After he was dragged into the underground cave, someone roughly tore away the cloth covering his eyes.
There was little light inside the cave, only oil lamps hanging on the walls. Their dim glow barely revealed its general layout.
Amid a rustle of fabric, Shen Yangge was stuffed into a burlap sack before he could react.
Fuck, was there something wrong with these two?
Couldn't they just tie up his arms and legs? Why stuff him into a sack? Were they planning to kill him and dump his body, or what?
Shen Yangge was utterly speechless.
"They're coming in!"
"Quick, throw this man out!"
What?
Thud! Rumble, rumble...
Shen Yangge felt the whole world tumble around him. Small stones dug into his skin, and only someone who had experienced it could understand that aching pain.
He kept rolling until something stopped him.
"A burlap sack?"
"Boss, what's in here?"
"Probably a person. Someone trafficked here, just like Lord Shen."
Shen Yangge: ...
"Could you untie the sack? I think I'm the... Lord Shen you're talking about."
Huff, huff...
Finally able to breathe fresh air, Shen Yangge, who had nearly suffocated, smoothed his disheveled hair. His face was grimy, and his chin had been scraped bloody.
He looked utterly pitiful.
He already had the appearance of a gentle, delicate scholar. Combined with his current sorry state, it made him all the more deserving of sympathy.
A shadow guard asked, "Lord Shen, how did you get... thrown out?"
He wanted to know that too. But if his guess was right, those two traffickers had been afraid the Crown Prince would catch them and have them convicted.
This was an extremely serious matter.
Even seven hundred taels of silver couldn't save their lives. Naturally, they knew which mattered more and what choice to make.
Shen Yangge sighed. "I don't know either."
A shadow guard stepped forward and draped a cloak over his shoulders, then tidied his messy hair and said respectfully:
"Rest assured, Lord Shen. We will bring you safely back to His Highness."
What he wanted to say was that he didn't need comforting. They just needed to hack those two traffickers inside to pieces.
Since ancient times, traffickers had been among the most loathsome people in the world.
How many families had been torn apart because their children were abducted?
Besides, someone had to answer for all the injuries on his body.
"It's all right. There are many abducted children inside, and most of them are very young. When you arrest the criminals, please do your best to protect those children."
The shadow guards nodded. "Understood."
Shen Yangge was escorted home.
When Shen Mother saw the injuries all over him, tears streamed down her face in anguish. "Yang'er, you've suffered so much. I'll go fetch a doctor."
"Mother, don't worry. They're only minor injuries. A little medicine will do. Don't we have some wound medicine at home?"
Madam Shen looked resolute. "No, we must have a doctor examine you. If this leaves you with some lingering ailment, it'll be very difficult to cure later. Listen to your mother."
With her putting it that way, Shen Yangge had no reason to refuse. Shen Mother gave a few more instructions before hurrying out of the courtyard.
But less than a quarter of an hour after she left, she returned to the courtyard with several people in tow.
"Yang'er, this is an imperial physician from the palace. His surname is Liu, and the Crown Prince sent him especially to treat you. Hurry and give thanks for His Highness's gracious favor! What are you standing there for?"
Shen Mother took his hand and pulled him down to kneel.
Physician Liu stepped forward, reaching out to stop them. "There's no need to kneel. Those are His Highness's instructions. Lord Shen can enter the palace tomorrow and thank His Highness in person."
The two young attendants bowed with their hands clasped, then obediently stepped aside.
"Sorry for the trouble."
Shen Yangge led Physician Liu into the main hall. Once seated, he rolled up his sleeve, exposing a length of pale arm stained with blood.
Several patches were a bloody mess.
New wounds had been added over injuries that had only recently healed, making a bad situation worse.
"Lord Shen... you truly have suffered one misfortune after another. Perhaps you should visit a temple for a protective talisman. I've heard the ones from Bell Sound Temple are very effective."
Shen Yangge said, "Perhaps when I get the chance."
Although he didn't particularly believe in ghosts or gods, his inexplicable transmigration into a book had forced him to question convictions he had once considered unshakable.
After checking his pulse, Physician Liu left two boxes of ointment and said, "I'll leave Little Bamboo Shoot here to prepare your medicine, Lord Shen. He's a very well-behaved, obedient child and won't cause you any trouble."
Shen Mother hurriedly said, "I'll make proper arrangements for him. Please rest assured, sir."
After Physician Liu left, Shen Yangge grimaced in pain as he exchanged looks with the young medicine apprentice named Little Bamboo Shoot.
The boy wore his hair in a very neat bun and was dressed in light blue cloth robes. Standing there, he looked like a child with an old man's solemn bearing.
"Physician Liu said your name is Little Bamboo Shoot?"
"Yes, my lord."
The young apprentice's voice was childish, but his enunciation was clear. He was practically a real-life miniature civil servant.
He was already studying medicine under the old imperial physician at such a young age. Truly fitting of China's traditional medicine-learning never ended.
That evening, after washing and bathing, Shen Yangge applied medicine to his wounds, lay down on the reclining chair in his room, and fell asleep.
The weather was hot, and he was extremely sensitive to both heat and cold. On something as cooling as a bamboo chair, he could lie there all day.
The night sky was cloudless and dotted with stars, a crescent moon hanging high above. In the stillness of the late night, the passing breeze gradually swept away the heat and brought back the cool.
Shen Yangge was sleeping fitfully when someone opened his door from outside. The person who entered seemed to carry the stars, clouds, and moon with him as he crossed the threshold.
He held a lantern, its light illuminating his tall, pine-straight figure and casting the floor before him and beneath his feet in a warm, dusky yellow.
He drew closer and closer, stopping only when he reached the bamboo chair.
He extended a slender hand with elegant knuckles and lifted aside the young man's thin underclothes.
When he saw the wounds covering Shen Yangge's arm, his brows drew together. Despite the unpleasant smell of the ointment, he lowered his head and gently sniffed the young man's pitifully injured wrist.
Had anyone else done this, onlookers might have thought him a pervert. Yet coming from this man, it somehow made one feel... that he was merely concerned for the sleeping young man.
[Beep, beep, beep!!] System 615: [Host, wake up! Your powerful backer is here to see you! Hurry and earn some affection points!]
Shen Yangge was jolted awake by the system's alarm, which stabbed painfully through his head. Just as he was about to speak, a pair of hands slid beneath his knees and behind his neck.
Then they lifted him.
Like a doll at someone else's mercy, he was gathered into the man's arms.
His eyes flew open in shock, and both hands clutched the lapels of the man who had picked him up.
His almond-shaped eyes were filled with bewilderment.
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