Chapter VII
Shi Yunlin returned to her parents and felt relieved. Back in the room, Empress Xiang sent all the men out and checked Shi Yunlin's body in person. When he saw the bruises on her lower back and the pinch marks on her forearms, her eyes suddenly turned red and tears welled up.
"When has my Yun Lin ever been wronged like this..." Empress Xiang turned her face away and wiped her tears with a handkerchief.
Even if she is the daughter of an ordinary family, she would not hit her, let alone a princess who was once a wealthy woman.
Shi Yunlin was leaning on the couch, hugging the pillow. She smiled at her mother: "It doesn't matter, it's just good to come back safely. There are so many people who can't come back. It's good to be able to come back..."
Those days of pampering and pampering in the golden palace have long ago seemed like a lifetime ago. Shi Yunlin rarely thinks about it again, and she doesn't want to recall it anymore.
Empress Xiang suddenly felt even worse. It was her duty to comfort her little daughter, so why did she let her daughter comfort her instead? She quickly put away her tears.
"Wait a minute." Empress Xiang touched Shi Yunlin's head and smoothed her messy hair. She went out to get some trauma medicine.
Shi Yantong and Shi Jing were both staying in the yard. When they saw her coming out, they immediately went up to ask about Shi Yunlin's situation.
Empress Xiang didn't want them to worry, and said: "There are some minor injuries, not serious. Don't worry. You two go back and rest. I'll give Yun Lin some medicine and talk to her again. If you have anything you want to say to her, Just wait until tomorrow."
Empress Hunan took some trauma medicine to remove blood stasis and relieve pain, and quickly returned to Shi Yunlin's room. While applying the medicine to Shi Yunlin, she asked Shi Yunlin in detail what happened today.
This was another reason why she had sent all the men away. She was worried that it would be inconvenient for Shi Yunlin to say something when her father and brother were around. Although she would definitely relay it to Shi Yantong, it would still be much less embarrassing than when Shi Yunlin told his father.
Shi Yunlin did not hide anything and told everything that happened today. Empress Xiang cried several times when she heard this, but she managed to hold it back every time. After applying the medicine, Empress Xiang pulled down Shi Yunlin's clothes and covered her with a quilt. She couldn't say any words of comfort, she could only gently caress the back of her little daughter's hand again and again.
Empress Hunan briefly told Shi Yunlin what happened after Shi Yunlin was picked up today.
"Qishan is too far away, and he has left the city again. How dare your father leave the city now? The city defenders will not let him leave the city. He asked the servants in the mansion to go to Qishan to find someone, and took the money to the mansion I asked for help, but no one was willing to help..."
Shi Yunlin felt sad when she heard this. She could not imagine how sad her father must be.
"I didn't expect Qishanlang to go there on his own. I guess he had an informant." Empress Xiang breathed a sigh of relief, "Fortunately, he went in time, and fortunately he went there in person."
Empress Xiang stroked Shi Yunlin's shoulder, still feeling scared. She had some concerns and didn't want to tell Shi Yunlin. She would rather she thought too much.
"Go to sleep and have a good rest tonight." Queen Xiang stood up.
"Mother, please bring me another quilt. It's really cold in Qi State." Shi Yunlin lay on the pillow and whispered softly.
As long as she still had the strength to get out of bed by herself, she would never instruct her mother like this. She was really aching and tired, and her head was dizzy.
Empress Xiang took the quilt and covered her with it, carefully tucking the corner of the quilt. When she looked up again, she saw that Shi Yunlin had fallen asleep.
She went out quietly.
Shi Jing had been called to bed by Shi Yantong, but Shi Yantong was still standing alone under the tree, looking at his little daughter's room.
Queen Xiang walked towards him, pulled his sleeves, and said, "Yun Lin is asleep, let's go back to the room. It's okay, it's not serious, don't worry."
When Shi Yantong didn't move, she tugged on his sleeve again. Shi Yantong took another look at his youngest daughter's room before being pulled back to the room by Empress Xiang.
"How can we go on so late without eating anything? We can't afford another sick person in our family." Empress Xiang took off the porridge from the stove and brought it to Shi Yantong.
