The moonlit night was quiet and still, and the dim light cascaded down the corridor, illuminating the area near the entrance.
Lu Shizhen was completely unprepared for Xu Shiyue's arrival, and her surprise was mixed with some indescribable feelings.
Faced with Xu Shiyue's question, Lu Shizhen quickly shook her head: "No."
He then quickly offered an explanation for his earlier deliberate delay: "I just scraped my leg, so I walked a little slower."
Xu Shiyue nodded slightly, not caring at all about Lu Shizhen being so late in opening the door for her. She handed the things in her hand directly to Lu Shizhen: "This ointment is very effective for wound healing and scar removal. You can give it a try."
The white ointment was handed to the person on the other end, and their fingers touched briefly for a second.
A cool breeze brushed against Lu Shizhen's fingers, and the surprise and astonishment in her eyes finally became real.
Xu Shiyue actually came to deliver medicine to her.
Remembering Qin Wen's reply to Aunt Sun that he didn't have such an effective ointment on hand at the moment, Lu Shizhen couldn't help but ask, "Is this kind of thing rare?"
"Luo Ji gave it to me." Xu Shiyue said frankly, knowing that Lu Shizhen knew of Luo Ji's existence.
Then she paused for a moment, and then asked in return, "And don't you really like your legs?"
Xu Shiyue spoke calmly, as if describing a trivial matter.
Lu Shizhen blushed upon hearing this, and couldn't help but recall the incident yesterday when she had dragged Xu Shiyue and insisted that he touch her leg.
For a moment, she didn't know whether she should be happy that Xu Shiyue remembered what she cared about, or she should want to disappear into the ground because her death scene was remembered.
Hesitantly, Lu Shizhen nodded: "...Thank you."
"No need," Xu Shiyue shook her head lightly.
Luo Ji was afraid she would get hurt in this place, so he secretly hid her under the flowerpots of the plant brothers, stuffing several of them in at once.
The tightly pressed end was printed with the expiration date. Xu Shiyue stroked it and read the number that was still a long time before it expired. After hesitating for a moment, she still sent it to Lu Shizhen.
Not for any particular reason.
It might be because people feel that medicine should be completely eliminated during use, rather than simply expiring.
Thinking this, Xu Shiyue turned to leave.
But Lu Shizhen called out to him, "Xu Shiyue."
"Is there anything else?" Xu Shiyue paused for a moment.
"You gave me the medicine, but did you apply it yourself?" Lu Shizhen asked.
Of course, she still remembered that she and Xu Shiyue fell down the stairs together, and she also remembered the scars on Xu Shiyue's arm.
No one likes having scars on their skin. She didn't want them, and putting herself in Xu Shiyue's shoes, did she want them too?
"It's on," Xu Shiyue replied, her voice somewhat indifferent.
Her eyes could only see blurry outlines, and she could only feel her way to the wounds.
Applying medicine was not an easy task for her, so she simply didn't bother.
Xu Shiyue knew she could ask the maids for help; after all, with Lu Shizhen keeping things under control, the maids in the house wouldn't dare treat her the way they used to.
But she didn't want to draw pity from others because of her blindness. She disliked, even loathed, the subtle pity that others showed when they looked at her.
She doesn't need anyone's pity.
It just means the wound will heal more slowly, and the scar will fade more slowly as well.
Anyway, no one will really notice, so let's just fool them.
As Xu Shiyue was thinking this, she heard a soft snort beside her ear: "Liar."
Lu Shizhen touched the unopened ointment in her hand and immediately thought of Xu Shiyue's eyes. Her mind suddenly became clear: "You can't see. If you want to apply the ointment, you have to ask the servants at home. If the servants at home knew that you had such a good thing, they would have snatched it for me long ago."
The girl spoke quickly and fluently, her reasoning flawless.
Xu Shiyue paused for a moment upon hearing this.
In fact, many things are not that we can't see or notice them, but rather whether we are willing to care.
Lu Shizhen was the one who was calculating.
But Lu Shizhen was the one who held a grudge.
An indescribable emotion spread through Xu Shiyue's heart, unfamiliar and unclear.
She pursed her lips, remaining silent for a long time before responding to Lu Shizhen's reasoning.
Without waiting for her reply, Lu Shizhen took the initiative and said, "Um, if you don't mind, how about I come in and apply the medicine for you?"
"You gave me the ointment, so I'll apply the medicine. We're even."
There was neither condescending pity nor domineering power.
Xu Shiyue watched the ointment being swayed in her line of sight. Surprisingly, she sensed a hint of negotiation in the man's seemingly earnest tone.
"Alright, don't hesitate any longer. I'm careful, I won't hurt you."
Seeing that Xu Shiyue did not deny her for a long time, Lu Shizhen felt that there was a chance, so she simply imitated the original owner's spoiled and willful manner, and pulled Xu Shiyue, who was still hesitating at the door, into the room.
This was Xu Shiyue's first time entering Lu Shizhen's room. The overhead light cast a faint shadow on the room's furnishings, which appeared unfamiliar to her.
