Chapter 6: She Wants Him to Live

Hearing this, Su Xinyu gave a bitter smile.

The sound of her bitter smile was heard by the maidservants outside the door, and they called out in unison, "Young Mistress."

"It is best for the Young Mistress to accompany the Young Master properly; after all, tonight is the wedding night," one of them said. "Please do not take what we say to heart, Young Mistress."

Su Xinyu asked directly, "Lu Chengxu will never wake up, and I have to go with him?"

"Young Mistress..."

Silence fell outside the door.

Su Xinyu commanded herself to calm down.

She walked quickly to the bedside. The man lying on the bed still possessed a peerless and handsome countenance. For some reason, even though he was clearly motionless, looking at him like this caused an inexplicable fear to rise in her heart.

Saving him was the priority, so she averted her eyes from his face, reached out to pull open his collar, and unwound the bandages on his body.

A hole was visible on his chest, clearly caused by an arrow; the wound was messy and everted.

There was a knife wound on his abdomen, about half a foot long, slanting upwards with the flesh torn open.

Both wounds showed signs of inflammation due to poor treatment.

To think that the prestigious Imperial Academy of Medicine would handle a wound so sloppily.

She could handle the condition of the wounds.

The difficulty was that his pale skin was covered in purple-black veins that almost spanned his entire body. When she rolled up his sleeve, she saw them on his arm as well.

It was evident he had been poisoned.

And the poison was deep.

She could perform surgical operations.

But when it came to detoxification, she knew nothing at all.

No matter; she would treat this dying horse as if it were alive.

First, she had to treat the wounds on his body; at the very least, she wanted to see tomorrow's sun alive.

With this thought, she called out to the outside, "I want water. Boil it, then let it cool. The more, the better."

"What does the Young Mistress intend to do? After the Young Master's wedding ceremony today, his condition has worsened. It would be best if the Young Mistress did not touch him."

Su Xinyu said again, "I also need white liquor and gauze. I only want to re-bandage his wounds."

"Understood," the person outside replied.

A moment later, they brought the items.

The water, white liquor, and gauze were brought into the room, and the door was locked once more.

Su Xinyu cleaned her hands and used the white liquor to disinfect the suturing needles, thread, and scalpel.

The man's wounds were already three or four days old. Since no suturing had been performed for such a long time, she could not suture them recklessly; she had to clean the wound surfaces first.

Thus, she used the white liquor to debride and disinfect the wounds.

As the liquor was poured on, the unconscious man's brow furrowed with a cold, fierce expression.

Su Xinyu did not notice. She picked up the scalpel to excise the necrotic flesh from his wounds.

Unexpectedly, as the blade went down, the man with closed eyes suddenly clamped down on her wrist. His grip was ruthless and cold, as if he might crush her wristbone at any moment, causing her eyes to instantly well up with tears from the pain.

Her act of using a knife on him at this moment must never be known by the Lu family.

If discovered, she feared she would die on the spot.

Thinking of this, Su Xinyu leaned down to his side and whispered in his ear, "Save some strength to stay alive, alright?"

It was as if Lu Chengxu heard a soft, gentle voice...

Telling him to live!

But then he heard: "You are already a dying man, why bother with such great effort? If you alert others, I will die, and since no one will be there to suture your wounds, you will die too. You... you let go of me quickly."

He slowly released his grip.

Su Xinyu gritted her teeth to endure the pain in her wrist and continued with the knife.

If they were not husband and wife at this moment, and if her life were not tied to his, she would never have dared to use a knife on a man who killed as indifferently as he did.

He had to live as much as possible; at the very least, if he lived, she would not end up as a sacrificial burial companion.

With this thought, Su Xinyu's gaze became determined, and her knife work became meticulous and rigorous.

By the time the two wounds were debrided, it was already midnight.

By the time the wounds were sutured, it was the early hours of the morning.

Because he was heavily injured and poisoned, Lu Chengxu remained motionless throughout the entire process. If not for his faint breath, she almost thought he had truly passed away.

