My Wife, the General - Chapter 3

As soon as we got home, Changfeng fetched a doctor to examine my foot.

Fortunately, the cut wasn’t deep. I just had to stay off it for a while. Rest would be best.

That night, lying in bed, I thought despondently, Shen Yi, Shen Yi… How have you become that useless invalid who couldn’t get out of bed all over again?

Suddenly, leaves rustled outside the window.

Then came a tiny “Meow, meow, meow.”

Had a stray kitten got stuck up the tree?

With some difficulty, I kept my injured leg raised and made my way to the window.

The moment I pushed it open, a dark shape leaped inside.

I opened my mouth to call for help. The intruder clapped a hand over it and raised a finger to his own lips.

“Shh!”

We stared at each other for a moment. Then I shoved him away.

“General Xie? Who was it mocking my guard’s lack of manners this afternoon? And what rule of etiquette permits breaking into someone’s home in the middle of the night?”

Far from taking offense, Xie Yu laughed softly.

“You won’t come to my residence. So I had to come to yours.”

I choked with indignation. “Then use the door! Why climb through the window?”

He raised an eyebrow. “If I came properly through the door, wouldn’t you slip out through the back alley again?”

“… ”

I had no answer to that.

He helped me back to bed.

“Your foot is hurt. Stop wandering about.”

Excuse me?

Would I have been wandering about if he hadn’t been meowing outside my window?

I suppressed my temper. “What exactly brings you here at this hour, General?”

He took a delicate porcelain bottle from inside his robe.

“I’ve brought you the wound ointment we use in the army. It works extremely well.”

I accepted it without ceremony. “My thanks, then.”

Xie Yu stood with his hands behind his back, showing no sign of leaving.

“Was there something else?”

He looked as though the answer were obvious.

“I need to see you put it on.”

With nothing to say to that, I pulled out the stopper, scooped up a little of the glossy ointment with one finger, and reached for the cut on my sole.

But the ointment was cold. The instant it touched my foot, I sucked in a breath.

“I knew you wouldn’t know how.”

Xie Yu took the bottle from me. He scooped some ointment into his palm, warmed it, then caught my foot and pressed his warm hand against it.

I went rigid.

A gasp rose in my throat. By sheer force of will, I turned it into something else.

“…You seem to have quite a talent for waiting on people, General.”

He looked up, a smile warming his deep-set eyes.

“Believe it or not, I used to wait on a little tyrant.”

A little tyrant?

Did he mean me?

Xie Yu had been just eighteen when he came to our household.

He served me for a year without any formal standing before an auspicious date for our wedding finally arrived.

By then, I could get out of bed and move about in a wheelchair.

My parents arranged a grand celebration and invited a great many guests. Everyone offered congratulations, telling me how fortunate I was and praising my bride for bringing prosperity to her husband.

But if they had known the truth—that a useless, half-paralyzed man like me had married a man as lovely as a flower—could they still have found such flattering things to say?

I was miserable, and I drank far too much. I couldn’t even remember how I got back to the bridal chamber.

I only remembered opening the door and seeing Xie Yu in his scarlet wedding robes.

Red candles flickered, making his already exquisite face look almost celestial.

For a moment, his beauty dazed me. I cupped his face and kissed him, almost as if I were venting my anger.

He was thin, but so hot, like a fire burning higher and higher.

I, on the other hand, was rotten wood. I couldn’t catch fire at all.

Xie Yu was stunned for a moment. Then, blushing, he tried to please me.

“The instructing matron taught me. I… I’ll try again…”

His words stung.

Humiliated and furious, I pushed him off the bed.

And now that same person was sitting on my bed once more.

Suddenly, an ache ran through my sole. Xie Yu had finished applying the medicine and was kneading my toes.

“What are you doing?” I demanded.

His expression was perfectly innocent.

“Stay still. I’m checking whether you’ve injured any tendons or bones.”

“Let go,” I ordered through gritted teeth, trying to pull my leg away.

His hand was an iron shackle. I couldn’t move it.

“I’m ticklish!”

“Bear with it.”

He worked away with great concentration, pressing here and kneading there, until my scalp tingled in waves.

Terrified I might make some embarrassing noise, I buried my face in my sleeve.

But his hand stopped.

“Young Master Shen…”

“What now?”

I poked my head out and instantly went scarlet. In a panic, I dragged the quilt over my waist and thighs.

What the hell?

Why had that particular disability suddenly stopped being a disability?

Xie Yu regarded me with a knowing half-smile.

“Your old ailment seems to be recovering nicely.”

Wait.

Hadn’t he failed to recognize me?

How did he know about my old ailment?

Before I could think it through, his lightly callused hand was already sliding up my calf.

“In that case… don’t you owe me a wedding night?”