Xu Silin looked at Qingchen. The blush on Qingchen's face had faded, making him look a little pale, but he was still elegant and refined.

Shen Qingchen was baffled. It was an obvious teacher-student relationship, so what was there for him to ask? He probably had some unsubstantiated information and was trying to play a trick on him again.

She was getting angry, glaring at him. "What's the point of asking when you already know the answer? It hurts, let me go."

The cry of "Ouch!" made Xu Silin's heart skip a beat, and he seemed to freeze.

The two sides faced off in silence for a moment.

Helpless, Qingchen tried to pry his fingers off her, but unable to, she shook her tightly held arm and struggled to back away.

Seeing her anxious look, Xu Silin realized that he might have been a little too strong, and he softened and let go of her hand.

Qingchen had been trying his best to back away, but unexpectedly he suddenly let go. Due to the momentum of his backward movement, he couldn't stop and ended up next to the wooden ladder behind him, where he suddenly stepped into thin air!

Xu Silin was taken aback by this situation. After regaining his senses, he immediately took a big step to pull her up.

Unfortunately, Qingchen fell too quickly, and in his panic, he only managed to reach her front... The moment he touched her, he was stunned and deeply shocked by the sensation under his fingertips. He had actually touched something soft!

What's this……

Xu Silin was momentarily distracted and failed to hold onto Qingchen's collar; she tumbled down the stairs. The wooden stairs creaked several times.

As the sun set, the dust scattered in alarm.

Shen Qingchen rolled a few times and fell at the corner of the stairs, immediately losing consciousness.

Those drinking inside rushed out upon hearing the noise, only to find the corridor deserted. Reaching the steps, they saw Shen Qingchen lying unconscious on the ground, his forehead and lips scraped and bleeding.

Xu Silin squatted down beside her, somewhat at a loss.

Gu Shaoheng immediately ran down the slope, arriving at Qingchen's side with a thud. He pushed aside Xu Silin's hand that was supporting her and hugged her tightly, saying anxiously, "What happened to you two? You were fine just now. You watched as such a big person rolled down the slope, why didn't you stop him?"

Chen An paused and looked at it, then asked, "Did you drink too much and lose your balance, and fall down?"

The others chimed in with their questions, and Luo Yuanhao finally snapped out of his daze and hurriedly went downstairs to hire a carriage.

Xu Silin slowly stood up, lowered his head to look at Qingchen, his handsome face solemn and regretful, "...It was my fault for not stopping him."

"I clearly saw you talking together just now, so close to each other, how could you not hold him back?" Gu Shaoheng gently wiped the blood from Qingchen's forehead with his sleeve, then looked up at him, his emotions running high. "You never liked him to begin with, and now that he's passed out and bleeding, I wonder if anything else has happened. Are you satisfied now?"

Hearing this blatant accusation, Lin Mo couldn't help but say, "What do you mean by that? Putting aside whether you like him or not, Brother Xu just said that he couldn't stop him, not that he deliberately stood by and did nothing. What good would it do us if he fell down..."

Seeing the atmosphere getting a bit tense, Zhang Yuan quickly stepped in to smooth things over: "Alright, alright, you guys stop arguing. Maybe Qingchen just drank too much and passed out. The steps are low, so he should be fine."

In truth, he had his own calculations. Among these people, he was the most senior, and Xu Silin was, after all, Xu Yan's son. If things escalated, he wouldn't be able to explain himself to Xu Yan.

Just then, Luo Yuanhao called out from below, "The carriage has arrived!" Gu Shaoheng immediately picked up Shen Qingchen and, with the help of the others, carried her downstairs.

Because the carriage was narrow and could not accommodate many people, in the end, Shao Heng helped Qing Chen into the carriage.

Xu Silin stood at the entrance of the tavern, watching the carriage drive away without saying a word.

The soft touch of that moment still lingered on his fingertips, real yet unreal, leaving him deeply troubled.

Pedestrians continued to come and go on the street, with wisps of dust rising in the air.

Once inside the carriage, Gu Shaoheng carefully tended to Shen Qingchen. Not knowing where else she was injured, he dared not touch her, only letting her lean against his chest, his arm loosely around her waist.

Sunlight filtered through the curtains, casting a thin beam of light on Qingchen's face. Her handsome features were somewhat pale, and the scarlet mark on her forehead stood out starkly. It was the first time Gu Shaoheng had seen her asleep, and he felt a pang of heartache mixed with a sense of awe.

After a while, Shen Qingchen finally woke up slowly.

She raised her hand to block the light coming in, feeling a slight pain in her forehead and lips, a burning sensation in her elbow (which she assumed was scraped), and a dull ache in her ankle.

"You're awake? Does your wound hurt? Is there anything else that's bothering you?" Gu Shaoheng was both happy and worried to see that she was awake.

Qingchen shook her head. "I'm fine."

Gu Shaoheng said he would take her to the clinic, but she was worried about her identity and refused to go. However, he persisted, and in the end, she could only beg him to take her to Cheng Yi's clinic, which he agreed to.

The carriage was moving very fast because Gu Shaoheng kept urging it on, and the carriage was shaking constantly.

