The Magnolia Beauty - 42 A Night's Stay
High above the mountains, the clouds were felt like they would never be reached. Han Suyin was picking up any herbs that she could find to help save Qin Fuhua. She continued to pick up all the herbs she could find and piled it around her left arm as she continued to smell the plants and see what would work and what wouldn’t.
She wanted to know why Qin Fuhua was suddenly poisoned, but it didn’t matter now because he was unconscious. “I’ll ask him later,” Suyin assured herself, taking a deep breath as she continued to gather the herbs.
Some trees could be used as medicine. Suyin knew this because she had used some back when she was still at the hospital. There was a camp incident where one of her friends got bitten by a rattlesnake. Luckily some trees were usable as a medicine to keep the venom from breaking the tissues apart.
She reached out to the tree to pick the leaves. The leaves were specifically used in modern medicine (in pill form) as a pain reliever, but it is possible to heal a venom bite if crushed to use its oil to put on the skin. Slowly looking at the texture of the leaves, Suyin brought it close to her nose to smell it.
“Don’t eat that!”
Suyin stopped, turning her head to the person.
A tall, feminine-looking male with long, white hair in a silk white hanfu came running to Suyin.
“That’s dangerous to do. Do you not know what this is?” He asked, pointing at the leaves that she was holding.
Of course, just to remind her that all of these people are ignorant of women in the past, she nodded her head with a calm expression on her face, opposite of how the man was reacting. “Yes, I know what this is. These are the tree of Reiyi. The leaves are draped down like a beautiful umbrella that blocks the tree barks from any sunlight to deflect it since it cannot grow under any sunlight.”
The male gave her a flat gaze, his eyebrows furrowing to comprehend what was happening at the moment. “H-How would a woman even know that?” He questioned, looking at her.
Suyin rolled her eyes at him with the fact that all of these men just don’t expect anything out of any women at all. She was about to leave him, turning around until she saw a specific herb in his hand.
It was an analivegam flower that he was holding. Bundles of them! Suyin stopped her tracks.
“Where did you get that?” Suyin promptly questioned the man.
With a dazed look and stunned at Suyin’s knowledge, he answered her without thinking.
“It’s an herb used for healing venom–”
“Venom bites! How is it possible that you have it by your hand though?”
Was this guy some sort of special herbal medicine guy or something? From where she was during the present days, the analivegam would only be found in India.
“Wow…”
Those were words that could only come out of his mouth, but Suyin wanted to know where this guy found it. It could save Qin Fuhua!
In a rush, Suyin pulled out all the coins that she could find in her sleeves and pockets, handing all of the herbs picked up from the area.
“Please let me have it. Just that one could save someone.”
It didn’t matter where he got it. Suyin knew exactly that would be the herb that could the Prince. Her clothes were all dirtied from the soil and dirt that picked up along with the herbs, but Suyin didn’t mind that at all.
Flustered at Suyin’s rash actions, the male could only shake his head. “Ahh.. no, it’s okay… you can take it if you need it.” He replied. “There are foreigners in the town and I bought a bit too plenty. I was planning on planting some here, hoping it’ll grow, but if you need it, you can have it.” He kindly stated with a smile on his face.
Suyin couldn’t take something empty for no reason, so she handed him all of the herbs that she worked hard on picking and gave it to him. She grabbed his hand and placed the money thereafter the man handed her the herb and hurriedly left.
With a dazed expression on the male’s face, he watched Suyin drift off down the grassland and into the forest, further down until she disappeared. With a closed-lipped smile, he only shook his head. “It seems like Miss was in a hurry for something.” He turned around and went back towards the town, carrying the bundle of herbs and money in his hand.
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With a couple of tossing and turning, Qin Fuhua opened his eyes, staring at the dark ceiling of the cave. A strong stench of oil mixed with the smell of green grass caused Qin Fuhua to slowly lift his head to see what was going on. The last thing that he could remember was walking with Suyin to the room in the hidden cave before everything passed out. Seeing the familiar layout of the room, he realized a cold touch on his left forearm.
