The charcoal fire in the room had long since gone out, but covered with quilts and their two bodies pressed together, Qi Yue didn’t feel cold at all. Instead, she felt warm and cozy, as if embracing a furnace.

The earlier atmosphere of desire had faded, replaced by gentle warmth. The two embraced and spoke in low voices, as if they had endless things to say.

“You came looking for me?” Qi Yue was very surprised after hearing his words.

Chang Yuncheng held her in his arms, one hand stroking her smooth hair while recounting what had happened then.

That scene had been a nightmare pressed deep in his heart that he couldn’t touch, but speaking of it now at this moment, it was surprisingly easy – it seemed like nothing at all.

It really was nothing!

Qi Yue raised her hand to pinch him.

“You actually…” Qi Yue was both angry and amused, “Why didn’t you come out? Causing so much trouble!”

“You all… said those things… what was I supposed to come out for… if you were happy, how could I ruin your good time…” Chang Yuncheng said, looking down at her while pulling her hand into his to knead.

“What did we say! We were clearly refusing,” Qi Yue said with a spit.

“You said that?” Chang Yuncheng looked up at her with complete disbelief.

How had he not heard that? All he heard was sweet words and mutual affection…

“We intelligent people speak in ways you can’t understand,” Qi Yue said irritably, scratching his palm.

Chang Yuncheng forcefully pulled her closer.

“In the future, you’re not allowed to speak with intelligent people!” he said in a muffled voice, pressing against her neck.

Qi Yue couldn’t help but laugh at his words.

“That tickles, stop it…” she said, pushing his head away with a laugh.

Chang Yuncheng naturally wouldn’t listen, instead holding her even tighter and nuzzling around her neck.

Pressed so close together, Qi Yue naturally felt his stirring desire and hummed.

“It’s almost dawn, Lord, General Wu Lue. You don’t want to be discovered leaving my room disheveled, do you?” she said.

So soon? Chang Yuncheng turned to look at the window and indeed saw that the night had somehow grown pale.

Because of the military situation, there were soldiers and guards everywhere. Without the cover of darkness…

He knew how difficult it had been for him to sneak over!

He wasn’t afraid of how others would view him. He was afraid of how they would view her.

He had already failed her so much, brought her so much criticism, that even now, besides these empty words of reluctance and promises not to leave, he had given her nothing else.

He didn’t want others to criticize her anymore. Not at all!

“Get dressed and go quickly,” Qi Yue said, kicking him with her foot. Seeing Chang Yuncheng’s dejected expression, she couldn’t help but laugh.

Hmph. Serves him right! This bastard had become a secret lover who couldn’t see the light of day!

Seeing her laugh, Chang Yuncheng felt even more restless with desire.

“It wouldn’t take much time…” he seemed to mutter to himself as he made his decision.

Qi Yue burst out laughing and kicked him twice.

“Get out quickly. I’m dead tired and need to sleep,” she said.

Dawn was breaking. In the night’s final lingering, it was the darkest time before dawn.

A patrol of soldiers suddenly stopped, alertly gripping their spears.

“Who goes there?” one of them shouted sternly.

Heavy footsteps came through the retreating night, followed by a figure appearing.

The white clothing was particularly conspicuous.

“It’s me,” Chang Yuncheng said, maintaining his running posture without any deceleration.

The guards naturally recognized him and quickly put away their spears, stepping aside to make way and salute.

“General, you’re up so early…” they said, their gaze falling on Chang Yuncheng’s clothing.

This was plain white undergarments made of cloth…

In this deep winter… wasn’t it cold?

They looked again. Chang Yuncheng was carrying thick clothes in his hands.

“Ran a lap and worked up a sweat,” Chang Yuncheng said, passing by the group with an unchanged expression and unwavering gaze.

He quickly disappeared into the morning mist.

The guards suddenly understood.

“The General is already training this early.”

“Ran until he was sweating – that must have taken quite a while…”

“The General probably didn’t even rest…”

“If the generals are like this, we certainly can’t slack off. Quick, let’s start running!”

Accompanied by shouts, the patrol soldiers quickened their pace and began running through the streets.

When the sky was fully bright, Qi Yue entered the wounded soldiers’ camp. The busy military doctors were all surprised.

“Why haven’t you left?” Qiao Minghua asked.

“Why should I leave?” Qi Yue asked back.

The other doctors whispered among themselves.

Qiao Minghua looked at her – this woman’s eyes were bright and her cheeks rosy. How was this like someone who had parted from her lover?

The incident of that man called Jiang Hai shouting and rushing here for this woman had already spread everywhere.

They heard he had even cursed the garrison commander to his face – clearly a case of anger for a beauty.

They heard he was going to cause trouble for their medical camp.

But he didn’t get the chance – he had been urgently transferred away yesterday.

Logically speaking, when tender lovers part, shouldn’t there be sorrow and heartbreak? How could she instead look radiant?

Qi Yue had no idea what he was thinking. She rolled up her sleeves and got busy.

The military doctors looked at each other, shook their heads with smiles, and also got busy.

Without penicillin, Qi Yue could only increase the intensity of cleaning and debridement for these wounds, which made the already continuously wailing camp even more miserable.

“You want to suture this wound? That’s too troublesome – so many people are waiting for treatment, when would we finish?” Qiao Minghua frowned.

“But leaving it like this will cause bleeding and infection,” Qi Yue said, looking at him. “How do you handle it?”

Qiao Minghua didn’t speak but directly reached out his hand.

A military doctor immediately handed him a branding iron.

Screams echoed through the camp, accompanied by the sizzling of flesh.

Although she had seen disembowelment, A’Ru was still frightened into screaming and backing away.

