The moment her ankle was exposed, it was clearly visible in the faint light.
The top of her foot was badly swollen, red, and burning hot. The skin was stretched taut and glossy. Just looking at it was enough to feel how much it must hurt.
Shen Linzhou stared at her swollen ankle, his heart tightening. “How about I carry you over the mountain? It’ll be faster that way.”
He was very familiar with these mountains. Back when he had returned to the Shen family, Shen’s father would punish him whenever he made a mistake by refusing to give him food. Afraid that his aunt would worry, he didn’t dare say anything and could only sneak into the mountains alone to find something to eat.
“It’s fine. I can manage on my own.”
Xiao Mandong immediately refused. She really didn’t dare let Shen Linzhou carry her again. The last time had already caused trouble. She and Shen Linzhou must have been born under clashing stars; whenever they were together, something always went wrong.
Xiao Mandong took a deep breath and bit down on her lip. Her fingers found the swollen ankle bone with precision. She pressed down hard with her thumb, pushed, and twisted.
A barely audible crack rang out with startling clarity in the darkness.
By then, a thin sheen of sweat had appeared on her forehead. Her face had gone pale from the pain, and it took her quite a while to recover.
Shen Linzhou stood completely frozen, his eyes filled with disbelief.
He had seen plenty of tough people, but never a young woman who could reset her own bone with such precision and ruthlessness.
After a while, Xiao Mandong gently moved her ankle, then carefully tested it against the ground. She could feel that the bone was back in place.
She looked up at Shen Linzhou, her tone calm.
“It’s fine now. I can still walk.”
Xiao Mandong braced herself against a rock and stood up, putting as much weight as possible on her uninjured foot.
The next moment, Shen Linzhou was already crouching in front of her. His back was broad and straight, and his voice carried an unmistakably firm command.
“Get on. I’ll carry you.”
“No need. I really can walk…” Xiao Mandong hurriedly refused.
“Hurry up. Stop fussing. You’re injured, and I’m here to help. If we’re talking about propriety between men and women, do doctors refuse to treat patients of the opposite sex? Don’t be so delicate. When you saved my life, weren’t we alone together in the same room?”
Even though Shen Linzhou wasn’t a doctor, he knew that a bone which had just been reset couldn’t bear weight.
Otherwise, it could cause lasting problems.
Xiao Mandong glanced at the pitch-black night and realized that she was being overly fussy. It wasn’t as though he had never carried her before. There was no one around, so what was there to worry about?
She stopped arguing and gently climbed onto Shen Linzhou’s back. His back was broad and solid, and for the first time, Xiao Mandong felt a sense of security unlike anything she had ever known. Perhaps it was because he had protected her several times now. It was a feeling she had never experienced in either of her two lives.
Shen Linzhou headed straight for the mountain path.
Xiao Mandong’s hurried heartbeat thudded against his back through their clothes. She shifted slightly to adjust her position.
“Don’t move around. If you fall, I’m not responsible.”
His voice was low, carrying a faint, almost imperceptible tension. The tips of his ears grew hot despite himself.
Xiao Mandong obediently settled against him and turned her face to one side, her heart in complete disarray.
The night was deep and still. There was nothing but his steady footsteps and the soft chirping of insects in the woods.
Shen Linzhou had trained for years while carrying heavy loads, so carrying Xiao Mandong up the mountain was not difficult for him.
His footsteps remained steady as he pressed onward. Thinking about the broken-down vehicle, the dead flashlight, and her twisted ankle, a strange trace of relief rose within him.
When he heard the person on his back begin to breathe evenly, the corners of Shen Linzhou’s lips lifted slightly. The fact that she could fall asleep on his back meant that she trusted him.
The mountain path was rugged and difficult to navigate. Shen Linzhou carried Xiao Mandong for more than an hour before finally stopping at the gate to her courtyard.
He paused and lowered his voice. “Doctor Xiao, wake up. We’re here.”
The person lying against his back stirred slightly. Her long eyelashes trembled before she slowly opened her eyes.
