The words slipped out, and tears hung on the long eyelashes of the person in his arms. In that moment of surprise, a faint blush appeared on her originally pale cheeks. As their eyes met, she felt scorched by his gaze and quickly turned her head away, burying her face once more.

A tickling sensation brushed against his shoulder as the head resting there trembled slightly, and a short gasp of air burst forth—”Hee.”

Shen Yuance: “…”

Shen Yuance stood in place, looking at that mud-and-dust-covered head, blinking twice in bewilderment.

Another tremor came from his shoulder—”Hee hee.”

“……”

Had it been anyone else, he would have thrown them to the ground already.

Shen Yuance tilted his head to look at her with strained patience: “If it doesn’t hurt anymore, can you walk back yourself?”

“It hurts so much…” Jiang Zhiyi immediately suppressed her smile, glancing at him through raised eyes, her eyebrows wrinkled into a painful frown. “It hurts so much!”

Shen Yuance’s face darkened as he continued carrying her forward.

Gu Yu came running toward them, panting heavily, forgetting even to use proper address in her urgency: “How is the Princess?”

Shen Yuance’s face remained expressionless: “She can laugh now.”

Gu Yu: “…?”

Earlier, after the Princess had entered the forest, a hand suddenly came from behind her and covered her mouth and nose with a wet cloth. She hadn’t even had time to struggle before collapsing and losing consciousness.

When she awoke, she found herself sitting against a tree trunk with no one around. In panic, she called out and searched everywhere until she found the Princess at the bottom of a hunting pit. She quickly ran to seek help nearby and fortunately encountered Young General Shen in time.

In her hurry, she hadn’t thought much and approached Young General Shen directly in front of a large group of young gentlemen, completely ignoring the Princess’s admirers.

Now, looking back at the group of young men in the forest—one clutching his head, another clutching his head while exclaiming “impossible,” and one sitting by the pit edge, chewing on a leaf to calm down while also clutching his head…

Gu Yu silently turned back and hurried to catch up with Shen Yuance, who had already walked far ahead.

Back at the camp, Shen Yuance carried her into the tent and gently laid the person who had been secretly laughing the whole way onto the bed. He moved to the foot of the bed and, controlling both angle and force, quickly and gently removed her boots.

Before Jiang Zhiyi could notice the pain of friction, the boots had already fallen to the ground. Immediately after, a coolness spread across the soles of her feet as both shoes and socks were removed together.

“Hey…” Jiang Zhiyi anxiously propped herself up on her elbows. “Why not send for my female physician…”

“Lie down properly,” Shen Yuance said coldly.

Jiang Zhiyi lay back down flat, tilting her head to watch his gaze fall on her feet. The toes of her uninjured left foot curled one by one involuntarily.

“…” Shen Yuance paused his examination, slowly turned his head to look at the head of the bed, and when he looked back, even his previously neutral gaze faltered.

Now, both bare feet were as white as frost and snow, with slender, delicate ankles and rounded toes. The nails, rumored to be coated with moisturizing gloss after bathing, were clean and beautifully trimmed, glowing with a pinkish luster.

Shen Yuance fell silent for a moment before looking away: “Quick treatment means less pain for ten to fifteen days. Your choice.”

From childhood to adulthood, all of Jiang Zhiyi’s minor illnesses had been treated by the elderly Dr. Huang from before, while another female physician specifically attended to minor injuries. This was the first time she had entrusted her foot to a man.

Naturally, rather than trusting a male physician in the camp, she preferred Shen Yuance.

“Fine, go ahead then…” Jiang Zhiyi closed her eyes as if heroically facing death.

Shen Yuance stopped dawdling with her and said, “Yell if it hurts,” then pressed his fingertips against her slightly swollen ankle, gradually increasing pressure.

“Ah—it hurts, it hurts—” On the fourth increase of pressure, Jiang Zhiyi cried out in pain.

Shen Yuance stopped and took hold of her entire foot, slowly rotating it in all directions.

“Ah—” When he turned it diagonally upward, Jiang Zhiyi cried out again.

