Chapter 3: Preposterous

By the time the carriage stopped in front of the General's Manor, it was already dark.

Shen Heng got out first and glanced back at A Gu, who Cang Ran was helping down.

The kid's wounds were roughly bound with torn strips of cloth, the blood dried to a deep brown crust.

"Chun Yuan."

Shen Heng gave the order the moment she stepped inside.

"Take my token and go to the Imperial Medical Bureau for Physician Ji. Tell him to hurry."

Chun Yuan answered and hurried off.

Shen Heng settled A Gu in the heated room of the east wing.

Ever since entering the manor, the boy had been sizing up his surroundings. His gaze was cautious, like a little wolf dragged into unfamiliar territory—full of wariness.

"Sit."

Shen Heng pointed to the edge of the couch.

"Don't stand. Your leg is still injured."

A Gu hesitated, then slowly sat down.

He rested both hands on his knees, looking a bit uneasy.

Physician Ji arrived quickly.

This old physician was the most senior in the Imperial Medical Bureau. Back when Grand General Shen was alive, he'd been an old friend of the Shen family. These past few years, he was the one tending to Shen Heng's health.

"Princess, today you—"

The moment Physician Ji walked in, he habitually reached out to check her pulse.

"It's not me."

Shen Heng stepped aside.

"It's this child. I rescued him from the beast arena. He's covered in injuries. Look at him first."

Only then did Physician Ji notice the boy sitting on the couch.

He leaned in for a closer look and sucked in a sharp breath.

"These injuries aren't light. The flesh wounds are one thing, but this wound on the left shoulder goes down to the bone, and this arm—"

A Gu said nothing, just kept his eyes lowered.

"Physician Ji, this child's throat is damaged. He can't speak. Please take a look at that too."

Physician Ji frowned, immediately flipped open A Gu's eyelids to check, then gestured for him to open his mouth.

A Gu glanced at Shen Heng. She nodded at him, and only then did he open his mouth.

"The base of the tongue is blackened, the throat swollen and red."

Physician Ji's expression turned grave.

"This poison is vicious. Looks like something from the south. Won't be easy to cure."

"Can it be cured?"

Shen Heng asked.

"I wouldn't dare guarantee it."

Physician Ji spoke as he cleaned A Gu's wounds.

"I need to go back and consult the medical texts, check the interactions of a few herbs. Two days if we're fast, three to five if we're slow."

Shen Heng said immediately.

"Please, hurry as much as you can. He's young. If this poison lingers, I'm afraid it'll damage his foundation."

A Gu froze. He lifted his head, those reddish-brown eyes fixed steadily on Shen Heng.

In the beast arena, those Dazhao people had shouted "kill him." The manager's attitude made it clear his life wasn't worth as much as a tiger's.

But this person.

This princess, thin as a sheet of paper, hadn't just stood on the high platform and shot through the tiger's eye. She'd brought him back, summoned an imperial physician, and was urging them to cure the poison quickly.

She seemed different from the other Dazhao people.

Physician Ji cleaned the wounds, applied medicine, and wrapped them layer by layer in fine linen.

A Gu gritted his teeth the entire time, fine beads of sweat seeping out on his forehead.

By the time the bandaging was done, Chun Yuan had already prepared hot water and clean clothes.

A Gu was led away to wash up. Shen Heng sat in the outer room waiting, picked up her medicine bowl, and took a sip. It was so bitter she scrunched up her face.

Shen Heng downed the rest in one gulp. She'd barely set the bowl down when Chun Yuan led A Gu back out.

She looked up and paused slightly.

Cleaned up, A Gu looked like an entirely different person.

With the blood, dirt, and grime washed away, the features revealed beneath were unexpectedly handsome.

High brow bones, a straight nose bridge, a sharp jawline.

Since he was still young, his face held a bit of boyish roundness, but you could already see the distinct angles he'd grow into.

"Quite the good-looking kid."

Shen Heng smiled.

"And a little curly-haired one at that."

A Gu didn't understand what "little curly-haired one" meant, but seeing Shen Heng smile, his tense shoulders relaxed slightly.

"Hungry?"

Shen Heng gestured for him to sit.

"Eat something."

Chun Yuan brought over a few light dishes.

A bowl of millet porridge, two plates of vegetables, a plate of steamed fish, a bowl of chicken soup, a plate of steamed ribs.