"Meeting me, you can be considered lucky."

The suturing thread and other items she had prepared over the past few days had proven useful.

Muttering a single sentence, she finally succumbed to exhaustion. She pulled over a small stool to sit down, rested her elbows on the edge of the bed, and actually fell asleep.

——

Early the next morning.

The Mu family dining hall.

Seeing that Su Xinyu had not yet arrived, Mu Rong ordered a servant to go to the guest courtyard to invite her.

The servant stammered, their feet not moving for a long while.

"What is going on?" Mu Rong asked in a heavy voice.

The servant looked at Lady Niu uneasily. "Madam..."

"Xinyu married into the Lu family yesterday," Lady Niu said directly. "Rest assured, Master. Now that this night has passed, your niece is already a daughter-in-law of the Lu family."

Everyone in the household knew that Su Xinyu had been carried out of the manor yesterday.

The fact that no one had dared to tell Mu Rong until this morning only proved that all the servants feared her as the matriarch.

In this Mu household, she had the final say.

Mu Rong's brow furrowed. "The marriage between Lu the Sixth Son and her was annulled. Who did she marry?"

Lady Niu said nonchalantly, "Lu the Fifth Son."

"That dying, heavily injured Lu the Fifth Son?" Mu Rong slammed his chopsticks onto the dining table with a *thwack*. "Lady Niu, what are your intentions?"

Last night, he had returned late from his duties at the yamen. When it was time for dinner, he hadn't seen Su Xinyu, and Lady Niu had told him that Xinyu was dining in her room.

It turned out Lady Niu had been deceiving him then.

Lady Niu had her son, daughter-in-law, and daughter all leave the dining hall before raising her voice to her husband: "Your niece had her engagement broken; it is difficult to find another match. Is there something wrong with me, as her aunt, deciding her marriage? He is also a son of the Lu family; Xinyu will not suffer a loss."

"No matter who we choose, we cannot choose a dying man," Mu Rong said angrily. "Do you not even ask me?"

"What are you angry about, Master? You want Haiyu to marry her as a secondary wife, but have you planned to ask the Ma family's opinion?" Lady Niu lowered her voice. "Furthermore, once Xinyu marries in, our family will receive a substantial sum of money—more than ten years of your salary."

At the mention of money, Mu Rong's voice lowered. "But Xinyu is my niece, the only daughter of my sister and brother-in-law. I cannot fail them."

Lady Niu sneered. "The only reason you have reached your current official position is because of Lord Su's patronage. You surely know better than I why Lord Su left the capital back then."

Mu Rong fell silent upon hearing this.

Lady Niu placed a side dish into his bowl and advised with a smile, "Alright, Master. Our family suffers no loss and gains a significant income; is that not a good thing?"

Having said that, she went to call her son, daughter-in-law, and daughter back to eat breakfast.

After breakfast, Mu Rong went to his duties, and Mu Haiyu also went to the academy.

Mu Baoxia took the opportunity to ask her mother, "Mother, is Father angry?"

"Let him be. He'll be fine after being angry for a few days," Lady Niu said dismissively.

Ma Manman also asked, "Mother-in-law, what if Su Xinyu comes back to settle scores with us?"

"If Sister-in-law could come up with such a plan, would we still fear her coming to settle scores?" Mu Baoxia snorted.

"I am just afraid your brother has taken a fancy to her and will be angry with me." At the thought of the look in Mu Haiyu's eyes when he saw Su Xinyu, Ma Manman felt a surge of irritation.

A malicious smile curled at the corners of Lady Niu's mouth, her eyes full of calculation. "I have already inquired thoroughly; that Lu the Fifth Son won't survive. If he doesn't wake up in the next few days, the Lu family will prepare his funeral arrangements, and Su Xinyu will be buried with him. When everyone is dead, who will come to settle scores with us?"

Hearing this, both Mu Baoxia and Ma Manman burst into laughter.

(End of Chapter)