The pain from the broken ribs made Gao Qing’s breathing become tortuous. Seeing Lu Daren approaching him, he struggled to get up, but was pressed down by Lu Yi.
“I heard your ribs are broken, don’t carelessly move around.” Lu Yi said.
“Beizhe’s mistake deserves punishment. Daren, please punish me as you like.”
Lu Yi was silent for a long time, then said: “Try to tell me the story from the beginning to the end, in detail.”
Although the suffering from his injury was truly unbearable, Gao Qing did not dare to go against his orders at all. While enduring the pain, he tried to recall all of the details.
After listening, Lu Yi nodded, “According to what you’ve said, these criminals have great swimming ability, and there were about four to five people, just like what Constable Yuan said.”
“After Beizhe fell into the water, on the boat only remained Constable Yuan and one of my brothers. The criminals used the opportunity to beat my brother unconscious, then threw him in the water, meaning the last one on the boat was Constable Yuan. In my opinion, this problem definitely has something to do with her.”
“She was also injured, though, lighter than you, but still far worse than your brothers who only choked on water. If you want to talk about suspicion, then all those who are alive will become suspect.” Lu Yi said coldly, “You rented the boat, so why did it leak? This only proves that someone already knew ahead of our plan.”
Gao Qing shuddered, and remembered that Lu Yi had only ordered Jinxia to accompany them right before they were about to leave. She had been with them the whole time, therefore, it would have been impossible for her to know about the plan ahead of time. Instead, he was well aware of this plan since the afternoon, the boat was also rented by him… If they wanted to find a suspect, he would be a greater possibility than Jinxia.
“Daren, Beizhe, Beizhe…”
As if he knew what was on his mind, Lu Yi interrupted him by saying, “Your injury is bad, of course it’s not you. As for some of your brothers, I suppose you should pay more attention to their actions.”
“Beizhe understands.”
Lu Yi did not say anything else, he just told some of the JinYiWei’s brothers to take Gao Qing to the clinic. In addition, Shangguan Xi had prepared a horse carriage to personally escort Lu Yi back to the post station.
After tossing all night, with the wounds on her body, when Jinxia returned to the post station, she went to her room at once and closed the door. Only then she felt all of her energy gone, and tiredness had the best of her. She staggered, reaching and climbing onto her bed, her clothes remained unchanged because she didn’t have the strength to take off her robe. She laid sideways, careful not to touch the wound.
“I have to hide this wound from the master, I must find the right excuse…”
She closed her eyes, trying to think about what excuse to make, but before she could think, she had fallen asleep, drifting into a dream
It was a street both strange and familiar, there were lights everywhere.
The people passing by her were dressed beautifully and smiling, as if they were celebrating a lively festival.
She stood in the middle of the street, looking around blankly, wondering what she was looking for.
Hundreds of beautiful glowing lanterns, laughters everywhere.
She felt alone for so long.
Suddenly, someone held her hand and said, “Come on, come with me!”
“Who are you? Who?” She did not want to go and tried her best to refuse.
The man’s hand was as heavy as iron and freezing cold, making it hard for her to escape…
“Ah!”
She woke up from her dream, breathing heavily, her forehead full of sweats. Her eyes widened as soon as she found herself staring directly at Lu Yi’s face.
He was holding her hand.
Regarding why Lu Yi was in her room and why he was holding her hand, Jinxia couldn’t think of a reasonable explanation; she could only stare blankly at Lu Yi for some time…
Lu Yi’s eyebrows tightened, finally he broke the silence saying, “Your nails need to be cut.”
“Huh?”
“Your nails hurt me.” He let go of her hand and stroked his neck with his fingers.
With the help of candlelight, Jinxia saw on the left side of his neck, a few thin streaks of blood. She felt shocked and said, “I… I did that?”
“Do you think I would do this to myself?” His tone of voice was a bit unpleasant.
“This… Beizhe deserves to die.”
Jinxia could only beg for mercy, but then she realized: that’s not fair; in reality, it was him who entered my room, and it was him who held my hand!
She raised her head, preparing to argue out loud, however when she opened her mouth, she only said, “Lu Daren, this… er, that… er, why… Daren, in the middle of the night, why are you here? Is there an order?”
“What’s in the middle of the night? It’s dawn! Don’t you know that you got a fever?” Lu Yi asked her back in an angry tone.
“Ah, no wonder your hands are so cold, that’s the reason.”
Jinxia realized, just turning her head to look out the window, that the sky was cloudy; it seemed like it was going to rain, no wonder the room was so dim.