Shi Yantong, who was sitting at the table, suddenly hugged Hou Xiang's waist and buried his face in her waist. His arms gradually tightened, and Xianghou remained motionless, letting his tears spill on her clothes.
After a long time, Shi Yantong finally let her go. He looked as normal and went to get a spoon to eat porridge. But after taking only one bite, he vomited it out.
Queen Xiang looked over and saw two pebbles in the porridge.
Shi Yantong used a spoon to stir up the white porridge in the bowl, and found a lot of sand and pebbles.
"You let the kitchen cook porridge so late. This is a deliberate act of reluctance!" Empress Xiang sighed, "Your Majesty, wait a moment, and I will cook you a bowl again."
"No need." Shi Yantong held her back, "In ancient times, people used to lie down on firewood to taste courage. Today, it doesn't matter if some sand and gravel are mixed in white porridge."
He fiddled with it for a long time, picking out as much sand and gravel as possible, and then ate it carefully. When he ate some fine sand, he swallowed it directly.
"Wen Dan, please change your titles in the future. No matter how people outside call you, we can no longer call you emperor or queen in our house." Shi Yantong said.
"Okay." Fu Wendan nodded without hesitation. She didn't care about the queen's glory before, let alone now.
Shi Yantong opened the window and looked to the south, which was the direction of his hometown. When he was young, he recited poems and composed music, and traveled to mountains and rivers with his beloved wife. Fu Wendan was infertile, and he even felt very good about it. As the so-called "two people for life", children are unnecessary. But fate played a trick. Later, his father and brother were violently killed, and powerful enemies were watching him. He was pushed to the throne. He gave up all the hobbies he had pursued in the first half of his life, established a harem, and learned to be a qualified emperor.
When I dream back at midnight, there are all those unfinished poems and unvisited beautiful scenes.
But people are always moving forward, and there is no turning back. He had been tired of the burden of being an emperor countless times, but now he looked in the direction of his hometown, full of resentment, and just wanted to take back his trampled homeland.
In the middle of the night, Fu Wendan went to see Shi Yunlin again and saw that she was indeed burning. Fortunately, Fu Wendan had anticipated this and shook Shi Yunlin awake and fed her the cold medicine that had been prepared long ago.
"Mom, you don't have to stay with me..." Shi Yunlin fell asleep sickly before she could finish her sentence.
Fu Wendan made an ice handkerchief for her to apply on her forehead, and changed the handkerchief every once in a while.
Shen Tanxi came in from outside and said, "You have been guarding for so long, go back and rest. I will guard Yun Lin."
Fu Wendan looked at Shen Tanxi's current emaciated appearance, shook his head and said, "You haven't recovered from the cold, so don't come over and make your condition worse. Go back and rest."
"You are not in good health and can't bear the food. How can you spend so much time? It's not long before dawn. You go back and take a nap. When you regain some energy, you can come back to me." Shen Tanxi insisted.
Fu Wendan hesitated for a moment before nodding.
Shen Tanxi sent Fu Wendan away. She walked to the bed and sat down. She looked at Shi Yunlin, whose face was red, and murmured, "Yunlin, have you really not blamed me at all?"
Shi Yunlin was half asleep and couldn't hear her question, so naturally she couldn't answer it.
After a long time, Shen Tanxi sighed softly, reached into the icy water, endured the bone-chilling chill, twisted out a new handkerchief, and put it on Shi Yunlin.
When it was dawn, Fu Wendan got up in a hurry and came over. Shen Tanxi stayed by the bed. She stood up to greet her and said, "Yun Lin no longer has a fever."
Fu Wendan bent down and put his palm against Shi Yunlin's forehead to test the temperature. Seeing that her fever had subsided, she immediately breathed a sigh of relief.
"Then I'm going back." Shen Tanxi turned around.
"Tanxi," Fu Wendan said, "Zeming must hope you are well."
Shen Tanxi was stunned and said slowly: "I will do it."
Shi Yunlin didn't wake up until mid-morning. Although her fever had gone away, she still had a splitting headache. I reluctantly ate something, then flopped onto the bed to catch up on my sleep.
