Chapter 191: Chapter 191: Help! She Doesn’t Want to Die Yet

Watching her take her own pulse on the bed, Zhong Shimin raised an eyebrow.

Although Zhong Shimin had already ordered someone to apply golden sore medicine, Song Lianhe knew she was nothing like his ruthless underlings. Her delicate frame likely wouldn’t survive on treatment for external wounds alone.

So, with great effort, she picked up a brush and began writing a prescription for herself…

“Doctors can’t treat themselves, and one cannot save oneself. Sui Ning City might be remote, but it’s not an uncivilized wasteland. You can still find a physician.”

“Finding a doctor would take too long. By the time someone goes to fetch the medicine and comes back, I might as well have them find a coffin shop in the city instead.”

Song Lianhe finished the prescription and handed it to him, her voice weak. “I don’t know why you’re helping me, but I’ll remember this favor.”

Zhong Shimin took the prescription and tucked it away inside his robes.

“I was the one who brought you here. Until the Young Master orders your death, I won’t let you die at the hands of another.”

“Heh. My deepest thanks.”

Song Lianhe lay there, looking dreadfully ill.

Zhong Shimin glanced at her, then turned and left.

He strode into the courtyard where his men had a horse ready. He swung himself into the saddle, yanked the reins, and shouted, “Yah!”

Inside the room, Song Lianhe’s brow was furrowed in pain. She was burning up one moment and freezing the next.

“It hurts so much…”

This injury was far more severe than any she had suffered before. Cheng Xidian had truly intended to kill her, and her attack had been utterly ruthless.

’I just hope Zhong Shimin is quick,’ she thought. ’Otherwise, I’m really not going to make it.’

’Technically, I already died in the real world. If I don’t make it in this book, does that mean I’ll be truly annihilated? Is this what they mean by having your soul scattered to the winds?’

’Agh! Somebody help me! I don’t want to die!’

’I’ve made so many friends here. I have a doting grandfather and grandmother now, and… and Zhou Cangyan, the major villain!’

’Even though he’s destined to become a member of the female lead’s powerful harem, I’ve never forgotten how good he was to me!’

’He would step in when I was being bullied, stand up for me when I was humiliated, and shield me with his own body when I was in danger…’

Gradually, Song Lianhe slipped into unconsciousness.

Just then, the door was pushed open.

Through a hazy blur, she saw a familiar figure…

Zhong Shimin spurred his horse, racing back to the Prince Si Mansion.

The moment he dismounted, he bounded up the stairs and shoved the door open, only to stop short when he saw the person inside.

Da Xi shot to her feet, startled. “I… I just wanted to see how she was…”

Zhong Shimin’s gaze swept past her to the figure on the bed. As he walked over, he tossed her a packet of herbs. “Do you know how to brew this?”

Da Xi scrambled to catch it. “I do…”

“Then go brew it.”

“Right!”

Clutching the herbs, Da Xi hurried to the kitchen.

Soon, she returned with the brewed medicine.

Seeing Zhong Shimin still in the room, she couldn’t help but feel a little awkward.

“Brother-in-law…”

Zhong Shimin shot her a cool glance. Da Xi froze and quickly corrected herself. “Brother Zhong, the medicine is ready! Will you…”

“You feed her.”

Zhong Shimin stepped aside, standing by the window with his arms crossed.

Da Xi braced herself and went forward. With him staring at her like that, she felt so awkward she didn’t know what to do with herself.

She propped Song Lianhe up and began feeding her the medicine, one spoonful at a time.

Da Xi was very careful and gentle, but the look in her eyes as she faced Song Lianhe was complex.

She couldn’t forget the way Song Lianhe had looked at her before Nanny Gui took her away…

There was no hatred in that gaze, only pity.

Pity for her false bravado, and pity for her weakness.

After the bowl of medicinal soup was finished, color slowly returned to Song Lianhe’s face, and the chill in her body began to subside.

Zhong Shimin knew this woman was capable. There was no way the medicine she prescribed for herself would be ineffective.

The fact that it cost him dozens of taels of silver was testament enough.

He remembered the apothecary’s expression shifting from shock to awe when he took the prescription, repeatedly asking who had written it.

Zhong Shimin raised his eyes to the girl waiting quietly by the bed. He enunciated each word, “This happened to her because of you.”

Da Xi bit her lip, her head sinking even lower.

“I… How could I dare offend Nanny Gui? Besides… besides, she did it of her own free will. I didn’t ask her to help me…” Her voice trailed off.

But Zhong Shimin just nodded. “If that gives you peace of mind, so be it.”

Da Xi’s face flushed crimson. She suddenly looked up and cried out, “My sister is gone! I’m all alone, what else could I do? I thought… I thought you’d be someone I could rely on, my brother-in-law! But when I was being bullied, you just looked the other way! I know you resent my sister, but what did I do wrong? You’re the only family I have left…”

Zhong Shimin wore a pitch-black mask that gleamed coldly in the moonlight.

“No one is obligated to be responsible for anyone else in this world.”

“But you were engaged to my sister! That makes you my brother-in-law!”

Da Xi had been lonely and bullied for too long; she desperately wanted a family. In the vast Prince Si Mansion, Zhong Shimin was the only one she could legitimately depend on, yet he treated her as if she didn’t exist.

Unmoved by the girl’s tears, Zhong Shimin said coldly, “Suya was in love with the Young Master. She wanted to break our engagement long ago. Others might not be aware, but you’re telling me you didn’t know?”

“But… but you can’t do this… You can’t…”

He dismantled her desperate arguments, one by one.

Yet how could she not know? This was all just her clutching at straws in a panic. Even if it made him hate her, she couldn’t let go.

“And why not?”

Zhong Shimin’s attitude was so calm it bordered on cruel.

“Because… because you’re my brother-in-law!”

Da Xi fled from Zhong Shimin’s room in tears.

After the young girl ran off, an eerie silence fell over the room.

A moment later, Zhong Shimin spoke slowly. “Are you going to keep pretending?”

The person with her eyes squeezed shut opened them with a sigh. “I didn’t hear much. Only from the part where you said your fiancée was in love with Zhou Cangyan.”

’I have my own superb medical skills to blame,’ she thought. ’The prescription I wrote for myself was just too effective! One bowl down the hatch, and I was awake moments later.’

’As a result, I heard something I wasn’t supposed to.’

’I’m pretty helpless here. Who knows if this guy will silence me for good?’

But Zhong Shimin just said, “Your prescription is very effective.”

“Of course it is.” Song Lianhe was still lying prone, her voice weak from her injuries. “I started my research the first time I was whipped! In this era, floggings are a common occurrence. I couldn’t just sit around and wait to die!”

“Sell me the formula. Name your price.”

“Sell it to you?” At the mention of money, Song Lianhe immediately perked up. “But you just had the prescription in your hands, didn’t you?”

’Why buy it? He could have just copied it down.’

But Zhong Shimin said, “To take without asking is to steal.”

Song Lianhe scoffed. “A fine sentiment, ’to take without asking is to steal’… Did you ask for anyone’s permission when you ’stole’ me from the Prince Qing Mansion?”

“So, you’re not selling?”

Song Lianhe gritted her teeth in anger, her voice gaining strength from her indignation. “I’ll sell!”

He nodded. “Name your price.”

“I don’t want silver. I only have one condition: be my bodyguard. You have to protect me, at least until your Young Master gives the order to have me killed.”

’In a place like this, all the silver in the world would be useless if I weren’t alive to spend it!’

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep