Chapter 452: Can I Tell Him About the Childbirth System?

Ji Qingwu stared, dumbfounded. "You... you’re supposed to go outside, right?"

Zhao Mingyan crossed his arms. "I’ll have to carry you out in a bit, so I’d just have to come back in."

Seeing that he really intended to wait, Ji Qingwu said quickly, "I can walk. I’ll get out on my own."

Zhao Mingyan said, "Who was it just a moment ago, crying with tears in her eyes about how everything hurt, how her legs were weak and her back was sore? I’ve already checked, Ah Wu. You’re definitely hurt. Don’t be willful."

Ji Qingwu’s face flushed crimson, partly from frustration and partly from having to hold it in. She tried to shoo him away fiercely.

Her finger trembled as she pointed at him. "I’m really not badly hurt anymore. Just get out, quickly."

Zhao Mingyan asked skeptically, "Really?"

Ji Qingwu said urgently, "Really! You can check again later if you don’t believe me." ’The priority is to get him out of here so I can finally get some relief.’

But not only did Zhao Mingyan not leave, he actually circled around behind her. He caught her trembling fingertips and, unhurriedly, loosened the sash at her waist.

"You may not know this, Ah Wu, but people have been crippled by falling into the toilet when their bodies are weak. I can’t rest easy."

Ji Qingwu clutched the waistband of her trousers, ready to hold it in until she burst, and made a run for the door.

But his long arm shot out, snagged her by the collar, and pulled her right back.

Zhao Mingyan said, "It seems what Ah Wu said was true. Your legs are plenty strong—not only can you walk, you can even run."

He held Ji Qingwu pinned to the spot.

With the soft CRACKLE of a candlewick, Zhao Mingyan narrowed his eyes and asked.

"Doesn’t hurt anymore?"

The question was not just an inquiry; it was laced with a hint of danger.

He was holding her up by the collar, which had loosened considerably, giving him a view of her creamy, smooth skin.

Ji Qingwu followed his gaze and clutched her hands to her chest, frantically trying to pry his wrist away. In her haste, she forgot that her sash had been taken, and a sudden draft chilled her lower body.

Her silk trousers slipped down to her ankles, impossible to pull back up.

"Looks like you’re all better."

Zhao Mingyan’s expression was complex. The bruises on her legs had vanished, even though less than an hour had passed.

Ji Qingwu’s heart pounded. ’He’s not going to think I’m some kind of freak, is he?’

She had barely begun to struggle, her knees pressed tight, when a hand like an iron vise forced them apart.

This was no longer a rehearsal. He was holding her in the exact position one would hold a baby to help it relieve itself.

His thumb pressed hard against the skin of her inner thigh, where the bruises should have been. On her skin, as smooth as white jade, there wasn’t even a red mark to be seen. Just thirty minutes ago, it had been dotted with purple bruises, yet now they had vanished without a trace, as if washed away by morning dew.

Ji Qingwu was experiencing the full, excruciating meaning of "when you’ve got to go, you’ve got to go"—especially now that everything was perfectly in place.

To make matters worse, his searing palm was pressed against her taut lower abdomen, applying pressure.

"Holding it in for too long is bad for your health."

’As if I want to hold it in!’ Ji Qingwu was so mortified her feet arched like crescent moons.

Tears of wax dripped, PLIP, PLOP, onto the bronze crane candelabrum. A trickling sound soon followed.

No matter how mortifying it was, the body’s limits were not so easily controlled.

Ji Qingwu stared at the cracks between the green bricks, wishing she could squeeze into one. ’If only people could turn into water and just flow away.’

He pulled the chain at the base. The contents slid away, and the mechanism’s chute closed with a CLACK.

Ji Qingwu felt as numb as water-logged ashes, letting him move her as he pleased.

Zhao Mingyan settled her on a warm seat beside the dressing rack. He then took a cotton cloth moistened with rose dew and began to meticulously clean her.

Unfortunately, there was also a twisted copper mirror next to the rack, and in its reflection, she could see the hem of the Emperor’s robe as he knelt on the floor.

