Chapter 52: Do You Want to Wear My Clothes?
Perhaps because she had carefully read every piece of information about guns, even if there were parts she didn’t understand, Xiao Luohan had still memorized a lot of theory.
Now, with Jiang Xue’s instruction, she quickly got the hang of it and started practicing on the targets.
“You learn so fast!” Jiang Xue praised generously. “Uncle Seuss had to restrain himself from scolding me in front of my sister and A-Xi.”
They were both handling a gun for the first time, but Xiao Luo was much calmer than she was. She had only become proficient after practicing with the AR equipment.
Even then, she was still afraid of accidentally misfiring and injuring herself or Uncle Seuss.
“You shouldn’t underestimate yourself,” Xiao Luohan put down the gun and turned to her. “I’m determined to do this and succeed, so I have no hesitation. You’re different from me. It’s normal for you to feel this way.”
She believed that precisely because Jiang Xue grew up in a peaceful era, without having to worry about war or sudden separation from loved ones, she had such a pure aversion to weapons that could take a life.
This purity was extremely rare, and she herself had lost it, so she envied Jiang Xue.
Jiang Xue paused, then shook her head vigorously. “There’s no right or wrong way to feel.”
She knew what Xiao Luohan was thinking, but she didn’t think Xiao Luohan should feel guilty about it.
“Even laws are based on protecting the rights of ordinary citizens. You live in a time of war, facing a tyrant who treats human life like grass… uh, a violent Crown Prince who casually takes lives.”
“He’s the one who killed your elder sister and the soldiers of Beiliao, and not long ago, he almost killed you—if it weren’t for Shizhu and me, you would have frozen to death in the snow, with the servants watching!”
“Not to mention, last night, he forced you to choose a ‘path to survival’ that was actually a dead end! I can’t imagine, if you had hesitated or shown fear, if he would have chosen between poisoned wine, white silk, and charcoal, and ended your life right then and there!”
“Such a person deserves to die. If even this is ‘wrong,’ then I don’t understand what ‘right’ and ‘justice’ mean!”
Her words stunned Xiao Luohan.
But she could tell from the first sentence that Jiang Xue was speaking up for her.
Jiang Xue didn’t want her to be burdened by killing the Crown Prince, to be haunted by nightmares, and even after arriving in the other world, to repeatedly question herself, “Was it really right to do that?”
After all… this was indeed her first time doing something like this, and most likely, her last.
She was about to agree with Jiang Xue when the young woman, her face filled with apprehension, pushed her towards the target. “Quick, quick, quick! Practice first! In case you suddenly wake up from the dream!”
Xiao Luohan had used the excuse of “easily waking up from dreams due to restless sleep” to change the subject, and now it was being used against her.
So she practiced diligently, trying to implement all the details and techniques Jiang Xue had emphasized.
“Tomorrow, I’ll ask Uncle Seuss to export the videos of my error-free practice runs, and you can watch them on your phone. Correct any mistakes and keep practicing.” Feeling that the dream was about to end, Jiang Xue hurriedly said this.
She had thought she would also wake up, but when she closed and opened her eyes, she found herself in the real Wangmei Pavilion.
“…What’s going on now?” She was planning to draw the map of the Eastern Palace for Uncle Seuss first thing in the morning, and she was suddenly anxious.
Had Elder Sister Red Fox deliberately left her here? Why?
Was something about to happen?
As she anxiously pondered, she heard a soft groan from the bed.
As soon as Xiao Luohan woke up, she felt weak, achy all over, and drenched in sweat.
This discomfort wasn’t unfamiliar to her. She immediately touched her forehead with the back of her hand. It was burning up.
She had kept warm and taken medicine the night before last, and yesterday had passed peacefully, so she had thought her health had improved and that she would be fine, but she hadn’t escaped it this morning.
“What’s wrong?”
She heard Jiang Xue’s voice. “Could it be that you caught a cold?!”
Jiang Xue remembered that when her own health was poor, she would often experience “delayed colds” during flu season.
It wasn’t a serious matter, but it was bad timing!
Not to mention that Xiao Luohan was living alone now. No wonder Elder Sister Red Fox had kept her here, even though it was time for her to leave the dream.
Jiang Xue first went to find cold medicine, then brought ink and paper, asking Xiao Luohan to inform the other side—after the sudden “fainting” incident last time, Jiang Mei would be watching the diary while she slept.
“Just say that I’m staying here to take care of you for now, and ask them to send some easily digestible food,” Jiang Xue said. “By the way, where’s the water and the things for boiling water?”
Xiao Luohan pointed her in the direction and explained the method. Jiang Xue went to find the place, frowned at the unattended stove, and simply came back and asked Xiao Luohan to write in the diary, asking her sister to send over a few kettles of hot water.
“You need to drink plenty of water when you have a cold. You’ll need hot water to wipe your body and apply a cold compress to your forehead, and also to make instant food. You can’t wash clothes with cold water in winter, you have to add hot water…” Jiang Xue listed the things she needed to do, then casually asked, “Where are your towels, washbasin, and bathtub?”
Although she had never taken care of a sick person before, she had often been cared for by Sister Cheng and her family, and would ask questions from time to time—after all, if she went to a university far from home, it wouldn’t be convenient for Sister Cheng to come and go, so she might have to take care of herself. It was better to learn these life skills early on.