Lu Yi’s expression became darker, “You didn’t respond to the door, I thought you’d passed out… I wanted to test your forehead heat, who would have thought you would start hitting and kicking. You can’t even sleep peacefully.”
“This… Beizhe deserves to die.” That’s all she could utter.
“The medicine I gave you, did Shangguan Bangzhu not apply it to your wound?”
Jinxia opened her eyes wide, trying to lie, “It’s been already used.”
“If you had already used the medicine, judging from your injury, you shouldn’t have a fever right now.” He narrowed his eyes, staring at her wounds, “Take off your clothes, let me take a look.”
“……” She didn’t know he would be so serious about this. Jinxia wanted to cry but no tears were coming out, “Daren, I was wrong. I will tell you the truth, I didn’t use your medicine, it’s still here.” She pulled out a small bottle from her pocket and returned it to him.
“Why not use it?” His tone of voice was clearly angry, he furrowed his eyebrows and said, “Do you think I would harm you?”
“Of course not!” Jinxia explained, “This… Actually, it’s because… That…”
Lu Yi looked at her as cold as ice, implying that if she dared to lie again, she would be finished.
Jinxia truthfully said, “Because Beizhe believes this medicine must be very expensive. If I use it, and within a day or two, Daren would ask for a payment, I certainly wouldn’t be able to afford it. Not to mention, I still owe you two taels of silver and three cents, so come to think of it, it’s better not to use it.”
“You…” At this moment, it was Lu Yi’s turn to glare at her. His chest was rising up and down, making his breathing seem heavy; his voice raised higher, “What is more important? Life or money?”
“Of course, both are important!” Jinxia patiently tried to explain, “For example, between a bowl of noodles and a bowl of shark fin: eating noodles can fill the stomach, eating shark fin can also fill the stomach, but I would definitely choose the bowl of noodles. Why would I spend more money? Daren, can you understand?” She looked at Lu Yi sincerely.
Lu Yi took the medicine bottle and immediately walked out.
“Talking to a wealthy person, it’s useless even if I explain.”
Jinxia sighed, laying back down. She was feeling dizzy from her fever, therefore she tucked herself inside the blanket and went back to sleep.
When she woke up again, the sky was clear, it was hard to tell what time it was. She tried to get up, but was surprised to see Xie Xiao barging in her room.
“How are you feeling?” His face looked panicked.
Jinxia looked at him in surprise, “I’m fine, is there something urgent?”
“I knocked for half a day, why didn’t you answer?”
“Maybe it’s because I was deep asleep.” She rubbed her eyes, then turned to ask, “Brother, do you need something?”
“I couldn’t stop worrying, so I came to see you.” Xie Xiao walked over, looked at her arm and anxiously said, “I heard the wound was quite deep, how do you feel?”
“I’m fine, just a small thing.”
Jinxia put on her shoes. Staggering from dizziness, she walked to the table, reached out her hand and was about to pour a cup of water, but she accidentally touched her wound, immediately grimacing in pain.
“Let me.”
Xie Xiao couldn’t bear to watch it. He opened the straw lid and took out the teapot, which felt too light to have any water inside.
“They don’t even have water here, how can you recover?” He said, irritated, “Brother Yang is currently living in the clinic to take care of Uncle Yang. These days, there will be nobody to look after you, how could it be possible?!? Just move to my place, I can take care of your injury.”
“No, my master and Da Yang are not around. If I’m still not diligent, Liu Daren will become angry. After all, there is still one more person, the one that is not easy to deal with.”
The powerless Jinxia laid her head on the table, wondering if there was still food in the kitchen.
“Why do you care whether he is angry or not? Didn’t I tell you, if you lose your job, I…” Saying up to this point, Xie Xiao nervously stopped his sentence, turning to her to say, “You don’t have anywhere else to go.”
Just as he finished his words, someone appeared at the door, coldly saying, “It looks like Miss Yuan wants to find a better job?”
Upon hearing Lu Yi’s voice, Jinxia jumped to her feet. As a result of this sudden movement, it made her wound ache so painfully that she could only grit her teeth.
“There’s no such thing, please don’t misunderstand Daren. If Liu Daren heard this, it wouldn’t be good.” Jinxia hurriedly explained.
“You just sit.” Lu Yi’s eyebrows tightened, then he placed a bowl he brought on the table, “Drink this medicine.”
Jinxia slowly sat down. She looked down on the bowl of medicine that was still emitting a puff of hot steam, saying with hesitation, “This medicine…”
“It can reduce the fever and it’s good for your wounds.” Lu Yi explained.
