Lei Ting quickly returned carrying the medicine box.

“I apologize for the impropriety,” Lei Ting placed the medicine box on the earthen bed, frowned as he offered an apology, then lowered his head to examine the wound on Ren Yaohua’s calf.

Ren Yaohua instinctively pulled back her foot, but because this movement tugged at her wound, she couldn’t help but cry out in pain.

Lei Ting paused in his movements, then looked up and said: “Although the bone wasn’t injured, in this hot weather, your wound must be treated quickly. However, we can’t find a physician here for the time being, so please bear with it.”

As he spoke, Lei Ting pulled out a piece of cotton cloth from the medicine box. He tore the cotton cloth into thin strips and blindfolded himself with them, only then beginning to cut open the pants on Ren Yaohua’s left leg with small silver scissors.

Seeing that he had blindfolded himself, Ren Yaohua felt somewhat reassured, though when Lei Ting’s hands touched her, she still couldn’t help but blush.

“Have you bandaged your wound yet?” Ren Yaohua asked in a low voice.

Although Lei Ting had blindfolded himself, he had already carefully examined Ren Yaohua’s injury beforehand, so he had no difficulty treating the wound.

“It’s just a minor injury. I already stopped the bleeding when I went to get the medicine box from the carriage.”

Fearing that Ren Yaohua would worry unnecessarily upon seeing his wound, Lei Ting had hastily applied medicine to his injury before entering. He felt that the arrow he’d taken from Zeng Kui wasn’t as painful as the kicks Ren Yaohua had given him earlier. One was an external injury, the other internal.

Ren Yaohua glanced guiltily at Lei Ting’s wrist, where there was a clear bloody bite mark. Because Lei Ting didn’t take such a minor wound seriously, he hadn’t applied medicine to it. Ren Yaohua wished she could find a hole to crawl into.

Lei Ting quickly applied medicine to Ren Yaohua’s wound and wrapped it with gauze. Though he was extremely careful, it was impossible to avoid touching Ren Yaohua completely. After those two exchanges, both fell silent.

Only after Lei Ting finished treating Ren Yaohua’s wound did he remove the cotton cloth covering his eyes.

Only then did Ren Yaohua say: “I’m sorry, I didn’t recognize you earlier, so I injured you…”

Seeing Ren Yaohua’s guilty and uneasy expression, Lei Ting thought for a moment and said: “It’s nothing, it doesn’t hurt. I just think your teeth are quite sharp.”

Seeing Lei Ting’s completely serious and solemn expression when saying this, Ren Yaohua couldn’t help but smile through her tears.

Lei Ting casually sprinkled some wound medicine on the injury on his wrist to put Ren Yaohua’s mind at ease.

After watching him finish tidying up, Ren Yaohua also looked around the farmhouse: “How did you happen to appear here and rescue me so opportunely?” When Ren Yaohua had fallen into the hands of bad people, she had secretly prayed for someone to appear and save her, but she had never imagined that person would be Lei Ting.

Lei Ting put the wound medicine and gauze back in the medicine box, not looking up as he said: “Ever since the incident with Zeng Kui last time, I’ve had people secretly follow Pan’er whenever she goes out. I heard you’ve had quite a few troubles recently too, so when you came out to meet Pan’er, I also had people keep an eye on you as well.”

Upon hearing this, Ren Yaohua was stunned and said in a daze: “You… you had people secretly protecting me?”

Lei Ting glanced at Ren Yaohua and said, “Not exactly. It’s just that when Pan’er arranges to meet you, I have people follow you along the way. Otherwise, if you encountered trouble on the road, the Lei family would also bear responsibility.”

Although Lei Ting said it wasn’t deliberate protection, Ren Yaohua still felt mixed emotions upon hearing this.

Apart from family members, Lei Ting was the first person to actively protect her.

Since becoming sensible, Ren Yaohua had always thought about protecting her mother. Later she also wanted to protect her younger sister. She thought she was a strong woman, naturally born to stand before her weaker family members and shelter them from storms.

“It was originally just a precaution, but unexpectedly it came in handy this time. When you were kidnapped, I happened to be meeting a friend on Zhengyang Street, so I was able to follow quickly after receiving the news. But because I left too hastily, I couldn’t bring many people, and not knowing the background of your kidnappers or how many accomplices they had along the way, I didn’t dare act rashly, so I followed all this way.”

Although after separating from the other group, only three people remained, their martial arts were not weak, and it was unclear whether there were other reinforcements coming secretly or who was behind it all.

When Lei Ting hurriedly followed, he only brought one subordinate, Liu Gui. He feared that acting rashly might cause those people to harm Ren Yaohua in desperation. So Lei Ting confirmed that Ren Yaohua was in the carriage and uninjured, and that her captors only wanted to rush to Zhuozhou and wouldn’t harm anyone for the time being, before he felt at ease following behind them while secretly arranging rescue personnel along the way.

Lei Ting quickly became familiar with the terrain from Yanzhou to Zhuozhou. He led his hastily assembled men along a shortcut to get ahead of Ren Yaohua’s group. Originally, he had planned to have his men ambush in the woods and intercept Ren Yaohua, but he unexpectedly discovered that another group was already lying in ambush in the woods.

