Jiang Suizhou responded subconsciously, "Okay."
It was only after Jiang Suizhou voiced his consent did he realize what he
had said. He couldn't help but be stunned, and he put down the book in his
hand.
He had made it clear to Huo Wujiu, and Huo Wujiu had promised to shelter
him in the future, so there was no need for him to either brush up his
presence in front of him or inquire about his well-being.
But…
Jiang Suizhou hesitated and was about to refuse, but his eyes involuntarily
drifted to the couch beside the bed.
The couch had already been tidied up, smoothed out without a single
wrinkle, and the beddings resting on it had also been put away.
It looked too neat, as if something was missing.
Jiang Suizhou's gaze stopped in that direction and suddenly felt that his
bedroom was particularly large, so large that it felt a bit empty.
He remained silent for a moment, making Meng Qianshan who stood next
to him show a look of surprise.
Look-look! His Highness is missing his wife!
He was pleased with his excellent proposal. Grinning ear to ear, he didn't
wait for Jiang Suizhou's next instructions. He turned around and found a robe for Jiang Suizhou to wear outside. Meng Qianshan handed it to him,
intending to wait for him to put it on.
Jiang Suizhou's eyes fell on Meng Qianshan's hands.
For a moment, he secretly persuaded himself inwardly.
Forget it. Isn't it just going to Huo Wujiu's place to check him out? This is
my own territory. I can go wherever I want to go. There is no need to be
overcautious and indecisive.
With this in mind, he stood up and put on the outer robe that Meng
Qianshan handed to him.
Somehow, it might have been that the material of the robe was really
comfortable on his body, because after putting it on, his mood that was
cloudy and empty all morning seemed to have receded a lot in an instant.
Jiang Suizhou looked out the window.
I really ought to bask in the sun outside. He thought to himself.
——
Li Changning took out the acupuncture instruments in his medical kit. He
asked Huo Wujiu to lie down on the bed; then, he rolled up Huo Wujiu's
trousers for him, exposing his unhealed legs.
Huo Wujiu's legs had recovered quite well, but his epidermal scars still
looked appalling. With just one glance, Wei Kai's eyes turned red, and he
averted his gaze to the side with difficulty.
Li Changning examined him and said, "General, the injuries on your legs
have not yet healed, so they should be easier to treat. If they were delayed
for a year or a half, I'm afraid that even if they were cured, the root cause
will remain."
Huo Wujiu didn't make a sound.
He knew that for him, this was what he owed Jingwang.
If Jingwang had not pretended to be ill and given Li Changning and Wei
Kai the opportunity to enter the manor, it would have been even harder for
them to meet. Even if Li Changning was capable of curing him, it would
have been nowhere in sight and definitely not as effective as it was right
now.
His father had taught him long ago never to owe others unless it was a last
resort. The more you owe, the more entanglements you would have in the
future, and the more you would have no command over yourself.
It was inadvisable to owe someone a favor.
Huo Wujiu closed his eyes.
But what he owed Jingwang now was already much less than he had
thought. For him, this kind of favor could be easily repaid in the future. On
the contrary, the unrequited love he once thought was the most indefined
thing…
He should be glad, but he couldn't pep himself up.
It felt like there were a bunch of threads that bound him and sent his mind
in a whirl. When it was suddenly withdrawn and gave him too much
freedom, he didn't feel relaxed, but instead, somehow felt forsaken.
This kind of fluttering mood ruffled his feathers.
Li Changning continued speaking beside his bed, "It's just that you will
suffer a lot if you want your leg injuries to heal. From now on, I will apply
acupuncture and medicine to you every day, General. The needles are to
unblock the meridians and blood vessels, and the medicine is to reshape the
broken meridians."
After a pause, Li Changning then said, "General, the stabbing pain of
restoring your meridians is entirely different from the skin and flesh injuries
around. The degree of pain is no different from scraping your bones. I've reconsidered it time and time again and plan to reduce the dosage by half.
Although the speed will be slower, you, more or less, won't be so
tortured…"
But Huo Wujiu interrupted him with his words.
"No need," he said.
Li Changning was stunned.
Then, he hurriedly explained, "General, the severe pain of reshaping
meridians is very different from the abrasions around them. The pain level
is no different from scraping bones. Even if the General has flesh and bones
of steel, a person would take his own life to avoid suffering like this every
day!"
But Huo Wujiu asked, "If you use normal medicine, how long would it take
to heal them?"
Li Changning said, "Less than 20 days, more than a month."
Huo Wujiu asked, "What about halving it?"
Li Changning answered, "It takes about three months. But rest assured,
General…"
Huo Wujiu spoke out and interrupted him.
"That won't do," he raised his eyes to Li Changning and rejected.
"We don't have that much spare time to spend here," he said. "Just heal me
normally. No need to cut it in half."
Li Changning was a little puzzled.
Er…Although the Jingwang Manor wasn't a conducive place, it seemed to
be calm and quiet nowadays.
Why was the General in a hurry?
He took a peek at Huo Wujiu again, but he saw that the latter had already
closed his eyes and started to recuperate.
Li Changning could only obey. He turned around to sort out his silver
needles.
He failed to notice that Huo Wujiu's left hand, which was hidden in his
sleeves, was tightly clenched with some irritability.
He naturally had nothing urgent to do.
The Southern Jing wouldn't kill him for a while. The Northern Liang had
just established a court and the treasury was empty. There were no
outstanding generals except him, and nobody had the ability to save him in
a short time.
But he just wanted to return Jingwang's favor quickly.
