Zhu Yu – Chapter 60

After reaching the shore, Xie Zheng temporarily set Fan Changyu down. As he grasped her wrist to check her pulse, his gaze lingered for a moment on the pair of deerskin bracers wrapped around her sleeves.

His eyes moved downward, falling on her left hand, which was swollen beyond recognition. His already thin lips pressed into an even tighter line.

In the past, she hadn’t sustained such severe injuries even when pursued by assassins from the Wei household. Yet now, an encounter with mountain bandits had left her in such a sorry state.

He raised his hand to remove the bracer from that hand before focusing on taking her pulse.

However, the pulse he felt under his fingertips was pitifully weak, and the body in his arms was as cold as ice, barely resembling that of a living person.

The scent of blood assailed Xie Zheng’s senses, causing his brow to furrow deeply.

She shouldn’t be like this.

In his memory, her body should always be warm.

But now, this cold body seemed to be telling Xie Zheng that her life was slipping away bit by bit.

A mix of inexplicable emotions swirled in his chest. A sudden panic made him feel deeply uncomfortable, filled with a violent urge to kill.

Xie Zheng looked down at Fan Changyu’s tightly closed eyes. She was soaked through, her hands and face turning a bluish-purple from the prolonged exposure to cold. The cloak wrapped around her wet clothes could hardly provide any warmth.

She was too cold; he needed to warm her up quickly.

Xie Zheng glanced at his guards and said in a deep voice, “Leave my clothes here and retreat ten paces away with your backs turned.”

The guards first looked at each other in confusion, but upon realizing what Xie Zheng intended to do, a flash of surprise crossed their eyes. Nevertheless, they quickly complied.

After the guards had withdrawn, Xie Zheng looked at Fan Changyu’s bluish-purple face. His fingers hesitated for a moment as they reached for her collar. He then untied her hair ribbon and blindfolded himself before removing her cold, wet clothes. He then felt around for his dry clothes that he had taken off before entering the water and wrapped them around her.

Unable to see, the sensation in his fingertips became extraordinarily clear. After wrapping Fan Changyu securely, Xie Zheng removed the blindfold, finding beads of sweat had formed on the tip of his nose.

He silently picked up Fan Changyu’s left arm. Before changing her clothes, he had noticed that her left arm was dislocated, and upon closer inspection, he found that the bone had been set incorrectly.

To be in such a state and still protect that scholar, was she truly not afraid of dying at the hands of the bandits?

He couldn’t quite place the feeling in his heart.

For a moment, he thought bitterly, if she died, what would it matter to him?

Yet his movements, as he pushed and pulled to reset her bones, were extremely gentle.

Xie Zheng’s expression was grim. After resetting the bone, he called for a guard to find a wooden stick to temporarily splint Fan Changyu’s hand.

The guard, seeing his lord treat a woman in this manner for the first time, was unsure of Xie Zheng’s intentions. After Xie Zheng had temporarily treated all of Fan Changyu’s wounds, the guard asked, “My Lord, shall we head to Jizhou Prefecture now?”

Xie Zheng looked at Fan Changyu, whose face was still blue-purple, and finally picked her up in his arms, walking towards his warhorse. “First, we’ll find a household to stay at.”

All his clothes were now wrapped around Fan Changyu. The river wind cut like a knife against his bare upper body, his bangs still dripping with water, yet he didn’t shiver once. His body was lean yet muscular, not thin but full of strength.

The guards watched as their lord, bare-chested, carried the tightly wrapped woman onto the horse. Too shocked to react, they quickly mounted their horses and followed.

As the horse’s back jolted, Xie Zheng carefully avoided Fan Changyu’s dislocated hand, holding her protectively against his chest. Feeling the weight leaning against his chest, his hand gripping the reins tightened.

He looked down at Fan Changyu’s lifeless profile and said coldly, “You’d better live. Otherwise, who do you think will take care of that little oil bottle?”

Apart from the sound of the wind, there was no other response. He pressed his lips together and forcefully pulled her closer into his embrace.

The hundred light cavalry following Xie Zheng were all former scouts. They quickly found a household in the wilderness – a blind old woman living alone.

Fearing to disturb the old woman, Xie Zheng only brought a few personal guards with him. Commoners were often afraid of soldiers, so they claimed to be merchants passing through, gave the old woman a few taels of silver, and borrowed a bedroom and the kitchen.

Some guards went to the stove to boil water, while others, after asking the old woman where to find a doctor nearby, went to fetch one.

The old woman had initially been worried that these men bringing an unconscious woman might be involved in human trafficking. But hearing their actions, she was reassured.

