Chapter 30: If Only She Could Care More!

Proofreader: Prof. Zhu Yuan

All the poisoned ones were carried into a hall. The hall was furnished with a wide bed, on which all the poisoned ones could lie.

Murong was ordered to take care of the poisoned people while Ruan Jiujiu offered to do the same.

She had to make sure that everyone remained alive — her life was at stake!

It was so callous of Beiming Xuan. Despite the knowledge of Beiming Xuan’s every intention to kill her, she would not write herself off as hopeless and act recklessly.

She took good care of everyone and so did Murong.

Having caught sight of how Ruan Jiujiu detoxified others and her use of that “artifact,” Murong was burning with curiosity. He was, therefore, the only one who expected Ruan Jiujiu to live.

Having seen through what was on Murong’s mind, Ruan Jiujiu seized the opportunity to order Murong around without any sense of guilt.

“Murong,” she said, “Take care of these people. Apply a cold compress if they have fever.”

“OK.”

“And take care of the people on this side. Keep track of their detoxification process.”

“You can trust me!”

With a towel in his hand, Murong kept going through among the poisoned ones, holding a pail.

Indeed, Ruan Jiujiu did not stand idle. She was, however, in an easier manner than Murong did. With a silver needle in each hand, she pushed it into the skin of the poisoned ones for treatment from time to time.

Murong was very tired because he had never been ordered around like that, and yet he was also in delight.

The reason for his great delight was that he came to find Ruan Jiujiu’s “medical skills” extraordinary.

Murong acquired his medical knowledge in Shennong Hall, and what he did there was mainly learning principles of medical science. He was, therefore, not adept at detoxifying others. Based on his own experience, he believed that it was rather hard for a medical practitioner to excel in both grasping wide medical knowledge and doing poison research. Ruan Jiujiu, however, seemed to be an exception. She had demonstrated her consummate medical skills, despite her use of uncommon measures.

She could immediately spot even the slightest fluctuations or changes of toxin in the body of those poisoned ones, and deactivated the toxin in a short time.

Undeterred by the daunting task of curing a great number of patients as well as Beiming Xuan’s death threat, Ruan Jiujiu remained vigorous and concentrated all her efforts on detoxifying the poisoned people. It would be no mean feat for a little girl to cultivate such high medical ethics.

He found that he very much “admired” Ruan Jiujiu.

“I think it’s safe to say that they will recover. It would only take four hours to completely eliminate the toxin.”

Ruan Jiujiu breathed a sigh of relief. Her eyes swept over all the poisoned people lying in the hall, as if she was comforting herself.

Murong also felt relieved. From the perspective of a medical practitioner, he knew that Ruan Jiujiu was not talking big.

Completely exhausted, Ruan Jiujiu found a chair and threw herself down onto that chair.

She took virtually no rest except a night’s sleep due to her fainting from the knockout drug. She had only had one meal with the knockout drug being added into.

What a miserable life she led!

She rolled her eyes in contemplation. She knew that Beiming Xuan wanted to kill her. And she would not die in hunger.

“I’m hungry right now. Fetch me something to eat.” Ruan Jiujiu said to Zou Meng, Beiming Xuan’s bodyguard. His presence was not so much to give a hand as to keep watch on Ruan Jiujiu.

Zou Meng froze with surprise. Just now, following Ruan Jiujiu’s command, he, together with other guards, ran hither and thither for curing the poisoned people, not knowing whether it was truly necessary to do so. They were exhausted.

Now he was again ordered around before he could have a rest.

“Miss Ruan, the toxin inside their body has not been completely eliminated,” implying that she was not allowed to have food until those people regained consciousness.

Raising her eyebrow, Ruan Jiujiu snorted: “It turns out that your lord is so stingy! It would be unreasonable to expect the horse to run fast without letting it graze. If that is not the case, I would doubt that your lord is too poor to afford a meal for me.”

