Aye, with the medicine in its mouth, silently braved the thunderstorm and leaped out of the window on the outer wall.
Caiyu paced around the room a few times and asked, "When does Li Muge plan to escort the prince back to the capital?"
Lan Guifan replied, "He's a prodigal. He'll need to prepare a lot of things before setting off and hand over the military power of the city - guarding general. It'll take about five days!"
Caiyu was extremely anxious. "The longer he stays in Jizhou, the more bored he'll be. If he's bored, he'll go after the prince. If the prince is tortured by him every day..."
Caiyu wrung her handkerchief in distress. "Why didn't the prince escape yesterday?"
Lan Guifan said, "Didn't you say you'd stop caring if he wanted to court death? Why are you so anxious?"
"I!" Caiyu was furious. She glared at Lan Guifan and pretended to hit him. "You little brat! Mind your own business!"
Lan Guifan shrank his neck. "Okay, okay, I won't interfere. Is that okay..."
She simply couldn't let him go. She was tough - mouthed but soft - hearted!
"Then come up with a way to keep Li Muge busy. If he's busy, he won't have time to bother the prince," Lan Guifan mumbled.
Caiyu stopped in her tracks and suddenly looked at Lan Guifan. "Brother! You're finally useful!"
Lan Guifan:???
Caiyu said, "Go and find out what Li Muge likes most. I'll make preparations to keep him occupied."
...
A silver lightning bolt sliced across the sky outside the skylight.
Song Yinghuai, lying in the dark and damp straw pile in the dungeon with his eyes closed, heard a faint sound above his head. He opened his black eyes and was immediately stunned.
There was a chubby gray wolf stuck in the skylight, its two front paws frantically scratching in the air.
Aye's wolf eyes met the man's black eyes, and a hint of embarrassment flashed across them.
It had eaten too much with the Lan family...
"Arf!" Aye opened its mouth, and the medicine bag fell first, rolling to Song Yinghuai's feet.
The man struggled to prop up his body and opened the medicine bag. Several familiar medicine bottles rolled out.
This was...
A glint of light flashed in Song Yinghuai's black eyes, and a smile appeared on his face. "Your name is Aye, right? Caiyu asked you to bring this medicine."
He was all too familiar with the medicine from Master Guangzhi.
Caiyu still had feelings for him.
Just thinking of this, the excruciating pain in his body seemed to ease a lot.
"Arf!" Aye responded and wriggled its body even more embarrassedly.
It was stuck.
It couldn't get in or out.
"Wait a moment." Song Yinghuai endured the sharp pain in his back and reached out to grab the wolf's paw, then pulled hard.
The chubby wolf's body finally squeezed through the skylight.
There seemed to be a satisfied smile in Aye's eyes. It pushed the medicine bottle with its front paw, signaling him to apply the medicine.
The man understood its and Caiyu's intentions and didn't act coy. He immediately slowly took off his upper - garment.
The problem was that he couldn't see the wounds on his back. Moreover, since his shoulder blades were injured, it was even difficult for him to apply the medicine by himself.
Song Yinghuai was in a daze for a moment. For some reason, he remembered when he first met Caiyu. The girl had a wound on her back, and he, being so insensitive, just threw her a bottle of medicine to apply.
The girl had been so aggrieved that day.
"I can't apply it," Song Yinghuai said helplessly. "The injury is too severe."
Aye signaled him to open the bottle cap and pour out the medicine. Then it rolled up a ball of ointment with its tongue and smeared it on his back.
Wolf saliva itself had the function of promoting wound healing, and combined with Master Guangzhi's miraculous ointment, the effect was actually enhanced.
The pain from the skin wounds from the back of his neck to his lower back was greatly reduced.
Even the two holes in his shoulder blades were relieved.
"Aye," Song Yinghuai asked as if he was trying to confirm something. "Did Yuer cry?"
Aye paused, retracted its tongue, walked in front of him, and tilted its head.
She did cry, but it couldn't say so.
Song Yinghuai also found it funny.
