“Shh, stop shouting!” Shen Qingzhuo threw away the lantern and quickly leaned over to cover the dumpling’s mouth. He was completely unaware of the situation, and it really seemed like he was here to silence him.
As expected, Xiao Shen immediately struggled desperately under his hands.
Being so close, he could clearly see a strong sense of indomitable will and resentment in those red eyes. He was like a little wolf cub just born on the snowy field. Although he was young and weak, he was full of untamable wildness and the survival instinct of animals.
“Hiss.” A burst of severe pain suddenly hit Shen Qingzhuo, and he took a breath of cold air. “Let go!”
The little wolf cup opened his mouth and bit his hand hard.
Xiao Dezi behind him suddenly reacted and rushed forward to help control the mad Seventh Prince. “Your Highness, the Young Master has no ill intentions!
“He came to see you because he was worried that something might happen to you!”
Xiao Shen’s confused mind became clearer, but he still didn’t let go. He just stared at the person in front of him with his big eyes.
Shen Qingzhuo endured the severe pain, raised his other hand, pinched the little wolf cub’s jaw, and sinisterly threatened: “If you don’t let go, I will break your jaw and make you leak air when drinking water in the future.”
Perhaps frightened by these words, or perhaps realizing that he was not really here to kill him, Xiao Shen finally loosened his sharp teeth.
Shen Qingzhuo quickly pulled his hand out, only to see blood dripping from the base of his palm. Fortunately, there was not much flesh, just a thin layer of skin; otherwise, the little wolf cub would have torn a piece of flesh off him.
He took a deep breath, pulled out a clean handkerchief from his sleeve, wrapped it around his palm to stop the bleeding, and decided to give his little disciple the first lesson.
“If I were Your Highness, I would bite here.” Shen Qingzhuo turned his face to reveal his slender neck. “There is only one chance. If I really wanted to kill Your Highness tonight, Your Highness would be a corpse now.”
Resistance without knowing one’s own strength will only cause greater trouble.
Xiao Shen knew that he was telling the truth and huddled in a corner with his limbs tense.
His pale, dry lips were stained with bright red blood, his eyes were filled with physiological tears, and his thin body was curled up into a ball, looking extremely pitiful.
Shen Qingzhuo suppressed his anger, thinking that he was the one who had just refused to give in, but now he looked so aggrieved.
But after all, he was just a child in his teens, and he found it funny to think that the future tyrant was also afraid of ghosts when he was young.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.” Shen Qingzhuo stood up and moved away from the bed. “Xiao Dezi, help His Highness put on his clothes and go back to Jiyue Pavilion first.”
The continued fever made him feel dizzy. Xiao Shen tried to maintain his last bit of consciousness and murmured, “I won’t go.”
He must have come up with a new way to torture him again.
“If something happens to Your Highness tonight and His Majesty blames me, I’m afraid I won’t be able to bear the consequences.” Shen Qingzhuo’s tone turned cold. “So, Your Highness had better cooperate a little, so you can suffer less.”
In fact, he had no choice but to resist. Xiao Dezi wrapped him up tightly, carried him on his back, and walked out the door.
As soon as he left the palace, he felt the cold air pressing in.
Seeing the dumpling shivering on Xiao Dezi’s back, Shen Qingzhuo took off the snow cape on his shoulders with one hand.
Forget it, the suffering the little wolf cub endured tonight was all caused by the original owner. Since he has taken over the original owner’s body, he must bear the sins committed by the original owner.
The three of them returned to Jiyue Pavilion quietly, still without disturbing anyone else.
Xiao Dezi gently put the prince on the bed and said worriedly, “Young Master, His Highness has such a fever. Do you want the servant to ask the imperial physician to come and see him?”
“Are you stupid?” Shen Qingzhuo cursed him softly, “If we call the imperial physician at this time, won’t it alert everyone?”
Xiao Dezi scratched behind his ear, looking confused.
Shen Qingzhuo was silent for a moment, then said seriously, “I know you have been reporting my situation to the person in the Eastern Palace, but you and I are accomplices in today’s incident.”
Xiao Dezi was shocked and immediately kneeled down with a plop: “Young Master! The servant absolutely has nothing against you…”
“Alright, I have no intention of pursuing your past behavior.” Shen Qingzhuo interrupted his defense, “What happened tonight is known to heaven and earth, you and me. If a fourth person knows about it in the future, I will never forgive you.”
Xiao Dezi knelt on the ground, looking panicked: “The servant dares not.”
“Get up.” Shen Qingzhuo bent down, stretched out his hand to help him up, and his tone became gentle. “Your loyalty—I’ve seen it, so I made it clear. I am walking on thin ice in this palace, and you are the only person I can trust now.”
