Chapter 23: Passed the Scholar Examination

Su Mu’s whole body shuddered, then she felt her neck being soaked with something wet. She couldn’t tell if it was blood or tears.

Xie Yi endured the tearing pain, placing cold, lingering kisses on her neck. Thin, cold beads of sweat hung on the tips of his eyelashes, bright and icy, so cold that his bones trembled. “Mu Jiejie, it hurts so much.”

“Bear with it a little longer, I’ll go find a doctor for you right away.” Su Mu tried to remove his hands tightly wrapped around her waist.

But he found strength from somewhere, like a drowning person desperately clinging to a floating plank at sea, refusing to let go no matter what.

“Be good, Xiao Yi, let go, okay? I’ll go find a doctor for you. Once the doctor comes, it won’t hurt anymore.” Su Mu coaxed patiently, but her heart was in a panic.

His face was growing paler, his pupils unfocused, his mind hazy. His whole being displayed a sickly vulnerability. “Mu Jiejie, father and mother are dead… They beat me… They pushed me out… They tore my clothes…” He was like an abandoned child, lying in her arms, crying silently.

Xie Yi had never truly shown weakness in front of others before. His previous self-deprecating words were just to please women, to make his life a little better.

In his heart, there was a cold steel valve that separated his true emotions from the outside world. He never easily stepped out, nor did he let anyone in.

But now, he who would never show vulnerability to anyone, laid his softest, bloodiest heart completely bare for her to see. He even begged her, pleaded with her to pity him.

Su Mu was stunned for a moment.

From Xie Yi’s incoherent, disjointed words, she glimpsed the hardships he had endured over the years.

It wasn’t that she didn’t know about these things. Even the Li Scholar’s family who bought him knew, and Xie Yi himself often mentioned it, always ending with a praising remark like, ‘If it weren’t for the master/Mu Jiejie, I would have died countless times by now.’

He used this self-deprecating method to give those who bought him a savior-like satisfaction, in exchange for a slightly better slave life.

This was his way of survival.

But he had never described even a word of his own suffering. Now, he was like a child who had suffered a great injustice, venting and crying unreservedly in her arms.

Su Mu felt both pity and heartache. She stroked his head, softly comforting him: “It’s alright now, you’re by my side. No one will beat you.”

Xie Yi cried for a long time, holding her hand and refusing to let go. Only when she felt a heavy weight pressing down on her, and the exhausted Xie Yi collapsed unconscious on top of her, was she finally able to break free and go find a doctor.

Su Mu ran out urgently. Yan Jiyue was no longer outside. Whether he had gone back on his own or been dragged back by the Yan family, she didn’t care.

At this moment, she had only one thing on her mind: save Xie Yi.

When she reached the medical clinic, Su Mu was already out of breath. Fortunately, she was wearing red clothes, so it wasn’t easy to see the blood when wet. Otherwise, a blood-covered person running wild through the streets would surely have caused a commotion.

“Doctor, quick, come with me.”

The doctor at this clinic was the only male doctor in Juancheng who held consultations. He had been practicing for over thirty years and always had a good reputation. Su Mu grabbed the doctor and ran towards her home.

When they arrived home, Xie Yi’s mind was completely muddled. Blood had spread from the courtyard into the house, and even the bedding was spattered with blood.

With a life at stake, the doctor didn’t dare delay. He immediately began treatment, using a lot of wound medicine and herbal medicine. He worked until evening before finally breathing a sigh of relief.

“Watch him carefully tonight. If he doesn’t develop a fever tonight, he’ll be considered to have pulled through,” the doctor instructed.

Su Mu’s hanging heart finally settled. She repeatedly agreed and gave the doctor his fee.

The doctor looked at the money in his hand, then at Su Mu’s excessively beautiful face. He hesitated for a moment before saying, “In the future, be gentler. Don’t torment him anymore.”

“…Ah?”

The doctor said no more, took the money, and left directly.

Su Mu was stunned for a long time before she realized that she had been mistaken for a cruel master. It was common for bought servants, who had no human rights, to be abused and beaten by their masters. Moreover, they were a lone man and woman, and Xie Yi’s wound was on his chest…

Well, she had been considered by the doctor to be someone with that kind of bad habit.

Su Mu sat by the bedside, looking at Xie Yi’s pale, colorless face. She brought hot water to help wipe away the cold sweat that kept seeping out.

The blood-stained clothes had wet his body, but due to the difference between men and women, Su Mu couldn’t change them for him. It was kind of the doctor, sympathizing with Xie Yi as a fellow man, to cut open the blood-stained clothes and put a clean garment on him.

However, Su Mu’s sharp eyes still noticed scars other than the chest wound from Xie Yi’s collar. Whip marks, needle pricks, and even cigarette burns, big and small, old and new, overlapped.

No wonder the doctor had looked at her with that indescribable expression.

These scars were heartbreaking just to look at. She didn’t know if these were the handiwork of Scholar Li’s husband, or left by the slave traders, or both.

“Mu Jiejie-” Xie Yi kept calling her name during his unconsciousness, his hands flailing in the air as if trying to grab something.

Fearing that his newly bandaged wound might open, Su Mu quickly grasped his hand. “I’m here, I’m here.”

Xie Yi finally calmed down, tightly holding her hand, their fingers intertwined, letting out a soft, contented murmur.

Su Mu’s heart softened. She sat beside him, reaching out to brush away the long hair stuck to his cheeks by sweat.

In her previous life, she had been busy with business and career, while also dealing with the Yan family’s affairs. Although Xie Yi had taken care of her closely, she had always maintained a distance between them, mindful of the propriety between men and women.

She had never before, like now, immersed herself in carefully observing him.

Xie Yi’s long hair incorporated the slightly curly texture of Western people, but being mixed-race, it wasn’t very noticeable, only the ends were a bit curly. But his skin was exceptionally fair and clear.

Wet with sweat, he was like a river clam just pulled from the water, entangled with water grass. Brushing aside the wet, tangled hair, cracking open the hard shell, he had shed all his disguises before her, revealing soft, pink flesh.

Su Mu poked his cheek with her finger. The touch was as soft as a newborn baby, so soft and plump that one couldn’t resist the mischievous urge to pinch it.

But in the end, she held back. She couldn’t take advantage of someone in this state.