“Is my foot broken? Will I ever be able to stand again in this life…” Jiang Zhiyi winced in pain, staring at the canopy above the bed and letting two clear tears fall in despair.

“If it were broken, you wouldn’t be able to ask that question.”

“…”

“Then why does it hurt so much? It feels like it’s about to split open!”

“Because a ‘sprain’ is already more than your fate can bear.”

…Was his gentleness made of tofu dregs, crumbling at a touch?

Jiang Zhiyi looked at him with a woeful face: “For whose sake did I get injured? Can’t you say something nice?”

Shen Yuance raised his eyelids.

On the way here, Gu Yu had already told him the whole story in detail, with a hint of reproach in her tone.

Naturally, if he hadn’t turned and left earlier, no one would have had the opportunity to take advantage of the situation.

Shen Yuance frowned, reached his hand back toward Gu Yu, took the ice pack, and with one hand holding Jiang Zhiyi’s foot and the other holding the ice pack, applied it to her injury.

Jiang Zhiyi drew in a sharp breath, hissing miserably as she covered her face with her hands.

Shen Yuance: “What are you covering for?”

Who would want their beloved to see their grimacing, miserable appearance? Jiang Zhiyi whimpered: “Can’t I want to see you?”

“You don’t look ugly—”

Jiang Zhiyi suddenly moved a finger aside, revealing one eye to peek at him: “Really?” After a moment’s thought, she asked, “Just not ugly?”

“Fine, then ‘beautiful as a heavenly immortal,’ happy now?”

Jiang Zhiyi snorted coldly: “Remove the ‘fine, then’ and ‘happy now’!”

Shen Yuance: “Beautiful as a heavenly immortal.”

“Who is as beautiful as a heavenly immortal?”

“…You.”

“Who am I?”

He had only been chatting about trivialities to distract her attention, but now she was taking advantage of the situation.

Shen Yuance controlled the pressure of the ice pack, switching to his left hand to avoid his right hand unconsciously pressing too hard, then pronounced her full name one syllable at a time.

“But that’s not how you used to call me…”

“…”

“How did you used to call me? Have you forgotten?”

There was no need to remember; hadn’t she already written the answer in her poem? Shen Yuance closed his eyes to compose himself, then uttered a single word: “Yi.”

A moment later, he uttered another: “Yi.”

“Is my name burning your mouth?” Jiang Zhiyi pouted unhappily. “Then tell me, whose Yi Yi?”

“…Whoever you want it to be.”

“Of course I want to be yours!”

Shen Yuance glanced away, remaining silent for a long while. Hearing another painful gasp from behind him, he looked up at the tent canvas and took a deep breath: “Fine, mine.”

“Good, now say everything you just said all together.”

“…………”

“That’s enough, isn’t it?” Shen Yuance looked back at her.

Jiang Zhiyi covered her face and sighed deeply: “Just trying to hear something nice requires me to construct the sentence myself, breaking it down word by word and feeding it to someone’s mouth, and they still won’t say it… My feet aren’t the only cold thing; my heart is cold too.”

“…”

Shen Yuance opened his mouth, then closed it, turning his head to look behind him.

Gu Yu, who had been listening to the drama with a silly smile, quickly composed her expression. Seeing Jiang Zhiyi’s meaningful glance, she voluntarily retreated to the basin stand and began wringing out a cloth, all while keeping her ears perked up with her back turned.

After waiting for quite some time, she finally heard from inside the room a sentence uttered with clenched teeth, as if spoken with a knife at the throat—

“My—Yi—Yi—is beautiful as a heavenly immortal.”

Just as the words fell, the light brightened as someone suddenly lifted the tent flap.

Shen Yuance shut his mouth tightly, slowly turning his stiff neck.

The man who had entered paused with one foot inside the tent entrance, blinking hesitantly at the bed, and softly uttered an “Ah”: “It seems—I might not be needed?”

Jiang Zhiyi, whose smile had just reached her ears, suddenly withdrew it and turned her head to see a strange man. She immediately shifted toward the inner side of the bed.

