Chapter 8: Brain Fried From The Fever
In Dongning County Town, candlelight flickered inside the county yamen prison. Four runners guarding the prison cells patrolled in two shifts.
The night was already more than half over. The constables could not resist the assault of sleepiness and, after one final patrol, all lay down on the table to sleep, snoring like thunder.
A gust of wind passed, causing the keychain hanging on the wall to clink crisply several times. Then it rushed together with a shadowy black-haired figure toward the depths of the prison.
In the last prison cell, the oil lamp on the table had long gone out. Only some light came through the half-foot window on the wall, shining on the straw mat below.
The thin quilt had fallen to one side. A thin figure lay sideways on the straw mat, disheveled black hair scattered over his back, his frail body trembling uncontrollably from the chill of the spring night.
Shang Wan stood at the prison door and watched for a long time. Although she could not see his face, judging by his figure alone, the person inside should be her nominal husband, right?
She used the stolen key to open the prison door and entered. The huddled figure heard the movement and suddenly stopped trembling but did not turn around.
“If you’re not asleep, come over and talk. I have something to ask you.” Shang Wan put the key on the table and leaned against the table edge with both arms crossed.
Hearing this familiar voice, Lu Chengjing suddenly opened his tightly closed eyes. How was it her?
He propped himself up to sit, turned his head, and looked at the person standing by the table in the moonlight. He could not hide his astonishment. “How did you get in?”
“Naturally, I walked in.” Shang Wan sized up the person on the straw mat. Although the prison cell was dim, it did not hinder her from seeing Lu Chengjing’s handsome appearance clearly.
Handsome starry eyes, pupils like dots of lacquer, nose and mouth perfectly proportioned. His face was somewhat dirty, and his hair was messy, yet it could not hide his elegance.
Such looks were commonly said to be good-looking even draped in a sack.
He was just a bit thinner, his lips paler, and his cheeks flushed with an unusual red.
Shang Wan slightly furrowed her brows. In the original host’s memory, Lu Chengjing was a premature baby, weak-bodied from childhood. Was he ill now?
“If you’re cold, why not cover with the quilt?” She walked over, picked up the thin quilt from the side of the straw mat, and a sour stench immediately rushed into her nose.
Ignoring the unpleasant smell, she directly wrapped the thin quilt around Lu Chengjing and sat down by the straw mat to examine her nominal husband more closely.
Ignoring the smell, he looked even better up close, pleasing to the eye. Even kept as a vase at home, he would be very enjoyable to look at, not to mention that he held the xiucai scholar official rank, which could bring quite a few benefits to the family.
Shang Wan, the face-connoisseur, felt like she had picked up a great bargain, a genuine smile rising at the corners of her lips.
Lu Chengjing felt slightly uncomfortable under Shang Wan’s direct gaze, turned his face slightly, pursed his pale lips, and was about to say something when a slightly cool hand suddenly landed on his burning forehead. A whisper came to his ear, “Sure enough, you have a fever.”
Shang Wan’s fair fingers slid down to his nose, discovering that even his exhaled breath was scorching hot.
No wonder he wasn’t covering with the quilt and was shivering to warm himself. Turns out his brain was fever-addled.
She tucked the thin quilt tighter around him, then got up and went out through the prison door.
Lu Chengjing watched her departing back, his long lashes half-lowered, an inexplicable disappointment rising in his heart.
Not long after, Shang Wan returned with half a bowl of water and held it to his pale lips. “Drink.”
Lu Chengjing was surprised she hadn’t left. He lifted his eyelids to glance at her, reached out his left hand to take it, and slowly drank it down.
Oh, wasn’t he quite obedient? Where was the aloofness from the original host’s memory?
Shang Wan contentedly ruffled her nominal husband’s messy long hair. The texture wasn’t great, but she was still quite happy stroking it.
She had just added three drops of spiritual spring water to the water. Drinking this bowl would definitely bring down the fever.
After Lu Chengjing finished drinking, Shang Wan took back the bowl and stared at him with both eyes. “What happened to your right hand?”
From earlier, whether sitting up from the straw mat, gripping the quilt, or taking the bowl, Lu Chengjing had used his left hand. But in the original host’s memory, he was not left-handed.
“Hand tendons severed.” Lu Chengjing said it lightly, but Shang Wan did not miss the flash of gloom in his eyes.
How important the right hand was to a scholar. With hand tendons severed, the hand was ruined.
Her eyes narrowed, a nameless fire rising in her heart. “Who did it?”
Lu Chengjing lowered his lashes and did not answer.
Shang Wan clenched her fist, suppressed her anger, and pulled open the thin quilt wrapped around Lu Chengjing. She pressed him down on the bed and began checking from his scalp downward, inch by inch.
“What are you doing?” Lu Chengjing tried to push away the person on him, but Shang Wan’s strength exceeded his imagination. He could not push her off at all. In embarrassment and anger, his slightly receded flushed face instantly became redder than the sunset glow on the horizon.
“Behave.” Shang Wan gave him a warning glance. Her fair fingers gently brushed over the whip wound on his chest that was still oozing blood, a cold killing intent flashing in her eyes.
Lu Chengjing inadvertently saw it, paused in his pushing, and words slipped out. “You’re not Shang Wan.”
Shang Wan was timid, selfish, indecisive, and only knew how to cry when faced with matters. She was the wife “thoughtfully” chosen for him by his good sister-in-law. How could she have such a piercing gaze?
“I am.” Just not the original one.
Shang Wan released him and glanced at his immobile legs hidden under his long pants. Her anger intensified.
“Who exactly are you?” Lu Chengjing struggled to prop himself up to sit, his gaze scrutinizing Shang Wan’s face. “Shang Wan couldn’t break into the prison at night for me, nor does she have the ability.”
Shang Wan looked at him. Had his intelligence returned to the high ground after the fever subsided?
Tsk, he was more obedient earlier.
“I’ll say it once, listen clearly.” Shang Wan leaned forward, their gazes meeting. “I. Am. Shang. Wan.”
“You…” Lu Chengjing subconsciously retorted. Shang Wan glared at his pale lips. “Say it again and I’ll kiss you.”
Lu Chengjing: “…” Rogue!
He quickly clamped his mouth shut tight.
“That’s better.” Shang Wan contentedly patted his head. “You can tell me later who did it. Time is short, so let’s keep it brief. Prison break, yes or no?”
She absolutely did not want to leave her injured vase in this awful prison any longer.
“No.” Lu Chengjing refuted without thinking. “A prison break would only confirm my crime. If harshly sentenced, it would implicate the family.”
Shang Wan pursed her lips. The Lu Family was indeed afraid of being implicated.
“Forgot to tell you, the Lu Family already expelled our family of three from the clan overnight, with nothing but the clothes on our backs.”
“What?” Lu Chengjing’s pupils contracted sharply, his left hand clenching into a fist, even his breathing growing heavier.
“You’re still ill. No need to get angry over those unrelated people.” Shang Wan pried open his left hand’s five fingers one by one, thinking to herself that his hand had even bones and flesh, long slender fingers, as good-looking as her nominal husband’s face.
The unfamiliar kneading sensation on his fingers made Lu Chengjing too shocked to dwell on anger or disappointment. He yanked his hand back, his dark eyes warily fixed on the woman beside him, a hint of annoyance on his handsome face.
Which woman grabs a man’s hand and doesn’t let go? Acting so outrageously, this woman definitely wasn’t Shang Wan!
Shang Wan blinked innocently. She was just admiring the pretty hand, pinching it a couple times. Why did her nominal husband look like she was about to force herself on him?
They’d even had a child with the original host. Was that really necessary?
