Night fell.
A half-moon slowly rose from the west, and the stars were scattered like pieces on a chessboard.
With Xiao Yunluo leading the way, the two of them flew on their swords for half an hour before finally arriving at the entrance of the Inner Sect Medical Clinic.
At this time, Physician Zhou had already returned to his dwelling, and only a few little helpers on duty were handling the herbs and ledgers in the storehouse on the first floor of the clinic.
Pei Lengxue didn't have an ID card, but Xiao Yunluo could show hers.
Xiao Yunluo walked to the counter, took a deep breath, and asked softly, "Hello, may I ask, which room does the Young Master of the Hundred Lotus live in?"
"Huh? It's the Young Mistress. Wait a minute, I'll check the medical record."
Seeing that it was Xiao Yunluo, the boy on duty ran behind the counter without hesitation, moved a bench, stepped on it, and stood on tiptoes. Then, he took an account book from the top of the bookcase and leafed through it.
The boy tilted his head and smiled. "Mr. Ye is in the Earth Essence Pavilion on the fourth floor. Young Mistress, do you want me to take you up there?"
"No need to bother. Thank you for your kindness." Xiao Yunluo declined politely.
"Then, Young Mistress, take your time. I'll continue tending to the medicinal herbs register." The little helper respectfully bowed to Xiao Yunluo before burying himself in organizing the ledgers.
Xiao Yunluo had thought that Pei Lengxue would be very happy to hear that the Young Master of the Hundred Lotus Sect had been injured and would then run over to taunt him, "Finally, your day has come too? In the past, you treated me so badly! Now it's your turn!" And so on.
However, Pei Lengxue's expression was not like that now. Her eyes were full of worry.
On the way up to the fourth floor, Xiao Yunluo couldn't help herself and asked, "Lengxue, shouldn't you be happy that he's injured? He treated you like that before..."
"Err..."
"If you want, I can ask the little helpers here to do some mean things to him."
Pei Lengxue was startled. "Mean... things? What kind of things?"
"Mm-hmm." Xiao Yunluo nodded, leaned to her ear, and whispered. "Physician Zhou here is very narrow-minded. In the past, Elder Chen of the Raincloud Peak and Physician Zhou played mahjong, and he grabbed the tiles that Physician Zhou wanted, making him angry. After a few days, the tea Elder Chen usually drank had two more herbs of... well... spiritual herbs that are good for health but can make people vomit and have diarrhea non-stop."
"?"
"..."
"Physician Zhou has used a number of outrageous tactics in the past, such as intentionally causing people severe pain when changing their bandages, putting some herbs that disturb the patient bowels in the soup they are eating, and replacing mind-soothing herbs with mind-stimulating herbs..."
Hearing all this, Pei Lengxue quickly interrupted, raising her voice. "No! don't mess with my senior brother!!!"
"Ah?! Shh--" Xiao Yunluo quickly raised her index finger to her lips, signaling her to keep her voice down. "Don't let them hear you, or we will all suffer."
Pei Lengxue frowned and said in a low voice. "Anyway... don't mess with my senior brother!"
"But didn't you say..."
"Well, that..." Pei Lengxue pursed her lips, looked at Xiao Yunluo, and after a short hesitation, she replied, "I will explain it to you when we get back."
"..."
Xiao Yunluo nodded without fully understanding.
So it seemed that Lengxue lied to her last time?
Her senior brother was actually a good person?
But why would she lie to her...
The two of them climbed the stairs to the fourth floor, and after searching the corridor for a while, they finally found the Earth Essence Pavilion sign.
Standing in front of the door, Pei Lengxue reached out and gently knocked on the door.
Knock-knock-
"..."
Knock-knock-
"..."
"Senior brother?! Are you in there?"
"..."
After asking three times with no response from inside, Pei Lengxue hesitated for a moment and finally opened the door gently.
The room was dimly lit, only by the moonlight streaming in from the window.
And right next to the window, illuminated by the moonlight, there was a humanoid bandaged form, his entire body emitting a faint but crystal-clear blue light.
Looking at the form on the bed, Pei Lengxue almost didn't recognize her senior brother, and hurriedly shushed Xiao Yunluo raising her index finger, then tiptoed her way to the bedside.
Only now did she realize that Ye Anping was sound asleep.
'He must be really badly hurt…' Thought Pei Lengxue sadly.
The reason why she thought so is that, because in the past, whenever someone, even an animal approached her senior brother, no matter whether he was sleeping or doing something else, he would immediately wake up.
It was the first time she had seen her senior brother this defenseless.
"It must hurt so badly..." Pei Lengxue muttered softly and slowly reached out to gently touch Ye Anping's face. "senior brother..."
She stood by the bed, quietly staring at Ye Anping's face.
The two of them remained motionless as if they had turned into statues.
Standing aside and observing Pei Lengxue's behavior, Xiao Yunluo felt that her relationship with Ye Anping must be, in fact, very good.
She did not interrupt, but glanced at Ye Anping's face again.
After staring for a while, she remembered. Wasn't this the little boss of the Ye Massage Center from downtown?
Did Lengxue's senior brother have this habit of doing massages?
Xiao Yunluo frowned as her doubts flared up again.
Why didn't Lengxue say anything to her when they were at the Ye Massage Center last time? At that time, she actually dragged Lengxue away...
But now...
"Miss Xi Yue... um..." Ye Anping called out the name as if talking in his sleep.
Hearing this name, Pei Lengxue, who was still staring at his face full of worry and sadness, suddenly felt a pang in her heart, bit her lip, and took her hand away from his face.
"Senior brother, I'll come to see you again tomorrow..."
Pei Lengxue actually kind of wanted to kiss Ye Anping on the cheek, but considering that Xiao Yunluo was present, she was feeling a little embarrassed, so she let it go.
"Let's go back."
"Okay..."
Xiao Yunluo nodded and walked toward the door with Pei Lengxue.
And just when they were about to exit the room, Ye Anping suddenly spoke again. "Mmm... Junior sister... You have grown up..."
Pei Lengxue froze, turned her head to look behind her, and the heaviness she had felt in her heart just now suddenly lifted.
"Senior brother..." She smiled at Ye Anping and whispered. "Rest well..."
After that, she closed the door gently and sighed heavily.
This time, Xiao Yunluo couldn't hold herself back and asked, "Lengxue, why did you lie to me back then? You said your senior brother poisoned you, beat you black and blue, and so on..."
"Ah... that..." Pei Lengxue lowered her head, feeling somewhat guilty, and replied, "It was true."
"Really? But you don't seem to hate your senior brother at all?"
"This is also true."
?
Xiao Yunluo cocked her head.
This girl was bullied so badly by her senior brother as a child, but she didn't hate the person who bullied her at all...
Was this girl really that kind-hearted?
It couldn't be!
Previously, Lengxue was merciless toward the members of the Seven Killers Sect who had attacked them.
In that case...
Xiao Yunluo frowned. "Lengxue, do you have some kind of weird preference?"
"?"
"I read in the books that some people like to be kicked and beaten!" Xiao Yunluo frowned and said with some embarrassment. "Although I shouldn't interfere with other people's preferences, but, this is wrong! You can't do this... This is a sickness! It must be cured!!"
Taken aback, Pei Lengxue replied weakly. "I...I don't like being beaten!"
"Then, why don't you hate your senior brother?"
"Well..." Pei Lengxue didn't know how to explain. After a moment of silence, she said, "Let's talk about it when we go back."