Xiao Luohan felt her body and cheeks burning. She didn’t know if it was because of the fever or some other reason, but she still obediently pointed out where the various items were kept.
When Jiang Xue returned with the wooden basin and bucket filled with towels, a small kettle full of hot water was already on the diary.
She immediately made two packets of cold medicine, poured half a glass of water into Xiao Luohan’s usual teacup, and let it cool. Then she added hot water to the wooden basin, fetched cold water from the well outside, and started adjusting the water temperature.
“Where are your clean clothes?” she asked, then hesitantly added, “Do you want to wear my clothes? They’re warmer and more comfortable to move around in.”
Her suitcase was large, and Sister Cheng had packed three complete sets of winter clothes, from underwear to sweaters and down jackets, all compressed, so they should be able to be sent over.
Now Xiao Luohan finally understood why her face was burning.
She pursed her dry lips, deliberately avoiding Jiang Xue’s gaze, and softly replied, “Okay.”
After the clothes arrived, Jiang Xue started wiping Xiao Luohan’s body.
Perhaps because she was eager to take measures and prevent the fever from worsening, looking at the young woman’s smooth back, she had only one thought: thin.
So thin! Wiping her with the towel, she felt like it was all bones.
Her heart ached. After wiping her back vigorously, she couldn’t help but say, “I’ll ask Dr. Qi to give you a proper check-up later, and we’ll nourish you for a year or so, so you can gain some weight…”
After finishing with the back, she felt too embarrassed to continue and simply rinsed the towel in the warm water, wrung it out, and handed it to Xiao Luohan. “Um… you can do the front yourself.”
Although they were both girls, some areas were still private.
There was no heating in the room. Considering that even a screen wouldn’t block much of the incoming wind, Jiang Xue thought for a moment and, since she was still in the dream, tried to float over and move the bookshelf, which was taller than her.
She actually managed to move it!
With the bookshelf blocking the wind, she drew the bed curtains and finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Xiao Luohan had just finished wiping herself down, and Jiang Xue immediately unfolded her clothes and handed them over.
Their sizes were indeed similar, but Xiao Luohan was thinner, so the clothes looked a little loose on her. However, for someone with a fever, looser clothes were more comfortable.
Xiao Luohan felt a faint fragrance envelop her.
It was the lavender scent of laundry detergent, but it was also Jiang Xue’s scent, comforting and reassuring.
With Jiang Xue’s help, she put on the unfamiliar clothes from another world, one by one. Due to her unfamiliarity, her movements were a little clumsy.
She glanced at Jiang Xue shyly, but Jiang Xue didn’t say anything, only carefully adjusted the clothes for her, smoothing out the sleeves and collar, preventing wrinkles, and folding down the collar of the turtleneck sweater to reveal a bit of her neck.
“This is the front of the fleece-lined leggings, and the thermal underwear is like this…”
Seeing her embarrassment, Jiang Xue patiently explained, then tucked the clothes into the quilt. “Sister Cheng taught me this. Warming them up with the residual heat from the quilt makes them more comfortable to wear.”
Having done everything she could, hot porridge arrived just then. It was congee with preserved egg and lean pork, with the preserved egg, minced meat, and vegetables finely chopped, clearly made by Jiang Mei.
After watching Xiao Luohan finish the bowl of porridge, Jiang Xue closed her eyes and left the dream.
As soon as she woke up, she quickly got out of bed in Uncle Seuss’s guest room, washed up, got dressed, grabbed a piece of toast with jam, and rushed into Uncle Seuss’s study to find drawing materials.
“So eager, it seems Xiao Linghan has responded,” Uncle Seuss said, entering with a glass of warm milk and a bacon and egg sandwich, followed by Jiang Mei and Xie Xitong.
“She gave me a map of the Eastern Palace, including the bedchamber,” Jiang Xue said, trying to recall the details, her pen moving swiftly across the A4 paper. “But there were no markings for a body anywhere. I originally thought we had guessed wrong, that we had considered the worst-case scenario…”
She shared her speculation with her family and friend.
“Hmm… then we still need to use the mannequin during the simulation,” Uncle Seuss said. “Based on my understanding of ‘Chinese-style horror,’ if the Crown Prince really hid the body, he would probably have it sitting upright in a chair on that day, even dressed in wedding attire.”
His tone was as gentle and calm as ever, but the three present all paled.
“Anyway, let that little princess be mentally prepared,” Uncle Seuss pushed up his glasses, a cold glint in his green eyes. “As a man, I tend to assume the worst when it comes to the minds of scum like him.”
He quickly took the map of the Eastern Palace that Jiang Xue had drawn and went to the gym to simulate the scenario.
Seeing Jiang Xue silently drinking her milk, her gaze unfocused, Jiang Mei asked with concern, “Did you expend a lot of energy in the dream? Do you want to rest for a while?”
“No, Elder Sister Red Fox seems to be protecting me. No matter how much I do in the dream, I don’t feel tired.” Jiang Xue shook her head, looking down at the milk in her glass. “I have mixed feelings now. I want to fast-forward to the ‘wedding day,’ but I also hope time will slow down, at least… at least let Xiao Luo recover first…”
Xie Xitong gently patted her shoulder. “You’ve done your best. Just let nature take its course. Besides, we and Elder Sister Red Fox are here to help!”
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