. Once things had finally stilled, Han Yunxi exhaled. Unfortunately, her heart still felt stifled. She hugged a pillow while sitting on the bed, her head feeling heavy and her thoughts distracted. From being attacked at the Gu Estate, protected by Gu Qishao, betrayed by the imperial guards, fleeing with Gu Qishao, unmasking his true face, treating his injuries and seeing Long Feiye show up, things had seemed to pass by in a blur. She was still reeling from all the events! Now all she could do was sleep and dream. She ended up imagining Long Feiye coming back this time, but it wasn’t a pleasant daydream. She knew that Long Feiye would naturally get angry after finding her half-dressed next to Gu Qishao on the bed.
But why didn’t he stop to listen to her explanation? He should’ve known that I was attacked by assassins, right? He clearly saw the injuries on mine and Gu Qishao’s bodies, didn’t he? Damn her for not getting dressed before applying medicine for Gu Qishao, but she really had been too preoccupied to remember. She never meant to do it intentionally.
As a doctor, she had grown urgent when faced with an emergency. Moreover, Gu Qishao had gotten hurt all because of her! Why couldn’t Long Feiye think things through? If Gu Qishao hadn’t been there, Long Feiye wouldn’t even have a wife to come back to. The rights and wrongs of the matter swirled around in Han Yunxi’s head before settling on the repeating image of Long Feiye’s disdainful smile.
Long Feiye, because I like you, I’m willing to toss my pride into the mud. But that doesn’t mean you can scorn me!
Why did you feel I was beneath your dignity? What kind of woman do you really think I am?
The more Han Yunxi thought, the worse her headache grew. Gradually, she shut her eyes and slumped over to one side to sleep. She was so preoccupied with Gu Qishao’s wound and Long Feiye’s anger that she forgot about her shoulder injury again. Even now, the arrowhead was still stuck within her flesh. Though the wound wasn’t bleeding, it was already inflamed. Her head hurt not because of a heartache, but because of a high fever.
Creak.
The window was carefully opened by a small furry head before Lil Thing peeked in. It saw Mama Yunxi fast asleep before it scampered in, but soon felt that something wasn’t right. It was about to go and call for help when the white-robed gentleman showed up.
“Cheep cheep!” Lil Thing cried desperately.
“Shh….” the white-robed man motioned to it for silence, and Lil Thing really did quiet down. It obediently jumped back to the window ledge to stand guard. Actually, he and the gentleman had long found Mama Yunxi, but the man hadn’t revealed his presence.Now the white-robed man carefully straightened out the curled up form on the bed before gently feeling her forehead and taking her pulse. Then he fed her a small pill to make sure she wouldn’t wake and went to examine her shoulder wound.
In total, Han Yunxi was wearing three layers of clothing over the injury. The arrow hadn’t sunk in too deeply either, but its entire head was buried in her skin, only leaving a tiny shaft covered by her garments. It was difficult to treat the injury without taking off her clothes, but the man was a true gentleman. He didn’t touch her, he tucked her in instead. The medicine he had fed her would not only relieve her fever, but ease her sleep. It would take her another day before she woke up, so even the worst of pains couldn’t affect her. Still, he was exceedingly careful with his movements so as to not jolt her accidentally.
He carefully brushed aside the edges of the clothing where the original arrow had torn through, inspecting the site of the bolt’s penetration. It was hard to see clearly, so he ended up kneeling on one knee by the bed in order to find a better angle. After adjusting the angle of her clothing and repeatedly inspecting the wound, his concentration didn’t falter a bit. Meanwhile, Lil Thing was starting to yawn from the window. Finally, the man found the perfect place to treat the injury. First he used magnetite to pull out the broadhead slightly, then quickly pinched the tip of the shaft between his thumb and index finger to pull it out in one swoop.
