On a spring afternoon, the gentle breeze carried a touch of dryness, and the warm sunlight enveloped everything. The quiet village exuded a lazy atmosphere everywhere.
Huang Ying was called back home by her father to help with the farm work.
In the room, only Bai Zheng remained. After taking the second dose of the antidote prescribed by the old doctor, she lay listlessly on the simple bamboo bed. Her eyelids grew heavy and drooped slowly, closing bit by bit.
Outside the house, there seemed to be faint calls. The sounds drifted in and out, making it even harder for Bai Zheng, whose mind was gradually going blank, to hear clearly. She didn't even have the strength to answer.
"Creak—"
The half - closed wooden door was pushed open by someone, and a gray figure slipped in furtively.
Bai Zheng's eyes were completely closed, and her calm face showed that she was in a deep sleep.
The person stole a cautious glance at Bai Zheng and then rummaged through the room on their own.
In the simple house, all the furnishings were clearly visible. It didn't take long for the person to turn their eyes to the bamboo bed where Bai Zheng was lying.
Under the bamboo bed, there was only a thick layer of dust. On the bed, because of Bai Zheng, Huang Ying had carefully laid a mattress and a clean sky - blue bedsheet.
Bai Zheng lay quietly on the bed, breathing steadily and evenly.
On closer inspection, a small brown corner seemed to be peeping out from the inside of her pillow.
At the sight of the brown corner, the person's eyes lit up immediately. They couldn't control their excitement and took a step forward. Then, as if suddenly remembering something, they quickly cast a wary look at Bai Zheng, slowed down their steps, tiptoed, and quietly moved towards Bai Zheng.
When they reached the bedside, the thing inside the pillow came fully into view.
It was a delicate and small brown leather wine flask, the very one Bai Zheng had taken out from her bosom just now.
At the sight of the wine flask, the person's eyes instantly became more eager. They took a greedy deep breath. Whether it was an illusion or the flask wasn't tightly capped, there seemed to be a faint scent of plum blossoms mixed with the aroma of wine lingering around their nose, making them feel intoxicated.
"Good wine!" the person murmured with a sigh. Then they reached out their hand carefully, reaching over the sleeping Bai Zheng towards the wine flask.
The sunlight shone through the open window onto the head of Bai Zheng's bed, evenly covering her face.
Suddenly, a long, thin shadow appeared on Bai Zheng's face.
When the skinny arm reached over Bai Zheng, due to the sunlight, it cast a shadow on her face.
Perhaps because of the sudden appearance of the shadow on her face, Bai Zheng's eyelashes fluttered slightly, her breathing suddenly quickened, and her eyebrows knitted tightly.
Bai Zheng's sudden change scared the person so much that they froze in place, holding their breath and not daring to move.
In the silence, Bai Zheng shifted her body, turning from lying on her back to lying on her side facing outwards. This position made her face directly confront the person, which really gave the person a big scare.
Although it was a mild and pleasant spring day, big beads of sweat popped out on the person's forehead when Bai Zheng turned over.
It wasn't until Bai Zheng's breathing became long and steady again that the person slowly continued to stretch out their hand, which had become sore from being held up for so long. They barely managed to reach the wine flask and took it out.
"Creak—"
The wooden door was closed again, as if it had never been opened.
The moment the door closed, Bai Zheng, who had been "asleep", opened her eyes. Her eyes were clear, showing no sign of the sleepiness from before.
She watched the delighted and bouncing figure outside the door and slightly curved her lips.
"One, two, three..."
She watched as the figure pulled out the wooden stopper of the wine flask, took a deep breath, swayed their head intoxicatedly, and then took a big gulp from the flask.
Bai Zheng slightly parted her cherry - like lips and calmly counted.
"Eight, nine, ten!"
As Bai Zheng uttered the word "ten", there was a "thud" sound from outside. The wine flask fell to the ground, and the figure that had been enjoying the wine just now covered their stomach and slowly slid down.
A hint of a smile appeared on Bai Zheng's lips. She threw off the thin quilt, got up, and walked out of the door.
Outside the door, the person lying on the ground, holding their stomach painfully and looking pale, was none other than the old doctor who had treated Bai Zheng's poison.
The old doctor almost immediately took out a pill from his sleeve and fed it to himself.
After taking a moment to recover, he noticed that there was someone in front of him.
He suddenly looked up. When he saw that the person in front of him was Bai Zheng, who should have been fast asleep in bed, he was first stunned, then quickly realized what was going on. He immediately widened his eyes and pointed at Bai Zheng angrily with a flushed face.
"You, you venomous woman! It was you! I wasted my efforts to detoxify you, but you repaid my kindness with ingratitude and poisoned the wine!"
Bai Zheng remained calm, as if she hadn't heard the old doctor's accusation. She only asked in a soft tone, "Are you Mr. Zhou Yuanning?"
At the mention of the name Zhou Yuanning, the old doctor's face changed instantly. Instead of answering Bai Zheng's question, he only retorted, "Who on earth are you?"
"If you are Mr. Zhou Yuanning, this little bit of poison should be nothing to you, sir. Naturally, it's not worth getting angry with a junior, right?" Bai Zheng said with a smile.
"What if I'm not?" The old doctor was so angry that his beard stood on end. "Are you going to take human life lightly?"
Bai Zheng smiled faintly and waved her index finger from side to side. "I don't understand what you mean, sir. I didn't force you to drink the wine. It was a precious thing that Huang Ying had finally obtained. You took it without asking, which is stealing.
There's no way in this world that a thief gets sick from the stolen thing and then blames the owner of the thing, right?"
"You..." The old doctor was so choked that his face turned green and then white. He couldn't say a word for a moment.
"Moreover," Bai Zheng's expression turned solemn, and a hint of coldness flashed in her eyes. "For your own gluttony, you added a sleeping pill to the medicine of a patient like me, who still has residual poison in my body and is already listless. This is not something a doctor should do, is it?"
As she spoke, she neatly lifted the hem of her long gown and sat on the stool beside her. The movement was smooth and graceful, showing a touch of chivalry.
But the old doctor, the only one who witnessed this movement, was so angry and anxious at the moment that he had no intention of appreciating Bai Zheng's action. He just glared at Bai Zheng hatefully and said, "Since you knew, you deliberately pretended to be asleep to lure me into stealing the wine. You did this on purpose to harm me!"
"I've already said just now that for you, sir, this little bit of poison is not enough to cause you any harm.
So, sir, today's incident is not so much me harming you as it is me telling you that a doctor should uphold justice."
"Hehe, a girl who hasn't even grown up yet has quite a big mouth," the old doctor narrowed his eyes, and a fierce anger flashed in them. "Do you think you're qualified to teach me a lesson?"