Reborn To Be The Imperial Consort [BL]-Chapter 143: Fluttering Poppies — IV

"He’s running a high-grade fever." Li Xinyuan whispered, more to himself than anyone else. "Is it an infection..?"

On the other side of Bai Huiqi’s bed, Cheon WuHui frowned hearing those words. His scarlet gaze flicked to Li Xinyuan’s face, then to the unconscious man.

Ultimately, for a long time he said nothing but simply clenched his fists.

"Infection?" In a low voice, he intoned, almost hesitant.

Li Xinyuan looked up at him, face calm. "Yes, I have to check." He murmured softly and stood up to check over the unconscious man. "Lend me a—" he cut himself off when he received neither a reply, nor so much as a shuffle, he frowned.

The prolonged silence compelled the surgeon to glance over his shoulder. Looking behind himself more carefully, he saw nothing.

Oh, there was no one.

At that, he fell into an awkward silence. The near-painful hush stretched thin. And the Heavenly Demon was not so kind to break it first. Exhausted, annoyed and thoroughly defeated, the surgeon very slowly turned back to face the only other conscious man in the room.

Softly, he coughed into his loose fist, masterfully shattering the reigning silence. "Cult Leader, I think you should leave. I must check on Bai Huiqi." With a kind but cautious smile, Li Xinyuan requested.

The Heavenly Demon looked into his eyes silently, and made no move to leave. The surgeon’s request seemed to fall into his deaf ears—or, he was purposefully ignoring it. If anything, the latter was much more likely.

"Cult Leader?"

"We shall stay and help."

Li Xinyuan flinched slightly. His mouth gaped open in the slightest as he squinted. "Pardon me? You don’t have to."

He was not going to let this freaking man help him undress Bai Huiqi. Even if just a little bit.

"No!" He blurted, making the Heavenly Demon raise an eyebrow. "I mean, uh, you do not have to lower yourself to this level, Cult Leader. I can do it alone. It is not so difficult."

"Allow Us to, regardless." Cheon WuHui repeated himself patiently.

Li Xinyuan’s lips twitched. His fists were clenched under the cover of his long, flowy sleeves. With a stiff look on his face, he shook his head. "Cult Leader—"

"—Doctor Li." Cheon WuHui interrupted in a firm voice. "Why does it seem as if you want to keep Us away from Young Master Bai?" He asked, both eyebrows raised. "Is it perhaps a prejudice against Us? Or the Heavenly Demon Cult?"

Li Xinyuan froze, colour drained from his face as he shook his head in firm denial. "It is no such thing, Cult Leader. Allow me to apologise for speaking out of turn." His fleeting gaze danced around the room for a second before meeting Cheon WuHui’s gaze.

Then, silent as a mouse, the surgeon reached down to gently brush his fingers across Bai Huiqi’s forehead. With care, he injected some of his healing Qi into the man and turned the latter on his side.

"We cannot help but be curious." Cheon WuHui insisted in a calm voice. "It is not as if We have not noticed your too coincidental, too frequent, interruptions whenever We are alone with Young Master Bai."

"I beg your pardon if my actions have given the Cult Leader such a lackluster impression." Li Xinyuan answered, his voice teetering on the edge of politeness and veiled annoyance despite the brief scare. "They were merely coincidental."

He slightly removed Bai Huiqi’s trousers to take a look at his pelvis. Another set of hands reached forward to gently tug the fox spirit’s robe up for a clearer view.

They were Cheon WuHui’s hands.

Seeing this, Li Xinyuan pursed his lips but held his tongue when he saw the Heavenly Demon had his face turned away.

His gaze returned to focus on the urgent matter at hand. Golden eyes roamed on the snow white flesh of the fox spirit’s body, stopping at the angry red inflammation around the extraction site.

As he had suspected—this was indeed an infection.

Though he would have preferred it did not happen at all. But now that it did, better be Bai Huiqi than Cheon Yerin.

Why?

