The man heard the sound and immediately stirred.
“My apologies for the delay today.” Qun Qing dragged him to the low window and opened it a crack. She knew that being hidden in such a cramped, dark place was unbearable even for ordinary people.
“I must take liberties.”
“…I haven’t been waiting long.” The man replied hoarsely. Feeling her lift the back of his robe, he immediately shut his mouth, his ears turning bright red.
Su Run, a Palace Academy instructor who had just come of age, still spoke with traces of a southern accent. When the cloth stuck to his wounds during the dressing change, he gritted his teeth in pain but made no sound.
Qun Qing focused solely on examining the wounds. Honestly, beaten to this state—a bloody mess—she couldn’t distinguish one part from another. Moreover, she kept her attention divided, listening for sounds outside the door, leaving her with no mental energy for other thoughts.
The deepest wound on Su Run’s back had stopped bleeding and showed no signs of infection. Qun Qing sprinkled medicinal powder on it and wrapped his buttocks and back with clean cloth. Over these past days, the frequency of dressing changes had gradually decreased. From here on, as long as he recuperated properly, his life would no longer be in danger.
Managing this much should be enough.
Qun Qing thought.
Her medical skills were shallow to begin with—she couldn’t cure, only ensure survival, just as she treated her own wounds.
Su Run didn’t know what she was thinking. With her silent, his face grew hotter and hotter. Breaking the silence, he asked: “Um, miss, those people… did they go to my quarters to see if I was dead?”
After all, these were people and events from three years ago. Qun Qing thought for a long while before retrieving some memories: “Yes. Someone comes daily to deliver food. I placed slop water in your quarters. They found the smell offensive and didn’t enter the room, so no one should have discovered your absence.”
“Thank you.” Su Run said very softly, then gave a dark, cold laugh. “Those people probably think in a few days they can collect my corpse.”
He turned his head with difficulty. With injuries on his waist and buttocks, he could only lie prone and couldn’t see Qun Qing’s features clearly—only sense her breath and warmth. Today her hair was surprisingly loose, falling strand by strand.
Qun Qing dissolved the medicine in a bowl and fed it to him. Su Run drank from her hands, those willow-like strands continuously brushing against his cheeks.
He heard Qun Qing say: “After you finish this, leave.”
Su Run choked.
“This medicine is used for battlefield injuries. After taking it, you’ll temporarily feel no pain. At midday when the palace paths are empty, walk back to where you should be on your own. After that, we part ways.” Qun Qing looked at him, speaking as dispassionately as possible. “The day before yesterday when I changed your dressing, Fennel overheard. Today it’s her; next time it will be me. You staying here is trouble and will implicate me.”
The palace maid called Fennel had already been dragged back to the Palace Service Bureau. Her intermittent cries and pleas for mercy reached both their ears.
In the first year of the Sheng Lin era, the entire inner court was conducting strict investigations of spies.
“I know.” Su Run’s face flushed instantly. “I’m sorry. I never planned to implicate you, miss. I…” By the end, he was extremely ashamed.
Qun Qing made a sound of acknowledgment and held back from responding further.
In her previous life, her friendship with Su Run had begun with this life-saving favor.
That day, a sedan chair was carried into the Palace Service Bureau, containing the new Palace Academy instructor, reportedly a demoted official from elsewhere. As for why he was being carried—it was because he had just been subjected to caning and couldn’t walk.
Ordinary punished officials would receive medicine and rest quietly for a few days after beating, but Su Run’s situation was particularly different:
The herbal medicine they applied to him was mixed with sand and lime, causing his wounds to worsen. Su Run felt himself growing weaker and weaker. Clinging to a thread of life, he stubbornly crawled out seeking help and happened to crawl outside the North Warehouse.
Traveling at night, Qun Qing saw a person collapsed unconscious in the bamboo grove, his clothing stained with blood, the fish tally at his waist gleaming in the moonlight—a ninth-rank palace official.
After a moment’s hesitation, she took an enormous risk and dragged him back, hiding him in a dark corner of the North Warehouse. She expended great effort cleaning his wounds, changing dressings, and feeding him, saving Su Run’s life.
The two had met by chance. Apart from changing dressings, they had little other interaction. When he could walk again, unwilling to trouble her, he left on his own.
She saw Su Run again at Palace Service Bureau classes, where he had recovered and was teaching palace maids to paint plum blossoms and bamboo. Qun Qing had little opportunity to study calligraphy and painting in her youth. Finally encountering someone with real knowledge, she naturally listened with particular attention.
Only when she stared unblinkingly at Su Run, the instructor on the platform would always avoid her gaze, looking at the leaves outside the window instead.
Qun Qing truly hadn’t thought much of it.
After she entered the Six Bureaus, Su Run continued as a humble Palace Academy instructor, maintaining correspondence with her—urging her to add clothing when it was cold, sending an umbrella when it rained. He was indeed somewhat indecisive, but never intrusively bothersome. Whenever she needed to trouble him, he was always willing to help cover for her, so Qun Qing never severed this friendship.
Until Lu Huating pointed it out did Qun Qing suddenly realize—Su Run had probably long ago guessed her identity and purpose, which was why he risked himself to help her, gambling everything he had to honor this friendship.
Only in Qun Qing’s view, Su Run had been implicated by her for nothing.
If he hadn’t befriended her, if he hadn’t helped her, he wouldn’t have needed to offend Lu Huating, and wouldn’t have lost both his career and life to Lu Huating’s hands.
Moreover, since she had now given up entirely, there was even less reason to drag Su Run into the game.
Emotional debts were hard to repay—better not to become friends in the first place.
Just now, Qun Qing had issued her order to leave. Su Run had no face to remain and tried several times to push himself up. Cold sweat rolled down as Qun Qing pressed him down: “Don’t rush. It hasn’t taken effect yet.”
Su Run looked at her hand resting on his sleeve and finally gathered his courage: “Could you leave your name, miss? If not for your care, I would likely have died exposed in the wilderness. In the future when I recover, I’ll repay you even if I must become grass or wear a ring.”
Qun Qing asked: “What’s your name?”
Su Run divulged without hesitation: “Surname Su, given name Run, courtesy name Yujie. And you, miss?”
“Qun Qing.” Without waiting for his response, Qun Qing said, “I don’t befriend people. I only make transactions.”
Su Run froze: “Transactions?”
Qun Qing said: “The life-saving favor—you don’t need to repay it. That day I only saved you because I saw your fish tally. You’re a palace official and might be useful to me. But now you’re not.”
Such blunt honesty made Su Run furrow his brow slightly, not knowing what had happened. The look in his eyes held surprise mixed with several parts of pity.
Qun Qing had already moved on: “By the way, I never asked you—whom did you offend to be treated this way?”
Caning typically targeted the buttocks and thighs, but Su Run’s injuries were positioned unusually high—beating the spine could easily cripple someone. The applied medicine was mixed with filth, and afterward they’d thrown him into the Palace Service Bureau to live or die on his own. The malicious actions resembled deliberate revenge.
“It’s no harm telling you, miss.” Su Run sighed. “It’s the new Supervising Secretary, Meng Guanlou.”
“Meng Guanlou—is he Minister Meng’s eldest son?” Qun Qing was somewhat surprised.