“General Shao, it’s me.” A woman’s voice came from outside the door.

This voice was so familiar that whenever Shao Mingyuan heard it, every corner of his heart filled with joy, but at this moment, he felt somewhat panicked: “Miss Li, please wait a moment!”

Qiao Zhao stood outside the door, silently biting her lip.

Shao Mingyuan’s voice sounded somewhat abnormal. What was he panicking about?

“General Shao, I’ve come to give you acupuncture.”

After a while, the door finally opened, revealing Chen Guang’s smiling face: “Third Miss has come, please come in quickly.”

Qiao Zhao walked in and smelled the aroma of food throughout the room.

She quickly swept her gaze around and saw the mess all over the floor.

“Cough cough, the General was too embarrassed to let me feed him and insisted on eating by himself. As a result, his hand wasn’t steady and he knocked over the porridge bowl.” Chen Guang explained with a dry laugh.

This explanation was reasonable and naturally didn’t arouse Qiao Zhao’s suspicion.

She walked around the ceramic shards on the floor to Shao Mingyuan’s side and chided: “Your hand is injured and can’t move. Why didn’t you let Chen Guang feed you?”

Surely he wasn’t still waiting for her to feed him?

For some reason, seeing his expressionless appearance, after this thought flashed through her mind, Miss Qiao’s face inexplicably grew warm. She didn’t know whether she should refuse or agree if he made such a request.

Shao Mingyuan smiled faintly: “I was a bit unaccustomed for a moment, but now I understand that these hands are temporarily unusable and I do need Chen Guang and Ye Luo’s help.”

“It’s good that General Shao thinks clearly. Using your hands less and healing the injuries on your hands properly is what matters.”

“Mm, thank you for Miss Li’s reminder. I understand.”

His tone kept people at a thousand li distance. Qiao Zhao paused, then smiled and asked: “How does General Shao feel today?”

“About the same as yesterday, occasionally a bit dizzy.”

“Then lie down properly. I’ll give you acupuncture first.”

Shao Mingyuan slowly lay down.

Qiao Zhao stared at his movements, inexplicably feeling something was off, but couldn’t figure out what exactly felt wrong for the moment, so she temporarily suppressed this feeling and took out silver needles to treat him.

With the injury to his head, he may be feeling dizzy, caused by severe shock to the head. There might even be blood stasis inside his skull.

Acupuncture, massage, and taking medicine all required opening the orifices to clear turbidity and promoting blood circulation to remove stasis.

Qiao Zhao felt that someone today was exceptionally quiet, so quiet that the atmosphere was filled with awkwardness, with only the sound of Chen Guang cleaning up the floor reaching her ears.

Chen Guang finished cleaning the floor, washed his hands, and then stood by the table.

Qiao Zhao glanced at Chen Guang.

It probably wasn’t her imagination – since yesterday, not only was Shao Mingyuan strange, even Chen Guang had become strange.

For example, now – in the past when she gave Shao Mingyuan acupuncture, Chen Guang would always hide far away, but he had never stood here motionless like today.

When things are abnormal, there must be something wrong.

Qiao Zhao looked Chen Guang over once more.

Chen Guang was so frightened by Qiao Zhao’s gaze that his heart jumped, and he could only ask with forced composure: “Third Miss, do you have any instructions?”

He hadn’t done anything – why did Miss Li keep looking at him?

“No.” Qiao Zhao shook her head.

“Chen Guang, you go out.” Shao Mingyuan suddenly spoke.

Chen Guang was stunned, then nodded: “Yes.”

He quickly glanced at Shao Mingyuan, turned, and walked toward the door, muttering to himself inwardly.

The General couldn’t see – without him nearby to remind him, wasn’t he afraid of being exposed?

Eh, being exposed would be good – it would be better if he were exposed. He must have had his head caught in a door just now to stay in the room instead of leaving.

Hearing the sound of the door closing, Shao Mingyuan sighed inwardly.

Zhaozhao was too clever – any abnormal behavior might arouse her suspicion. Wanting to hide things from her really wasn’t an easy matter.

Shao Mingyuan closed his eyes slightly and was very quiet.

Perhaps because he couldn’t see, his sense of smell seemed to become more acute, able to detect the faint body fragrance of the young woman that was masked by the agarwood prayer beads.

It was a scent that made his heart flutter.

However, all his thoughts crystallized into ice when they met reality. Shao Mingyuan’s heart didn’t dare have even the slightest ripple.

When the acupuncture ended, the young woman’s gentle voice sounded in his ears: “Sit up. I’ll help massage around your eyes.”

Shao Mingyuan’s body tensed for a moment, then he replied: “Alright.”

He sat quietly and waited for a moment, then heard the young woman say: “Sit in the chair – this way is inconvenient for me.”

She needed to go around behind him to properly massage around his eyes. If he sat on the bed without moving, did he expect her to climb onto the bed?

Hearing Qiao Zhao’s request, Shao Mingyuan hesitated.

When Chen Guang had been cleaning the floor earlier, he had heard the sound of a chair being moved. At this moment, that chair should not be in the place he was familiar with.

Shao Mingyuan quietly took a breath and recalled the sound of the chair being moved not long ago.

“General Shao?” Seeing no reaction from him, Qiao Zhao urged.

The young general raised his hand to his forehead: “Miss Li, I’m a bit dizzy. Could you help support me?”

In that instant, Qiao Zhao thought someone was reverting to old habits and couldn’t help looking at him deeply. But she saw his eyelids lowered, concealing the emotions in his eyes and making it impossible to discern his thoughts.

She didn’t answer but directly reached out to support his arm.

Shao Mingyuan’s arm stiffened, then relaxed as he lowered his eyes and smiled slightly: “Thank you, Miss Li.”

“No need.” Qiao Zhao’s voice was flat. She helped Shao Mingyuan sit in the chair, then went around behind him and placed her hands at his temples to begin a gentle massage.

“I’ll bring you the medicine after I finish brewing it in a while.”

“No need – just have Chen Guang come get it.”

Zhaozhao was so clever and understood medicine. He didn’t have confidence that he could disguise things well in front of her in just a few short days. Since that was the case, it was better to meet as little as possible.

“How would Chen Guang know when it’s finished brewing?” Qiao Zhao’s tone was somewhat cold.

They were both people in their twenties, not thirteen or fourteen-year-old boys and girls. If they had disagreements, they should discuss them clearly and jointly abide by their agreement. His way of avoiding her wasn’t too deliberate?

She hadn’t expected that the dignified Marquis Guanjun, the Northern Campaign General who had commanded thousands of troops, would be such a petty person.

“Then please trouble Binglu or A’Zhu to bring it to me.”

“Fine, I’ll have Binglu bring it to General Shao when the time comes.” Qiao Zhao was annoyed and spoke coldly, then said no more.

Shao Mingyuan’s heart ached as if pierced by needles.

If only his eyes could recover sooner, he would work twice as hard to make Zhaozhao change her mind.

If his eyes couldn’t get better… it didn’t matter if Zhaozhao hated him now.

“Miss Li, I asked Ye Luo – we can reach the place where Physician Li was gathering herbs tomorrow. There’s a small island there where people can land.”

“Was that the area where Grandfather Li had his accident?” Qiao Zhao’s hand movements paused.

“No, after Physician Li left the small island, he suddenly remembered wanting to gather a type of medicinal pearl, so he continued south and encountered the hurricane.”

Mentioning Physician Li made Qiao Zhao’s mood even more downcast. After leaving Shao Mingyuan’s room, she sat outside brewing medicine in a daze.

“Miss, look – there’s a ship over there, and it seems to be coming our way.”