Zou Meng was stunned. At that moment he was confused by Ruan Jiujiu’s remarks.

Stingy? Poor?

No kidding!

The crux of the matter lay in the fact that Ruan Jiujiu was not invited by the lord to take care of the poisoned ones. With that in mind, Zou Meng intended to retort, but Ruan Jiujiu got the upper hand even before Zou Meng could voice his complaints. She said: “Your lord will not be impoverished simply by a meal. I doubt whether you are heaping blame on your lord for your stinginess.”

“Stop talking nonsense!” Being a rough guy, Zou Meng failed to figure out Ruan Jiujiu’s trick. His cheeks flushed.

“Fetch me something to eat, so that you can prove I’m talking nonsense.” Ruan Jiujiu reminded him “with good intentions.”

Not knowing how to retort, Zou Meng glared at Ruan Jiujiu silently and then went out to get some food for her.

After a while, Zou Meng brought some food from the kitchen. At the sight of food, Ruan Jiujiu completely forgot how reluctant Zou Meng was, not hiding her greedy eyes. She offhandedly asked Murong to share the food. And before Murong could politely turn down her request, she had already rolled up her sleeves and started to eat.

Murong felt astonished by her repulsive table manners. Could she be ruder?

Having eaten to her heart’s content, Ruan Jiujiu gave a belch. She tapped on her full belly, glanced at Murong and said languidly: “I’m tired. I want to have a rest in the inner room.”

“Enough food and good sleep will give me the energy to deal with that poker-faced nuisance.” Ruan Jiujiu thought.

Seeing Ruan Jiujiu heading for the inner room, Murong was completely stunned. If only she could care more!

Did she forget that the lord would kill her if there was something wrong with the poisoned ones?

Ruan Jiujiu slammed the door shut. Seeing that, Murong was on the point of stopping her when he thought better of it.

Stuck in his inner struggle for a while, Murong finally decided to help Ruan Jiujiu to take good care of all the poisoned people.

Burdened with the formidable task of taking good care of such a great number of poisoned people scattering around the wide bed, Murong felt that he was disgracing himself.

“I’m going to report to the lord.” Zou Meng said to Murong.

Also stunned by Ruan Jiujiu’s obvious easiness, Zou Meng turned around and ran away.

“I’m back, my lord.” Ning Chao walked into the study deferentially.

Beiming Xuan was mobilizing his internal energy, trying to eliminate the toxin from his body. His blood vessel had been injected with antidote through Ruan Jiujiu’s needle. Then he had to go through a detoxification process. Indeed, it took him much shorter time than other poisoned people to complete this process.

“Come in.”

Ning Chao found that the lord’s glabella was no longer covered by black air despite his cold countenance. “You have eliminated the toxin!” Ning Chao was agreeably surprised.

Beiming Xuan nodded in confirmation.

“It turns out that her detoxifying measures truly work.” Ning Chao said with delight.

Actually, he was not well disposed to Ruan Jiujiu. Since she had saved the lord, now he would hold a better opinion of her.

“What have you found?” Beiming Xuan asked grimly.

Ning Chao cupped one hand in the other before his chest, took a step forward, and said: “My lord, I have found that Ruan Jiujiu is an orphan girl. Her father was General Ruan Sheng who died for our country several years ago. An infanta title was once conferred on her by the emperor. And she was once fiancée of Beiming Ting, the seventh son of the emperor.”

“Once?” Beiming Xuan got the point, raising his eyebrow.

Ning Chao nodded and continued: “Exactly. Ruan Qingqing, her cousin, is now Beiming Ting’s fiancée. And the title of infanta also goes to Ruan Qingqing.”

“What a silly girl!” Beiming Xuan made comments indifferently after he learned that Ruan Jiujiu had failed to keep what belonged to her.

Putting herself at the mercy of others? It did not seem to be anything that would happen to this little girl.

She was the one who robbed instead of being robbed. Robbing her of her possessions seemed to be a virtual impossibility!