Chapter 5: Is Ninth Master That Easy To Please?

She ran to the door next door and happened to run into Lin Shen, who had just been driven out, along with a servant holding a medical kit.

The servant’s face was pale. She did not dare go inside at all.

Yun Manxia sighed and reached for the medical kit.

“Give it to me.”

Lin Shen looked surprised and reminded her tactfully, “Madam, Ninth Master is... not in a good mood right now.”

“I know,” Yun Manxia said.

It was precisely because she knew that she was anxious to go in.

She was truly worried about him.

After a brief pause, Lin Shen thought of how differently Ninth Master treated her and said to the servant, “Give it to Madam.”

Yun Manxia pushed the door open and went inside.

The lights were off.

“Get out!”

The man’s voice, thick with murderous rage and fury, came from ahead.

By the faint light spilling in from the window, she saw a tall figure sitting in a wheelchair with his back to her.

His entire body seemed wrapped in bone-deep exhaustion and a heavy air of decline, like an old man already standing at the edge of his grave.

Her heart felt as if someone had torn it open.

He was only twenty-seven this year!

Had he been like this in her previous life too?

Had he spent every day drowning in this kind of hopelessness?

Back then, all she had wanted was to stay far away from him.

She had never cared about him.

Not even a little.

She slowly walked toward him.

Hearing footsteps approaching, Bai Hedu suddenly struck out.

“I said, all of you get—”

The force around her wrist was so strong it almost snapped her bones.

Yun Manxia cried out in pain.

The moment he recognized her, the man’s grip abruptly loosened.

“Get out,” he ordered.

In the dim light, his jaw was tight, and the side of his face looked sharp and dangerously handsome. She could not see his expression clearly, but she could feel the hostility radiating from him.

“Lin Shen said you weren’t in a good mood...” Yun Manxia softened her voice. “I was a little worried about you.”

“Worried about me?”

His tone sounded strange.

The violent aura around him seemed to fade slightly, and Yun Manxia could feel his eyes on her.

“Yes.”

She crouched beside him, one hand gripping the armrest of his wheelchair while the other reached through the darkness, searching for his hand.

By accident, her hand brushed against his thigh.

She felt the muscles beneath her palm tense instantly.

The next second, her hand was caught again.

This time, however, he controlled his strength perfectly. It was firm enough that she could not pull free, but not enough to hurt her.

“What are you doing?”

The man’s voice was taut.

Yun Manxia felt a little guilty, as if she had accidentally taken advantage of him, but her tone was perfectly innocent.

“I was looking for your hand. I can’t see.”

“...Why are you looking for my hand?”

She turned her hand and held his wrist instead. While secretly checking his pulse, she said nonsense with a straight face.

“You’re upset, aren’t you? I’m comforting you.”

Bai Hedu fell silent.

Strangely enough, he did not pull his hand away.

A moment later, Yun Manxia had her answer.

For a while, she felt both delighted and troubled.

The good news was that she could treat Bai Hedu’s illness.

With her here, she would never let him die before thirty, the way those famous doctors had predicted.

The problem was that she did not have the key medicine yet.

That herb would not be cultivated until several months later in the botanical research institute her mother had left behind.

But the institute was not in her hands.

It was in her grandfather’s.

Thinking of her grandfather’s family, her expression grew complicated.

“Ninth Master? Madam?”

Lin Shen’s tentative voice came from outside, instantly pulling her out of her memories.

“What is it?” she called back.

Lin Shen had already prepared himself to break the door down.

Hearing her voice, clear and full of strength, his hand loosened from the door. His expression turned strange and surprised.

...She was fine?

There had been no sound for so long that he had thought she might already be dead.

Ninth Master actually had not lost his temper.

How rare.

Inside the room, Yun Manxia released Bai Hedu’s hand and carefully tested the waters.

“Can I turn on the light and change your dressing?”

After a moment of silence, Bai Hedu said, “No need.”