Human traffickers wouldn’t be so concerned about a kidnapped woman.

She found a few sets of her daughter-in-law’s clothes and sent them to the room, asking, “How did this young lady end up in the water when she was fine before?”

In the small room, three braziers were burning. Even Xie Zheng, bare-chested, was slowly sweating from the heat, but Fan Changyu’s body, lying in the bedding, was still ice-cold.

The old woman’s home didn’t have a bathtub, so he couldn’t help Fan Changyu recover her body temperature quickly by soaking her in hot water. He could only use a cloth wrung out from hot water to apply heat and wipe her frozen body.

Xie Zheng put the cooled cloth back into the hot water basin, wrung it out again, and wrapped it around her hand before answering, “We encountered mountain bandits robbing a boat on the way. She jumped into the water to escape and caught a chill.”

“Oh, that’s truly a misfortune…” The old woman’s voice carried a hint of sympathy upon hearing about the bandits.

She handed over the clothes she had found: “These are my daughter-in-law’s clothes. You can change your wife into them later.”

Xie Zheng thanked her.

The old woman continued, “Escaping from the river in such cold weather, your clothes must be wet too. I’ll find you some of my son’s clothes.”

After the old woman left, Xie Zheng looked at Fan Changyu lying on the simple wooden bed. He sat idly for a while and unexpectedly noticed that the blue-purple color on her face had receded somewhat, replaced by a flush of red.

He raised his hand to her forehead and, as expected, found she was burning up. The skin under his palm was as hot as lava.

Xie Zheng furrowed his brow, removing the cloth from her hand and re-soaking it in hot water before applying it to her forehead.

By the time the guard returned with the doctor, Fan Changyu’s face was burning red with fever.

The doctor, nearly half-dead from the jolting horseback ride, had barely caught his breath before being pushed into the room to take a pulse.

If it were anyone else, the doctor might have dared to voice some complaints, but faced with a group of soldiers, he had no courage left, only hoping to survive the consultation and return home alive.

Entering the room and discovering the patient was a woman, the doctor was surprised but didn’t dare to ask questions. As he took her pulse, his already wrinkled brow furrowed even deeper. He said, “This is a case of evil cold entering the body. Why did you wait so long before calling for a doctor? For someone with a weaker constitution, they might not survive this.”

As soon as he finished speaking, he felt a cold, stern gaze fall upon him.

The doctor looked at the handsome, bare-chested man in the room, feeling his heart pound under that gaze. He quickly added, “It’s not that she can’t be saved. But medication alone won’t be enough. We need to perform Gua Sha to promote blood circulation and clear the meridians. This will help disperse the cold in her body. Only then will the medicine be truly effective.”

Xie Zheng had heard of using Gua Sha to expel cold. It was a common folk remedy among soldiers. Although painful, it was sometimes more effective than medicine.

He looked at Fan Changyu, whose lips had cracked from the fever, and after a moment of silence, said, “I understand.”

The doctor was taken to the kitchen to prepare the medicine. Xie Zheng had the guards bring another basin of warm water.

Here, apart from the old woman, everyone was male. But the old woman was blind, and Gua Sha required visual judgment of the redness of the skin. It could only be done by him.

Xie Zheng soaked a copper coin in the warm water. Looking at Fan Changyu’s flushed face, he said, “When you wake up, you’ll probably accuse me of taking advantage of you again.”

There was no response.

Gua Sha needed to be performed on the back, but Fan Changyu’s left arm was dislocated and bound with a wooden splint, so she couldn’t lie face down.

He casually put on one of the old woman’s son’s shirts, walked to the bed, and helped Fan Changyu sit up, letting her back lean against him. He turned his face to one side and fumbled to undo the ties of her clothes.

As soon as the ties loosened, the oversized robe fell to her arms.

Xie Zheng picked up the copper coin from the water basin and gathered all of Fan Changyu’s long hair to the front of her body. He had intended to remain focused, but when he saw the smooth, evenly proportioned back, his breath caught slightly.

Different from a man’s strong sinews and bones, and unlike the soft, boneless bodies of the dancing girls he had seen at celebratory banquets before, the slender waistline formed by those taut muscles was both delicate and full of strength and resilience.

The skin, which had been blue-purple from the cold, had now turned a pale white as warmth returned.

Earlier, fearing she would freeze, Xie Zheng had also removed her wet undergarments when changing her clothes. Now, as she sat slumped in her unconscious state, her white and vulnerable neck was exposed, with nothing but her black hair falling over one shoulder to cover her.

