Keep your voice down. Are you trying to look glamorous dressed as a forced lover?

"Ji Mingzheng, what's wrong?"

Li Qingyan quickly checked and asked, "Was I drunk and didn't know my own strength, did I tire you out, or did I touch your wound?"

She was anxious and felt guilty: "Wait a moment, I'll call the imperial physician."

Ji Mingzheng had heard her commotion long ago, and his knees started hurting again. He had barely slept all night. He had intended to quietly endure it, but he had been discovered. He quickly explained:

"No need, it has nothing to do with Your Highness."

"Then why does it hurt?"

Ji Mingzheng did not answer immediately.

Li Qingyan paused for a moment: "Are you playing along with me right now?"

Hearing this, he chuckled: "Your Highness noticed? How was your acting?"

His voice still carried a hint of laughter, but judging from his sweat and demeanor, Li Qingyan was certain that this couldn't be an act.

"So, Ji Mingzheng, were you really in pain last night?"

The original book never mentioned this incident, and Ji Mingzheng's previous behavior did not show that he would be in such pain at night.

Ji Mingzheng paused for a moment, then gave a soft "hmm".

"You figured it out."

Li Qingyan thought, no wonder he didn't go to bed, he must be afraid of disturbing her.

For a moment, she was filled with mixed emotions. She took out a handkerchief and gently wiped Ji Mingzheng's face: "Does it hurt a lot? Is there any medicine you can take? Should we call Yingong and the others?"

"No need, it's fine."

Li Qingyan's handkerchief carried her unique, faint fragrance as she gently wiped him. The worry in her voice inexplicably made Ji Mingzheng's smile falter.

It was as if a voice was telling him that he no longer needed to hide it or pretend to be strong and not in pain.

His face turned bluish-purple from the pain, with veins bulging and contorting. He tried to laugh when he realized what was happening, but couldn't.

At night, tormented by illness, he could no longer be that sunny, cheerful young man.

"Your Highness, do I now perfectly fit the gloomy and insane persona you wanted? Does it help you?"

Li Qingyan's eyelashes trembled slightly: "Yes."

The voice, however, was strained.

"How can I relieve the pain? Is there no medicine?"

"There's a medicine that can relieve the pain, but the doctor said it's addictive. I'd rather stay awake in the pain."

Li Qingyan understood immediately: "Yes, we don't need that kind of medicine."

"We can try other ways to distract yourself. How long will the pain last?"

Ji Mingzheng paused, then thought, rather inappropriately, that he would feel better when he was in another kind of pain.

"I'm not sure, maybe a while, maybe an hour or two, don't worry, it's not a big problem." The longest it could be was the whole night, and that was the most common situation, but he didn't want to scare her or try to gain her sympathy.

Li Qingyan breathed a slight sigh of relief: "How about I tell you a ghost story?"

"Um?"

"Don't worry, it'll scare you so much you'll forget the pain."

Li Qingyan glanced at the lamp, blew out a lamp, picked up Ji Mingzheng's red clothes and put them on, then messed up her hair and changed her voice to read the narration.

"A young woman died of anger because her family property was embezzled by her clansmen. She was filled with resentment after her death."

"If you pass by a cemetery in the middle of the night, you will hear the clinking of copper coins, and when you turn around, you will see a woman in red squatting on the ground digging in the dirt, her fingertips rotten to the bone."

Li Qingyan held the purse, making a clinking sound like copper coins, and squatted down next to Ji Mingzheng, learning to dig in the dirt, trying to restore it as much as possible.

Watching her dig in the dirt, Ji Mingzheng barely managed to suppress his laughter.

"and then?"

"She'll float up to you, her face deathly pale, and say in a sinister voice, 'Give me some silver.'"

When he spoke, Li Qingyan changed his voice and deliberately spoke in a sinister tone, feeling that he was very immersed in the story.

Ji Mingzheng looked at Li Qingyan who was getting closer and couldn't help but laugh: "I don't have any money on me."

Li Qingyan then grabbed his sleeve and wouldn't let go, her nails scratching at the fabric: "If you don't give me money, you'll stay here with me! I'll punish you by making you stay with me for the rest of your life!"

She opened her blood-red mouth and bared her teeth.

Ji Mingzheng couldn't help but laugh: "Okay."

Li Qingyan stopped what he was doing: "You should be scared, so you threw over a piece of silver last."

"But I really don't have any money on me."

Li Qingyan held her breath; this wasn't scary enough. She frantically searched for terrifying ghost stories.

Normally, when her old ailment flares up, she suffers terribly, and the night feels like an eternity. But this night, thanks to Li Qingyan's ghost story, it passed by very easily.

My stomach hurts a little from laughing.

After daybreak, seeing that he was in much better condition, Li Qingyan took her leave.

Ji Mingzheng lay on the couch, watching the sunlight slowly shine on him through the window, warm and comforting. A smile played on his lips, tinged with a hint of bitterness.

Besides his family, the only people who would awkwardly stay with him all night were his archers, but they stopped doing so later because he didn't want to anymore.

But His Highness actually kept her company for half the night. Even though she was very sleepy, she still forced herself to tell him ghost stories.

He used to hate her for being bad, but now that she's so good, he suddenly thinks, "If only she weren't so good."

She's so good, Wen Sheng will know sooner or later.

Or perhaps she already knew, but Wen Sheng has always been too sincere and considerate of her friends, and didn't know how to refuse people.

He thought of Li Qingyan kissing Wen Sheng again, and in a state of inexplicable vexation, Ji Mingzheng, who had stayed up all night, fell asleep.

Zhan Mang covered him with the blanket.

On the other side, after kneeling all night, he limped as he drew his bow to escort Li Qingyan out of Changfeng Palace.

"Your Highness, thank you for accompanying the young general."

Li Qingyan shook his head: "Does his old ailment flare up frequently?"

Yin Gong nodded: "Yes, I'm very anxious, but there's nothing I can do."

He knew that he had just let the blood worms harm His Highness, but he still couldn't help but speak up: "Your Highness, I've heard that there is a kind of Gu that can share the pain. I wonder if we could ask Consort Sang to give one to our General as well? We want to share some of the pain with him."

"Zhan Mang and I have been inquiring, but we haven't found it yet."

Li Qingyan said helplessly, "You two are really going at each other's throats."

She thought that he and Sannoh were actually sharing the pain, but Sannoh was the only one sharing it, and now he wanted to change all of that.

Furthermore, the Life-and-Death Gu must be handled with utmost care.

"Because ordinary medicine is ineffective, and most effective medicines have drawbacks, such as addiction or side effects, we can only seek out Gu."

As Yin Gong explained, he couldn't help but sigh, "Your Highness, the young general is in too much pain."

"Every time he had an attack, he would be covered in cold sweat and stay up all night. The attacks were frequent, and the young general suffered a lot, but he always managed to control his temper."

"He is still as cheerful and optimistic as ever, because the young general always feels that he should be happier for those who have died. He feels that he has no right to be in pain. He is crippled, but he is still alive, and he sees those who risked their lives to protect him, but they cannot live."

"He lived with guilt all his life, so he even had to hide his pain from people."

Li Qingyan thought that Ji Mingzheng might have developed survivor syndrome.

"Has he been like this ever since he was injured?"

"Pretty much, except that they were silent for several days at the beginning, and then it became like this."

Yin Gong lowered his head: "If the young general could become as gloomy and furious as everyone expects, as sinister and mad as Your Highness says, and freely display his pain, that would actually be good."

"But he didn't."

"Seeing the young general happy sometimes makes me feel gratified and happy, but sometimes I wish he could vent his emotions and suffer freely, especially when the pain flares up at night."