Steam still lingered throughout the bath chamber. Passing through the outer tearoom and music room, Zhao Shu lowered her eyes and walked toward the mist-filled chamber.
She had visited military training grounds before. It was not as though she had never seen half-naked men. But that fleeting glimpse just now of his tall, well-proportioned figure had nevertheless stirred a trace of feminine awkwardness and timidity within her.
Composing herself, she kept only the news about the royal house of Zhou in mind and hurried over with the medicine chest.
The envoy from Zhou had never mentioned her at all. It turned out… it was because her grandfather had fallen ill.
Before she had even reached his side, she spotted the split-open wound behind Ying Wuji’s right shoulder. Fresh crimson blood continued to seep from it, pooling upon the ebony daybed until it formed a deep red puddle.
Having gone through the Battle of Pingcheng, where practical experience had reinforced her medical knowledge, her skill in treating wounds was now hardly inferior to that of the military physicians.
No matter how troubled or anxious she was, the moment ointment, bandages, and dressings were in her hands, she could always steady herself for a while.
During those forty-two days at Pingcheng, had she not been able to keep herself occupied helping the military physicians save the wounded, she feared she would have long since gone mad from the hopeless brutality of the war.
Healing the sick and tending injuries was one of the few pursuits at which she truly excelled. Though the study of medicine was, for a crown prince, hardly considered part of the proper Way of Kings and was even viewed as an unworthy diversion, she had always been deeply devoted to it.
Her fingertips gently pressed around the edge of the wound. Lowering her gaze, she examined the fresh bloodstains before murmuring almost to herself, “It penetrated about an inch into the flesh. A little deeper and it would have reached the meridians. A blade wound… no more than five days old.”
From afar, the man looked slender and refined, but standing close, the differences brought by his Northern Hu bloodline became unmistakable. His features were exquisitely handsome, almost beautiful, yet his shoulders and frame were exceptionally solid. Compared with her, the difference in their physiques alone was enough to feel imposing.
Her fingertips examined him inch by inch. His body temperature was unlike an ordinary person’s, it was startlingly cold.
Originally, Ying Wuji had only wanted to tease her because she seemed so awkward. Instead, the light brush of her fingertips unsettled him, and with a single sentence she had accurately identified both the age and origin of his wound. He hurriedly interrupted, “The physician has already examined it. Just apply the medicine.”
As he spoke, he stuffed a half-open bamboo tube into her hands.
After confirming one last time that the injury posed no danger, Zhao Shu calmed herself and began considering how to question him while deftly applying the medicine and wrapping the bandages.
The bandage had to pass from his left shoulder across the front of his chest before circling over the right side, wrapping around three and a half times. Kneeling halfway upon the daybed and leaning over him, she somehow managed not to brush against his skin even once.
The torn flesh gradually relaxed beneath the medicinal paste as the pain subsided. Yet now that the cool touch of her fingertips was gone, the man inexplicably felt a strange emptiness, and found himself unwillingly recalling that sensation.
It had been as faint as the crawl of ants, as cool as polished jade, each delicate touch stirring an unbearable itch deep within his heart.
When she had finished treating the wound, Zhao Shu picked up his sleeping robe and draped it over his shoulders before naturally beginning to tidy the medicine chest she had rummaged through.
Every needle, instrument, and stone was returned to the exact place where the physician normally kept them. Though it was obvious her mind was elsewhere, her movements remained perfectly orderly. Ying Wuji gradually came back to himself. As she arranged the medical instruments, he quietly studied her from head to toe.
Watching her nimble fingers at work, Ying Wuji frowned slightly. For the first time, he realized this person was rather foolish.
The stablemaster had also come to the residence to plead guilty, nervously confessing his previous negligence.
Ying Wuji had paid attention to the stables himself. Ever since her arrival, those fine horses had become far more spirited. Even Chiji, whose mane had once tangled easily, now had a glossy, well-groomed coat every single day.
Medicine, animal husbandry, these were all trades that commoners learned. Even if the sons of noble families dabbled in them as hobbies, none would ever possess such skill.
