A Bowl of Soup

Xuxian put his arms around her and closed his eyes. "I'll fix the door. Let's get some sleep and think about this again tomorrow."

"You are not fixing the door," she said decisively. "You should be ashamed of yourself. Calling yourself a physician, and you haven't even dressed your own wounds. The door can wait. I'll ask Yuanzheng to help us fix it tomorrow. What are you worried about? Do we have any hidden riches in the house that I don't know about?"

She managed to coax a smile from him. He let her help him to his feet and lead him to the bed. Suzhen noticed that he kept one hand on his lower left side, and winced whenever his foot touched the ground on that side. She said nothing, and helped him to sit down.

"There. Now we won't be sitting in darkness," she said, dusting off her hands as she rose from the heart and the small fire spluttered weakly into being. "I imagine you haven't eaten dinner yet, either. To think you thought you could fix the door before I came back! I'm not sure if that shows how diligent you are, or how afraid of being scolded by me."

She chattered on with uncharacteristic talkativeness, trying to cheer him up, as she pushed the tools and pieces of wood to a corner and got rid of all the signs of the scuffle. A pot had been broken; she swept the shards off the porch quickly.

"Now, I'll dress your wounds for you. I've seen you do it often enough, so you needn't worry." She went over to the small wooden cabinet the salves and ointments were kept, and rummaged busily in it, pausing only to dash away a stray tear impatiently from her cheek.

Xuxian stared at the floor listlessly. He made an effort to look up as she came over with a basin of water and a washcloth. "First, clean the wounds," she said brightly. "Am I right, Physician Xu?"

As she dabbed gently at his face, he closed his eyes and sat quietly under her touch, like a tired child, content to have her next to him.

Suzhen put down the washcloth and picked up the small ointment bottle. As she applied the medicine she glanced down, noting how he shifted his weight to his other side and supported himself with one hand.

She put down the ointment bottle. "What happened to your side?"

"It's probably just a bruise," he said reassuringly. "It'll be better tomorrow after I rest."

"They kicked you, didn't they?" she said in a small voice. "What if they broke your ribs?"

He smiled faintly. "They weren't that big and strong. Don't worry, Susu. Song Weiming doesn't feed his minions that much meat, thankfully."

She could not bring herself to smile back. Xuxian placed a hand on her shoulder. "Susu, don't look like that. I'm not dying. I'm a physician, remember?"

"But you are also a kind man who doesn't want to see me worry about you." she thought silently.

Abruptly she got up. "There's still some soup leftover from this morning. Let me give you a bowl before you sleep, since you didn't have any dinner."

Suzhen picked up the ointment and went back to the cabinet to return it. She lingered a while putting it back. If Xuxian had been watching her he might have seen her slip something into her sleeve.

When she returned from the kitchen with the bowl of soup there was no more sadness in her eyes. She sat down besides Xuxian and blew carefully on a spoonful of soup. "There," she murmured, holding it up to his mouth.

"I haven't been crippled," smiled Xuxian. "I can feed myself, Susu."

She raised her eyebrows. "Are you complaining that I'm feeding you?"

He opened his mouth obediently. "Your humble servant wouldn't dare."

Putting down the empty bowl, Suzhen helped him to lie down. "Now sleep." She smoothed the hair back from his forehead, and bending over, kissed him sweetly.

Xuxian reached out and pulled her down gently, laying her head on his chest. "Stay with me like this for a while," he whispered, stroking her hair.

Suzhen put her arms around him and nestled herself against him, feeling the light rise and fall of his chest under her cheek. They lay motionless like that for a while, as the warmth from each other slowly enveloped them like a blanket.

Her voice was barely a whisper in the silence, hardly louder than the distant crackling of the fire.

"I love you, Xuxian. If nothing else, you must know that."

There was no answer. Suzhen drew a deep breath and slowly sat up, looking down at Xuxian as he slept. He was in deep sleep, but his brows knotted in pain whenever a deeper breath cost him a spasm of pain from his side.

She glanced back to make sure the shutters were closed, and then pushed back her sleeve, stiffened two fingers and summoned an aura of spirit energy around them. The white light twisted and crawled around her fingers like a living thing as she channeled it.

With a flick of her wrist, she directed it towards Xuxian's side, frowning in her concentration. The energy licked at him, curling restlessly around him as it was slowly absorbed. Finally she let her hand fall. Reaching out, she placed her hand over the area and pressed lightly, watching his face for any reaction.

Suzhen sat back with sigh of relief as he slept on, peacefully, the lines of pain fading away from between his brows. Whether it was bruised or broken, she did not care. She could not bear to see him suffer.

Reaching over, she felt his pulse carefully. He would sleep soundly for several hours at least.

He had told her before about the sleeping medicine in the cabinet, how much should be administered and how long it would be effective for, and she had remembered it all clearly. Based on the amount she had given him in the soup, he would not wake up before she wanted him to.

Standing up, Suzhen covered him with the blanket and gazed down at him soberly for a moment. Granny Hong's voice echoed in her ears.

When I found him, he was still conscious, but they had broken almost every bone in his body...

A shade fell over Suzhen's face, and her eyes hardened.

"I won't let that happen to you, Xuxian," she said softly. "If he wants to show off his power, well, so can I."