“No, I mean… Did Daren cook this medicine?”
“I ordered a servant to cook it.”
Not knowing why, Jinxia let out a sigh of relief, but then she heard Lu Yi mockingly said: “But if I did cook this medicine, would you not have wanted to drink it?”
Before Jinxia could answer, Xie Xiao stepped in and answered for her, “You’re not a physician, for what reason should she be taking this medicine? If anything happens, will you be responsible for her, huh!?”
“How do you know I won’t be responsible for her?” Lu Yi asked him back, turning his head to look at him.
Xie Xiao stopped paying attention to him, stretched out his hand to pull Jinxia to his side, and said, “Let’s go! Let’s go to my place, I will ask the doctor to examine you.”
“You can’t take her away.” Lu Yi said with a menacing tone.
“Why? She’s not yours!”
Xie Xiao’s tone was higher, he seemed to be ready to attack Lu Yi.
“At least, she doesn’t belong to you either.” Although his voice was not as high, it was glacial.
“She…” Xie Xiao scratched his neck, before blurting out, “I will marry her tomorrow, believe it or not!”
There was no time to look at Lu Yi’s reaction, Jinxia stepped in the conversation, “Brother, this problem can be discussed another day. You still have important business, you should go take care of it, no need to worry about me, I’m very well here. You just go, I won’t tell…”
“Why do you always kick me out?” Xie Xiao said unhappily.
Lu Yi crossed his arm in front of his chest, while standing there watching the scene; a faint smile appeared on his lips.
“Brother, I still have a fever. Your yelling makes my head hurt, come back another day.” Jinxia said, almost losing her patience. Then she pushed him to the door.
Xie Xiao was pushed two steps, but suddenly turned back and asked, “You don’t believe that I want to marry you?”
“I…” Jinxia was shocked by his question, “No, I believe it. This is a good thing, but an important matter like this has to follow my mother’s decision, I can’t make my own decision. There is no need to rush this, wait until I am fully healed and the master is somewhat better, and if there is free time, we will talk about it in a proper manner.”
“Then, that means you agree?” Xie Xiao looked at her.
“This is a good thing, why would I disagree?”
Jinxia answered right away.
After getting that answer, Xie Xiao immediately turned around and walked away. Before leaving, he did not forget to glare at Lu Yi.
The pain from the broken ribs made Gao Qing’s breathing become tortuous. Seeing Lu Daren approaching him, he struggled to get up, but was pressed down by Lu Yi.
“I heard your ribs are broken, don’t carelessly move around.” Lu Yi said.
“Beizhe’s mistake deserves punishment. Daren, please punish me as you like.”
Lu Yi was silent for a long time, then said: “Try to tell me the story from the beginning to the end, in detail.”
Although the suffering from his injury was truly unbearable, Gao Qing did not dare to go against his orders at all. While enduring the pain, he tried to recall all of the details.
After listening, Lu Yi nodded, “According to what you’ve said, these criminals have great swimming ability, and there were about four to five people, just like what Constable Yuan said.”
“After Beizhe fell into the water, on the boat only remained Constable Yuan and one of my brothers. The criminals used the opportunity to beat my brother unconscious, then threw him in the water, meaning the last one on the boat was Constable Yuan. In my opinion, this problem definitely has something to do with her.”
“She was also injured, though, lighter than you, but still far worse than your brothers who only choked on water. If you want to talk about suspicion, then all those who are alive will become suspect.” Lu Yi said coldly, “You rented the boat, so why did it leak? This only proves that someone already knew ahead of our plan.”
Gao Qing shuddered, and remembered that Lu Yi had only ordered Jinxia to accompany them right before they were about to leave. She had been with them the whole time, therefore, it would have been impossible for her to know about the plan ahead of time. Instead, he was well aware of this plan since the afternoon, the boat was also rented by him… If they wanted to find a suspect, he would be a greater possibility than Jinxia.
“Daren, Beizhe, Beizhe…”
As if he knew what was on his mind, Lu Yi interrupted him by saying, “Your injury is bad, of course it’s not you. As for some of your brothers, I suppose you should pay more attention to their actions.”
“Beizhe understands.”
Lu Yi did not say anything else, he just told some of the JinYiWei’s brothers to take Gao Qing to the clinic. In addition, Shangguan Xi had prepared a horse carriage to personally escort Lu Yi back to the post station.
After tossing all night, with the wounds on her body, when Jinxia returned to the post station, she went to her room at once and closed the door. Only then she felt all of her energy gone, and tiredness had the best of her. She staggered, reaching and climbing onto her bed, her clothes remained unchanged because she didn’t have the strength to take off her robe. She laid sideways, careful not to touch the wound.