And yet the crown prince of an entire kingdom neglected statecraft and military strategy, instead devoting himself wholeheartedly to these obscure pursuits.
Ridiculous though it was… wasn’t it also a little foolish?
“This medicine looks excellent. As long as it’s changed regularly for about ten days, there shouldn’t be any problem.” Zhao Shu’s voice interrupted his thoughts. The young man closed the medicine chest before lifting it slightly to ensure nothing inside rattled. “You… you said earlier that my grandfather had fallen ill. Do you know what illness it is?”
She did not ask who was governing in his stead, nor did she inquire into the Zhou royal house’s intentions.
The anxious concern in her eyes was so genuine that it left him momentarily stunned.
The imperial family was never known for affection. Originally, he had intended to use news from the Zhou court to extract information from her about the factions within the Zhao palace. But with her opening the conversation this way, he instead found himself strangely uncomfortable.
It was as though he were some ravenous beast plotting against an innocent child.
Meeting those helpless, grief-filled almond eyes, he felt his heart skip a beat. Pulling his robe closed, he finally stopped dancing around the matter. “It happened around the time the Battle of Pingcheng began. I heard an old illness suddenly relapsed.”
“But Grandfather’s heart ailment had already been cured. Then… it should be my eldest uncle governing in his place. Has the court issued a proclamation seeking physicians throughout the realm?”
“The one governing isn’t the eldest legitimate son, Ji Qiao.”
Zhao Shu merely gave a surprised little “Ah,” before sinking back into thought over the old illness. Her grandfather’s heart condition had once been incurable over ten years ago. Then, by chance, a miraculous physician had arrived in Handan. He had visited Luoyi only once before prescribing exactly the right medicine. After taking it for roughly a year, her grandfather had completely recovered.
She murmured to herself, “Could the prescription have been lost… or has the illness changed?”
“I don’t know how your grandfather fell ill again,” Ying Wuji replied. “But everyone under Heaven now knows that the one handling affairs in Luoyi is the second son by a concubine, Ji Yu.”
This time Zhao Shu looked up in genuine astonishment. She instinctively grabbed the sleeve of his robe, staring at him in disbelief. “Any of my other uncles might have been possible, but the fourth son born of a concubine was always Grandfather’s least favored. How could it be him? Then… what about Eldest Uncle?”
Ying Wuji expressionlessly glanced at the sleeve she was clutching. “Ji Qiao received the imperial command to tour the feudal states on the Son of Heaven’s behalf. He’s already passed through Wu, Nanyue, and Chu. The next kingdom on his journey should be Qin.”
State affairs were exhausting enough already. Over the past several days, his schemes had pushed him to the limits of both mind and body. He had made several decisions that determined life and death, where a single misstep could destroy years of careful planning.
As such, he had no desire to waste time explaining politics to someone so utterly ignorant of statecraft.
The medicinal salve contained a numbing agent. Drowsiness gradually overtook him, and after bathing and eating his fill, he became increasingly aware of the cool softness resting against the back of his hand. An inexplicable heat rose within him together with overwhelming fatigue. He suddenly found himself wanting to clasp that hand, to slowly stroke those slender jade-like fingers…
The thought had barely arisen when his arm moved of its own accord. Before he realized what he was doing, he had already seized her hand.
Meeting Zhao Shu’s startled gaze, Ying Wuji was inwardly alarmed. He wanted to fling her hand away immediately, yet feared doing so would seem too deliberate.
His thoughts raced. Suddenly, he pulled down the robe from his left shoulder, dragged her hand over, and pressed it against a hideous, raised dark-red scar. His expression turned cold as he demanded, “Surely Crown Prince Zhao isn’t expecting me, your sworn enemy, to keep gathering intelligence for you?”
Zhao Shu’s fingertips trembled. The urgency in her expression wavered with uncertainty.
Back then, this man had slaughtered two of her retainers with brutal cruelty. Though she understood the reasons behind it, the sight of flesh and organs scattered across the ground had still left her vomiting in terror even as she burned with hatred and demanded that he be punished.
