The room was thick with the pungent fragrance of medicine. With their eyes wrapped tightly in silk, Tao Hong and Liu Lü both knelt prostrate on the floor, unwilling to rise.
Their gouged-out eye sockets had already been packed with medicinal herbs. The physicians at Cui Mansion, skilled in the art of healing, were using true qi to treat and restore them. It was fortunate that they had been born into Cui Mansion and happened to be Young Miss Xiao Xin's personal maids. Otherwise, with injuries that grave—and having lost so much blood on the way back—they would likely have died long ago, never to wake again.
"Get up." Cui Xiaoxin's voice was filled with exhaustion as she said, "Your injuries haven't healed yet. What are you kneeling on the floor for? If your wounds worsen, we'll have to ask an Attendant from the mansion to treat you again, and I'll have to say quite a few nice things."
If Cui Xiaoxin had fallen ill, the mansion's physicians would naturally have done their utmost. But if it was merely a maidservant or household slave who fell sick, getting those Attendants to act meant saying plenty of nice things and promising them some benefits.
"Miss, I was foolish. I'm sorry, Miss..." Tao Hong sobbed. "I dragged you into this. Even if I die, it won't make up for it..."
"It's all my fault. If I hadn't pulled Sister Tao Hong along, this wouldn't have happened. This time, not only did we drag you into it, we dragged Young Master Li into it as well, causing so many innocent people to lose their lives because of us. I'm so wracked with guilt that I'd rather have died myself. At least then, my heart would feel a little better..."
Cui Xiaoxin was silent