But Ji Qingwu couldn’t manage to feel completely numb. Seeing his earnest, focused expression, her heart began to pound like a military drum during morning drills, THUMP-THUMP-THUMP.

’She knew he must be suspicious about her body recovering so quickly.’

Ji Qingwu lowered her gaze to the Emperor before her, her lashes fluttering like tiny fans.

"Your Majesty." She caught his wrist as he tried to wipe deeper.

Zhao Mingyan, who seemed to have become addicted to the task, hummed in response. "Hm?"

She said softly, "Actually, I used a sec... secret medicine."

Zhao Mingyan tapped a finger against her, and Ji Qingwu trembled in response. He asked, "Did you use it on this spot?"

"...Yes," Ji Qingwu replied.

His eyes were so dark they looked like they could swallow her whole. "When did you use it, Ah Wu? What kind of medicine could possibly work this well?"

Ji Qingwu met his gaze, her own eyes wavering. She bit her lip, then released it, repeating the motion several times.

’Can I tell him about the childbirth system?’

Her brows furrowed slightly, and her troubled expression, filled with a thousand worries, was reflected in Zhao Mingyan’s eyes. He sighed.

Then, in the next instant, something happened that no one could have anticipated.

Ji Qingwu suddenly yelped, brought up her knee, and kicked the Emperor, sending him sprawling to the floor.

She pulled her long, fair, and firm legs back, hugging her knees. Her face was beet red as she stared, stunned, at the Emperor, who was now half-lying on the floor, propped up on his elbows.

An unreadable emotion flickered in Zhao Mingyan’s eyes. First, he tossed the cotton cloth back into the bronze basin, then he rose from the floor and walked toward Ji Qingwu.

Ji Qingwu thought the expression on Emperor Wu Su’s face, silhouetted against the light as he advanced on her, was especially terrifying.

’Anyone would get angry if the person they were taking care of kicked them, right?’

Ji Qingwu froze under his stare. She quickly scrambled off the warm seat and stood on the floor, her voice small and weak.

"I didn’t do it on purpose."

Zhao Mingyan said, "Use me and then kick me aside?"

Ji Qingwu shook her head frantically.

"Then what was that about?" Zhao Mingyan demanded.

"Who would use..." Seeing his expression, Ji Qingwu didn’t dare finish her retort. She paused, then quickly added, "...and not want to use again and again?"

Zhao Mingyan snorted coldly, his eyes slanting down at her.

Ji Qingwu hadn’t seen such a frigid expression on his face in a long time. Feeling overwhelmed, she pouted.

"I really didn’t mean to. It was just... when you sighed, you were so close..."

The puff of air blew right on *that spot*, and Ji Qingwu had kicked his shoulder as a reflex.

Zhao Mingyan hadn’t expected that to be the reason.

The look in his eyes shifted. He clutched his left shoulder. "You injured me. Time to pay up."

Ji Qingwu said, "...I thought I kicked your right side."

Zhao Mingyan smoothly switched hands to his right shoulder. "It hurts so much. Pay up."

Ji Qingwu scratched her neck. ’This man is somehow both easy and difficult to handle.’

He was easy to handle because she had kicked the Emperor to the floor, an offense that would get anyone else beheaded, yet he wasn’t making a big deal out of it.

He was difficult to handle because there was no way her kick could have hurt his iron-like constitution. He was clearly just faking it to get something out of her.

Ji Qingwu said drily, "I can’t afford to pay. I have no Silver, only a medical clinic. It earns about six or seven hundred taels a month, but after the cost of herbs and labor, there are only about two hundred-odd taels left."

Zhao Mingyan’s lip curled. "And you dare to kick someone when you’ve only got a measly two hundred taels to your name?"

Ji Qingwu retorted without thinking, "Desperate times breed desperate people."

The words were out of her mouth before she remembered she was supposed to be placating him. She immediately plastered on a smile. "Your Majesty, where are you hurt? Where does it ache? I can treat it."

Zhao Mingyan said, "Doesn’t Ah Wu have a secret medicine for recovery? Bring it out and let me broaden my horizons."