Ma femme escalade le mur

Chapitre 122

Li Linke pulled out a small bottle from his pocket, poured out one pill for himself, then tossed it to Zhan Yun, lazily instructing, "Give him three pills. If he vomits blood in the middle of the night, let him. If he doesn't vomit blood, give him another slap..." Seeing Zhao Ting glare at him, Li Linke stretched his shoulders and revealed a wicked smile: "Anyway, if he doesn't vomit blood, he'll probably be done for. Remember to send someone to tell me then, I'll be taking over Luo'er."

Zhao Ting was so angry that his vision blurred: "You're dreaming!"

Li Lingge smiled and said, "It's better than you not even daring to dream about it!"

Zhao Ting swept the fruit plate on the high table to the ground with a wave of his hand, and squeezed out a single word through gritted teeth: "Get out!"

Li Lingge snorted coldly, a hint of ruthlessness flashing between his brows: "In my house, it's not your place to say 'get out'."

Instead of being angry, Zhao Ting laughed: "On my Zhao family's territory, I can do whatever I want. It's none of your business, a second-class prince from a small, foreign country, to interfere."

Li Lingge reached out and tugged at his collar, then looked at him with a smirk: "You want to fight too?"

Duan Chen had already picked up the medicine bottle, poured out the pills, smelled them, and then, with trembling fingers, fed them to Zhan Yun. Zhao Ting, unable to bear the sight, somewhat rudely ordered Li Lingke, "Didn't you say it was your house? You must know where the water is!"

Li Lingke, who was about to leave, slowed down upon hearing this and went next door to fetch a kettle. He poured some water and handed it to Zhao Ting. Li Lingke then turned to Duan Chen and chuckled hoarsely, "Luo'er, see you another day!" As he spoke, he glanced at the person lying on the bed, a glint of cunning flashing in his eyes: "If this kid is lucky enough to marry you, I'll definitely come to drink some wedding wine on our wedding night."

Zhao Ting's eyelids twitched upon hearing this. He glanced coldly at a certain prince of a different surname who was laughing wildly, then went over to help Zhan Yun up and feed him the medicine.

Author's Note: There will be an update every Wednesday at 9 AM!

107

Chapter Eleven: Bitterness and Sweetness of Love...

In the latter half of the night, Zhan Yun indeed vomited several mouthfuls of blood. Although his face was pale, the murderous aura between his brows faded. He regained consciousness for a short while, smiled at Duan Chen, and then fell asleep again without saying a word. Duan Chen reached out and checked Zhan Yun's wrist and neck for a while. Seeing that the man was indeed normal in all aspects, he felt somewhat relieved.

Zhao Ting breathed a sigh of relief, walked to the table, poured a bowl of hot water, and handed it to Duan Chen: "He should be fine now. Drink this water and go get some sleep. I'll keep an eye on things here."

Duan Chen held the teacup, shook his head, glanced up at him, then lowered his eyes and said softly, "Thank you."

Zhao Ting sighed, pulled up a chair, and stayed with her.

After a long pause, Zhao Ting pursed his lips and explained somewhat hoarsely, "When Xingzhi and I heard Yiran shout that, we knew something must have happened on your end. But there was also some commotion in the teahouse. Two groups of people were fighting at the main entrance, and many ordinary people, who had never seen anything like it before, were running around in all directions... By the time we gathered the opera troupe together and the government officials arrived at the backyard, we found that Yiran had also been injured..."

Duan Chen recalled the situation at the time, and his expression was not good: "The people inside the teahouse should be the other two groups from Wuliang Sect, and most of the people outside the teahouse are Yao Shu'er's people."

Upon hearing the name "Yao Shu'er," Zhao Ting's eyes suddenly turned cold, and his voice became exceptionally hard: "That woman truly has no conscience whatsoever."

Seeing Duan Chen turn his head to look at him, Zhao Ting paused, then gave a somewhat bitter smile: "Never mind, I know that kid's temperament. He must have bullied him a lot before..." These two are truly a match made in heaven. If it were anyone else being tormented like this by the person they liked, they would probably have lost all hope long ago. But they both have a persistent and tenacious nature, as if they were competing to see who would give up first, torturing each other to the point of exhaustion.

Duan Chen recalled Zhou Yufei's earlier whispered words and frowned slightly: "Is he seriously injured?"

Zhao Ting chuckled softly, a hint of mockery in his eyes: "That throwing knife struck slightly inside the shoulder blade; two fingers' width further in would have been the heart, and it was poisoned. That woman threw the knife herself..."

Duan Chen had assumed the injury wasn't fatal because Zhao Ting had spoken so calmly, but he was surprised to hear this: "Has the poison been neutralized?"

Zhao Ting nodded, rubbed his temples, and sighed, "Later, the second leader of Wuliang Sect personally delivered the medicine, but we didn't even see a trace of that woman. All the people in the government office were there, and we invited the best doctor in the city. Chu Hui just came over and said that she has regained consciousness, but she keeps her eyes closed and doesn't speak."

Duan Chen sensed a hidden meaning in those words, and his brows furrowed even more deeply: "The second-in-command of the Wuliang Sect?"

