The next morning, however, Seventh Miss was unable to get up to pay her respects.

The couple had only gone to sleep at dawn. After all, Xu Fengjia had a strong constitution—sleeping less than an hour, he bounced up at the appointed time and returned full of energy after practicing a set of martial arts. Seventh Miss was still sound asleep. Only after Xu Fengjia had returned from paying respects did she reluctantly open her eyes, but her whole body was already aching and weak. When Lixia touched her forehead, she jumped up in fright. “Miss, you have a fever!”

Since Seventh Miss married in, she rarely called her wrong, so this lapse showed how abnormal the situation was. Seventh Miss herself was somewhat surprised. She checked her forehead temperature and found it was indeed warm. Her throat was also swollen and painful. When she tried to speak, several coughs came first before she said hoarsely, “Go ask Doctor Zhong to come examine me!”

Lixia had already gotten up to call someone. Before long, Xu Fengjia came in from outside, sitting concernedly beside Seventh Miss. He touched her forehead and sighed. “I was careless. Your body is also weak—one night of poor sleep and you’re sick like this. If this were on the battlefield…”

He laughed self-deprecatingly again. “I keep forgetting you’re a young lady who can’t go to the battlefield.”

On the battlefield, military orders were like mountains. To avoid delaying military affairs, going several days and nights without sleep wasn’t unusual for soldiers. Seventh Miss forced a trace of a smile from the corners of her lips and still remembered to instruct Xu Fengjia. “I don’t know if it’s contagious… Don’t let the two children come in to pay respects today!”

Only after the first sentence left her mouth did she suddenly realize that in her confusion, she had used inappropriate wording, bringing out terminology from her past life. She quickly covered it by coughing several times more, then mocked herself. “Rare to have a fever—my brain’s gotten muddled!”

Xu Fengjia’s face darkened. He touched Seventh Miss’s forehead and began arranging things. “You lie down first and sweat it out! I’ll have someone heat the kang and move you there.”

He personally ordered Lixia, “Burning up like this, we can’t just wait for Doctor Zhong to arrive. Go get two jin of white liquor. In a bit, use the alcohol to wipe down Young Madam’s body, then move her to the kang to sweat.”

Lixia glanced at Seventh Miss, her lips moving. Seeing Seventh Miss in a daze with two deep red patches on her face, red enough to almost drip blood, her heart grew increasingly uneasy. For a moment, she actually forgot her fear of Xu Fengjia and blurted out, “Heir, our Miss has an especially, especially weak constitution. I’m afraid she may not withstand your remedy…”

Xu Fengjia’s movement paused. He glanced at Lixia. Seeing her shift her gaze away to look at Seventh Miss inquiringly, he also followed her to look at Seventh Miss.

Seventh Miss was dizzy and confused, only feeling like she was lying on a large bundle of cotton. Yet she felt cold all over, wishing she could cover herself with several more layers of clothing. Though she heard the conversation between Lixia and Xu Fengjia, her brain couldn’t process it for a moment. She stared blankly, then understood half a beat later: Lixia feared that after the poisoning, her constitution was too weak to withstand Xu Fengjia’s crude cooling method.

Her thinking was muddled, making it difficult to decide. She could only wave her hand and say softly, “Wait until Doctor Zhong comes to take my pulse.” Then she half-sat up. “I want water.”

Since Seventh Miss had spoken, neither Lixia nor Xu Fengjia argued further. Lixia brought half a cup of water mixed with flower essence. Xu Fengjia personally fed her half a cup, then helped Seventh Miss lie back down to rest while standing up and complaining in a low voice, “Quan Ziyin too—leaving for over half a year, nearly New Year’s and still no news!”

After drinking that half cup of hot water, Seventh Miss felt somewhat better. She closed her eyes to rest on the bed, listening to Xu Fengjia’s agitated footsteps pacing back and forth in the room. After a while, it quieted down. Unable to resist her curiosity, she slightly opened her eyes to look and saw him bent over, carefully examining her, the anxiety and worry on his face clearly visible.

Her heart immediately softened. She softly consoled Xu Fengjia. “It’s alright, I’m fine—back in Suzhou, it was often like this too.”

Xu Fengjia was shocked. “This is terrible! Constantly running fevers for no reason is not a good sign!”

