Chapter 228: The Madwoman Next Door
"I can cure it completely. You shouldn’t take sleeping pills anymore, because they only treat the symptoms, not the root cause, and they have negative side effects.
If your insomnia was caused by simple anxiety or a reversed sleep schedule, sleeping pills might offer some help.
But your insomnia is caused by stomach disharmony, so naturally, we must treat the stomach first." Every word Gu Jiaojiao said filled him with hope.
"I understand." Han Chenyu’s eyes lit up with understanding, and he thanked her sincerely. "I’ll leave it to you, then, Little Divine Doctor."
Han Jingshen was also thrilled. "Divine Doctor Su Gu, I’m entrusting my father to you. From now on, you’re the Han family’s greatest benefactor."
"Yes, Jingshen is right. Little Divine Doctor, you’re our family’s benefactor. Could I... take you as my sworn younger sister?"
"No. We’re starting the treatment now. I’m going to apply the silver needles." As she spoke, Gu Jiaojiao began taking the silver needles from her backpack.
She looked up and saw the disappointed expression on Han Chenyu’s face, so she offered an explanation. "Your father has already taken me in as his little sister."
"What?!" Han Chenyu was stunned.
"Oh my god... Does that mean I’ll have to call you Great-Aunt from now on?" Han Jingshen muttered despairingly.
’Grandpa, honestly... Wouldn’t it have been better to make the Little Divine Doctor his granddaughter-in-law? Why did he have to make her his sister!’
He glanced at Gu Jiaojiao. The more he looked at her, the more beautiful she seemed. In an instant, the tips of his ears turned red.
Gu Jiaojiao glanced at the blushing Han Jingshen, amused.
She said gently, "Han Jingshen, don’t be so against it. You don’t actually have to call me Great-Aunt."
"Plenty of people would love to call me that. He Shen Yi from the Imperial City is my junior martial brother, and even Elder Xu acknowledges me as his senior martial sister. Do you think I’m short on followers?"
"What? Even Elder Xu is your junior martial brother?" Han Chenyu was so shocked that for the first time, the color drained from his normally calm and collected face.
’Han Jingshen felt a bitter taste in his mouth. He didn’t want to call her Great-Aunt; if he could, he’d want to marry her.’
Just as the atmosphere grew awkward, Xia Qiuming’s voice cut in. "Master! Uncle Han is doing fine, why are you giving him acupuncture?"
"Senior Martial Sister, can insomnia be treated with acupuncture too?" came Elder Xu’s surprised voice.
Han Jingshen: ...
’Even Elder Xu, a doctor of incomparable skill, called Divine Doctor Su Gu ’Senior Martial Sister’ so naturally. It really wouldn’t be a loss for him to call her Great-Aunt.’
’The moment he’d been lying on that operating table, he’d realized nothing was more important than saving his own hide.’
’Great-Aunt it is, then!’
"My nephew’s insomnia is caused by stomach disharmony, so it requires acupuncture," Gu Jiaojiao explained.
As she spoke, she inserted silver needles all around Han Chenyu’s navel, followed by another set covering his head.
"Senior Martial Sister, your methods are on another level. I thought his insomnia was caused by neurasthenia! No wonder my treatments were just making it worse."
"Elder Xu, don’t blame yourself. I’ve simply treated a case like this before, so I have some experience," Gu Jiaojiao said honestly.
Elder Xu didn’t dwell on the fact that Gu Jiaojiao’s medical skills surpassed his. "Senior Martial Sister, how can I help?"
"I’ve just prepared a few prescriptions of Chinese medicine. Could you please brew them for me, Elder Xu? One dose in the morning and one at night. He’ll be fully recovered in seven days."
Without a second thought, Elder Xu grabbed the packets of herbs and left.
Meanwhile, Xia Qiuming changed Han Jingshen’s IV bag and checked his vitals with a monitor. "Jingshen, you’re recovering very well."
"Qiuming, thank you for all your hard work. If it weren’t for your Master and you, I might not have made it off the operating table this time."