A Gu stared at the food on the table. His throat bobbed, but he didn't reach out right away.

Who knew how long he'd gone hungry in the beast arena.

Shen Heng remembered the original novel mentioning that after A Gu was sold into the arena, they'd given him only one bowl of spoiled water in three days.

She didn't rush him. She picked up her own chopsticks, grabbed a bite of vegetables, and ate slowly, showing him everything was safe.

Only then did A Gu pick up his chopsticks.

His first bite was slow, as if ready for someone to snatch the food away at any moment.

But hunger eventually overpowered caution. Gradually, he started eating in big mouthfuls, chopsticks flying, cheeks stuffed full.

"Slow down."

Shen Heng pushed the porridge bowl toward him.

"Don't choke."

A Gu looked up at her, grains of rice stuck to the corner of his mouth, and suddenly smiled.

When this kid smiled, he really was good-looking.

Eyes curving into crescents, showing a row of white teeth. Even those reddish-brown eyes lit up bright. He was a completely different person from the prickly creature earlier.

Shen Heng smiled too.

She pointed at herself.

"I'm Shen Heng."

Then she pointed at him, asking what she already knew.

"What's your name?"

A Gu put down his chopsticks, looked around, and pointed at the brush and ink on the table.

Chun Yuan brought them over.

A Gu's grip on the brush was awkward, and his fingers were still wounded. The characters came out crooked and messy, like earthworms crawling, but Shen Heng still recognized them.

"A... Gu."

She read the two characters aloud, then lifted her head and deliberately asked.

"Is your name A Gu?"

A Gu nodded.

"Alright, A Gu."

Shen Heng folded the paper he'd written on and set it aside. Seeing he'd put down his bowl and chopsticks, she asked.

"Full?"

A Gu nodded again.

He was still a child after all. Once he sensed Shen Heng's goodwill, his whole body relaxed considerably. Even the wariness in his eyes faded a bit.

But Shen Heng noticed his complexion was off. The healthy flush the hot water had brought out was fading, replaced by an unnatural flush of fever.

She reached out and touched his forehead. Burning hot.

"Chun Yuan, go fetch Physician Ji again."

She frowned.

"A Gu has a fever."

Physician Ji returned, and it was another round of chaos.

The high fever triggered by the infected wounds hit the boy hard and fast.

The old physician applied acupuncture, prescribed medicine, and instructed Chun Yuan to keep watch through the night.

Shen Heng stayed by his side.

Every so often, she'd reach out to feel A Gu's forehead, or wipe his face with a damp cloth.

A Gu burned in a hazy daze.

By midnight, his fever finally broke a little.

Physician Ji checked his pulse once more, said his condition had stabilized, and that he should wake up after dawn.

Shen Heng let out a breath. She was about to say something when a sudden itch surged up her throat.

She clamped a hand over her mouth and hurried out the door.

The moment she stepped outside, the cough she couldn't hold back burst out like a broken dam.

She bent over, one hand braced against a corridor pillar, coughing until her whole body shook. Her chest was tight and aching, every breath feeling like swallowing razor blades.

"Princess!"

Cang Ran strode over and grabbed her arm.

"Are you alright?"

Chun Yuan followed out, tears spinning in her eyes from panic.

"This servant will brew the medicine! It'll be ready soon!"

Shen Heng couldn't speak. She just waved a hand.

It took a while before she managed to stop coughing. When she straightened up, her lips were pale, her forehead slick with cold sweat.

Chun Yuan brought the warmed medicine, and she took it and drank it down in one go.

The bitterness spread from the tip of her tongue all the way to her stomach, but that suffocating tightness in her chest finally began to ease.

"Princess."

Cang Ran kept a straight face, but her tone was heavy with worry.

"You should go back and rest. You haven't properly lain down since falling in the water. If this keeps up—"

"I know."

Shen Heng cut her off, voice hoarse.

"In a bit, I'll..."

Before she could finish, Shen Heng suddenly turned her gaze toward the high eaves.

Red lanterns swayed in the wind, candlelight flickering. There was no one up there, only the cold wind brushing past.

That feeling again.

Ever since the beast arena, it felt like a gaze was stuck to her. Not cold—it even carried a hint of appraisal. Like someone standing somewhere very high and very far away, watching her through the wind and snow.

