Wen Qingci did not interrupt the young man. He took out a silk handkerchief and wiped off the mud and blood on the lamb bit by bit.
The movements were incredibly gentle.
Xie Bufeng's wound was still oozing blood.
"They did this to lead me to the bamboo forest," the boy muttered to himself, "I didn't take good care of it..."
If you don't leave;
If you don't let it go and let it forage;
If you don't give it freedom...
Will nothing happen
If most people encounter such a thing, they should be angry at the opponent's inferiority.
But Xie Bufeng has already tacitly accepted this set of unreasonable, primitive laws of the survival of the fittest.
He only blamed himself and felt resentful for his own negligence and failure.
Is this sad
Xie Bufeng doesn’t know.
He only knew that there would never be another lamb that would lie quietly in his arms.
The lamb that was picked up was the only thing in the world that belonged to Xie Bufeng, and it was his only warmth.
From now on, he had nothing and was empty-handed.
Wen Qingci shook his head slightly.
The fireworks filling the sky from Taishu Palace brightened his eyes.
"Your Highness, you have done nothing wrong in this matter." Wen Qingci suddenly spoke, interrupting Xie Bufeng's confused thoughts.
His voice was very soft, as if he was speaking to himself: "... Failure is not a mistake. Perhaps ignorance, stupidity and arrogance are."
As he spoke, Wen Qingci exerted a little more strength and hugged the lamb, which had already become cold and stiff, tightly in his arms.
He had already integrated into this world unknowingly and could no longer ignore what was happening.
The cinnabar on the imperial physician's forehead pierced into Xie Bufeng's heart without any warning.
"Your Highness, you are not a 'monster', you are just sick," Wen Qingci's face was rarely smiling, and his tone was very firm, "It's no different from a cold or a fever, it's just a little bit special."
This was an answer that Xie Bufeng had never heard of before.
The young man slowly raised his eyes and looked towards Wen Qingci.
Just a little bit special
The endless fireworks lit up Wen Qingci's dark eyes.
For the first time, Xie Bufeng saw something else in those compassionate yet ruthless eyes.
Wen Qingci glanced at the trap indifferently, then fixed his gaze on the boy's injuries.
He said word by word: "You have no sense of pain, so you are more vulnerable to injury and are in mortal danger without knowing it... In my opinion, you are just an ordinary person, or even a patient who needs extra care."
Analgesia is a rare recessive genetic disease with a probability of occurrence of approximately one in a billion.
At this moment, Wen Qingci completely forgot about the invincible big boss in the future.
Xie Bufeng was just an ordinary patient and he obviously did nothing wrong.
Disgust, fear, and teasing... everything that happened to this young man in front of me... was just an unprovoked disaster caused by ignorance!
It's all absurd and ridiculous.
Xie Bufeng stood there motionless.
Having grown up in an environment of hatred and malicious speculation, he instinctively doubted what Wen Qingci said.
But... he really couldn't think of any reason why the other party would lie to him.
As if he had guessed what Xie Bufeng was thinking, Wen Qingci looked into Xie Bufeng's eyes and smiled softly: "Your Highness, I will never use the art of Qi Huang to joke with you."
This is a promise.
The boy's heartbeat was completely messed up.
Wen Qingci held the lamb and slowly squatted down.
There was an inconspicuous pit in the snow, which seemed to have been dug by Xie Bufeng just now.
Wen Qingci rubbed the lamb's cold forehead, took off his cloak and wrapped it up carefully, then buried it carefully and solemnly in the soil.
Completed the funeral for the boy.
The flickering fireworks lit up the entire sky.
The mud and snow turned into a quilt, covering the lamb's small body.
*
Wen Qingci brushed off the snow on his shoulders, pushed open the carved wooden door, and lit the copper lamp in the corner.
The notes that had not yet been read were spread out on the desk, and a pot of scented tea was warming in the small red clay stove by the window.
This is a world that Xie Bufeng feels unfamiliar with.
"Your Highness, please have a cup of tea to warm yourself up first." After saying that, Wen Qingci handed a cup of hot tea to Xie Bufeng.
When Wen Qingci went out, he closed the doors and windows tightly. The floor heating had already made the small bedroom warm.
Xie Bufeng's body, which had been frozen by the cold wind, finally warmed up little by little.
The trap in the snow caught the boy's shoulder, leaving several horrific bloody holes, but fortunately no bones were injured.
Wen Qingci frowned and brought Xie Bufeng to the table.
He paused, and suddenly put the back of his hand on the boy's forehead: "...It seems that you have a little fever."
Xie Bufeng’s shoulder injury is serious and must be treated as soon as possible.
The rust on the trap is very likely to cause tetanus.
Without caring about anything else, Wen Qingci quickly washed his hands, took out a pair of silver tweezers from the medicine box, and carefully cleaned the foreign objects and cloth from the boy's wound.
After careful disinfection, apply the Yuzhen powder specially made by the Divine Doctor Valley to the wound.
I don’t know if it’s because of the fever, but Xie Bufeng seemed particularly quiet today and let him do whatever he wanted.
