CHAPTER 280: CHAPTER 238

"But..." Su Qing scratched his head, not knowing how to express his thoughts, and finally squeezed out a sentence, "It’s better to have someone with you in case something happens to you."

Lan Tian: "..." Su Qing’s bluntness would make it a miracle for Mo Junhua to have lived so safely up until now.

Lan Tian put down her basket and beckoned Su Qing with her fingers, "Come here, I need to have a good talk with you."

Su Qing glanced at Lan Tian, then looked at the four people setting up the backdrop, stepped back a few paces and even said, "Sister-in-law, men and women should not touch hands."

Lan Tian’s smile grew even brighter on her face, very good, it had been a while since anyone had provoked her urge to hit someone, and Su Qing was lucky to become one of them. She ran over and beat Su Qing mercilessly.

Su Qing initially curled up dodging, no matter how he evaded, Lan Tian’s fists always found their way onto his body. The dumb Su Qing dodged for a while, realizing that Lan Tian wasn’t just throwing random punches, there seemed to be a pattern.

"If you don’t fight back now, you won’t have the chance to strike at all." Lan Tian landed another punch on Su Qing.

"Sister-in-law, then I’m going to strike back," Su Qing said as he began to engage with enthusiasm. The two exchanged blows, one punch at a time, and after more than a dozen moves, Su Qing got increasingly excited, but Lan Tian lost interest and kicked Su Qing away with a foot.

"I’m going to the mountains to gather herbs, I don’t have time to play with you." Lan Tian shouldered her basket and headed up the mountain.

Su Qing, lying on the ground, watched the person walk away into the distance, slowly got up, clutching his waist and gasping in pain. The Camp Commander’s Wife was just so fierce; other than the battalion commander, ordinary men couldn’t handle her.

The four who acted as the backdrop, when they saw Su Qing looking over, walked away leisurely carrying hoes, their wariness of Lan Tian deepening. Su Qing didn’t realize, but as bystanders, they saw clearly that the Camp Commander’s Wife didn’t use her full strength, and if it were them... well, the outcome is hard to say.

In the afternoon, Lan Tian came back and cleaned in the open space in front of the house, while Su Qing leaned on the second-floor railing, glanced down, and tottered over to squat beside her, watching for a while, bored, and then observing ants crawling on the ground. He picked a blade of grass and poked at the ants playfully, but soon lost interest and suddenly said, "Sister-in-law, let’s have a fight every day from now on!"

"No time," Lan Tian glanced at Su Qing, "Has your camp commander woken up?"

"No," Su Qing shook his head.

"If you’re that bored, go make fire for me, I need to prepare medicine."

Su Qing ran off energetically as Lan Tian finished cleaning all the medicinal herbs and took them to the kitchen. She had to do the remaining work herself, sending Su Qing out, following the prescription she put each herb into the pot in order, stewing the medicine well and taking the pot to her room, told Su Qing she wouldn’t be having dinner that night, then shut and bolted the door.

She arrayed an Array in the room, both for defense and sound insulation, which was absolutely solid, ensuring that no one could disturb her. With a wave of her hand, a large barrel appeared on the ground; she poured the decoction into the barrel and added two barrels of warm water to mix, the dark water bubbling with white foam, looking more like poison than Spiritual Medicine. Lan Tian undressed and soaked in it without even blinking.

The efficacy of the medicinal bath was tenfold for those in the Qi Cultivation Stage, and the quality had risen more than just one grade. After soaking for a while, the medicine permeated Lan Tian’s body through her pores, spreading a thread of pain. This pain didn’t bother Lan Tian; she submerged herself fully, soaked for more than ten minutes, then floated to the surface, leaning against the side of the tub like a fish out of water, gasping for air, the pain was too intense. It was dozens of times more painful than the medicinal baths during her Qi Cultivation Stage, making Lan Tian gasp in pain.

After soaking in the medicinal bath, feeling like she had lost half her life, Lan Tian crawled out of the tub, her legs trembling violently, nearly falling several times. She dried herself off, got dressed, dismantled the Array, and with no strength left, she collapsed into bed and fell asleep without even draining the tub.

