After the healer left, only Mei Man and Qiu Yingling remained in the medicine hut.
Mei Man thought he was about to leave as well, but instead he suddenly sighed. “Manman, how did you end up in such a sorry state? Anyone who’d mistreat you over a mere bone isn’t worth shedding a few tears for.”
With all the elders gone, there was no way Mei Man would continue mourning that Chai fellow. She wiped her eyes and said, “It’s just that my wounds hurt a little.”
Qiu Yingling asked, “What happened in the disciplinary room?”
Mei Man did not want to say much. “Just what I told the elder.”
“Not a word different?”
Mei Man nodded.
Qiu Yingling suddenly leaned toward her and pressed a finger against her neck. “Did Chai Qun do this too?”
Mei Man did not understand what he meant. “Do what?”
“There are marks around your neck.” As he spoke, the pad of his finger lightly rubbed over them.
“Oh. Probably,” Mei Man replied.
Remembering how Chai Qun had strangled her, a trace of viciousness welled up inside her. She wished she could drag his soul out and smash it to pieces.
Qiu Yingling’s warm fingers continued to caress the red marks on her neck, bringing with them a faint itch that made her swallow involuntarily.
He noticed the tiny reaction. His fingertip pressed against the front of her throat, rubbing up and down as though he meant to reach through her flesh and touch her windpipe.
“Manman, he wasn’t any good either. You’d only known him for a month. How did you become such close friends with him? He’s dead, and you still shed tears for him,” he said suddenly.
Mei Man’s lashes trembled. She looked up at him.
They exchanged only a single glance, but she knew he had seen through something.
Qiu Yingling did not press her further. He only said, “Manman, you really are willing to be cruel to yourself. If something like this happens again, you must make sure to protect yourself first.”
When he finished, he placed his hand around her neck. A pale layer of spiritual energy covered his palm, warm and gentle as it slowly erased the bluish-purple marks left by the strangling.
Just as he was wiping away the marks, the immortal servant sent to attend him arrived.
The servant was a puppet in human form. Its expression was stiff, and it was carrying a food box. After hurriedly greeting Mei Man, it opened the lid and arranged the dishes one by one on the wooden cabinet beside the bed.
Mei Man and Qiu Yingling were sitting very close together, and his hand was still resting against her neck, but she did not find anything amiss.
The three young masters and young miss of the Qiu family all seemed to have been smeared with glue. Ever since childhood, they had loved clinging to her. After all these years, she—and everyone else in the Qiu residence—had grown used to it.
Compared with that, Mei Man was more concerned about what the immortal servant had brought.
She stole a glance.
It was all delicacies she normally never got to eat. Some of them she could not even name. Even the most ordinary bowl of porridge had been simmered with fragrant spirit rice and flesh from a spirit beast.
The aroma kept drifting into her nose. She glanced over and saw that Qiu Yingling had withdrawn his hand and begun stirring the porridge with a spoon. She could not help pulling a long face.
Honestly, this was no way for an ordinary person to live.
She had merely made one trip to the medicine hut, and someone had already rushed over to deliver her a meal.
With that much need to show off, why not summon a few chefs to put on a performance, swinging giant woks right there on the spot?
Mei Man’s heart soured. She began missing the half a steamed bun she had thrown onto the ground.
If only she had stuffed it into her pocket back then. At least her mouth would not be crying along with her eyes right now.
The next moment, a spoonful of porridge was held to her lips.
Mei Man looked up at Qiu Yingling with an expression as if she had just seen a ghost.
When she did not eat, he asked, “Aren’t you hungry? The healer said you vomited quite a lot earlier.”
Mei Man’s expression grew even stranger. She wondered whether he thought she had caused trouble for the Qiu family and had secretly poisoned the porridge, intending to silence her.
But the bowl smelled far too good.
The clean sweetness of rice mingled with the rich fragrance of meat, tickling her stomach like a fuzzy brush.
In the end, Mei Man could not resist. She raised a hand to take the spoon.
