Taohua felt nervous, sensing the atmosphere around her suddenly become ambiguous. However, Shen Zaiye remained completely oblivious, his face returning to calm from slight annoyance, making his thoughts even more inscrutable.
“Does Your Highness intend to punish me?” Shen Zaiye asked the Prince Nan calmly after bandaging the wound.
Prince Mu Wuxia sat up straight, his tone peculiar as he replied, “This king has no right to punish you. Perhaps what you did was correct.”
“However, this king has the right to choose his path.”
Hearing the first half of the statement, Shen Zaiye felt somewhat relieved, but the latter half nearly took his breath away. “Your Highness!”
“This king said it before there are many ways to move forward in this world. Some prefer to ride in carriages, while others choose to walk. You have no reason to believe that those who walk are necessarily wrong.”
Prince Mu Wuxia spoke firmly, “This king has said it before I’m not foolish. I don’t have to follow the path you’ve laid out.”
Is someone who refuses to take the prepared path and instead chooses to trudge through mud not foolish? Taohua was skeptical, but she had lost too much blood and had been pushing herself for too long. As the two men before her inexplicably veered off topic, she could barely hold on.
“I’m a bit tired,” Jiang Taohua said resolutely to Prince Mu Wuxia before losing consciousness. “I beg Your Highness, before I wake up, please don’t let the Chancellor take me away. I’ll lose my life!”
With that, she immediately fainted.
Shen Zaiye held her with a dark expression, feeling her burning temperature through her clothes, leaving him both amused and exasperated.
She had nearly lost her life, yet she could still say such things. How determined!
Prince Mu Wuxia nodded seriously, hearing the weakness in Taohua’s voice. He said, “If we need to talk, let’s go to the study. Let the female doctor come in to check on Lady Jiang. It wouldn’t be good to explain if she were to die in the Prince Nan’s residence.”
“Alright,” Shen Zaiye nodded, placing Taohua back on the bed before following him out.
The female doctor had been waiting outside for a long time. Seeing them finally leave, Qingtai quickly led her inside.
“Mistress?” The person on the bed was unconscious. Qingtai’s eyes reddened as she softly told the doctor, “The wound didn’t reach the internal organs, only the flesh, but it’s very deep and needs stitching.”
The doctor nodded and took out an anesthetic from her medicine box. She was about to pour hot water when she heard the maid say, “Don’t use pain-relieving medicine.”
Slightly startled, the doctor frowned, “Stitching a wound is extremely painful. This lady probably won’t be able to bear it. How can we not use anesthetic?”
Qingtai gritted her teeth, “I know stitching is very painful, but my mistress never uses any pain-relieving medicine.”
Previously in Zhao country, when she had broken her leg, Jiang Taohua had insisted on not using anesthetic even during the excruciatingly painful bone-setting process. What were her exact words again?
“Anesthetics like this damage the brain. Unless the pain is about to kill me, don’t use them! If my brain is compromised, your mistress will die even faster!”
At first, she had thought it was absurd and had planned to forcibly use it when her mistress was in extreme pain. Who knew that from the start of the bone-setting to its end, Jiang Taohua had clenched her teeth without making a sound, giving no opportunity?
What could be done about it?
The female doctor gave Qingtai a strange look, thought for a moment, and then put down the anesthetic. She directly took out sutures and prepared to sterilize the needle.
In her unconscious state, Taohua looked uneasy, her brows constantly furrowed, probably due to feeling unsafe in her current situation.
The doctor was worried that Taohua might wake up during the stitching, but when the needle pierced her flesh, her brows relaxed a bit. Cold sweat broke out in layers, and her hands clenched tightly.
“This…” The doctor’s forehead was covered in sweat. She looked back at Qingtai, “My medical skills aren’t very refined yet. Should we send someone to the palace to request a more experienced female doctor?”
Qingtai’s face darkened, “She’s already in this state. Where’s the time to request someone else? Can’t you even stitch a wound?”
“…I can.” But her hands were shaking!
The doctor was nearly in tears. After stitching one needle, feeling the tense flesh of the person on the bed, and seeing her increasingly pale face, she began to feel doubtful.
These delicate ladies from wealthy families usually had such tender skin; they would cry even over a slight cold. She had never seen anyone being stitched without anesthetic!
She wasn’t making a sound or crying in pain, but the doctor felt the pain herself!
Unsettled, the doctor looked at the wound that would require at least dozens of stitches, and could barely sit still. “Miss, I’m not suitable for this. I should go apologize to the prince and quickly ask someone to request a more experienced female doctor!”
Before Qingtai could refuse, she knelt and kowtowed three times.
Qingtai was furious, “What are you doing? You’ve already started stitching, how can you not finish it in one go?”
The doctor cried even more pitifully than Taohua on the bed, her face pale, her body shaking like a chick. Without another word, she stood up and ran out.
“Stop right there!” Qingtai tried to grab her but wasn’t quick enough. She hurriedly covered Taohua with a blanket and chased after the doctor.
Because the Prince Nan’s Manor was known for its master’s benevolence, the servants were quite bold. The female doctor didn’t run elsewhere but straight to the prince’s study next door.
“Your Highness!”
Prince Mu Wuxia and Shen Zaiye were in a standoff when they unexpectedly heard this cry. Mu Wuxia frowned and opened the door, “What is it?”
