Chapter 93 "As long as you don't leave, I won't control myself..."

When Leng Cuizhu woke up, it was snowing lightly outside the window, and sparse snowflakes drifted in and landed on the old ground.

She rubbed her aching head, stretched her arms on the bed to try to sit up, but no matter what she did, she couldn't muster any strength and slumped her head into the soft pillow.

"What's going on..." She lay on the bed, looking around the room in a daze, feeling completely unfamiliar.

She turned her head again and met the gaze of the man at the door.

"My lord, what's going on?"

The man looked away.

“You fainted on the day of your funeral. I was worried about you, so I had someone put you here to wait for you to wake up.”

“This…” she asked, “So, what time is it now?”

Yin Yuan said indifferently, "You were unconscious for half a month, while Leng Zhen was already buried."

"ah?"

Staring blankly, he tried to get out of bed, but he still couldn't muster the strength and fell to the ground wrapped in the blanket.

"Ugh!" Her whole body ached terribly, and she collapsed to the ground in despair, her face contorted.

The man slowly walked to her side.

She looked up at him and glared: "What's wrong with my body? Why can't I exert any strength?"

“It’s the effect of the medicine.” The man squatted down and picked her up. “You hadn’t woken up, and I was afraid something might happen, so I had the doctor give you some herbs from the upper realms, and then I gave you acupuncture…” He pointed to the top of her head.

She raised her hand and touched it, and sure enough, she felt a thin, long silver needle on the top of her head, which made her tremble.

"Oh...you can carry me back, I'll sleep a little longer."

The man put her back on the bed, picked up the blanket from the floor, dusted it off, and covered her with it.

She asked, "When will the effects of this medicine wear off?"

The man tucked her in: "The day after tomorrow."

"The day after tomorrow?" Her eyes widened. "Why does it take so long?"

"……tomorrow."

"What do you mean? Tomorrow's a long time, isn't there any way to make it go away faster?" She bit her lip. "Could you please get me some water? I need to drink some water so I can get rid of the medicine residue quickly. I'm busy going back to feed the chickens..."

“I’ll have them take care of your chickens, and they’ll also take care of the rest of the house. They’ll clean and tidy up for you every day,” the man said, turning his head. “Is that alright? You can just stay here and focus on getting better.”

She looked up at the ceiling: "Where am I?"

"..." The man lowered his eyes and remained silent.

"The Yin residence?"

"Hmm," he finally replied.

She felt that Yin Yuan was doing this for her own good, after all, she had been so frightened, and if she didn't take good care of herself, she might develop a chronic illness: "Alright, I'll stay here and rest. At this hour... shouldn't you be going to your shift? Or is it a day off?"

She asked him a question, and he answered, "Yes, I'm off today."

"So you don't have anything else to do?"

"No, no."

"Oh, I see..." She yawned and closed her eyes.

The fingertips, tucked under the covers, suddenly felt a chill.

Then the base of the fingers and the back of the hand.

She opened her eyes.

The man slipped his right hand under the covers and silently took her hand.

Noticing her gaze, he hurriedly looked away, his hand under the covers only retracted slightly before moving closer to hers again.

She stared at him: "I want to rest."

"Um."

"Can you leave? I don't want to be watched while I sleep, it's creepy."

"Um."

The man responded to every word, but did nothing, still holding her hand tightly and stroking the back of it.

She gritted her teeth, then suddenly remembered: "That's right, on the day of the funeral... I opened the coffin and took a look."

Why isn't Leng Zhen inside?

"To prevent people from peeping and insulting the corpse," Yin Yuan said calmly. "Therefore, I hid the real coffin elsewhere. The one in the mourning hall was just a smokescreen. When the funeral procession begins, I will switch it back with the real coffin."

"On the day of the burial, I opened the coffin and checked Leng Zhen's body. It was intact. If you are worried, I can call the master who witnessed it to ask him."

"No need." The man's words were flawless, leaving her with no room for error. "Yin Yuan, I believe you."

"As long as you have a clear conscience, that's all that matters."

