"Oh, Sister Yaoyao, why would you say such a thing? What's all this about men and women not touching? You're far closer to Brother Arrow than she is!" Shen Yushu was plainly displeased.

"Xiaoshu, don't talk nonsense!" Gu Mengyao glared at Shen Yushu, unwilling to let her go on.

But Shen Yushu would say it anyway: "So what if I do? Brother Arrow has seen you without a stitch on and run his hands over every inch of you. If that counts as not touching, then he stopped not touching you long ago! You're far closer to him than she is!"

Tang Yun's expression shifted. But she knew Shen Yushu was forever given to reckless talk, so she did not wholly believe her. "Hmph. Ten to one, everything you say is a lie."

"Believe it or don't, but don't call it a lie," Shen Yushu sniffed. "That time Sister Yaoyao was poisoned, she stripped off every stitch of her clothes so Brother Arrow could give her acupuncture. Brother Arrow saw every part of her — and she even sprayed a faceful of pee on him!"

"Gah?" Tang Yun and Gu Mengyao cried out in unison.

At Shen Yushu's words, Gu Mengyao's fur stood on end. Forgetting the pain in her leg, she leapt straight off the bed: "Xiaoshu! I'll tear that mouth off your face — who told you to say it?"

"Oh no, don't! I was only telling the truth — hey, a confession earns leniency..." Shen Yushu shrieked too.

Tang Yun looked at the two clowns and did not know what to say. If Wei Zhao had treated Gu Mengyao's illness and seen or touched her whole body, that was excusable — because Wei Zhao was playing the doctor, and a healer's heart knows no gender!

Yet when she thought of the personal relationship between Gu Mengyao and Wei Zhao, Tang Yun was torn again. If Wei Zhao had examined some girl he did not know and seen her body, Tang Yun might not have felt anything in particular — but Gu Mengyao was different...

And what was this about Gu Mengyao spraying a faceful of urine on Wei Zhao? What was that supposed to mean? Gu Mengyao was simply too wicked — Wei Zhao treated her illness, and that was how she repaid him?

"Tang Yun, don't listen to Xiaoshu's nonsense. What she says did happen, but between Wei Zhao and me there is nothing more than the bond of patient and doctor..." Gu Mengyao explained instinctively.

Wei Zhao's injury this time had shifted something in Gu Mengyao as well; she no longer wished to fight Tang Yun over pointless matters of pride. Besides, Wei Zhao had been wounded saving her — what was there left to contend for?

"Oh..." Tang Yun nodded. She did not want to quarrel with Gu Mengyao either; she was simply restless. She looked down at Wei Zhao: "How was he hurt?"

"He... he was saving me and Xiaoshu..." Gu Mengyao saw no reason to hide anything, and told Tang Yun exactly what had happened, down to the last detail.

"So that was it..." Tang Yun's heart ached. For Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu, Wei Zhao had flung away even his own life! How could he? If Wei Zhao died, what would become of her? Had he given no thought at all to the consequences? Why be so good to Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu?

Jealousy stirred in Tang Yun's heart. True, if Wei Zhao had not saved them, the two of them would surely have been in danger — but that was no reason for him to set his own life at naught!

"Everything's turned out safe now, hasn't it? Don't be so sorrowful. Brother Arrow's color improves by the day — he must be all right!" Seeing the grief written across both Gu Mengyao's and Tang Yun's faces, Shen Yushu spoke up. "Last time, Brother Arrow was hurt on your account, Tang Yun; this time it was on Sister Yaoyao's. So you two are even — no more blaming each other! Ah, I wonder when Brother Arrow will take a wound for me?"

"Xiaoshu, you jinx, what nonsense are you spouting?" Gu Mengyao could not help but flare up. "Weren't you in it this time too? Do you want Wei Zhao to get hurt?"

Tang Yun also glared at Shen Yushu, fuming. But since Gu Mengyao had already scolded her, Tang Yun truly had nothing left to add.

Though Wei Zhao lay within the space of the jade pendant, he was still aware of certain things happening outside. It was only that his body was too frail for him to wake.

Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu had gone to enormous pains to carry him down the mountain, and Wei Zhao was deeply moved. The young miss was willing to kneel on the ground, careless of her own pain, for his sake — that moved him to the core, and it had not been for nothing that he had risked his life to save them!

The young miss was indeed cold on the outside and warm within; only at a moment like this could her true nature show itself!

And what had happened after Tang Yun arrived, Wei Zhao knew as well. Listening to the three women's veiled barbs, he broke into a sweat of shame...

Yet Wei Zhao wanted to wake and tell them not to worry over him. But his body was too gravely wounded, and he could not absorb or convert the energy within the jade pendant's space. He could only run the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art with all his might, using the scant trickle of energy it produced to slowly mend his injuries...

Time slipped away, minute by minute, second by second — an hour, an entire afternoon, all the way into night, and still there was no sign of Wei Zhao waking.

Tang Yun grew anxious, and so did Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu. The three of them cast aside their former grudges; now they had but one aim — to find some way to bring Wei Zhao back to his senses as quickly as possible.

"Why hasn't Wei Zhao woken yet?" Tang Yun's heart burned with impatience, each day dragging on like a year.

"I don't know either... Last time, he only woke after a whole night, I think?" Gu Mengyao hesitated. "Shall we wait in the living room? Here — might we not be disturbing him?"

"That..." Tang Yun considered, then nodded. Indeed — while Wei Zhao was nursing his wounds, might the three of them not be disturbing him?

The three of them slipped quietly out of Wei Zhao's room, drew the door shut behind them, and went into the living room.

"Something to drink?" As mistress of the villa, Gu Mengyao, though her relations with Tang Yun were a little strained, knew this was no time for pettiness.

"Anything..." How could Tang Yun have the heart for a drink?

Gu Mengyao went to the refrigerator in the dining room, took out several bottles of drinks, and set them on the living-room tea table. She picked one up at random and took a sip; from morning until now she had not let a drop pass her lips, yet she had wept several times over, and the water in her body was nearly spent.

Shen Yushu was the same, having neither eaten nor drunk; she picked up a bottle of nutritional drink, meaning to replenish herself a little first.

"You haven't eaten either, have you? Drink something, at least — otherwise, when Wei Zhao wakes and sees you've fallen ill again, his heart will surely ache." Gu Mengyao handed Tang Yun a bottle of nutritional drink, her tone faintly tart. Tang Yun, having rushed over at noon, had likely not swallowed a grain either.

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