บท 68: For Heaven's Duty
บรรณาธิการ: DarkGem
On the wedding night, a quarter of an hour of a spring night is worth a thousand pieces of gold.
For Miss Jun, a quarter of an hour was truly very precious. She stood in front of Fang Chengyu.
Despite having the finest tailor make the wedding clothes, Fang Chengyu’s clothes looked too big for him.
This was because he was sitting in his wheelchair, unable to stand up.
From above, he seemed to be much smaller.
Miss Jun smiled.
"Sometimes I think of asking why are you so foolish, why don’t you believe what I say?" she said. "But then I think that it’s quite normal. People see things differently, think differently."
"Miss Jun is very bright," Fang Chengyu said with a smile. "She knows that some things are hard for people to believe, regardless of how they are said."
Miss Jun grasped the wheel chair.
"Enough now. Let’s not waste time," she said.
She pushed the wheelchair into the bathroom. The bath had already been filled with hot water, filling the chamber with steam. The surroundings were decorated with blossoming plum branches.
But this room was not filled with the smell of incense or flowers, but rather with a strange medicinal smell.
Fang Chengyu looked at the steaming bath to find that the water was, weirdly, black. His mouth twisted into a sneer and a trace of anger flashed across his eyes.
So what everyone had said was true? They were giving him a medicine so that he could…
A pair of hands loosened the top part of his clothes.
The phrase, ‘to be the meat on the chopping block’, probably referred to this situation.
Fang Chengyu smiled as he looked at the girl in front of him. Her hands were nimble, and quickly, she removed his outer robes.
"Wife is very skilled at taking off clothes," he said with a smile.
The name ‘wife’.
Miss Jun’s hand paused slightly.
When she was married, she thought that this was just a necessary measure. She didn’t think that he would be this nice to her. Very nice.
She couldn’t help but feel her heart jump.
After all, she was yet a young girl.
They were a young couple… naturally they would need to show affection… and have sweet pet names…
She hadn’t thought about these things, not at all.
Miss Jun grabbed onto Fang Chengyu’s inner clothing.
"Yes," she said. "So we must not waste time now."
Fang Chengyu smiled before being tugged hard by Miss Jun.
"Wife is really…"
He wasn’t able to say ‘impatient’, before he was tossed into the bath.
He was a man, but this girl had thrown him into the water.
Wife was truly crude.
As expected, Wife had great strength. No doubt she was able to face off against Jinxiu.
He wanted to make this joke; obviously it would make this girl angry.
But the smile on his lips suddenly warped. He was unable to stop a yell from coming out of his mouth.
Hurts!
It felt like a thousand needles were stabbing into his flesh.
He felt like he was thrown into a pot of burning oil.
He felt his skin crying out, like he was being boiled.
What was going on here? Was it because of the medicine?
Fang Chengyu shouted again, then saw Miss Jun standing by the bath.
His vision was fuzzy because of the pain, but he clearly discerned Miss Jun looking down on him with an indifferent expression.
He forcefully tamped down the shout in his throat.
His useless body had given him endless humiliation, but also an extremely strong will.
If a person had to endure the pain of stepping on knives every moment of every day since he could walk and still hadn’t committed suicide, then how could there be a hardship in the world he couldn’t endure?
Fang Chengyu had always thought this. When he saw Miss Jun standing by the bath, he felt faint.
Miss Jun watched the young man sink deeper into the bath. His drenched clothing was plastered to his body. He was trembling. Curvy protrusions noticeably stuck out from underneath his clothes.
They were his veins expanding, indicating how much pain he was undergoing.
The pain was not just because of the boiling water she had repeatedly reminded Old Lady Fang to prepare, but more because of the stimulation of the medicinal concoction.
"This decoction has a beautiful name, ‘Overwhelmed with Emotion’," Master had once said.
Miss Jun was standing in front of Master with a smile on her face.
"It really is overwhelmed with emotion. Makes people want their soul to fly away [1]."
Miss Jun’s faced suffused with a smile as she sighed and looked at the submerged Fang Chengyu.
"This time is much too short. His strength is still not enough," she said, pushing up her sleeves and hauling Fang Chengyu out of the bath.
Fang Chengyu was frail since youth, but after passing out, his body was really heavy. Additionally, Miss Jun was not older than Fang Chengyu, and she was a girl. So she had to half drag, half carry Fang Chengyu onto the wooden diwan.
Her clothes were also soaked through.
Miss Jun did not mind her own clothes, first taking off Fag Chengyu's soaked ones. When she saw the youth's body, she went blank.
Of course, this was not because of a young, naked body.
Firstly, Fang Chengyu was just a child. Secondly, she was now a doctor treating an illness. In her eyes, there were only patients, no men or women.
When this child wore clothes, you knew he was frail, but when you took them off, you knew what exactly it meant to be frail.
His skin stretched over the bones so that you could almost count each one. In many places, his skin was a mottled green-black.
Miss Jun fell silent for a time.
It was very unfair. He was just a child, and it was not right of her to get mad at him just now.
She had been angry because of what he had said. Those words had made her think of that person from before, but that anger was because of that person. It had nothing to do with Fang Chengyu.
But Fang Chengyu had received her anger just because he was in front of her. That was unfair and wrong of her.
Although she did her most to control it, she felt that her temper was becoming worse.
She was never someone who had a good temper.
When Master finally conceded and said she could study medicine with him, the first thing he did was to polish her personality.
"At least so you do not go around randomly whipping people," Master had said.
The corners of her mouth lifted.
Of course, she would not hit people as she pleased. It was naturally them who should be whipped.
"It isn't them who should be hit. Rather, the one doing the hitting is you," Master had said.
She had not understood this for a long time. And now, she understood.
The one hitting was her. Because of her status, those people were hit.
And right now? Miss Jun had tried her hand at randomly hitting people.
When she thought this, Miss Jun smiled bitterly.
Actually, she had no use for polishing her personality because her status never needed it. Master did not actually want to polish her personality; he just couldn't stand her status and randomly said this. He wanted her to quit by making it troublesome for her.
She was of the most revered bloodline, the royal family's, but it was an awkward bloodline. A bad personality would not make other people treat her poorly. But a good personality would not make other people treat her better, either.
But now, it was not the same. Right now, she was just an ordinary person. She was part of the normal community and needed knowledge on how to interact with others.
So the training Master had done that year to make her feel hardship was now most useful. This included the medical skills.
She had learned her medical skills so wholeheartedly to save her father. In the end, it was of no use to her father, but now, they had become her safeguard.
Miss Jun was a bit lost in thought until she heard Fang Chengyu's moans.
Although he was already dragged out of the bath, the medicinal liquid permeated in his skin still stung.
Miss Jun used a cloth to wipe him dry, then covered him with a thin blanket. From the cabinet, she took out a small box prepared earlier. Opening it revealed densely but neatly packed acupuncture needles of all lengths.
Miss Jun looked at the disoriented youth's face twisted in pain, then twirled a needle in her fingers.
"You wholeheartedly complain about the unfairness of Heaven. Now I will deliver upon you fairness on behalf of Heaven."
The night grew dark, illuminated by bright red lanterns in the courtyard. Occasionally, they would flicker with the sounds of moans, carried away by the chilly night wind of the 2nd month.
[1] The Chinese word for 'overwhelmed with emotion' translated literally means the soul leaving the flesh.
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