Shen Yuance also abruptly dropped the bed curtain.

By the tent entrance, a man in flowing white robes with his hair bound by a jade hairpin bowed his head apologetically and stepped back: “In my haste to save someone, I’ve disturbed you both. I shall take my leave.”

“Wait,” Shen Yuance frowned and called him back. “Since you’re already here, check her pulse.”

Jiang Zhiyi asked curiously: “Is he a physician you know?”

Shen Yuance nodded slightly. Earlier, when Gu Yu had come seeking help, her first words were “The Princess fell into a hunting pit and is unconscious.” Such a fall could be either minor or serious, so naturally, he had immediately sent someone on horseback to summon a trusted physician from the Xuan Strategy Camp.

This was Li Dafeng, the best military physician in the Xuan Strategy Army, who had tended to Gao Shi, that “living dead man,” for half a year and personally escorted him to the capital.

In the Xuan Strategy Army, countless soldiers who had once stood at death’s door had been pulled back by Li Dafeng, including Shen Yuance himself.

If there was a physician he trusted in this world, it was only this one.

Li Dafeng bowed and stepped forward: “I am Li Dafeng, military physician of the Xuan Strategy Army. If the Princess has any reservations, I can diagnose you using the suspended thread method.”

The suspended thread diagnosis was a practice reserved for noble ladies of the imperial harem, which she didn’t require. Since this was a military physician summoned by Shen Yuance, Jiang Zhiyi extended her hand and nodded: “Diagnose me like this.”

Li Dafeng placed three fingers on her wrist and, after a while, asked: “Has the Princess consumed alcohol recently?”

Jiang Zhiyi, who had been lying properly with a dignified princess demeanor, turned her eyes in surprise: “You can diagnose that too?”

“One should not drink when emotionally disturbed, as it harms the liver and spleen. The Princess should be mindful of this in the future. Additionally, your blood stasis symptoms are not minor. Besides your foot, did the Princess injure anywhere else?”

Jiang Zhiyi moved her body slightly and shook her head: “No, nowhere else.”

“I recommend that you have a female physician conduct a thorough examination later. If there are no other bruises, the blood stasis is due to the sprained ankle. The Young General can apply medicine and massage it daily, and it will heal.”

Shen Yuance coughed lightly.

Li Dafeng glanced at Shen Yuance: “Of course, someone else could do it as well.”

“I wouldn’t trust anyone else,” Jiang Zhiyi smiled with pursed lips. Seeing that this physician, though young, was quite skilled and articulate, she looked at him more carefully. Upon closer inspection, she suddenly narrowed her eyes curiously, “Why do you seem somewhat familiar?”

Li Dafeng: “I am from Chang’an. My father once served in the Imperial Medical Bureau and left the capital about seven or eight years ago. The Princess might have seen me then.”

Shen Yuance glanced at Jiang Zhiyi: “Your memory is quite good.”

Seeing his expression, Jiang Zhiyi immediately understood: “That can’t be! Besides you, Young General, I couldn’t possibly remember anyone else for so long!”

Shen Yuance turned his head away, lifting his chin slightly.

“But why do I feel like I just saw you a couple of days ago?” Jiang Zhiyi lifted a corner of the bed curtain to look outside.

Sensing Shen Yuance’s displeased gaze, Li Dafeng bowed and prepared to take his leave.

“I remember now!” Jiang Zhiyi suddenly sat up on the bed, steadied by Shen Yuance’s hand, and pointed at Li Dafeng, “Why does this military physician look so much like Sister Bao Jia’s male companion?”

Shen Yuance: “?”

Li Dafeng: “…”

Shen Yuance raised an eyebrow slightly: “Didn’t all those people you found that day look like me too, with two eyes and one nose?”

“…” So he had been there that day!

