In ancient times, the powerful and wealthy seized power step by step.

Zhang Shen made this trip in the heavy snow and returned to Qingyi Lane. Sure enough, his illness worsened. He was so ill that he almost lost consciousness as soon as he got home.

Zhu Qingyu took his pulse again, changed the prescription, prepared the medicine, decocted it, and fed it to him. She was busy until evening before she finally stabilized Zhang Shen's condition.

After finishing with Zhang Shen's business, Zhu Qingyu finally had time to attend to her own affairs. She had been fooling around with Gu Zhao too much last night, and her body was still sticky, so she couldn't find a chance to clean herself up.

Now that Zhang Shen was sound asleep, Zhu Qingyu took her clothes and went to the next room to take a bath and clean herself.

Halfway through washing, I suddenly heard Zhang Shen hurriedly pushing open the door and running out from the inner room.

Zhang Shen was still anxiously calling her from outside:

"Qingyu! Qingyu!"

Zhu Qingyu thought something was wrong with him and quickly said:

"I'm here, right next door, taking a shower. Are you feeling unwell? Wait a moment, I'll be right out."

Zhang Shen leaned against the doorway, his tone softening, and said in a somewhat pitiful voice:

"No, I'm fine. You can continue washing, you don't need to come out. I just... I just thought you left again."

Zhu Qingyu comforted her:

"I'm not leaving, and I won't leave again. Go back and lie down, I'm almost better."

Although Zhang Shen verbally agreed, Zhu Qingyu suspected that he hadn't actually listened to her, so she quickened her pace, finished bathing, and got dressed.

Pushing open the door to the side room, Zhang Shen was indeed sitting in the outer room waiting for her, his head resting on the back of the armchair, his eyes closed, whether he was sleepy or dizzy, it was hard to tell.

I want to scold him, but I can't bear to.

Zhu Qingyu sighed, went over and took his hand:

"Jingyan, go to bed."

Zhang Shen was jolted awake from his dream. When he saw Zhu Qingyu standing right in front of him, he seemed not to have realized what was happening and stared at her neck as if in a daze.

Zhu Qingyu touched her neck and asked:

"What's wrong?"

Zhang Shen shook his head, stood up, lowered his eyes, and replied:

"fine."

Zhu Qingyu led Zhang Shen back to the inner room. As they passed the dressing table, she glanced at herself in the mirror.

During the day, she wore an outer coat with a high collar, so it wasn't noticeable. But after bathing at night, she changed into an inner garment with a cross-collar, revealing the skin below her neck.

The very obvious red marks were left by Gu Zhao.

Not only below her neck, but if Zhang Shen became suspicious and wanted to examine her, he would remove her current clothes and find that her entire body was almost covered with red hickeys and blue finger marks.

If Zhang Shen wants to investigate, the evidence is overwhelming, and Zhu Qingyu will have no chance to defend herself, nor is she prepared to do so.

She would tell him that she had changed her mind.

If he were to ask, the answer would be that she had changed her mind; there would be no other answer.

But Zhang Shen didn't ask any questions. Seeing her lingering in front of the dressing table, he instead pulled her towards the bed and said:

"Go to sleep."

She used to sleep inside, and Zhang Shen would sleep outside.

Sometimes, if she wanted water or something in the middle of the night, Zhang Shen would get it for her.

But since Zhang Shen is currently a patient, it's impossible for a patient to take care of her, so Zhu Qingyu said:

"You sleep inside."

Zhang Shen disagreed:

"No, you sleep inside."

I don't know why he's being so stubborn today. Zhu Qingyu explained to him:

"If I sleep inside, getting up will disturb you. You still need to recover from your illness, how can you sleep peacefully?"

Zhang Shen glanced at her and insisted:

"You sleep inside."

His gaze was somewhat complicated, but Zhu Qingyu immediately understood what he meant.

Perhaps more than sleeping soundly, Zhang Shen was worried that she had run away again, without his knowledge.

Zhu Qingyu's tender heart was pierced, and she replied gently:

"Okay, I'll sleep inside."

The night in Qingyi Lane is exceptionally quiet, a peaceful night perfect for falling asleep, yet some find it difficult to drift off.

It was late at night, and the midnight clapper had long since sounded. Zhu Qingyu touched Zhang Shen's face.

Zhang Shen immediately asked:

"What's wrong? What do you want?"

She knew he couldn't sleep, but he was just pretending to be asleep. She's a doctor, surely she can tell the difference between a sleeping person's breathing?

Zhu Qingyu took his hand under the covers and whispered her instructions:

"Master Zhang, you'd better get well soon. The Emperor has ordered you to raise money to build Huiyi Temple, and I doubt we'll have much left. Once we've delivered the money to the Ministry of Revenue and returned to Yangzhou, you'll have to live a life of poverty with me, running around carrying my medicine box every day. Can you handle that? If you don't get well soon, and then you can't even carry the medicine box properly, and you don't work hard, don't blame me for being ruthless. I won't pay you your monthly wages, and you won't even be able to afford a pancake when you go out."

Threatened by his wife with such a tragic scene, Zhang Shen turned to hug her, their heads close together, and asked pitifully:

"Qingyu, will you come back to Yangzhou with me? I won't even have any money left. But I'm more worried about leaving you in the capital."

Zhu Qingyu hugged him back and patted his back, just as she had patted Zhang Ruohua to comfort her, and said:

"You don't want to go back to Yangzhou? Then why don't you come back to Sichuan with me? I want to take this opportunity to go back to Sichuan and see if we can find our Zhu family's ancestral graves. If we can, you can offer incense to the Zhu family elders and let the ancestors recognize you as their son-in-law. Then I want to open a clinic at the foot of that mountain, and we can make a living together. When I die, you can bury me in my family's ancestral graves."

Now, Zhu Qingyu no longer hopes to go back. She just doesn't know if there will be a mountain behind the place called Qingyun Street in the future, or if there will be Zhu family ancestral graves in the mountain.

If so, after she dies, she will be buried there, and her parents and brothers should be able to see her when they pay respects to their ancestors during the Qingming Festival.

Zhu Qingyu had almost never told Zhang Shen about her family situation before, but now she actually took the initiative to ask him to offer incense to the Zhu family ancestors, which meant that she acknowledged him.

Even if the initial arrangement was for Zhu Qingyu to cover for each other, in Zhang Shen's heart, the marriage was never intended to be a pretext from the beginning.

Zhang Shen hugged Zhu Qingyu and said:

"Alright, let's go back to Sichuan."

But in her heart she was saying, "Qingyu, I'm sorry."

I'm sorry, even though I have nothing now and don't have the right to do so, I still don't want to let go and don't want to lose someone as wonderful as you.