Chapter 3

When he was unconscious earlier, Qu Yan only regarded him as a patient, but overlooked the fact that the patient was a young man in his prime with an intact body. Now he kept staring at her, making it seem as if she had taken advantage of him. For a moment, she didn’t know what to say.

During her few moments of hesitation, Qi Ying quickly memorized the surroundings. Just as he was about to clench his left hand into a fist to prop himself up, he suddenly realized that he had no clothes covering his body.

Seeing the man’s eyes widen, with an expression of disbelief in his pupils, Qu Yan had no doubt that if he could move freely now, he would hold a knife to her throat. Unfortunately, he was almost a cripple now, even a ten-year-old child could beat him.

“Don’t touch me.”

The man’s voice was smaller than before, and hoarser. Qu Yan silently ignored it. She only wrapped him tightly with the blanket, and stuffed soft padding into the pillow, allowing him to sit up leaning against the headboard.

Qu Yan brought the warm water in her hand to the man’s lips, staring into his dark eyes and said seriously, “I am a doctor. I have no improper intentions towards you. I only touched you to save you. Drink some water first to ease yourself.”

The cool teacup touched his lips. Qi Ying initially wanted to turn his head away, but in the next moment, the warm water moistened his dry lips, and his almost burning throat involuntarily rolled.

After a whole cup of water was fed, Qu Yan put down the empty cup and turned to look at the man, “Do you want more?”

Qi Ying shook his head, and just as he was about to speak, he started coughing. He covered his mouth with his left hand, but as he coughed harder, the blanket draped over him loosened. Qu Yan, with great foresight, raised her hand before the blanket slipped.

The man looked at her, his expression indescribably cold and wary, presenting a stance that kept people at a thousand-mile distance.

Qu Yan waited for a while, only to hear him say hoarsely, “Give me clothes, let me go.”

Qu Yan raised an eyebrow, her expression not only showing no anger, but rather more intense interest. In these three days, she had roughly figured out the man’s identity.

There were no escaped slaves in Huang Ji, no signs of a fight on the cliff, and even the poison in his body was not activated that day. He had been practicing martial arts for years, yet his meridians were forcibly broken, which must have been an unpleasant experience.

Combined with the scars from various punishments on his body, the man was most likely a controlled assassin, or a secret guard, which in her view was more or less the same. But there was one thing she could be fairly certain about.

He was prepared to die with determination.

She leaned forward and said with a smile, “That won’t do. After all, I saved you. Is this how you treat your lifesaver?”

As a secret guard cultivated from childhood, Qi Ying was accustomed to living alone hidden in darkness. They rarely had contact with others, only risking their lives to protect their clients in times of danger.

Therefore, when Qu Yan approached, Qi Ying instinctively wanted to resist. But his sword had long been destroyed, and his usual right hand was still restrained by a wooden board. In his urgency, he tried to stop her with his left hand.

“You shouldn’t have saved me.”

Just this one sentence, and Qu Yan was more certain of his desire to die. She inwardly lamented, such a physique, it would be too much of a waste if he died. Fortunately, he encountered her.

Qu Yan grasped the man’s incoming left hand. While dealing with an elusive secret guard might be difficult, dealing with a severely injured man was simply effortless.

“Saving lives and helping the wounded is a doctor’s duty. Since you’ve encountered me, there’s no reason to watch you die before my eyes.” Qu Yan smiled, “I’m a good person, I see things through to the end. You just stay here and recover well.”

Qi Ying stared at his wrist in a daze for a moment, his hoarse tone somewhat urgent, “I don’t need it.”

Qu Yan was silent for a moment, unconsciously increasing the strength in her hand. When she looked up again, she saw Qi Ying’s somewhat panicked expression. She hadn’t even thought about how to coax him, why was he panicking first.

But what she didn’t know was that the man’s panic was not because she had guessed the reason, but because she had not let go of his hand. Now the blanket had fallen to his waist, and his body, tense with anger, had torn open the wounds again, showing spots of blood through the white cloth.

“No matter why you’re like this, I saved you anyway, you owe me a life. Before you recover, just stay here and recuperate at ease.”