The man closed his eyes: "...Mmm."

For the next few days, she stayed in the house and never went out. Her food was brought in from outside. She took the opportunity to look outside. There was a vast expanse of snow outside, without flowers, trees, palaces, pavilions, or bridges.

Her body was still the same as before, unable to exert any strength, and her condition was even worse than before.

I want to go out for a walk.

Yin Yuan looked up and put down his teacup: "You can't stand up right now, so it's not suitable for you to go out."

"Can't I sit in a four-wheeled vehicle and be pushed around?" she asked hastily, inhaling sharply and coughing repeatedly.

The man sat down on the edge of the bed, pulled her up, and patted her back and shoulders.

"It's cold outside; you caught a cold yesterday."

She insisted, "I'll just wear more clothes."

Yin Yuan: "...No."

"What right do you have to hold me captive?" she demanded, pushing the man away forcefully. "You've been interfering with me for so long, haven't you? What kind of poison did you give me? Without you... I would have recovered long ago, and I might not have been unconscious for so long!"

She spoke too quickly, inhaling a lot of cold air into her lungs. As soon as she closed her lips, her throat itched and she wanted to cough. But she was stubborn and kept her mouth tightly shut, refusing to cough. Recently, she has been holding it in until her face is flushed and her eyes are filled with tears.

Yin Yuan ignored her arguments, grabbed her wildly waving hands, and said coldly, "You can't go out."

She struggled and cried out, "Let me go!"

He simply repeated, "You cannot go out."

"I told you to let me go!" She suddenly broke free from the man's grasp and retreated to the foot of the bed. "Get out, don't come any closer, I don't want to see you!"

"Once I leave, you'll find a way to leave?"

“Okay, I’ll leave here,” he nodded wistfully, reaching for his belt to untie the leather sash and wrap it around his arm. “But you can’t leave… at least not today… and not tomorrow…” he muttered as he walked toward the foot of the bed.

As Leng Cuizhu saw the man approaching, she trembled and crawled back to the head of the bed, but he was too quick and agile. The man grabbed her ankle and pulled her back.

What's gotten into you now?

The man remained silent, grabbed her hands, and wrapped the belt around them several times, until the backs of her hands bled and turned blue, and her fingertips felt numb and painful.

She gritted her teeth: "Let go!"

The man glanced at her, then wrapped his arms around her hands even tighter.

Yin Yuan ignored her warnings, and she had no intention of arguing with him. Suddenly, she lowered her head and bit the back of the man's hand until it bled profusely. The man couldn't bear it and withdrew his hand.

She was left on the bed, panting heavily, with blood on her lips.

The man's hand was bitten too hard by her, and the skin was broken and blood kept oozing out. Soon it dripped down his wrist bone and soaked the bed sheets.

He tore off a piece of his sleeve and wrapped it around the back of his hand, saying in a deep voice, "As long as you don't leave, I won't control you, so neither of us will have to suffer."

What exactly happened to Yin Yuan? Leng Cuizhu lowered her eyelashes.

He must be hiding something from her, or rather, he's trying to scheme against her.

“Okay, I won’t leave,” she wiped the blood from her lips, “Then come here and untie my hands, I need to relieve myself.”

"……Um."

The man did as she said, walked to the bedside, lifted her off the bed, made her sit against the wall, and squatted down to untie the belt binding her hands.

She stared silently at the man before her, then suddenly kicked him hard in the chest, knocking him to the ground. She picked up her belt and crawled toward him with all her might. Taking advantage of the man's dazed state, she grabbed one of his hands and used the belt to tie it to the bed leg.

Once Yin Yuan regained consciousness, she had already tied him up. To prevent any mishaps, she also covered his eyes with a towel, so that he could neither see nor move.

The man was stunned.

“…Ling Niang?”

She lay on the ground, breathing heavily with satisfaction, ignoring his calls.

Unexpectedly, the man reached out his unbound hand and touched her heaving chest.

“…Sorry.” He withdrew his hand. “I’m a little…blind.”

