Liu Yun took the medicine, and Master Yuanhui also came to apply acupuncture.
While the needles were in, Liu Yun’s consciousness seemed unclear. She would intermittently let out mumbled, incoherent ravings, and the veins on her forehead and the back of her hands bulged.
She looked to be in great pain, but the pain seemed to stem more from her hazy state of mind.
Shen Yuezhuang also seemed to be in great pain. She knelt on the footrest beside the bed, restless and agitated.
Shen Yuezhuang’s pain came from the hand on the back of her neck—the same hand with bulging veins—which had a death grip on the collar of her dress.
The acupuncture lasted two full quarters of an hour. Shen Yuezhuang knelt for that entire time. She knelt so long it felt like she had done enough kneeling to collect New Year’s red envelopes. Finally, when the needles were removed from Liu Yun, she unceremoniously collapsed onto Liu Yun’s shoulder, letting out a long breath.
My aching lower back!
Shen Yuezhuang took a moment to recover, then turned her head to look at Liu Yun’s jade-like profile, so close.
A lamp had been lit in the room, close to the bed. It cast the shadows of Liu Yun’s long eyelashes and high nose bridge onto the right side of her face.
Liu Yun was beautiful. Her facial features were deeply sculpted, but the flesh was soft, giving her an intelligent but not sharp look, gentle but not weak.
When Liu Yun first came to the Shen residence, Shen Yuezhuang’s father said that Liu Yun looked seven parts like her father, especially in the shape of her face and features.
They both had deep-set eyes. With a pair of passionate “peach blossom” eyes, it made it look as if they were gazing tenderly at anyone they looked upon.
But her father also said that Lord Liu was an easygoing, honest man with not much cunning. As for Liu Yun… her father had hesitated for a long time before saying that Liu Yun’s nature most likely took after her mother.
Shen Yuezhuang had been too young to understand her father’s hesitation back then. She naively assumed that by “nature,” he meant that Liu Yun wasn’t easygoing, was full of schemes, and had a head full of twists and turns.
This assumption wasn’t exactly wrong. That was indeed a part of Liu Yun. And since she didn’t know what Liu Yun’s mother was like, she just thought of the words as meaningless filler and quickly forgot them.
It was only today, having the rare opportunity to study Liu Yun’s matured face, that she suddenly recalled that remark. But it was only for a moment. She put it out of her mind again, carefree as ever. She then extended her index finger and poked the skin of Liu Yun’s cheek.
It was still cool, but not as frighteningly cold as before.
Shen Yuezhuang blinked. Then she pressed her four fingers together and rubbed the back of her hand against Liu Yun’s neck.
It seems a bit warmer here than on her cheek. So Shen Yuezhuang’s hand moved lower…
And then, the grasp that had been holding Shen Yuezhuang’s collar finally let go.
That hand, trembling from being clenched too long, grabbed Shen Yuezhuang’s wrist. It was less a restraint and more like a support.
“What are you doing?”
The voice was weak. But she seemed to be trying to put some authority into it, deliberately slowing and deepening her tone. Her usually intimidating eyes were now veiled by a mist, adding a touch of elusive softness and ethereality.
Shen Yuezhuang was even less afraid. But she saw that behind the mist, there seemed to be something she couldn’t understand lurking. Curiously, she looked into those eyes, only to see a tiny reflection of herself.
A feeling of disappointment and boredom washed over Shen Yuezhuang, like chasing a prey that had vanished in a single dodge.
She withdrew her hand and remembered to answer Liu Yun. “Just seeing if you were still cold.”
Her words were ambiguous. But regardless of how they were taken, Liu Yun didn’t seem to mind. She looked at Shen Yuezhuang’s undisguised expression and found it amusing.
“Still warm. Sorry to disappoint you.”
Even Shen Yuezhuang, for all her obliviousness, caught Liu Yun’s meaning. She immediately raised her head, her lips pressed tightly together, but her chin was trembling uncontrollably. Her eyes reddened in the blink of an eye.
Liu Yun was startled by her appearance. Her heart gave a violent lurch. When she saw Shen Yuezhuang stand up, her expression grew even more panicked.
Especially when she saw that Shen Yuezhuang had been kneeling by the bed. Her feelings became even more complicated.
Shen Yuezhuang had undoubtedly been spoiled by both families. Ordinarily, she was never scolded or made to kneel. Even when she caused trouble, she was at most verbally reprimanded and grounded in her room.