The screaming soldier finally fainted from pain, and the scene quieted down.

Qiao Minghua threw the branding iron aside, applied a layer of medicine, clapped his hands, and walked to the next patient.

Qi Yue stood dazed in front of that wounded soldier for a long time, unable to recover, feeling her nose sting with sourness.

“I know of a medicine that can quickly stop bleeding and prevent infection,” she said, taking a deep breath and turning to catch up with Qiao Minghua.

Qiao Minghua continued working without speaking. These days, Qi Yue had mentioned many modern medical terms, but they had never paid attention, let alone asked about them.

“Never mind,” Qi Yue stopped talking. She would just do these things herself. There was no need to explain to them. She turned and rushed toward another wounded patient.

“This one can’t be saved,” a military doctor said, raising his hand to signal for someone to carry the patient away.

“No, no, this is traumatic hemorrhagic shock. There’s still a chance,” Qi Yue quickly blocked him.

What?

The military doctor frowned.

Qi Yue had already begun treatment, with A’Ru following with the medicine box.

The military doctors were pushed aside.

“This is just causing chaos,” someone couldn’t help but mutter.

“Has she been causing chaos these past few days?” Qiao Minghua, who had been keeping his head down working, suddenly said.

These past few days…

Bandaging, stopping bleeding, stabilizing…

Everything they could do, she could do.

But her techniques were ones they had never seen before.

Her scissors could rapidly cut away wounded soldiers’ clothes and shoes, quickly remove protective gear…

She also used cloth strips to stop bleeding, but her cloth strips weren’t simple bandages – she inserted wooden sticks and twisted them tight…

When she had people carry wounded soldiers, she would choose between soft cloth stretchers or door board stretchers…

She carried strange bottles with her and would pry open wounded soldiers’ mouths to force liquid down their throats…

Afterward, everyone had looked – those bottles didn’t contain medicine but water… someone had secretly tasted it – salty-sweet water…

Although everyone was surprised by her methods, they could be certain of one thing: she was very skilled. It was definitely not random or careless.

Everyone fell silent and went about their business.

When lunch was delivered, everyone could take turns resting briefly.

The exhausted military doctors weren’t particular – they simply washed their hands and were about to eat.

“Use this to wash before eating,” Qi Yue stopped everyone.

Looking over, they saw her pointing to a bucket that gave off a medicinal smell.

“You used so much medicine to boil this – for washing hands?” Qiao Minghua frowned.

Medicine was what they lacked most here. There wasn’t enough for consumption, yet it was being used for washing hands!

“In battlefield surgical emergency care, the most important thing is preventing and fighting infection. I know these medicines are scarce, but you are also scarce. Each of you might treat many people, so using these medicines is worthwhile,” Qi Yue said.

“We never used this before – what was wrong with that?” a military doctor muttered.

Qi Yue was about to explain about bacterial infection and such, but Qiao Minghua spoke up.

“Miss Qi is a divine physician. However she says to do things, we’ll do them,” he said, being the first to step forward and ladle out a scoop to soak and rinse.

Seeing him do this, the others could only remain silent and come forward one by one to wash their hands.

Qi Yue breathed a sigh of relief and smiled with some relief.

“When are you leaving?” Qiao Minghua asked while soaking his hard biscuit in vegetable soup.

“When are you leaving?” Qi Yue asked back, trying to bite the biscuit – it was too hard.

A’Hao quickly reached out to take it and also soaked it in vegetable soup for her.

“What are you still doing here?” Qiao Minghua asked with a sneer. “Waiting for your so-called hope?”

Qi Yue smiled, knowing his meaning. The soldiers’ battle was over, but the military doctors’ battle was just entering its most intense phase.

Starting yesterday, the wounded soldiers rescued from the battlefield began facing their second life-or-death struggle – infection and various complications.

“No need to look – in two or three days, half this room will be empty,” a military doctor said indifferently with a matter-of-fact expression.

Qi Yue took the soaked biscuit that A’Hao had prepared and ate it in small bites.

“Yes,” she said indistinctly without regard for her image, “waiting for my hope.”

These wounded soldiers with severed limbs, external injuries, and hematomas could still have surgery – the key was having medicine: penicillin, anesthetics, hemostatic drugs.

She hoped Hu San, Xiao Qu, and the others could quickly find the medicines she had mentioned. Even just a little bit – as long as it could give these people hope, as long as there was hope, she could mobilize these people’s strength. What she could do alone in battlefield emergency care was too limited.

Suddenly there was a commotion.

“The officials are here!” someone shouted.

Everyone was startled. Officials? Then everyone looked and saw indeed a group of military officers in official robes had come, along with several people carrying food boxes. The aroma of food came over with the howling north wind.

Qi Yue immediately spotted Chang Yuncheng among them. He wore a military officer’s robe with stern armor.

Qi Yue couldn’t help but smile, remembering how he had sneaked out in the middle of the night carrying his armor and wearing only undergarments.

“Everyone has worked hard. This is a meal specially prepared by the General to reward everyone. Come, come, put down those biscuits and vegetable soup – let’s eat meat in big chunks,” a military officer called out loudly.

This treatment was truly unprecedented. The military doctors and support soldiers were all delighted and surprised, thanking them repeatedly before lining up to receive their meals.

A’Hao looked at Chang Yuncheng with a beaming smile, raised her eyebrows at Qi Yue, and happily went to line up as well.

Chang Yuncheng stood behind the speaker, his gaze seemingly casually looking over and then accurately catching Qi Yue’s eyes. He saw the teasing smile at the corner of that woman’s mouth, and his own lips couldn’t help but curve slightly. People walking back and forth soon blocked their line of sight.