Chapter 191: Checking His Injuries
Sheng Wanyan poured a cup of water, and Pan Yue took it, taking a few small sips.
“Thank you, Wanyan.”
Pan Yue turned her gaze to Sheng Wanze in the adjacent bed. Watching his chest rise and fall in an even, steady rhythm, seeing him lying there truly alive, she felt a profound sense of peace.
“Wanyan… what are we supposed to do with men in this line of work?”
Pan Yue had grown up in the military compound. She had seen too many soldiers brought back draped in flags, and too many military wives weep until their tears ran completely dry.
“Sister-in-law, from the very day I married Tingxiao, I braced myself for this,” Sheng Wanyan replied softly.
Pan Yue turned to look at her. Wanyan’s eyes were steady, filled with a quiet, grounded strength.
“Whether the future brings good or bad, we knew what we were signing up for, didn’t we?”
Pan Yue didn’t answer. She just turned her head back to look at Sheng Wanze. Wanyan was right. From the moment she chose to marry him, she knew what kind of life awaited her. There were only two possible outcomes: either they would grow old together, or she would have to find the strength to forge ahead alone.
Pan Yue let out a soft sigh. Sometimes, witnessing so much life and death around you wasn’t entirely a bad thing. At the very least, it meant you were braced for the reality of it.
Once Grandma Sheng finished cooking, Gu Tingxiao brought the two elders back to the hospital. He had recruited a young soldier to drive them over, since his own injuries prevented him from getting behind the wheel.
“Have you eaten yet?” Wanyan asked as they walked in.
Gu Tingxiao nodded, assuring her they had eaten before leaving the house, which allowed Wanyan to finally relax.
After Pan Yue and Sheng Wanyan finished their meal, Wanyan washed out the lunch boxes and stepped back into the ward. Pan Yue insisted on staying the night, but she was pregnant and couldn’t afford to lose sleep. It was equally impossible to leave the elderly grandparents overnight. Since Gu Tingxiao was injured and needed Wanyan to look after him at home, they decided to let the young soldier pull the night shift.
This was exactly why Gu Tingxiao had brought the young man along. With the family currently comprised of the elderly, the pregnant, and the wounded, his wife couldn’t possibly shoulder it all. It pained him to see her bustling around, acting as if the weight of the entire world rested solely on her shoulders.
Sheng Wanyan was indeed exhausted. It truly felt as though the entire family had collapsed, leaving her as the only functional one left to pick up the pieces.
Though Gu Tingxiao only had one good arm, he was capable of driving with one hand if he took it slow. The hospital wasn’t far from the family compound—a mere ten-minute drive.
The moment they crossed their own threshold, Wanyan collapsed onto the sofa, completely drained of energy.
“Let me see if you have any other wounds,” she said, forcing herself to sit up. She couldn’t rest yet; she had another patient to tend to right here.
“Wife, I’m fine. Really, I’m perfectly fine,” Gu Tingxiao insisted, clutching his shirt tightly to block her view.
Sheng Wanyan eyed him with deep skepticism. “If you’re fine, why are you hiding? Cooperation is mandatory, Captain Gu, or you’re sleeping on the living room couch tonight.”
Fuming, Sheng Wanyan turned on her heel and marched into the bedroom, completely ignoring him.
Seeing her truly angry, Gu Tingxiao hurried after her. He found her sitting on the edge of the bed, her cheeks slightly puffed out in a pout that he found incredibly endearing. Walking over to her, he unbuttoned his shirt and slipped it off, exposing his bare upper body.
Sheng Wanyan’s eyelids twitched. She looked up, but the moment her eyes caught the array of cuts and bruises scoring his torso, she lunged to her feet. Rushing forward to get a closer look, she couldn’t stop the tears from finally spilling over.
“You called this fine? Your flesh is practically laid open!”
A massive gash tore across his chest, stretching all the way down to his waist. If it had gone any deeper, it would have easily required fifty stitches.
“Wife, it really is okay. The field doctor already cleared it,” Gu Tingxiao said gently. “Besides, the medicine you gave me helped immensely.”
