The Princess Is On Top (GL) - Chapter 13

When the cold blade touched flesh and blood, Su Luoyang finally could not help letting out a muffled groan. Xiao Le did not stop. She knew she had to cut through the mess quickly, so the tip of the blade scraped deeper.

Fine beads of sweat gathered on Su Luoyang’s forehead, and a suppressed moan of pain escaped from her throat.

“Hiss…” Xiao Le’s hand trembled, and she nearly failed to hold the knife steady. She sucked in a sharp breath and turned her head slightly to look, only to see that at some point, Su Luoyang had turned her head and was biting hard into Xiao Le’s left shoulder. Xiao Le endured the pain in her shoulder and continued working. After a long while, she finally pulled out the guilty arrowhead. She took a small porcelain bottle from her robe and carefully applied medicine to Su Luoyang’s wound. Only then could she not help saying, “Commandery Princess, it’s done. Are you still not going to let go…?”

By now, her left shoulder had already gone numb.

Only then did Su Luoyang react. Because the pain had been unbearable, she had actually bitten the other person for so long. She felt as if her mouth had gone stiff, and her face flushed faintly. She could not tell whether it was because of the fever or because she was embarrassed. “Sorry…”

The two of them were silent for a long while. Xiao Le moved her left shoulder slightly, and pain came from the flesh being pulled. She frowned faintly. That bite really had been fierce. To keep Su Luoyang from noticing, she endured the pain and moved it again, trying to cover it up.

Although Su Luoyang had a fever, her brain had not been burned stupid. She still had that much observational ability.

With difficulty, she propped herself up and sat. One hand gently landed on the bitten spot on Xiao Le’s shoulder. She applied just a little force, and the pain made Xiao Le’s whole body tremble. Seeing this reaction, Su Luoyang knew she had bitten hard.

“Don’t move. Let me see.” With her other hand, she picked up the dagger that had been tossed to the ground. There was still her blood and flesh on it.

“No need, Commandery Princess. Your wound…” Xiao Le wanted to advise her not to move around. A wound that had just been medicated was not suitable for activity.

“Shut up.” Su Luoyang lightly spat out two words, cutting Xiao Le off.

She barely had any strength left in her body and did not want to waste more words on this matter.

Xiao Le obediently closed her mouth and said nothing more. Su Luoyang thought her words had worked. How could she know that Xiao Le was actually distracted—she had not expected the Commandery Princess to still have such presence even while injured like this.

Su Luoyang used the blade to gently pick open the clothing at Xiao Le’s shoulder. A clear set of teeth marks appeared completely before her eyes. The moment she thought that she was the one who had bitten it, heat rose in her face.

The bite marks had sunk into the flesh and looked somewhat frightening. Guilt rose in Su Luoyang’s heart.

“Give me the medicine.”

Xiao Le obediently took the porcelain bottle from her robe again and handed it to Su Luoyang.

“This seems to be…” When Xiao Le had applied medicine for her earlier, Su Luoyang had not looked at it at all. Now that she looked at the pattern on the bottle, it seemed extremely familiar… Wait. Wasn’t this the bottle of wound medicine she had asked Ah Zheng to send Xiao Le a year ago? This person had actually been carrying it with her all this time…

“Ah… mm… This… is the bottle the Commandery Princess gave me before. It worked very well, so I kept carrying it with me.” Xiao Le stumbled through her explanation, feeling somewhat guilty. She had never expected Su Luoyang to be so attentive that she could recognize the bottle. She had thought Su Luoyang had merely had someone casually take over a bottle of medicine, but how could she have known that all the medicine by Su Luoyang’s side was stored in specially made porcelain bottles, even with identical patterns?

Su Luoyang nodded and did not pursue the matter further. She sprinkled the medicinal powder onto the wound and used her fingers to carefully spread it out.

The feeling beneath her hand puzzled her a little. Strange. So a man’s skin could also be this fair and delicate?

After the medicine was applied, Xiao Le carefully put the porcelain bottle away again. Su Luoyang found a place to lean against once more. She felt her condition worsening by the moment, as if she might fall unconscious at any time. Her eyelids were truly very heavy.