At the time, she had snatched the whip from a servant. Blinded by fury, she had not even looked at it before bringing it down with a single lash. The strike had torn away a strip of flesh stretching from his left arm clear to his right abdomen.
The scene had been so bloody that she had immediately thrown the whip away in horror. Only upon looking closer did she realize the servant had handed her a heavy whip covered in iron spikes and backward-facing barbs.
“So tell me… shouldn’t I repay you for that blow?”
The man leaned close to her ear, his warm breath brushing against her skin until she dared not move. He continued gripping her hand tightly, dragging it inch by inch along the raised scar left by the whip.
Seeing her sitting as though on pins and needles, timid as a frightened rabbit, Ying Wuji became ever more aware of how soft the skin of the person beside him was. Standing so close, he suddenly recalled the accident during their last shared ride, when the corner of his lips had brushed against her cheek.
As warmth surged through him, he thought to himself that she was, after all, a young man, the skin on her face was still somewhat rough.
Yet even while thinking that…his body began reacting again.
This was the second time.
He abruptly flung her hand away and sprang to his feet. In the motion, he nearly shoved Zhao Shu off the edge of the daybed. “I am broad-minded and have no time to make life difficult for an incompetent fool like you. Allowing you to serve me is already sparing your life. Don’t be so ungrateful, and stop wearing that miserable face all day long.”
With that, he strode quickly back to the upstairs bedchamber, leaving Zhao Shu alone. Her heart twisted with countless anxious thoughts, yet with all she had experienced in her life, she still could not make sense of the predicament she now found herself in.
There was only one thing she had begun to realize amid all her confusion and worry.
This man…seemed unwilling to kill her.
***
Now that the cold poison had been temporarily suppressed, and by her reckoning there were still twenty days remaining, Zhao Shu firmly believed her sworn elder brother would find a way to rescue her. Thus, she remained cautious around Ying Wuji and deliberately withheld everything she knew about Handan.
Curiously enough, after that day, Ying Wuji seemed to have become a man with nothing to do. Every day he remained at Lantai, either reading miscellaneous books, playing the qin while burning incense, sitting motionless fishing, or even cooking for himself.
If he truly had nothing else to occupy him, he simply caught up on sleep.
Five days passed in succession. Aside from Qi Ying no longer being allowed to visit, Zhao Shu was no longer subjected to deliberate torment. Her food, clothing, and daily necessities were all comfortably provided. Ying Wuji barely required her attendance either, at most she ground ink or organized books, simple, leisurely tasks.
Although the three-month deadline was drawing nearer, Zhao Shu had spent months wandering through hardship. Seeing that she and Ying Wuji had, for the time being, reached something of a truce, and knowing she still possessed acupuncture techniques capable of delaying the poison’s progression, she allowed herself to relax for another couple of days before worrying further.
Yet while Zhao Shu spent those two days in relative ease, Ying Wuji experienced the exact opposite.
Ever since the night she treated his wound, he had gone five consecutive nights without sleeping well.
Night after night he tossed and turned, not because of affairs of state, but because, like the unsettled weather of early spring, he became trapped within one entangling, romantic dream after another, unable to escape.
In those dreams, the young man wore his hair in twin buns and was dressed in flowing skirts. With clear, radiant eyes, he smiled sweetly at Ying Wuji as he crouched before him, carefully removing his shackles.
In the fourth watch of the night on the fifteenth day of the second lunar month, the Night of Jingzhe, he sat upright on his bed. Bright moonlight streamed through the bed curtains. Staring darkly at the fresh, glistening damp stain that had once again appeared upon the bedding, he quietly rose and made his way to the bathhouse on the second floor.
Once the weather turned cooler, Cheng Wu finally received orders summoning him to discuss affairs at Lantai.
Just as he was about to report the unusual developments along the Heluo region over the past several days, he heard the man seated at the head issue an order through gritted teeth.
“Go to Mi Rong’s residence. Borrow me two clean boys. Keep it discreet.”
He intended to test whether, after visiting Mi Rong’s residence so often lately, he might somehow have contracted that peculiar ailment of men who favored other men.
