Chapter 8. "Take off your outer robe."
"Does it look like him?" Xie Yushu stopped in front of Cangshu under the soft moonlight and asked him.
Cangshu nodded subconsciously. He couldn't describe the resemblance; it wasn't just in appearance, but even in every expression when he looked up.
“That’s called professionalism. Every penny I collect is of high quality,” Xie Yushu told him bluntly.
Cang Shu was stunned for a moment, then understood and immediately took out two silver notes and handed them to Xie Yushu: "Two thousand taels of silver notes, Miss Xie, please take a look."
Xie Yushu didn't take it herself; her assistant, Jin Ye, took it for her, checked it, and nodded to her, indicating that the number was correct.
Get on track.
※
Cangshu rushed back to the Prime Minister's residence at full speed. His anxious appearance made Xie Yushu certain that Song Jie's condition must be worse today than yesterday.
Even the big mastiff was whining anxiously at the door today. When it saw Xie Yushu, it didn't bark at her but turned and went into the house first, whimpering to her from inside.
Xie Yushu left Jin Ye outside and went in to see Song Jie on the bed. It was a terrible sight: "What happened to his hand?"
Today, Song Jie was not only as cold as a zombie, but his palms were also covered with large blisters, some of which were festering and bleeding, which looked painful.
"When the Prime Minister fell ill, he burned himself by grabbing the red-hot stove," Cangshu whispered to her, then went to fetch another bowl of medicine and asked Xie Yushu to feed it to him.
Xie Yushu sat down and turned Song Jie's face to see that his lower lip was bitten through and his mouth was full of blood. His whole body was tense as he endured the icy, bone-chilling pain.
“It won’t go in like this.” Xie Yu remembered that in the original drama, only the female lead Xie Jianing’s body temperature could alleviate Song Jie’s pain from the cold. However, through her previous experience, she discovered that the body temperature of any human could alleviate the pain, but the poison of the cold could not distinguish who the female lead was.
Xie Yushu directly instructed Cangshu: "Take off your outer robe."
Cangshu was stunned for a moment.
"Take off your clothes and get into bed, then put Song Jie's feet in your lap." Xie Yushu took the medicine from his hand and urged him on.
"Me?" Cang Shu had obviously never been in contact with a man like this before, let alone taken off her clothes in front of others. She stood there frozen, her ears turning red, at a loss for words.
"If it's not you, do you expect me to do it?" Xie Yushu glanced at him, thinking to herself: She wouldn't do this kind of work for any amount of money.
Cangshu's face turned even redder, and he stammered, "Miss Xie... could you turn around?"
Xie Yushu then noticed that his drooping face was almost completely red, which was quite cute.
She turned around and deliberately said, "There's no other way to save people, Cangshu. Don't take it to heart. Once we leave this house, we'll pretend nothing happened."
Her saying it would have been better if she hadn't said it; her deliberate mention of it only made the atmosphere more unspoken.
Cangshu's hands felt like they were on fire as he unbuckled his belt, his throat felt hot and itchy, and he said in a lower voice, "I understand, Miss Xie, please rest assured... I won't let a third person know."
He gritted his teeth and quickly took off his outer robe, then sat on the couch sideways, tucking Song Jie's two icy feet into his arms. He then pulled up the hem of his inner garment before whispering, "Miss Xie, you can turn around now."
Xie Yushu slowly turned around and saw that Cangshu, who was sitting at the foot of the bed, had turned pink like a cooked shrimp. He lowered his head and did not dare to look at her, but his neck and chest line under his black inner clothes became redder and redder as she stared at him. He did not expect that the person who looked thin was quite curvaceous.
The atmosphere was just right. She took out a small white porcelain medicine bottle from her sleeve and placed it next to Cangshu: "A plaster for treating sprains and bruises."
Cang Shu was stunned, and slowly looked up from the small medicine bottle at Xie Yushu.
Xie Yushu had already sat back down on the edge of the bed. He pulled Song Jie's hand over and placed it on his knee. He lowered his head and carefully used cotton swabs to clean the blood seeping from Song Jie's palm. He said in a very soft voice, "Applying this will help the redness and swelling heal faster."