Suyin was sleeping with her hands on Qin Fuhua’s arm (on the ground). He looked a bit further from here to see a bucket filled with watery blood with a piece of fabric in it. On Qin Fuhua’s bare shoulder was a wrap made out the top of her sleeves. His top hanfu folded neatly beside him.
He froze for a second, looking at the wrap and then glanced back at Suyin. She was just wearing her undergarment (at least the top)! Was this woman stupid? Qin Fuhua went back to the mode of “being a man” again as he grew flustered. He would lecture her after all of this is done, but even with the minimal movement that Qin Fuhua was doing, she did not wake up an inch.
Qin Fuhua lowered his head briefly and shifted his weight to carefully learn closer to Suyin. The woman’s back was exposed but as flustered it caused Qin Fuhua to be, he stared at her face with a prolonged look filled with… admiration.
He didn’t come into a sense of what he felt every time he bumped into her. It was always a coincidence whenever they crashed into each other, but this time, it felt different. It felt like time had stopped and it was only the both of them at the moment. It had stopped enough for Qin Fuhua to realize that this was a woman filled with everything he wished he could have been.
Qin Fuhua tried to slowly move her hands so he could get up to cover her with the cloak, but as soon as he let her go, she immediately woke up.
Suyin shook her head, her eyes were still half-open. “Hm…?!” Alert and cautious, Suyin thought that something had happened to Qin Fuhua, only to find the two of them staring at each other. Suyin covered her chest, crossing her arms to her shoulders.
“Wha….what are you trying to do to me?!” Suyin exclaimed, sitting up as she pushed herself away.
“You should be the one explaining that.” Qin Fuhua replied, looking away as his face began to flush. “Here!” He stood up, throwing the cloak to her face as he stood up in a hurry.
The cloak flew directly to Suyin’s face, unable to catch the cloak as she groaned. “H-Hey!” Suyin looked at his cloak and wore it around her shoulders, making it tight enough to cover the top as she followed him.
“I had to use something to wrap it around you! All I had was my clothes.” Suyin grumbled underneath her breath. “It was all to save you.” She pouted. “I better be getting a damn large pay after all of this is done.”
Suyin followed Qin Fuhua to another room, filled with more books. The dust had been sitting there for a while and webs began to form in some parts of the corner. She stopped speaking when she saw how quiet Qin Fuhua became.
“…How long have I been out?” He asked, his voice soft.
“About a half of the day,” Suyin replied, watching him from his back. “You still need to rest though! I won’t let you go anywhere until you get another day’s rest otherwise your wound can reopen and you can get a fever that way!” Suyin demanded, frowning at him.
“If that is so, only this time will do then.” Qin Fuhua said, moving back to the main room as he sat down.
Suyin sat down next to him, covering herself with his cloak. She avoided eye contact with him as he stared at her. She could feel the eyes on her but tried her best not to say anything about it. What was she doing?! Was she an idiot? She had forgotten that Qin Fuhua is a man! A MAN. A person who has the Y chromosome in their DNA, and here she was, sitting next to him, covered in her hezi (it’s a red, silky undergarment worn at the top)! e
Suyin was so focused on crushing the medicine in the cloth with a rock that she forgot about the aftermath of all of this.
Even with the cloak covering her, she felt cold. She didn’t realize how cold it got during the night! Qin Fuhua was watching her the whole time because he noticed how cold her hands felt when he moved her. The idiot couldn’t even think about herself for one second, could she?
Qin Fuhua stood up, walking towards Suyin as she lifted her hands to surrender. “P-Please don’t do anything!” She closed her eyes. He was the Prince, after all, he wouldn’t want someone as lowly as her, right?!
Qin Fuhua took the cloak and wrapped it around him as he sat down to cover both of them. With Qin Fuhua sitting behind her under the cloak, Suyin’s face began to flush in bright pink.
“It’s cold in here. Just stay here for a while.” Qin Fuhua whispered in her ears. Suyin turned to look at him and felt his head, worried about him.
