Song Yihuan was helped into the room by Fuling, while Chunxing and Song Yixuan were left outside the door.
Sitting on the bedside, leaning against the pillar, listening to her younger brother's cries from outside, Song Yihuan didn't have the strength to open the door and comfort him. At the moment, she felt her body alternately cold and hot. Her head was as heavy as if filled with lead, and her breath was burning hot.
Seeing her extremely uncomfortable look, Fuling said again, "Fourth Miss, are you really not going to find a doctor?"
Song Yihuan opened her eyes and looked straight at her. "If the doctor comes, last night's matter can't be hidden anymore. Are you sure you want to call a doctor?"
Fuling immediately realized what she was referring to. She forced a smile. "It's still Fourth Miss who is more thoughtful. Then, shall we just leave this illness alone?"
"Go and get the porcelain bottle in the cloth bag on the top layer of the cabinet." Song Yihuan said with difficulty, raising her eyes and pointing at the cabinet not far away.
Fuling rummaged on top of the cabinet as told and indeed took out a small porcelain bottle from the cloth bag. "Fourth Miss, is this the one?"
Fuling didn't know that this small porcelain bottle in her hand was exactly the same as the one Ji Lingchuan gave to Song Nanxin in Yixiang Pavilion just now.
The medicine was specially bought by Song Yihuan when she went to the pharmacy to get medicine for her younger brother. She just kept it for a rainy day. After all, in this world, no one would cherish her except herself. She had to think several steps ahead for herself in everything.
Sure enough, it came in handy.
Song Yihuan nodded slightly. Her hands trembling, she untied her belt and clothes. A moment later, Fuling gasped in shock at what she saw.
The young girl had a delicate and charming figure, fair skin and a willowy waist, every inch of which was just right. However, at this moment, her body was covered with blue and purple marks. One could imagine what kind of torturous and agonizing moment she had gone through last night.
When Fuling looked up, she accidentally met those clear and calm deer - like eyes again.
"Don't reveal a single word of what you see now and what happened last night to Chunxing and Fifth Young Master. Otherwise, I'll tell Eldest Sister that it was you who leaked the secret. Now, apply the medicine for me." Song Yihuan said.
Lying on the quilt, while Fuling was applying the medicine, Song Yihuan, in a daze, inevitably thought of last night's matter again, as well as the scene of meeting Ji Lingchuan outside Yixiang Pavilion just now. The two memories alternated in her mind, making her suffer.
Afraid that Chunxing and Song Yixuan would notice, she bit her lip tightly and didn't make a sound. By the time Fuling finished applying the medicine, Song Yihuan had fallen into a deep sleep with a row of clear tooth marks on her lower lip.
Covering Song Yihuan with the quilt, Fuling looked at Song Yihuan's beautiful side face and found that this Fourth Miss was a little different from what she had imagined.
Fuling opened the door and walked out. Chunxing and Song Yixuan, who were waiting outside the house, immediately looked at her. Fuling cleared her throat. "Fourth Miss has fallen asleep. I'll take care of her by her side. You don't need to worry. Her illness is caused by a cold. If you still have medicine for treating colds, make a bowl for her. If not, find a jar of strong liquor."
A cold? Chunxing quickly said, "Yes, I'll go and make the medicine right away."
Song Yixuan wanted to go into the room to see Song Yihuan, but Fuling stopped him. "It's better for Fifth Young Master not to go in. Be careful of catching the illness and making Fourth Miss worry about you in vain."
Hearing that it would make his sister worry, Song Yixuan stopped. But he didn't leave. Instead, he moved a small chair to outside Song Yihuan's door and sat there quietly accompanying her, neither crying nor making noise.
When the medicine was ready, Fuling carried a basin of hot water into the room again. She closed the door to block everyone's sight and carefully wiped Song Yihuan's body.
I don't know if it was the effect of the ointment or the bowl of medicine made by Chunxing. After repeating this several times, Song Yihuan broke out in a sweat, and the fever finally subsided. And it was completely dark outside.
Song Yihuan had a dream again.
She dreamed of the small courtyard in the Marquis's Mansion, and there was a very familiar figure sitting in the courtyard.
Song Yihuan took after her mother, Concubine Rou. Concubine Rou was as beautiful as a peach blossom and had a natural charm. But since she became a concubine in Ding'an Marquis's Mansion, there had been a lingering melancholy between her eyebrows. When she was free, she liked to sit on the rattan chair in the courtyard, staring blankly at the sky.
Song Yihuan was both surprised and overjoyed. She called out "Mother" and rushed forward, hugging Concubine Rou's waist and crying loudly.
She was aggrieved and missed her mother so much.
In the dream, Concubine Rou stroked her hair and said with a smile, "I've told you many times not to call me Mother. You should call me Concubine Mother. The legal mother is your real mother."
Song Yihuan shook her head while crying and stubbornly said, "It was you who gave birth to me and raised me. I just want to call you Mother!"
Concubine Rou had died of difficult childbirth when giving birth to Song Yixuan. Since Song Yihuan was thirteen years old, she had no mother anymore. The legal mother in the Marquis's Mansion was not a mother to her at all.
What kind of mother would always punish her for trivial things, not give her food, and let the servants in the mansion ridicule her?
Concubine Rou smiled and teased her. "Okay, just call me Mother. Why is my Yihuan crying so sadly? What kind of grievance have you suffered?"
Yihuan leaned in Concubine Rou's warm embrace, sniffed, and told her what had happened last night.
"Mother, Yihuan has never coveted someone who doesn't belong to her. Yihuan didn't do such a thing."
Concubine Rou sighed deeply, held Yihuan's hand, and wiped away her tears. "Yihuan, remember, it's better to be a commoner's wife than a nobleman's concubine. Don't follow in my footsteps and be trapped in such a small courtyard forever."
Concubine Rou's figure gradually faded. Song Yihuan looked panicked. "Mother, don't go. Don't leave Yihuan..."
But no matter how she tried to retain her and how she cried, that figure finally disappeared completely like dust.
"Boom——"
There was another muffled thunder in the sky. Dark clouds quickly gathered over the capital. In a moment, big raindrops fell on the ground, and the sky and the earth were connected by the rain curtain.
In Jingtao Courtyard, Ji Lingchuan was sitting in the study, looking through the book in his hand. He looked up at the window.
The leaves in the courtyard were shaking in the wind and rain. The leaves were beaten down by the rain, but every time the wind and rain stopped a little, the leaves would stubbornly stretch towards the sky again. For some reason, it made him think of the girl who had endured and endured in his tempest last night. A trace of pity welled up in his heart.
I wonder if she used the medicine?
He thought absent - mindedly.
Fuzhou was organizing the books beside him and casually asked, "My lord, it's raining so heavily tonight. Are you going to stay in Jingtao Courtyard or Shulan Courtyard?"
Ji Lingchuan came back to his senses and said without hesitation, "Jingtao Courtyard."
He was not a lustful man and didn't need to go to Shulan Courtyard every day. Besides, she had been hurt by him and needed to recuperate for a few days. At least... he had to wait until she got better.