But this voice and the familiar scent made her realize—besides him, who else could it be? She instinctively reached back to push him away, hearing his low grunt by her ear. Where she touched was warm and firm—she realized she’d probably hit his abdominal wound and stopped applying force, lowering her hand: “Let go. I’m fine.”

He lifted her by the waist, his tone forceful: “Inside. Let me check your wound.”

His gaze was burning, brows furrowed. But Suzhen was unwilling and said firmly: “I’m really fine. Don’t trouble yourself. If you have nothing else to do, you might as well rescue that little creature from the tree for me.”

“What?” Lian Yu’s brow furrowed deeper.

“There’s a bird that seems injured and fell into the tree. This tree is too tall, and my injuries haven’t healed—I can’t get up. Go get it down.” She had to explain.

Lian Yu glanced toward the branches and said: “With your amateur martial arts skills, injured or not, you couldn’t get up there anyway.”

Suzhen was exasperated and immediately retorted: “I once carried Li Zhaoting up—in the palace that time. You forgot? That tree was no shorter than this one.”

“Li Zhaoting—a defeated opponent.” He seemed to completely ignore what she’d said, speaking indifferently, then placed her on the stone chair. He gathered his energy to leap up, but his form wavered slightly and he fell back down. Fortunately, his martial arts were far superior to Suzhen’s—when landing, he lightly kicked one toe against his other ankle to lift his body, then retreated several steps to steady himself. Otherwise, he would have fallen hard.

Suzhen was somewhat alarmed, remembering his injuries seemed serious. Just as she was about to step forward to check, she saw him gather energy again to leap up. She wanted to tell him to stop, to wait until the others returned, thinking that bird’s injury might not be serious anyway, and after all, it wasn’t as important as a person. The words were about to come out when she bit her lip and held back. This time his movements were very swift—his hand reached into the tree, explored, and already had something cupped in his palm. He spun around and jumped down, walking to her.

She instinctively reached out to receive it. He carefully placed the creature in her hands, and Suzhen’s eyes lit up: “It’s a lovesick bird.”

It was indeed a lovesick bird with a broken wing, seriously injured, bloody and mangled—who knew what cruel person had done this.

“These birds always come in pairs. Its little companion must be looking for it—so pitiful…” She placed it on the table, asking repeatedly: “Lian Jie definitely brought medical supplies. Where are they?”

He didn’t answer her, turning to enter a room in the courtyard, quickly emerging with a toolbox. Suzhen opened the box, selected wound medicine and scissors, fetched a basin of clean water, then buried her head in medicating and bandaging the lovesick bird. After busying herself for quite a while, she looked up: “I’ll go out to find some suitable food for it.”

Having said just that sentence, she stopped. He was covering his chest, where blood was seeping through—a patch of red. His face was pale, but he looked at her with furrowed brows, his gaze unusually gentle.

Suzhen’s heart suddenly clenched. She knew that cooking dinner earlier had already torn his wound, and just now forcing himself to use his energy had injured him further.

But she quickly ignored the feeling in her heart, lowering her gaze slightly: “Go inside and rest.”

Though he was in pain, hearing this, the corners of his eyes curved slightly.

“I can’t walk.” He said.

Suzhen didn’t know if he was telling the truth, but after biting her lip and remaining silent for a while, she finally walked over: “Which room are you staying in? Put your hand on my shoulder—I’ll help you inside.”

“Thank you.” He also became polite with her, but his hand unceremoniously rested on her shoulder. “I’m staying next to yours.”

Suzhen tried hard to suppress the indescribable emotion in her heart. She hated that she was still soft-hearted toward him. Without responding to his words, she helped him inside and had him lie on the bed.

“I’ll go get medicine. Apply it yourself, just lie still and don’t move. When your brother returns, he’ll naturally take care of you.”

His room had a single lamp like a bean flame. Not far from the bed was a bathtub with a blood-stained white robe draped over a nearby chair—presumably the one from during the day. The room was filled with the refreshing scent of soap beans.

Suzhen’s heart clenched again. She increasingly despised herself, saying coldly before heading out.

After one step, her wrist was pulled back. She cried out softly, already falling into his embrace.

The surroundings were extremely quiet. He turned her around completely, his hands holding her tightly, his lips and tongue exploring her mouth without warning…

Darkness, struggling and fighting, the taste of blood, mingled breathing… everything came at once, but neither made a sound. Suzhen’s heart ached with fury, but she was forcibly suppressed by him. She bit his lips and tongue bloody, but he didn’t let go until she could barely breathe, then slowly released her.

Suzhen panted, glaring at him hatefully, her hand instinctively raising.

He leaned against the bed, licking the blood from his lips. His chest was already soaked, but with his chin slightly raised and eyes deep, he showed an arrogance that suggested he didn’t regret it and would accept whatever punishment she gave, along with endless tender affection.