When Lixia brought in a large cloak, she smoothly picked up Xu Fengjia’s comment. “Young Madam is most prone to fevers when she hasn’t slept well.”

She pouted, glaring at Xu Fengjia with dissatisfaction, as if saying, “With you looking after her, how did you still let Young Madam not rest properly?” She draped the large cloak over the screen by the bed. Behind her, Shangyuan and other maids filed in, adding heating bottles under Seventh Miss’s covers and pressing down a thick layer of velvet blankets. Xu Fengjia stood to the side with his hands spread, watching, then asked, “Since her constitution is poor, shouldn’t she also not do this kind of…”

Lixia gave Xu Fengjia a sidelong glance—suddenly, she no longer feared this fierce Heir.

“Whenever Young Madam had fevers in Suzhou, this is how we handled it.”

Xu Fengjia stepped back, scanning Lixia in surprise. Just as he was about to say something, Lixia turned and walked away. She looked at the self-ringing clock in the corner while urging Shangyuan, “Didn’t Zhongyuan go to steep the sterculia seeds? Why hasn’t the medicine been brought over yet?”

Having followed Seventh Miss for so many years, she naturally had her own expertise in serving her. She immediately arranged this and that. By the time Doctor Zhong entered the room, Seventh Miss had already changed into heavy clothing, was wrapped in several blankets, and had just drunk freshly brewed sterculia seed tea. With Xu Fengjia accompanying her at the bedside and Lixia and others surrounding below, she presented quite an imposing sight.

Even with Doctor Zhong’s experience, facing such a formation, he couldn’t help but pause slightly before nodding in greeting to Xu Fengjia. He sat down on the round stool and extended his hand to take Seventh Miss’s pulse.

The moment his fingers touched her pulse, his brows involuntarily furrowed slightly. He patiently read it carefully for a long while before opening his eyes to ask Seventh Miss.

“Young Madam, recently you’ve probably not only been mentally exhausted but also not sleeping very soundly, I’m afraid? When I came to take your routine pulse ten days ago, your pulse was still vigorous and you looked very spirited. How is it that today you look like you’ve overused your mental energy, even your pulse has weakened by three parts…”

He shook his head and sighed, then changed his tone to console Xu Fengjia—the young general had already darkened his face, brows tightly locked, his entire body emanating a low, oppressive aura. “After all, Young Madam is still young. This fever is actually good—not sleeping well causes excessive internal heat. Burning it out is better than holding it in and leaving root illness. Take a couple doses of medicine and she’ll be fine.”

He also lifted Seventh Miss’s eyelids and saw her eyes were full of bloodshot veins. He couldn’t help but shake his head and sigh before standing to request paper and brush to write a prescription.

Seventh Miss was dizzy and confused. Watching Xu Fengjia follow Doctor Zhong away, she could no longer hold on. Her head tilted and she fell asleep.

This illness lasted two or three days before her fever broke and she recovered. Naturally, household matters were all delayed.

Though Xu Fengjia wanted to stay by Seventh Miss’s side, he was a busy man. Not only did the Emperor summon him from time to time, but the ministry had entered its busy season with many matters requiring this Commander to decide. Not to mention Duke Pingguo still needed attending. Therefore, he could only accompany her mornings and evenings.

Since entering Beijing, Seventh Miss rarely had such high fevers. When her maternal family’s Ninth Brother learned of it, he came with Quan Ruiyun to visit her. Grand Madam also sent some fresh seasonal fruits, vegetables, and precious medicinal materials. Each branch sent people to express concern. She uniformly didn’t rise to receive them, lying in bed indulging in three full days of sleep. On the morning of the fourth day when she woke, she felt refreshed and clear-headed. Not only had the fever subsided, but it seemed she had slept the best sleep ever, rarely experiencing that refreshed feeling of having all four limbs and hundred bones filled with energy.

She lifted the bed curtains and looked at the self-ringing clock in the corner—Seventh Miss had woken early this time. Even Xu Fengjia hadn’t gotten up to practice martial arts yet, still sleeping soundly on the kang in the corner. Lixia had moved over a beauty couch and was half-sitting, half-leaning beside the bed, dozing. Hearing the sound of Seventh Miss getting out of bed, she immediately opened her eyes and stood up.

“Young Madam is awake!”

Seventh Miss nodded with a smile and waved her hand. “I seem to have broken the fever.”

