A Red String on a Snow Leopard - Chapter 3

I was certain I had never seen him before.

Someone like him would be difficult to forget after even one meeting.

Yet his question came so naturally, as if that red string had always belonged before his eyes.

I took back the paperwork and tucked it into my medicine chest.

“My lord, you have mistaken me for someone else.”

He stepped forward.

The little warmth from the brazier in the duty room suddenly seemed to vanish.

“No.”

His voice was not loud.

“You smell of mugwort, pine resin, frostbite salve, and a little blood.”

My fingers tightened.

The petty official’s eyes moved between us, changing at once.

I said, “Young Master Helian, what you said is easy to misunderstand.”

The petty official had already misunderstood.

The way he looked at me changed from “a physician here to collect a debt” to “someone who may have climbed onto the prince’s mansion.”

Helian Cen seemed not to understand.

“Misunderstand what?”

I endured it.

“Come outside with me.”

He glanced at the petty official.

The man immediately lowered his head to tidy the account books, pretending he had heard nothing.

I dragged Helian Cen into the corridor.

Only then did I see clearly that a red string was tied around his wrist.

The knot was ugly.

Exactly like the one I had tied on that snow leopard.

I stared at it for a long time.

“You…”

Helian Cen lowered his eyes to the red string.

“You said you were lending it to me.”

My scalp tightened.

“You were that snow leopard?”

“Mm.”

He answered too calmly.

I took two steps back.

He followed one step.

I lifted a hand. “Stop.”

He stopped.

Very obediently.

I asked, “Then why did you bring me a rabbit?”

Helian Cen was silent for a moment.

“Medical fee.”

I pressed my brow.

“Thank you. I do not accept dead rabbits.”

He frowned.

“You do not like rabbits?”

“That is not the point.”

He thought for a while.

“Then next time, a deer?”

I looked at him.

For a moment, I truly wanted to know how the Northern Border Prince’s Mansion had raised its heir.

Or rather, how they had failed to raise him.

My first reaction was to close the door.

But this was the Ministry of War duty room, not my medicine hut.

I could only fasten my medicine chest and stare at him.

“Young Master Helian, words like that can cause trouble.”

“Trouble for you?”

“Yes.”

He nodded. “Then I will not say it.”

The answer came too quickly, leaving me unsure how to continue.

A moment later, he asked, “Can I help you get the money?”

I looked at him.

“How?”

“Kill him.”

I inhaled.

“No.”

Helian Cen looked at the duty room. “Then threaten him?”

“No.”

“Break his hand?”

“No.”

He fell silent.

I discovered, with some despair, that he was genuinely trying to think of a polite method.

I said, “As a human, you need to use human methods.”

He looked at me. “You teach me.”

“Why should I?”

“Because I owe you.”

He lifted his wrist, showing the red string.

“Also, the people who shot me may be connected to your father’s payment.”