He Danggui moved her lips but she couldn’t speak normally, “Ah… Oh…” These were single syllables that those who were born to be mute would pronounce and they couldn’t convey any message. She was shocked and looked at Lu Jiangbei for help. He didn’t look like a villain at all but why did he do this to her? Did he have anything to do with her being mute?

However, Lu Jiangbei was shocked as well and withdrew his hands on her body. He put his right arm around her shoulders and held her jaw with his left hand with appropriate strength to hint her to open her mouth. He Danggui did it obediently and then, he frowned and looked into her throat, but there was no redness, swellings, or wounds inside. Why couldn’t she speak? He asked, “Do you feel strange in your throat? Does it hurt? Is there anything blocking it?”

With tears in her eyes, she shook her head. She didn’t know she had been mute until she tried to speak. Except for being unable to speak, her body didn’t feel uncomfortable at all. Only her right ankle and left arm felt sharp pains. It must be because she had fallen from the city wall. She paid all her attention to the movements of Lu Jiangbei’s hands before so that she didn’t realize her body had two fractures.

However, why couldn’t she speak since her throat was fine? Although she had medical knowledge and knew that she would probably recover as long as the vocal cords hadn’t been hurt, she felt panicked when she thought of her miserable days in the previous life when she was locked in the Water Dungeon and couldn’t speak. A sense of oppression that was scarier than death filled her heart and disturbed the calm mind she always had no matter how bad the situation was. She wasn’t afraid of being mute, killed, or attacked by others’ conspiracies because she had experienced it and knew it was the new birth and a fresh start on the other side of death. However, she was afraid she would die silently in coldness because of being suffocated and couldn’t even scream.

Lu Jiangbei sensed her quivers so he comforted her by saying, “You caught a high fever before and I used potent medicine on you to keep you alive. Maybe your throat is hurt because of this. A famous doctor will visit Baisha Mountain Villa in two days and I will ask him to see you, then. He will definitely cure you.”

Lu Jiangbei helped her lie on the soft bed in the middle of Ice Pool and turned around to wash his hands. Then, he said, “Open your mouth. Let me touch and see if something is blocking your throat.” After she did as he said, he put his index and middle fingers down her throat. He apologized when he touched her smooth tongue. Then, his fingers kept going inside and the tips of them finally touched the end of her throat. It made her slightly want to vomit so he apologized again. After checking for a while, he couldn’t see anything wrong except for roughly knowing that she suffered from yin deficiency and high stomach heat and he should no more try to make her recover fast by using potent medicine.

Withdrawing his fingers and looking at the teary-eyed lady, Lu Jiangbei said, “Your vocal cords are intact. When I was young, I have also learned traditional Chinese medical science so I can write prescriptions for ordinary diseases. However, I don’t know why you become mute. You’re very weak and there is still some poison remaining in your body. Your life may still be at risk. Therefore, it’s not the top priority to cure your throat now. Anyway, don’t worry. I will try my best to help you just as you helped us that day.”

He Danggui felt her body was indeed as weak as Lu Jiangbei said. She couldn’t even raise her hand as if she had become an old woman who was inconvenient to move.

She wanted to sit up but she found that she couldn’t even do it herself and felt very shocked. She wondered what kind of poison He He Qi Ri Qing was and how it could be so hurtful. She had never seen such a damaging poison before. In her previous life, she had ever been pricked by a poisonous dart. After she detoxified her body, she still had suffered from hair loss for over a month and had to nurse her body with Polygonum multiflorum Thunb for half a year. She thought this poison was already the most hurtful one in the world. Suddenly, she remembered Meng Xuan had also been poisoned with He He Qi Ri Qing that day. How could he rob Lu Jiangbei and others of the antidote while the poison was still in his body? She was curious about it.

Then, she noticed another question that she cared about very much. She was wearing a silk robe neatly now but not as naked as she was before. Otherwise, this wasn’t the “original” robe she wore. So who changed her clothes? The question lingered in her mind and she would keep wondering it and not rest well if she couldn’t get the answer.

What’s more, according to what Lu Jiangbei said just now, here was Baisha Mountain Villa. It was another weird thing. She got hurt in Yangzhou City while Baisha Mountain Villa was located in Yinma Town outside the capital. It was more than a hundred miles away from Yangzhou City. She was poisoned and her bones were fractured. Since Imperial Guards wanted to save her, why did they bring her to such a distant place?

She looked up at Lu Jiangbei who was wearing an ice mask and couldn’t find any vicious intent other than kindness and sincerity in his tender eyes. It gave her peace of mind and a sense of dependence. She also couldn’t think of any reason for him to hurt her. Thus, she rolled over with difficulty and wrote a word with her hand on Ice Pool near the bed. Seeing this, Lu Jiangbei held her to help her write it. After writing a dozen of strokes, she felt her fingertip cold. And a crooked Chinese character meaning “needle” was seen on the ice.

Needle? Lu Jiangbei had tried He Danggui’s acupuncture three years ago when he took Jinfeng Yulu Powder by accident and he was impressed by it. Thus, he realized what she meant immediately. He happened to have several silver needles with him and they were put in the sheath of his dagger. As for the dagger… He bent down to take out a small dagger with a silver handle from his boot. After unsheathing it, he pushed an embedded mechanism inside the sheath and several silver needles popped out right away.

He Danggui braced herself against the bed and took the needles, but she didn’t begin to give an acupuncture treatment to herself immediately. Instead, she fixed her eyes on the dagger which was glittering coldly. It turned out that this was the dagger having made Meng Xuan upset and sad, which was engraved with her portrait.

