After waiting a while and seeing that Zhao Xiyan was still deeply asleep with no sign of waking, she finally breathed a sigh of relief.
She had truly lost her composure just now.
She had always thought she wasn't one to be swayed by handsome men, but unexpectedly…
Zhao Xiyan was unparalleled compared to those national heartthrobs and top stars she had seen in her previous life.
"What a bewitching creature!"
Qi Yue murmured silently in her heart, bent over to pick up the handkerchief, and planned to wash it.
Actually, her main purpose was to go into the space.
After telling Shen Yu, she turned around and left.
Previously, when she was treating Zhao Yongzhe and Zhao Xiyan, she was worried that the pain would prevent them from sleeping, so she specially fed them sleeping medicine.
According to the time, the two of them should be waking up now.
Shen Yu watched Qi Yue's hurrying figure with a face full of confusion.
"What's the hurry with this child?"
When she turned back, she was startled to see Zhao Xiyan struggling to sit up and almost dropped the bun in her hand.
She hurried over to help Zhao Xiyan, but was afraid of touching his wound, leaving her somewhat at a loss for what to do.
"Yanyan?"
"Mother."
"Yanyan, lie down quickly. Are you hungry? Your wife just made porridge, it's still warm. Mother will feed you right away."
Shen Yu hastened to get the bowl of porridge, feeling somewhat anxious for Qi Yue.
What was this girl embarrassed about, running away when she saw the person awake? "Mother." Zhao Xiyan frowned, his expression cold and his voice urgent, "Where is father?"
While he spoke, Zhao Yongzhe slowly opened his eyes.
"—Yanyan."
Zhao Yongzhe was more seriously injured and couldn't get up yet.
Father and son turned their heads to look at each other, wordless, their eyes moistening.
Seeing this scene, Shen Yu's tears, which had stopped, started to fall again.
Zhao Yonglian hurried over to comfort them, "Don't cry, everyone is still alive, aren't we? As long as we are alive, there's hope!"
Zhao Shuanghua and Zhao Shuangyue, the two sisters, brought over the porridge and said tearfully, "Father, big brother, eat some porridge first."
Zhao Yongzhe and Zhao Xiyan hadn't eaten all day, and with the aroma of the porridge, they felt their appetite return.
After eating a bowl each, both felt their pain had lessened considerably.
"Mother, where did this porridge come from? It seems quite extraordinary."
"Your wife made it specially, doesn't it taste very good?"
Shen Yu wiped away her tears and recounted all the day's events.
"Xiyan, Mother knows you are not pleased with this marriage, but Yueyue is a good girl, and she loves you deeply. Please, don't hurt her."
"Mother." Zhao Xiyan frowned, calling out with a face full of resistance, but in the end, said nothing more.
Seeing this, Shen Yu finally felt somewhat relieved.
She knew her son all too well; his silence meant he understood, and he would never do anything to hurt Qi Yue.
Meanwhile, Qi Yue had already found a secluded spot to enter the space.
From acquiring the space in the morning until now, she had been busy collecting things, without having inspected the inside of the small building.
After looking around the space, she indeed found that everything was exactly as before.
The first floor of the small building had a consultation room, treatment room, operating room, equipment room, etc., and the second floor was where the living quarters were situated, with clothes and various items neatly arranged.
In the backyard, there was a kitchen and a small dining room.
Looking at this familiar place, Qi Yue's heart grew even more settled.
If she couldn't go back, then she would survive here and thrive.
After eating a piece of cake from the space's refrigerator, Qi Yue belatedly remembered the fact that she was now a big fatty.
Looking at the mirror reflecting her corpulent body, she restrained herself from eating a second piece.
She had already examined this body carefully.
The original owner had indeed been given some kind of drug to increase her appetite when she was young, but after years of eating voraciously, her stomach had adapted to high-volume intake.
So, if she wanted to slim down, the first step was to control her diet.
Standing at 170 cm tall, once she lost weight, she was sure to be very attractive!
Qi Yue was filled with confidence in herself and no longer felt hungry.
After a busy day, she smelled, so Qi Yue simply took a bath, washing and drying her clothes inside and out before putting them on again.
Afterward, she went to the pharmacy, crushed several kinds of medicine, and remade them into honey pills.
She could not reveal the existence of the space; she had to be extremely careful.
Luckily, there were many porcelain bottles in the clinic's space. She filled two, placed them on her and then left the space.
When she returned to the Zhao Family camp, the day had already dimmed.
Shen Yu saw her coming back and hurried to greet her with a series of questions, her concern clearly spilling over, which made Qi Yue feel warm.