Qu Yan spoke persuasively, but saw the man in front of her with tightly pressed lips, looking at her with an increasingly cold expression. Even the rise and fall of his chest was more obvious. It seemed he was really angry.

Wait a minute…

Qu Yan caught sight of that bit of red chastity mark, then looked at the man’s cold face but already red ears, and quickly averted her gaze, pulling up the blanket for him.

“This wasn’t my intention, you raised your hand first.”

Qi Ying took several deep breaths, slowly suppressing the pain in his waist and abdomen and his irritation. After withdrawing his left arm, he spoke coldly, “Why should I listen to you.”

He had never been good at verbal debates, and had rarely spoken much from childhood to adulthood. The more one speaks, the more mistakes one makes. As a qualified secret guard, they didn’t need to have their own thoughts, they only needed to execute orders.

Hearing this, Qu Yan smiled and pretended to ponder for a while before saying, “It’s fine if you want to leave. If you can walk out of this mountain valley now, I’ll let you go.”

Let alone walking, in the man’s current condition, he couldn’t even crawl out.

Qi Ying looked up at her, his black eyes filled with unconcealed coldness. Obviously, he was also aware of his physical condition.

Seeing that the man didn’t speak, she went to the wardrobe on her own to find a set of clothes and placed them beside him, then pulled down the bed curtain and said, “I don’t have men’s clothes here, you’ll have to make do with these for now.”

Qu Yan waited for a long time, so long that she was about to ask if he needed her help, when the bed curtain was slowly pulled open. The man on the bed was wearing a woman’s water-colored clothes. Because only his left hand could move, his clothes were loosely tied, and he manually gripped the loose part at the cross collar.

Qu Yan looked at the cold sweat on his forehead and his tightly pressed lips, guessing that putting on these clothes wasn’t easy for him. So she sat down beside him again and kindly offered.

“Let go, I’ll tie it for you.”

Qi Ying looked at her, not loosening his grip at all, his wariness never subsiding. From a young age, he had been instilled with one principle: trust no one, only the sword in hand is loyal.

This woman said she was a doctor, but how could a rural doctor afford a bed carved from purple sandalwood, and even the cup she used to feed water earlier was made of jade.

She was lying.

Seeing that he still didn’t move, Qu Yan frowned slightly and patiently added, “If I wanted to take advantage of you, I would have done so earlier. Why wait until now?”

Qu Yan looked up at him, all emotions hidden, her black eyes clear. Qi Ying unexpectedly met her gaze, then quickly lowered his eyes, his hand gradually loosening.

Whether to believe or not, what difference did it make?

He never thought he would have the luck to be saved by a kind person. Perhaps he had been followed since leaving Futu Tower, only because his five senses had deteriorated, he hadn’t noticed all the way.

There were many outcomes to falling into enemy hands, being tortured to death was the lightest punishment among them.

She went to great lengths to save him back, so she wouldn’t let him die too easily. There were many types of torture that could make him wish for death.

Qu Yan fastened his clothes for him. Although they were loose, at least they could cover his body. But seeing a man wearing her own clothes gave her a strange feeling.

“Now can we have a good talk, Master Qi?”

Qu Yan spoke up, interrupting his thoughts, not missing the man’s sudden change in expression when he heard the last three words. She waited for a while, only to see the man’s Adam’s apple struggling to roll, that pale face showing a kind of transparent yet eerie calmness. As if he had seen through life and death.

“Kill me or torture me, it’s up to you.”

She was stunned for a moment, then realized that this man had mistaken her for an enemy. That expression wasn’t calmness, but despair hidden beneath a calm facade.

Qu Yan was at a loss whether to laugh or cry, “I went to great lengths to save you, why would I want to kill you? Who do you think I am?”

Qi Ying turned his head to look at the woman beside him. She was smiling wryly at the corner of her mouth, her obsidian-like eyes seriously gazing at him. He suddenly lowered his eyes, his hands forming loose fists, his mind carefully recalling their conversation since he woke up.

She indeed… had never shown any hostility towards him.

“You’re not…” he paused, his voice becoming more urgent, “If you’re not, then why do you know my surname is Qi?”