Wen Qingci was so focused on treating the wound that he didn't notice... The boy's earlobe had turned light red without him noticing.
It was not until the bandaging process that Wen Qingci gradually relaxed.
At this time, Xie Bufeng was just an ordinary wounded soldier in Wen Qingci's eyes.
Seeing these scars, Wen Qingci's tone became serious: "Being injured is definitely not a trivial matter. If Your Highness is accidentally injured in the future, you must tell me the first time. You must not ignore it like before."
"do you understand?"
"… Um."
It's late at night.
Different from the empty Yuguang Palace.
Wen Qingci's bedroom could be completely illuminated by a single candle.
The warm yellow light flickered, and the small bedroom was so warm that it seemed like it was not the same world as the Taishu Palace in the wind and snow.
After bandaging the wound, Wen Qingci walked to the cabinet again, took out a brand new quilt and spread it on the bamboo couch.
Xie Bufeng was seriously injured and needs to rest well.
Rather than letting him go back to Yuguang Palace to fend for himself, it would be better to let him live here for a while and let me take care of him personally.
No one in Taishu Palace cared where Xie Bufeng was, and Wen Qingci, who was used to living in a six-person dormitory, didn't mind having an extra roommate.
Just ask the eunuch to bring the screen tomorrow morning.
While organizing the medicine box, Wen Qingci said to Xie Bufeng, "Your Highness, please stay in the Imperial Medical Office until your injury is healed. Okay, I'll go and boil the medicine, you can rest assured first."
His tone was still gentle, but every word he said was irresistible.
When he reached the door, Wen Qingci stopped as if he remembered something and said, "By the way, the undergarments on the right side of the wardrobe are all new. Your Highness can compare the sizes and choose one for yourself." After saying this, he picked up the lantern and walked towards the front yard.
Unlike the cold brocade in Yuguang Palace, the bedding in Wen Qingci's bedroom is made of cotton.
The bedding had been dried in the sun not long ago, and in addition to the familiar bitter fragrance, it also had a hint of warmth that Xie Bufeng could not describe.
Before I knew it, it was already midnight.
Wen Qingci did not disturb the sleeping doctor. He boiled the medicine himself and brought it back to the bedroom.
By this time the sick teenager had fallen into a deep sleep.
When you get closer, you can see that Xie Bufeng's forehead was covered with fine beads of sweat at some point.
Wen Qingci quickly put the medicine aside, sat in front of the couch and tested his forehead.
"It's so hot..."
No, you have to cool it down physically first.
After entering the book, Wen Qingci has never slept so late.
Although he was extremely sleepy at this time, he still went out in the snow to fetch a basin of cold water, soaked his silk handkerchief with it and used it to cool Xie Bufeng down, being extremely careful in his movements.
"Your Highness, wake up and drink the medicine first."
After doing all this, Wen Qingci woke up Xie Bufeng.
Xie Bufeng was groggy from the fever. After a long pause, he finally realized where he was.
It is not the dark and damp Yuguang Palace, nor is it the imperial tomb on the Suzhou wasteland.
It was the Imperial Medical Bureau, Wen Qingci's small bedroom.
Seeing that the young man didn't move, the people beside the couch couldn't help but feel troubled.
Although Wen Qingci often does housework, he has never done something like feeding medicine.
Fearing that he might mess up and choke Xie Bufeng, Wen Qingci hesitated for a moment and put the already warm medicine bowl into the boy's hands: "Drink the medicine and go back to sleep."
"Um."
Xie Bufeng seemed to be unaware of the bitterness and drank the medicine in one breath.
The next second, his eyelids closed heavily again.
"Don't be anxious." Wen Qingci hurriedly put away the bowls and tidied the silk handkerchief on the boy's forehead.
There were no earthworms burned in the side hall of the Imperial Medical Bureau where medicine was prepared.
After staying there for nearly an hour, Wen Qingci's hands were already frozen cold.
Feeling the chill, Xie Bufeng, who was running a fever, subconsciously grabbed his wrist.
A little bit of coolness quickly spread along the fingertips and spread throughout the body.
The bitter fragrance on Wen Qingci's body is inexplicably relaxing and even reassuring.
Xie Bufeng hadn't slept so soundly for a long time.
"Your Highness, let go. I want to get up."
"Your Highness, uh... Thank you?"
Wen Qingci called out several times, but the boy didn't respond at all.
He tried to pry Xie Bufeng's fingers apart, but unexpectedly, the other party was much stronger than he imagined.
Coincidentally, the candle in the bedroom also burned out at this moment.
Wen Qingci's eyes were completely dark.
“Forget it…” Wen Qingci, who was extremely sleepy, was too lazy to struggle any longer. He coughed lightly a few times, sighed resignedly, and fell into a deep sleep directly on the couch.
I don't know when the fireworks in Taishu Palace stopped.
The moonlight reflected on the snow, illuminating the courtyard.
In his daze, Xie Bufeng had a long dream.
In his dream, he returned to Suzhou, where he found a new lamb...
Soft, warm, and a little fragile.
Xie Bufeng slowly exerted force, wishing he could embed it into the palm of his hand.
This time, I must not lose it again.
(End of this chapter)