"He has been here?" Lin Xingyi raised an eyebrow.
Gu Youyou didn’t speak, and after a moment, Lin Xingyi got up and sighed, "I don’t know how you deal with him... Well, all right, I understand now. You should rest, it’s getting late."
Lin Xingyi didn’t ask any more questions and left Gu Youyou’s courtyard.
Gu Youyou breathed a sigh of relief, slumped onto the soft couch, and lay down in a perfect slouch.
Luckily, my uncle came with me, otherwise it would have been troublesome if only those ignorant house servants had come.
Before long, Jin Zijin returned, with beads of blood dripping from his wrist.
Gu Youyou was so frightened that she quickly jumped up from the couch and lifted his hand.
"How were you injured? Was it that bastard Jin Ziyuan’s doing?"
Damn, he comes to me for medicine and then injures my man right afterward?
"He brought a good number of people with him, all of them desperate fighters," Jin Zijin said, then fell silent.
Feeling guilty and uneasy, Gu Youyou didn’t ask any more questions but simply took the medicine box and bent down to bandage him.
The wound wasn’t big, just on the forearm. It would be fine after applying the medicine and wrapping it with a bandage.
Jin Zijin’s face was dark throughout, and Gu Youyou understood he was angry, so she whispered an explanation: "He came... just to inform me that he will be leaving Beijing in the next couple of days and then... he asked me for some medicine."
Jin Zijin’s face remained stern.
Gu Youyou continued, "I thought, since we’re both in a kind of exile, he’s quite pitiful, so I just gave him the medicine. He... last time he gave me a good amount of silver, so consider it paid for."
Gu Youyou felt that not only was Jin Zijin’s face still stern, but it was also getting darker and darker.
Gu Youyou racked her brain, wondering what she hadn’t explained clearly when she suddenly remembered something and hastily added, "Also, that scoundrel was outrageously indecent, he even knocked out my maid."
Jin Zijin grasped Gu Youyou’s hand tightly, looking even more furious.
Her wrist started to hurt from his grip, and seeing the dangerous look in Jin Zijin’s eyes, she quickly added, "And there’s more, he injured my man, so next time I will..."
"You’ll have a next time?" Jin Zijin’s face was covered with gloom, so angry that veins throbbed on his forehead.
"No, no next time, I’ll cut ties with him immediately!" No matter what, breaking off with Jin Ziyuan immediately was definitely the right choice.
Jin Zijin’s expression softened a bit, and he had her sit on his lap, saying, "That bastard is indeed too offensive, daring to come while you were bathing. Did he take any advantage of you?"
"Ah...?" Gu Youyou was startled for a moment, then immediately shook her head and said, "No, I was in the water the whole time."
Thinking of Jin Ziyuan’s earlier behavior, Jin Zijin couldn’t help but want to crush him.
He pinched Gu Youyou hard, then said fiercely, "Sooner or later, I’ll gouge out his eyes."
Gu Youyou: ...Isn’t that a bit too harsh?
"Oh, by the way, my uncle was here earlier. I didn’t know what to tell him, so I just said you were here and that he should ask you if he had any questions."
Jin Zijin nodded and replied, "You did well, he knows very little, and anything related to me should be deflected if possible. He’s sensible in his actions and probably won’t make things difficult for you."
The bathwater earlier was a bit cold, and now Gu Youyou still felt rather chilly.
They cuddled under the blankets before starting to discuss the day’s events in the palace again.
"The Empress Dowager’s leg isn’t easy to treat, I have already told them they can only try their best. But my aunt seems... seems quite unhappy when she heard that I might not be able to cure it," said Gu Youyou.
Jin Zijin said, "Your aunt is bent on having your cousin marry into the Crown Prince Residence as the official wife, of course she wants to ingratiate herself with the Empress."