Xiao Mandong’s eyes widened as she suddenly came to her senses. Her cheeks warmed, and she quickly pushed against Shen Linzhou’s shoulders to climb down from his back.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I fell asleep. I can’t believe I made you carry me all this way without even letting you rest.”
She truly felt embarrassed. Even if he had to carry her all the way home, she should at least have let him take a break along the way.
“It’s fine. You’re very light. During our load-bearing training, we carried things much heavier than you.”
Xiao Mandong hurriedly opened the courtyard gate. “Deputy Commander Shen, come in and rest for a while. I’ll make you something to eat. You can leave after.”
Shen Linzhou had only recently recovered, and after carrying her such a long distance, she wanted to use water from the spiritual spring to prepare something for him and replenish his strength and vitality.
“No need. That military vehicle is still parked on the road, and I’m worried something might happen to it. I have to get back to the unit as soon as possible. You should rest early. If your foot still hurts tomorrow, go to the hospital and have it checked.”
Shen Linzhou didn’t want to enter a young woman’s home in the middle of the night. If someone happened to see him, it could damage her reputation.
With that, he turned to leave, but Xiao Mandong hurriedly stopped him.
“Wait.” She hopped back into the house on one foot. When she came out again, she was holding a flashlight. “Take this.”
Then she wheeled the bicycle from the courtyard over to Shen Linzhou. “Ride this back. It’ll save you some energy. You can return it whenever you have time.”
Next, taking advantage of the cloth bag concealing her movements, she retrieved two pills made with water from the spiritual spring and handed them to Shen Linzhou.
“Take one every three days. They’ll help your body. You only recently recovered from your injuries, and you’ve carried me such a long way. You have to take them.”
Shen Linzhou didn’t stand on ceremony. He knew that anything Xiao Mandong gave him was excellent medicine. To be honest, he was feeling somewhat unwell, so he accepted the pills and swallowed one immediately.
Before he could even say thank you, the pill caught in his throat. He hurriedly picked up his military canteen and gulped down several mouthfuls of water before finally washing it down.
Shen Linzhou awkwardly waved his hand, mounted the bicycle, and rode away as though fleeing.
Xiao Mandong stood where she was, unable to stop the corners of her lips from curving upward.
Once she returned to the house, she immediately entered her space and soaked her foot in water from the spiritual spring. She then took out some notoginseng powder and swallowed it with more spiritual-spring water.
After eating an apple from the space, she lay down on the large bed inside and thought about her plans for the next day. She didn’t know when she had fallen asleep. When she opened her eyes again and stepped out of the space, the sky was already bright.
After washing up, Xiao Mandong prepared to go to Zhou Qichuan’s house to bring Diandian home. It wasn’t right to keep leaving the dog at someone else’s house, even if she did provide the food. She still felt somewhat apologetic.
She had just reached the base of the wall when she heard Zhou Xiaomei’s voice.
“Granny, don’t you think this Xiao Mandong really doesn’t know how to manage a household? She actually uses such good grain to feed a dog. What a waste. And you still want to set her up with my second brother. I don’t think they’re suitable at all. She spends money like water. My brother could never afford to support her.”
“Granny, do you think she got divorced because she looked down on her in-laws for being poor?”
Granny Zhou paused. When she spoke again, her voice had turned stern, carrying a hint of reprimand.
“Stop gossiping about people behind their backs. The food her dog eats was brought by her. It isn’t yours, so why are you sticking your nose into it? What does her divorce have to do with you? Weren’t you divorced too?”
“And you say they’re not suitable? I’d say my second grandson would be the one marrying above his station. Do you really think she’d even be interested in him? Fifth Girl, I’m warning you: you’d better learn to control that mouth of yours, or you’ll suffer for it sooner or later.”
“If you’d shown this kind of spirit at your former in-laws’ place, they wouldn’t have bullied you so badly. Now hurry up and cook Diandian’s dog food. Stop thinking about slacking off all the time.”