It was the absolute truth. He had run out of standard military medical supplies during the mission, and it was only thanks to the emergency stash his wife had packed that the wound was healing so well. At the time, he hadn’t known just how potent it was; he had simply used it hoping to slow the bleeding.
To his amazement, her medicine was vastly superior to any standard hemostatic powder available. A wound of that magnitude would normally take at least twenty minutes to clot using military-issue supplies. Her formula had stopped the bleeding in less than ten. It hadn’t just saved his life—it was the very reason Sheng Wanze had survived the journey back to the hospital.
Sheng Wanyan glared at his nonchalant expression, deeply exasperated. But no matter how angry he made her, he was still her husband. Forcing herself to calm down, she resolved to get him some proper scar-healing ointment.
“Let go,” she muttered, trying to pull away.
Gu Tingxiao didn’t dare release his hold. His wife looked ready to evict him from the room; if he let go now, he might never get back in. “Wanyan…”
“If you don’t let go this instant, you can get out entirely.”
Gu Tingxiao immediately dropped his hands, adopting his most obedient, well-behaved posture.
Seeing his sudden docility, the anger evaporating from Wanyan’s chest was replaced by fond amusement. She turned to the closet, retrieved the key to her dowry chest, and walked over to the large storage shelf.
When Gu Tingxiao tried to peek, she shot him a sharp glare, causing him to instantly avert his eyes. Shielded from his view, Wanyan pretended to rummage through the chest while actually reaching into her spatial dimension to pull out a highly effective wound-healing powder.
Fortunately, she had pursued medical studies in her previous life and had manufactured an abundant supply of pharmaceuticals during her spare time in the space.
She handed the bottle to Gu Tingxiao. “Apply this three times a day. Sit tight while I go boil some water for your bath.”
She bustled out of the room. Gu Tingxiao stared down at the medicine vial, his eyes darkening with a profound, unreadable expression. His wife possessed an extraordinary, almost dangerous talent for medicine. In a world this turbulent, such a gift could make one’s path incredibly treacherous—unless, of course, the political tides changed.
As Sheng Wanyan set the water to boil, Gu Tingxiao finally let himself completely relax. Because of his injuries, he had been granted an extended medical leave. He intended to recuperate fully at home before returning to duty.
This meant they would finally have an abundance of uninterrupted time together. Because of his fractured arm, Wanyan had already decided against traveling back to Chengdu or the Capital anytime soon. A long train journey would do him no favors; he needed a stable environment to apply his medication on time and let his body heal. As the old saying went, it took a hundred days to mend a broken bone. It would be at least three months before his arm regained full functionality. She wondered just how much time this life-threatening mission had actually bought him.
“How long is your leave?” Wanyan asked later, after they had both bathed and settled onto the bed. She sat close beside him, carefully dabbing the powder onto his chest.
“Originally, three months.”
Wanyan arched an eyebrow. Reading between the lines, she could tell he had altered the plan. “And now?”
Knowing he could never successfully keep secrets from his wife, Gu Tingxiao confessed his arrangements. “I plan to report back to duty in a month. That way, we can accumulate enough time off to head back to Chengdu and the Capital for the Lunar New Year.”
It was currently early August, leaving roughly five months until the New Year. His strategy was to compress his recovery now so he could take a full three-month block during the holidays. He wanted to take his wife back to Chengdu for a month, spend another month in the Capital, and use the remaining month for travel time. The timeline was perfect, though it meant he wouldn’t be able to take any leave the following year, having completely exhausted his allocation.
Wanyan found herself incredibly tempted by the prospect. However, considering his physical state, she worried that rushing back to duty in a month would severely hinder his ability to train.
“But how will you manage training with your arm like that? Wouldn’t it be safer to just wait until next year to travel?”
Gu Tingxiao looked at her softly. He knew how isolating it could be for her to stay confined to the military quarters day in and day out. Moreover, with Pan Yue pregnant and Sheng Wanze severely injured, there was absolutely no chance the family would be traveling this year. He wanted nothing more than to give her a change of scenery.
