Saving the Prince Regent - Chapter 48

Chapter 48 – Say Something (1)

Zhao Xi knew Shen Fei would leave, eventually. She wanted to get married with him and possibly deflower him. She couldn’t do that when his body was still recovering and fragile. But marriage was still a possibility, if he gave his consent.

Hopefully, the soldiers who looked for Shen Fei would assume he was dead and leave him alone, so Zhao Xi could have a wedding ceremony right at the courtyard! She would plan everything. She didn’t need any betrothal gift, or organizers. She just needed Shen Fei and herself to have a small heart-felt ceremony. She would never have to hear about anyone ever calling her an ‘unwanted spinster’. She would proudly call Shen Fei her ‘husband’. He would forever be bound to her! They will be a family, at last. All her dreams came to a halt when she realized Shen Fei hadn’t responded to her question.

“Shen Fei, say something,” Zhao Xi said, looking at him. Her hands, inside the sleeves of his gown, were still curled in his. She held it tightly.

“If you want to get married, just pick a date. Why are you asking me?” Shen Fei sounded removed, even indifferent, as though this marriage wasn’t something that was of any importance to him.

“But I want to know what you feel. I want to know if you want to get married,” she implored, feeling a bit disappointed.

“It doesn’t matter what I want,” Shen Fei sighed.

“How can you say that? Is it a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’?” demanded Zhao Xi, sitting upright. Since her hands were inside his sleeves, he leaned on his elbow, with his back off the bed, looking at her.

His toned chest was exposed, and Zhao Xi would have enjoyed gawking at him some other time, but right now, it was imperative to know his answer for her most desperate question.

“Tell me, Shen Fei, is it a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’?” she asked again.

“If I didn’t want to, would you drop the wedding?” he asked back.

Zhao Xi was annoyed. Shen Fei seemed to be from a very prominent family. Why would he even consider marrying a common village girl like her? Perhaps he didn’t even like her enough to marry her. The more he didn’t want her, the more she wanted him. So, she decided to go through with it. The Winter Solstice was coming, she would marry him then. It was an auspicious time of the year. There were ten days left. A healing period after the acupuncture took seven days, so Shen Fei’s legs would be healing slowly. He couldn’t run away even if he tried.

She told him about it, and he hummed an affirmative in response. He didn’t agree or disagree, he just nodded. Zhao Xi didn’t know what he was thinking or feeling. He didn’t speak after that, so she started planning for the upcoming wedding. She would have a very simple wedding, no pompous rituals needed. She would just invite people from the village for the reception and nothing else.

Zhao Xi needed to get red clothes that the bride and groom usually wore at their marriage ceremony. She didn’t have enough time to stitch and embroider them herself, so she needed to find a tailor or embroiderer. The material needed to be good and clothes of rich material cost a lot of money. It was her marriage, after all! She would get to have only one, ever. So, she might as well go all in. It was time, finally, to sell her five-hundred-year ginseng. She had found this particular ginseng, high up in the mountains one day. She couldn’t bear to sell something so old and precious, so she had cut it up into small pieces and preserved it. Even a small amount could fetch her two hundred pieces of silver. She would keep the rest for emergencies.

She had been so engrossed thinking about the preparations for the marriage that she had overlooked Shen Fei’s condition. His legs weren’t fully healed yet, and she still needed to observe him on the aftereffects of the acupuncture. On the second day since the acupuncture, Shen Fei was sleepy and sluggish. Even his favorite bath couldn’t raise his spirits. At first, Zhao Xi thought he was just aloof because of the marriage proposal but soon realized that this wasn’t it, something was physically wrong with him. He was so lethargic that a single nap would stretch to hours. He became so frail one day that he fell off while eating. He would be so low on energy that he would doze off every time. She thought he might have hypersomnia.

Shen Fei would sometimes wake up abruptly from his sleep in a coughing fit. His hands and sheets were splattered with blood. Zhao Xi prepared medicine for him, but he couldn’t keep it down. He couldn’t keep in food either, every time he would vomit blood. So, she made him plain porridge to eat. Zhao Xi knew that there were aftereffects to the acupuncture treatment, but what Shen Fei experienced was too severe to be mere aftereffects. She was worried. She checked him again, all the points that she had stuck needles in. She checked them repeatedly, thinking she might have made some kind of mistake. She didn’t find anything wrong, but she couldn’t rest easy. There had to be something amiss. He should have been getting better and not worse!