Yun Manxia grew anxious. “But your wound...”

“Let Lin Shen come in.”

Yun Manxia’s face instantly brightened.

“Okay!”

As long as he was willing to have his dressing changed, that was enough.

What she feared most was him losing his temper and refusing to let anyone near him, delaying treatment for his injury.

She ran over and pulled the door open.

“Lin Shen, hurry and help Ninth Master change his dressing!”

“...What?”

Lin Shen did not react for a moment.

“Still not coming in?”

Bai Hedu’s cold, low voice sounded from inside.

Lin Shen hurried in.

When he brushed past Yun Manxia, his eyes were still filled with shock.

How long had it been?

Since when had his Ninth Master become this easy to coax?

...The new Madam was something else.

When Yun Manxia left the room, she felt Lin Shen give her a complicated look.

Yun Manxia: “?”

She did not think too much about it and returned to her own room in a much lighter mood.

Remembering that her phone had been turned off for an entire day, she switched it back on.

Bai Chengxuan’s call came in immediately.

Her eyes turned cold.

She hung up.

Blocked him.

The entire process carried not a trace of hesitation.

Another call came in.

This time, it was her father, Yun Hong.

“Why has your phone been off this whole time?”

The moment the call connected, his displeased questioning came through.

Yun Manxia lowered her eyes slightly and said flatly, “It ran out of battery.”

“You’re at Yujing Garden now, aren’t you?”

“Yes. What about it?”

“You had better behave yourself. Since you’ve married Ninth Master, don’t entertain any other thoughts. Cut off everyone you need to cut off!”

Yun Hong’s voice was heavy with warning.

Yun Manxia narrowed her eyes. “What other thoughts do I have?”

“You’re still denying it? If Yiyi hadn’t accidentally let it slip, I wouldn’t have known you were actually planning to elope with someone! Thank goodness Yiyi was sensible enough to talk you out of it. Otherwise, our whole family would have been destroyed by you!”

“Who do you think Ninth Master is? If you anger him, you won’t end well!”

Yun Yiyi?

A cold glint flowed through Yun Manxia’s eyes.

Accidentally let it slip?

Talked her out of it?

Ha.

Yun Hong had called today not only to warn her, but also because he had business to discuss.

“Also, since you and Ninth Master are already married, mention our company’s need for investment to him.”

Yun Manxia silently rolled her eyes.

“Ninth Master isn’t that easy to talk to. We’ll see.”

Too lazy to say anything more, she hung up.

On the other end, at the Yun residence, Yun Hong flew into a rage after being hung up on.

“She’s rebelling! It’s only her first day married, and she already dares disobey me!”

Beside him, her stepmother Xia Lian hurriedly soothed her husband.

“I’ll ask Manxia to come home tomorrow and speak to her personally. She has always listened to me.”

Hearing that, Yun Hong’s expression finally eased a little.

He patted his wife’s hand and said warmly, “You’ve worked hard all these years. You’ve treated her like your own daughter. No wonder she listens to you.”

This was what he was most satisfied with about his wife.

She had nothing but kindness for the child left behind by his former wife. Not only had she never treated Yun Manxia harshly, she had even spoiled her often.

If people said Xia Lian was Yun Manxia’s biological mother, some would believe it.

“It’s what I should do,” Xia Lian said with a gentle smile. “Wanyin and I were good friends. Of course I have to treat her child well.”

At Yujing Garden.

After the phone call with Yun Hong, Yun Manxia suddenly remembered that she had not yet reminded Bai Hedu.

She ran next door again.

Lin Shen had gone out, and the door was not fully closed.

She pushed it open and glanced inside.

There was no one in the room, but the bathroom light was on.

Bai Hedu seemed to be taking a shower.

She hesitated, just about to leave, when a loud crash suddenly came from the bathroom.

Her face changed.

Without even having time to think, she rushed over and slammed the door open.

“Are you—!”

After one brief second.

Bang!

Without hesitation, she yanked the door shut again.