An accident had occurred.
They planned to head back first.
It wasn't until Bai Liuyue asked, "Why is there a hole in your arm?" that Pei Yu finally remembered he had been shot during the gunfight. Just a moment ago, he had been laughing and joking as if nothing were wrong.
The moment he heard her words, he immediately began to wail melodramatically.
"It hurts so much! Am I going to die?"
Xie Chengxiao said in a cold tone, "If you were that easy to kill, you would have died a long time ago. You wouldn't be here howling today."
"Cousin, you're being way too cold-hearted."
Pei Yu put on an act, wearing a heartbroken expression, before turning his head to look at Bai Liuyue.
"Sister Liuyue, I..."
Bai Liuyue immediately interrupted, "Alright, we're taking you to the nearest clinic right now."
...
Gu Family Pharmacy.
Gu Qinghuai was looking down, grinding medicinal powder, when he heard a familiar female voice coming from not far away.
He looked up instantly.
Subconsciously, he adjusted the gold-rimmed glasses perched on the bridge of his nose.
Pei Yu was still clutching his arm, crying out theatrically.
Xie Chengxiao had a cold face, looking like he didn't want to deal with an idiot.
In contrast, Bai Liuyue looked up with her small face, comforting him very patiently, saying:
"It’s alright, it’s just a little blood. Once the bullet is taken out and some medicine is applied, you'll be fine."
Pei Yu nodded and asked, "Will it hurt?"
Bai Liuyue replied, "Dr. Gu’s technique is very good."
As she spoke, she waved to Gu Qinghuai, who was standing behind the medicine cabinet not far away.
"Long time no see, Dr. Gu."
Gu Qinghuai walked forward with a smile and replied, "It has been three days since we last met. Has Second Miss Bai been doing well lately?"
"I'm doing okay. Your family's pharmacy is really quite large," Bai Liuyue said with a smile.
Who is this guy?
Pei Yu blinked at Xie Chengxiao.
No one had told him that Dr. Gu was a young, handsome fellow; he had assumed it would be some white-haired old practitioner of traditional medicine.
Gu Qinghuai gave a smiling acknowledgment before addressing Xie Chengxiao, "Young Marshal Xie."
His gaze then landed on the man on the other side.
"This must be the patient."
Xie Chengxiao nodded and said:
"This is my cousin, Pei Yu. He took a bullet to the arm. The nearest hospitals are dozens of kilometers away, and he was afraid he’d bleed to death, so he insisted we bring him here first."
"Dr. Gu, can you extract a bullet here?"
Gu Qinghuai smiled and said:
"This is the Gu family’s largest pharmacy in the Northwest. Don't let the storefront fool you; there are several Western-style operating rooms in the back."
He turned to look at Pei Yu and said:
"Follow me."
Pei Yu was still pacing back and forth uneasily. He grabbed his cousin, Xie Chengxiao, and asked:
"Is this guy reliable?"
Xie Chengxiao replied, "He is the family doctor personally appointed by your uncle. What do you think?"
Fine.
If Great Marshal Xie said he was good, then he must be truly good.
Only then did Pei Yu follow Gu Qinghuai toward the operating room.
Bai Liuyue was about to follow when a hand moved to block her. She looked up and met a pair of deep eyes that were calm and rippleless.
Xie Chengxiao pursed his lips and said in a flat tone:
"The process of extracting a bullet is too bloody. It's better if you stay here."
Pei Yu was already halfway there, but when he noticed Sister Liuyue hadn't followed, he turned around and saw his cousin whispering something to her again.
He felt a bit anxious.
Gu Qinghuai also looked over and then asked with a smile, "Is Young Marshal Pei still having the bullet removed or not?"
"You recognize me?" Pei Yu was surprised.
"Young Marshal Xie already introduced you as his cousin. Naturally, that makes you the Young Marshal Pei of the Pei family from Jinzhong."
"You've got a sharp eye." After saying that, Pei Yu pointed a finger at Xie Chengxiao in the distance and said:
"That cousin of mine is very wicked. Who knows what kind of bad things he's secretly saying about me to Sister Liuyue behind my back?"