"I wouldn’t say you wouldn’t have made it off the table, but one thing is certain: without my Master, you would never have been able to return to the battlefield."
With Han Chenyu’s head full of silver needles, Gu Jiaojiao couldn’t leave for a while. But the time she had arranged to call Su Shuochi had already passed.
’She wondered if he would be worried. In any case, she was a little worried he would let his imagination run wild.’
So, while she had a free moment during the acupuncture session, she started discussing key points of surgical techniques with Xia Qiuming to distract herself.
Xia Qiuming, of course, couldn’t have been happier. Gu Jiaojiao’s explanations were so clear and simple that even the Han father and son, who knew nothing about medicine, listened with rapt attention.
Su Shuochi, the subject of Gu Jiaojiao’s thoughts, was worried, of course. But he also knew his wife must have run into a particularly difficult case.
He still hadn’t moved into their new house to sleep, because her scent wasn’t there.
He preferred sleeping in their old room, which was filled with her scent. Besides, it was more private for whispering sweet nothings on the phone.
Su Qinchun was home for summer vacation, so she had moved into the new house with everyone else.
That left Su Shuochi living alone in the house in the compound. He was so busy during the day he was run off his feet, only returning at night to sleep.
Waiting in the living room for his wife’s call that never came, his mind started to wander and his body grew hot. He decided to go out into the courtyard for a cold rinse.
He scooped a large ladleful of cold water from the bucket and—SPLASH!—threw it over himself. The icy well water shocked his hot, solid chest.
Another ladleful cascaded down from his head, droplets of water tracing a path down his prominent Adam’s apple.
A potent, masculine aura radiated from him, an overwhelming sense of raw strength.
From the second-floor window of the Zhou family’s house next door, Zhou Mei watched the scene, her mouth going dry.
Zhou Mei swallowed hard. She greedily leaned halfway out the window, her eyes fixated on him.
Su Shuochi was incredibly perceptive. Lost in the heat of the moment, he had momentarily forgotten his surroundings.
After only two splashes of water, he felt a pair of lecherous eyes on him. He swiftly wrapped a bath towel around his waist.
The bath towel was from his wife’s dimensional space, and it certainly came in handy now.
His bottomless black eyes shot a look as sharp as an ice pick straight at Zhou Mei. It pierced her heart, freezing the very air in her lungs.
The look terrified Zhou Mei so much she nearly fell out the window. Su Shuochi, however, turned and wheeled himself back inside without a second glance.
Next door, Zhou Mei was left half-hanging out the window, her terrified scream shattering the night sky.
Just then, Gu Jiaojiao’s call came through, and she heard the scream. "Su Shuochi, who was that screaming?"
"The madwoman next door."
"Next door? You mean Zhou Mei? Why is she screaming in the middle of the night?"
Su Shuochi fell silent.
’Should he tell his wife that the crazy woman was peeping at him while he was washing up?’
"Su Shuochi? Why aren’t you saying anything? Are you upset that I called so late?"
"Not at all! You were busy. I can wait forever for you. Darling, you want to hear the truth?"
"Duh! If it’s not the truth, then what’s the point of talking at all?"
So, Su Shuochi recounted the whole story of how the madwoman next door had been spying on him while he washed up, and how he’d scared her so badly she’d nearly fallen out her window.
"That crazy woman next door is a real piece of work, spying on my man while he’s bathing! So... were you wearing shorts?"
Gu Jiaojiao cursed into the phone. She was genuinely furious. She could tell that Zhou Mei wasn’t just some ordinary girl.
Anyone who could wait for Su Shuochi for so many years despite him completely ignoring her had to be unbelievably stubborn.
"Darling, don’t be angry. I was wearing long pants, just no shirt."
"You wear long pants to wash up?" Gu Jiaojiao exclaimed, but Su Shuochi could hear the smile in her voice.
The couple whispered intimately for a few more minutes, and Gu Jiaojiao told Su Shuochi that she had saved Sheng Shijing again.