The next day dawned with a rare cloudless sky.
Fu Zhen woke up in bed. She had recovered a great deal, only feeling a bit sore and weak. As the sun rose, she had a deck chair carried into the yard. Wrapping herself in a small blanket, she lay on it and soon felt drowsy in the gentle rocking.
Jade came in from the small kitchen, carrying a medicine pot and looking puzzled. "I counted the medicine packets prescribed by the doctor last night. There should be five left, but when I got up this morning, there were only four. How could that be?"
Hearing this, Fu Zhen's drowsiness vanished instantly. She rolled her eyes and pretended not to hear.
The medicine must have been taken away by Yuanbao last night.
Chen Tingfeng was really being presumptuous. He took the medicine as soon as she told him to.
Fu Zhen grumbled inwardly.
Green Ring glanced at Fu Zhen, who was pretending to be an ostrich, and a faint smile played on her lips. "Maybe one of the maids took it by mistake. It's just an ordinary antipyretic medicine. If it's lost, it's lost. Miss has recovered from the fever today, so there's no need to take it anymore."
Jade wrinkled her nose and obediently carried the medicine pot to wash it.
Green Ring walked up to Fu Zhen and whispered with a smile, "I heard that the young master knelt all night last night. He was already injured. I wonder how he is now."
Fu Zhen, who had half her face buried in the blanket, threw it off at once and looked at Green Ring accusingly. "Green Ring! You're getting naughty!"
She was deliberately hinting at her.
Jade had stayed up in the outer room last night, and Green Ring probably didn't sleep well either. She had planned to put on a robe and check on Fu Zhen, but as soon as she opened the door, she saw a dark figure flash into Fu Zhen's yard. Just as she was about to rush forward in shock, someone grabbed her. When she looked closely, who else could it be but Yuanbao?
It was she who had personally given Yuanbao the packet of medicine.
"Miss is concerned about the young master. Why not go and see him?" Green Ring whispered.
Fu Zhen fell silent.
The dream last night had shown her another side of Chen Tingfeng and made her realize that there might be other secrets behind what had happened in her past life. Her once-frosty attitude towards Chen Tingfeng had begun to thaw a little.
After the prejudice had faded away, she suddenly realized that apart from the first days when she entered the mansion, he had really been kind to her.
"… I'm not concerned about him," Fu Zhen said. She just wanted to figure out who Chen Tingfeng really was and what had happened in the places she couldn't see in her past life.
Green Ring wisely stopped talking.
Fu Zhen closed her eyes again. After a while, she suddenly opened them, got up from the deck chair, and pounded the blanket angrily.
Damn it! Chen Tingfeng had come to see her when she had a nightmare last night even though he was running a fever. Thinking of his kindness, she really couldn't just ignore him.
"I'm going to pay my respects to Uncle and Aunt," she said as she got up from the chair and asked Green Ring to help her change clothes.
Green Ring pursed her lips and smiled. She took a cloak and put it on Fu Zhen, then they walked towards the front yard.
The Cypress and Quince Courtyard and the Bamboo and Elegance Courtyard were on the east side of the main courtyard, while the ancestral hall was on the west side. Fu Zhen said she was going to pay her respects, and she really went straight to the main courtyard.
As soon as Lady Bai saw her, she quickly pulled her over and looked her up and down. Seeing that she looked well, Lady Bai let out a sigh of relief and said with a smile, "Have you had breakfast? I've got some warm bird's nest here. Why don't you sit down and have some with me?"
Fu Zhen had just had breakfast not long ago and wasn't hungry, so she declined with a smile. "No, thank you, Aunt. I got up late and have just had breakfast."
They chatted casually for a while, but Fu Zhen noticed that Chen Xuan, who usually followed Lady Bai, was nowhere to be seen. After hesitating for a moment, she asked, "Where's Uncle?"
Lady Bai thought of Chen Xuan, who was still sleeping like a log, and said irritably, "He was out being a thief last night and didn't sleep at all. He's sound asleep now."
Fu Zhen felt a bit strange.
Was being a thief a family tradition? Chen Tingfeng had sneaked into her room last night, and now Chen Xuan had also stayed up all night?
Lady Bai didn't know that Chen Tingfeng had also been a "thief" last night. She just said, "Don't worry about him. He's getting more and more irresponsible as he gets older. He's really annoying."
Fu Zhen smiled and chatted with Lady Bai for a while before saying goodbye and leaving.
After leaving the main courtyard, she took a couple of steps towards the east and suddenly stopped.
"The wound medicine is still with him. I have to go and get it back…" Fu Zhen murmured softly, as if trying to convince herself. Seeing Green Ring covering her mouth and giggling from the corner of her eye, she snorted. "What are you laughing at? That wound medicine is very expensive."
With that, she walked towards the ancestral hall.
Qian Tong was standing guard at the door of the ancestral hall with his sword in his arms as usual. Hearing her footsteps, he lazily lifted his eyelids, glanced at her, and saluted. "Second Miss."
Yuanbao was dozing off against a pillar. The sound woke him up. When he saw it was her, a big smile spread across his face. "Second Miss, you're here."
Great! It was the Second Miss. He was saved.
Chen Tingfeng had been in a really bad mood in the ancestral hall for some reason and had been taking it out on him. He had been suffering a great deal.
Fu Zhen pursed her lips, waved her hand to signal them to rise, and then pushed open the door and walked in.
Chen Tingfeng was still kneeling there, wearing the same tattered clothes as yesterday.
Fu Zhen glanced at the wounds on his body and saw that the bleeding had stopped and there were traces of medicine on them. She knew that he wasn't as inflexible as he seemed, and without even realizing it, she felt a sense of relief.
"Cousin," Chen Tingfeng said, as if he had eyes on the back of his head and could tell it was her just by hearing her footsteps. "Have you come for a stroll again today?"
"I'm here to see if my cousin is dead," she said coldly.
This scene was exactly the same as yesterday.
"What a sharp tongue," Chen Tingfeng said with a faint smile. "But I'm tough. I won't die easily."
Seeing that he was kneeling there motionless but still so glib, Fu Zhen frowned. "You can sneak out in the middle of the night to be a thief, but now you're still following the rules? What's the point?"
He wasn't an obedient person as he could break into a girl's boudoir at night, but at the same time, he was obedient enough to kneel here for a whole day and night. It really left her speechless.
Chen Tingfeng was facing away from her. He raised his hand and pinched the bridge of his nose, looking a bit tired. "How can I get up if my cousin hasn't forgiven me?"
"Forgiven you for what?" Fu Zhen was really confused.
Chen Tingfeng paused and said meaningfully, "The love knot."
Fu Zhen suddenly remembered that if this family punishment hadn't happened, they would still be angry with each other because of that love knot.
So many things had happened in just two days. The matter of the young master of the Duke's Mansion had long been forgotten by her. But now that he mentioned it, the anger she had felt when she first heard the news seemed to flare up again. She said irritably, "The love knot is gone. How can I explain it to him?"
Chen Tingfeng raised his eyebrows. "You still need to explain? It's gone. Just reject him, cousin."
Fu Zhen said quietly, "What if I agree?"
Chen Tingfeng suddenly turned around and stared at her intently, his eyes filled with a fierce look. "Agree? Don't even think about it."
Fu Zhen met his wolf-like gaze without a trace of fear. She said calmly, "The decision is mine whether to agree or not. Cousin, don't forget that I haven't forgiven you yet."