But he had already brought it to her lips, so she simply opened her mouth and drank.
The fragrant warmth flowed from her mouth into her stomach.
Thinking that all the Qiu family’s rotten dispositions had been raised on meat and delicacies like these, Mei Man wanted to cry even more. Sour liquid bubbled up inside her and trickled all the way through her organs.
After eating a few hurried mouthfuls, Mei Man said, “Thank you, Young Master. I’m full.”
“Full?”
Mei Man nodded.
In truth, she was not full at all.
Not only was she still hungry, but the food had awakened her appetite. Her stomach felt even emptier, as though someone had scooped it clean.
But she did not dare eat any more.
It was not hardship that frightened people. What frightened them was tasting a little sweetness and then having to return to hardship afterward.
What if she grew accustomed to good food and could no longer stomach steamed buns? What would she do then?
Qiu Yingling glanced at the untouched dishes covering the table. Perhaps he thought something was wrong with the flavor. Using the spoon she had eaten from, he scooped up a spoonful of porridge and tasted it.
After confirming that there was nothing wrong with it, he suddenly realized something. His long, narrow eyes lifted at an angle, and he smiled.
“Manman.”
“What?” Mei Man asked.
“You really do have a heart that gold and silver can never fill,” he said with a sigh.
Before her expression could worsen, he scooped up another spoonful of porridge. “Eat. After you finish, I have something to ask you.”
She knew it. He would never send her food for no reason!
Mei Man thought of the task he had given her. Half of the spirit-nourishing restorative pill was still with her. She had not taken it straight to sell. Instead, she had first made some inquiries.
Several people wanted to buy it now, and their attitudes were urgent. So she had asked the shopkeeper to pass along word that she was in no hurry to sell and would give priority to the highest price.
In short, she intended to auction it off and earn a few more spirit stones.
There was no way she could let Qiu Yingling know about this. He hated it when people schemed against him, and even more so when they took something of his and sold it on.
Mei Man thought about this while absentmindedly staring at the spoon.
Her brain had not been knocked senseless. She remembered perfectly well that he had just used that very spoon to drink the porridge.
She wrinkled her brows in distaste. Afraid he would notice, she tried to sound as natural as possible. “Young Master, do you have another spoon? This one is too small. I want to eat faster.”
Qiu Yingling smiled sweetly. “If you find me so distasteful, then when the medicine arrives, I’ll drink it first and feed it to you mouth-to-mouth.”
“…”
What a disgusting man.
He asked, “Were you cursing me in your heart, Manman?”
“No.”
She had been insulting him.
Qiu Yingling asked, “Then what were you thinking about?”
Mei Man replied, “I was thinking of how to thank you.”
“Words of thanks must be spoken aloud. Otherwise, how would anyone know?”
“Thank you for keeping me alive, so I can eat such delicious food,” Mei Man said with heartfelt sincerity.
Qiu Yingling laughed.
“Manman…” he called, his voice carrying a hint of exasperation.
He pushed the spoon forward again. Mei Man drank the mouthful of porridge and swallowed it slowly.
Only after she had finished eating did Qiu Yingling bring up the real matter.
“The pill you were supposed to deliver—did Xie Xu accept it?”
Mei Man hesitated between telling the truth and lying, then decided to give him a half-truth.
“He didn’t. I threw it away.”
“Whether he accepted it or not makes no difference. If he didn’t want it, then throwing it away was fine.”
Mei Man was so sour she nearly ground her teeth to dust.
What a wretched man. He was always saying things that made people want to hate him.
Qiu Yingling continued, “There is another matter that is more important. As for going down the mountain for tea on the seventh of next month, what did he say?”
“He agreed. He said he would be there on time.”
“That’s good, then.” Qiu Yingling changed the subject. “I didn’t tell Heyang and Yanxue about Chai Qun, so they shouldn’t know that you were injured either. Rest and recover in peace these next few days. There’s no need for you to see them.”
