Pei Yu felt somewhat smug.
The corners of his eyes and brows lifted with involuntary delight, and with a faint smile, he said, "Of course it's Sister Liuyue, oh, and Bai Baozhu and Bai Baocheng."
Gu Qinghuai gave a slight nod. He even pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses with a calm expression, clearly unsurprised.
This actually made Pei Yu a bit confused.
He twitched the corners of his mouth, stared at Dr. Gu, and smiled. "Aren't you heartbroken?"
"Heartbroken over what?" Gu Qinghuai shook his head in confusion.
Pei Yu gave a soft snort, glanced at his ugly, re-bandaged wound, and pulled his hand back.
Tilting his head up, he said with immense pride, "Do you really think I'm an idiot? You haven't been coming to the Marshal's Mansion every day lately to change my dressings; you've been doing it just to catch a glimpse of Sister Liuyue."
Gu Qinghuai did not deny it.
Pei Yu smugly continued, "I know Grandpa Bai wants to marry Sister Liuyue off to my cousin, but it hasn't happened yet, so I still have a chance."
"As for you..."
He pointed at Gu Qinghuai and said, "You have even less of a chance. Seeing as we're acquaintances, I'll kindly advise you to give up right now."
"It's true that a man might fall for an outstanding woman in his lifetime. After all, Sister Liuyue is beautiful, kind, adorable, and sincere. It's perfectly normal for you to like her."
"But she is like the bright moon hanging high in the sky. You can only gaze at her from afar. You should be secretly rejoicing just to have had a brief intersection with her in this lifetime."
"You shouldn't harbor any further delusions!"
Upon hearing this, Gu Qinghuai couldn't help but curl the corners of his lips into a smile.
Pei Yu was baffled!
Puzzled, he asked, "What are you laughing at?"
Gu Qinghuai said in a mild tone, "I feel like Young Marshal Pei was just analyzing his own heart and introducing himself."
"Bullshit!"
Pei Yu couldn't help but curse, raising his voice.
"My cousin has already been married; he's a second-hand man. As for you, although you're a doctor, you don't have much of a future in the remote Northwest."
"But me, I'm handsome, I have a good temper, I'm a young marshal, and I've genuinely liked Sister Liuyue for so many years. In the end, she will definitely see my sincerity and live happily and joyfully with me."
Just thinking of this scene made Pei Yu involuntarily curl his lips up in sweet delight. His smile looked rather foolishly smitten.
Pfft.
Gu Qinghuai couldn't help but laugh out loud again.
"What are you laughing at?!" Pei Yu grew somewhat angry. He stood up, dropping the title of 'Dr. Gu' and addressing him directly by name. "Gu Qinghuai, I'm speaking from the bottom of my heart. If you don't appreciate it, then forget it."
"Mm, I can hear that these are Young Marshal Pei's true feelings. However, who can say for sure what the future holds?"
Gu Qinghuai pushed his gold-rimmed glasses, a mysterious smile playing on his lips.
Pei Yu shook his head helplessly.
"Forget it, forget it. Why am I even talking to a lowly doctor like you? Anyway, once Sister Liuyue returns to Jinzhong, you two won't have the chance to meet again."
"Just take what I said just now as me taking pity on you out of the goodness of my heart."
With that, Pei Yu pushed open the door and walked out of the room in the Marshal's Mansion that served as a medical clinic.
Beneath his lenses, Gu Qinghuai's eyes were dark, swirling with tumbling emotions.
...
"Dr. Gu, are you really going to give me this handwritten medical book?"
In the back garden, Bai Liuyue had unexpectedly run into Gu Qinghuai, who was carrying his medical box and preparing to leave.
Gu Qinghuai nodded and said:
"Yes, I just heard from Young Marshal Pei that Second Miss Bai is returning to Jinzhong. I don't know when we'll be able to meet again."
"Meeting you has truly been a joyous occasion. A kindred spirit is hard to find, so I want to gift this to you."
The Dr. Gu before her was dressed in a moon-white long gown, appearing very refined and scholarly. He looked less like a doctor and more like an academic.
It was hard to imagine that the great Northwest could produce such a gentle and jade-like man.
Bai Liuyue nodded, accepted the medical book, and thanked him:
"Thank you, I will accept this gift then. It's just that... I don't seem to have any gift to give in return to Dr. Gu."
This was originally just a polite remark.
But Gu Qinghuai's gaze fell on the fragrant sachet tied at her waist.
He took a light sniff, narrowed his eyes, and said slowly:
"Does this contain benzoin, agarwood, lavender, fleeceflower stem, albizia flower, cinnabar, and poria?"
A trace of shock revealed itself in Bai Liuyue's eyes.
This Dr. Gu truly had some skill, to have guessed the exact ingredients of the spices she put in without missing a single one.
"Did I guess correctly?" Gu Qinghuai held a faint smile on his lips.
"Yes! Dr. Gu, you are simply too amazing." Bai Liuyue's almond eyes tilted up slightly.
Gu Qinghuai's gaze met hers directly, without turning away.
The corners of his lips curled up slightly as he said:
"Then for Second Miss Bai's return gift, how about giving me this sachet?"
Actually, a man asking a woman for her sachet was a somewhat presumptuous gesture.
It was inappropriate.
However, he didn't ask for it right from the start. Instead, he first guessed the sachet's ingredients and very naturally used that as an opportunity to ask for it as a return gift.
Bai Liuyue blinked her eyes and asked softly:
"Does it have to be the sachet?"
Gu Qinghuai curled his lips slightly and said, "I haven't been sleeping very well lately. The purpose of this sachet is to soothe the nerves, so isn't it perfect?"
"Alright." Just as Bai Liuyue was about to untie the sachet from her waist and hand it over.
Pei Yu's loud voice rang out from the distance, accompanied by the sound of rapid footsteps running over.
"No, you can't! Sister Liuyue, you can't just casually give your sachet to another man."
He ran over panting and instantly stepped between the two of them, glaring fiercely at Gu Qinghuai.
Facing his aggressive and poor attitude, Gu Qinghuai appeared very calm. He even curled his lips into a light smile and said nonchalantly:
"Young Marshal Pei, aren't you interfering a bit too much?"
"I'm just afraid that Sister Liuyue will be deceived by someone with ulterior motives." Pei Yu furrowed his brows, pointed at his own haphazardly bandaged wound, and began to complain:
"Sister Liuyue, look at my wound. It hasn't healed for so long. This Gu Qinghuai is doing it on purpose!"
"He's incredibly wicked and full of schemes. You absolutely must not fall for it!"
"Don't be afraid, I'll protect you."
Look, who said Pei Yu was stupid?
He really wasn't stupid. He actually knew everything, he just kept quiet about it.
In any case, the medicine Gu Qinghuai gave him made him recover slowly, but it wasn't poisonous, so he would eventually heal.
Furthermore, with this injury, he could take the opportunity to show vulnerability to Sister Liuyue and conveniently talk to her more.
He really wasn't stupid!
He was a man of great wisdom acting like a fool.
Watching the two men at each other's throats, Bai Liuyue didn't feel a headache; she actually found it somewhat amusing.
She pointed at the sachet she had just untied.
And said to Pei Yu:
"Actually, I made another identical soothing sachet that I was planning to give to you."
"So, according to what Young Marshal Pei just said about not casually giving sachets to other men, then... I can't give it to you?"