Hearing her voice, Xu Fengjia also opened his eyes. He seemed not to have slept deeply and was immediately awake. “Why did you get out of bed?”

The two immediately surrounded Seventh Miss, adding clothes for her and touching her forehead to test her temperature. After bustling about for a while, Lixia brought hot water and personally attended Seventh Miss in bathing. When she emerged, Xu Fengjia had already washed up and was personally holding a bowl of medicine waiting outside. He fed it to Seventh Miss while it was still hot before saying, “Just recovering from a serious illness—sleeping one more day would be good!”

Seventh Miss paused slightly, immediately understanding. “No wonder I love sleeping so much… Doctor Zhong prescribed sleep-aiding medicine for me?”

Lixia glanced at Xu Fengjia but didn’t answer immediately. Instead, Xu Fengjia was very frank. “I asked Doctor Zhong to prescribe it—I didn’t ask, didn’t know, but once I asked I learned this is an old chronic problem of yours… Your thoughts are too heavy! Without pouring several bowls of medicine into you, once you improve slightly, you’ll start overthinking again. How can your illness get better like this?”

Seventh Miss immediately glared at Xu Fengjia. Just as she was about to speak, she remembered the scene of him bending over to look at her while she was in a daze, and her heart softened again.

“It’s not that I want to overthink—it’s that time can’t afford delays right now…” She entered the west side room and sat down at the table with Xu Fengjia. Shangyuan, Lixia, and others had already brought in several snacks. It was still early—the small kitchen’s breakfast wasn’t completely ready yet. “If I weren’t better, that would be one thing, but since I’m better, wasting another day—how worthless is that?”

Xu Fengjia snorted softly, saying in a low voice, “Compared to your life, what’s not worth it?” He ladled a bowl of thin congee for Seventh Miss and urged, “Eat one bowl of congee then go back to bed. Don’t eat too much—it’ll be hard to digest instead.”

Seventh Miss was utterly helpless, yet felt drowsiness indeed surging up, bringing some fatigue. After eating a bowl of congee, she was attended by Xu Fengjia and Lixia as they helped her back to bed to lie down properly, coaxing her to sleep.

When she woke again, it was already afternoon. Xu Fengjia had gone out on official business. Only Lixia and Shangyuan were in the room doing needlework. Seeing Seventh Miss wake, they both smiled and said, “You can tell you’re better—your face has color again.”

Seventh Miss pouted, rarely showing complaint. “The Heir doesn’t understand, and you didn’t try to dissuade him! It’s not like you don’t know I hate taking sleep-aiding medicine the most…”

The two maids exchanged smiles and both said, “The Heir is the master. As servants, how can our arms twist past our thighs?”

When Seventh Miss had things on her mind, she found it very difficult to sleep at night. She greatly feared that taking Chinese medicine with sleep-inducing effects would make her brain fuzzy and cause her to miss important clues. Therefore, though both Quan Zhongbai and Doctor Zhong had prescribed sleep aids, she rarely used them. Unexpectedly, this time Xu Fengjia drugged her for three days without explanation, leaving Seventh Miss without the energy to be angry. Even when the two maids clearly shirked responsibility, she only waved her hand weakly. “Forget it, forget it. You’re also in a difficult position.”

She leaned against the pillow, ate a few bites of snacks, drank a cup of hot tea, got out of bed to wash up, then fell into contemplation again. After a long while, she asked Lixia, “These past few days, has Grandmother sent anyone to ask about me?”

“Several courtyards in the residence send people daily to pay respects. Fifth Miss from Lütianyun Pavilion comes to see you every day. I heard that during daily greetings, the Grand Madam also asks about you every day. The Heir only says you caught a cold and will be fine after sleeping a few days.” Lixia busily attended Seventh Miss as she sat by the kang before reporting to her.

Seventh Miss nodded thoughtfully and asked again, “Who came to see me in person—just Fifth Sister?”

“Eldest Young Madam and Fourth Young Madam both came, but you were asleep, so they just sat outside briefly before leaving.” Lixia recalled for a moment and also felt something was off. “Fifth Young Madam hasn’t come.”

It seemed Fifth Young Madam very much hoped to arouse her suspicions, which was why she didn’t follow the crowd everywhere, wanting to make Seventh Miss notice something was wrong with her.

