Chapter 28 This is heartbreaking.

When Shen You woke up again, she was in a very unfamiliar little wooden house.

She sat up abruptly and looked around.

The cabin was simply furnished, with only the bed beneath her, a fireplace in the middle, and two small wooden stools on either side.

There was no one else but her.

Chu Xiao was nowhere to be seen.

Her heart skipped a beat, and she quickly got out of bed. Just as she was about to leave, the door opened from the outside.

Their eyes met, and she exclaimed in surprise, "Dr. Lin..."

Lin Gu stroked his gray beard and looked at her with a smile, "Looking for the Duke, right? He's in the next room."

Shen You didn't have time to ask any more questions. She put on her shoes, lifted her skirt, and ran over.

The layout of the wooden house next door was exactly the same as this one. On the wooden bed against the wall, a pale-faced man was lying.

His eyes were closed; he was still fast asleep.

A young apprentice was cleaning the wound on his leg.

The fabric at the wound site had been torn open, revealing a bloody mess.

The hanging stove in the middle of the room was emitting heat, and the whole room was filled with a strong smell of medicine.

"Dr. Lin..."

Shen You spoke in a trembling voice, wanting to ask about Chu Xiao's leg injury, but fearing a bad outcome.

Lin Gu appeared relaxed and said, "You're already feeling sorry for me?"

"The wounds on his back are even more frightening to look at."

"What?"

Shen You turned around abruptly to look at him, her eyes filled with anxiety.

"Cough cough..." Lin Gu then realized that he seemed to have exaggerated a bit. He coughed a few times and said, "They are just superficial injuries. They look scary, but they will be fine after a few days of rest."

"Will his leg...heal back to normal?

"Of course," Lin Gu said confidently, "but..."

"It takes a hundred days to recover from a broken bone. Even though the Duke is in better physical condition than the average person, he will still have to suffer for the next two months."

Hearing Lin Gu say that she could recover completely, Shen You breathed a sigh of relief. But when she heard that Chu Xiao would have to suffer from his leg injury, she unconsciously frowned.

Seeing her like this, Lin Gu walked to the wooden table in the middle, ladled out a bowl of porridge and handed it to her, saying, "Miss Shen must not have eaten for a long time. My place is simple, so please have some porridge to fill your stomach first."

Shen You thanked him and raised his hand to take the porcelain bowl, only to find that both of his hands were wrapped in gauze.

Lin Gu said seriously, "Although the injury on your hand is just a superficial wound, you must not take it lightly."

She walked through the forest for a long time, clinging to the vines, and both palms were cut. When Lin Gu treated her wounds, blood and flesh were mixed with vine fragments, and it took him a long time to clean them up.

Shen You stood up and bowed respectfully to Lin Gu, saying, "Thank you, Doctor Lin, for saving my life."

She lowered her eyes, her eyelashes casting a small shadow that made her delicate face appear even paler.

Bloodshot was no better off than Chu Xiao, who was lying unconscious in bed.

Lin Gu waved his hand, not caring much, "This is what a doctor should do, Miss Shen, there's no need for that."

"Have some porridge first."

Shen You sat at the wooden table, picked up the porcelain bowl, and sipped the porridge.

But she was worried about Chu Xiao's injury, and her gaze kept falling on the wooden bed.

After finishing her small bowl of porridge, she remembered something else.

"Dr. Lin, where is this place...?"

These two wooden houses look simple and don't seem to be inhabited regularly.

Lin Gu said, “I often go out of the city to gather herbs in the valleys, and I stay there for several days at a time. This is where I rest when I gather herbs.”

It was also because Shen You and Chu Xiao were lucky to encounter him and the medicine boy. Otherwise, with the deep forests and dense canopies at the foot of Yuhua Mountain, it would have been almost impossible for her, a weak woman with injuries, to get out.

At this point, Lin Gu asked, "How did Miss Shen and the Duke of Zhenguo end up falling into this valley?"

Shen You briefly recounted what had happened yesterday, then looked up at the young apprentice beside him and said gently, "Would you please trouble Doctor Lin's apprentice to make a trip to the imperial palace?"

After saying that, she took out the Chengde Marquis's token from her person and placed it on the table.

Lin Gu understood what she meant and nodded, "Of course."

Shen You was injured and unfamiliar with the paths in the valley and forest, while Chu Xiao was unconscious. Naturally, the task of reporting the news to the palace fell to the young apprentice.

Lin Gu beckoned the medicine boy over, gave him some instructions, and then handed him the token.

Shen You said, "The soldiers of the Golden Guard will recognize this token at a glance. You can go without worry; they won't make things difficult for you."

“Yes,” the young apprentice, who looked to be about eleven or twelve years old, was quite steady in his actions while following Lin Gu. He accepted the token, responded, and turned to leave the wooden house.

Chu Xiao's leg wound had been treated. Lin Gu examined it carefully and said, "Fortunately, it was immobilized with a wooden branch after the injury, which will be beneficial for future recovery."

"His fever has subsided for now, but it may recur in the next few nights, so we need to be careful."

Shen You's gaze fell on Chu Xiao. "Doctor Lin, when will he wake up?"

