Chapter 143 Treating a living horse as a dead horse

Xiao Pan'er shouted loudly and ran out of the private room.

The situation changed so quickly that Li Jin and Jin Shu didn't have time to react.

The entire brothel was thrown into turmoil by the sound.

Li Jin's face was ashen. He stuffed the sign on the table back into his pocket and said very seriously, "Let's go."

He didn't bother to explain, slammed the door shut, and propped it up with a small table.

Then he walked to the window, kicked it open, and peered out to check the height.

Two floors, not bad.

Hearing the commotion, Bai Yu, who was already prepared to provide support, nodded to Li Jin from below.

He turned around, looked at Jin Shu who was standing to the side with an incredulous expression, and reached out his hand: "Hold on tight to me, I'll put you down first."

Go down? This is the second floor!

Hearing the commotion outside growing louder, she nodded, grabbed Li Jin's hand tightly, stepped over the windowsill, and sat on the edge.

Although she knew that Li Jin was always steady in his work, it did not diminish her fear in the slightest.

"Your Highness, please take it easy! I'm afraid of heights!"

As she spoke, she tightened her grip, pinching Li Jin's wrist until it left red marks.

Glancing at his wrist, which was throbbing from being stuck, Li Jin raised one eyebrow and sized her up for a moment before letting out a soft chuckle.

He deliberately took advantage of Jin Shu's inattention and suddenly pushed her with his other hand.

Jin Shu let out an "Ah" and hovered in mid-air, her eyes tightly closed.

It wasn't until Bai Yu and Zhou Zheng arrived that they reached out and patted her on the back.

"Mr. Jin, let go."

Only then did Jin Shu dare to open her eyes slightly.

Li Jin was standing there, one hand on the windowsill, his feet on the wall, his body pressed very low.

His other hand gripped Jin Shu tightly, like a rope, lowering her down from the second-floor window.

Even now, the man's face was still beaming with a smile.

She looked down and saw that her feet were only a meter off the ground. She gave a slightly embarrassed laugh and let go of her hands.

At the same time, the sound of people rushing open the door could be heard inside.

In a split second, Bai Yu and Zhou Zheng caught Jin Shu, while Li Jinsong released his grip and jumped to the ground. The group quickly moved forward along the alley.

“Go back.” Li Jin pointed at Bai Yu. “There’s something wrong with Xiao Pan’er. Keep an eye on her.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Bai Yu darted onto the top of the wall and ran in the opposite direction with his body low to the ground.

This back-and-forth took about fifteen minutes.

"What exactly happened?" Zhou Zheng asked.

Standing on the bustling avenue, Jin Shu was panting heavily, unable to straighten her back, and waved her hand with great difficulty.

She just couldn't understand how these two people could run for so long without even breaking a sweat.

Seeing her appearance, Li Jin chuckled and walked straight into the teahouse next door, ordering a pot of cold tea.

“That Xiao Pan’er, upon seeing the Black Dragon badge of the Six Doors, suddenly shouted ‘robbery!’” He poured a cup of tea and pushed it towards Jin Shu. “I only mentioned Lin Zhongyi’s name.”

The streets of the capital were sweltering, and there were only a handful of people in the teahouses.

Jin Shu wiped the sweat from her forehead, drank the cold tea in her cup in one gulp, her face pale, and couldn't say a word for a long time, only nodding in agreement.

Li Jin stared thoughtfully at the cool tea in the teacup.

After a long pause, he added, seemingly unintentionally, "We almost had a report in court tomorrow about Prince Jing taking his subordinates to brothels during the day."

He took a deep breath.

I thought this matter had hit a wall and it would be difficult to move forward any further.

But at midnight, things took a turn for the better.

Jin Shu was woken up by Li Jin while she was fast asleep. Her hair was all messy and she looked at his back with a confused expression.

His voice was somewhat dry: "Something happened." He said, "Xiao Pan'er was assassinated."

Instantly, Jin Shu was half-awake: "Dead?"

“No.” Li Jin shook his head. “Fortunately, Bai Yu and Shen Wen were both there, but they were seriously injured and were carried to the coroner’s office.”

