The west wing was quiet and not affected by the main courtyard at all. Everyone fell asleep early.
Xie Nanjia's resistance was futile and he was forcibly carried into the yard by Zhao Jingyu.
"Shh!" Zhao Jingyu coaxed her, "You know those girls in my courtyard. If you wake them up, they will all come to watch you apply the medicine. Let's see what you will do."
"..." Xie Nanjia recalled the last time when a group of people watched her sleeping. She calmed down and whispered, "Anyway, I won't let you help."
Zhao Jingyu ignored her and carried the person straight into the bedroom. He gently placed the person on the bed and sat on the edge of the bed, catching his breath.
Xie Nanjia adjusted her posture and lay down on the bed, silently looking at his back, from his broad shoulders and solid back, all the way to his thin and tough waist and narrow hips... She didn't know what was going on, and swallowed her saliva with a gulp.
The room was very quiet. Zhao Jingyu had good hearing. He suddenly turned around to look at her and said jokingly, "A sight from behind makes you so greedy?"
Xie Nanjia was extremely embarrassed, and the blush on her face spread all the way to her ears.
"What nonsense are you talking about? I'm just thirsty and want to drink some water." She said with a red face, but in Zhao Jingyu's eyes, it was no different from being a spoiled child.
"It's easy to drink water." He stood up with his hands on his thighs, walked to the table, poured a glass of water, brought it back, half-knelt at the head of the bed and handed it to Xie Nanjia's mouth, "Drink it!"
"I'll do it myself." Xie Nanjia reached out to take it.
"You are injured, I will feed you." Zhao Jingyu slapped her hand away.
Xie Nanjia: "… It's not my hand that's injured."
"One tiny move affects the entire body. Don't you understand?" Zhao Jingyu said seriously.
“…” Xie Nanjia had no choice but to drink the water from his hand.
"Well, that's good." Zhao Jingyu rubbed her head as if he was coaxing a child.
Xie Nanjia: “…”
"Okay, you've finished the water. Now let me help you apply the medicine." Zhao Jingyu put down the cup and said, rubbing his hands.
"No, I can do it myself..." Xie Nanjia quickly refused.
Zhao Jingyu turned a deaf ear to her, bent down and turned her body to lie on her side, and used one hand to untie her belt.
"Hey, what are you doing? Go away, don't..." Xie Nanjia shouted in panic, struggling desperately regardless of the pain in her body.
Zhao Jingyu had actually asked Wei Jun to find Yiyun. He just wanted to tease her now, but he didn't expect her to react so strongly. She kicked and screamed, her face pale, completely different from her usual calm and confident image.
It turns out that she also has moments of confusion. Zhao Jingyu found it funny and continued to tease her.
Xie Nanjia fought back desperately.
During the struggle, the belt was torn open by someone, and the things in the arms fell onto the bed.
There was a dagger, a handkerchief, a purse, and a pair of cords made of black silk thread.
They both froze at the same time, staring at each other blankly.
Xie Nanjia reacted first and reached out to take the thing.
"Don't move!" Zhao Jingyu stopped her loudly, staring at the dagger with narrowed eyes thoughtfully, "Just now in the front yard, you reached your hand into your arms. Were you planning to stab me?"
Xie Nanjia's heart skipped a beat, and he quickly denied, "No, I didn't..."
"Then why are you putting your hands in your bosom?" Zhao Jingyu picked up the purse, opened it, and poured out a few copper coins and some silver. He said sarcastically, "In such a critical moment, you wouldn't want to bribe me with this little money, would you?"
Xie Nanjia pursed her lips and said nothing for a while.
"Why, you are so talkative, but you are speechless so quickly?" Zhao Jingyu sneered and stretched out two fingers to pinch her chin. "I have been so good to you and tolerated all your bad behavior, but you are always ready to kill me. I believe you carried this dagger with you in the enclosure, right?"
Xie Nanjia lowered her eyelashes and dared not look him in the eye, quickly thinking of a countermeasure in her mind.
She knew that she was not what Zhao Jingyu thought, but Zhao Jingyu would not believe it. Even if he was the first to attack in the front yard just now, he would never tolerate her having the slightest murderous intention towards him.
This is the difference between a master and a servant.
Now that the dagger is right in front of her, how can she defend herself
Zhao Jingyu obviously knew that she could no longer cover up her lies, and the light in her eyes became colder and colder.
"I'm very disappointed." He said slowly, "Since Zhuangzi, you have challenged my bottom line more than once, and I have wanted to kill you more than once, but I saved you when you were a child, and I also bullied you. I always have a feeling for you that is different from others, so every time I say I want to kill you, it's just talk.
You offended people as soon as you entered the mansion. For your safety, I mobilized the most capable guards around me to protect you. When you were punished by Qin Wanru to kneel, I helped you drive her away. When you were harassed by Zhao Jingping, I helped you deal with him. Even when you killed someone, I was behind you to help you destroy the body. But you, you carry a dagger with you to guard against me. You really disappoint me!"
Xie Nanjia was completely stunned. She had never known that Zhao Jingyu had such feelings for her, nor did she know that Zhao Jingyu had been silently helping her behind the scenes. He said that he didn't really want to kill her. She thought about it carefully and thought that maybe it was true. No matter how angry he was, he would always let it go in the end.
But why didn't he tell her before? He caused her to misunderstand for so long, and she was always worried every time she was with him.
She stared into his eyes, listening to his aggrieved complaints, feeling like an unforgivable playboy who had mercilessly hurt the heart of an infatuated girl.
"Second Master..." She apologized to him with great shame, "I, I am sorry for you..."
