Chapter 123: Feeding medicine, on the edge of losing control
This woman stood up so fiercely for Gu Qishao, whom she’d never met before?
Long Feiye’s face was full of displeasure, but he still propped up Han Yunxi with one hand. His other hand spread his cloak on the ground before laying her on it. As soon as Han Yunxi hit the ground, it was like lying on her bed. She closed her eyes and fell into a stupor!
“Hey!”
“Han Yunxi!”
Long Feiye pushed her several times without reaction. His handsome brows unconsciously knitted together, but he went ahead to stop her bleeding first. Though his expression was ugly, his movements were still very careful and gentle. Nobody knew that the callous, cold, and unfeeling Duke of Qin could be so tender when he treated your wounds. If Han Yunxi was still awake, she’d be acting the same way she did when he kneaded her foot, too nervous to even breathe. Unfortunately, she was already dead to the world.
The wound on her arm wasn’t shallow. Even her clothing had stuck to the cut and mixed itself up with the flesh. It was a ghastly sight, but nothing extraordinary to Long Feiye’s eyes. He carefully separated the clothing from the injury, darting occasional glances towards Han Yunxi as if worried she’d be in pain. Only when he saw her quiet face did he continue.
After applying medicine to stop the bleeding, he bound up the wound and finished everything before it grew dark. It was already winter, and the deep forests made everything colder. Long Feiye started a fire and hesitated for a while before eventually pulling Han Yunxi into his arms so she could sleep there. Though his cloak was spread on the earth, it’d still be cold lying on the ground. Han Yunxi, who had been huddled up before, gradually opened her eyes in his warm embrace. Long Feiye looked down at her from above, not a trace of warmth in his words.
“Awake?”
Han Yunxi gazed at him, then at their surroundings, feeling that her head was very heavy. A part of her skull throbbed with pain as she struggled to figure out what was going on. When she finally understood, she tried to struggle her way up, but Long Feiye pressed her back down.
“You’re already this weak, are you looking to die?”
Han Yunxi glanced at her arm before giving a light laugh. “Don’t want to.”
“If you don’t want to, then be good and lie back down,” Long Feiye wasn’t smiling as he looked aside into the darkness. But Han Yunxi suddenly spat up a mouthful of black blood before falling into a coughing fit.
“You’re poisoned!” Long Feiye was shocked. He’d never expected a poisons expert like Han Yunxi to get poisoned as well. But after he’d spat up black blood himself from poison, he knew this had to be her case.
Han Yunxi’s pale face turned even more ashen, her entire body as weak as a flimsy sheet of paper. If not for Long Feiye holding her in place, she might’ve been blown away by the next gust of wind. She was a poisons expert who could treat herself as soon as she was poisoned. But she left the “first priority” to him and forgot about herself.
“Medicine…bring me my medical pouch,” Han Yunxi said weakly.
Long Feiye immediately grabbed the medical pouch and dumped out all its contents. “Which one?”
Which one?
Looking at the bottles and jars scattered on the ground, Han Yunxi suddenly wanted to cry. There was no antidote in the medical pouch at all. She just wanted to take the chance to use it as a shield while she retrieved the actual antidote from her detoxification system. How was she supposed to do that now that he’d dumped everything out?
Bastard!
I really wished I hadn’t met you!
Han Yunxi was currently crying without tears, but Long Feiye yelled at her fiercely. “Which one is it?! Hurry up and say!”
There was a thread of anxiety hidden in his anger. Han Yunxi lay in his arms, dizzily looking at his staunch, cold face, and abruptly asked, “Long Feiye, you used me to bait the enemy. What if they stole me away?”
If he came to save her, she’d jump for joy.
If he came just to look for the big fish she lured in, she’d rather he never came at all. By that time she’d given up on him coming, anyways. The worst thing in the world was to give someone hope before taking it away!
Long Feiye didn’t think Han Yunxi would ask him this. He looked at her with a start, but was quick to recover with a mild tone. “That’s unlikely.”
“What’s unlikely?” Han Yunxi asked again, her half-opened eyes misting over pathetically.
Long Feiye looked and looked at her without showing any pity or tenderness. He couldn’t help but coldly demand, “Where’s the antidote?”
Suddenly frightened, Han Yunxi immediately grew alert, the haziness in her eyes all but disappearing. Dammit! What did she ask him just then?
“Where’s the antidote?” Long Feiye asked again in a deep voice, on the verge of losing his temper.
“Let me think it over…” Han Yunxi replied timidly, as if he was the one who was poisoned and needed antidote, instead of her. Her so-called thinking it over was just starting up the detox system in her mind. Han Yunxi thought and thought, concentrating all her energy. If this was any other day, it wouldn’t take much effort, but this was exhausting for her already worn-out body.
She couldn’t help but close her eyes, prompting Long Feiye to grow impatient again. “What is it?”
“I’m thinking…I’m still thinking…” Han Yunxi had no way to express her suffering.
Long Feiye knitted his brows tightly, afraid to disturb her any further. Han Yunxi thought for a long time before focusing enough to materialize a few bottle of pills into her palm, which she hid in her sleeve.
