The young general gazed at his beloved, his sword-like brows slightly furrowed: “I didn’t expect it to hurt this much. But Zhaozhao, don’t worry—I’m used to it. Now that you’re cleaning my wounds for me, in the past I always just treated them carelessly myself.”

Hearing this, Qiao Zhao couldn’t help feeling somewhat heartbroken. However, someone’s words and actions were inconsistent with his usual style. She looked at him suspiciously and asked, “If it hurts so much, how did you still have the strength to discipline Chen Guang just now?”

The young general blinked.

Zhaozhao suspected him. When Shixi had said it hurt, Zhaozhao hadn’t been suspicious.

Shao Mingyuan felt somewhat dejected and sighed with an innocent expression: “Just now the pain had numbed me, but now that I’ve recovered, I feel the pain.”

“I can use acupuncture to temporarily stop the pain for you.” Qiao Zhao took out silver needles from her pouch.

When Princess Zhenzhen had injured her leg, she had used silver needles to stop the pain.

“No need.” Shao Mingyuan stopped Qiao Zhao’s movement. “I’ve heard this kind of temporary pain relief has some effects?”

Qiao Zhao was startled, then nodded: “Slightly.”

If the injury were on the leg, buttocks, or similar areas, acupuncture pain relief would have almost no effect. But with an injury on the hands like this, making the hand meridians sluggish would have some slight impact.

Meeting his deep black eyes, Qiao Zhao suddenly understood.

He used these hands to defend the territory of their nation—naturally, these hands couldn’t be treated carelessly.

With this thought, the trace of suspicion in Miss Qiao’s heart dissipated like smoke, leaving only heartache.

The young lady’s brows and eyes softened as she comforted: “Once A’Zhu brings the medicine to apply, it will feel much better.”

The young general stared intently at the young lady, asking pitifully: “But I’m in severe pain right now—what should I do?”

Miss Qiao was stumped.

She wouldn’t let him have acupuncture, and there was no medicine—she wasn’t an immortal, how would she know what to do?

But his furrowed brow and expression of enduring pain were like an invisible net that quietly ensnared the young lady’s heart. As the man’s painful expression intensified, that net tightened more and more, making her heart feel uncomfortable as well.

He had been injured protecting them. Anyone with flesh and blood—how could being injured and bleeding not be painful?

Seeing the young lady unconsciously frown, Shao Mingyuan suddenly couldn’t bear to make her worry anymore and chuckled softly: “Silly girl, I was teasing you—it doesn’t hurt at all.”

Qiao Zhao stared at him blankly: “What did you say?”

“I said it doesn’t hurt at all—don’t worry anymore.” He had wanted to see her worry about him, feel heartache for him, but when she truly worried and felt heartache, why couldn’t he bear it?

Shao Mingyuan thought: so this was the contradictory feeling of holding a girl in one’s heart.

“I’m asking, what did you just call me?”

“Silly girl.” Shao Mingyuan’s eyes were full of doting affection.

Miss Qiao pressed her lips together and said softly, “Grandfather also likes to call me that. Just now, I felt you were quite like my grandfather.”

She had been precocious from childhood, hearing much praise from others. Only Grandfather loved to call her silly girl.

Shao Mingyuan: “…”

He didn’t like this comparison at all!

He didn’t want to be like Zhaozhao’s grandfather—he should be like Zhaozhao’s husband.

No, wait—he was Zhaozhao’s husband.

The young general felt somewhat dejected.

How could Zhaozhao have such a dangerous thought? What if she thought of her grandfather every time she saw him in the future—what would he do then?

No way—he had to immediately dispel this notion of hers and couldn’t let her form such a mistaken impression.

“Zhaozhao—” Shao Mingyuan called out.

“Mm?” Qiao Zhao looked up at him, puzzled.

The young general suddenly lowered his head and lightly pecked the corner of her lips, chuckling softly: “You are my pain medicine.”

Miss Qiao’s face instantly flushed red as she quickly glanced at Binglu.

Binglu covered her face and shook her head vigorously: “This servant saw nothing, saw nothing at all!”

Heavens, the General had kissed their Miss!

Heavens, why didn’t she feel unhappy about it at all?

She was Miss’s head maidservant and should defend Miss’s chastity to the death.

However—

Binglu quickly glanced at her own Miss with her rosy cheeks and added in her heart: if that person was General Shao, it was acceptable, wasn’t it?

The little maid consciously walked to the doorway to stand guard.

Qiao Zhao glared fiercely at Shao Mingyuan.

This scoundrel was becoming more and more audacious—now he dared to kiss her even in front of others!

No wait, he shouldn’t do this even without others present—this shameless rogue!

“Shao Mingyuan!” Qiao Zhao called out in a low voice, yet didn’t notice that this time she didn’t even have the strength to scold him properly.

Hearing this “Shao Mingyuan” that seemed both annoyed and petulant, the young general thought to himself: it seemed habit was quite a good thing—he should continue his efforts.

“Miss, the medicine is here.” A’Zhu’s voice came from the doorway.

A moment later, A’Zhu entered, carrying gauze and medicinal paste.

Qiao Zhao regained her composure and quickly treated the wounds on Shao Mingyuan’s hands, asking: “Are there injuries anywhere else?”

“Yes.” Shao Mingyuan answered honestly.

“Where?”

Shao Mingyuan pointed to the back of his head.

He was sitting, so Qiao Zhao stood up and parted his thick hair to look. Blood had congealed in clumps at the roots of his hair—a shocking sight.

Qiao Zhao felt a wave of belated fear.

An injury to the back of the head—if the force had been any greater, the consequences would have been unthinkable.

With this thought, she no longer felt any emotional turmoil about personally shooting the town magistrate.

She unconsciously lightened her movements, her fingers brushing through the man’s raven-black hair as she asked: “Are you dizzy at all?”

Shao Mingyuan raised his two hands wrapped like dumplings and smiled bitterly: “I was somewhat dizzy then, otherwise I wouldn’t have injured my hands.”

“What about now?”

“Now…” The young general thought seriously and said, “I feel dizzy from time to time. Mm, just now I was quite dizzy and didn’t even know what I was doing.”

Qiao Zhao was amused by his anger and rolled her eyes at him: “If you keep talking nonsense, I won’t care anymore and will have Chen Guang fetch a doctor for you.”

Shao Mingyuan smiled slightly: “Chen Guang lost a thousand taels of silver—he probably needs to see a doctor himself.”

Thinking that head injuries couldn’t be delayed, Qiao Zhao was too lazy to argue with this thick-skinned person and said with a stern face: “I’ll treat your head wound first.”

Two quarters of an hour later, everyone walked out of the tavern.

The townspeople hadn’t dispersed and watched silently as the group emerged from the tavern.

Yang Houcheng frowned and said in a low voice: “The people in this town all seem to have something wrong with their heads.”

Chi Can snorted coldly and said to Shao Mingyuan: “We shouldn’t rest in this place anymore—it’s just asking for trouble. Let’s set sail early and get our business done properly.”

Shao Mingyuan nodded slightly.

After this incident, staying in this small town indeed held no appeal.

As the group walked forward, unexpectedly, those people followed step by step.

“Why are you following us?” Yang Houcheng asked, unable to bear it anymore.

The townspeople all looked terrified, clearly very afraid of Qiao Zhao and the others, yet they surrounded them.

An elderly man said tremblingly, “You can’t leave! You killed these Japanese pirates—what if Japanese pirates come for revenge?”