The doctor, sweating profusely, knelt in the courtyard and said tearfully, “This servant cannot stitch that lady’s wound. Your Highness should quickly send someone to the palace to request an experienced female doctor before the palace gates close!”
Shen Zaiye, who had followed to the doorway, glanced at the doctor and said, “You can’t even stitch a small wound? Did your prince randomly bestow the title of doctor upon you?”
“The Chancellor doesn’t understand!” The doctor hurriedly explained, “It’s not that I can’t stitch it, but… that lady’s injury is severe, and she refuses to use anesthetic. This servant doesn’t dare to act rashly.”
Nowadays, in these noble households, the most popular phrase was “If you can’t cure so-and-so, you’ll all die with them!” She was just a minor doctor! She didn’t want to die so early! The situation in that room didn’t look good at all, and she wasn’t foolish enough to risk her life.
“What do you mean she refuses to use anesthetic?” Prince Mu Wuxia frowned, “Is she awake?”
“No,” Qingtai, standing behind, lowered her head and said, “The mistress had said before that she doesn’t use pain-relieving medicine.”
“Absurd!” Shen Zaiye snorted coldly, “She’s unconscious, and you still follow her orders?”
With that, he swept his robes and walked out.
Prince Mu Wuxia hurriedly followed, also feeling that Qingtai must have been foolish. When someone is unconscious, why bother with so many orders? Surely her mistress’s life should be the most important.
However, after returning to the main room and seeing the situation, he realized he had wrongly blamed Qingtai.
Shen Zaiye was holding the anesthetic, trying to pour it into Jiang Taohua’s mouth, but her teeth were clenched so tightly that they couldn’t be pried open.
For a moment, Prince Mu Wuxia thought Taohua might be awake, otherwise, how could she be so alert in an unconscious state?
But after lifting her eyelids to check, he confirmed that she was indeed unconscious, not awake.
“How can this be?” Shen Zaiye frowned, turning to look at Qingtai, “What’s wrong with your mistress?”
Qingtai shook her head helplessly, “It’s been like this for a long time. When she’s asleep or unconscious, no one can open her jaw. Even if we forcibly pry it open and pour something in, even if it’s just water, she’ll spit it out.”
She had only been with her mistress for two years, so she didn’t know what had happened before.
Shen Zaiye pressed his lips together, glancing at Taohua several times, his expression becoming impatient, “If she won’t use medicine, so be it. If she dies from pain, it’s her own doing. But the wound is still my responsibility, and it wouldn’t be good if she died from blood loss. Bring the needle for stitching the wound.”
The female doctor was stunned, carefully pointing at Taohua’s body.
Prince Mu Wuxia was shocked, turning to glare at her, “You started stitching and then ran away halfway?”
“Your Highness, please calm down!” The female doctor knelt, trembling, “I didn’t dare to finish…”
“Enough, all of you go out. Your Highness, please wait for me in the study,” Shen Zaiye frowned and waved his hand. “Qingtai can stay to help.”
Prince Mu Wuxia looked at him distrustfully, “You’re going to stitch it?”
“Stitching isn’t difficult,” Shen Zaiye said. “She’s not afraid of pain, so how can I be afraid of her feeling pain? If we delay any longer and lose a life, wouldn’t you be even more determined to fight me to the death?”
Prince Mu Wuxia pressed his lips together, nodded, and efficiently led the female doctor out.
Qingtai looked at Shen Zaiye with a strange expression, unsure of his intentions.
“What are you staring at?” Shen Zaiye lifted the blanket to look at Jiang Taohua’s gruesome wound, his anger rising. He turned to Qingtai and said, “Go prepare hot water and towels. Your mistress is covered in blood; the wound can’t even be seen clearly.”
“…Yes.” Though she responded, Qingtai didn’t move. She was afraid that the moment she turned around, he might kill her mistress with a single slap.
“You’re afraid I’ll harm her?” Seeing the maid’s expression, Shen Zaiye laughed bitterly, gripping Taohua’s shoulder, “This woman is incredibly clever. She’s already found herself a protective charm. I can’t touch her, so you can go with peace of mind!”
Protective charm? Prince Nan? Qingtai was stunned, nodding blankly before walking out.
Her mistress had indeed said that as long as the Prince Nan agreed to protect her, they wouldn’t die at Shen Zaiye’s hands. However, up until now, she still couldn’t understand the current situation.
Why wouldn’t Shen Zaiye harm them now that they had the Prince Nan’s protection?
Unable to figure it out, Qingtai shook her head and hurried to find hot water.
Looking at the blood-soaked bed, Shen Zaiye truly didn’t know what to say. In his twenty-five years of life, he had never encountered such a formidable woman. To say she wanted to live seemed contradictory to her life-threatening behavior. Yet to say she didn’t value her life contradicted how meticulously she had schemed to escape from his hands and save herself.
What was she thinking? Even a man would be in agony with such a wound, yet she refused to use anesthetic? No matter how pain-tolerant a person is, there should be a limit, right?
Feeling increasingly irritated, Shen Zaiye reached for the hanging needle, aligned it with the wound, and began stitching without mercy.
“Mmph.” Perhaps because he used too much force, Jiang Taohua let out a muffled groan of pain. Even with her eyes closed, a stream of tears flowed down, wetting half of his shoulder.
(End of Chapter)