“You’re burning up” She wanted to stand up but Qin Fuhua held her down, wrapping his arms around her. She was worried but couldn’t do anything since she was stuck. With no choice, she stayed with him throughout the whole night.
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Awakening to a soft warm embrace, Suyin lifted her head, opening her eyes to see Qin Fuhua wrapping his arms around her still. Surprised, Suyin jumped out of his embrace, waking him up in the process.
He only opened one side of his eyes, looking up at what was going on.
“Y-You.” Right. Suyin had forgotten that Qin Fuhua had a fever and felt cold. She moved towards him, gently touching his forehead as she sighed in relief. “You’re better.” She said, feeling like a load of burden was off of her chest. If the Prince of Qin died in the hands of Suyin, she did not deserve to be a doctor at all.
Qin Fuhua wrapped the cloak around her, standing up as he took off her wrap around his bare shoulders. “It’s time for us to go outside. I don’t think they’re looking for us anymore.”
“They’re?” Who were they looking for? Suyin couldn’t figure what he meant by that. When Suyin was out looking for herbal medicine for him, she didn’t see anyone except the man dressed in white.
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It took a while for Han Suyin and Qin Fuhua to head back to the manor. Since he was still “Tienzheng” it was hard for him to walk around alone with Suyin wrapped around his cloak. With Suyin wearing some dirty, slave clothing (that they found lying on a clothesline nearby the city– Qin Fuhua was nice enough to leave some money after Suyin nagged about stealing other’s clothes), they were the center of the attention.
“I thought that was his wife.” One whispered to another.
“Maybe that’s all just a rumor. He probably just bought another maid to serve him in the house.”
Suyin couldn’t get away from being the center of attention, especially with Qin Fuhua here. Embarrassed, all she could do was hide behind him.
“How much is this?” Qin Fuhua abruptly asked the shopkeeper, who was still busy whispering to his fellow workers as he lit a smile to his face.
“Ah, yes! This is the most extravagant silk that you can buy out of these here! We can hand-make an outfit for you-”
“I’ll buy it for her.” Qin Fuhua suddenly blurted out, pointing with his head towards Suyin.
If Suyin had to choose to walk around the town naked or be called crazy for being a doctor, she would choose to be called crazy instead. Her face was flushing red because of all of the whispers and rumors that were spreading around her. Qin Fuhua had her glued to the back of him because the slave’s clothing was large on her.
“Yes. I will make it for her.” The shopkeeper stated, telling the workers to drag Suyin into the clothing shop.
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After being dragged in the clothing shop and had her measurements taken by the women, they were trying to get every little detail about her.
“Who are you?”
“How did you meet the sir Tienzheng?”
“What is going to do with you?”
All of the ladies surrounded her in all of these questions while they were working on her dress. They chuckled as they continued to ask Suyin questions and began gossiping to each other. All Suyin could do was smile.. like an idiot because she didn’t want to say anything wrong to cause Qin Fuhua any trouble.
After finishing the dress in just an hour after getting help from the three ladies, Suyin walked out in a beautiful, black, and gold silk hanfu. Stunning enough to have Qin Fuhua have a ‘glance’ at her.
“Beautiful! My, she would look like a Princess, wouldn’t she? Haha,” The shopkeeper said in awe, his hands on his hips.
“She’s my wife.” Qin Fuhua replied, pulling her in next to him.
All Suyin could do was smile and came close to his left ears. “What are you doing.”
“Act the part.” He replied. “Thank you. I will be taking my leave now.” Qin Fuhua took out a stack of money and dropped it on the table of the shopkeeper. His eyes began to sparkle.
“Thank you, my lord!” He happily shouted.
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Qin Fuhua and Suyin had arrived at the manor. Of course, in this manner, Qin Fuhua was known as Tienzheng, a high-class scholar, so it was important that he had to play his role since Suyin was his “wife” after all. As the two walked in, Weizhe was sitting down in the central hall, with a defeated look until he saw Qin Fuhua and Suyin.
“Your Highness” He quietly said, with a concerned expression. “Jianhong…. he’s dead.”
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