She ran to the next room’s door and happened to run into Lin Shen, who had just been driven out, along with a servant holding a medical kit.
The servant’s face was pale, not daring to go in at all.
Yun Manxia sighed and reached out her hand. “Give it to me.”
Lin Shen was surprised and tactfully reminded her, “Madam, Ninth Master is… in a bad mood right now.”
“I know,” Yun Manxia said.
Precisely because she knew, she was anxious to go in—she was truly worried about him.
After a moment’s thought, recalling how special Ninth Master treated her, Lin Shen said to the servant, “Give it to Madam.”
Yun Manxia pushed the door open and went in. The lights inside were off.
“Get out!” The man’s voice, filled with killing intent and anger, came from ahead.
By the faint light filtering in from outside the window, she saw a tall figure sitting in a wheelchair with his back to her. A deep exhaustion emanated from him, along with a heavy sense of lifelessness, like an old man on the verge of stepping into the grave.
Her heart felt as if it had been torn apart.
He was only twenty-seven!
Was he like this in her previous life too? Immersed every day in such hopeless emotions?
But back then, all she wanted was to escape far away from him. She had never cared about him—not even a little…
She slowly walked toward him.
Hearing the approaching footsteps, Bai Hedu suddenly struck.
“I said get—”
The grip on her wrist was so strong it nearly broke her bones. Yun Manxia cried out in pain!
Recognizing it was her, the man’s strength abruptly loosened.
“Get out!” he ordered.
In the dim light, his jaw was tense, his profile sharp and handsome, but his expression couldn’t be seen clearly—only the violent aura radiating from him.
“Lin Shen said you’re not in a good mood…” Yun Manxia softened her voice. “I was a bit worried about you.”
“Worried about me?” His tone was somewhat strange. The hostility seemed to lessen, and Yun Manxia felt his gaze on her.
“Yes.” She crouched beside him, one hand gripping the armrest of the wheelchair while the other groped in the darkness for his hand.
She accidentally touched his thigh. She felt the muscles beneath her hand tense instantly, and the next moment her hand was grabbed again.
But this time, his strength was measured—enough that she couldn’t break free, but not enough to hurt her.
“…What are you doing?” The man’s voice was tight.
Yun Manxia felt a little guilty, as if she had unintentionally taken advantage of him, but her tone was innocent. “I’m looking for your hand. I can’t see.”
“…What do you want with my hand?”
She turned her grip around his wrist, secretly checking his pulse while speaking nonsense, “Aren’t you in a bad mood? I’m comforting you.”
Bai Hedu fell silent.
Strangely, he didn’t pull his hand away.
After a while, Yun Manxia reached a conclusion. For a moment, she felt both delighted and troubled.
The delight was that Bai Hedu’s illness could be treated—so long as she was here, she wouldn’t let him die before thirty like those famous doctors had predicted.
The trouble was that the key medicine she needed wasn’t available yet—it would only be produced a few months later at the plant research institute her mother had left behind.
However, the institute wasn’t in her hands, but in her grandfather’s.
Thinking of her grandfather’s family, her expression turned complicated.
“Ninth Master, Madam?”
Lin Shen’s tentative voice from outside instantly snapped her out of her thoughts.
“What is it?” she responded loudly.
Lin Shen had already been prepared to break the door down. Hearing her strong voice, his hand on the door loosened slightly, his expression strange and astonished.
…Nothing happened?
There had been no movement for so long—he thought someone might already be dead.
Ninth Master actually didn’t get angry. How rare.
Inside the room,
Yun Manxia released his hand and cautiously asked, “Can I turn on the light and change your medicine?”
After a moment of silence, Bai Hedu said, “No need.”
Yun Manxia grew a little anxious. “But your injury…”
“Let Lin Shen come in.”
Yun Manxia instantly brightened. “Okay!”
As long as he agreed to change the medicine, that was enough. She was afraid he would lose his temper and not let anyone approach, delaying the treatment.
She ran to open the door. “Lin Shen, come quickly and help Ninth Master change his medicine!”
“…What?” Lin Shen hadn’t even reacted yet.
“Not coming in?” Bai Hedu’s cold voice sounded.
Lin Shen hurried in. As he brushed past Yun Manxia, his gaze was still filled with shock.
How long had it been? Since when was his Ninth Master so easy to coax?
…The new Madam had some skills.
As Yun Manxia stepped out, she felt Lin Shen glance at her with a complicated look.
She: “?”
Not thinking much of it, she returned to her room in a relaxed mood.
Remembering her phone had been off for a whole day, she turned it on.
A call from Bai Chengxuan came in immediately.
Her eyes turned cold. She hung up, blocked the number—without a trace of hesitation.
Another call came in, this time from her father, Yun Hong.
“Why has your phone been off all this time?”
The moment the call connected, an annoyed questioning came from the other end.
Yun Manxia lowered her eyes slightly and said calmly, “It ran out of battery.”
“You’re at Yujing Garden now, right?”
“Yes. Why?”
“You’d better behave yourself. Now that you’re married to Ninth Master, don’t have any other schemes. Cut off whoever you should cut off!” Yun Hong warned in a deep voice.
Yun Manxia narrowed her eyes. “What schemes do I have?”
“You still won’t admit it! If Yiyi hadn’t let it slip, I wouldn’t even know you were planning to elope! Luckily Yiyi was sensible and persuaded you to stop, otherwise our whole family would’ve been dragged down by you!”
“What do you think Ninth Master is? If you anger him, there won’t be a good outcome!”
Yun Yiyi?
A cold glint flashed in Yun Manxia’s eyes.
“Let it slip”? “Persuaded her to stop”… Heh!
Yun Hong called today not only to warn her, but also for business. “By the way, since you’re already married to Ninth Master, mention to him about the investment our company needs.”
Yun Manxia rolled her eyes inwardly and replied perfunctorily, “Ninth Master isn’t that easy to talk to. We’ll see.”
Too lazy to say anything more, she hung up.
Meanwhile, at the Yun family,
Yun Hong, whose call had been hung up on, flew into a rage. “She’s gotten bold—already disobedient on her first day after marriage!”
Beside him, his second wife Xia Lian hurried to soothe him. “Tomorrow I’ll call Manxia back and speak to her personally. She’s always listened to me.”
Hearing this, Yun Hong’s expression improved slightly.
He patted his wife’s hand and said warmly, “You’ve worked hard all these years, treating her like your own daughter. No wonder she listens to you.”
What he was most satisfied with about his wife was this—she treated his ex-wife’s child extremely well. Not only did she never mistreat her, she even doted on her. Anyone would believe she was the biological mother.
“It’s what I should do,” Xia Lian said with a gentle smile. “Wan Yin and I were good sisters. Of course I must take good care of her child.”
At Yujing Garden,
After her call with Yun Hong, Yun Manxia suddenly remembered she hadn’t warned Bai Hedu yet.
She ran to the next room again.
Lin Shen had gone out, and the door wasn’t fully closed. She pushed it open slightly and looked in. The room was empty, but the bathroom light was on—Bai Hedu seemed to be showering.
After hesitating for a moment, just as she was about to leave, she suddenly heard a loud “bang” from the bathroom!
Her face changed. Without time to think, she rushed over and slammed the door open. “Are you—!”
One brief second later—
“Bang!”
Without hesitation, she slammed the door shut again!