Dongfang Yi woke up in the Queen's Palace. There was only a palace maid cleaning the table in the empty inner palace. Seeing Dongfang Yi waking up on the bed, the maid quickly scurried to the bedside.
"Your Majesty the Queen, you're awake," said the maid. Then she quickly ran to the table beside, poured a cup of water and came back, trying to feed it to Dongfang Yi.
"No need..." Dongfang Yi waved her hand and pushed the cup away. Then she asked, "Who sent me back yesterday?"
The little maid stammered in reply, "This servant... this servant doesn't know... This servant didn't even know Your Majesty the Queen wasn't in the palace last night. But this servant saw Guard Ru Yi coming again yesterday."
So it was Ru Yi. Dongfang Yi sneered while lying in bed. She thought to herself that it couldn't be Helian Qi. He didn't even bother to listen to her words. How could he chase after her?
It seemed that it was because Ru Yi was following her that he noticed her desolate state.
Women in love always do silly things. Just like Dongfang Yi, she only wanted to see what others wanted her to see, but dared not dig deeper into the truth.
Dongfang Yi chatted with the little maid for a while and learned that her name was Xiao Qian and she was a newly - recruited palace maid.
Helian Qi did a good job in this regard. Newly - recruited people were relatively innocent. She also learned that Xiao Qian had fled from a border country and entered the palace by chance.
Hearing about the border country, Dongfang Yi thought of the jade pendant. The characters on it were very special, like the writing of other countries. So she quickly took it out of her bosom and handed it to Xiao Qian, asking, "Take a look. Do you recognize the characters on this jade pendant?"
Xiao Qian looked at it blankly and replied, "This is not the writing of my place. This servant used to study for a few years at home, but has never seen such strange characters."
After saying that, she returned the jade pendant to Dongfang Yi.
Dongfang Yi sighed. She had thought she could finally solve the mystery of the characters on the jade pendant, but her hope was dashed. So she slumped onto the bed like a deflated balloon, playing with the jade pendant in her hand.
Suddenly, a male voice came, "Yo, woman, you seem very unhappy."
Dongfang Yi didn't need to look up to know that it was Situ Qing.
"Why are you here again!" Dongfang Yi sat up and stared at him.
Then she noticed that he seemed to be injured. He was originally wearing black clothes, but now the part on his chest looked as if it had been soaked in water. No one would simply think it was water.
"Are you injured?" Dongfang Yi asked in surprise.
"It's just a minor injury..." Situ Qing still hooked his lips with a beaming smile. If one only looked at his face, no one would know that he was injured.
Dongfang Yi spat and sat up from the bed. She strode towards Situ Qing, pulled him onto the bed and kept muttering about how troublesome it was. But her body was quite honest as she walked out of the palace gate.
In less than a quarter of an hour, she came back with some wound - healing medicine in her hand. She gasped slightly and said, "I didn't want to care about you. I just don't want you to die here and dirty my palace."
Situ Qing, lying on the bed, felt a warm current in his heart when he saw her being so inconsistent. He lowered his head and laughed silently, but accidentally pulled his wound.
He hissed in pain.
Dongfang Yi immediately walked to the window, reached out and patted his head, scolding, "Stop laughing! You laugh all day long! Is it really that funny!"
It was just a scolding with a tinge of complaint, but unexpectedly Situ Qing raised his head, staring at the woman in front of him without blinking and said, "Yes."
Dongfang Yi felt a bit uncomfortable under his stare. So she reached out and poked his wound. After seeing him lower his head in pain, she couldn't help laughing and said, "Stop being so glib! I'll apply the medicine for you."
But just after saying this, she realized something was wrong. The injured part was his chest. This was ancient times, and people always emphasized the propriety between men and women.
After thinking about it, she felt her face getting hot. She slammed the medicine on the bedside and said, "Apply the medicine yourself."
Then she turned to leave. But unexpectedly, the person behind grabbed her sleeve tightly. That person looked at her with extremely pitiful eyes and said, "I'm injured. It's so pitiful for me to apply the medicine by myself..."
Dongfang Yi, whose sleeve was grabbed, couldn't help looking up and let out a surprised sound. She was really speechless towards this man, but she still had to sit back on the bedside and prepare to apply the medicine for him.
She gently cut open the clothes on Situ Qing's chest with a dagger. After seeing the bloody and mangled skin, her expression became solemn. What on earth had he encountered to be injured like this?
But the man being treated seemed to feel nothing at all. He still joked with Dongfang Yi, "You're feeling sorry for me..."
Dongfang Yi couldn't help rolling her eyes at him, but her hands didn't slacken. She had learned simple bandaging techniques in modern times.
She simply cleaned the wound, applied the excellent golden sore medicine from the palace, and finally gently wrapped a piece of cloth around it. But seeing Situ Qing's annoying smile, Dongfang Yi's face was full of black lines and her hands became heavier.
"Do you want to kill me, woman?" Situ Qing cried out in pain.
"It would be better if you died," Dongfang Yi said fiercely.
"But you still saved me. You're so serious in helping me bandage the wound. You also..." Situ Qing squinted his eyes, hooked his lips and said word by word.
"Aaaaaaaaaaah - shut up quickly!" Dongfang Yi finally couldn't help roaring. Just as she finished bandaging, she stomped angrily to the side. She really had never seen such a noisy and shameless man.
Her attitude towards Situ Qing had completely changed. She used to think he was a mafia boss with a perfect appearance, but now she thought he was just a hooligan with a pretty face.
"Alas..." Dongfang Yi sighed helplessly.
Why did she help him? She thought. Maybe this huge palace was too empty, or maybe her heart needed something to fill it. Just at this moment, Situ Qing appeared and filled that void.
Situ Qing saw her suddenly desolate look and his heart twitched. So he asked, "What were you sighing about just now?"
He remembered that when he first sneaked into the palace, he just saw this little woman lying in bed and sighing non - stop.
"It's none of your business... Just take good care of your own body," Dongfang Yi rolled her eyes at him and said. Then she looked at his chest, her eyes flickering, and asked, "Why were you suddenly so seriously injured?"
Situ Qing's eyes darkened. Rarely, he removed the smile from his face. He said in a low voice, "Someone robbed something of mine. I wanted to get it back, but that person is quite powerful now, so I got injured."