“Why is your smile… so unnerving?”
Shen Jinyan noticed her silence.
“Is it?” Gu Ning tried to maintain her professional composure as a physician, forcing the corners of her lips upward. “Perhaps you’re mistaken.”
“How could I be? My eyesight is sharp!” Shen Jinyan stared into her eyes, leaning closer. “This… sister, you’re clearly unhappy.”
His warm breath brushed against her cheek like the tip of a feather.
The distance between them was so close that she could see each distinct eyelash. Beneath those dark lashes were pupils like obsidian, sparkling with a bright light, as if silently luring someone closer.
Was this how he suddenly approached Gu Lin back then?
“You… step back,” Gu Ning turned her head away. “You said yourself you’re thirteen now. Men and women should not sit together after the age of seven. This is improper.”
Gu Ning felt as if her heart had been drenched by a fine, dense rain. As the raindrops slid away, her heart seemed to slowly grow cold.
“I never thought you’d be so… conservative,” he pouted, stepping back. “How boring, even more rigid than those old scholars. If I ever marry, I’d never choose someone like you…”
His muttering drifted past her ears as fragmented sunlight filtered through layers of peach blossom petals, casting his face into a hazy blur. A strange sense of unfamiliarity suddenly enveloped her.
For the first time, she realized how frivolous he truly was.
Gu Ning knew she shouldn’t judge a patient with hysteria by normal behavioral standards, but…
She couldn’t help it.
The snow that fell three years ago gradually grew clearer in her memory—overlapping figures, a silent back, and not a single word of explanation… All of it, transcending the passage of time, overlapped in this moment.
Gu Ning couldn’t tell whether this was his true nature or a result of his illness.
She blinked hard, suppressing the unease in her heart, her eyes regaining their usual coolness and detachment.
“Don’t worry, Young Master Shen, I wouldn’t marry someone like you either. I already have a fiancé.”
He looked like a chicken whose neck had been wrung, letting out a sound after a long pause: “…Huh?”
“Why is Young Master Shen so surprised?”
Did he think she was so unworthy that she couldn’t even find a partner?
Gu Ning sneered, “This time, I came with my fiancé specifically to treat your illness, Young Master Shen.”
Shen Jinyan opened his mouth as if to say something more, but suddenly, rustling footsteps sounded from outside the peach grove—someone was approaching.
Gu Ning immediately raised her voice, “Over here! This way! Young Master Shen is here!”
“You!” Shen Jinyan was incredulous. “You betrayed me at the last moment?!”
“What betrayal?” Gu Ning crossed her arms and smiled. “I never promised you anything from the start. Look, your plums are still in your own hand.”
A few yellow plums lay pitifully in his palm, like unwanted orphans.
Shen Jinyan stared at the plums in his hand, unsure whether to extend or retract it, frozen stiffly in mid-air. He blinked.
How could there be such a fickle person in the world? One moment, she was smiling gently and kindly, as if she wanted to be friends, and the next, she sold him out!
Shen Jinyan felt his thirteen-year-old tender heart had suffered a severe blow.
Footsteps drew nearer, thudding with overwhelming fury.
Oh no!
From the sound alone, he knew it was his mother! This time, he was truly done for!
Shen Jinyan frantically pushed off the ground, intending to vault over the wall by stepping on a peach branch. But Gu Ning seemed to have anticipated his move long ago. Several silver acupuncture needles flew from her fingertips, piercing through his clothing and embedding themselves precisely in his knees. Shen Jinyan’s body suddenly went numb, and he plummeted uncontrollably.
Rip— A thick forked branch happened to stretch across mid-air, like a harpoon perfectly spearing a prey that had thrown itself into the net. Shen Jinyan dangled in mid-air, swaying back and forth like a pitiful kite.
In that brief moment, Jia Xiangwei had already arrived beneath the peach tree. From a distance, she locked eyes with her twenty-year-old son, who possessed the mind of a thirteen-year-old. The latter, sensing the familiar pressure of maternal authority, offered a polite yet awkward, ingratiating smile.
“Mother… what a coincidence…”
“Coincidence, my foot!” Jia Xiangwei planted her hands on her hips, her brows furrowed and eyes glaring. “Still hanging there making a spectacle of yourself? Get down here right now!”
“Mother, she numbed me, I can’t come down,” Shen Jinyan tried to tattle. “She said you hired her as a doctor to treat me. Mother, she’s so fierce, let’s find someone else…” As he spoke, he muttered under his breath, “Is my mother stupid? I’m not sick, why waste money hiring some doctor…”
“Shut up, don’t think I can’t hear what you’re saying! Doctor Gu is an honored guest of our Shen family. Next time you see her, show some respect!” With that, she turned back to Gu Ning with a smile. “Doctor Gu, I must trouble you to bring him down.”
Gu Ning nodded and was about to act when a clear, cool voice came from behind the crowd. “Allow me.”
Chi Yan stepped forward, smiling gently.
“Since his acupoints have just been unblocked, Young Master Shen might feel some discomfort. If he accidentally falls, I can catch him from below.” With that, he pulled out a slightly worn cloth pouch from his sleeve, opened it, and revealed a neat row of silver acupuncture needles inside. If one looked closely, a crooked character for “Ning” was embroidered in the lower right corner of the pouch.
Chi Yan’s fingers glided over the row of needles, selecting one slightly thicker from the middle and unhurriedly retrieving it. He lifted his gaze and flicked his finger lightly.
“Aowwwooo!”
A howl of agony instantly erupted in mid-air.
Shen Jinyan struggled desperately. Suddenly—crack— a faint snapping sound came from the base of the branch. Instinctively, he tried to flip onto another branch for leverage, but just as he was about to move, Chi Yan tapped his toes, leaped up from the ground, grabbed him by the back of his collar, and landed with him.
“Oh, Doctor Chi, thank you so much!” Jia Xiangwei twisted her son’s ear and spun him around, checking to ensure he wasn’t injured before letting out a long sigh of relief. She then smiled and said, “But I never expected Doctor Chi to know martial arts as well.”
“Just something I learned as a child to strengthen my body,” Chi Yan replied modestly. “There’s no time to waste. Since Young Master Shen is unharmed, A Ning and I should begin his treatment now.”
Just as Jia Xiangwei was about to nod, Shen Jinyan vehemently objected, “Mother! I’m not sick! And even if I were, I don’t want him treating me! Just now, he deliberately struck my knee! I think my kneecap is shattered!”
As soon as these words were spoken, everyone’s gaze fell upon Chi Yan.
Chi Yan lowered his gaze, his expression seeming somewhat aggrieved and forlorn.
“Don’t talk nonsense!” Jia Xiangwei slapped her son’s head hard. “It was Doctor Chi who just saved you, otherwise you would have already fallen flat on your face!”
Shen Jinyan snorted coldly, lifted the hem of his robe, and slowly rolled up his pant leg.
His knee was smooth, without even a single red mark.
“This… this is impossible!”