These were multiple bottles, not multiple pills. Heaven knows how much energy Han Yunxi expended to get them out. In any case, she narrowly avoided losing consciousness once she got the goods. Seeing her slowly open her eyes, the restless Long Feiye actually didn’t urge her along, but thoughtfully watched in silence. The sight of such a Long Feiye made Han Yunxi smile. Maybe she was so exhausted that her mind had started creating hallucinations. She actually saw this cold-blooded fellow wear a concerned and anxious expression in his eyes.
“Medicine…medicine’s hidden in my sleeve, each bottle…one pill,” she said tiredly.
Long Feiye hurried to search and really pulled out a few bottles. It was very normal to hide items in the sleeves, so he didn’t suspect anything out of the ordinary. He followed her directions and poured out one pill from each bottle for a total of six. Then he placed his hand by Han Yunxi’s lips, not noticing how soft his voice had gotten.
“Open your mouth.”
The dizzy Han Yunxi didn’t think twice before doing as she was told. But a hasty Long Feiye actually stuffed all six pills into her mouth. Han Yunxi wasn’t afraid of bitter pills, but she dreaded swallowing them. Her skills in taking pills were even weaker than a three-year-old child’s, so every time she took them, it was always one-by-one with full attention.
Not only was she clumsy with taking pills, right now she even lacked the energy to breathe properly. How could she swallow all six pills at once? They stuck in her throat, turning her face purple as she burst into a hacking fit and retched. Surprised, Long Feiye lay her on her side and quickly patted her back. Han Yunxi was so uncomfortable that tears sprung to her eyes. Each one of these six pills was the same size as a modern-day bottlecap!
She used all her strength to retch, her life on the line as she vomited. Finally, she spat up the six pills up before she could choke to death.
Uuff…
After releasing a breath, Han Yunxi’s tears started dripping down her face. Now she was really out of strength, like a balloon whose air had been sucked dry. She lay in Long Feiye’s arms, eyelids drooping and head hanging, her eyes blank.
It’s really uncomfortable!
Long Feiye, you bastard. Are you trying to save me or murder me? You’ve never fed pills to a sick person before?!
But while she was thinking these thoughts, Long Feiye’s unhappy voice sounded by her ear. “Why are you so stupid?”
The weary Han Yunxi wished she could kill this guy with her glare, but right now she was too weak to even stare at him. All she could do was lie there, drooping.
Long Feiye had never taken care of anyone, especially a female. How could he understand their delicate bodies? He lightly patted Han Yunxi’s back until she stopped throwing up, then poured out six new pills.
“Get up, swallow these one by one.”
But Han Yunxi didn’t move, too tired to even lift her head. Long Feiye raised her head up himself. “If you don’t eat the medicine and die from poison, don’t blame your lordship for not saving you.”
But Han Yunxi’s head actually slowly slid out of his hand. Only now did Long Feiye realized the seriousness of the situation. This woman was dangerously weak! A strange sensation of fear flashed through his heart. In his haste, he channeled a palm full of true qi into Han Yunxi’s back. But as soon as he did, she spat out three mouthfuls of black blood. Long Feiye realized his mistake immediately. This woman was already poisoned. If he gave her true qi, it’d speed up her blood circulation and quicken the spread of the poison! He was always calm and cool, and had never made hasty mistakes. What had happened to him this time?
Before he could channel true qi, he had to treat the poison in her body.
His face twitched before Long Feiye schooled himself and held a pill to Han Yunxi’s lips, intending to stuff it in. But very quickly he stopped, afraid that the woman would spit it back out if he used too much strength again. Without a choice, he could only leave the pills in his palm and move them to the edge of her mouth.
“You eat them yourself. Just go one by one.”
His palm full of true qi had sent the poison in Han Yunxi’s body spiraling uncontrollably, but awakened her senses at the same time. She looked at the pills in Long Feiye’s hands and lifted her head. At this, Long Feiye carefully moved in to help her up.
Antidote, her lifesaving antidote, ah.
Han Yunxi was actually even more anxious than Long Feiye. But she’d truly been frightened just then, too much to let Long Feiye feed her again. She propped herself up with difficulty and pressed against his hand, exhaling against his palm in a nameless sense of comfort. Then she stuck out her tongue and swept away a pill, accidentally licking Long Feiye’s palm in the process.
Long Feiye couldn’t help it when his heart shook, feeling a numbing sensation travel from his palm to the rest of his body. Han Yunxi forced a pill down before leaning over to grab another, her soft, sticky tongue licking Long Feiye’s palm again. Unconsciously, he braced himself in reaction to the contact, feeling a sudden loss of control.
By the time Han Yunxi took the third pill, Long Feiye’s self-control was on the verge of crumbling apart. This was pure torment. Still, there was a tiny part of him that was enthralled by the sensation.
This bothersome little vixen!
If this continued, all the self-possession he’d collected over the years would collapse. Finally, he couldn’t bear it anymore and withdrew his hand with a stern voice. “I’ll feed you.”
Han Yunxi looked at him with fear in her eyes.
“One by one, you can eat it up yourself,” Long Feiye endured his temper to speak. Before Han Yunxi could protest, he promptly stuffed a pill past her tightly-shut lips. Han Yunxi noted the veins popping out in his forehead and assumed that he was angry again. She didn’t dare refuse, but obediently ate her medicine.
One by one, she finished eating each of the six pills…