"Princess, what is it?"

Cang Ran followed Shen Heng's gaze, seeing only a few lanterns hanging under the eaves.

"Nothing."

Shen Heng's senses had always been sharper than others since childhood, but the manor's defenses had been personally laid out by Shen Lin. They were impenetrable. If an outsider had truly slipped in, Cang Ran couldn't possibly have missed it.

Maybe she was just overthinking.

She didn't say anything else, just turned and walked back inside.

A Gu lay on the couch, breathing steady, his small face buried in the brocade quilt. He looked much more peaceful.

Shen Heng stood by the bed for a while, looking down at him.

She thought of what this child would become later in the original novel.

Blind in one eye, tortured endlessly, violent in temperament.

But right now, he was just a twelve-year-old kid.

"You absolutely cannot die."

Shen Heng murmured, then turned to instruct Chun Yuan.

"Go check if A Gu's medicine is done yet. Cang Ran, bring some more charcoal for this room. It's cold at night, don't let him freeze."

"Then what about you, Princess?"

Chun Yuan asked anxiously.

"I'll sit a while longer, then go to sleep."

Chun Yuan and Cang Ran exchanged a glance, and had no choice but to obey.

Only Shen Heng and A Gu remained in the room.

The candle flame swayed gently on the table, casting shadows on the walls that stretched and shrank.

Shen Heng sat on a low stool by the bed, elbows propped on the mattress edge, chin resting in her hand.

She really was tired. This body was useless to begin with, and between shooting arrows, running around, and keeping vigil tonight, she'd long since pushed past her limits.

Shen Heng's eyelids grew heavier and heavier.

In her haze, she felt the candle flame jolt violently. A cool breeze swept past her back, like someone had opened a window and closed it again.

Shen Heng tried to turn her head to look, but everything went black, and her consciousness snapped off.

Later, she was woken by Chun Yuan.

"Princess? Princess? Why did you fall asleep here?"

Shen Heng opened her eyes and found herself slumped over the edge of A Gu's bed, a thick cloak draped over her that hadn't been there before.

Outside the window, the sky had turned blue-gray. Dawn was close.

"How did I..."

She sat up, rubbed her stiff neck, her mind still foggy.

Wait. Something was wrong.

Shen Heng took a deep breath.

Her chest wasn't tight. That suffocating pressure that felt like a boulder sitting on her every time she woke up—it was gone.

[System: Stamina +7]

The system's voice popped up out of nowhere. Shen Heng blanked for a second.

Her stamina just increased for no reason?

Keeping her expression neutral, she stood up, walked to A Gu's bedside, and reached out to touch his forehead.

The fever was completely gone.

A Gu was awake too, staring at her with those reddish-brown eyes.

"Did someone come by just now?"

Shen Heng leaned close to A Gu's ear, whispering so only the two of them could hear.

"It wasn't someone from the manor, was it? Did he treat me?"

A Gu blinked. Then his gaze started darting around.

His eyes flicked left, then right, then up at the canopy, anywhere but at her.

Shen Heng noticed his eyes dart quickly toward a certain direction outside the window, then snap back just as fast, pretending nothing had happened.

Shen Heng laughed internally.

With acting skills like this, how did he ever make it to Vanguard General in the Northern Frontier?

She didn't expose him. She just straightened up and called out in her mind: "System."

[System: Here.]

"Who came by just now?"

[System: Can't tell you!]

Shen Heng: "..."

She knew it.

[System: By the way, a reminder—you have six days left on the timed mission. Host, please hurry up and get A Gu to voluntarily speak a word to you, or you'll lose 25 Stamina.]

Shen Heng replied in her head.

"Got it. You can shut up now."

She ignored the system and casually turned to ask Chun Yuan.

"When does the Northern Frontier envoy arrive in the capital?"

Counting the days, in the original novel, the Northern Frontier's arrival to request a princess in marriage happened right around now.

That was a major turning point in the book, and also the scene where she and Xun Zhuo would formally meet for the first time.

"Tomorrow."

Chun Yuan answered.

Shen Heng noticed that when A Gu heard those words, his eyes cracked open a sliver.

So he already knew.

Shen Heng calmly withdrew her gaze, bent down, and tucked the quilt tighter around A Gu.

"Rest well. This is the General's Manor. No one can touch you here."