Well, Bai Huiqi was more than four centuries old, and had a—relatively speaking—stronger immune system. Moreover, it is far safer and easier to treat a donor’s ailments than that of the patient fresh out of surgery.

A heavy and long sigh rolled off his lips as he tugged the waist of the fox spirit’s trousers up to cover his pelvis.

"It is an infection." He announced softly, then looked up at Cheon WuHui. "Cult Leader, could I request you to summon the Demonic Physician? In the meantime, I shall work to break this fever faster. Where are the servants?" He asked, and looked around to notice the absence of servants in the entire room.

Not just behind him.

Cheon WuHui looked down at Li Xinyuan, gaze unreadable. "They fled the moment We stepped into the room."

Li Xinyuan stared at the bed blankly. His mind struggled to process the information. They did... What?

Ah... Right. Of course, they did.

He had the unfortunate habit of forgetting the status of people he was treating. This man was the terrifying Heavenly Demon whose name alone was enough to shake Murim and JiangHu to their core.

For normal people, running away was an understandable reaction.

"Well," Exasperated, Li Xinyuan rolled his shoulder and held back an eye roll. "No matter. I can go fetch some cold water and linen myself."

"Cold water?" Cheon WuHui cocked his head to the side.

"To break the fever."

Taking in the information as if it was something new, the Heavenly Demon nodded slowly and steadily stepped towards a vessel full of water that was available in the room.

If Li Xinyuan had not been so worried thinking about the original storyline, then perhaps he would have marvelled over the ignorance.

But now was not the time for such a thing.

Almost too casually, he touched the vessel, and before Li Xinyuan could say something—a thin layer of ice began spreading on the copper surface of it.

The surgeon clicked his mouth shut. Right. This is Murim-cum-JiangHu. How could he forget?

...

As Li Xinyuan tended to Bai Huiqi—who was still unconscious—he could not help but give the Heavenly Demon occasional glances in the silence of that room.

In the end, it was Cheon WuHui who finally broke the descent of that thick silence.

"Our question still stands," he hummed from where he sat by the bedside, facing Li Xinyuan. "Is your prudence a result of prejudice or perhaps there is something more to this?" With those words off his lips, Cheon WuHui slowly, casually, leaned forward. ƒreewebηoveℓ.com

The Heavenly Demon’s eyes were narrowed, gleaming scarlet as if to deepen the silence following his intrigue. His voice was rich, baritone. His cadence was calm, his words entirely too nonchalant.

Li Xinyuan briefly stopped administering treatment to the infected extraction site in favour of glancing up at him. "I believe I have stated previously that there is no such prejudice. However, it is the truth, I am wary of the Cult Leader and the Cult itself. Any normal man would be." He admitted softly, and dipped his head to return to work. "Even so, my reasons are personal."

At the answer, Cheon WuHui raised an eyebrow ever so slightly.

His mind processed those words carefully while he rested his cheek against his fingers, elbow propped on his crossed legs. "Very well," he nodded, conceding, "We shall pry no further as long as Doctor Li does not divest Us the origins of your wariness."

Now, that had Li Xinyuan freezing for a moment.

And the man with too keen eyes did not miss the slight but glaring reaction.

The surgeon knew it too. Fine. You win, bastard.

Still, Bai Huiqi was his priority. Thus, he allowed another bout of tense silence to fall over them in a thick blanket. His hands did not waver and neither did his focus.

Even as the sheer pressure of the Heavenly Demon’s presence continued to press down on his person, he stayed silent, working.

Only after he had finished treating the infection in the white-haired fox spirit did Li Xinyuan lean back to draw in a deep—almost bracing—breath. He rolled his stiff shoulders before raising his head to meet the scarlet of Cheon WuHui’s gaze.

"Cult Leader," the surgeon began in a gentle cadence. "There is no particular reason—" bloody buggering liar "—except for what you could call... Intuition."

Yes. Most definitely not because he knew how it went down.

Nope.

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