Strangely enough, Han Yunxi’s wound didn’t bleed at all beyond a few traces. In any other case, such a deep wound left untreated for so long would definitely be pouring with blood by now. Next, the man cleaned up the wound and sprinkled some blood-staunching powder over the injury opening. His movements now were much faster, and he quickly bandaged the injury before it started to bleed again. Once everything was finished, he exhaled lightly and felt her forehead one more time. Though a bit reluctant, he quickly withdrew his hand. Most of her fever had receded by now, which was a good thing.
By the time he finally straightened up, his legs were feeling numb from the prolonged kneeling. He gave a helpless smile, the warm expression completely obscured by the white face-veil covering his face. His eyes shone like twin pools of clear water, deep and clean. He poured her a cup of water and left it by her bed, then after some hesitation, took off the face veil to wrap up the crossbow bolt head and place that at the head of the bed.
If Han Yunxi was awake right now, she’d definitely see his helpless, pampering smile. This was the gentlest face in the world, but she lie unconscious to it all.
“Silly girl…your wound was so deep. You mustn’t move about rashly now.”
He stared at her for a long time, enough for Lil Thing to assume that he’d stay here for good. But in the end, he finally turned to leave. Lil Thing finally noticed that he wasn’t wearing his face veil anymore, but it wasn’t surprised at all. It’d long discovered his true identity from his clean, unmistakable scent—the purest in the world. Those faint traces of medicinal plants held a faintly sweet fragrance that was better than anything else.
The white-robed man vanished into thin air as soon as he left Han Yunxi’s room, causing Lil Thing to panic. It scrambled up to the roof and fortunately caught him standing right there. Naturally, Lil Thing was going to stay back and watch over Mama Yunxi, but it had something to tell the gentleman! It dashed onto his shoulder and fished out a sphere of solidified blood. “Cheep cheep…cheep cheep!”
These were traces of Gu Qishao’s blood. It had long realized that Gu Qishao was abnormal, but never expected his blood to…taste so good! It wasn’t sure what the blood was made of because it couldn’t recognize any poisons, but the mere scent of the blood made it drool. It really is so, so tasty!
The white-robed man chuckled lightly at that before taking out some clotted blood of his own. “You noticed it too?”
Lil Thing was amazed. “Cheep cheep, cheep cheep!”
“Poison Gu Human, the one with an undying body. So the child at the medical academy from back then…was him!”
The white-robed man’s expression turned serious. Because he’d noticed Gu Qishao’s undying body, he hadn’t exposed himself during the rain of arrows. If an undying Poison Gu Human couldn’t protect Han Yunxi, who could? But Gu Qishao’s heart was filled with evil, vicious thoughts. Was making friends with a Poison Gu Human lucky, or unlucky?
Sensing the surrounding guards coming closer, the white-robed man set Lil Thing down and vanished from sight. Lil Thing held the clot of blood in its hands. Originally, it wanted to show this to Mama Yunxi, but knowing that her abilities were still too limited to discern its mysteries, it simply swallowed it whole. Mm, so delicious!
In the meantime, Chu Xifeng and the other guards did their patrols around the building before going into hiding again. That very same night, Gu Qishao walked in openly with Lady Helian, dressed in his usual flamboyant red robes. It covered the arrow wounds on his back, so he looked perfectly uninjured besides his somewhat ashen complexion. Lady Helian had no idea what had happened beyond the rumors that Gu Qishao had saved esteemed wangfei. Thus, she treated the man with politeness and courtesy due to that.
“Sir Gu, esteemed wangfei’s been doing nothing but staying in her room ever since she arrived. She has refused to see anyone,” Lady Helian was anxious.
Gu Qishao grew alarmed. “No one helped to treat her injury?”
Now Lady Helian grew frightened at his words. “Injury?”
Han Yunxi’s arrow wound was deep, but hidden beneath her clothes, so it was hard to find without a careful look. Gu Qishao immediately realized what was up and prepared to knock on the door, but Chu Xifeng suddenly appeared to block him.
“Gu Qishao, you mustn’t act wanton!”