But Jiang Zhiyi was too preoccupied with the current matter to dwell on her affairs. She leaned close to Shen Yuance’s ear and whispered: “That’s different! If it were just one person who looked similar, I wouldn’t think much of it. But I noticed that all of Sister Bao Jia’s male companions resemble him somewhat. If you were to take the nose, eyes, mouth, and ears from those companions and piece them together, it might form his face…”

Shen Yuance looked at Li Dafeng, who had frozen mid-farewell, and said to Jiang Zhiyi: “He can hear what you’re saying.”

“…Oh, is that so?” Jiang Zhiyi cleared her throat, waved her hand magnanimously, and smiled slightly, “Physician Li need not take this too seriously. Perhaps it’s just a coincidence.”

Li Dafeng nodded slightly: “If there’s nothing else, I shall take my leave.”

Shen Yuance had a few more questions for Li Dafeng, so he rose and followed him out, asking Gu Yu to look after Jiang Zhiyi for a moment.

Jiang Zhiyi allowed Gu Yu to help clean her face and head and change her outer garment. Lost in thought about this shocking secret for quite some time, thinking about Sister Bao Jia, she suddenly remembered—

After settling Pei Zisong’s marriage matter, her relationship with Brother A-Ce had also been made public through this mishap. Didn’t that mean she could now open the third sachet?

After the ice compress, the pain in her ankle had temporarily subsided, and Jiang Zhiyi felt more spirited. She beckoned to Gu Yu: “Quick, where’s my clever plan?”

Gu Yu was momentarily confused before realizing what she meant and pulled out the peach-pink sachet from her sleeve.

Jiang Zhiyi quickly untied the string, smoothed out the note, and as she read each character, her eyes grew wider and wider.

Gu Yu leaned in: “What is it, Princess? What does the third clever plan say?”

Jiang Zhiyi hastily folded the note, and though she knew Gu Yu couldn’t read, she still panicked inexplicably. She blinked twice at the space and swallowed lightly: “Nothing, nothing at all.”

Outside the tent, Shen Yuance finished his questions and idly examined Li Dafeng’s face—high nose bridge, phoenix eyes, thick eyebrows, thin lips—

“What romantic entanglements did you leave in Chang’an seven years ago?” Shen Yuance clicked his tongue.

“Perhaps you should handle your romantic entanglements first,” Li Dafeng raised his chin toward the tent behind him, smiled with schadenfreude, picked up his medicine box, and walked away.

Shen Yuance stood in place, raising an eyebrow and looking back at the tent.

Having already uttered “my Yi Yi,” what debt could be difficult to repay?

With this thought, Shen Yuance lifted the tent flap, raised the toe of his boot, and walked back inside, just in time to meet Gu Yu coming out with a basin of water.

With only the two of them left in the tent, Shen Yuance looked at Jiang Zhiyi, who had lain back down on the bed, and walked toward her.

Jiang Zhiyi lay properly with her hands folded in front of her, taking a nervous deep breath.

Shen Yuance approached the bed to apply medicine. After sitting down on the edge, he first looked at her ankle: “Does it still hurt?”

Jiang Zhiyi blinked her flickering gaze: ” It-it still hurts—”

“Still hurts?” Shen Yuance frowned, reaching out to take her foot.

But Jiang Zhiyi grabbed his sleeve: “But I know a way to stop the pain…”

“?”

Jiang Zhiyi beckoned to him: “Come closer—”

Remembering how she had whispered in his ear earlier, Shen Yuance said: “There’s no one else here now.”

“Just come here!” Jiang Zhiyi urged impatiently.

Shen Yuance fell silent for a moment, then leaned down—

A snow-white hand suddenly rose, gripping his collar, and in the next instant, he leaned forward, completely caught off guard.

The person beneath him tilted her head up, and soft lips gently touched the corner of his mouth.

The hand Shen Yuance was using to support himself on the bed suddenly clenched into a fist. He stared at the tent gauze fluttering in the breeze, momentarily frozen in place.

The touch was as soft as a dragonfly skimming water, fleeting and gone in an instant.

In his peripheral vision, those luscious, full lips, glistening with moisture, trembled nervously before parting to say: “This way, it doesn’t hurt anymore…”