For the next two days, she was so sick that she spent a lot of time falling asleep every day.
On the third day, she felt better, but she was still afraid of the cold. Taking advantage of the warm sunshine in the afternoon, Shi Yunlin went out of the house and sat in the yard to bask in the sun.
The family members are all in the yard, talking or doing nothing. As long as the family sits together, they feel very comfortable.
A knock on the door broke the tranquility in the courtyard.
The boy ran away somewhere, so Shi Jing ran to open the door himself.
"Qishan Lang sent me to pick up Princess Xiang," the visitor said.
Hearing this, Shi Jing's eyes widened and he almost slammed the door.
Shi Yunlin tilted her head and looked past Shi Jing at the person outside the door. The person who came was a man in his early twenties, thin but lean, with a scar across his face.
"My little girl is ill, so it's not advisable to travel far. The wedding is coming soon, so we should take good care of ourselves before it passes." This time, Shi Yantong refused directly.
The experiences of the past few days still left everyone with lingering fears, and they no longer dared to take risks.
Er Dongzi didn't expect to be rejected. Looking at everyone's wary and suspicious faces, he scratched his head in confusion.
"That, that...I..." Er Dongzi stuttered in this hurry.
"I won't go, I won't go! Don't even think about lying to me anymore!" Shi Jing heard his father's words and closed the courtyard door directly.
Shi Yunlin thought for a while, then turned to ask Shi Yantong: "You can't use the same method twice, right? What if it's true?"
"You really can't go. We have no reason to refuse. You are indeed sick and can't take a shower."
"Oh..." Shi Yunlin responded, but she felt a little uneasy.
She knew in her heart that she and her family relied on this marriage, and she did not dare to offend Qishan Lang.
Before going to bed at night, Shi Yunlin took a hot bath. I was so sick two days ago that I didn't bother to wash up. Now that I feel better, I insist on taking a bath. She felt dizzy not long after soaking in hot water. Worried that she would be too weak to get out of the tub soon, she stood up and walked out slowly, holding on to the edge of the tub. There was no strength at all on his body, and even the movement of wiping himself was weak.
When she heard the door being pushed open, Shi Yunlin didn't look back. She bent down and wiped the water from her legs, and said weakly: "Mom, I can do it myself."
There was no answer from behind.
Immediately afterwards, Shi Yunlin heard something strange about the footsteps. She was startled, she quickly straightened up and turned around, and was surprised to see Qishanlang standing behind her.
She panicked, her heart was pounding, and she almost screamed, and she hurriedly put the towel in her hand in front of her.
Qishan Lang's sight was interrupted, and when he came back to his senses, he glanced at Shi Yunlin's blushing cheeks. Then he looked away and placed the sachet on the table next to him.
He went to Feizhou and just came back today. He asked Er Dongzi to pick him up. He heard that she was too sick to walk.
Qishanlang lowered his gaze and looked at Shi Yunlin's half-covered legs - he could still walk. He turned and walked away.
"Thank you..." Shi Yunlin hummed in thanks. Thank him for sending her sachet back, and thank him even more for rescuing her in the military camp that day.
Qishanlang turned around.
Shi Yunlin bit her lip and immediately regretted her talk. There will be plenty of opportunities to say thank you in the future, why bother now. Seeing Qishan Lang staring at her, Shi Yunlin just hoped that he would leave quickly!
But Qishanlang came towards her.
Shi Yunlin's heartbeat was getting faster and faster. When the Qishan Wolf was only three or five steps away from her, Shi Yunlin could no longer hold on. Under the Qishan Wolf's approach, she endured the weakness of her legs and pushed her legs back.
Until her back pressed against the wall, the cold touch made her shiver. She had no choice but to retreat, Qishan Wolf was already standing half a step in front of her.
He was tall and Shi Yunlin had to look up at him. Thinking of the person who came to pick her up today, she asked in a trembling voice: "Are you going to pick me up?"
Qishanlang lowered his eyes at the small group in front of him and said nothing. He reached out and took Shi Yunlin's hand holding the towel in his palm, and then took the towel away from her.