Qingchen frowned with worry as she recalled the scene before she fell down the stairs. She vaguely remembered that Xu Silin tried to pull her up and touched her chest. Although she was wearing a brace, she didn't know if he noticed anything unusual.

She had always been at odds with him. What if he became suspicious? She had so many things she wanted to do and didn't want her identity to be exposed and her head to be chopped off.

...

Upon arriving at Cheng Yi's clinic, Gu Shaoheng helped Shen Qingchen into the room and urgently called out "Doctor" three times.

Cheng Yi, dressed in coarse blue clothes, came out from the inner room. Upon seeing Shen Qingchen's wound, he frowned and exclaimed, "Oh, you're disfigured?"

Gu Shaoheng was very displeased. "How can you talk like that? It's just a little cut on your forehead and a little blood."

Cheng Yi patted his sleeves. "Then why are you so nervous?"

Gu Shaoheng: "..."

Shen Qingchen dragged Cheng Yi into the inner room and gave her a few instructions. When the two came out, Cheng Yi only said that her injuries were not serious, thus managing to send away the skeptical Gu Shaoheng.

"Qingchen, you should rest well at home tomorrow. I'll ask for leave on your behalf." He didn't take a carriage when he left; after paying, he left the carriage for Shen Qingchen.

Cheng Yi then properly examined Qingchen's injuries. Her forehead, lips, both elbows, one knee, and one ankle were all injured. The external injuries were fine; applying some medicine wouldn't delay things. However, her ankle was twisted, making it difficult for her to walk, and she would feel pain whenever she exerted herself.

Cheng Yi was about to help her undress to check for any other injuries when Shen Qingchen immediately grabbed his wrist, looking at him earnestly with her eyes, "Cheng Yi, I'm not feeling well."

Although Cheng Yi was a trustworthy person, Qing Chen didn't want to cause him any more trouble, so she decided to keep the secret.

"Okay," he readily agreed. Knowing she was unwilling to talk about it, he didn't press her for details.

Qingchen was very grateful, thinking to himself that he would have to give him more money next time.

Cheng Yi washed his hands, picked up the stone mortar and began to pound the herbs. "Are you thinking of slipping money under my pillow again? Forget it, you'd be better off buying a couple more pounds of meat with that little bit of money. You're not exactly a meaty person anyway. If you really want to thank me, bring your teacher who has hemophobia. I'll cure him, and he'll definitely reward you more than you give me."

Shen Qingchen was rubbing her ankle when she heard this and gave a weak laugh.

She initially thought he was just saying it casually, but she didn't expect him to remember it. She knew perfectly well that Cheng Yi hadn't asked her to bring Song Yue along for any reward; he simply wanted to demonstrate his medical skills on this official and have Song Yue take care of her.

It wasn't until dusk, after Cheng Yi had treated all of Shen Qingchen's injuries, that she boarded the carriage to go home.

That night, in the residence of the Grand Secretary, Xu Silin sat at his desk, dressed in a light blue silk shirt, his lips pressed tightly together, with a book beside him that had not been turned for a long time.

The bright light from the golden lotus-shaped lamp shone on his thin shirt, beneath which lay his strong, slightly heaving chest.

He was somewhat dazed, seeing the lights as if he were seeing the sunset spilling across the tavern's corridor. The man's handsome face, which had been slightly flushed, slowly turned pale as her mocking words rose with an inexplicable surge of anger. Then she fell down and closed her eyes.

I don't know if she's awake yet.

Xu Silin squinted slightly, slowly extended his right palm, and examined it in front of the lamp.

The sensation on my fingertips that I felt that afternoon seemed to have faded, but the memory remained vivid. It was clearly a soft mass, unlike anything one would expect from a man.

But that person was a junior scholar like him, destined to become an official in the court. How could she be a woman? From the provincial examination to the metropolitan examination to the palace examination, the government had to verify their household registration before each examination. Once they entered the Hanlin Academy, they had to leave their personal household registration information in the Ministry of Rites. If she were really a woman, how could so many people not have noticed her after going through so many checkpoints?

This is unreasonable.

But upon closer reflection, he was indeed handsome, with a slightly high-pitched voice and a barely noticeable Adam's apple. Compared to himself, he lacked much of the masculine vigor. However, the Ming Dynasty had a vast territory and a huge population; it wasn't surprising that some men looked like women. Young men in this dynasty were generally fond of beauty, and androgynous behavior was quite prevalent. Compared to them, that man was actually quite normal.

But this afternoon he clearly...

Xu Silin frowned and slowly withdrew his hand.

After thinking for a moment, he raised his right hand again, glanced around to make sure no one was there, then placed his hand on his chest and squeezed it.

It's hard.

It felt different from the afternoon.

What does it feel like to touch a woman's private parts?

Although Xu Silin had frequented brothels, he had never actually tried it.

Just then, a maidservant came in with tea. She was wearing a light blue jacket and a moon-colored gauze skirt, and her figure was light and graceful.

She placed the tea on the table and called out, "Master." Xu Silin looked at her rather attractive face, his gaze unconsciously shifting downwards. "Qinghe, you...you come here."