Page 60 of Dynasty of the Wicked

“Yes, yes.” He lifted her arm and she gasped in pain, squeezing her eyes shut. He nodded again, moving her fingers, and then other parts of her body. He examined her from head to toe, before disappearing through the curtains to one end of the tent, and coming back with a small vial and a jar. “The magicked attacks will heal, though they have bruised you. It is more like a phantom pain than anything else, but that doesn’t mean the pain isn’tthere. Time will heal them. What I am more concerned about is the ghoul’s attacks. Ghouls attack your very soul, so the damage is much more severe.”

She had no idea what he meant, but it sounded grim, and she could only bob her head slowly. “Will I be healed?”

“Eventually. We can speed up the process by having someone heal you with magic.” He placed the medicines on the bedside table. “There is no one here who can help with that, but even if you do not receive help here, I’m sure you can find someone. Lord Zheng is not skilled in healing.”

Feng Mian’s jaw tightened, but he didn’t say anything.

“Here, dear.” Physician Wu had uncorked the vial and held it out to her, which she hesitantly took. “This will help with the pain and nausea.”

She was just about to take a swig of it when Feng Mian snatched the vial from her hand. She yelped back in surprise. He sniffed the contents, much to Physician Wu’s horror.

“L-Lord Zheng?” The old man swallowed, blinking rapidly.

“I have to make sure you’re not trying to poison her.” Feng Mian lowered the glass vial, his eyes narrowing. “You made an oath that you wouldn’t tell a soul, not that you wouldn’t harm her.”

“I am aphysician.” He sounded hurt, betrayed, and offended, and his mouth trembled.

“A physician is able to heal just as readily as he is able to kill.”

“I swear that I only have good intentions toward the lady,” he continued. “But if you don’t trust me, I will gladly leave?—”

“No, you will heal her.”

“Lord Zheng …”

Zhi Ruo grimaced at the interaction between the two. “Feng Mian, I think it’s fine.”

He hesitated before handing the vial back to her. A look of mistrust shone in his eyes. “This wouldn’t be the first time someone lied and betrayed me.”

The physician huffed and rose to his feet. He looked like he wanted to say something, but the look on Feng Mian’s face madehim simply gesture toward the second jar on the nightstand. “That is herb ointment to help with the various cuts and bruises on your body. Now, if you both will excuse me, I have other patients to tend to.”

He swiftly exited the tent, making it two people who Feng Mian had offended and made storm off. Zhi Ruo pursed her lips and gave him a steady look, though she was aware he couldn’t see her scowl. Nonetheless, he frowned back.

“You are too trusting, especially for a royal.” He sat beside her on her bed, his fingers grazing the injury to her shoulder where the ghoul had attacked her. He took the second jar off the nightstand table and sniffed it, his nose crinkling. “Smells like shit, so it’s probably safe.”

“You didn’t have to be so rude,” she said with a sigh, bringing the vial of dark liquid to her nose. It smelled strongly of bitter herbs. She didn’t have to taste it to know it was foul.

“Like I said, you are too trusting.” He gently scooped the thick ointment out of the vial and stroked her injury. She hissed in pain, tightening her hold on the bottle and curving her free hand on the edge of the bed. The medicine burned, causing her muscles to seize momentarily.

She drank the bitter concoction as Feng Mian continued prodding her injuries with the medicine. As she expected, it was rancid tasting, the fumes going straight to her nose. She gagged, smacking her mouth together to get rid of the sticky, gross residue stuck in her mouth.

“I have never been targeted before,” she said. “I’m not important enough to be assassinated.”

“Things are different here.” His lips flattened into a straight line. “When I was younger, I was attacked several times. Some assassins from my father, some from my father’s concubine, and once or twice from distant relatives vying for the heir title.”

It wasn’t a unique experience, she was sure. She had heard countless tales of nobles and heirs who had been assassinated by family members who wanted their position. If she remembered correctly, he was the son of General Zheng’s first wife. All of General Zheng’s other children were daughters from his second wife.

“How were you able to survive?” She placed a gentle hand on top of his.

“My mother protected me. She will kill anyone who gets in my way.” He lifted his shoulders. “But being around her … is difficult. She wished to give birth to a powerful son after years of infertility, and then she had me, and I was a great, great disappointment to my mother and father. He ended up taking another wife, or concubine, or whoever the fuck that bitch is.” He helped Zhi Ruo pull her dress back on, his finger skimming over her neck. There was a faraway look on his face. “My mother would have killed her too, and I think she tried to a few times, but my father always protected that woman. Unfortunately, it caused a big rift between my parents that never mended. Can you imagine that? A couple who is so in love with each other that they remain together even after a decade of infertility? Only to be torn apart by a cursed, blind son like me.”

Zhi Ruo touched the side of his face with her uninjured hand, her thumb grazing over his cheek, easing the harsh expression off. “Don’t speak about yourself like that. They were supposed to protect you, and they failed.”

“My mother tried,” he said, softer this time. She could see the pain in his eyes, though there was a stronger emotion that burned in his gaze, that made his jaw screw together—a rage she had seen in him several times before. “But at the same time, she viewed me as someone incapable of doing anything. Someone who always needed to be protected. Someone … useless.”

“Feng Mian?—”

He shook his head. “We can talk about this all later. We need to first figure out what we’re going to do moving forward.”

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