The inner garment that was half-concealed, half-revealed below her waistline was also his…

This realization made something explode in Xie Zheng’s mind, and the copper coin in his fingertips suddenly felt scorching hot.

He frowned deeply, looking away to compose himself for a few breaths before focusing all his attention on the copper coin in his hand, scraping it down her snow-white back.

The first stroke only brought a faint redness to Fan Changyu’s back. The second stroke intensified the redness. Xie Zheng continued scraping until the redness turned a deep red before moving to the next area.

Fan Changyu’s cold was severe, and she remained unconscious throughout the Gua Sha, completely unaware. She could only sit upright because Xie Zheng supported her with one hand.

By the time he finished, her entire back was a sight to behold, covered in purple-red Sha marks, yet possessing a strange, savage beauty.

Xie Zheng’s fingertips were burning hot, and fine beads of sweat had formed on his forehead and nose. After tossing the copper coin back into the water basin, he hastily grabbed a piece of clothing and haphazardly wrapped Fan Changyu in it, tucking her into the blanket before rushing out of the room.

The cold wind and fine snow hit his face, finally cooling down that intense heat.

When the guard came to deliver the prepared medicine, he found Xie Zheng leaning against a wooden pillar under the eaves, arms crossed, seemingly staring blankly at the door. He hadn’t even heard the guard’s footsteps.

The guard had to cough lightly: “My… Master, the medicine is ready.”

Xie Zheng came back to his senses and glanced at him, reaching out to take the bowl of medicine from his hand.

As the guard was about to tactfully withdraw, he heard his usually iron-faced and emotionless lord ask, “In the common world, does this mean I have to marry the girl?”

The guard was stunned for a moment before realizing Xie Zheng was referring to himself and the woman inside the room.

The guard thought to himself that anywhere else, one would have to take responsibility for the girl in such a situation. Seeing his lord’s unusual behavior, it didn’t seem like he was indifferent to the woman. Why would he ask such a question?

He could only answer truthfully: “Of course, my lord.”

Before Xie Zheng could say anything more, a scout stationed a few li away hurried into the courtyard to report: “Master, the officials from Jizhou Prefecture are searching along the river.”

Xie Zheng raised an eyebrow slightly: “Are they also looking for the Qingfeng Stronghold bandit leader?”

The scout glanced at Xie Zheng and cautiously said: “It seems they’re looking for the lady inside. The scholar we rescued from the river earlier is the grandson of Grand Tutor Li. He’s currently accompanying the Jizhou Prefecture officials in the search.”

Xie Zheng’s mouth curved into a cold smile. He was aware that Grand Tutor Li had sent his grandson, Li Huaian, to Jizhou.

Wei Xuan’s grain requisition had caused such a great calamity, undoubtedly giving Grand Tutor Li, who had long been at odds with the Wei faction, leverage. Previously, the Northwest region had been entirely under Wei Yan’s control. After this incident, Grand Tutor Li’s faction nearly came to blows with Wei Yan in court, finally managing to send someone from the Qingliu faction over.

The official reason was to assist with the Northwest war effort, but in essence, it was still about power struggles.

With Li Huaian in Jizhou, Grand Tutor Li’s faction now had eyes on the entire Northwest region controlled by Wei Yan.

However, he hadn’t expected this person to become entangled with Fan Changyu as well.

Was it a coincidence, or had Grand Tutor Li’s faction also received some information and was attempting to uncover the secrets behind the Fan family?

Xie Zheng lowered his eyes to look at the steaming medicinal soup in his hand. His tone was casual but carried a hint of coldness: “Guard the mountain pass. Don’t let anyone in.”

After the scout left with his orders, he entered the room with the bowl of medicine.

Inside, Fan Changyu was sleeping quietly in the bedding. The flush on her face from the fever hadn’t completely faded, giving her some color.

Xie Zheng sat by the bed and looked at her for a while before saying, “I’ve always said your judgment is poor.”

Fan Changyu had undergone Gua Sha and was finally warming up, sleeping deeply. She couldn’t possibly respond to him.

However, administering the medicine became extremely troublesome. He forcibly pinched her mouth open to pour it in, but almost half of it spilled out. He wiped her face with a nearby piece of clothing, unsure whose it was, yet patiently continued to feed her the remaining medicine bit by bit.

The wood in the brazier crackled softly as it burned, the firelight casting shadows on his chiseled profile. He used his fingertip to wipe away a drop of medicine remaining at the corner of Fan Changyu’s mouth. After silently watching her for a long while, he suddenly said, “Fan Changyu, I will marry you.”

“If you don’t speak, I’ll take it as agreement.”