“I have to hide this wound from the master, I must find the right excuse…”
She closed her eyes, trying to think about what excuse to make, but before she could think, she had fallen asleep, drifting into a dream
It was a street both strange and familiar, there were lights everywhere.
The people passing by her were dressed beautifully and smiling, as if they were celebrating a lively festival.
She stood in the middle of the street, looking around blankly, wondering what she was looking for.
Hundreds of beautiful glowing lanterns, laughters everywhere.
She felt alone for so long.
Suddenly, someone held her hand and said, “Come on, come with me!”
“Who are you? Who?” She did not want to go and tried her best to refuse.
The man’s hand was as heavy as iron and freezing cold, making it hard for her to escape…
“Ah!”
She woke up from her dream, breathing heavily, her forehead full of sweats. Her eyes widened as soon as she found herself staring directly at Lu Yi’s face.
He was holding her hand.
Regarding why Lu Yi was in her room and why he was holding her hand, Jinxia couldn’t think of a reasonable explanation; she could only stare blankly at Lu Yi for some time…
Lu Yi’s eyebrows tightened, finally he broke the silence saying, “Your nails need to be cut.”
“Huh?”
“Your nails hurt me.” He let go of her hand and stroked his neck with his fingers.
With the help of candlelight, Jinxia saw on the left side of his neck, a few thin streaks of blood. She felt shocked and said, “I… I did that?”
“Do you think I would do this to myself?” His tone of voice was a bit unpleasant.
“This… Beizhe deserves to die.”
Jinxia could only beg for mercy, but then she realized: that’s not fair; in reality, it was him who entered my room, and it was him who held my hand!
She raised her head, preparing to argue out loud, however when she opened her mouth, she only said, “Lu Daren, this… er, that… er, why… Daren, in the middle of the night, why are you here? Is there an order?”
“What’s in the middle of the night? It’s dawn! Don’t you know that you got a fever?” Lu Yi asked her back in an angry tone.
“Ah, no wonder your hands are so cold, that’s the reason.”
Jinxia realized, just turning her head to look out the window, that the sky was cloudy; it seemed like it was going to rain, no wonder the room was so dim.
Lu Yi’s expression became darker, “You didn’t respond to the door, I thought you’d passed out… I wanted to test your forehead heat, who would have thought you would start hitting and kicking. You can’t even sleep peacefully.”
“This… Beizhe deserves to die.” That’s all she could utter.
“The medicine I gave you, did Shangguan Bangzhu not apply it to your wound?”
Jinxia opened her eyes wide, trying to lie, “It’s been already used.”
“If you had already used the medicine, judging from your injury, you shouldn’t have a fever right now.” He narrowed his eyes, staring at her wounds, “Take off your clothes, let me take a look.”
“……” She didn’t know he would be so serious about this. Jinxia wanted to cry but no tears were coming out, “Daren, I was wrong. I will tell you the truth, I didn’t use your medicine, it’s still here.” She pulled out a small bottle from her pocket and returned it to him.
“Why not use it?” His tone of voice was clearly angry, he furrowed his eyebrows and said, “Do you think I would harm you?”
“Of course not!” Jinxia explained, “This… Actually, it’s because… That…”
Lu Yi looked at her as cold as ice, implying that if she dared to lie again, she would be finished.
Jinxia truthfully said, “Because Beizhe believes this medicine must be very expensive. If I use it, and within a day or two, Daren would ask for a payment, I certainly wouldn’t be able to afford it. Not to mention, I still owe you two taels of silver and three cents, so come to think of it, it’s better not to use it.”
“You…” At this moment, it was Lu Yi’s turn to glare at her. His chest was rising up and down, making his breathing seem heavy; his voice raised higher, “What is more important? Life or money?”
“Of course, both are important!” Jinxia patiently tried to explain, “For example, between a bowl of noodles and a bowl of shark fin: eating noodles can fill the stomach, eating shark fin can also fill the stomach, but I would definitely choose the bowl of noodles. Why would I spend more money? Daren, can you understand?” She looked at Lu Yi sincerely.
Lu Yi took the medicine bottle and immediately walked out.
“Talking to a wealthy person, it’s useless even if I explain.”
Jinxia sighed, laying back down. She was feeling dizzy from her fever, therefore she tucked herself inside the blanket and went back to sleep.
When she woke up again, the sky was clear, it was hard to tell what time it was. She tried to get up, but was surprised to see Xie Xiao barging in her room.