Xiao Dezi became more and more ashamed and murmured, “Young Master…”
“Bring in a basin of warm water, and ask someone to boil the medicine that was brought back during the day.” After saying that, Shen Qingzhuo turned around, tucked the corner of the quilt for the dumpling, and emphasized, “Except you, no one is allowed to come in.”
Xiao Dezi looked at his left hand and couldn’t help but say, “The servant wants to help treat the injury on Young Master’s hand first.”
Shen Qingzhuo looked down and saw that the bandage he had used was soaked with blood, but the pain was numb now. “It’s fine. Do you have any medicine for the wound?”
Xiao Dezi: “Yes, the servant will bring it right away!”
After all, he was not really bitten by the little wolf cub, so Shen Qingzhuo simply treated the wound on his palm and bandaged it beautifully.
Then he tried to summon the system in his mind, but sure enough, he didn’t get any response at all.
Encountering such an unreliable system, it’s no wonder that the previous book-traveling missions all failed.
There was no other way, Shen Qingzhuo could only sit down beside the bed and instruct Xiao Dezi to wring the wet towel half dry and then repeatedly wipe the dumpling’s forehead and neck, using physical methods to dissipate the heat and cool him down.
About half an hour later, the medicine was ready. Shen Qingzhuo stood up and gave his seat to Xiao Dezi.
He really had no experience helping children take medicine.
Perhaps the medicine was too bitter, the sleeping dumpling pursed his lips tightly, his red face wrinkled into a bitter bun, and he just refused to open his mouth to drink the medicine obediently.
Shen Qingzhuo also thought that the medicine smelled bad and pinched his nose in disgust. Suddenly, an idea flashed across his mind, and he remembered some ways to trick children into drinking medicine.
He picked up a candied fruit from the pottery jar, put it to the dumpling’s mouth, softly coaxed him to open his mouth, then asked Xiao Dezi to change to a spoon and feed the medicine into him in one go.
After struggling for a long time, he finally drank half a bowl of medicine, and the remaining half spilled on the bed.
“Tsk.” Shen Qingzhuo frowned slightly in disdain. “Xiao Dezi, you retreat and have a rest first.”
“Young Master, let the servant take care of His Highness.” Xiao Dezi volunteered, “You are not in good health, you can’t stand it.”
Shen Qingzhuo: “Just go to sleep when I tell you to. Why are you being so long-winded? You’ll be busy later.”
Xiao Dezi: “The servant understands.”
Even though he had given him medicine, Shen Qingzhuo was afraid that the medicine would not work, so he continued to wipe the high-temperature dumpling with a wet towel.
The little wolf cub who had been biting him fiercely seemed particularly well-behaved at this moment. He fell into a coma and unconsciously allowed him to manipulate him. He raised his arms when he told him to, and he had no power to resist at all.
As Shen Qingzhuo looked at him, he couldn’t help but pinch the dumpling’s little face.
Although his cheeks were pitifully thin, but the touch was surprisingly good. He simply put his backhand against the hot dumpling’s face to keep warm.
“Hmm…” Xiao Shen muttered incoherently, unconsciously chasing the source of the coolness, and rubbed his little face against his palm gently.
Shen Qingzhuo’s heart suddenly softened.
As the saying goes, even a rabbit will bite when it is cornered, let alone a living person?
However, this bite also made him realize that the little wolf cub in front of him was not as docile as he appeared to be.
Shen Qingzhuo withdrew his hand, and a smile of interest appeared on his lips. This was indeed the character he had been optimistic about from the beginning.
He likes wild little wolf cubs and even more challenging games.
If he treated this mission as an extremely difficult development game, perhaps things would be more interesting than he imagined.
So he continued to wring the towel patiently and spent most of the night there. Finally, the dumpling’s temperature dropped, and he began to sweat. It seemed that there was no great danger.
Shen Qingzhuo was so sleepy that his eyelids were fighting each other. He let out a long sigh, threw away the towel, climbed onto the bed as well, and fell asleep.
As his consciousness became dizzy, he thought to himself that he was really not suited to taking care of people, he was exhausted.
The next morning, the moment Xiao Shen regained consciousness, he keenly noticed something unusual.
There was no hard bedboard beneath him, nor was there a damp and cold quilt covering him. Instead, his whole body was wrapped in the warm quilt, and there was even a pleasant fragrance lingering around his nose.
He instantly got up from the bed with alertness, only to see a person sleeping beside the pillow with his clothes on.
His long hair was dishevelled, his crow-feather-like eyelashes were quietly closed, casting a crescent-shaped shadow under his eyes, and his sleeping face was as beautiful as a watercolor painting.
However, Xiao Shen’s eyes once again revealed a cold, murderous intent.
When he first met the man in front of him, he had some hope.
He thought that even if Shen Qingzhuo would not protect him, he would at least teach him to read and write like other masters.
