A pure heart in a jade pot

Chapter 45

As soon as she finished speaking, Mo Yan rushed out.

Zhan Zhao lay quietly on the bed. Although his face was still pale, it was no longer as ashen as before. She took his hand and gently checked his pulse. Although weak, it was steady, so he was probably out of danger.

Then she lifted the covers to check the injury on his leg...

Ning Jin, who had just entered from behind, coughed loudly a few times upon seeing her actions, but Mo Yan ignored him. Seeing her so blatantly disregard for the boundaries between men and women, Ning Jin couldn't help but shake his head.

The arrow had been pulled from Zhan Zhao's leg, and it was wrapped in thick gauze, exuding a cool medicinal smell. Mo Yan breathed a sigh of relief, carefully covered it up again, and then turned around.

Wu Zichu smiled and said, "It's a secret wound medicine from the palace, so you can rest assured, Miss."

"As expected of a prince, so generous indeed." Mo Yan said with a smile, then suddenly remembered something, reached into her robes a few times, and her expression changed, "Where are the account books?"

Ning Jin slowly pulled out a small oilcloth bag from behind him: "Is this it..."

Before he could finish speaking, he saw a blur before his eyes, and Mo Yan had snatched the small oilcloth bag. Ignoring Ning Jin's unpleasant expression, she untied the bag and examined the account books inside.

Two thin account books were neatly wrapped inside.

"Could you have switched the items?" she asked, half-believing.

Ning Jin was furious that his good intentions had been so misinterpreted by this ungrateful girl: "Zichu, throw her out!"

Wu Zichu knew he was just saying that out of anger, and said to Mo Yan, "If we wanted to do something, why would we need to save you?"

"That's true. It was just a question, after all. He's a prince, no need to get so angry." Mo Yan chuckled, tucking the account book into her pocket. "By the way, is there anything to eat?"

Ning Jin retorted irritably, "No, no, no!"

Mo Yan wrinkled her nose and sniffed: "That's not right, it smells like sweet and sour fish to me."

She was so hungry that she followed the aroma and went straight out the door, leaving Ning Jin dumbfounded.

“Who are these people! Who are these people!…” Ning Jin was furious.

Wu Zichu smiled and said, "Your Highness, I suppose the dishes are all prepared. Why don't we go and have a meal?"

"Do you think I can eat this?!" Ning Jin glared at him, paced back and forth a few steps, unsure of what to do, and finally walked towards the door. "Let's go eat!"

He almost bumped into Mo Yan, who had turned back again.

Mo Yan exclaimed anxiously, "Oh no! I've still managed to stuff Miss Bai into the bridge archway! What should I do?"

"She's in the cabin to your right."

"You are such good people!" Mo Yan exclaimed sincerely.

Hearing such rare praise made Ning Jin's hair stand on end, and he couldn't help but shake his head: "That Miss Bai was almost frozen when she was rescued. How could she even think of stuffing her in a bridge arch? That girl is really unreliable."

Author's Note: It wouldn't be fair to leave this story stuck at a crucial point, so I rushed to update it!

I wrote this in a hurry, so please point out any typos or awkward phrasing!

Chapter Thirty-Four

Zhan Zhao finally woke up around noon. After taking his medicine, he could only lean against the couch because of his leg problems.

"Thank you for saving me, Your Highness."

Seeing him struggle to bow, Ning Jin quickly stopped him: "Alright, alright, you're injured like this and you still don't forget these empty formalities. If you really want to thank me, just don't try to trap me again."

"When did he ever set a trap for you?" Mo Yan asked curiously, peeking out.

Ning Jin rolled her eyes at her and didn't say anything.

Seeing his appearance, Wu Zichu quickly smiled and said, "The Prince went through a lot of trouble to rescue you all this time, and even the Suzhou Prefectural Government was alerted."

At this point, Zhan Zhao lost consciousness in the water and had no recollection of what happened afterward. He looked at Mo Yan and said, "I remember you seemed to have led me away from underwater."

Mo Yan nodded: "You're really heavy."

"And then..."

"Then I got ashore, then I fainted, and then I got on this boat," she said simply.

Wu Zichu smiled and explained to Zhan Zhao, "When I arrived, I was a step too late and just happened to see you fall into the water. Miss Mo then led you underwater, and I knew you must have taken the waterway out. After shaking off the Soul Chaser, in order to find you, the Prince and I went to the prefectural government office and had them summon people familiar with the waterways of Suzhou to search along the river leading out of the lotus pond. We found Miss Bai first..." He glanced at Mo Yan with a smile, "...stuffed in the bridge arch, almost frozen stiff."

Mo Yan chuckled foolishly: "That's not my fault, I was in a hurry to go back and find him."

Zhan Zhao looked at her: "I remember you were only told to take Miss Bai and the account book and leave quickly. Why did you come back?"

"You're injured."

She looked at him as if it were perfectly natural.

Zhan Zhao was stunned: She came back for him? Didn't she know that she was no match for the Soul Chaser?

“This girl really cares about you.” Ning Jin turned around at some point, his gaze shifting between Zhan Zhao and Mo Yan, and said with a half-smile, “When we found you, she was holding your hand so tightly that I couldn’t pry it open and almost broke my own fingers.”

Zhan Zhao was stunned again...

To everyone's surprise, Mo Yan showed no shyness whatsoever, but instead appeared quite smug: "Of course, I am, after all, a member of the martial arts world, and I value 'righteousness' above all else. Only by upholding justice can we show the true colors of heroes." At this moment, she had already put aside her tension and anxiety towards Zhan Zhao. Even if she remembered it, she wouldn't delve into it, mostly believing that she was indeed acting out of loyalty and righteousness.

These words left Ning Jin and Wu Zichu speechless with admiration, and even Zhan Zhao couldn't help but chuckle.

"When you praise yourself, do you never carefully consider your words?" Ning Jin asked.

"After repeated consideration, I found that there was really no more accurate one," she said fluently.