Chapter 45 (2/2)

Bei Dou had changed into clean clothes, carried Yan Shi Ning to hers and Pei Jin’s chamber then he waited for Pei Jin in the courtyard.

‘How is my wife?’ Pei Jin asked.

Bei Dou pushed Pei Jin’s hand away from his collar. ‘She couldn’t die.’

Pei Jin thought Bei Dou knew how to use a sharp tongue to choke a person speechless. But he knew it meant Yan Shi Ning wasn’t in a serious condition.

Pei Jin ran to the bed and Bei Dou followed Pei Jin.

‘Where is she injured?’ Pei Jin asked.

Bei Dou hesitated to reply.

‘Where?’ Pei Jin asked.

‘Chest,’ Bei Dou said.

Pei Jin grabbed Bei Dou’s collar again. ‘You bandaged her wound?’

Bei Dou raised his innocent hands. ‘It wasn’t me.’

Pei Jin let go of Bei Dou’s collar. ‘I knew you wouldn’t dare.’

Bei Dou ignored Pei Jin’s mockery of him because he knew Pei Jin’s heart was hurting.

Pei Jin sat on the bed and touched Yan Shi Ning’s forehead.

‘Is it serious?’ Pei Jin asked.

Bei Dou frowned. ‘If the wound was lower by a hand, it would have been serious.’

Pei Jin was confused. What lower? Below the chest was the stomach. Stomach? He didn’t understand why a stomach injury would be more serious than a chest injury.

Bei Dou saw Pei Jin’s confusion turned into joy.

‘You guessed right,’ Bei Dou said.

Pei Jin’s eyes shone brightly.

Yan Shi Ning dreamt about when she was a six-year-old girl. In a garden planted for young children there were many young trees that blossomed every ten years and bear fruits twelve years later. She asked the elders to let her take one young trees home to plant it in her mother’s garden.

The elders advised the six-year-old Yan Shi Ning many things. ‘Xiao Ning, you need to take good care of this young tree. The fate of the young tree will grow up like its master’s fate.’

Yan Shi Ning listened to the elders’ advice. Each day she would run to her mother’s garden and water her young tree. But one day she didn’t see her young tree in her mother’s garden, Pei Jin’s goat ate her precious young tree!

In Yan Shi Ning’s dream, her forgotten young tree grew tall and strong after twelve years. She smiled, climbed the tree and picked fruits. Then the ground disappeared and she fell.

In Yan Shi Ning’s unconscious state she cursed Pei Jin, ‘MF Pei Jin, you dug up my precious young tree again!’

Yan Shi Ning felt like a sharp dagger stabbed her chest. Her chest ached and she touched her chest.

‘Don’t touch!’ Pei Jin said.

Yan Shi Ning opened her eyes and saw Pei Jin was sitting on the bed next to her. The sunlight shone through the window and warmed the room. But his face looked a little anxious. Suddenly she remembered her chest injury and her head ached.

Yan Shi Ning’s head ached because she remembered Pei Jin’s instructions before he travelled to the palace.

‘I have a guard at the Yan Manor,’ Pei Jin said. ‘If Yan Jing prepares to kill Princess Kang Hua, the guard will send news to our home. Then we’ll go to the Yan Manor together. Shi Ning, you can’t go on your own. Princess Kang Hua’s in a fragile state since Yan Shi Ting became insane. No one can predict what can happen. Shi Ning, if you want to go to the Yan Manor, you have to go with me. Understand?’

At that time she nodded her head and promised Pei Jin. But Pei Jin’s guard sent news about Yan Jing preparing to kill Princess Kang Hua and she couldn’t wait for Pei Jin to return from the palace.

Yan Shi Ning was worried Princess Kang Hua would die before Pei Jin returned. So Yan Shi Ning decided to bring Xiao Hui and Xiao Zai with her to the Yan Manor. But Xiao Hui wasn’t at the manor and only Xiao Zai followed her to the Yan Manor.

‘Shi Ning, how should I punish you?’ Pei Jin asked.

‘I’m injured,’ Yan Shi Ning said.

‘If you listened to me then you wouldn’t be injured,’ Pei Jin said.

Yan Shi Ning saw Pei Jin was being stern with her. She quietly pulled the blanket up to hide her face but he stopped her.

‘Pei Jin, what do you want to do?’ Yan Shi Ning asked.

‘Let me see your wound,’ Pei Jin said.

Earlier Bei Dou told Pei Jin if the dagger stabbed a little deeper, it would have stabbed Yan Shi Ning’s heart. Luckily Xiao Zai was there to push Princess Kang Hua away before the dagger stabbed her chest deeper.

Pei Jin looked at Yan Shi Ning’s chest wound and his heart ached. He wanted to touch her wound but he was scared it’ll hurt her.

‘Does it hurt?’ Pei Jin asked.

‘It hurts a lot!’ Yan Shi Ning lied.

After Yan Shi Ning drank the medicine Bei Dou brewed for her, she didn’t feel any chest pain. But she needed to act pitiful in front of Pei Jin so he wouldn’t think of a primitive way to punish her.

Pei Jin turned his head to the door. ‘Bei Dou! Didn’t you say you gave my wife medicine to numb the pain?’

Outside the chamber, Bei Dou was suspicious why the medicine didn’t work.

‘Pei Jin… honestly it only hurts a little,’ Yan Shi Ning confessed.

Pei Jin realised Yan Shi Ning fooled him. ‘Wife, you’re improving each day. Not only did you not listen to me but you learned how to fool me. Wife, wait and see how I’ll punish you.’

Yan Shi Ning was thinking of what to say when Pei Jin hugged her gently.

Pei Jin was overjoyed and whispered in Yan Shi Ning’s ear. ‘Shi Ning, we conceived a child together.’

***

End of Chapter Forty-Five