However, minor injuries can turn into major ones if not properly cared for, especially injuries caused by being trapped in shoes without proper ventilation.
He hesitated for a moment, then looked at Mrs. Zhou and said, "There are a few things that need special attention. Mrs. Zhou, come over here and I'll tell you about them later..."
"Just tell me directly."
Yao Youqing interrupted.
Wei Hong disliked having maids serve him personally. During his time living in the inner courtyard, apart from occasionally leaving a servant in his room during the day to serve tea and water, he mostly dismissed the servants, leaving only the couple in the room.
If it's something related to recovering from an injury, it's better to tell Zhou's mother than Zhou's mother.
Li Dou pondered for a moment and nodded: "Then please come over here, Your Highness, so I can speak with you privately."
Yao Youqing had also injured her leg, but Li Dou didn't know that Wei Hong had already applied medicine to it.
But Wei Hong knew this, so naturally he wouldn't let Yao Youqing move. He said with a stern face, "Is there anything you can't say in front of me?"
"this……"
Seeing his pale face, Li Dou sighed, thinking to himself, "You're the one who told me to say this."
He then turned to Yao Youqing and said to her, “The prince is sometimes not very clean. He often doesn’t change his socks and even wears shoes barefoot. It’s fine on ordinary days, but if he does this when his foot is injured, it will easily make the wound worse. So please take good care of him these days, Your Highness, and make sure he changes his dressings and shoes and socks frequently. Otherwise, even the best medicine will be useless.”
Wei Hong: "..."
Chapter 41 Let's Talk It Out (Added 2300 words)
Li Dou gazed at the sky, which was just beginning to brighten, feeling a mixture of worry and joy.
What worries him is that the prince's expression was really unpleasant when he came out of the main courtyard, and he guesses he will definitely be punished later.
The good news is that he won the bet again and will win another sum of money.
However, what he said just now was indeed not unjust to the prince. The prince simply doesn't like to change his socks.
Whenever they went on a military campaign, the prince was always too lazy to carry much stuff. He would only have two sets of clothes to change into at most in his pack. And since he might not be able to wash them even if he changed them while traveling, if both sets got dirty, he would have to keep wearing the dirty ones.
Most soldiers don't care about these things because they really can't. Once a war breaks out, it's good enough to be able to stop and catch your breath, let alone wash clothes.
It's pointless to get covered in mud and blood again so soon after washing.
Even if clothes can't be washed frequently, people who are particular about cleanliness usually carry extra pairs of socks. Firstly, socks are lightweight and dry quickly, and secondly, if you're always wearing shoes and walking around for long periods without changing your socks, they can easily develop an unpleasant odor...
Li Dou and Cui Hao were rare, exceptionally clean people in the army.
Li Dou did this out of habit, as he was a doctor.
Cui Hao, on the other hand, was entirely due to his own reasons; he particularly couldn't stand having dirt on his body, especially bloodstains.
This is why, despite his exceptional martial arts skills, he always stayed by Wei Hong's side doing clerical work and rarely killed anyone himself.
If he were forced to fight on the battlefield, that would be one thing, but normally Cui Hao would avoid taking action whenever possible. He would put everything he used back in its place, and his clothes were always spotless, not even his shoes were dust-free.
When Wei Hong lived in the front courtyard, Cui Hao took care of his daily life. Naturally, he would change some of his bad habits when he was on the march, and he still looked like a clean and tidy prince.
But without Cui Hao watching over him in the inner courtyard, Li Dou didn't know if he would slack off, so he wanted to give Zhou Mama a word of advice.
Little did he know that the prince insisted he speak directly to his face, so he couldn't be blamed for it.
Li Dou grinned, shook his head, and returned to his own courtyard, while Wei Hong, with a stern face, explained to Yao Youqing in the main courtyard.
“I’m not unclean,” he said. “It’s just that it’s inconvenient to carry too many changes of clothes when we’re on the march, so I only do that when I’m at the palace. I change clothes and bathe every day.”