He only thought that he was now distracted, all because he had some debts
and involvement with Jingwang. He believed that when these were paid off,
he, Huo Wujiu, would still be the same Huo Wujiu, and wouldn't be tied up
by an irrelevant person every day. It rankled him to no end, making him
always wanting to kill someone.
——
The sun was rising high. Wei Kai was guarding the small clay stove,
watching the medicine for Li Changning.
He fanned the fire with a fan, and glanced at the bed from time to time,
watching as silver needles were gradually inserted into his General's legs,
one by one, faintly glowing in the daylight.
He felt a bit creeped out, looking at them from a distance.
What would it feel like to have so many needles stuck in your body? The
mere imagination of these things greeting his body made Wei Kai's spine
tingle.
However, he had always had a blind confidence in his General, as if
believing in a God.
From the time he had followed their General, what could the General not do
well? What hurdle could their General not overcome?
None.
Even their capture this time after crossing the river was because of
problems in the army of the Northern Liang, not because of their General.
Reminded of this, Wei Kai's mood was a bit heavy.
Wu Qianfan.
Wei Kai and Wu Qianfan were formerly the old Marquis's men. After the
Marquis was killed in battle, the two of them followed the General and
could be considered the General's right-hand men.
Others were stupid, but Wu Qianfan was much smarter than him. Wu
Qianfan had always performed more appropriately on the things entrusted
to them.
Because of this, he followed the General's side when they crossed the river
this time, while the subsequent hundreds of thousands of troops were
entrusted to Wu Qianfan. According to their plan, they would lead their
troops to cross the river overnight and lay in ambush outside the Southern
Jing city. After which, Wu Qianfan would lead the army. After the large
force crossed the river, the General would command the attack.
However, the Southern Jing had somehow armed in defense in advance, and
trapped them south of the river. And they hadn't heard a word from Wu
Qianfan, who should have led his troops to follow them.
Did something go wrong?
Wei Kai and Wu Qianfan were both orphans adopted by the old marquis in
Yangguan. They grew up together, so he had no doubt about Wu Qianfan's
character. As he fought to stay alive and led the few remaining troops
around to gather information, he also spied on information from the
Northern Liang all the time.
Perhaps they encountered an ambush when crossing the river. Or did a
turbulence occur in the river, sweeping them into some sort of situation?
But there was no news at all.
Wei Kai gradually got lost in thought while watching over the medicine
stove until a crisp voice broke the silence in the room.
"His Highness Jingwang is here," a servant girl came in to report.
Wei Kai was startled, and he quickly looked at Li Changning. Then he
found that Li Changning had almost finished inserting the needles, and was
now also looking at him.
Li Changning waved his hand at him.
Wei Kai hurriedly looked in the direction he indicated, and saw that the
medicinal soup on the stove had started to boil.
He hurriedly brought the medicinal soup from the stove.
While they were busy, footsteps arriving at the door sounded. They both
looked up and found Jingwang, who was gracefully wrapped in a dark
cloak, walking straight into the room.
Wei Kai followed Li Changning and bowed to him.
But before they could kneel down, Jingwang waved his hand slightly and
said, "Get up. Get on with what you're doing. I have nothing better to do, so
I just came to take a look."
Wei Kai sneaked a peek at him.
He watched as Jingwang walked to the bedside. He only took a glance at
their General's legs, and then quickly withdrew his gaze. With a short
glance, Wei Kai surmised that Jingwang was scared by the silver needles on
their General's legs, so much so that he didn't dare to look at them directly.
Wei Kai sneered inwardly.
Hmph, these Southern Jing bigwigs were always like him, extremely
ruthless but cowardly. They didn't even know how many people they had
harmed, but in reality, they couldn't even look at a shed of blood.
His kind was the most annoying paper tiger.
How could he compare to our General? He's hurt and got needles stuck in
his legs, but his expression remains unchanged, and he keeps his eyes
closed…
Um? General?
Wei Kai inwardly lauded, but then his eyes accidentally fell on the
General's face.
The General, who had been quietly closing his eyes, opened his eyes at
some point. Although his face was hidden under the curtains, Wei Kai
happened to be standing in the corner and could see him through the gap in
the curtains.
He saw through the heavy brocade curtains that their General was actually
looking at Jingwang.
Wei Kai had never known that his ice-cold and arrogant black eyes could
actually…surprisingly could show such a look.
It was as if he had been looking forward to meeting Jingwang, but at the
same time, wanted to conceal this emotion. Although he was expressionless,
Wei Kai vaguely felt that he seemed a little happy. However, it was mixed
with what felt like a trace of resentment, with a thousand twists and turns
that made his eyes particularly deep.
Wei Kai froze in place.
At that moment, he heard Li Changning's voice.
"Silly boy, what has got you dazed?"
Only after receiving Li Changning's lecture did Wei Kai come back to his
senses. He realized that Li Changning had walked up to him at some point
and carried the pot of medicine away.
Li Changning walked away with a smile and explained to Jiang Suizhou,
"This medicine is meant to nurse Madam's health. Madam stays in his room
all day, so his body is more or less weak. If he doesn't take medicine, I'm
afraid he can't withstand this level of acupuncture…"
Wei Kai stood in place, his gaze drifting to their General's face again.
This time, the General was looking at him.
Those obsidian-like eyes were cold and hard, as if the deep hundred twists
and turns he saw just now were all his illusion.
With just one glance, it froze Wei Kai awake.
Illusion, he said to himself.
It must have been an illusion.
What deeper meaning could there be when their General looked at
Jingwang?
Even if there was, it would be a deep meaning of wanting to kill him in one
shot afterwards.
———————————————————–
The author has something to say.
Wei Kai used the passive skill: The Eye of a Straight Guy