5
Inside the inner chamber of the side hall of the Council Hall, a soft daybed had been specially set up for the Duke of Fuguo to rest on. It was autumn, and a thick, soft mattress had already been laid on top. Zhao Changnian hugged a pillow and lay face down. Though the pain was hard to bear, she did feel a bit more comfortable.
“Thank goodness the Duke is so approachable,” she muttered as soon as she’d settled in. “If I had to go back like this, I’d first have to write a memorial and submit it to the relevant supervisor, then list the types of medicine I’m allowed to use for review. By the time an imperial physician was dispatched, I’d already be dead from the pain.”
Ye Jiangbai bowed to her, then sat down beside her. He took out a bottle of medicine and said, “There are many rules in the palace, but they are all for the safety of Your Highnesses.”
As he spoke, he glanced at the medicine bottle in his hand and curled his lips. “One shouldn’t use medicine that hasn’t been properly inspected.”
These words actually carried a hint of implication. Any normal person would have been alerted. But the person on the daybed had no reaction at all. She simply mumbled a couple of casual “mm-hmms” and said, “Find a palace maid with a light touch, will you? I’m afraid of pain.”
Ye Jiangbai: “…”
He was so exasperated that he laughed. He pinched the bridge of his brow, shook his head, and said, “No need for a palace maid. I’ll do it myself.”
To have the Duke of Fuguo personally apply medicine—even the Crown Prince had never received such treatment. Anyone else would have been overwhelmed by the honor.
However, this Seventh Prince seemed overwhelmed in a different way. She instinctively reached back to cover her own backside, twisted her head around, and said with a look of utter shock, “You… you’ll do it yourself?”
Ye Jiangbai was taken aback by her unguarded resistance. His eyes narrowed slightly. “Am I not worthy of the honor?”
“N-no… that’s not it.” Zhao Changnian was so frightened she could barely speak straight. “A matter like this… it’s more appropriate for a palace maid to handle. Someone as noble as you…”
Ye Jiangbai smiled kindly. The tear-shaped mole beneath his eye looked compassionate and gentle. “I come from a common background. Compared to Your Highness, how could I claim nobility? Your Highness’s wariness of me—does that mean you do not trust me?”
His expression was very kind, but the tone toward the end carried a hint of displeasure. Zhao Changnian trembled with fear. She dared not nod, nor shake her head. Her small face was pale with a greenish tint, and she looked close to tears.
The place she had been beaten was her backside, so the area needing medicine naturally was that as well… How could she let him see that?!
But looking at the Duke of Fuguo’s expression, it seemed to say: “If you don’t let me apply the medicine, you’re looking down on me. And if you look down on me, I’ll finish you off.”
After hesitating for a long moment between her backside and her life, Zhao Changnian pulled a long, mournful face, buried her head in the pillow, and stopped making a sound.
Ye Jiangbai glanced at the palace attendant beside him. The attendant nodded and led the other attendants out to stand guard outside. When the inner chamber was empty, Ye Jiangbai lowered his gaze, said, “Forgive the offense,” and removed the belt of the person on the daybed.
Zhao Changnian was not looking at him, so Ye Jiangbai no longer needed to pretend. His half-lidded eyes were cold and cruel. He reached out to lower the Seventh Prince’s trousers, but the person reacted faster than he did. Keeping her head down, she pulled down her own trousers herself, revealing…
A small, pale, impossibly delicate stretch of lower back, and a pair of badly lacerated buttocks.
He had still been scheming moments ago, but the sight before him made Ye Jiangbai pause.
The Crown Prince’s men had shown no mercy—the beating was severe. But wasn’t the Seventh Prince’s waist just a little too slender? So pale and soft, the lines curving upward and disappearing into the folds of the robes, like a winding river bending into the mountains. It made one want to reach out and follow the line.
Realizing that his right hand had reacted faster than his mind, Ye Jiangbai slapped it—smack—then cleared his throat twice and said, “This will hurt a bit. Please bear with it.”
Zhao Changnian bit down on the pillow with an “owroo,” utterly mortified and filled with tragic indignation. She could no longer feel the pain at all. Her face flushed bright red, the redness spreading all over her body.
The pale white skin gradually flushed with pink, soft and tender like cherry blossoms in spring. Ye Jiangbai was carefully pouring the medicinal powder onto her wounds, but as he poured, his gaze kept drifting upward.
The Seventh Prince was too thin. So thin that there was a small hollow at the base of her tailbone. Whether from cold or pain, her entire body trembled slightly, looking rather pitiful.
After pouring the powder and wiping it with a handkerchief a couple of times, Ye Jiangbai put the medicine bottle back into his sleeve, cursed himself twice, then said calmly, “Your Highness’s injuries are quite severe. I don’t know if this medicine will be effective.”
“It’s… it’s all right. Having medicine at all is already very good.” Zhao Changnian kept her head down and reached out with trembling hands to pull up her trousers.
But before her hand got halfway there, someone stopped her.
“I’ve just applied the medicine. You can’t put on your trousers just yet. Wait a moment.” Sitting leisurely beside her, Ye Jiangbai said, “I’ll keep watch for Your Highness. You may rest assured.”
It’s precisely because you’re sitting beside me that I can’t rest assured! Zhao Changnian gnashed her teeth in silence. She thought to herself that if she were openly a woman, the Duke of Fuguo would have to marry her to make up for this impropriety!
Perhaps it was due to extreme agitation, but as Zhao Changnian lay there, she began to feel dizzy.
“I feel a bit unwell…” She frowned and muttered, then turned her head to look at Ye Jiangbai with one eye, pitifully. “So dizzy. I feel like throwing up.”
Here was a dignified man speaking like a spoiled little girl. Ye Jiangbai found it utterly distasteful.
“Perhaps the medicine doesn’t agree with you, which is why you feel unwell.” Seeing her consciousness beginning to blur, Ye Jiangbai could no longer be bothered to keep up pretenses. Since she would sooner or later realize that the medicine he had given her was problematic, he might as well be straightforward. “Your Highness would do well not to use medicine from unknown sources in the future.”
Especially medicines carried by someone like him—they would only be poisons, never bruise remedies.
Zhao Changnian stared at him blankly.
That look was exactly like someone’s lost dog. Ye Jiangbai sneered slightly, lowered his head closer to her, and asked, “Have you figured out yet why you feel so unwell?”
Who in the palace had the ability to swap a prince’s birthday gift to the Empress Dowager and make an even more generous offering than the Crown Prince? And who had led her to the Crown Prince’s palace to confess and get punished? Who had applied the medicine that made her feel even worse?
Even a pig would have figured it out by now, let alone a human being!
Ye Jiangbai tucked his sleeves and looked at her with a half-smile.
The person on the daybed, her gaze hazy, thought for a long time. Then she looked up at him with grievance-filled eyes and said in a small voice, “My imperial brother hit too hard. I might… I might not be able to hold on.”
Ye Jiangbai: “…?”
She’s still blaming the Crown Prince?!
Furious, he shot to his feet. For the first time, Ye Jiangbai lost all his composure. Gnashing his teeth and shaking his sleeves, he said, “He didn’t hit too hard—I did!”
The medicine I put on you is the problem! You fell for my scheme! Can you please figure it out and blame me so that the villain gets the sense of satisfaction he deserves?!
However, Zhao Changnian didn’t hear him out at all. She mumbled a couple more words, rolled her eyes back, and lost consciousness.
Ye Jiangbai choked. He stood silently by the daybed for a long time, feeling a headache coming on.
How could anyone be this stupid?!
**