Shen Li coughed dryly, her expression returning to a mask of professional calm. She reached up, wiped away the trickle of blood from beneath her nose, and offered a stern explanation.
“It’s just internal heat! Too much stress! It’s nothing!”
She promptly tore off two pieces of straw paper and stuffed them into her nostrils to plug the leak.
Xiao Er-lang watched her flickering, panicked gaze and seemed to understand exactly what had happened. He lowered his eyes, a silent laugh shaking his shoulders as he shook his head.
“Lie down,” Shen Li commanded, pointedly ignoring his amusement as she produced the medicinal powder and the small blade she had purchased at the pharmacy. “I need to tend to your wounds.”
She helped him roll over so his back was facing her.
Cleaning necrotic flesh was a procedure she had performed countless times in her previous life, but now, her hand trembled as she gripped the knife. She couldn’t use an anesthetic. For a patient in Er-lang’s specific condition, a numbing decoction was strictly forbidden.
Looking at his spine, where the bone was clearly visible beneath his skin, she truly feared he wouldn’t survive the agony. She stood up and placed a steadying hand on his head.
Er-lang looked up at her, questioning.
“This is going to hurt,” she whispered. “I’m afraid…”
She was afraid he would go into shock, or that his heart wouldn’t take the strain. Er-lang simply shook his head and gave her a reassuring blink.
Shen Li closed her eyes, took a deep breath to center herself, and sat back down. She began the debridement.
The wound was already a bloody mess, but the process of scraping away the rot was harrowing. Without anesthesia, the pain of a blade flaying away dead tissue was unimaginable. The way Er-lang’s entire body shuddered under her touch told her everything she needed to know.
Shen Li worked with frantic speed, clearing the site and pouring the medicinal powder over the raw flesh. When she finally stood up to check on him, her heart was in her throat, terrified she would find him dead or unconscious.
To her immense relief, Er-lang turned his head slightly and managed a weak, lopsided smile. The heavy stone in Shen Li’s chest finally fell. His face was ghostly pale, his lips a bruised grey, and his clothes were soaked through with cold sweat—but he was awake.
“The wound is dressed. Sleep just like this,” she said softly.
She wiped the sweat from his brow and adjusted his pillows into a comfortable position that ensured nothing would touch the raw area on his back.
She headed to the north room to retrieve a newly purchased summer quilt, spreading it gently over both Er-lang and the sleeping San-lang. When she looked down, she realized Er-lang was still watching her.
Frowning, she placed her hand over his eyes. “Close your eyes! Sleep! You’re a grown man—why can’t you be as obedient as San-lang?”
Er-lang let out a bitter, silent laugh. If he were whole and healthy, he certainly wouldn’t let her “bully” him like this. He wanted to ask where she intended to sleep, given there was only one bed, but then he remembered how capable she was. She wouldn’t let herself suffer. Besides, he truly had no strength left to worry.
Suddenly, Shen Li leaned down, her lips brushing against his ear as she whispered seriously, “I’m sleeping in this room tonight, too.”
Her warm breath tickled his ear. Er-lang stopped breathing for a second, and his pale face instantly erupted into a deep crimson flush.
“You really are adorable!” Shen Li’s lips curled into a smirk. She reached out and pinched his thin cheek. Hmm. Not much meat there, she noted. The texture isn’t great yet.
Er-lang didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. This woman was absolutely doing this on purpose because she knew he couldn’t move!
“Don’t be shy,” Shen Li added, stretching her arms and letting out a long yawn. “It’s not like you can do anything to me anyway!”
Er-lang’s face turned an even deeper shade of red. He closed his eyes and grit his teeth. How can she say such things so boldly? Just as the thought crossed his mind, a slender hand ruffled his hair affectionately. Her cool, calm voice drifted over him: “Stop overthinking. Sleep.”
Er-lang smiled in spite of himself. He relaxed, and before long, he drifted off.
Once his breathing became deep and even, Shen Li went to the kitchen to wash up with the leftover hot water. She changed into her new clothes, pushed two long wooden benches together, and covered them with a thin summer quilt to make a makeshift bed.
She lay there in the silence, soaking in her surroundings. The deep mountains, the quiet village—it was all so strange, yet so fresh. Only yesterday, she had been in a high-tech lab, running experiments on herbal compounds. Today, her entire world had shifted.
In a single day, she had learned how to coax a child and how to speak with a gentleness she never knew she possessed. The hard shell around her heart seemed to be crumbling, piece by piece.
She turned her head to look at Er-lang’s silhouette in the dim light. A small smile played on her lips. If this is the compensation the heavens have given me for my past life, she thought, I suppose I’ll begrudgingly accept it.