"Otherwise, would it be cleaner to carry a bunch of clothes and shoes back like they do, wearing them until they get dirty and then stuffing them into bundles all the way back?"
His face darkened even more after he finished speaking, and he thought to himself, why did I even bother explaining to her? What was there to explain?
Even if he really isn't clean, so what? Would she dare to complain about him?
Yao Youqing nodded timidly: "I...I understand."
Afterwards, Zhou's mother put away the medicine that Li Dou had left behind, and found him clean clothes and shoes.
Wei Hong put on his clothes and socks, told Zhou's mother to leave, and pulled Yao Youqing to lie down: "Go to sleep."
Yao Youqing glanced at the sky outside and said softly, "Your Highness, I'm not sleepy anymore, you can..."
"You think I'm dirty?"
Wei Hong suddenly opened his eyes again, staring straight at her.
Yao Youqing quickly shook her head: "No, I..."
Before she could finish speaking, she was pulled down onto the bed, and then a leg and an arm were wrapped around her, pulling her into a tight embrace.
The long leg that came up touched her injury, and she hissed in pain. Wei Hong quickly pulled his leg back, but his hand was still around her.
Although he had held her while sleeping before, it was always through two blankets. This was the first time he had actually held her in his arms, with nothing between them except for a few thin clothes.
Yao Youqing was clearly not used to it and subconsciously pushed him away, trying to break free, but was instead held even tighter.
Because of Li Dou's words, she assumed he hadn't bathed in days, so she stiffened and held her breath in his arms until she couldn't hold it in any longer and gasped for air, but she didn't smell the strange odor she had imagined.
Wei Hong was initially furious, but seeing her face turn red, he couldn't help but find it amusing: "Does it stink?"
Yao Youqing shook her head: "It doesn't smell."
"I just took a shower yesterday."
He said.
After saying that, he felt that what he said made it sound like he had taken a shower specifically to come back and see her, so he added, "I told you, it's not that I don't like to be clean, it's just that sometimes I'm in a hurry when I'm traveling."
Yao Youqing gave an "oh" and relaxed a little, but she was still not used to being held directly like this, and her body was still a little stiff.
She waited a while and saw that Wei Hong's breathing was getting deeper, as if he had fallen asleep. She then tried to move his hand away and went back to her own bed.
Wei Hong didn't want to let go, but considering that she had just injured her leg and it would be inconvenient for her to do anything now, and that he wouldn't be able to sleep soundly while holding her like this, he sighed and let her crawl back in.
Lying on the soft bed, surrounded by a familiar fragrance, his drowsiness returned in no time, and he fell into a deep sleep. When he woke up again, it was almost noon, and Yao Youqing was no longer by his side.
He was always a vigilant sleeper, waking up at the slightest sound or movement around him. This would never have happened before, but now he didn't even know when she woke up.
Wei Hong sat on the bed for a while, lost in thought, before getting up to wash up.
He returned suddenly and hadn't eaten breakfast. Yao Youqing guessed he would be hungry when he woke up, so she had already had food prepared. Today's lunch was earlier than usual.
Wei Hong ate lunch with her and then went out, while Yao Youqing wanted to take this opportunity to lie down for a while and have a good afternoon nap.
Wei Hong's sudden return last night, along with the chill he brought in, woke her up. Although he pulled her back to sleep for a while, it was no different from not sleeping at all; she stayed awake almost the entire time until dawn.
Just as she was about to lie down with Zhou's mother's help, she heard that a guest had arrived, and it turned out to be Miss Ji the Second.
Yao Youqing frowned and sat up: "Hasn't Miss Ji returned to the capital yet?"
The servant lowered his eyes and said, "No, just like before, I sent a letter to see the prince, but he was not here, so I sent the letter to you instead."
Upon hearing this, Yao Youqing frowned even more deeply, a guess vaguely emerging in her mind, but she felt it was unlikely.
