23 You should have explained sooner...

"Master... Please stop looking."

Was what Zhi was trying to say. But sensing it would sound awkward in that situation, she gulped it down instead. They were both females anyway, Master could look all she wanted.

Zhi felt like a patient on an operating table as the Great Doctor was studying her robe intently. Analyzing how to cut-up, no, remove the unremovable-by-pulling clothing, Master who had forgotten that she had not unfrozen Zhi, made Zhi feel a huge tension.

Master's eyes were gentle like a calm lake, a fact Zhi acquired after sneaking careful glances during their journey together. But currently, the same pair of eyes looked sharp and penetrating, as if it could cut anything up. Not Zhi's robe though.

During the inspection, Master found out that Zhi's black robe was not truly a plain robe in its simplicity.

The front torso was laced with rose-motived embroidery. Such finesse handiwork was above the people at that time. There were neither girdle nor sash, but a vertical line from the chest to the abdomen. There were also three short belts with unknown function at each sides of Zhi's upper body.

The Great Master had not been this baffled with an attire before. Eventually she gave up and unblocked Zhi's points.

Zhi instantly fell to her knees. Master's pressure were too much in such close distance!

"Open up your robe."

'Not that I don't want but I don't know how...!' Zhi howled in her heart.

"Now I remember, the switch was at the back of your ear, Zhi!"

'…'

…Someone was up for a beating.

Under Master's watchful eyes, for the second time being the object, Zhi finally uncovered herself.

A face thinly layered with sweat came into sight. Zhi's face was flustered red with the due tension. She couldn't see herself but her face, nominated as the second most beautiful by Meng Xun, emerged as alluring as dewy Purple Lycoris Bulbs.

"It has opened..."

Master whispered when Zhi slowly unzipped her torso.

She understood the actual meaning of Master when her line of sight came across a bloodied spot on her abdomen.

Underneath the Raven outfit was an attire she was clothed on that morning. Zhi had thought to wash it clean and give it back. Not anymore it seemed.

"It was you... You were heavily-injured. What made you think you can already run around?"

Zhi wore a blank expression but her mind swiftly connect the dots; Master asked for my identity, tried to pull my robe instead of snatching my mask off, my stab injury, who can revive a critical person if not the Great Doctor.

"Master, were you the one who treated me?"

But couldn't Master explain to her at the start? Confidently said 'I know that you are the girl I treated this morning' and why the force yanking of Zhi's clothes? Couldn't Master pull it open as tender as their gender?

"I'll rebandage you. Move back and sit down by the fire."

Zhi obediently obeyed.

Her impression of Master during the first meeting was someone unreachable. Detached and distant - Master would push away anyone who decided to come close.

But when Master tended to her reopened wound, it was as if Master was handling something fragile. A Great Doctor indeed, who valued life above everything.

Master's care thoroughly warmed Zhi's heart regardless of the stoic face Master twenty-four seven had on. Zhi had always had strong feelings and instincts - she assessed people not with their outer appearance but what's inside.

Perhaps Master was not utterly beyond reach...

Meanwhile Little Jae at the sideline noticed something not quite right with the scene. And Zhi's inner monologue equaled cringes. But before he could point anything out, Zhi communicated to him via her mind.

'Little Jae, the Unfeeling Pill really does a wondrous job! I still could not feel anything even though the wound had started bleeding again.'

Zhi gave Little Jae her review of the Unfeeling Pill, raising two thumps up.

Little Jae pressed both his lips into a straight line.

He recalled that the Great Doctor had forced an unknown pill down Zhi's throat. An unassuming dark green fluid followed...

Haha, it was definitely the works of the Great Doctor, not the pill.

Anyway...