For him?
The inconspicuous red swelling at the corner of Cangshu's lips suddenly became quite noticeable. He lowered his eyes to look at the small medicine bottle again and found that it was new; Miss Xie had bought it for him specially...
He was just a servant, and no one except the Prime Minister cared about his life or death, but Miss Xie remembered that slap mark on his hand.
His throat felt like it was burning. Holding the bottle of medicine, Cangshu felt a warm current flowing through his body. After a long while, he finally managed to say "thank you" in a hoarse voice.
"Congratulations, host, you have gained 1 point of Popularity Points from Cang Shu." The system message echoed in my mind.
For a dozen copper coins, a bottle of medicine could be exchanged for 1 point of "charm value." Xie Yushu was very satisfied with the cost-effectiveness. She stopped talking and carefully reapplied the burn ointment to Song Jie.
The room was extremely quiet, except for the sound of Panpan breathing heavily. It was squatting by the bedside, guarding Song Jie, its tongue lolling out incessantly from the heat.
It was the height of summer, and the room was already stuffy. After Song Jie fell ill, two heaters were lit.
Before long, Cangshu saw Xie Yushu's flushed cheeks, a thin layer of sweat on the tip of his nose, sweat dripping from his chin, and strands of black hair clinging to his fair neck...
He looked away, intending to ask Xie Yushu if he wanted some tea to cool down, when the pair of feet in his arms stirred.
A low moan of pain escaped from Song Jie's tightly closed lips.
"Come here and help me lift his head," Xie Yushu said to Cangshu. "It should be able to get the medicine in now."
Cangshu hurriedly got off the bed and went over to lift the Prime Minister's head, only to realize that the collar of his inner garment was mostly open as he bent over.
Xie Yushu's eyes inevitably glanced at him, catching sight of his pectoral muscles, abdominal muscles, and a scar...
"I'm sorry, Miss Xie." He hurriedly grabbed his collar with his other hand, his whole body temperature as if he had a high fever.
"It's alright." Xie Yushu pretended to be serious, pried open Song Jie's mouth, and while he was still dazed, he swiftly poured a bowl of medicine into his mouth, causing him to cough violently.
Xie Yushu reached out and put his arm around his back, letting him lean on his shoulder. He gently patted his back to help him catch his breath: "Don't throw up, you'll feel better after drinking it."
In the dim candlelight, her hair was slightly disheveled. Cang Shu suddenly felt that she was nothing like Miss Jianing at this moment. Miss Jianing was an innocent young lady from a wealthy family, while Xie Yushu at this moment had her eyes lowered, and the candlelight bathed her in a layer of light. She was like a gentle elder sister, like a compassionate goddess...
"Host, you have gained another 1 point of Popularity from Cangshu." The system announced.
Xie Yushu looked up at Cangshu in surprise.
Cangshu hurriedly avoided eye contact, picked up his outer robe and belt from the ground, and rushed to the outer room to put on his clothes.
In the quiet inner room, only Song Jie's cough and Xie Yushu's gentle stroking could be heard.
Song Jie gradually calmed down under Xie Yushu's palm. His face moved and he pressed against Xie Yushu's warm neck. It was so warm... His cold feet were warm, his neck was warm, and a pair of exceptionally warm hands were stroking his back and holding him in their arms.
His frozen chest was pressed against a warm body, like being close to a heater. The continuous heat enveloped his icy body, thawing him through his limbs and bones. The pain that had penetrated to his bone marrow gradually lessened under her gentle touch... It was incredibly warm.
"You'll feel better right away after taking the medicine." Her voice was right next to my ear.
He had never heard such a gentle voice before, not even his mother had ever stroked him so tenderly.
He didn't even think it was a dream, because it's rare for people to dream about things they haven't experienced, and he could never even dream of such a gentle voice...
He clung to that body, mesmerized, pressing his face against hers, until he felt a wet patch...like tears.
Did she cry? Was she crying? Was she shedding tears for him?