In order to know a little about Caiyu's attitude, he was actually asking a wolf for information.
Aye suddenly stuck out its tongue again and licked the back of his hand.
The back of his hand was immediately wet.
It was just like a girl's tears.
Song Yinghuai immediately understood. A big smile curved his lips. "She cried. She still loves me, right?"
Get real!
Aye disdainfully turned its head away.
Love didn't necessarily mean they were suitable to be together.
"I know you all think that Yuer and I have conflicting personalities and that we'll only hurt each other if we're together," Song Yinghuai said. He didn't know why he was making a promise to a wolf.
Anyway, now he only dared to curry favor carefully with all of Caiyu's relatives.
"I've been changing," he said. "I just don't know if she's still willing to give me a chance."
He got up and rummaged through the corner for two stones to polish.
One was long and thin, with one end sharpened like a pen.
The other was flat, like a shell.
Song Yinghuai engraved on them slowly. His wrists and shoulders were seriously injured, so the engraving was very slow.
Aye curiously stretched its head and saw a lotus pattern gradually being engraved on the stone.
Song Yinghuai didn't look up. He said regretfully, "In a fit of anger, I once drew a black lotus on Caiyu's lower back, but she didn't know what it was."
Aye snorted.
She already knew.
So it was him who drew that black lotus. It did match the red lotus on his chest quite well.
"I'd like to ask a favor of you," Song Yinghuai said. "Please take this stone with the engraved lotus back to her for me."
The lotus was their token of love.
"If she doesn't throw it away, maybe I still have hope."
Aye snorted again.
Even if Caiyu didn't throw it away, did you think you could survive after being escorted to the capital?
The gray wolf picked up the stone in its mouth, leaped up, and got stuck in the skylight again.
"Arf!"
Aye let out an annoyed cry.
It had to lose weight!
-
When Aye returned to Caiyu's room, Lan Guifan was not there.
A hint of fierceness flashed across Caiyu's beautiful face. "I sent Fan'er to the place by the sea where the Japanese pirates do business to buy opium."
Opium was something brought by the Japanese pirates from foreign lands. There had never been such a thing in Daye before.
When this thing first came in, because of its high price, it was only circulated among the nobles.
Caiyu knew about this because she once hid in a small fishing village in eastern Guangdong, where there were people trading it at the port.
Sheng Jiangli took a small taste and said that this thing was no less than a slow - acting poison and must be eradicated.
Once a person got addicted, they would feel as if they were on the verge of life and death, with no willpower at all and no interest in anything else.
Such a vicious thing was just right to use on someone like Li Muge. It was a case of fighting poison with poison.
Aye dropped the stone it was carrying on the table.
Caiyu lowered her eyes and saw the lotus pattern engraved on the stone. Her beautiful eyes immediately welled up with tears.
She reached out and slowly stroked the pattern on the stone.
It was rough and uneven.
One could feel that the hand of the person who engraved it was very unsteady.
"Did he engrave this?" Caiyu sniffed and asked.
"Arf!" Aye howled upwards.
"Is he seriously injured?"
"Arf!"
Aye thought for a moment, then lay on the ground on its back, showing its belly, motionless, looking half - dead, just like a dying man struggling.
"Then he is indeed... seriously injured," Caiyu tightened her grip on the stone. Her mood was complex and hard to tell. "Aye, I know what he means, but... what do you think would happen to Brother Ali if I chose to go back to him?"
Aye suddenly turned over and looked at her seriously.
It thought Sheng Jiangli would be heart - broken.
"I paid such a high price to leave back then. Brother Ali secretly transferred the Hu cavalry into the pass for me," Caiyu seemed to be trying to convince herself. "Aye, Brother Ali treats me very well. I have no sorrow or trouble when I'm with him."
"I don't want to do anything to let Brother Ali down."
Aye picked up the stone and rushed out again, disappearing into the torrential rain.
Caiyu was right.
Even though it admired Song Yinghuai, Sheng Jiangli was the family member it had been with for two years.