Now it was his turn to beg her: "Could you please remove the blindfold?"

She took a moment to reply, "No."

The man lowered his head and after a long pause, he blurted out, "You can't get out by yourself."

Unable to tolerate such provocation, she retorted, "Then you can forget about leaving! Until I recover, I'll keep you tied up like this, making you stay here with me day and night! And don't bother with your official business anymore, you haven't accomplished anything after all these years!"

"Okay." He nodded and said, "Okay."

“…You can stay here.” She turned and climbed back into bed.

The man at the foot of the bed was still muttering to himself, "We'll stay together and not go anywhere."

When the servants entered the house to deliver the meal at dusk, they were so shocked by the sight inside that they almost dropped the food tray they were carrying.

"Master..."

The man sat on the floor, leaning against the bed leg, one hand tied up, the other resting quietly on his knee. Hearing voices, he craned his neck to look, but unfortunately his eyes were covered by a pink cloth and he couldn't see anything.

His hair was slightly disheveled, and his clothes were in disarray, but he still sat upright, maintaining the last vestiges of his dignity.

"The food is here?" Leng Cuizhu poked her head out from under the covers, her eyes finally lighting up. She waved her hand and said, "Bring it over here." She tapped the low table next to the bed, which was level with the bed.

The servant withdrew his gaze, trying hard to suppress his curiosity and refrain from peeping. He set out the food for her and asked, "Madam, would you like another set of chopsticks and a bowl?"

Leng Cuizhu was peeling shrimp when she heard this. She glanced at the bowl and chopsticks in front of her, then at the man on the ground: "No need."

"You can go now. Thank you for bringing me food."

After she finished eating, she lay down and spaced out for a while, as usual, and then covered herself with the blanket and went to sleep as soon as it got dark.

The cold wind howled through the windows at night, and she was so annoyed by the noise that she could do nothing but shrink into the covers and cover her ears.

It was almost midnight when the wind died down and the noise subsided. She peeked out as if she had escaped a disaster, her head covered in sweat. She wiped the sweat as she tried to sit up in bed. This time she was able to sit up, but she could only hold on for a short while before collapsing back onto the bed.

During a break, she noticed the needle marks on her arm in the moonlight and thought to herself that Yin Yuan must have given her some kind of poison, like a muscle relaxant, while she was unconscious, making her weak and powerless... What a wicked man.

Just as she was about to bring her hand closer to take a look, the sudden movement of her arm's skin startled her, and she quickly lowered her hand.

The hand trembled violently as if possessed, the veins on the arm bulged, and it gradually stiffened.

She raised her hand in astonishment and saw the writhing ghost on her arm crawling toward her wrist, rampaging beneath her skin.

"Well……"

She was very familiar with these symptoms; they must be a relapse of the Gu poison in her body.

Despite the excruciating pain, Leng Cuizhu rolled to the foot of the bed, reached out to the man leaning against the bed leg, and just happened to touch the sweat towel on his face, which she quickly tore off.

Yin Yuan closed his eyes for a moment, then looked up and stared at her, as if afraid she would run away.

She bit her lip and leaned closer to the bed leg: "Yin Yuan..."

The hand that was covering the man's cheek moved down, touched his throat, then stretched out to caress his chest and slipped into his collar.

The man lowered his gaze, staring intently at the hands that were fidgeting on his chest, his mind irritated: "...Are you feeling unwell?"

She forced a sound through her teeth in response: "The poison has taken effect."

He wasn't surprised, but he was a little worried: "Can you get down? I'm bleeding, dirty, and... my legs are stiff, I can't move."

She nodded in response. She had originally intended to get out of bed, but she was too uncomfortable to wait, so she simply rolled off the bed, rolled into his arms, and kissed him eagerly, her hands caressing his chest.

A cold tear suddenly fell onto her lips.

The moment she looked up at him, the man looked away at just the right moment.

“Aren’t you in a hurry?” he said. “No need for all that… just get in.”

He glanced at her sideways, hesitated, and then repeated, "Sit down..."