"Yueyue, your medical skills are truly remarkable, both Yanyan and your father have woken up, and mother sees they are much better now. Do they still need to take medicine?"
"They do." Qi Yue took out two porcelain vials from her bosom and handed them to Shen Yu, "Two of each kind, and if there's no fever tonight, in a few days they'll be... all right."
She had intended to say they could get up and walk around, but she abruptly remembered the two men, one with a broken leg and the other paralyzed from the waist down, and she quickly corrected herself.
Shen Yu didn't realize that in just a second, Qi Yue had considered so much, and she hurriedly stuffed the medicine vials back into her hands.
"Yueyue, mother is afraid of getting the medicine wrong, please help your mother!"
She wanted Qi Yue to spend more time with Zhao Xiyan to slowly nurture their feelings for each other.
Qi Yue could see what she was thinking but felt it wasn't her place to say anything, so she took the medicine and walked to the carriage.
Hearing her approach, Zhao Yongzhe struggled to rise, but Qi Yue hurried over to support him.
"Duke, please don't get up."
Zhao Yongzhe didn't insist and took the medicine with the help of Qi Yue's hand, then took a couple of breaths.
"There's no Duke anymore, now that you've married in and you'll be with Xiyan, just call me father."
This was his way of acknowledging her, and Qi Yue's lips curled in a small smile.
She had to wait until they arrived at the Place of Exile to discuss the annulment with Zhao Xiyan, so agreeing with this was fine for now, and she responded.
"Yes, father."
Feeling Zhao Xiyan looking at her from the side, Qi Yue didn't raise her head to meet his gaze, but frowned slightly as she pushed the medicine and the water bottle toward him.
"Your injuries are serious, take the medicine and try to get some sleep early, and if you have a fever in the middle of the night, remember to call me."
As she turned to leave, she heard Zhao Xiyan's voice, crisp and clear like fragments of jade.
"I heard from mother and third uncle that you know medical skills?"
With a crack, it was as if glass shattered inside her heart.
Qi Yue stood frozen on the spot.
Nobody knew she was an extreme audiophile, who's always been defenseless against beautiful voices.
In her previous life, she had stayed up until 1 AM night after night just to listen to a late-night radio host's voice.
"Are you listening?"
Oh heaven, spare her, Qi Yue wished she could block her ears.
"Oh... yes, I learned from the nanny who was with my grandmother. She was born into a family with a medical heritage and was very skilled. As a child, all the medicines in our home were made by her. You can rest assured, healing you and father won't be a problem."
Qi Yue babbled an answer, afraid that Zhao Xiyan would ask something more and hastily ran away.
Of course, she wasn't entirely bluffing.
After all, she came from a medical family, her father was a renowned surgeon, and her mother was a master of traditional Chinese medicine; the possibility of healing their injuries was real.
Given enough time to gather the required herbs, she could even enable him to stand up again.
Watching Qi Yue's robust back swiftly departing, Zhao Xiyan's brows tightened.
His mother had said that Qi Yue was infatuated with him, but he couldn't see it.
She ran away so quickly.
That was for the best, saving him from saying something that might hurt her again.
The night grew deeper. Even the most noble people had no luxury on the road to exile, sleeping directly in the grass or against the walls.
Qi Yue guessed that even if Zhao Xiyan were to have a fever, he would probably not call out to her, so she stayed alert all night.
In the middle of the night, Zhao Xiyan and Zhao Yongzhe did indeed come down with fevers.
As both were feverishly confused, she gave each of them a shot to bring down the fever.
The night passed safely.
As dawn broke, a Government Official arrived, whipping the convicts to wake everyone up.
The group set off on the road of exile once again.
In Beiyuan, it was the rule for exiles to eat only once a day, and the distance to each station was predetermined; everyone had to reach the station on time to have something to eat.
Unless someone had brought their own provisions beforehand, the Government Officials didn't really interfere.
Fortunately, having bribed Guan Yidao the night before, Qi Yue had reasons to pull out a few buns to give to Shen Yu and the others.
Moreover, it seemed that the spring water from her space had remarkable effects, and her family was holding up well.
Upon reaching the station to rest for the day, another day had passed.
The exiles settled as usual on the open ground outside, and soon after, a Government Official came with a bucket of buns, handing one to each member of the Zhao Family.
Though the bread was made with dark flour and was without sand, it was edible.
Qi Yue naturally couldn't swallow it.
She had completely underestimated the various problems one could face on the road to exile, thinking that with her space, having food and money meant she was worry-free.
But that wasn't the case at all.
She had things in her space, but it wasn't easy to take them out!
Seeing a river not far away, Qi Yue had an idea.