Perhaps because she had rested well, Seventh Miss’s thoughts were unprecedentedly clear. She turned her head to think some more, and a faint smile appeared at the corners of her mouth.

“Accountants Zhuang and Ji have already left the residence, right?” she asked Shangyuan.

The reception of these two accountants had always been Shangyuan’s responsibility.

“We didn’t dare let them leave the residence, fearing you might wake at any time and want to question them. These past two days, we’ve arranged for the two guests to stay in the side courtyard… However, the ladies haven’t stepped outside the courtyard gate even once.” Shangyuan quickly understood Seventh Miss’s meaning. “Though many people came and went, I dare guarantee not many know about the two ladies.”

These two people entered the residence under servant names and knew to keep a low profile, so their identities remaining secret until now was reasonable.

Seventh Miss nodded with satisfaction and smiled. “Good. Tonight arrange for someone to escort them out. Still settle them in the courtyard in the alley and treat the ladies well for a few days. When I need them, I’ll naturally let them know.”

She stretched lazily and asked Lixia, “How have Silang and Wulang been these past few days?”

A household mistress naturally had countless threads of matters to be concerned about. Lixia quickly went to the east wing to bring the two children for Seventh Miss to see. “The children heard you were ill and were very worried. Wulang kept wanting to come in to see you!”

The two children hadn’t entered the west side room for several days and were somewhat excited. Wulang looked around the room before rushing to Seventh Miss’s side, smiling. “Seventh Aunt! Heard you were sick!”

This child could now speak quite coherently.

Silang, however, walked to the table, circled it once, then tilted his head to ask Shangyuan, “Seventh Aunt not taking medicine?”

Shangyuan suppressed a laugh. “Seventh Aunt’s medicine is all gone.”

Silang breathed a sigh of relief. “Thought… Seventh Aunt, like little brother!”

The two children had occasionally caught colds a few times. Silang was fine—he took medicine readily. Wulang employed all sorts of tricks to avoid drinking medicine. When Silang said this, everyone laughed. Guyu laughed while saying, “Hearing you weren’t better for several days, Shou’ge was so worried, deeply afraid you wouldn’t like taking medicine like Wulang, which was why you couldn’t get better!”

Seventh Miss was rarely made this happy. She couldn’t stop laughing. “When children reach this age, they become increasingly adorable!” Saying this, she personally pulled the two children to her side, promising, “Seventh Aunt drinks medicine every day, so she got better quickly!”

The two children immediately showed relieved expressions—precisely because children couldn’t fake things, this concern appeared all the more sincere. Wulang nuzzled against Seventh Miss’s side, suddenly pouncing on her and giggling. “Seventh Aunt play with us!”

“Oh! So when you missed Seventh Aunt, you were missing Seventh Aunt playing with you!” Chunfen immediately teased, and the room erupted in laughter.

Seventh Miss truly set aside her concerns and played with the twins until dinner time.

Xu Fengjia returned late today. Seventh Miss had already finished dinner when he hurried into the room.

“How are you? No more fever?” As soon as he entered, Mr. Xu walked to Seventh Miss and tested her forehead with his ice-cold hand. “Mm, seems you’re completely better!”

Seventh Miss immediately frowned, taking down his hand and asking, “Why is it so cold? Didn’t you wear enough clothes?”

“It’s nothing.” He waved his hand dismissively. “I rode back from Tongzhou County. The business finished late—I haven’t eaten yet!”

Seventh Miss had no choice but to sit down again to accompany him for dinner. “If business runs late, it’s fine to come back slower. It’s not like you don’t have a token…”

Xu Fengjia just smiled and glanced at Seventh Miss sideways without answering. Instead, Seventh Miss understood herself—rushing back, of course, was to see her.

Her face flushed red all at once. She lowered her head and sat beside Xu Fengjia, propping her chin to watch him shovel down his food in large mouthfuls. Her heart actually ached slightly.

In her life, there had never been a moment like now when she was so cared for, so loved. Everything she once possessed seemed pale and powerless before these people who cared for her.

So over all these years, bit by bit, she had actually gained so much.

Seventh Miss extended her hand to pick off a grain of rice from Xu Fengjia’s face, gently scolding, “Don’t eat so fast. No one’s competing with you.”

She casually placed the rice grain on the table, then propped her face again, smiling gently at Mr. Xu.

“What a fool.”