He regained some feeling in his feet. Was she warming his feet just now?
In his dazed state, he heard that gentle voice calling him: "Little Taoist priest, let go of my hand and lie down... shall I help you lie down?"
Was it Jia Ning? Had Jia Ning ever spoken to him so gently before?
He couldn't find Jia Ning in his chaotic mind, and those warm hands left his back, trying to pull away the arms that had somehow become tightly wrapped around her.
"Let go of me, little Taoist priest, you're too heavy, let me help you lie down..." she coaxed him softly, but after a couple of words, she lost patience and suddenly changed her expression: "Let go of me, Song Jie."
He was pushed hard onto the bed, his body hitting the bed frame with a dull thud.
"Prime Minister?" Cang Shu's voice came from outside.
He groaned in pain, as if startled awake from a dream. He struggled to open his eyes and vaguely saw a flushed face. A look of surprise flashed across that face, quickly turning into worry. He thought he was seeing things.
"Little Taoist priest, you're awake?" Those warm hands came back to support his head and carefully placed it on the pillow. "Don't move around, or you'll bump your head."
He smelled a faint sandalwood scent, blinked laboriously, and gradually made out the person in front of him. "Jia Ning?"
In the candlelight, the person in front of me was wearing a blue Taoist robe, with his black hair tied up and his slightly drooping eyes red, as if he had just cried. Wasn't this Jia Ning, who had temporarily stayed at the Taoist temple?
He raised his hand in disbelief to touch that face, and his wrist was gently grasped.
"Don't move, you've burned your hand." She frowned slightly, took his hand and showed it to him, her tone like a young girl's reproach: "Look what you've done to yourself, doesn't it hurt?"
Years ago, Jia Ning also angrily stopped him from hurting himself, looking at him with red eyes, feeling sorry for him and worried about him.
Song Jie stared blankly at that face until he saw the small mole on the tip of her nose and realized that she wasn't Jia Ning. "Xie... Yu Shu?"
He felt as if struck by lightning. Was it Xie Yushu who had just been holding him? Was it Xie Yushu who had warmed his feet? Why were there tears on her face? Was she pitying him?
He stared at the face in disbelief and repeated her name again: "It's you... Xie Yushu?"
She paused in front of him, her furrowed brows relaxed, and the heartache in her eyes vanished in an instant. "It's me." Her warm hand also left his wrist, and she slowly tidied the stray hairs by his ear, saying, "It seems that Prime Minister Song has survived another episode of his illness and is fully awake."
In the blink of an eye, she changed her expression, becoming cold and indifferent, even shifting her gaze from him to Cang Shu beside her: "Then I should go."
She had barely finished speaking when she got up from the couch to leave without the slightest hesitation.
Song Jie was stunned, watching as her blue robe sleeves were pulled away from her body. Almost instinctively, he reached out to grab it, but then he snapped out of his daze when he touched it, forcing himself to pull his hand back. That was Xie Yushu, not Jia Ning.
He reminded himself, but couldn't help but ask, "Is two thousand taels of silver so easy to earn?" He then coughed, and cold air seeped into his heart, as if all the warm stoves had been suddenly removed, and he was about to fall back into the icy cold.
No, he doesn't want to.
"Xie Yushu," he called her name in a hoarse voice.
Xie Yushu stopped and turned to look at him.
Song Jie looked up and met her cold gaze. For a moment, he was dazed. Was the person who had just gently stroked and comforted him really Xie Yushu? Was the person who looked so much like Jia Ning just moments before really Xie Yushu?
How can a person change so rapidly in the blink of an eye?
"I want to buy you for an hour." Song Jie wanted to see clearly how she was "acting" while he was sober.
“Don’t you love money? I want you to play Jia Ning for another hour.” He said to her with as much contempt as possible, reminding her that he only saw her as a substitute.
She also reminded herself that she was Xie Yushu, Xie Yushu who used Jianing to make money.
A note from the author:
----------------------
Song Jie, your journey of being slapped in the face has begun.
I'm giving out red envelopes today too! [heart emoji]
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