But if that's not the case, then why does she stay here and keep asking to see the prince?
If he really came to visit the prince on behalf of his father, he should have left by now, having met him several times already.
Why didn't they leave? Why did they come back, and in the middle of the day noon at that?
"It's extremely impolite to visit at this time!"
"That's what Zhou's mother said from the side."
Although Yao Youqing felt the same way, she still let her in, considering that she was Wei Hong's guest after all.
...
When Ji Yunwan came in from the front yard, she found that the place was under renovation and couldn't help but smile.
She suggested repairing the front yard, and the prince immediately started work, showing that he took her words to heart.
She looked for a while, then looked away and walked to the entrance of the inner courtyard, where Chi Zhu was waiting.
The servants in the front yard were puzzled when they saw her and asked, "Sister Chizhu, why are you here today? Where have all the little maids gone?"
Chizhu smiled and said, "I just happened to have some free time, so I came over to lend a hand. Anyway, I've been quite free lately."
Madam Zhou was a cautious person. The old people in the Prince's Mansion had never been trusted by her before. Until now, only Han Qing was allowed to serve in the main courtyard. The rest were all outside the courtyard.
On the second day after the princess arrived, Chizhu made a mistake by speaking rudely and was punished by Zhou Mama with a deduction from her monthly allowance. Although she was not driven away because she was an old servant of the royal family, she was treated as if she did not exist. She was never asked to do anything, big or small. This was common knowledge in the royal family.
The servants assumed that she had set her sights on Miss Ji because she couldn't get close to the princess. They sneered inwardly but didn't say anything more. They nodded, said "thank you," and turned to leave.
After he left, Ji Yunwan's face darkened. As she walked inside with Chizhu, she said, "Didn't I tell you to send me a message after you got rid of that Chu woman? Why haven't we heard anything yet? Is she still alive?"
She had previously sent someone to the restaurant to leave a message for Chizhu, asking her to find a way to get rid of Chu Yan, but Chizhu had not sent her any message until she came to visit today.
Chizhu rushed over to tell her about this, and whispered, "I tried, but it didn't work. That little brat Wan'er ruined it!"
"Even if it hadn't killed her, it would have ruined her face. But the princess meddlesomely prepared the finest face cream for that woman surnamed Chu, and now the injuries on her face are barely visible."
Ji Yunwan glanced at her sideways: "So what? You can't do anything about it?"
“It’s not that there’s no way,” Chizhu said, “but we can’t take any action for the time being. Otherwise, once could be considered a coincidence, but could it be two or three times?”
"It's only because the Prince has handed over the management of the inner courtyard to the Princess that I have an opportunity to take advantage of this situation. Otherwise, if the Prince's men were everywhere like before, I would never dare to make a move!"
"But even a princess isn't so easily fooled, especially since she has Zhou Mama by her side."
"Besides, the Prince has recently moved into the inner courtyard to live with the Princess, so I dare not..."
"What did you say?"
Ji Yunwan suddenly stopped and looked at her in disbelief.
Chi Zhu said, "The front courtyard has been renovated, so the prince has temporarily moved back to the main courtyard, but he will be moving back soon."
These words couldn't fool Ji Yunwan. Her face darkened as she said, "Even if the front courtyard is renovated, isn't there enough room for the Prince to live in such a large mansion? Why does the Prince want to live with the Princess?"
Seeing that she was out of sorts, Chizhu tugged at her sleeve and pulled her forward, signaling her not to let anyone notice anything amiss.
"After all, the prince is a grown man. It's normal for him to move in with the princess on a whim, since the princess is his legal wife."
"But don't worry, with the princess's personality, she definitely won't be able to win his favor!"
"I just found out that last night when she was helping the prince change his clothes, she accidentally dropped his armor on the ground, which injured his foot and caused him to bleed a lot. She hurriedly called a doctor in the middle of the night."
"So just wait patiently for a while, wait..."