SWHCBB 82

Chapter 82: He Was Never Needed, No Matter When!

Not long after Wen Yan and Han Sheng left, Bai Yuan came to give Wen Jue a follow-up examination.

Wen Jue’s wound was on the left side of his chest. He pulled open his robe, loosened the gauze, and as he tore it off, Jiang Chuang was distracted and used a bit too much force, pulling at the torn flesh of the wound. Wen Jue gasped in pain.

“I… I’m sorry…” Jiang Chuang snapped out of it, guilt-ridden and flustered. He stared blankly at the no-longer-bleeding but still reddish wound, the sword mark on the skin undeniable.

He had watched Bai Yuan pull that sword out with his own eyes to stop the bleeding. How could he have ever doubted…

Wen Jue curled his lips teasingly, “I’m still injured, you know. This isn’t the time for you to be thinking about anything indecent!”

Bai Yuan said coldly, “If the two of you keep acting this shameless in front of me, I won’t be gentle with you.”

If they wanted to be lovey-dovey, they could at least wait until he left.

Jiang Chuang chuckled and said no more, stepping aside. But he was never good at hiding things, his expression was complicated. Wen Jue didn’t notice anything wrong, but Bai Yuan did glance at him.

After Bai Yuan cleaned Wen Jue’s wound and applied medicine, he had Jiang Chuang help with the bandaging and told Changning to continue decocting the prescribed medicine. That was all for now.

Jiang Chuang, as usual, walked him to the gate of the inner courtyard. But this time, Bai Yuan stopped at the door and turned to him. “Anything you want to ask? I’ll allow one question, just this once.”

Startled, Jiang Chuang looked up, pondered a moment, and asked, “Zhiyu’s condition, besides the sword wound, he has poison in his body. When will he fully recover?”

Bai Yuan replied, “The sword wound will heal in ten days to half a month. Once that’s healed, we can gradually purge the poison. His constitution is too poor, even though he’s much better now, I can’t take any risks. So as for when he’ll be fully healed, I can’t say. I want him to recover faster than you do, so I can finally leave this boring place.”

“Thank you, Physician.” Jiang Chuang thanked him absentmindedly, it was clear this wasn’t the question he most wanted to ask.

Bai Yuan, unusually talkative, continued despite his cold expression, “Nothing else you want to ask?”

Jiang Chuang hesitated for a moment, then let out a self-deprecating laugh. “Since you’re asking like that, maybe you’ve unauthorized copy already guessed what’s on my mind. I suppose you know what really happened too?”

“I don’t.” Bai Yuan’s answer was blunt, dashing his hopes. “If you don’t have anything to ask, I’ll be going.”

“Wait.” Jiang Chuang stopped him. “What if… someone you hold most dear hides something very important from you, but everyone else knows except you. What would you think?”

Bai Yuan understood, Jiang Chuang had already figured out that Wen Jue was keeping something from him. He wasn’t stupid. It was just a matter of whether he chose to play dumb.

“What I think is my business,” Bai Yuan said plainly. “What matters is what you think. If you can’t figure it out, why not just ask him, why he kept it from you?”

Jiang Chuang nodded with a strained smile. “Thank you, Physician. I have nothing more to ask.”

Bai Yuan turned and left, ignoring the dejected Jiang Chuang standing alone behind him.

Jiang Chuang wasn’t incapable of understanding why Zhiyu hid it. He was afraid of worrying him, afraid he wouldn’t allow it. Those were trivial concerns.

But the consequences had been so severe. Zhiyu had almost lost his life!

He had waited so many days for him to wake up, only for him to still keep it from him.

Jiang Chuang felt suffocated with anger. But Zhiyu was still injured, so he couldn’t lash out. He wanted to see, did Zhiyu have any intention of coming clean?

If… if Zhiyu only told him things after being asked, what did that make him in Zhiyu’s heart?

Everyone! Everyone knew, except him!

He had never been needed! Wen Jue always kept him out of everything!Why?

Unable to hold back, Jiang Chuang slammed his fist into the wall. The sting of his scraped knuckles did nothing to relieve his frustration.

When he returned to the room and saw Wen Jue, he paused, averted his gaze, and started tidying the already neat table in silence.

Wen Jue heard him and called out, “Yunchuan? stolen contentWhat took you so long? Did the physician say anything?”

Jiang Chuang replied curtly, “No.”

“What’s wrong?” Wen Jue heard the change in his tone and came to sit beside him. “You’ve been acting different since earlier. Did something happen?”

Jiang Chuang paused mid-wipe, his eyes fixed on him. “Nothing happened. I was just thinking about you, when will your wound finally heal?”

Wen Jue smiled softly. Early summer had arrived. A cool breeze drifted in through the window, ruffling the loose hair by his temple, bringing his whole figure to life, his pale face could hardly conceal its vibrance.

“If you kiss me more, I’ll get better faster,” Wen Jue said, a hint of grievance in his eyes. “I’ve been awake this long, and you still haven’t kissed me once!”

Aside from a forehead kiss, Jiang Chuang hadn’t dared touch him, afraid of hurting him.

But now, hearing these words, something felt familiar. In their past life, when they were on the run, Zhiyu had said something similar. After Jiang Chuang kissed him, Zhiyu had cried, a lot.

Jiang Chuang swallowed hard and said nothing. He lowered his head and continued wiping the same teacup for the fifth time, the cup was polished to a glossy shine.

His reaction surprised Wen Jue. Wen Jue frowned slightly, trying to figure out what was going on. Why had just seeing Bai Yuan off left him so moody?

Did Bai Yuan say something about his illness? Could his illness… be incurable?

Just as his thoughts spiraled, Jiang Chuang asked, “I remember when you woke up last night, it seemed like you had something to say to me. Was there something you wanted to tell me?”

That dream? It was strange, not exactly prophetic, what was there to say?

Wen Jue shook his head. “Just a nightmare. I’ve forgotten it now.”

“Oh.” Jiang Chuang set the cup down. “I’ll go see where Yuan Xiang is, why hasn’t she brought the soup yet?”

He turned and left before Wen Jue could say anything.

Wen Jue stared at his retreating figure, feeling that something was definitely off Read onbut couldn’t pinpoint what.

Jiang Chuang stormed out and couldn’t help kicking one of the veranda’s pillars, only to run straight into Changning, who was bringing the medicine back.

Changning looked at him, confused. “General? What are you doing?”

Jiang Chuang coughed awkwardly, stretching with forced ease. “Nothing. Just warming up. Hurry and take the medicine in. Did you prepare the candied fruit?”

“Already done. I’ll take it in now,” Changning nodded, not sure whether to believe him, and left with the tray.

Jiang Chuang breathed a sigh of relief, then suddenly shivered.

Why should he be afraid of Changning noticing?

It’d be better if Changning noticed something was wrong, then he’d tell Zhiyu. That way Zhiyu would reflect on what he did wrong! He’d come to apologize and plead for forgiveness, best if he did it sincerely, maybe act a little pitiful, cry a bit…

Then maybe, just maybe, he’d forgive him sooner.