Chapter 12

As Ji Wenmu walked over, the person standing beside me was swapped out.

I looked over. Liang Ji stood to the side, looking somewhat startled. He rubbed his bumped shoulder, glanced at Ji Wenmu, lowered his head with a chuckle, and said to me, “Since Little General Ji is here to take care of you, I will head back first. Don’t forget to take your medicine.”

I nodded and walked him to the door. Turning back, I bumped right into a wall of meat.

His voice sounded above my head. “Your relationship with him is this good already? Are you getting yourself another brother?”

I took a few steps back to put some distance between us, pulled his palm over, and wrote, “Not a brother. He is my lifesaver.”

“Didn’t you save him too? Doesn’t that make it even?”

I thought about it, and that was true. “Then we are friends.”

“What’s the difference between a friend and a brother to you?”

What’s the difference? What *could* the difference be? What was the point of finding a difference?

I blinked, looked at him, and wrote down, “They are both very important to me.”

His chest heaved heavily, and his expression soured. Then he dragged me back inside, sat on a chair, buried his head in his hands, and said dejectedly, “Mother wants to arrange a marriage for me.”

Hearing that, I was instantly amused. Back when he left me to die during my blind dates, did he ever think he would have his turn today?

I patted his shoulder to express my sympathy. He said, “I don’t want to go meet them.”

It wouldn’t hurt to just meet them. If they weren’t suitable, he could just tell Aunt Ji, and she wouldn’t force it.

But he shook his head, remaining silent.

I clapped my hands together, suddenly remembering his childhood sweetheart bond with Huang Yue. But did he want to enter the palace and become an imperial consort?

Not very likely.

This was the crux of the problem, then. He had someone he loved, but he couldn’t be with her, couldn’t even say it out loud. No wonder he was so depressed.

This was a tricky situation, and I didn’t have a solution for it either. I could only take him out to relax, so I wrote, “Go horseback riding?”

“Is your body better?”

I shrugged at him. What was this little injury? It wasn’t like I hadn’t gone to the battlefield wounded before.

It had been too long since I came out for some fresh air. Ever since I could get out of bed, I had been practicing calligraphy in the study and feeding the birds under the eaves. My bones were about to rust.

The moment I got on the horse, I felt my spirits rise. Forgetting I was supposed to be cheering up Ji Wenmu, I not only rode out of the city but rode all the way to the military camp.

I played with every weapon in the camp. It wasn’t that my manor didn’t have any, but Liang Ji kept such a strict eye on me every day. If I walked a little too fast, he’d nag me a couple of times, let alone touching these weapons.

By the time my enthusiasm died down, the sky was dark. Ji Wenmu said the city gates were closed at this hour, so we stayed in the military camp for the night.

In the middle of the night, the wound on my chest began to ache faintly. I didn’t pay it much mind, but when I woke up the next day, the pain had become quite sharp.

I didn’t tell them. I let Ji Wenmu stay at the camp and rode back to the manor myself.

The joyful mood I originally had vanished without a trace the moment I saw the person teasing a bird with a piece of grass under the eaves. Instantly, not only did my wound hurt, but my nerves completely tensed up. I seemed to have forgotten something.

Seeing me, Liang Ji smiled. “You’re back?”

He walked over. “It just so happens the morning medicine is almost ready. Go change your clothes and come drink your medicine.”

I nodded hastily. Slipping past him, I clutched my chest and went through the door.

The wound hurt quite a bit, but I didn’t dare tell Liang Ji. Disobeying a doctor’s orders wasn’t a smart move, and going against a doctor was even stupider. Moreover, I now felt that Liang Ji wasn’t as harmless and innocent as I had imagined. How could a harmless and innocent person travel safely and completely intact through all regions?

After changing my clothes, I went to find him. Seeing him holding the bowl of medicine, I decisively downed it in one gulp.

The moment it entered my mouth, the extreme flavor shocked my scalp numb.

How could it be so bitter?

So bitter I wanted to rip my head off.

I heard Liang Ji’s laughter. He said, “General is truly a straightforward person. I didn’t even have time to say it.”

“I asked the servants what time the General went out yesterday. I anticipated you certainly wouldn’t be back in time to take your medicine. The medicine prescribed for the General is calculated by the course. Missing yesterday’s bowl means today’s needs to be adjusted. That’s why the bowl the General just drank is different from the previous ones.”

The bitterness squeezed tears out of my eyes involuntarily, brimming over my entire eye sockets.

“The change isn’t big, just adding an extra dose of Coptis root (Huanglian). I originally wanted to warn the General, but I wasn’t faster than you.”

He tilted his head and asked curiously, “Is it bitter?”

My face scrunched up into a ball. I sucked in a breath of air, using every ounce of strength in my body to swallow that mouthful down, and shook my head tearfully at him.

I wasn’t someone afraid of bitterness. I could down the usual medicine in one gulp, but this bowl was extraordinarily bitter. It took me half an incense stick of time, until the medicine was almost cold, to barely finish it. Just how much Coptis root did he add?

“General is truly a heroine among women.”

I forced a smile at him, but my vision was already blurred with tears.

Through the haze, he reached out his hand, turned my palm over, and placed something in it.

I blinked away the tears and saw clearly it was a piece of candied fruit.

“I know the General is not afraid of bitterness and doesn’t like sweet things. But I’m used to preparing a piece of candied fruit when feeding children. If the General doesn’t mind, please eat it.”

I didn’t mind. I didn’t mind at all.

I put the candied fruit in my mouth. The sweet taste instantly diluted the heavy bitterness.

My tears involuntarily fell again.

Who wouldn’t like sweet things?

From now on, I love sweet things the most.

“Since the General adapted so well, I can rest easy.”

Hearing those words, a bad premonition arose in my heart. I immediately grabbed his hand. “Do I have to drink this from now on?”

His autumn-water eyes blinked and blinked. “Yes, as I just said, missing one bowl means all the subsequent medicines have to be adjusted.”

My very soul turned bitter because of that sentence.

“The General is unparalleled in bravery. Even when injured, you displayed the heroic posture of slaying enemies on the battlefield. A mere bowl of medicine is certainly nothing to you.”

He withdrew his hand, placed both hands formally in front of himself, and smiled gently at me, just as refined and elegant as when we first met.

Yet I vaguely saw that the half of the sky behind him was pitch black.