“How are you feeling?” His face looked panicked.
Jinxia looked at him in surprise, “I’m fine, is there something urgent?”
“I knocked for half a day, why didn’t you answer?”
“Maybe it’s because I was deep asleep.” She rubbed her eyes, then turned to ask, “Brother, do you need something?”
“I couldn’t stop worrying, so I came to see you.” Xie Xiao walked over, looked at her arm and anxiously said, “I heard the wound was quite deep, how do you feel?”
“I’m fine, just a small thing.”
Jinxia put on her shoes. Staggering from dizziness, she walked to the table, reached out her hand and was about to pour a cup of water, but she accidentally touched her wound, immediately grimacing in pain.
“Let me.”
Xie Xiao couldn’t bear to watch it. He opened the straw lid and took out the teapot, which felt too light to have any water inside.
“They don’t even have water here, how can you recover?” He said, irritated, “Brother Yang is currently living in the clinic to take care of Uncle Yang. These days, there will be nobody to look after you, how could it be possible?!? Just move to my place, I can take care of your injury.”
“No, my master and Da Yang are not around. If I’m still not diligent, Liu Daren will become angry. After all, there is still one more person, the one that is not easy to deal with.”
The powerless Jinxia laid her head on the table, wondering if there was still food in the kitchen.
“Why do you care whether he is angry or not? Didn’t I tell you, if you lose your job, I…” Saying up to this point, Xie Xiao nervously stopped his sentence, turning to her to say, “You don’t have anywhere else to go.”
Just as he finished his words, someone appeared at the door, coldly saying, “It looks like Miss Yuan wants to find a better job?”
Upon hearing Lu Yi’s voice, Jinxia jumped to her feet. As a result of this sudden movement, it made her wound ache so painfully that she could only grit her teeth.
“There’s no such thing, please don’t misunderstand Daren. If Liu Daren heard this, it wouldn’t be good.” Jinxia hurriedly explained.
“You just sit.” Lu Yi’s eyebrows tightened, then he placed a bowl he brought on the table, “Drink this medicine.”
Jinxia slowly sat down. She looked down on the bowl of medicine that was still emitting a puff of hot steam, saying with hesitation, “This medicine…”
“It can reduce the fever and it’s good for your wounds.” Lu Yi explained.
“No, I mean… Did Daren cook this medicine?”
“I ordered a servant to cook it.”
Not knowing why, Jinxia let out a sigh of relief, but then she heard Lu Yi mockingly said: “But if I did cook this medicine, would you not have wanted to drink it?”
Before Jinxia could answer, Xie Xiao stepped in and answered for her, “You’re not a physician, for what reason should she be taking this medicine? If anything happens, will you be responsible for her, huh!?”
“How do you know I won’t be responsible for her?” Lu Yi asked him back, turning his head to look at him.
Xie Xiao stopped paying attention to him, stretched out his hand to pull Jinxia to his side, and said, “Let’s go! Let’s go to my place, I will ask the doctor to examine you.”
“You can’t take her away.” Lu Yi said with a menacing tone.
“Why? She’s not yours!”
Xie Xiao’s tone was higher, he seemed to be ready to attack Lu Yi.
“At least, she doesn’t belong to you either.” Although his voice was not as high, it was glacial.
“She…” Xie Xiao scratched his neck, before blurting out, “I will marry her tomorrow, believe it or not!”
There was no time to look at Lu Yi’s reaction, Jinxia stepped in the conversation, “Brother, this problem can be discussed another day. You still have important business, you should go take care of it, no need to worry about me, I’m very well here. You just go, I won’t tell…”
“Why do you always kick me out?” Xie Xiao said unhappily.
Lu Yi crossed his arm in front of his chest, while standing there watching the scene; a faint smile appeared on his lips.
“Brother, I still have a fever. Your yelling makes my head hurt, come back another day.” Jinxia said, almost losing her patience. Then she pushed him to the door.
Xie Xiao was pushed two steps, but suddenly turned back and asked, “You don’t believe that I want to marry you?”
“I…” Jinxia was shocked by his question, “No, I believe it. This is a good thing, but an important matter like this has to follow my mother’s decision, I can’t make my own decision. There is no need to rush this, wait until I am fully healed and the master is somewhat better, and if there is free time, we will talk about it in a proper manner.”
“Then, that means you agree?” Xie Xiao looked at her.
“This is a good thing, why would I disagree?”
Jinxia answered right away.
After getting that answer, Xie Xiao immediately turned around and walked away. Before leaving, he did not forget to glare at Lu Yi.