“You seem to like this medicine very much. I still have plenty where I am. How about I bring more for you after we go back?” Su Luoyang forced herself to stay awake and speak with Xiao Le, hoping to distract herself so she would not want to sleep so much.

“Hm? Commandery Princess, your condition seems very bad. How do you feel?” Xiao Le did not answer her words and instead voiced her worry. She reached out and touched Su Luoyang’s forehead. It seemed even hotter now. There were no dry clothes, no way to light a fire, and no medical conditions… She looked at the rain outside and realized it had grown lighter at some point.

“Xiao Le… a little cold… so sleepy…” Su Luoyang’s eyes were half-lidded, and she was already beginning to drift in and out of awareness.

Xiao Le murmured, “Then sleep. I’ll take you down the mountain.”

Su Luoyang heard a voice, one that made her feel very reassured. That voice promised it would not let anything happen to her. She did not know why, but she fell asleep with peace of mind. When she woke again, she found Ah Zheng guarding the bedside, while the wound on her left shoulder had been medicated again and properly bandaged. Sensation returned to her body once more. Although her head was still a little dizzy, it was much better than the earlier heavy, muddled feeling.

Before this, she had also been worrying about Ah Zheng’s safety. Now that she saw Ah Zheng standing here safe and sound, she knew Ah Zheng was likely all right, and a stone in her heart finally settled.

“Commandery Princess, you’re awake? I’ll go ask the military physician to come.” Seeing that Su Luoyang had woken, Ah Zheng truly let out a breath of relief and hurried out to call the military physician. That day, Ah Zheng had been sent back for treatment. After waking, she discovered that Su Luoyang had still not been found and immediately wanted to go out to search. Unfortunately, no matter what, the military physician refused to let her get out of bed. Just as the two sides were locked in a stalemate, there was a burst of noise outside, and then someone summoned the military physician to go take the Commandery Princess’s pulse. The physician said the Commandery Princess’s high fever would not go down, and if she had been found any later, even the gods might not have been able to save her. Ah Zheng’s heart had nearly leapt into her throat. No longer caring about recovering from her own injuries, she came to Su Luoyang’s side the moment she could get out of bed and refused to leave, no matter who tried to persuade her. Now that she saw Su Luoyang awake, Ah Zheng finally breathed easier.

The military physician was hurriedly invited into the tent. After taking the Commandery Princess’s pulse, he prescribed several more formulas and gave Ah Zheng some relevant instructions before finally leaving.

“Cough… cough…” Su Luoyang struggled to sit up from the bed. Ah Zheng quickly went forward to help her and let her half-lean against the bed.

“Ah Zheng, it’s so good that you’re all right.” Su Luoyang held her hand and said this from the heart.

Ah Zheng’s eyes reddened at once. “Commandery Princess, it’s all my fault. I left you alone. You don’t know… those traitors truly deserve to die!” She had wanted to say that she had almost never seen the Commandery Princess again, but felt such words were unlucky, so she forcibly swallowed them back.

“All right. I remember… How did you find me?” She remembered that her final memories still stopped on the mountain, where she had still been speaking with Xiao Le. But what Xiao Le had replied to her, she could no longer recall.

“I don’t know either. I only heard people say that Commandant Xiao carried you down from the mountain. At the time, you looked like that, and they all thought… Fortunately, the Bodhisattva blessed you. Commandery Princess, your fortune reaches the heavens, and heaven itself protects you.”

It turned out that after Su Luoyang lost consciousness, Xiao Le had made a decisive choice, put her on her back, and started walking back. At the time, the rain had gradually begun to stop. After walking for more than two hours, they finally saw the rescue party stationed at the foot of the mountain. When everyone saw the two of them in such a miserable state, they were all badly startled.

“How is Commandant Xiao?” Su Luoyang’s feelings were somewhat complicated. After going through this incident, she could no longer treat Xiao Le as an ordinary subordinate.

“Not long after Commandant Xiao returned, he began to run a fever. The military physician said it might have been because of that rainstorm, but for some reason, Commandant Xiao refused to let the physician examine him no matter what. He only said the physician should write a prescription. Truly a strange person.”