"Yes. She was just a newbie ranked thirty-seventh before. The sect leader was originally the second-ranked assassin. Yao Shu'er is now wanted by the Dark Flower. Anyone who can capture her alive, whether in the legitimate or criminal world, will be rewarded with three thousand taels of silver."

As Zhao Ting spoke, he scoffed lightly, raising one eyebrow high: "That guy surnamed Li is definitely making a profit this time. He did a good job cleaning up his own faction. In just over an hour, the Wuliang Sect was in complete disarray, suffering some damage, and now they are willingly bowing down to him. I heard they are even more secure than before."

Duan Chen remained silent for a while, then asked softly, "Have all the members of the Plum and Willow Troupe been taken back to the government office?"

Zhao Ting's eyes darted around for a moment, and he replied somewhat dejectedly, "One got away." Afraid that Duan Chen would worry about this again, Zhao Ting quickly assured him, "It's that troupe leader. There are already checkpoints at the city gate. Hangzhou isn't that big, and there are portraits posted on all eight streets. This person definitely can't escape."

Duan Chen nodded slightly, then smiled and glanced at him, a hint of gratitude in her phoenix eyes. Zhao Ting was slightly taken aback by the look in his eyes, then forced a smile and said, "Don't look at me like that."

There was another brief silence between them.

Finally, Zhao Ting took a breath, looked at the person lying quietly on the bed, and said softly, "If it weren't for Xingzhi, perhaps I really would have disregarded everything, even if that person was my best brother, even if you liked that person more than you liked me..."

But it was Zhan Yun, his best brother in this life, the man who understood Duan Chen better than he understood him, the one Duan Chen had given his heart to. No matter how much Zhao Ting resented or hated him, he could only laugh it off. After all, this was Zhan Yun, and he truly couldn't compare to Zhan Yun!

Duan Chen never really knew how to respond to this kind of conversation. After a long silence, he said softly, "I already consider you a friend."

Zhao Ting sighed with emotion upon hearing this, and smiled as he asked, "Weren't you friends before?"

Duan Chen shook his head honestly and looked at him very seriously: "I don't like people from the royal family."

Zhao Ting was at a loss for words, unsure whether to laugh or cry: "Can I interpret this as meaning that if I weren't surnamed Zhao, I would still have a chance?"

Duan Chen frowned and thought for a moment, still unable to separate Zhao Ting from his identity as the young prince. His serious expression made Zhao Ting chuckle softly. The woman he liked was just that straightforward; even though she was clever and quick-witted when it came to solving cases, she didn't know how to offer polite words of comfort in other matters.

He chuckled softly for a while with his eyes downcast, his eyes gradually becoming moist. But then he heard the person on the bed suddenly speak, his voice hoarse like a broken gong: "What funny story did Chen'er tell that made our little prince so happy?"

Both men by the bedside were overjoyed. Zhao Ting quickly got up and went to check on Zhan Yun, while Duan Chen also placed his hand on Zhan Yun's pulse. "Xingzhi, how are you feeling?"

Zhan Yun smiled slightly, his eyes still slightly red, but his expression was very clear: "I'm just a little tired. I wanted to sleep a little longer, but someone was laughing so loudly..." His helpless tone was really annoying, but in reality, he was trying his best to reassure the two not to worry about him.

Zhao Ting didn't argue with the man. He went outside and called out, instructing the servant Li Qinglan had sent earlier to bring the medicine over. Duan Chen also got up to pour him water, but Zhan Yun grabbed his sleeve. Zhao Ting turned around and saw the entangled expressions between the two. He quickly looked away, closed the door slightly, and walked a few steps to stand in the courtyard.

Zhan Yun held onto Duan Chen's sleeve tightly with one hand, and propped himself up on the bed with the other, looking anxiously and guiltily at Duan Chen's expression. Duan Chen, however, seemed to have guessed what Zhan Yun was thinking. He turned his face to look out the window, and without brushing Zhan Yun's hand away, simply stood by the bed and ignored him.

Someone gently knocked on the door: "Young Master Duan, the medicine is ready."

Afraid of upsetting her, Zhan Yun quickly and obediently let go of her hand, allowing Duan Chen to go outside and retrieve the medicine. Duan Chen fed him spoonful by spoonful, and then poured himself a glass of warm water to rinse his mouth. After all the tedious tasks were completed, he supported Duan Chen's shoulders, gesturing for him to lie down. Zhan Yun seized the opportunity to pull him into his arms, calling out with a mixture of suppressed resentment and grievance, "Chen'er."

Duan Chen wasn't particularly angry with this person to begin with, and after Zhao Ting's explanation, he could better understand Zhan Yun's state of mind at the time. If he were in Zhan Yun's shoes, Duan Chen knew he would also lose his composure. Even if he wasn't as crazy as Zhan Yun, he would never have let the person who kidnapped him off so easily.

Furthermore, given Li Lingke's feelings for her, Zhan Yun, though not prone to jealousy, had always cherished her like a precious treasure and remained wary of Li Lingke. Seeing herself being carried in someone's arms and clearly having her pressure points abducted, even someone as magnanimous as Zhan Yun found it difficult to swallow this insult.