"I estimate it will be within an hour. If he wakes up, you can feed him some water and congee," Lin Gu stood up. "I still have some medicinal herbs to dry, so I won't disturb Miss Shen and the Duke's recovery any longer."

After saying that, he walked straight outside.

Only Shen You and Chu Xiao remained in the room, and it fell silent instantly.

Shen You poured a cup of warm water and came to the bedside.

Chu Xiao had not eaten for almost a day and a night. His lips were chapped and he looked disheveled, which made his facial features appear even more sharp.

She dipped her chopsticks in water and gently moistened his lips, watching the water droplets slide into them before she felt relieved.

Using this method, Shen You fed him a small half-cup of warm water.

The young apprentice was meticulous; after changing Chu Xiao's dressing, he carefully covered him with a blanket.

After feeding him water, Shen You put the cup aside, hesitated for a long time, and finally gently lifted a corner of the quilt to check the injury on his leg.

The wound had been treated and bandaged, with gauze wrapped around it several times, and it had a strong medicinal smell.

Since Lin Gu didn't have any extra clothes, Chu Xiao was still wearing that dark, narrow-sleeved riding outfit, which was now tattered and didn't look very presentable.

But we can only change back at the palace.

Shen You glanced at it a few times, then covered herself with the blanket again.

Lin Gu said that the injury on his back was also quite serious, but she couldn't see it.

But whenever she calms down, she remembers the moment she fell off the cliff and how he completely protected her.

The dull thud of the man's back hitting the wall and tree branches still echoed in Shen You's ears, deepening her guilt.

She stood up, found a clean wooden basin, added hot water, wet a towel, and gently wiped away the bloodstains from his face and hands.

After finishing these tasks, she had some free time again, but she didn't want to leave the room, so she could only sit quietly by the bedside.

A series of images flashed through her mind in an instant: Chu Xiao holding her as she hung in mid-air on the cliff; him protecting her from being scratched by rocks and branches; and the scene of wisteria and ivy being thrown out when the carriage accident happened...

Shen You pursed her lips, and suddenly realized that the carriage accident was probably not an accident.

The carriage had been thoroughly inspected by the grooms in the manor before it departed from Lin'an City, and it was in good condition at that time.

After arriving at the palace, the carriage remained idle until yesterday when she wanted to go to the Osmanthus Grove, at which point she had wisteria and ivy harness the carriage to her.

How could it just go wrong like that, and so thoroughly at that?

The reins broke, and the right wheel also broke in two, causing the entire carriage to tilt and overturn.

Such methods were almost aimed at killing her.

Thinking of this, Shen You frowned slightly, and her eyes gradually calmed down.

She used to live a secluded life, and only recently, after regaining control of her businesses, has she started to go out more frequently.

If we're talking about making enemies, it seems like the only one is the recent incident with Chen Huarui.

But Chen Huarui, with his cowardly nature, would never do such a thing.

Who else could it be?

To resort to such methods, they were actually trying to kill her.

She lowered her eyelashes, unconsciously pursed her lips as she pondered the problem, and became engrossed in her thoughts.

The man lying on the wooden bed didn't even notice when he woke up.

Until Chu Xiao spoke up, "Shen You..."

A deep, husky voice pulled Shen You back to her senses. She suddenly looked up, her clear almond-shaped eyes shining with delight, "You're awake."

"Is anything bothering you? Does your wound hurt?"

Seeing that he was trying to sit up, she instinctively pressed down on his shoulder. "Your leg was just treated with medicine, so you can't move it yet."

This action exposed her hands to his view, the white gauze particularly eye-catching.

Chu Xiao grabbed her wrist and stared intently at her. "What happened to your hand?"

When Shen You dragged him through the woods on a trolley, he was fast asleep and presumably unaware of what was happening.

She tried to pull her hand back, but Chu Xiao gripped it tightly. She could only say vaguely, "It was an injury I sustained while cutting tree branches with a knife. It's nothing serious."

"Has any medicine been applied?"

“You’ve already been there,” he tried to move, but Shen You pressed him down again, “Don’t move.”

Chu Xiao said helplessly, "It's not good to keep pressing on the injury on my back."

He just wanted to sit up.

Shen You: ......

"Oh," she replied awkwardly, helping him shift his position on the bed and sitting up against the headboard.

"Where is this place?"

Shen You said, "We were rescued by Doctor Lin at the bottom of the cliff. This is the wooden hut where he rested while gathering herbs."

"Doctor Lin's apprentice has already taken the Marquis's token to the imperial palace. It shouldn't be long before His Majesty sends someone over."

Upon hearing this, Chu Xiao finally felt relieved.

He was still covered with a blanket, and his injured leg moved cautiously under the blanket.

There is still some pain, but it is clearly better than yesterday.

However, his subtle movements did not escape Shen You's notice, and she pressed the blanket down again, "Don't move."

“The medicine boy just applied medicine to you,” she said, her hand still resting lightly on his leg through the blanket. “Doctor Lin said that to fully recover, you must follow his medical advice and rest.”

She spoke with a very serious expression, and her demeanor was extremely earnest.

Chu Xiaozhen stopped moving, his dark eyes, which had regained their luster, staring at her, feeling the slight weight of her hand on his leg.

I found it very useful.

It seems... my leg injury doesn't hurt as much anymore.