Qiu Heyang and Qiu Yanxue were his younger brother and sister. The two of them looked very much alike. Though they were fraternal twins, even Mei Man occasionally mistook one for the other.
That Qiu fellow was simply far too indulgent toward his younger siblings. Those two little calamities—who in their right mind would want to provoke them?
Of course, Mei Man couldn’t say that aloud. She nodded and asked, “Does Young Master have anything else to instruct me on?”
Qiu Yingling smiled. “You’re injured like this. How could I possibly ask you to do anything else?”
Mei Man couldn’t be bothered to care whether he was merely being polite or genuinely concerned. As long as he didn’t give her any trouble, that was all she wanted.
“In that case—” Mei Man was just looking for an excuse to send him away when the door suddenly opened from outside.
She looked up and saw Xie Xu entering with two bundles of firewood in his hands.
Her eyelid twitched. She instinctively looked away, not wanting him to notice her.
But she was too late. The moment Xie Xu entered, he saw her.
Just before Mei Man shifted her gaze away, she caught sight of him stopping in the doorway and looking over in her direction.
Mei Man secretly hoped he would take the hint and not treat her words as if they had gone in one ear and out the other.
Though she tried her best to conceal it, the slightest reactions still fell under Qiu Yingling’s notice.
He caught the faint tremor of her lashes. His eyes shifted, glancing to the side.
That one glance brought him face-to-face with Xie Xu.
The next moment, Xie Xu entered without a word, stacked the firewood atop the pile in the corner, then went back outside. He returned with two more bundles and, from beginning to end, didn’t say a single thing.
Qiu Yingling withdrew his assessing gaze without a trace and smiled at her. “Manman.”
Xie Xu’s movements paused, but he did not raise his head to look over.
“If you’re supposed to be resting, why are you still wearing your hair up? Won’t it be uncomfortable against your head?” Qiu Yingling lightly patted the bed. “Come, move a little closer.”
Xie Xu raised his eyes and glanced at him.
Mei Man had no idea what had gotten into him, but she did as he said and shifted closer.
He then began undoing her hair.
“How did you end up looking so pitiful? There’s even blood in your hair. Did you injure your head when you fell?” As he spoke, he casually cast a Cleansing Spell. With one hand, he kneaded her scalp, as though he wanted to feel around for any wounds.
To be honest, it was rather soothing. He was practically massaging her thoughts loose. But Mei Man found the gesture extremely strange.
“No,” Mei Man said. “Senior Sister already treated it.”
Qiu Yingling did not remove his hand. He continued to massage her scalp as he asked, “And what did you use that porcelain vial for?”
The moment she thought of the vial, Mei Man felt a fresh pang of heartache. “It’s gone.”
“How did it disappear?”
“Chai Qun smashed it.”
“Ah, what a wicked man. At least he died having fulfilled his purpose.” His sigh was long and light, making it impossible to tell whether he truly regretted the loss or was merely being polite. “Don’t take it to heart. You can always choose another one someday.”
Mei Man answered absentmindedly, her ears held high as she remained alert to every movement from Xie Xu’s side.
Fortunately, he caused no trouble. He stayed silent the whole time, quietly stacking firewood on his own.
Even better, Qiu Yingling had finally stayed long enough. After calling in an immortal servant to clear away the table, he said he was leaving.
Mei Man was delighted. On the surface, however, she still had to put on a show of courtesy. She pushed aside the covers and said, “Young Master, I’ll see you out.”
Then, when she tried to put on the shoes lying on the floor, she let out a pained groan.
Qiu Yingling cast her a languid glance. “Just lie down. There’s no need to see me out.”
“Well, since you put it that way…”
Mei Man immediately shrank back under the covers, unwilling to keep up the act for even a moment longer.
For some inexplicable reason, Qiu Yingling let out a laugh and turned to leave.
As he stepped outside, he happened to collide with Xie Xu, who was coming in with another bundle of firewood.
One was inside and the other outside, with only the threshold between them.
The two stopped one after the other, yet neither showed any intention of yielding.