Zhao Jingyu smiled indifferently, raised his hand to interrupt her, packed up her things one by one and placed them on the bedside, and said lightly: "No need to explain, today I will personally apply medicine for you as a reward for your being my pillow all the way. From now on, we will go our separate ways and keep out of each other's way."
On the way back to Beijing, he had an injury on the back of his head and could not stand the bumpy ride of the carriage, so he couldn't lie down to sleep. It was Xie Nanjia who offered him her arms and let him rest in them all night.
However, Xie Nanjia felt that it was not right to repay Zhao Jingyu by giving him medicine. She instinctively wanted to refuse, but when she saw Zhao Jingyu's hurt expression, she couldn't say no.
"Okay!" She finally compromised and said to Zhao Jingyu with a red face, "Turn around first, and come back when I call you."
Zhao Jingyu turned around without saying a word, and as if to prove that he was a gentleman, he walked straight to the door.
Wei Jun led the sleepy Yiyun over. Just as they reached the door, before they knocked, Zhao Jingyu took the lead to open the door a crack, stretched out his hand and waved at him twice, indicating that he should go wherever it was cooler.
Wei Jun was stunned for a moment, then without saying a word he pulled Yiyun up and turned away.
“Hey…” Yiyun expressed her confusion, but as soon as she spoke, Wei Jun covered her mouth and dragged her away.
Xie Nanjia didn't notice the movement at the door. She bit her lip and slowly took off her clothes. Then she wrapped herself up with clothes and quilt, leaving only her back exposed. She lay on the bed and called Zhao Jingyu, "It's okay."
"Okay." Zhao Jingyu responded, closed the door, found a white jade bottle from the desk drawer in front of the window, and walked back to the bed.
Xie Nanjia buried her face in the pillow, listening to his footsteps approaching, her heart beating irregularly.
Zhao Jingyu stood beside the bed, looking down at her snow-white waist and back exposed. It was even whiter than the white jade bottle in his hand. If there were not two bright red board marks on it, he would have almost had dirty thoughts.
"This is going to beat people to death!" he said quietly.
The caning punishment in the Great Zhou Dynasty was divided into caning on the back and caning on the buttocks. In general, caning on the buttocks was the main method. Caning on the back was only used when it was necessary to be caned to death, because caning on the back could directly shatter the internal organs and cause a person to die quickly.
"You don't have to do this. Why do you want to get beaten?" He picked up some ointment and carefully applied it to the wound. The moment before, he was still feeling a little proud of having succeeded in playing a prank, but now, seeing the shocking scars, all his feelings turned into heartache and anger.
Xie Nanjia's body trembled slightly under his fingertips, and she endured the pain and said, "It's all Huangfu's fault for running too slowly."
Zhao Jingyu paused, "Did you predict that I would save you?"
Xie Nanjia was stunned, realizing that she had let the cat out of the bag. Since she had already hurt his heart, it was not good to lie to him again, so she generously admitted: "Let me tell you the truth, I did not do this for myself, but because the Marquis's concubines have been causing trouble for Hualou recently, so I wanted to use a little trick to prevent them from bullying Hualou in the future."
"..." Zhao Jingyu was so angry that he was speechless. He wanted to slap her injured back twice more. "You are the only one who can use tricks, right? What is your relationship with her? You are willing to use a trick to make her suffer. I have done so many things for you, but you want to kill me. You..."
"I didn't mean to kill you." Seeing that he was about to get angry again, Xie Nanjia interrupted him and coaxed him, "You were just making wild guesses just now. I never meant to kill you, and I didn't mean to use a dagger at that time."
Then he stretched out a hand from the quilt and picked up the blue silk thread on the bedside. "I want to give this to you. Please be lenient with me."
Zhao Jingyu was dazzled by her snow-white arms. He took the necklace and looked at it, then said with disdain, "It's so ugly, and you actually want to bribe me with it?"
Xie Nanjia said: "Look carefully, this is not an ordinary black silk thread, it contains your hair."
"What?" Zhao Jingyu hurriedly took the hairpin under the light and carefully examined it. As expected, he saw that there were black hairs mixed in it. His heart was slightly moved, and he turned around and asked Xie Nanjia, "How dare you secretly cut my hair?"
"I didn't cut it secretly. I cut it off when Wei Jun was healing you that day." Xie Nanjia explained, "You were injured because of me. I was very grateful, so I secretly picked up the hair and hid it in my arms. After I came back, I took some time every night to twist it together with silk thread and made these two cords. I planned to give them to you as fan pendants."
“Ah? Is that so…” Zhao Jingyu was a little overwhelmed. He held the silk ribbon and stared at her blankly. He didn’t know what to say and his heart softened like a pool of water.
"Why, you don't like it?" Xie Nanjia asked.
Zhao Jingyu curled her lips: "It's really a bit ugly, but considering you put a lot of thought into it, I will accept it reluctantly."
"How is that possible? I learned how to knit from my mother, and no one has ever said I'm ugly..."
"If I say it's ugly, it's ugly." Zhao Jingyu glared, "Lie down, the medicine hasn't been applied yet!"
"Oh." Xie Nanjia lay back unconvinced.
Zhao Jingyu snickered behind her back and applied medicine to her: "Since you are injured, you should rest well these few days. When you are healed, you can make medicinal food for me."
"Ah? Still need to do it?" Xie Nanjia asked, "Didn't you say that after applying the medicine, we would go our separate ways and not interfere with each other?"
Zhao Jingyu smiled and narrowed her peach blossom eyes: "I lied to you, I just wanted to see if you were white."
(End of this chapter)