Seeing that she had seen it, Lu Jiangbei didn’t feel embarrassed or guilty. He just urged, “Do the acupuncture now. I know it has a magical effect. In that year, you saved Gao Jue and me easily with two embroidery needles. Now your skill must’ve been improved a lot. With silver needles of good quality, it will be more effective. You don’t need to worry or hide it from me. I will never let out your secret. You just do the acupuncture and I will talk to you. You only need to listen to me quietly.”

He Danggui liked getting along with two kinds of people. The first kind were those who were extremely smart and the second were extremely stupid. She could use stupid people without striking a blowing. When dealing with brilliant people like Lu Jiangbei, although she had to be more cautious, she wouldn’t need to say too much before they understood each other and communicated with each other. This was always a comforting thing, especially for her now.

Sighing of relief slightly, she pinched the silver needles and pricked the acupoints which could strengthen yang and the Eight Aching Acupoints to stimulate her body’s potential, soothe its numbness, and get some strength back.

“Miss He, this dagger was sent to me by Lynx, namely Liao Zhiyuan, three years ago.” Lu Jiangbei explained, “I keep it with me all the time just because I’m handy with it. I’ve never thought about offending you or doing anything humiliating with it. As for what I did before you woke up and gave me permission, I’m very sorry for that, but… Mr. Duan decided it for you. He said you would choose to survive even if you did it yourself and knew your reputation would be ruined for it. Thus, we did it.”

His last words startled He Danggui, which made her hand tremble and the silver needle between her fingers begin to quiver. “We”? What did he mean? Wasn’t Lu Jiangbei the only person that had done that thing? Who else, then? Who stripped her of her clothes? “Reputation”? Was it about moral integrity or virginity? What decision had Duan Xiaolou made for her? Why was Lu Jiangbei so vague about his words?

These thoughts flashed through her mind and they made her chest contract suddenly because of nervousness. Then, she thought of her running into the group of men led by Chang Nuo and Qi Xuanyu that night. Qi Xuanyu, that vicious Taoist priest, had left a Virginity Mark named “Ya” on her arm. She didn’t want to mention and hate it before but now, it became her last hope. She rolled up her left sleeve with trembling fingers and the fair arm was shown.

There was a red mark as big as a mung bean four cun below her wrist. It seemed to be glittering and looked very beautiful and pure, which would make people want to touch it.

Her nerves were finally calmed and she touched the red mark with her fingertips lovingly. Lu Jiangbei continued beside her, “It’s already January 11th now and five days have passed since you were in the most critical condition that night. During these five days, you’ve kept being in a coma and sleeping in this Ice Pool under Baisha Mountain Villa. Some of us who still could exert internal energy have managed to heal you. Except for me, Gao Jue, Jiang Yi, Song Fei, and Lynx have all helped you. Duan Xiaolou was injured very severely and only gets slightly better now so he couldn’t do something like this. He just watched us nearby the whole time.”

Something like this?

He Danggui put down the silver needle she just picked up and squinted at Lu Jiangbei as if she wanted to make two holes on his ice mask with her gaze.

Seeing her being shy, Lu Jiangbei couldn’t help smiling faintly. He sat at the other end of the bed with his arms folded and turned sideways. He turned his head to an ice sculpture in the shape of a deer and explained gently, “That night, Feng Yang found you first and immediately knew the poison in your body was activated. When he was about to bring you to a famous doctor, he ran into Gao Jue. They fought fiercely. Then, the cloth covering Feng Yang’s face fell and Gao Jue’s mask broke so they recognized each other. After a negotiation, Feng Yang gave you to Gao Jue since he had the antidote. However, it was annoying that they had wasted too much time. When they went to check you again, you had already been dead. You couldn’t swallow the antidote even though they put it into your mouth.”

Dead? That must’ve been temporary, right? He Danggui squinted at Lu Jiangbei again.

“Gao Jue and Feng Yang had taken turns to feed you with Zhenqi for almost an hour but you still didn’t wake up. Then, they gave up.” Lu Jiangbei immersed himself in the story, “They had fought hard before and consumed too much energy. Even though they wanted to save you, they were weak in power. At that time, someone you could never imagine showed up. He was full of energy and physical strength and saved you in about half an hour. Next time you meet him, you should know he is your savior and thank him.”

He Danggui looked up angrily at Lu Jiangbei’s side face with his ice mask while he was smiling. Couldn’t he tell her the key point first? Now she only wanted to know who had stripped her of her clothes before and what injury Lu Jiangbei and others were treating for her with those hand movements that made her feel comfortable in a shameful way! While thinking about it in anger, she pricked the Aching Acupoint in the arch of one of her feet.

A weird smile appeared on the corners of Lu Jiangbei’s mouth and he mumbled, “One should be given a different look even though there are only three days of separation. Sure enough, he didn’t disappoint me…”Then, he turned his head to He Danggui and said with a smile, “The person that has saved you is Lord Ning. He was drinking with Han Fei, the Senior Governor, in Yangzhou Government Office originally, but in halfway, he suddenly said he felt pain in his chest. Han Fei was so frightened that he gathered all famous doctors in the capital, especially the good doctors in Luo’s Family. However, when they were there, Lord Ning was gone. He covered his chest with his hand and went out of the city. Later, he saw you and saved you quickly. After that, his chest stopped aching as well. Miss He, do you know why? I heard there was a kind of grass named ‘Li Xin Gui’ in the world. Do you have it?”

He Danggui gasped for pain suddenly because she pricked the silver needle with too much strength and it went too deep in her acupoint. Tears began to well up in her eyes and she fell backward. Lu Jiangbei who was sitting at the other end of the bed didn’t come to hold her but just let her fall.