Chapter 225: The Mouth Is to Blame
Sheng Shijing had just woken from a coma, and the immense surprise of seeing his adopted sister almost made him faint again.
He forced himself to stay conscious and said to her, "Jiaojiao, I’ve let you down!"
At that moment, he felt content enough to simply drift off to sleep. He had no regrets left in this life.
Gu Jiaojiao saw through him. How could she possibly allow that? She spoke to him in a soft voice, "Is an apology all it takes? You’ll have to make it up to me in the future."
’What good is an apology?’ she actually wanted to say. ’The person you wronged is already gone.’
But Sheng Shijing was so fragile right then; she couldn’t bring herself to say it out loud.
After speaking, Gu Jiaojiao roughly fed Sheng Shijing a Heart Protection Pill she had made herself.
Sheng Shijing passively swallowed the Heart Protection Pill, but the pain wracking his body didn’t lessen.
The pain made him feel like death would be a relief, but he couldn’t bear to leave his adopted sister just like that.
He gritted his teeth against the pain, which paradoxically cleared his head a little. He knew his days were numbered and this was likely just a final burst of energy before the end.
Jiaojiao was the little sister he had raised, but she was also someone he had personally given up on. The only reason he had held on for so long...
...was to hang on long enough to get back to camp and personally call Jiaojiao to apologize.
Now, his wish was fulfilled. He didn’t have the strength to say anything more. All he wanted was to give his adopted sister one last, gentle smile.
Unfortunately, his face was ghostly pale, making his smile eerie. Perhaps it was tinged with blood, or maybe bitterness.
In any case, it was anything but gentle.
But no one could understand the guilt in his heart. To others, it simply looked like a heartwarming scene between a brother and sister.
"Is Captain Sheng really the Little Divine Doctor’s brother?" one of Jiang Ruihao’s subordinates whispered to him.
"The Little Divine Doctor is kind and beautiful. She’s just comforting Sheng Shijing, so don’t talk nonsense," Jiang Ruihao chided in a hushed tone.
He knew Sheng Shijing’s adopted sister, Gu Jiaojiao. There was no way she could be this Divine Doctor Su Gu.
That girl always had a timid, fawning expression on her face whenever she saw Sheng Shijing and the others.
She was like a little puppy, eagerly but weakly wagging its tail.
How could she possibly be compared to this cool and direct Divine Doctor Su Gu?
’It’s absolutely impossible!’
Mr. Han didn’t know Sheng Shijing, nor did he know that he had not only an adopted sister but a biological one as well.
He just saw a handsome man and a beautiful woman. But no matter how he looked at them, they didn’t resemble biological siblings in the slightest. They had no similarities at all.
If the Little Divine Doctor hadn’t personally admitted she was married, he would have mistaken Sheng Shijing for her lover.
While Gu Jiaojiao verbally comforted Sheng Shijing, her hands never stopped moving. The sheer number of wounds on his body was overwhelming.
The enemies at the front had been scattered and were now fleeing, but no matter where they ran, artillerymen pursued and fired on them.
After a long while, the front finally fell silent. The surviving enemy commander led his remaining, bedraggled soldiers in a desperate retreat.
Once they were a safe distance away, he glared back at the forest, flustered and furious. The Imperial Army had gotten away again.
And they had suffered such heavy losses. ’Those Imperial people are too cunning.’
Their reconnaissance had indicated that the Imperial Army unit was a small squad of no more than one hundred soldiers, so he had personally led several hundred men to annihilate them.
In the end, they had accomplished nothing and were nearly wiped out themselves. The enemy leader waved his hand in exasperation and led his remaining men in a frantic escape.
The medics fell back with the main group. When they saw that Sheng Shijing was awake, they were all astonished.
Surviving such severe injuries was nothing short of a miracle. It was unbelievable.
Seeing that the Little Divine Doctor was still busy, Mr. Han ordered some men to hunt for food and roast it for her.
