Almost the moment the hand touched her head, Ye Wanmian woke up.
Rubbing her eyes, she looked up and saw Li Zhao gazing at her. She exclaimed happily, "Uncle Li, you're awake!"
She hastily stood up, but due to maintaining the same position for too long, her body was stiff and numb, and she fell back down.
Li Zhao quickly propped himself up and reached out to help her. Ye Wanmian waved her hand and said with a smile, "Uncle Li, lie down quickly. I'm fine. My legs are just a bit numb."
"Cough, cough." Li Zhao suppressed the itch in his throat and frowned. "You slept in this position all night?"
Although seeing her when he woke up made him feel gratified, he was also very angry.
How could she be so careless about her own body? What if she caught his illness or got sick from the cold at night?
Why didn't anyone try to persuade her!
Ye Wanmian sat by the bedside, bent down, and pounded her numb calves. "Uncle Li had a fever after fainting last night. I'm a doctor. Staying here would allow me to respond at any time."
Li Zhao was stunned. He shifted his gaze and stared at the beam above his head, remaining silent for a long time.
Right, she wasn't an impulsive child. It was his useless body that had burdened her.
He remembered the words the girl had used when she mentioned her biological mother in front of him last night.
— The silly woman locked in a courtyard.
Upon learning that this was most likely Yunniang, the woman he had been searching for for nearly twenty years, Li Zhao had an urge to rush to the locked courtyard immediately, break open the lock, and see for himself.
It was precisely because his emotions were too intense, which aggravated his old illness, that he ended up in this state.
He should have told her his speculation right away, confirmed their identities through a blood - relation test, and then rescued her mother from the locked courtyard so that the family could be reunited.
But he clearly felt that his body was on the verge of collapse.
Otherwise, how could he have coughed up blood and fainted just because of a more intense emotional fluctuation?
He was really...
too scared and didn't know how to bring it up to her.
His wrist was grasped, and her fingers felt his pulse. Ye Wanmian said seriously, "Uncle Li's pulse is very chaotic. It's even more chaotic than when I first brought you to the clinic. But with my current medical skills, I can't tell exactly what's wrong with you. However, I'll find a way to cure you."
She didn't become complacent just because she was a bit smart and had a photographic memory, thinking that she could run a clinic on her own. There was still a lot for her to learn in the field of medicine.
But in any case, since she had saved Li Zhao, she would be responsible until the end and would surely find a way to cure him.
"I'm thinking it might be because Uncle Li got out of bed before fully recovering. He didn't get enough rest, which is why this happened. Uncle Li, you'd better not worry about the clinic's affairs for the time being. Just rest in the room."
Li Zhao came back to his senses and said hoarsely, "I'm much better. Mujin, you don't need to worry about me. It's just doing some accounting and writing a few words. It won't matter."
"That won't do." Ye Wanmian said firmly. "You're my patient, and I'm the doctor. I'm responsible for your health. If I say no, it's no."
This tone was exactly like that of the woman who had stubbornly kept him in the mansion back then and didn't allow him to go out.
Li Zhao was in a daze for a moment, then he smiled gently. "I know my own body. It's an old illness. If something were really wrong with me, it would have happened long ago. How could it wait until now?"
"It's boring to just rest in the room. It's better for me to do some accounting. Having something to do won't be so boring."
Seeing Ye Wanmian frowning tightly, he coughed lightly and said, "I'll just look at the accounts. I won't touch or ask about other things. Is that okay?"
Ye Wanmian was helpless.
Why couldn't this person listen?
Forget it.
She would just keep a closer eye on him.
"Then it's a deal. You're not allowed to touch anything except looking at the accounts!" Ye Wanmian said fiercely. "Also, drink the medicine before you go out!"
Li Zhao smiled and said, "Whatever Mujin says goes."
Even though they had made an agreement, Ye Wanmian still felt uneasy. When she left, she kept looking back. Her eyes fell on Li Zhao's overly pale face after he shaved his beard, and she unconsciously tightened her fingers.
She grabbed another dose of medicine and simmered it on a slow fire on the medicine stove. Ye Wanmian returned to the backyard to cook some noodles. When she lifted the curtain, she happened to bump into Xiao Jingcheng who was about to go out.
Xiao Jingcheng's long hair was loose behind him. He yawned lazily when he opened the door and still looked a bit sleepy. But when he saw her, he became more energetic.
Ye Wanmian was preoccupied with Li Zhao and absent - minded. She just glanced at the tall figure lightly and turned to leave.
Xiao Jingcheng should have waited for her to greet him, but unexpectedly, she ignored him. He frowned and said, "Stop."
Ye Wanmian stopped in her tracks, sighed softly in her heart, and turned to nod slightly at the man. "Brother Jing."
She finally stopped calling him Your Highness, but the "Brother Jing" was flat and indifferent, without any emotion in it, which made his frown deepen.
However, he didn't miss her limping gait and the tight frown just now.
Thinking that she had just come out of Li Zhao's room, he gently twirled his fingers and said,
"Come here and comb my hair for me."
Ye Wanmian thought she had misheard.
What was he saying?
He wanted her to comb his hair?
Xiao Jingcheng glanced at her. "Didn't you say that I need to be cautious to conceal my identity now? Since I can't change the bed, I naturally can't hire a maid. Don't use the excuse of gender differences to prevaricate me. That's for unmarried men and women. Since you're already married, you don't need to worry about this."
Ye Wanmian felt like she had shot herself in the foot.
She endured it and walked towards him angrily.
Xiao Jingcheng's tightly frowned brows finally relaxed. He turned around and went back into the room, sitting down on a chair.
A warm presence approached from behind, and the familiar fragrance gradually became clearer in his nostrils. Xiao Jingcheng knew that Ye Wanmian had come.
Holding a comb in her hand, Ye Wanmian lowered her eyes and looked at the man with his back to her. Her fingers picked up his hair as black as a crow's feathers.
Actually, this wasn't the first time Ye Wanmian had combed Xiao Jingcheng's hair.
In recent days, every time Xiao Jingcheng woke up, she had been the one to comb his hair.
But combing his hair voluntarily was one thing, while being ordered around like a maid to do it was another. The actions that used to be a bit fun now became stiff.
His hair was black and shiny, like fine silk satin. It was almost irresistible to touch.
But Ye Wanmian just wanted to finish the job quickly and stay away from this man, so her movements were not as gentle as usual.