Lei Ting hadn’t expected that Zeng Kui would appear at this moment with several guards specially selected by the Zeng family to protect his safety, nor had he anticipated that Ren Yaohua would later be injured.

Just when Lei Ting was planning to risk rescuing her, he encountered several top experts from Prince Jingxi of Yanbei’s household who were out on business. Worried about Ren Yaohua’s injuries and not daring to delay further, Lei Ting decisively borrowed three men from the Yanbei Prince’s household and, together with himself and one of his subordinates, climbed over from the slope to approach Ren Yaohua.

The moment he saw Ren Yaohua, Lei Ting somewhat regretted not having risked rescuing her earlier. As the head of a clan, he had long passed the impulsive age of acting on pure passion and had grown accustomed to using the most prudent methods to achieve goals with minimal losses and maximum chance of success.

He had witnessed this girl’s stubbornness and pride that refused to yield even when bloodied more than once. He admired such stubbornness and pride, but didn’t agree with it, so he had deliberately advised her twice.

For Lei Ting, being calm, self-possessed, and handling things with ease were the qualities an excellent person should possess. So when considering candidates for remarriage, he also emphasized these character traits.

But for some unknown reason, this thorny Ren Yaohua always made him feel inexplicable pity and heartache, unable to bear seeing her encounter setbacks and suffer harm. There were many women more delicate and pitiable than Ren Yaohua, yet they couldn’t arouse even half his protective instincts. Lei Ting was not someone with overflowing sympathy – such a bleeding heart couldn’t serve as head of the Lei family.

Although Lei Ting described his rescue process very concisely and matter-of-factly, Ren Yaohua knew that from leaving Yunyang City to reaching here had taken less than an hour and a half. Lei Ting had to closely follow them while secretly gathering personnel and arranging rescue plans – he must have expended considerable effort.

Even blood relatives could probably only do this much, let alone for someone with no family ties to them.

“This place isn’t safe for a long stay. I’ll have someone escort you back to Yunyang City first,” Lei Ting stood up and said.

“What about you?” Ren Yaohua quickly asked.

Lei Ting thought Ren Yaohua was afraid of encountering danger again, so he softened his voice to comfort her: “Don’t be afraid. The people I brought are trustworthy, and their martial arts are decent. Besides, several experts from the Yanbei Prince’s household also need to return to Yunyang City, so they can travel with you. Even if the Wu and Zeng families send more people, you’ll be safe. I only roughly bandaged your wound just now. For safety’s sake, you should return early to have a physician examine it.”

Ren Yaohua felt more at ease with Lei Ting around, and since she only knew Lei Ting now, she asked again: “What about you? Aren’t you going back?”

Lei Ting said, “I need to handle some matters first.” Zeng Kui and his subordinates were no match for the experts from the Yanbei Prince’s household and his men – they must have been captured by now. He needed to deal with this big trouble first before leaving.

He feared that staying outside too long wouldn’t be good for Ren Yaohua as a woman, and the Ren family would surely worry, so he wanted her to leave first while he dealt with these matters and caught up with them later.

Seeing Lei Ting say this, Ren Yaohua didn’t want to delay his business, so she nodded.

At this moment, knocking sounds came from outside.

“I’ll go take a look,” Lei Ting’s gaze swept over Ren Yaohua’s torn skirt, his brow furrowing slightly, but he said nothing and turned to go out, carefully closing the door behind him.

Two people were waiting outside. Seeing Lei Ting emerge, one immediately asked: “Is Third Miss Ren alright?”

Lei Ting looked at the speaker suspiciously: “Are you also out on business this time?”

Because of his urgency earlier, Lei Ting hadn’t had time to think much, but now, considering it, too many people from the Yanbei Prince’s household had suddenly appeared, and he’d encountered them at just the right moment. Now, even Tongxi, Second Young Master Xiao’s attendant, had appeared.

Tongxi coughed lightly: “My young master sent me to see how things were progressing. I heard Third Miss Ren was injured – how did she get injured? Weren’t you following them the whole way?” How was he supposed to explain this when he returned?

Lei Ting raised an eyebrow at Tongxi, then remembering that this attendant of Second Young Master Xiao seemed to be from Prince Xian’s household, he understood and nodded: “It was my miscalculation. Third Miss Ren is fine now, and the leg wound didn’t damage the shinbone.”

However, Tongxi’s eyes narrowed as he looked warily at Lei Ting, then at the tightly closed door behind him. Suddenly, his eyes widened as he pointed at Lei Ting: “You… you… you… physician…”

The usually eloquent Tongxi was too shocked to speak coherently.

After stammering “you” for a long time, Tongxi suddenly glared at Lei Ting with some indignation: “And I always thought Master Lei was an upright gentleman who stood tall between heaven and earth…”

Xiao Hua, who had a silent and reserved personality and usually served as background, was originally from the Yanbei Prince’s shadow guards. He silently glanced at Tongxi while internally going crazy: Hadn’t he just been thinking that Lei Ting’s timely rescue was good and wonderful? When it was a matter of life and death, wasn’t bringing up propriety between men and women just nonsense? This was an unfair accusation!