"Sister Liuyue? Is Young Marshal Pei very close with the Second Miss of the Bai family?" Gu Qinghuai asked, seemingly casually.
"Of course! We're childhood sweethearts, we've known each other since we were kids!"
Pei Yu raised his head with great confidence.
If meeting once as children counted as being childhood sweethearts, then he supposed they barely qualified.
Gu Qinghuai smiled as warmly as a spring breeze and said:
"Since Young Marshal Pei is so close with Sister Liuyue, and she and I are good friends, I'll make sure to be a bit gentler with my movements later."
"Alright, I'll trust you then."
The naive Pei Yu entered the operating room.
Shortly after, a scream like a slaughtered duck erupted from inside. Pei Yu was howling in pain.
He knew young doctors had poor technique!
This Gu Qinghuai had spoken with such confidence, but his skills were actually terrible. Why did the tweezers hurt so much when he pulled?
Fortunately, the blood-stained bullet was finally removed.
After cleaning the wound, Gu Qinghuai wrapped several layers of bandages around it and finished with a tight dead knot.
It looked a bit ugly?
Pei Yu then reconsidered: We’re all men, it doesn't matter if it's ugly. Maybe this Dr. Gu is just bad at bandaging, too.
"Alright, all finished," Gu Qinghuai said with a gentle smile.
"Thank you, Dr. Gu."
Having finished the ordeal that felt akin to torture, Pei Yu finally pushed open the door to breathe the fresh air outside.
He looked out and saw his cousin sitting on a long bench, with Sister Liuyue sitting nearby.
The two were facing each other, and from a distance, the scene looked quite intimate. He couldn't tell what was happening.
His heart tightened, and he dashed out with his long legs.
...
Rewinding to ten minutes ago, after watching Pei Yu obediently follow Gu Qinghuai into the operating room, Bai Liuyue finally withdrew her peering gaze.
Her face showed a bit more relief.
Xie Chengxiao still wore a cold expression. Suddenly, he spoke up, "You care about Pei Yu a lot?"
"Yes." Bai Liuyue nodded her head.
Xie Chengxiao’s lips pressed into a thin line, his face practically screaming his unhappiness.
Bai Liuyue added, "He was shot because he was caught up in my trouble. If something really went wrong with his arm, I would feel so guilty."
Xie Chengxiao pursed his lips.
He asked softly, "What about me?"
"Chengxiao is powerful! You didn't get hurt, so you don't need me to worry," Bai Liuyue blurted out the honest truth.
Great.
Xie Chengxiao became even more upset. He found a spot at the very corner of the long bench and sat down, turning his head the other way.
Bai Liuyue didn't notice at all and followed him to sit on the bench.
However, she sat a significant distance away.
From the moment she walked over, Xie Chengxiao had been constantly glancing at her out of the corner of his eye. When he saw her sit down, he had expected her to sit right next to him.
But no.
The gap between the two of them was wide enough for two more Pei Yus to sit in.
Xie Chengxiao didn't know why, but his mood instantly plummeted to freezing point.
In that moment, he thought to himself: Why wasn't that bullet fired into my arm instead?
If it had been, Bai Liuyue would be worrying about him just as much as she was worrying about Pei Yu.
But then again, he was powerful, he wasn't hurt, and he didn't need anyone's concern.
Xie Chengxiao looked down, his muscles tense, projecting a defensive posture.
Just then, Bai Liuyue patted the empty space between them, turned her porcelain-white face toward him, and asked curiously:
"Chengxiao, is someone else coming?"
"No," Xie Chengxiao replied, looking up with eyes full of undisguised displeasure.
"Then how about we both move toward the middle?"
As she spoke, Bai Liuyue took the initiative to scoot one seat to the right, closing the distance between them. She then patted the empty space that remained between them.
Her clear eyes remained fixed on him.
She seemed to be saying, 'Now it's your turn to make a move.'
