Chapter 12

As Ji Wenmu walked over, the person standing beside me changed.

I looked over. Liang Ji stood to the side, looking somewhat taken aback. Rubbing the shoulder that had been bumped, he shot Ji Wenmu a glance, then let out a low chuckle and said to me, “Since Young General Ji is here to take care of you, I’ll head back first. Don’t forget to drink your medicine.”

I nodded and walked him to the door. When I turned back, I crashed into a wall of muscle.

His voice rang out above my head, “You’re already this close with him? Are you trying to get yourself *another* brother?”

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

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

I thought about it; that made sense. “Then he’s a friend.”

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

What difference was there? What could there be? Why did there need to be a distinction?

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

His chest heaved heavily, and his face turned sour. Then he pulled me back into the room, sat down in a chair, cradled his head in his hands, and said dejectedly, “My mother wants to discuss marriage for me.”

I was instantly amused. When I was in trouble, he had left me for dead. I bet he never thought he’d see this day.

I patted his shoulder in sympathy. He said, “I don’t want to go meet anyone.”

Meeting someone wouldn’t hurt. If it wasn’t a good match, 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?

Highly unlikely.

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

This was a tricky situation, and I had no solution either. The only thing I could do was take him out to relax, so I wrote, “Go horseback riding?”

“Is your body fully healed?”

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’d let loose. Ever since I could get out of bed, I’d either been practicing calligraphy in the study or feeding birds under the eaves. My bones felt like they were falling apart.

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

I played around with every weapon in the camp. It wasn’t that I didn’t have weapons at home, but Liang Ji kept a strict eye on me every day. If I just walked a little too fast, he’d remind me to be careful, let alone let me touch these things.

By the time my excitement ebbed, the sky had grown dark. Ji Wenmu said the city gates were already closed at this hour, so we rested in the military camp for the night.

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

I didn’t tell them. I let Ji Wenmu stay at the military camp and headed back to the manor alone.

My previously joyous mood vanished without a trace the moment I saw the person teasing the birds with a blade of grass under the eaves. Instantly, not only did my wound hurt, but my nerves pulled taut. 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 done boiling. Go change your clothes and come drink it.”

I nodded repeatedly. Scurrying past him, I clutched my chest and entered the door.

The wound hurt quite badly, but I didn’t dare tell Liang Ji. Disobeying a doctor’s orders was not a smart move, and defying a doctor was just plain stupid. Besides, I already sensed that Liang Ji wasn’t as pure and harmless as I had imagined. How could a pure and harmless person travel safely and completely unscathed across the realm?

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

The moment it hit my mouth, the extreme taste made my scalp tingle.

Why was it 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 explain.”

“I asked the servants what time the General left yesterday. Anticipating that you would definitely miss your medicine, and since the medicine prescribed for the General is calculated strictly by the course of treatment, missing yesterday’s bowl meant today’s needed an adjustment. Therefore, the bowl the General just drank is different from the previous ones.”

I was so bitter my tears welled up involuntarily, filling my entire eyes.

“The change isn’t large; it just required adding an extra dose of Coptis root (*Huanglian*). I meant to warn the General, but I wasn’t faster than you.”

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

My face scrunched up into a ball. I sucked in a breath, using every ounce of strength in my body to swallow the mouthful. Teary-eyed, I shook my head at him.

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

“The General is truly a heroine among women.”

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

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

I blinked away the tears and saw the candied fruit.

“I know the General isn’t afraid of bitterness, nor do you like sweet things. But when feeding children, I’m used to keeping a piece of candied fruit handy. If the General doesn’t mind, please eat it.”

I didn’t mind. I didn’t mind at all.

I popped the candied fruit into my mouth, and the sweet taste instantly diluted the heavy bitterness.

My tears involuntarily fell again.

Who said I didn’t like sweets?

From now on, I love sweets the most.

“Since the General adapted so well, I can put my mind at ease.”

Hearing that sentence gave me a bad premonition. I immediately grabbed his hand. “Will I have to drink this from now on?”

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

My very soul turned bitter at his words.

“The General is unparalleled in bravery and could exhibit the stance of slaying enemies on the battlefield even before fully healing. A mere bowl of medicine is surely nothing.”

He withdrew his hand, crossed them formally in front of him, and smiled warmly at me—just as gentle and refined as when we first met.

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