Although Su Luoyang also found it a little strange, she did not think too much of it and only treated it as one of Xiao Le’s odd habits. After hesitating for a long while, she still asked, “Then how is his wound?”

“Wound? What wound? I haven’t heard that Commandant Xiao was injured.” Ah Zheng asked with a puzzled face.

It seemed Xiao Le had hidden the fact that she was injured… that bite mark… But this was fine too. If they truly treated it properly, how would they explain where a teeth-shaped wound had come from? Explaining it would only bring another round of trouble. It was better not to mention it.

Su Luoyang’s thoughts happened to match Xiao Le’s exactly. Xiao Le truly had no way to clearly explain how that wound had formed. If word of it spread, there would likely be people making remarks and damaging Su Luoyang’s reputation.

At that very moment, Xiao Le was lying on her bed, holding a military text and reading. Liu Yu was sitting beside her with a bowl of medicine, chattering nonstop as he scolded her for not obeying the physician’s instructions, for being too willful, for how a sick person should properly see a doctor, and how could anyone refuse an examination and simply ask for medicine, and so on. Xiao Le treated it all as wind by her ear and ignored it completely.

“Hey! Great General Xiao, are you even seriously listening to me?” Yes, because Xiao Le had rendered merit by saving the Commandery Princess, He Yan had just promoted her to the title of guerrilla general. However, only her position had risen. The troops under her remained the same as before, only two thousand men.

“I heard you, I heard you. You’re really… Eh, Miss Ah Zheng?” Xiao Le had already had her patience worn away by Liu Yu and had been about to chase him out when, unexpectedly, Ah Zheng entered at that moment.

When Liu Yu heard this, he turned back and looked. Sure enough, it was Miss Ah Zheng by the Commandery Princess’s side.

“General Xiao should be resting properly,” Ah Zheng said disapprovingly when she saw the military book in Xiao Le’s hand.

Liu Yu quickly echoed, “Exactly, Miss Ah Zheng! You should report to the Commandery Princess and have her properly manage him. Not only does he refuse to let the military physician examine him, he also holds some broken book and reads it every day. No matter what anyone says, it’s useless.”

Xiao Le glared at him, then put down the book in her hand and smiled at Ah Zheng. “It’s only a simple cold. It’s no issue. Since Miss Ah Zheng is able to come here, the Commandery Princess must have woken, right?”

Ah Zheng glanced at Liu Yu and answered, “I will explain this matter to the Commandery Princess. The Commandery Princess is also very concerned about the general’s health.” Liu Yu had not expected his complaint to hit the mark and could not help looking a little smug. Xiao Le was also stunned. How did the Commandery Princess still have the time to care about this kind of thing?

“The Commandery Princess has indeed woken. However, she still needs quiet recovery and is not able to get out of bed. But the Commandery Princess is very grateful to General Xiao for saving her life, and she is also very worried about the general’s health. Because of this, she specially had me bring various fine medicinal ingredients for the general to nourish the body. I have already handed those over to the kitchen, as well as…” Ah Zheng took two familiar little porcelain bottles from her robe. “Wound medicine.”

“What? Xiao Le, were you injured somewhere?” The medicinal supplements from earlier could be understood, but this wound medicine… Xiao Le did not seem to be injured. Liu Yu was baffled. It was not only Liu Yu. Ah Zheng herself was also very baffled. The Commandery Princess had insisted that she bring top-quality wound medicine over, but the person clearly had not been wounded.

“You seem to like this medicine very much. I still have plenty where I am. How about I bring more for you after we go back?”

Xiao Le remembered what Su Luoyang had said not long ago, as well as the bite-mark wound hidden beneath her inner clothes. For some inexplicable reason, she actually felt a little… secretly delighted? “I’ll trouble Miss Ah Zheng to convey my thanks to the Commandery Princess for her kindness.” Xiao Le could not help the corners of her mouth from lifting and had Liu Yu accept the wound medicine.

Author’s Note:

The signing contract arrived today, hehe.