Shen Ning returned home with Xiao Nanchen. Zhao Tong had already helped her unload everything onto the table in the main room, and he went straight home without saying another word.
Shen Ning did not even have time to thank him.
But she knew Zhao Tong’s character. If Lian’er had not asked him to help, he probably would not even have stepped through her door. After all, a widow’s doorway invited plenty of gossip.
She filled a basin with water, then called Xiao Nanchen over to treat the wound on his forehead. After all, he was destined to become the Son of Heaven one day. It would hardly look imposing if he were left with a scar on his forehead.
As she gently dabbed away the dirt around the wound with a towel, Shen Ning instructed the little fool, “You’re strong. If someone bullies you like that again, hit them back. Don’t be afraid.”
Xiao Nanchen looked somewhat uneasy. His neck stiff, he allowed her to clean his wound without daring to move at all. “Don’t cause trouble.”
He repeated himself, “If you cause trouble, they’ll send you away to be raised by someone else.”
Shen Ning paused, puzzled. “How can that count as causing trouble? They were bullying you. Not letting yourself be bullied is a basic rule of life. From now on, hit them back without worry. I’ll be here if anything happens.”
Anyone who would take the initiative to bully a fool could never be anyone important. As for those lowlifes who preyed on the weak, they deserved to be beaten.
Besides, this man would be the Son of Heaven in the future. What did they have to be afraid of?
Shen Ning did not forget to take the opportunity to cultivate her image as China’s model sister-in-law. She said earnestly to the little fool, “Don’t worry. Your sister-in-law would never send you away to be raised by someone else. I’ll support you and protect you forever!”
The little fool gazed at her pitifully. His simple mind was clearly moved. He pressed his lips together and nodded hard. “Mm.”
“Good.”
While coaxing the little fool, Shen Ning took a clean piece of gauze from the things she had just bought and sprinkled it with the powder for external injuries from the medical clinic. Then she rose onto her toes, leaned closer, and gently covered the wound with the medicated gauze.
At that very moment, clarity returned to Xiao Nanchen’s eyes.
The first thing he saw was a face extremely close to his own. It did not have the delicate, tender skin of the young ladies from the capital’s aristocratic families, but its features were exceptionally vivid. Beneath her unusually thick and long lashes, her pitch-black eyes were staring unblinkingly at his… forehead.
Her breath brushed over him, and Xiao Nanchen suddenly frowned.
But just then, he saw the large patch of purple bruising and swelling on the back of Shen Ning’s hand.
Xiao Nanchen suddenly remembered that this woman had blocked the club that had been brought crashing down toward his head.
She had not treated her own injury, but had been concerned with treating his first—and had even come so close?
Was she selfless, or was she simply blinded by lust?
“All done.”
Shen Ning took a step back and rubbed her neck, which had grown sore from tilting her head upward for so long. She had no idea that her patient had once again despised and misunderstood her.
If she had known, she would certainly have protested her innocence. After all, how could she bandage a wound without standing this close? Besides, she was a professional doctor. What difference did the patient’s gender make?
After treating the wound on his forehead, Shen Ning handed Xiao Nanchen a new set of men’s clothing. “These clothes are for you. Go change into them. I’m going to cook.”
With that, she carried the ingredients she had bought toward the kitchen. She did not see the man behind her, who had kept his eyes lowered, raise his head. His gaze was icy clear.
Shen Ning planned to make wontons.
Xiao Nanchen was injured, so he needed something light and nutritious. Well, mainly, she herself was craving small wontons.
Chopping the filling, kneading the dough, and rolling out the wrappers—the entire process was a pleasure to her.
In the past, when she had been bedridden and unable to move at all, she had watched people cook in videos, her heart filled with envy. Now, she could do anything she wanted herself.
The ingredients and conditions were limited, but Shen Ning still prepared everything with great care. She rolled the wrappers until they were thin and resilient, mixed scallions and ginger into the meat filling, and after putting the wontons into the pot, made a simple soup base with chopped scallions, soy sauce, vinegar, and salt. Once the wontons were cooked, she first ladled the boiling soup into the bowls, then scooped the wontons out afterward.
She carried two bowls of steaming, fragrant wontons to the table in the main room and called out to Xiao Nanchen, “A-Nan, dinner’s ready.”
A moment later, Xiao Nanchen walked in from the courtyard.
He had changed into the coarse-cloth clothes Shen Ning had bought. They were the black and blue coarse-cloth garments commonly worn in the countryside, much like what the other men in the village wore. Shen Ning’s goal was simply to avoid attracting attention.
The clothes were ordinary enough, but that face could not be hidden. Fortunately, she had deliberately left some of the dirt and soot on it earlier. Unless one looked closely, he was not too conspicuous.
His brief period of lucidity had only been long enough for Xiao Nanchen to change clothes, and he had felt somewhat relieved while doing so.
Fortunately, he could change by himself. Otherwise, if he lost his mind again and needed her help, who knew what this woman might do?
Zhao Mu’s judgment was truly terrible. The woman he had chosen was so wanton and frivolous that, after being away on campaign for these past few years, he had probably accumulated enough green hats to open a shop…
This woman clearly harbored improper thoughts toward her foolish younger brother-in-law. He had to find a way to keep his distance from her.
