The meal was cooked, brought into the room, set on the table, and had gone cold, yet Xiao Jin Yu still hadn't returned.
Chu Chu lay sprawled over the table, waiting patiently, but she couldn't help muttering to herself.
He only went to check on the wine at the winery—how could it take a whole day?
Could it be that Old Man Wang got carried away with his enthusiasm, dragging him to taste the wine and getting him drunk?
Or did Old Man Wang find out he was from the capital and lost track of time chatting with him?
Or maybe...
Chu Chu's thoughts wandered aimlessly until she drifted into a hazy sleep. When she opened her eyes again, it was already pitch dark outside, and there was still no sign of Xiao Jin Yu in the room or outside.
He had promised to come back for dinner. He said he wouldn't lie during the New Year. Was it a sudden emergency, or had something happened...
The more she thought about it, the more anxious she became. She couldn't wait any longer. Rushing out of the yamen, she ran all the way to the winery in one breath. From afar, she saw the winery door closed, and her heart flared up with panic.
The door of Qin's Clinic next door was half-open, with bright light spilling out from inside. Without stopping, Chu Chu dashed in, calling out several times before Qin Ye hurried in from the backyard.
"Oh, little Chu, what's wrong... why are you running like this?"
Chu Chu didn't even bother to wipe her sweat, urgently asking, "Uncle Qin, was the winery open today?"
"You silly girl, have you lost track of time? It's not even the fifth day of the New Year yet. Who would open for business..."
Chu Chu stamped her foot in frustration. She had been so focused on counting the days since the wedding that she had forgotten the actual date!
"You two are really something... Young Master An just came by to ask the same thing, and now you're asking too?"
Hearing this, Chu Chu's heart leaped with joy. "Uncle Qin, you saw him?"
"Yes, it was during the day today... He came to buy wine, but the winery was closed, so he stopped by here to rest for a bit..."
Chu Chu pressed further, "Where did he go after that?"
"After chatting for a while, he left... Before leaving, he asked me which path to Phoenix Mountain was easier to walk. I suppose he went up the mountain."
"Was he alone?"
"Yes... Why?"
Last night, his rheumatism was acting up. Going up the mountain, and still not back so late...
Chu Chu's heart, which had just settled, tightened again, even more intensely than before.
"Nothing... Thank you, Uncle Qin!"
"No problem, no problem... Slow down, don't trip!"
"Alright..."
When Xiao Jin Yu regained consciousness, the first thing he noticed was the heavy scent of blood in the cold air. His empty stomach, burning with hunger, twisted painfully, jolting his still-groggy mind awake.
He could feel himself lying stiffly on a dilapidated wooden bed with only a single sheet, the cold, hard boards digging painfully into his spine. He didn't even have the strength to turn over or shift his position. The sheet emitted a foul mix of blood and sweat, and without looking, he knew it was filthy beyond measure.
Out of over a hundred people, who knew how many had lain on this bed, on this very sheet, before they died...
Xiao Jin Yu struggled to lift his still-heavy eyelids, gradually making out the outline of a room from the dim, blurry haze.
Within the half of the room visible to him, there were earthen walls and a domed ceiling. The walls had no doors or windows, and in one corner stood a rickety wooden staircase stretching from the floor to the ceiling.To call this a room would be more accurate to describe it as a burrow—damp, chilly, stifling, with the stench of blood mingled with a nauseating moldy rot. The source of the blood odor was piled against the base of the wall directly in front of him.
A dismembered corpse, with limbs, head, and torso separated, lay haphazardly stacked like ordinary trash. The head of the corpse faced Xiao Jin Yu, its hollow eyes staring forward, appearing both eerily calm and profoundly sorrowful.
Among the scattered body parts, one arm was conspicuously missing.
Xiao Jin Yu was fixedly observing the pile of remains when a sound came from the ceiling connected to the stairs. A beam of light, brighter than that in the room, streamed down from above. Qin Ye bent low to enter, then turned to seal the opening before leisurely descending the stairs, the dilapidated steps groaning sharply under his weight.
Noticing Xiao Jin Yu awake on the bed and following his gaze, Qin Ye remarked with a hint of regret, "I was hauling people to the clinic on a cart when he happened to see me. Storytellers talk too fast—otherwise, someone his age wouldn’t have been involved... Don’t worry, I won’t treat you like that."
Xiao Jin Yu responded with a faint, serene smile, as calm as if he were still sitting in the inner room of the clinic, warming himself by the charcoal brazier, sipping hot tea, and chatting with a kind-hearted, skilled doctor. "Then how will you treat me..."
Qin Ye walked unhurriedly to the bedside, slowly rolling up his sleeves. "You’re related to the Prince of Wu Commandery, around his age, and your legs are crippled too. You’re the perfect subject to test treatments for him... I’ve taken your pulse—your health isn’t great, but it’s still better than his. A few rounds of acupuncture to damage your internal organs to match his condition, then breaking your spine should suffice... Rest assured, I’ll be careful. You won’t die before we perfect the treatment for the Prince."
Qin Ye spoke with a calmness tinged with habitual numbness.
Xiao Jin Yu remained even more composed, as though the subject of discussion wasn’t himself and the person being stripped of clothing layer by layer wasn’t him either. "You’ve been experimenting on over a hundred people for so long—surely you’ve learned something..."
"Of course, I have." Qin Ye replied offhandedly while deftly and carefully removing his clothes. "Initially, I used able-bodied individuals, drugging them with Bewitching drug to keep them immobile in bed. They ate, drank, and relieved themselves there, and soon developed Bedsores. That’s how I devised the treatment for the Prince’s Bedsores... Later, to address his spinal injury, I had to break people’s spines for testing. At first, my technique was off—subjects died before I could even begin treatment. But with practice, I’ve refined it..."
Once he had fully undressed Xiao Jin Yu, Qin Ye fetched a basin of warm water, tossed in a coarse cloth towel, rinsed it a couple of times, and began washing his body from top to bottom.
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