Su Yaoguang pushed the door open and entered, catching a whiff of a strong stench that almost made her retreat.
She covered her nose as she walked to the bedside, staring in shock at Zhou Wangshu, who was lying there panting heavily.
"How did it end up like this?"
She first moved things inside, then checked on Zhou Wangshu’s condition.
From the moment she stepped in, she hadn’t stopped moving. First, she brewed medicine for Zhou Wangshu, then cleaned the entire room inside and out, and finally fumigated it with mugwort. By the time she finished all this, it was already the afternoon.
She covered her mouth and nose with a cloth and went to the kitchen.
"Uncle, could you please help me boil some hot water and bring it to the room?" Su Yaoguang said as she handed over two taels of broken silver. "I know you’ve been very busy lately, so thank you for your help."
The kitchen staff agreed immediately upon seeing this.
They were originally responsible for attending to these students, and even if they weren’t paid, they had to do this work well. With many students falling ill now, they attended to one after another. Since the students were more demanding than usual due to their illnesses, meeting someone so polite who was also willing to tip them was a rare treat.
After giving these instructions, Su Yaoguang went back to take care of Zhou Wangshu.
On the other side, Jiang Yihuan immediately regretted stepping into Xiao Yanci’s room.
She leaned over to the side, vomiting uncontrollably.
Xiao Yanci was in slightly better shape than Zhou Wangshu. Although he lay there weakly, burning like a furnace, he was conscious, so he clearly saw Jiang Yihuan’s look of disgust.
After dry heaving for some time, Jiang Yihuan finally recovered. She stepped outside and found a servant, asking them to clean Xiao Yanci’s room.
"Sorry, we’re busy taking care of sick students right now. Since you’re here to help take care of Student Xiao, you’ll have to put in some extra effort. We’re short-staffed and need to attend to those who have no one caring for them first."
"I’m too frail to do any actual work," Jiang Yihuan said, wiping nonexistent sweat from her brow.
"Then what are you here for?" the ill-tempered servant said fiercely.
"Alright, let’s leave it at that," another quickly intervened.
"I... I know I’m useless," Jiang Yihuan said with tears in her eyes, covering her face and sobbing. "I’m sorry for troubling you, but I don’t know who else to turn to."
"You’re the sister of Student Jiang, right?" the servant remarked, "How about you ask him to help take care? They’re all men, and men are generally stronger."
"Right, you’re family, shouldn’t you take care of each other? Student Jiang is fine and well, yet you don’t ask him, you ask us who are attending to a dozen sick people. Is that appropriate?"
Impatience flashed in Jiang Yihuan’s eyes.
If Jiang Yihui was willing to do these things, would she need to find them? Besides, attending to the students was their job, and now they were trying to shirk it, thinking she was easy to bully?
Jiang Yihuan cursed these ’lazy’ servants several times in her heart, grudgingly taking out a string of copper coins and handing it over: "Please, my brother is a frail scholar and really can’t take care of others."
"Alright!" The always agreeable servant took it. "We’ll tidy up Student Xiao’s room after finishing here. But miss, even if we clean today, it’ll be the same tomorrow, so you need to take care of it yourself. As you can see, we’re busy brewing medicine for many people and are on call, so there’s no way we can attend to everything thoroughly."
"Understood," Jiang Yihuan said, frowning, as she turned to leave.
Xiao Yanci waited and waited until the servants came to tidy the room.
Jiang Yihuan did not return, leaving her whereabouts unknown.
While cleaning, the two servants complained, saying: "Even though they’re both women, the difference is stark. That one from Zhou Xueshi’s family has been busy all along. She first brewed medicine for Zhou Xueshi, then cleaned the room inside and out, and even fumigated it with mugwort. I took a look earlier, and the room is clean, almost like new."
"I just came from the kitchen, and Old Liu there said Zhou Xueshi’s sister gave them two taels of silver to boil and carry over hot water—she intended to give him a bath!"
"Two taels of silver? Oh my, so generous. Just for boiling some water, she gave two taels. Why am I not helping in the kitchen?"
"Originally, Miss Su volunteered to take care of Zhou Xueshi. It’s unlike with Student Xiao’s family member, who didn’t want to come at first. It was only after Zhou Xueshi’s lady convinced her that she came."
Xiao Yanci started coughing violently.
In his previous life, he never left the academy and never fell ill, so he was unaware this kind of thing would happen.
If he had known, he would have behaved more modestly. Unfortunately, there’s no such thing as hindsight, nor any medicine for regret.
Huan’er...
Is she really unwilling to take care of him, as they said?
No! Huan’er is so kind, she wouldn’t ignore him. It can only be said that the current Huan’er hasn’t completely fallen for him yet, which is why she remains mindful of propriety. As long as she loves him as deeply as in the previous life, she will sacrifice everything for him as before.
It’s not Huan’er’s fault; it’s his fault for not making her fall in love with him sooner.
"By the way, one more correction: Miss Su isn’t Zhou Xueshi’s sister, but his wife."
"What? But she said she’s Zhou Xueshi’s sister publicly."
"It’s said that Zhou Xueshi is too young, they’ve only written the marriage contract without holding the wedding banquet. They might want to wait a couple of years to host the banquet before changing how they refer to each other!"
Xiao Yanci snorted lightly.
In his previous life, Su Yaoguang couldn’t wait for the whole world to know they were married and never told others they were siblings or anything like that. Evidently, she has little genuine affection for Zhou Wangshu, too.
Finally, Jiang Yihuan returned.
She carried a basin of clear water, using a wrung-out cloth to wipe Xiao Yanci’s body.
"Gentlemen, would you mind giving him a bath?" Jiang Yihuan asked softly.
"Sorry, we really don’t have time. You can wipe him down yourself!" The two servants tidied up the room quickly and hurried out.
They only took fifty cents; surely she didn’t expect them to be personal servants just for Student Xiao?
Jiang Yihuan watched them rush off, her face flushed with anger. She turned around, meeting Xiao Yanci’s disappointed gaze.
"I just went to check on my brother. My mother was worried about him, insisting I see him first once I got here; I had to explain to her, so I had to check. Luckily, my brother is fine, or I’d have a hard time explaining. Brother Xiao, are you feeling any better?"
Xiao Yanci forced an awkward smile.
Jiang Yihuan deeply regretted stepping into this academy. That wench Su Yaoguang set her up deliberately. Now that she’s in, leaving would mean losing Xiao Yanci, the big catch.
Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!
Use arrow keys (or A / D) to PREV/NEXT chapter