Chapter 63 Sima Chenfeng

"It's Yuruo, but you can rest assured. Yiqing promised me she wouldn't say anything, and she wouldn't dare to either, seeing as she is a woman herself." No matter which of the two women exposed the other, both would be ruined; neither of them would be foolish enough to do something so mutually destructive.

Back in my room, I couldn't fall asleep no matter how hard I tried. My mind was entirely filled with the shadows of those two jade butterflies. I still couldn't understand how these jade butterflies—clearly belonging exclusively to Ma Wencai and Zhu Yingtai—had ended up in the hands of Liang Shanbo.

Since I have no talent for sewing, I summoned Yezi and had her use the satin and cotton wadding I bought to make several throw pillows and a large padded jacket for me. I must admit, ancient women truly are gifted with clever hands and ingenious minds. Even a young maid like Yezi could craft items that rivaled those produced by modern factories.

Spring was just around the corner. Before leaving, Wang Lantian had mentioned that he would return home and come back to the academy after the New Year. In truth, he shouldn't have come back at all. Given the condition of his health, he ought to cherish the time spent with his family. Why leave his hometown and travel all the way from Taiyuan to Hangzhou just to study?

It was a torment to himself and a torment to his family.

For some reason, when the New Year arrived, I didn't feel as homesick as I expected. Having lived through just a single year here, it felt as though an eternity had passed.

The Headmaster hosted a New Year banquet at the academy, open to students, tutors, kitchen servants, and the women of the laundry room.

I heard that the person Wang Lan had rescued had finally regained consciousness, but because his body was covered in wounds, he was confined to bed and would miss out on the evening's festivities. Even so, I still hadn't laid eyes on this sacred individual who had managed to survive seven or eight sword slashes—it was nothing short of a miracle.

On New Year's Day, students scurried all across the academy grounds to exchange New Year greetings. Accompanied by Liang, Zhu, and Xun, I first went to pay my respects to the Headmaster, his wife, and the tutors, before exchanging greetings with fellow students. Frankly, I found the whole affair rather tedious. What was the point of all this bowing and congratulating? Back in Beijing, we had long since abandoned such elaborate New Year customs.

The most comical part was that Liu Xiangdong actually came to offer me New Year greetings. The two of us, who usually traded sarcastic barbs at every glance, managed to exchange polite and amicable holiday pleasantries with serene expressions. Liu Xiangdong could pull it off, but I certainly couldn't, so I simply ignored him.

Perhaps it was because I had neglected to offer New Year greetings to my classmates that I incurred the wrath of the spirits. In the latter half of the night on New Year's Day, my stomach suddenly began to cramp violently. Since my period had ended half a month ago, there was no logical reason for such agonizing pain.

I immediately got out of bed and rushed to the outhouse. After squatting for nearly two quarters of an hour, the pain remained excruciating without the slightest relief. With no other choice, clutching my stomach and stumbling unsteadily, I made my way toward the infirmary.

I felt terribly guilty for disturbing Wang Lan on the night of New Year's Day, but saving my own skin had to take precedence.

I hammered desperately on the infirmary door, but for a long while, no one answered. "Miss Lan! Miss Lan! Are you in there?"

Could she have fallen into a deep sleep? Surely not!

Finally, footsteps echoed from within, and the door opened. Wang Lan stood in the doorway wearing a draped outer robe. Seeing me leaning against the doorframe, drenched in cold sweat, she immediately called out, "Xiaohui! Xiaohui, wake up!"

"Young Master Liu, are you alright? Where does it hurt?" Wang Lan hurriedly supported me and led me into the room.

"My stomach hurts so much."

Wang Lan immediately took my pulse. People always claimed in television dramas that traditional Chinese medicine practitioners could determine a patient's gender simply through pulse diagnosis—complete nonsense. Wang Lan had examined me on more than one occasion, yet she had never once figured out whether I was a man or a woman.

"Young Master Liu, you must have eaten something unclean, which is why you are experiencing such agonizing abdominal cramps." Wang Lan fetched a pill and handed it to me. "Swallow this painkiller first; it will help alleviate the pain while I go brew some medicine for you."

Making her get up in the middle of the night to fetch and brew medicine for me made me feel deeply apologetic. "Miss Lan, if it's not too much trouble, please wake Yezi up and leave the medicine brewing to her."

"Xiaohui, wake up! Young Master Liu has a terrible stomachache. Hurry up and wake Yezi," Wang Lan shouted toward the inner room while frantically gathering ingredients for my prescription.

Looking thoroughly reluctant, Wang惠 crawled out of bed and was promptly sent off by Wang Lan to rouse Yezi.

Noticing my unbearable abdominal pain, Wang Lan settled me onto a bed in the infirmary. Because the man who had narrowly escaped death was still occupying one of the beds, I had to share half of it with him.

The lamplight was dim, and the pain wracking my body was so severe that I couldn't care less who my bedmate was.

Yezi hurried over from her quarters, took the medicine prepared by Wang Lan, and went to the dining hall to brew it. After taking the painkiller, I actually felt the agony subside considerably, but Wang Lan insisted that I remain in the infirmary for the night, take my medicine, and only return to my own room the next morning.

I curled up on my side of the bed. Beside me, the other occupant shifted slightly, and Wang Lan walked to the bedside holding a medicine bottle. "Young Master Ma, your wounds must be hurting again. Take some painkillers to ease the discomfort."

Young Master Ma? Why was it someone named Ma again? Separated only by a partition, how could Wang Lan be so at ease housing a strange man in the infirmary? She was truly dedicated to her calling.

After resting for about half an hour, my stomachache had largely subsided. I was drifting off to sleep when Yezi entered the infirmary carrying a bowl of medicine and woke me up at the bedside.

I took the medicinal bowl and told Yezi to go back to sleep. They had already sacrificed their New Year's Eve on my account; how could I possibly have the heart to make Yezi sit up with me in the infirmary all night? There was no room for anyone else to lie down here anyway, and I half-suspected that my neighbor was a corpse, as I hadn't heard him make a single sound all night.

The next morning, I was sleeping soundly when a piercing scream from Yezi jerked me violently awake. I bounded straight out of bed, only to see a washbasin overturned near Yezi's feet, with water spilled all over the floor. "Yezi, why are you so clumsy? Screaming at the top of your lungs early in the morning—don't you know my stomach has only just recovered?"

Yezi shook her head frantically. "He... he is... the one from the inn..."

Who? I spun around and gasped, "Ah!"

It was him! Why on earth was it him? Terrified out of my wits, I tumbled off the bed. "You—Sima Chenfeng, what are you doing here?"

Yezi scrambled to help me up, hiding timidly behind my back.

Sima Chenfeng stared at the two of us in utter bewilderment, his expression shifting into one of sudden realization as he forced a painful smile. "It's you? How did you..."

Sima Chenfeng continued to look us up and down.

We were finished. Sima Chenfeng knew that Yezi and I were women, but we were inside the academy grounds right now—what should we do? Fortunately, Wang Lan and Wang Huiling had gone up the mountain; otherwise, wouldn't absolute catastrophe be upon us?

I offered Sima Chenfeng an awkward, foolish grin, momentarily at a loss for words.

"How can two women be residing within the academy? Young Master Liu, didn't Miss Wang address you as 'Young Master' last night?" Sima Chenfeng asked, frowning and speaking with great effort.