Yuanzi was taken back to its room to sleep by Aunt Sun early on. Without its guidance, Xu Shiyue was filled with unfamiliar vigilance in this strange environment and wanted to find a familiar place to settle down.
But Lu Shizhen's hand, which landed on her wrist, covered the only familiar thing she felt at that moment.
The man moved with practiced ease, simply turning his wrist so that he could catch it.
Xu Shiyue had almost forgotten that before Yuanzi, Lu Shizhen had also been her guide cane and was a trustworthy person.
I wonder if it was for the reason she explained when she opened the door for me, because this person wasn't walking very fast.
The soft sound of a chair being pulled out reached Xu Shiyue's ears, and then Lu Shizhen guided her to stop: "There's a chair to your left, similar to the one in your room, you can sit down."
"There's a desk next to you. You can put your hand on it so I can apply the medicine."
Following Lu Shizhen's guidance, Xu Shiyue slowly groped her way down and leisurely rolled up her sleeves.
The off-white sleeves were piled up above the girl's elbows, revealing her arm covered with medical gauze.
The bright moonlight streamed through the window and fell onto the desk, giving the girl's skin a cool, white glow.
Her shapely forearm was fair and clean, making the gauze on one side particularly glaring.
Lu Shizhen carefully removed the gauze from Xu Shiyue's arm and said, "I'm going to apply medicine to your arm. It might hurt a little, so please bear with it."
“Okay.” Xu Shiyue nodded calmly upon hearing this.
The unopened ointment made a soft "pop" sound when it was punctured, which was particularly noticeable in the quiet room.
The bright light cast their shadows, facing each other, onto the wall. Cotton swabs were carefully rubbed against the scabbed wounds.
A dense, throbbing pain seeped into the nerves of Xu Shiyue's arm through the still-healing wound, but her face remained expressionless.
The halo of light outlined the figure in her line of sight who was slightly bowing her head. Through that not-so-clear movement, she could vaguely see Lu Shizhen's cautiousness.
This person is genuinely and seriously applying medicine to themselves.
Single-minded.
No, not at all.
Perhaps because of her own lack of health since childhood, Lu Shizhen always likes to pay attention to other people's limbs.
Just like now, while applying the medicine, Lu Shizhen secretly glanced at Xu Shiyue's arm, which was in her line of sight.
Xu Shiyue's arms were long and slender, with clearly visible blue-purple veins on the back of her hands, tinged with a faint pink hue.
The slightly protruding wrist bone lifts up a thin layer of skin, and when light falls on it, it appears cold, white, and translucent, like the luster of jade.
Lu Shizhen has grown up in the hospital over the years and has seen so many nurses, doctors, patients and their families, but none of them can compare to Xu Shiyue's arm at this moment.
Suddenly, Lu Shizhen thought of a Yue opera song her grandmother had once played for her: "Her skin was like solidified cream, her face like cinnabar, her fragrant shoulders leaning against the jade tower, and her green hair adorned with Xiangyun clouds."
When she was little, she always felt uncomfortable about those incomprehensible, babbling sounds, which seemed so unreal that it was hard to believe.
Only now does she realize that she was ignorant and unwilling to believe it.
If she could restore Xu Shiyue's body to the condition it was in before her family's accident, that statement wouldn't even be enough to describe her.
Thinking this, Lu Shizhen carefully rolled the cotton swab in her hand across Xu Shiyue's arm again.
But before she could apply it again, Xu Shiyue's voice rang in her ears: "Two applications are enough. You've already applied it four times."
The voice was soft, as if it were simply a reminder.
Lu Shizhen suddenly snapped out of her daze and hurriedly covered up her distraction, saying "Oh" and then guiltily trying to make amends, "I thought applying a few more layers would be better, sorry."
"It's nothing." Xu Shiyue shook her head calmly, and feeling that the ointment on her arm had dried almost completely, she took off the sleeve on her elbow.
The soft fabric brushed against her shoulder, bringing a dull pain. As if remembering something, she called out to Lu Shizhen, "Lu Shizhen."
Lu Shizhen immediately stopped what she was doing, looked up and asked, "What's wrong?"
"There's one more place, could you please apply some medicine there for me as well?" Xu Shiyue said calmly.
Lu Shizhen originally thought that it was already good enough that Xu Shiyue was willing to let her apply the medicine, but she didn't expect that Xu Shiyue would ask her to apply medicine to other places as well.
This is a rare act of trust.
"Of course." Lu Shizhen was somewhat flattered and immediately and deftly reopened the ointment she had just screwed the cap on. "Where?"
Unexpectedly, Xu Shiyue parted her thin lips slightly and uttered three words in a soft voice: "Scapula".
The room, shrouded in night, exuded a tranquil quiet, and the soft loungewear slipped down, making a soft rustling sound.
As soon as she finished speaking, Xu Shiyue turned her back and unbuttoned her collar.
The dim yellow light swayed in the night, and the girl's rounded shoulders, glowing white in the moonlight, appeared in Lu Shizhen's sight.
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