Trap in a Book

Chapter 37

Once again, the physician was called over. He finished checking her pulse. "She just fainted from exhaustion since she was pushing herself too much. It is nothing related to the poison in her. It's still frozen. Her pulse is more lively than before. However, please be cautious of her overdoing herself too much. She still hasn't fully recovered," the physician said, leaving the room.

ZhangWei stood beside the bed. "You are such a troublemaker. You stubborn cat," he said, poking her forehead. He then noticed a small portion of her eyelashes were all bunched together as he brushed it to fix it. "Ngh," she responded unconsciously as if a bug was bugging her. He smiled before lightly brushing her eyelashes again. He watched her forehead crinkle. "At least you are reacting, not like before. Do you know how worried I was when you didn't make any movement this entire month?" ZhangWei said, relieved.

A week passed before she regained consciousness again. She opened her eyes to see ZhangWei, sitting beside the bed as he was reading a book. He noticed her movement. "You're up?" he said, giving his attention to her.

"What is the meaning of this," her voice cracked. ZhangWei set the book down and smiled, "Oh, this? This is to stop you from leaving without my permission again. Your body is still recovering. You were unconscious for a month and a week now," he said, lifting a ribbon that connected her wrist to his.

"Stop messing around," she said, trying to get up.

"Your body is still recovering. Lay back down," he said, using his pointer finger on her forehead to push her back down on the bed. She slightly groaned in pain and started to feel the pain again.

"Dang it. My body still hasn't healed yet," she thought, gritting the pain. "At least it's better than last time. I can bear it," she said in her head. ZhangWei watched her think to herself. Her eyebrows frowned in pain.

"Here. Have some medicine," he said, grabbing a small bowl of medicine. He looked like he was ready to feed her.

"Rather feeding me. I would rather you take this off," she said, trying to untie the ribbon on her wrist.

"Stop fussing," ZhangWei said, stopping her hand. "Drink your medicine," he said softly and caring. She immediately pulled back as she was uncertain of his kindness. She knew it was unlike him. He saw that she had her guard up.

He chuckled, "Don't tell me you're scared of me being kind?"

"Of course. Does Mister Wei forget that he tried to kill me," Xiaomei sass.

"Oh, I almost forgot about that," he said, playing with her. Xiaomei glared at him and tried to get up again.

"What are you doing?" ZhangWei said, a little startled. "What? Do you want me to choke?" Xiaomei said. She knew that once she was better, ZhangWei would take off the ribbon, and she could try to escape again. ZhangWei raised an eyebrow, wondering what she was planning since she was suddenly cooperative. She was slightly struggling to get up before ZhangWei helped her. She was in a sitting position before ZhangWei was about to feed her medicine. Xiaomei stopped him. "I can feed myself," she said, trying to take the spoon away.

"Your body is still recovering," he said.

"Yes, and my body should move around to regain my energy," Xiaomei said, taking the spoon away, but ZhangWei moved the bowl away. She was about to complain, but ZhangWei said, "Alright, but I will hold the bowl for you."

She stopped her tongue from arguing with him since she knew it would get nowhere. She scooped up the medicine and drank it. Soon a knock on the door was heard, and the door opened.

Baozhai, LiJie, Bojing, and Chuhua entered the room. "We had heard that Huang Daiyu had awakened," Baozhai said. They all stop at the door once they see Xiaomei and ZhangWei sitting next to each other on the bed, with Xiaomei holding on to the spoon while ZhangWei holding the medicine bowl. They look like a sweet couple.

"What brings you all here," Xiaomei said coldly, looking at them. All of them immediately felt guilty.

"Huang Daiyu, thank you for saving my life, and I'm sorry you got hurt because of me," Baozhai said.

"There's no need to thank me or apologize. I'm glad that you are safe and well," Xiaomei said warmly, but only to her. The other three felt their guilt eating them alive and swallowing them whole. Both LiJie and Bojing opened their mouths to speak when Xiaomei said, "Well then, I need to rest to regain my energy, so please leave." They couldn't refuse, so they left the room.

"What a surprise remark coming out of you," ZhangWei said as one of his eyebrows raised. He didn't expect her to be so cold to them since he knew she would be thick skin and act friendly to them.

"If you felt some heartfelt feelings for them, then please leave too," she said coldly. His eyes widened before seeing the feisty cat having its claws out in a deep grudge. He smiled and said, "I apologize."

She set the spoon in the bowl before pushing it away, "I finished. You can leave," she said. He silently placed the bowl on the small table. Once he did that, she felt the ribbon move. She forgot that she had that on. "Since I want some rest. Take this off," she said, lifting her hand.

He gently pushed her hand down and said, "Still fussing. Just rest."

"How can I rest with this on me?" she asked. "You rested before with this on you," he said.

"I was unconscious, so, of course, I didn't notice this," she said, about to lay back down, but then she remembered. "How did things go while I was unconscious? Did the person come back and attack Zhou Baozhai?" Xiaomei remembered in the book that Baozhai's uncle continued to assassinate her since it's been a month and a week now, and he should still be assassinating her.

"Nothing happened while you were unconscious. The person didn't come back. We lost track of him. However, Zhou Haitao recently returned from investigating and said it could be one of the emperor's men." ZhangWei said, thinking why she was worried about Baozhai instead of herself since she was the one who got seriously injured compared to Baozhai.

Xiaomei sat there, thinking about how things happened. She realized she did injure Zhou Haitao, so he probably had to disappear to recover like her. She lightly tapped her leg while pondering. ZhangWei looked at her, curious why she was thinking so hard.

If she remembered correctly, the final attempt was the biggest event where they found out who was the mastermind for the whole thing. It should be two months after the first attempt. It was right after ZhangWei's birthday celebration. It was because, during the celebration, all the people were shipping ZhangWei and Baozhai together and were already planning for them to be the new leaders of the sect as Zhou Haitao was literally sitting there, still alive when they were proclaiming the new idea.
Zhou Haitou was furious and attempted to kill Baozhai the next day. During the attempt, Baozhai got injured before everyone came to save her in the nick of time.

Xiaomei knew this attempt would happen since the birthday celebration was a big deal for Zhou Haitao. They were literally implying that he was not fit to be a leader to his face.

Xiaomei bit her bottom lips and thought she didn't want to wait even longer for Baozhai to recover from her injuries because it would take a while for them to heal. Xiaomei wanted to end this story quicker. She was done with this story.

ZhangWei continued to watch her, thinking so hard to herself.