Zhang Weishan, who had already been treated, hobbled over to Sheng Shijing’s side on crutches and asked in disbelief, "Shijing, you’re actually still alive?"
"Get lost. With the Little Divine Doctor here, how could he not be alive?" Jiang Ruihao feigned a kick at Zhang Weishan.
After all, Zhang Weishan was also severely injured; Jiang Ruihao wouldn’t have actually kicked him with any force.
"Shijing, you’re staring at the Little Divine Doctor like a lovestruck fool. You don’t have designs on her, do you?"
another squad leader blurted out, as if he’d just discovered a new continent.
"Get lost. The Little Divine Doctor is already married, so none of you should even think about it," Mr. Han said with a laugh, chiding them.
He was quite proud, too; he had plenty of talented young men under his command. Seeing that Gu Jiaojiao was now bandaging the wounds and no longer holding a scalpel, Mr. Han personally skewered a piece of roasted meat on a bamboo stick and held it to her lips.
Gu Jiaojiao was genuinely hungry, so without a second thought, she opened her mouth and took a bite.
The others gasped. Mr. Han was personally waiting on someone! It was a bizarre sight, no matter how you looked at it.
"Divine Doctor, you’re married at such a young age? Excuse me, but do you have any junior sisters?" a soldier boldly asked.
"Datou, why are you asking that?"
"What else? He’s just trying to find a girl with good medical skills to be his wife."
"Marry a wife with good medical skills, and you won’t have to worry about getting injured in the future. Datou’s a quick thinker, planning so far ahead."
"I want the Little Divine Doctor to introduce me to a girl with amazing medical skills, too! After all, getting injured is a common occurrence for us. If your wife knows medicine, it’s like having nine lives."
Seeing them get more and more carried away, Gu Jiaojiao quickly swallowed the meat in her mouth and suggested with a frown,
"The medics can’t follow you around for your entire lives. I’d suggest you just try your best not to get injured."
"Hehe, of course, but having a wife who knows medicine would still be a wonderful thing,"
the young man said, defending himself sheepishly when he saw Divine Doctor Su Gu staring at him, not realizing what he’d said wrong.
Gu Jiaojiao snorted and continued her work, having no time to argue with them.
’These rough-and-tumble guys must be desperate for a wife. Forget a woman with medical skills; they’d probably think a sow was a catch right now!’
’No wonder a real piece of work like Jiang Ruyan gets spoiled by them into having a superiority complex.’
What Gu Jiaojiao didn’t know was that Jiang Ruyan wasn’t usually so domineering in front of others.
Jiang Ruyan’s persona was that of a delicate beauty. She usually maintained a fragile, smiling facade, so everyone thought she was both kind and lovely.
It was jealousy of Gu Jiaojiao that had made her so unrecognizable, exposing her true nature. The moment she revealed that tyrannical side...
...Jiang Ruihao had ordered her to be sent home. Gu Jiaojiao was just too busy to know about it.
The very same Jiang Ruyan that Gu Jiaojiao was silently criticizing had rushed to find her older cousin’s wife, Xu Qingqing, the moment she returned to the Imperial City.
"Dearest sister-in-law~" Jiang Ruyan sobbed. "Grandpa told me to come back and ask your father to be my master~"
Tears welled up in her eyes, threatening to fall at any moment, making her look as if someone had bullied her.
Xu Qingqing: ...
She had not only received a call from her grandfather but also from her father-in-law.
Jiang Ruihao was a man of firm principles. As he was arranging for Jiang Ruyan to be sent back, he had called his eldest son and daughter-in-law to explain the situation.
Xu Qingqing had never liked Jiang Ruyan’s affected mannerisms to begin with.
She had only treated her with a degree of courtesy out of respect for her father-in-law and husband, who were both fond of Jiang Ruyan.
But Xu Qingqing’s politeness was always distant, and she never spoke ill of Jiang Ruyan.
Because she knew that ears never got anyone in trouble; the mouth was always the culprit.