Looking at her, he always had the manner of an adult looking at a child.

Suzhen ultimately couldn’t bring herself to strike. She remembered how in the past, when she was furious with him, she would hit and kick him, and he would let her do as she pleased, never using his imperial authority to restrain her.

But now, they…

She bit her lip tightly and rushed out.

Lian Yu lowered his eyes slightly. The wound on his chest was extremely painful, but he looked down coldly at his own hands, veins bulging.

He still couldn’t hold back—he’d embraced her and done what he wanted to do.

With just her approach and a hint of softness in her eyes, he could no longer control the aching tenderness in his heart.

The feelings for her that he’d suppressed since being with Aluo had poured out completely after her “death” and after receiving her letter.

After working so hard to get all these people to help her relax somewhat, was he going to ruin it like this?!

He punched the bed board hard.

Suzhen sat in the courtyard, several times wanting to take the medicine box in to him, but never moving.

She punched the stone table, startling the poor lovesick bird recovering in the makeshift “nest” she’d made with gauze—it weakly cried out once.

“Sorry…” Suzhen started, reaching out to soothe the little creature, deciding to go out and ask the local families for some grain to feed it.

Just as she left the courtyard entrance, she was dazzled by several lanterns.

A few feet away, several people were walking toward her, all in local dress—two young men, one woman, and two small children.

The young man in the center wearing a felt hat with feathers seemed to be the master, his clothing obviously much more luxurious. The other young man and woman were servants following closely behind, with the woman holding the two children’s hands.

Seeing her, everyone seemed somewhat surprised. The felt-hatted man walked up to her and first bowed: “Miss, greetings. May I ask if you are the new master here?”

He pointed to the courtyard behind Suzhen as he spoke. This man was very young with handsome features, and his gestures were elegant and courteous. Suzhen was somewhat puzzled about another visitor, and seeing the two children’s tear-stained faces looking very sad, she had a good impression of this well-mannered young man and nodded: “More or less. What can I help you with, sir?”

Hearing this, the man was very pleased, then showed some helplessness in his expression: “My younger siblings were naughty today. While I was away, they took one of our family’s lovesick birds out to play. The bird, unable to bear the disturbance and trying to escape, was stopped by my younger brother in his panic, breaking its wing. According to my siblings, they saw it fly up and then fall into the trees in your courtyard. I wonder if you could do me the favor of letting me enter to retrieve the lovesick bird? I would be eternally grateful.”

“The townspeople said new guests had arrived at this courtyard. I shouldn’t disturb you, but this bird belonged to my late mother. I hope you, Miss—”

“Please wait, sir.” Suzhen was a straightforward person. Without waiting for him to plead further, she had already opened the door and gone inside, quickly bringing out the lovesick bird.

The young man was delighted to see it, carefully receiving it and handing it to the male servant behind him. He bowed low: “Miss, your great kindness will never be forgotten. It’s already late today and inconvenient to disturb you further. I am Sang Zhan, and tomorrow I will definitely come to properly express my gratitude.”

“It was just a small favor.” Suzhen shook her head, then said: “I heard your people have a banquet tonight. You should hurry back to participate. Really, no need to be so polite about gifts—farewell.”

“Our master won’t go to the ceremony,” the man behind Sang Zhan suddenly said indignantly. “This reckless digging will sooner or later anger the Earth Mother Goddess and bring disaster upon us.”

Sang Zhan frowned and gently scolded: “How dare you speak so boldly in front of a guest?”

The servant lowered his head and quickly bowed to Suzhen, but his knowledge of Central Plains etiquette was clearly inferior to Sang Zhan’s—his movements were clumsy, making the woman beside him laugh: “Miss, please don’t take offense. Because this mountain-breaking and water-disturbing has been too frequent, our master opposes it, which has displeased the tribal elders. Abu is loyal and spoke out of turn.”

This one was more tactful. Suzhen nodded: “Not at all—Abu just speaks his mind. Your master is right. These mountain forests indeed shouldn’t be over-excavated. Sometimes human disasters can cause natural calamities.”

Sang Zhan looked at Suzhen with brightened eyes, but he didn’t say more, only mentioning he’d visit again tomorrow. He had his siblings thank Suzhen as well, then bowed farewell.

Suzhen didn’t take this matter to heart—the lovesick bird no longer needing her help to find food was a good thing. She paced outside the courtyard until Lian Xin and the others returned.

However, the group hadn’t returned in high spirits—everyone looked grim. When Suzhen asked, she learned that tonight’s ceremonial song and dance had ended before it began because someone in the tribe had died.

Just as the dancing began, someone collapsed while dancing and mysteriously died suddenly. No injuries could be found.

The tribe would hold a meeting tomorrow.