chapter 5
After that day’s treatment, she lay with her head in my lap and casually asked why I had become so quiet.
I carefully retied the silk ribbon over her eyes, avoiding the question.
“Your eyes… may be able to see tomorrow.”
“Really? That’s good. You truly are skilled.”
“Once I can see, the first thing I’ll do is look at your face.”
I shuddered.
How were we supposed to face each other once she recovered her sight?
Would gratitude make her swallow her disgust and reluctantly accept my obsessive affection?
Or would she loathe me and trample my repulsive devotion without mercy?
If she recognized who I was, would she exterminate me on the spot?
Whatever her future attitude might be, I knew one thing for certain: she didn’t love me.
The Hehuan Sect’s artifact had proven it.
In that case, perhaps it would be better if none of this had ever happened.
Better to put everything back where it belonged.
Having made my decision, I offered Ji Hanshuang a pastry. Only after she ate it without suspicion did I relax.
“Tomorrow… I’ll take you back to Qingyun Sect.”
I had promised to free her and return her to her old life.
I would keep that promise.
She chewed slowly, her brow drawing together.
“Tomorrow? That seems rather sudden. I haven’t decided how to introduce you to my junior disciples.”
Me: “…”
So she really was ashamed of me.
“I’m not going. I’ll only take you there.”
Ji Hanshuang: “???”
“What does that mean?”
At last, she grasped my intention and immediately grew angry.
“You aren’t coming? You expect me to go back alone?”
“You mean you’re abandoning me? Who gave you the right?”
She tried to sit up, only for her limbs to weaken beneath her. She collapsed onto the bed.
Her body grew heavy and her consciousness blurred, but she still forced her voice higher.
“You… poisoned me?”
I hurriedly stroked her chest to soothe her breathing.
“No, no. Ah Shuang, don’t be afraid. It isn’t poison.”
“I once swore I would never let you suffer poisoning again. I owe you that.”
“So don’t worry. This is only a harmless sleeping draught.”
I quietly exhaled.
“Think of it as a peaceful sleep. When you wake, everything will be as it was.”
“You’ll still be Qingyun Sect’s brilliant senior disciple, and I’ll still be a free wandering physician. You’ll never have to pretend… when you’re with me again.”
As the medicine took hold, her eyes closed against her will. Her lips parted as if she wanted to speak, but fading consciousness left her capable of only a few fragments.
“You’d better… hope I never find you…”
She instinctively jerked her arms in one last, feeble struggle. The chains rang as her wrists pulled against them.
I merely patted her shoulder. Soon, she could no longer resist the medicine and sank into deep sleep.
I secretly returned her to Qingyun Sect and laid her in her cave residence.
She rested quietly on the brocade bed, breathing evenly. I stood beside her and traced every line of her sleeping face with my gaze.
At last, my eyes settled on the silk ribbon covering hers, and I smiled in acceptance.
Her eyes had been beautiful and bright when we first met.
Perhaps they would never hold me.
But I had healed them.
That was enough.
So this was it. Everything was over.
I left Qingyun Sect safely just as dawn broke.
The next morning, Ji Hanshuang reached instinctively toward the space beside her.
Empty.
It was actually empty.
Irritation surged through her. She felt around more urgently until her fingertips caught one corner of the ribbon covering her eyes.
She froze. Then, seeming to understand, she ripped it away.
Sunlight stung.
She narrowed her eyes, lashes trembling, and waited until they adjusted before opening them fully.
Her vision began in a blur, then slowly sharpened. Every familiar object in her cave residence came into focus.
She clenched the silk ribbon that had covered her eyes for so long.
She could see.
Very impressive, “Physician Ji.”
Her grip tightened until her knuckles paled and the ribbon crumpled in her fist.
The next instant, she sprang out of bed.
“What does she think she’s doing?!”
It was unbelievable.
Had she just been dumped?
That woman had drowned her in tenderness until she became addicted, then discarded her without mercy the moment she wanted more.
What kind of baffling scheme was that?
“Damn her! She only imprisoned me for a few days!”
“I’m furious! She’s stringing me along. She has to be! How dare she leave me hanging like this!”
“She had better hope I never find her, or I’ll show her exactly what it feels like to be left hanging!”
Her gaze swept across the room. The woman had left behind a heap of food, trinkets, and other things purchased for her.
Among them, Ji Hanshuang found a note.
She snatched it up and squinted.
“…What is this mess supposed to say?”
Practice your handwriting, “Physician Ji.”
Fortunately, whenever the physician forgot to bring a Voice-Shifting Fruit, she had often written on Ji Hanshuang’s palm. Ji Hanshuang had acquired some experience deciphering those strokes.
Following the woman’s peculiar habits one line at a time, she painstakingly translated the note.
Something about their paths crossing at the wrong time. Something about parting without resentment. Something about cherishing herself forevermore.
It made her head hurt.
She crushed the note into a ball.
“Infuriating!”
Wasn’t that the standard speech Hehuan Sect disciples gave after a night of pleasure, when they wanted to wash their hands of the other person?
“Stop spending time with people from Hehuan Sect, ‘Physician Ji’!”