He paused, then said, "It's the middle of the night, and we can't find a doctor right now. If I were to call the imperial physician, it would be too conspicuous. Jin Shu, could you try anything, even if it's a last resort, and treat me first?"

"Trying anything, even if it's hopeless?" Jin Shu gave an awkward laugh and said, "Let's give it a try."

But when she saw Xiao Pan'er, her heart still tightened.

Originally, she thought that Li Jin would find her most likely because her injury wasn't serious and could be easily treated with a simple bandage.

But no.

The large patch of blood on her chest and shoulders left Jin Shu at a loss for what to do.

Having wielded a scalpel for so many years, she can dissect wounds, but she might not be able to close them.

Jin Shu frowned, glanced at the only wound medicine and tourniquet at hand, and looked at the extremely weak Xiao Pan'er with a complicated expression.

She pursed her lips and said, "Miss Xiao, please bear with me." Then she was about to take a bite.

Unexpectedly, Xiao Pan'er raised her hand to stop Jin Shu and asked in a weak voice, "Where is Prince Jing?"

Her voice was faint and distant, as if she were barely holding on to her last breath: "I want to see Prince Jing."

The girl's face was unusually determined. Jin Shu, holding a medicine bottle, advised with some difficulty, "The injury is more important."

"No." Xiao Pan'er gritted her teeth and tried to straighten up. "I want to see Prince Jing."

"If you want to see the Prince, why are you yelling about robbery in the middle of the afternoon!" Shen Wen's voice came from outside, sounding annoyed. "The Prince has come to your door looking for you, and your shout about robbery almost got him caught."

Outside the house, under the window, Bai Yu and Shen Wen were covered in blood. The two grown men sat exhausted in the corner, their heads resting against the wall behind them.

"You won't see him now either, the prince has gone to the scene." Shen Wen was holding back his anger, unable to vent it. He glanced at Bai Yu, who was also exhausted beside him, and his tone was even more disdainful. "Now, you either obediently bandage yourself up and wait for the prince to come back, or you leave your wound bleeding and don't know if the prince will make it back before you close your eyes. You have two paths to choose from."

This was the first time Jin Shu had ever seen Shen Wen with such a deep-seated hostility in all her years at the Six Doors.

The words were harsh, but they were effective.

She watched as Xiao Pan'er bit her lip and glanced at Jin Shu with a guilty expression.

As if she had already made her choice, she laboriously raised her hand, took the crescent-shaped hairpin from her head, and solemnly handed it to Jin Shu.

Her mouth opened and closed, she struggled for a long time, but in the end she still couldn't say anything.

After that, Jin Shu cut open her clothes and saw two sharp object wounds on her shoulder and under her armpit.

Although the location wasn't fatal, the wound was present both in the front and back, making it a typical penetrating wound.

As she stopped the bleeding and bandaged the wound, she lamented that if the wound were just an inch deeper, it would be the location of a major artery. If that happened, even a miracle wouldn't have been able to save her.

About an hour later, after the deep, bone-revealing knife wound under her armpit was bandaged, Xiao Pan'er looked up and found herself in a mild coma.

By the door, Shen Wen and Bai Yu were sleeping side by side. Jin Shu, worried about the chill of the night wind, covered them with a clean linen cloth.

So much so that when Li Jin brought Imperial Physician Qiao over during the day, both of them were startled.

Even Yan Zhao, who was standing behind them, felt a pang of anxiety. He quickly stepped forward and checked the two men's breathing. Only then did his heart, which had been in his throat, settle back into his chest.

He pursed his lips, looked at Jin Shu who had been keeping watch in the room all night, and hesitated to speak.

"Looks like a master." Imperial Physician Qiao laughed. "To be able to exhaust both Lord Bai and Lord Shen like this, one must have extraordinary skills."

After saying that, he picked up his medicine box and stepped into the house: "Lord Jin, you've worked hard. From now on, leave it to this old man."

Upon hearing this, Jin Shu stood up from the stool next to her and nodded: "Only wound medicine was applied, there is no high fever."

After saying that, she held the crescent-shaped hairpin in her hand and turned to look at Li Jin at the door.

She twirled the sandalwood hairpin in her hand; a faint "Lin" character was engraved on it.

The Lin in Lin Zhongyi.