But in fact, completely different from his good-looking face, this person had a vicious heart. Not only did he not teach him anything, but he also found excuses to punish him in various ways. He was no different from the other people who bullied him in the palace.
No, Shen Qingzhuo is clearly more hateful than the others!
The murderous intent in his eyes surged, Xiao Shen’s lips trembled slightly, and he stretched out his red and swollen little hands, quietly approaching the slender and fragile neck.
However, at this moment, the scene of last night suddenly emerged in his mind. This man taught him that there was only one chance to kill someone, and he had to hit the target with one strike.
But at the moment, he obviously didn’t have this ability.
The next moment he withdrew his hand, the person beside him suddenly opened his eyes.
When Shen Qingzhuo woke up, he saw a child curled up on the other side of the bed, with his dark eyes open, looking at him blankly.
He blinked his eyelashes slowly, then remembered his current situation.
“It seems that Your Highness is fine now.” He propped up his upper body and said, “Since you are fine, why don’t you get off my bed?”
Xiao Shen was startled, and after he came to his senses, he immediately jumped off the bed. Unexpectedly, his body was still limp, and he fell directly to his knees beside the bed.
Shen Qingzhuo yawned lazily and said with a half-smile, “There will be no lecture today, Your Highness, there is no need to perform such a great ceremony.”
Xiao Shen turned his back to him and secretly clenched his teeth.
Shen Qingzhuo also got off the bed, opened the window frame, and casually said, “Your Highness must be wondering why I punished you and then offered you a helping hand, right?”
Xiao Shen stood up silently, without saying anything for a while.
“Your Highness is not the only one who is helpless in this palace.” Shen Qingzhuo looked listless, as if he had not yet woken up. “As long as Your Highness is willing to cooperate, I will not punish Your Highness for no reason again.”
The original owner’s body was really weak. After all the trouble last night, he felt weak all over.
“I don’t understand.” After a moment, Xiao Shen finally opened his mouth, his voice slightly hoarse from having been burning by fever all night.
Shen Qingzhuo turned sideways and looked at the thin young boy. “You will understand later.”
The continuous heavy snow finally stopped. After the snow cleared, the rising sun shone into the inner room through the window lattice, casting a layer of warm light on Shen Qingzhuo, who was dressed in a green robe.
His tone was firm, his picturesque eyes were calm and gentle, and when he lowered his eyes to look at Xiao Shen, there seemed to be a hint of compassion in them for some reason.
At this moment, the little wolf cub, with his sensitive instinct, smelled that the person in front of him seemed to be different from before.
But he was afraid that this was the beginning of a new round of torture.
Breakfast was sent to the bedroom. Shen Qingzhuo specifically asked the kitchen to make the porridge lighter so that it would be easier for the little patient to digest.
At first, Xiao Shen was very cautious and sat at the table refusing to pick up his spoon. But after all, he was young, and his eager eyes were almost glued to the porcelain bowl.
There were always only leftovers and cold buns in the cold palace. How could he get to eat hot rice porridge?
“What? Are you afraid that I put poison in the porridge?” Shen Qingzhuo saw through his thoughts at a glance. He simply switched their bowls of porridge, scooped a spoonful, and swallowed it slowly.
After a while, Xiao Shen finally picked up the spoon.
Shen Qingzhuo secretly laughed in his heart, thinking that there were many people who were not very smart.
But then he thought of what the dumpling had been through in the cold palace over the years, and he couldn’t laugh anymore.
He doesn’t know what the author of the original book was thinking, he just tortured a little child.
If it were him, after being bullied day after day for ten years, he would probably become even more evil and even overturn the sky.
After all, he was still sick, so Xiao Shen had a poor appetite. He only sipped a bowl of rice porridge and put down his bowl and spoon. “I’m going back.”
“You don’t know how to say thank you?” Shen Qingzhuo picked up a handkerchief and wiped the corner of his lips elegantly. “I took care of you all night and even had breakfast with you. Shouldn’t you say thank you?”
The dumpling suddenly opened his round eyes wide, with an expression of disbelief in them, as if to refute the accusation against him, ‘Aren’t you the one who made me become like this?’
“Favor is favor, hatred is hatred, and we should treat each matter separately.” Shen Qingzhuo showed no shame on his face. “Revenge when revenge is needed, and repay favor too when favor is needed.”
Xiao Shen frowned, not understanding what he said at all.
“I punished you, you can hate me, but I took care of you all night, out of courtesy, you should also say thank you to me.” Shen Qingzhuo looked at him and explained patiently, “Do you understand?”
After a moment, Xiao Shen lowered his long and thick eyelashes and said in a rather stiff tone, “Thank you.”
“The child is teachable.” Shen Qingzhuo expressed his satisfaction, ignoring the dumpling’s reluctance, and said to himself, “Don’t move around today, rest here first.”
As soon as he finished speaking, Xiao Shen’s expression quickly became alert again.