Of course, those were Xiao Nanchen’s thoughts when he was lucid. By the time he entered the main room, his eyes had already regained their muddled innocence.
When he saw Shen Ning sitting beside the table and smiling as she beckoned to him, and then saw the large bowl of fragrant wontons, he walked over without hesitation and sat down next to her.
His eldest sister-in-law would protect him, bandage his wounds, and make delicious food for him. He wanted to sit beside his eldest sister-in-law!
After eating, Shen Ning cleared away the bowls and chopsticks, then began sorting the medicinal materials.
There was a medicine pot in the house. She put the herbs for internal use into it to decoct, while the medicine for external use had to be boiled in the large cooking pot.
While the medicine was boiling, she went to the earthen slope behind the house and dug up a sieveful of yellow clay. She planned to make white sugar, and this yellow clay was an excellent material for it.
She ground all the clumps of yellow clay into powder and mixed it with water into a muddy slurry. By the time she had done that, the medicine was ready, so she washed her hands first and went to check on it.
She poured the decoction out of the medicine pot, added more water, and put it back on to continue boiling. Then she went into the kitchen and began handling the medicinal liquid in the large pot.
The herbs in the pot had been wrapped in gauze. She lifted out the gauze, wrung the medicine from it, and then continued heating the liquid over a low flame.
Before long, the black liquid grew thicker and thicker. When only a little remained at the bottom of the pot, Shen Ning poured out the medicine from the medicine pot and mixed it with the liquid from before, dividing the result into two portions.
One bowl was for tonight, and one bowl was for tomorrow morning.
By the time everything was finished, it was completely dark.
She walked into Xiao Nanchen’s room and called for him to get ready.
The little fool had fallen asleep. Shen Ning placed all three oil lamps in the house beside his brick bed. The silver needles she had bought from the medical clinic lay at hand. After disinfecting them with flame and strong liquor, she woke Xiao Nanchen, made him drink a bowl of medicine, and then told him to lie facedown.
The little fool did not understand, but by now he listened to her very well. He obediently took off his upper garment and lay facedown on the brick bed, the distinct contours of muscle visible across his shoulders and back.
My prince really has a fine physique.
Shen Ning teased him inwardly, but her hands were steady. She pinched a silver needle between the fingers of her right hand, while her left hand pressed along his back to confirm the acupoints. Then she inserted the needle.
Before long, Xiao Nanchen had been turned into a hedgehog. Shen Ning followed the acupoints downward, with the final needle going into the point at the coccyx. She casually tugged his waistband downward, but the moment she moved, her wrist was seized.
Perhaps because he was lying facedown, or perhaps because the acupuncture was beginning to take effect, the little fool’s voice sounded low and strained, as though he were gritting his teeth. “Stop!”
Shen Ning directly slapped his hand away. “I need to insert a needle at your coccyx. Don’t worry, I’m not looking at your butt.”
Xiao Nanchen: …
On one side, his head was splitting with pain; on the other, the area below his lower back felt cold. He had never experienced anything so wretched and humiliating. He instinctively tried to move, but the moment he did—
Smack!
A palm struck his buttocks, accompanied by the woman’s scolding: “Don’t move.”
Shen Ning had simply slapped him because there was nowhere else on his back where she could put her hand. But Xiao Nanchen, who had been slapped, felt as though his entire body were about to explode…
Just then, a stifling, fishy sensation suddenly surged up his throat.
There was no time to prepare. He turned his head and vomited a mouthful of thick black blood onto the ground.
At the same time, foul-smelling black blood began to flow from his nostrils.
Shen Ning was delighted when she saw it. “It works.”
Although she had been fairly confident, she was still somewhat uncertain about the medicinal properties of the herbs in this era. Fortunately, everything had gone smoothly.
Xiao Nanchen, meanwhile, was filled with astonishment. He did not even have the time to care about the woman’s frivolous and outrageous behavior just now.
After the injury to his leg had shown some improvement the previous day, and after he had not continued to run a high fever, he had known that this woman possessed some medical skill.
He simply had not expected her medical abilities to be even more impressive than he had imagined.
He had originally thought that his leg was certainly crippled. Yet now, the injured leg that had been numb for several days suddenly sent a stabbing pain through him.
Being able to feel pain was a good thing. Moreover, after he had vomited out that mouthful of black blood, the tightness that had weighed on his chest eased considerably.
“A-Nan, lie still and don’t move. I’ll remove the needles for you later. As long as you behave, your eldest sister-in-law will give you some candy.”
Xiao Nanchen: …
As she spoke, Shen Ning turned around to pour him some water.
Just as Xiao Nanchen was about to open his mouth when a bowl of warm water was brought to his lips, his nose was pinched and the water was poured straight in. He almost choked. After swallowing it, he gasped for breath, but the culprit had already turned and left, leaving him there like a hedgehog.
The acupoints on his back gave off a faint numbness and itch, along with a barely perceptible prickling pain. Yet even more obvious was the lingering sensation of that slightly cool hand rubbing and pressing against him moments earlier.
He knew in his heart that she was treating his injuries, but that strange sensation clung to him like a shadow.
It was all because of this woman’s bold and frivolous nature. Thus, even when she was merely treating his wounds, her actions seemed suggestive…
Considering that she was still useful, he would let her live a few more days.