Apart from entering the palace and the New Year, Shen Yuezhuang didn’t kneel more than a few times a year.
As far as Liu Yun could remember, the longest Shen Yuezhuang had ever knelt was in the winter of the forty-seventh year of Xuanwu, when her grandfather died.
That year, her father had just remarried. Right after Shen Qingjue’s one-month celebration, the Old Marquis Shen passed away.
Shen Yuezhuang, the most pampered child in the mansion, knelt for three days and three nights in the mourning hall during her grandfather’s funeral, without eating or drinking.
She finally fainted from kneeling and had to be carried away to rest.
It had been freezing cold. Her pale, swollen knees were huge.
Liu Yun’s throat felt locked. She tried to speak several times, but couldn’t get a word out. She could only watch as Shen Yuezhuang turned her back to her and curled up against the footrest, a pitiful sight that also stirred a secret joy in her heart.
She saw Shen Yuezhuang wipe her eyes forcefully with her sleeve. Then, enduring the pain in her own body, she slowly turned.
Liu Yun tried to place a hand on her shoulder, but Shen Yuezhuang shook it off without hesitation. So she moved her hand to the back of Shen Yuezhuang’s slender neck.
Shen Yuezhuang ducked her head, but only caused more of her neck to fall under the palm. Liu Yun smiled, a warm, heartfelt smile. Stroking the beautiful sinew with the pad of her thumb, she spoke in an even weaker voice.
“I’m feeling a bit unwell. Can you get me some medicine? It’s in the wooden box in the second drawer.”
Shen Yuezhuang’s back heaved violently. After a moment, she stood up, got the wooden box, and placed it beside Liu Yun’s bed.
She didn’t want to hear Liu Yun’s disgusting flattery. She deliberately avoided Liu Yun’s gaze the whole time. She had planned to leave as soon as she set it down, but Liu Yun gently hooked her finger around the edge of Shen Yuezhuang’s sleeve.
There was still a patch of moisture and a dark stain there. Liu Yun felt her fingertips, wet with something, grow even hotter. She tightened her fingers slightly, raised her chin, and said, “I don’t have the strength. Could you open it for me?”
Shen Yuezhuang glanced at her. “I’ll call Ruixue.”
Liu Yun’s eyes dropped. She coughed a couple of times. “I don’t let them serve me when I’m having an attack. I don’t want others to see me like this.”
Shen Yuezhuang gave a skeptical look out the window. Seeing that Ruixue was indeed not standing guard outside, she half-believingly sat down.
The wooden box wasn’t an ordinary one. It looked more like an oversized Luban Lock. It would take some effort for someone unfamiliar with it to open. Shen Yuezhuang had played with one when she was a child. Sitting down, she fiddled with the box as she asked, “If you don’t let anyone attend you, what do you do when you need to take your medicine?”
Liu Yun’s gaze rested on Shen Yuezhuang’s knees for a few seconds. Instead of answering, she asked, “How long were you kneeling by my bed?”
“Who knows?” Shen Yuezhuang was still grumpy because she couldn’t open the box. “What, should I have lit some incense and timed it?”
Liu Yun wasn’t annoyed. In fact, there were faint traces of a smile in her eyes, though her brow was still furrowed. “Why didn’t you sit down?”
Shen Yuezhuang was even more annoyed. She grabbed the crumpled collar of her dress—the one that had been gripped—and shoved it under Liu Yun’s nose. “You had a death grip on my clothes! I couldn’t even get up!”
Liu Yun suppressed the corners of her mouth as they threatened to rise. “Then why didn’t you leave when I told you to at the beginning?”
Click—the wooden box opened. Shen Yuezhuang’s eyebrows shot up. Her tone was light, and she gave a little snort. “You order me around? And I’m supposed to do it? I think not!”
She pushed the open box toward Liu Yun. “Here, it’s open. Which medicine do you need? Hurry up and pick.”
Liu Yun’s pale fingertips brushed over the array of bottles and jars in a leisurely, languid manner. Her tone carried a lazy carelessness.
“What if I asked you not to leave tonight?”
For the first time, Liu Yun’s heartbeat made its presence known with such clamor. She kept her head down and heard Shen Yuezhuang reply with a hint of smugness, “Oh? You want me to say I’ll leave right now? Well, I’m not going to!”
She pushed the box toward the head of the bed with a shove, then ducked and rolled onto the bed. “I’m not leaving tonight!”