Qu Yan raised an eyebrow imperceptibly, tossing the token in front of him and tilting her chin, saying, “You didn’t erase it completely, I was only guessing originally. Can you tell me your given name, how old you are, and where your home is, so I can send you back when you recover?”

“I, cough cough…”

He tightly gripped the token in his hand, only managing to say one word before he started coughing. What made Qu Yan’s face darken was his habitual swallowing action. This person was actually trying to forcibly suppress his cough.

“Don’t hold it in, cough it out.”

The moment her palm covered him, Qu Yan clearly felt his muscles instantly tense, and his habitual defensive movement.

The incoming fist was easily blocked by the woman. Qi Ying was stunned for a moment, finally slowly withdrawing his arm, allowing her to gently pat his back.

He had forgotten that he was now a cripple.

“Your internal injuries haven’t healed, you need to be carefully nursed during this period, lest you develop some cough disease in the future.”

Qu Yan looked at the blood at the corner of his lips, habitually reaching into her bosom to take out a handkerchief to wipe it, but when she saw the man’s dark, quiet eyes, her hand paused, and she gently placed the handkerchief beside his hand.

He didn’t speak, nor did he touch the handkerchief, but his breathing was much heavier than before, and fatigue was no longer concealed between his brows. People with severe injuries and weakened spirits often need the most sleep, and he had been tense since waking up, now he finally couldn’t hold on anymore.

Qu Yan observed him inconspicuously, and after a while, she looked at the long-neglected medicinal soup and said softly, “You’ve just woken up, it’s not good to worry too much. Drink the medicine and rest.”

The medicine had long gone cold. He drank it expressionlessly, as if drinking water, the bitter taste lingering in his mouth for a long time. During these three days, he wasn’t completely unconscious, occasionally he would be in a semi-conscious state, and he vaguely remembered the taste of this medicine.

Qu Yan hung that familiar slight smile on the corner of her lips, and left with the medicinal soup.

The medicine contained a lot of calming ingredients, enough for him to sleep well for a while.

Ah Huang had been waiting at the door, and when it saw its master come out, it jumped up to pounce on her. Qu Yan raised her left hand, preventing it from reaching the bowl. It was strange, there were three dogs raised in this courtyard, but only this one was the most clingy and loyal, unable to leave Qu Yan’s side for even a step.

She left the courtyard, walking towards the front hall of the valley.

“Where is Senior Sister going? Do you need my help?”

A crisp voice sounded, Qu Yan looked at her little junior sister Ren Ling who was carrying a box on her back, raising an eyebrow, “Where are you going with so many things?”

“Third Senior Sister is going to teach acupuncture and massage techniques at the hour of Shen, I’m going to listen and learn. Brother Zong’er said he hasn’t had lunch yet, so he asked me to bring him some osmanthus cakes and jujube cakes along the way.”

The little girl was only twelve years old, her frame not yet fully grown. At first glance, the box seemed almost as big as her entire body, but she was still smiling, not finding it heavy at all.

“In that case, you should hurry along.” Qu Yan said, seeing Ren Ling still looking at her, “Is there anything else?”

“Has the person Senior Sister saved woken up?”

Qu Yan nodded, seeing her smile with joy, she couldn’t help but ask curiously, “He’s awake, why are you so happy?”

Ren Ling blinked, carefully asking, “Senior Sister hasn’t taught us for a long time, and just after coming out of seclusion, you have to be busy taking care of a patient. Now that he’s awake, will Senior Sister be able to have some free time?”

Hearing this, Qu Yan smiled and nodded at the little girl’s expectant expression.

There were many complex matters in the valley, and she had indeed been much busier these past few days. Moreover, she had taken some time to go to Huang Ji yesterday, where most of the slaves were old, weak, sick, or disabled.

In terms of potential, none of them could compare to the man lying on the soft couch.

He was too wary. When talking to him earlier, most of the time it was Qu Yan’s monologue. Under normal circumstances, she would have been too lazy to speak again.

But thinking of the several types of poisons intertwined in his body, a glimmer of excitement passed through Qu Yan’s eyes, as if she had encountered something delightful, even the smile at the corner of her lips was more pronounced than usual.

She had really found a treasure this time.