In the morning, Lan Tian was awoken by persistent knocking at the door and someone shouting hazily from outside.

"Sister-in-law, sister-in-law, the battalion commander has woken up; you should come check on him." Su Qing knocked for awhile, then without waiting to see if Lan Tian had heard, she ran off to Mo Junhua’s room.

Laying in bed without a thought, Lan Tian eventually got up, washed up, and went upstairs to see Mo Junhua. At the doorstep, she heard Su Qing speak, "Camp Commander, are you hungry? Should I go and cook you a bowl of noodles? Camp Commander, feel your body, is there any discomfort? Should I ask the sister-in-law to come and check on you again?"

"No need, just water." His voice was hoarse, unused for several months.

"Okay, I’ll go get you water, just wait a moment, Commander," said Su Qing as she dashed off like a gust of wind.

Lan Tian entered and saw Mo Junhua propped up against the headboard of the bed, facing the door, just in time to see her enter. He puckered his lips, looking at Lan Tian with an aggrieved expression, "Girl."

Lan Tian didn’t speak but went over to sit beside him. She placed her hand directly onto his wrist to take his pulse, and as the Spiritual Energy travelled through his body, she found no residual issues from the Heavenly Tribulation. She stared at Mo Junhua for a few seconds, bewildered, "Why did you take the lightning strike for me? Don’t you know how dangerous that was? If you had... Then in this world, there would be no Mo Junhua anymore." Death is like the extinguishing of a lamp; when someone dies, there is nothing left.

"Why contemplate so many ’whys’? You are my woman, and I am your man. It’s only right for me to shield you from all troubles. Seeing you in danger, I didn’t think too much of it and just rushed to protect you. Even if it cost me my life, I would die willingly. Girl, you don’t have to feel guilty; this was my own choice." Mo Junhua touched Lan Tian’s face; he did not do this as a quest for her guilt but to have Lan Tian fully, body and soul, completely belong to him.

It wasn’t until that name was brought up and seeing the uncontrollable grief in Lan Tian that Mo Junhua might have thought he had a lifetime to slowly make her accept him. Seeing the other man brought about a sense of crisis. The two were childhood sweethearts, and Mo Junhua had never seen his girl so out of control; that man held an important place in her heart, clearly a more significant place than his.

Ji Feng!

In the depths of his heart, Mo Junhua gnashed his teeth in hatred. To think that his girl wanted to kill him for that man, Mo Junhua could hardly bear the thought of experiencing such betrayal ever again in this life. He did not want to see hatred in her eyes when she looked at him, nor did he want to be viewed as a stranger; such things would break him.

"Girl, I don’t understand why you resist me so," Mo Junhua was becoming more adept at lying with innocent eyes and displaying a wronged expression. The last time Lan Tian got drunk, he managed to extract a secret from her lips, a secret he planned to keep from her for life, to take to his grave.

"I don’t know what I did wrong, nor do I know where to start correcting it. Girl, please don’t sentence me to death just yet. Even a condemned man facing execution gets a chance to plead his case, yet I haven’t been given any opportunity at all. Girl, can you give me a chance, please? Let’s try, shall we?" Mo Junhua shamelessly grabbed Lan Tian’s hand and cajoled her; it was fortunate that Su Qing hadn’t returned from fetching water. If she saw such a scene, she’d probably crumble to pieces.

Lan Tian glanced at Mo Junhua and then looked down at their clasped hands, lost in thought.

"You are nicer to someone you’ve just met than you are to me. You even beat me up for him. Look, my chest still hurts." He pulled Lan Tian’s hand to his chest, as if ready to prove his point by stripping if Lan Tian showed any disbelief.

Her hand resting on Mo Junhua’s chest, she could feel ’thump, thump, thump’ – the strong heartbeat beneath her palm. Mo Junhua cautiously peered at Lan Tian, the downcast eyes concealing all her thoughts.