Priest Zhong

As Bai Shuixian stared at the place Zhong Chen called home, she marveled at its luxury. She knew from the outside that it was out of place, but she did not know the inside would be even more out of place than the exterior. The exterior looked more humble compared to the interior if she was to reason why it was out of place.

Though she was unable to speak, her expressions showed what she wanted to say or ask so Zhong Chen knew exactly her thoughts. However, he did not want to address it, so he skipped over them. There were many things he was willing to tell her and many things he did not want her to know.

Still carrying her, he walked to a room with lots of beautiful flowers and paintings of nature. Against the wall, in the middle of the room, was a huge fancy bed that could fill at least five people with black silk beddings that were embroidered with gold threads. When he walked into the room, she also saw a painting that stood out from the rest of the paintings hanging on the wall where the dresser stood.

The painting had a beautiful woman and a handsome man embracing her under a blooming plum blossom tree. It was but a lone tree growing in the middle of a hill that was surrounded by water with budding lotuses using the nutrients of the water to grow. For some reason though, she felt that the painting emanated an aura of pity and sadness and these feelings resonated in her too.

When Zhong Chen saw her staring at the painting, he did not explain the history behind it even when Bai Shuixian began to look at him. Even after her extended period of time of peering at him, he did not speak a word. With this, she gave up boring her eyes at him and decided to focus on the scenery outside the open window.

Setting her down on the bed in a comfortable position, he said, "I'll be right back."

Once he said that, he left the room. Now alone in the room by herself, she could finally shamelessly stare at all the luxurious items that she knew would be worth millions of gold taels. Though he lived alone, he had too many items that could bring an entire royal family down.

This made her curious about his background, his identity, and who he really was. Though they said 'curiosity killed the cat', she did not think he would do anything bad to her. For an unknown reason, she was completely calm and felt safe with him.

As though she could put all her trust in him. This was a feeling she had never felt before and was strange to her. Due to her past, she did not have trust in anyone other than Su Guang and Chang Xianling.

Not only that, she had a low self-esteem making her feel that there was no need in trusting people. Eventually, she will die and those trusted people would only feel pain because of her, so she did not want to make connections. Indeed, her thinking was dark, but she had been suffering for too long to know what happiness was like.

There were often times she would stare at a child and be jealous of them. There were often times she would stare at her half-siblings and ask why she was not spoiled like them. There were often times she would stare at her mother wondering why she was hitting her when doing nothing wrong.

With all of those feelings embodied in her, she became greedy for warmth and did not care about what happened to her body as long as there was a single person that showed her love. It was because of this that she was abused horrible by her grandfather who promised her a greater future full of sunshine. In the end though, he had only been lying to her and even when he was arrested in the past, he had told her that he was using her.

The way he chose to expose her to his misdeeds were horrible, but at the very least, it showed how the family essentially was in the core. If the insides of a body were rotted, then the external parts were too. Though she felt bitter at the many betrayals she had been dealt with, she still had a tiny little wish in her heart for happiness and peace.

For some reason, she felt that Zhong Chen would be able to grant her the wish she had held in her heart for years. This profound trust she had in him left her confused, but she did not want to think about it. Her guts had proven that she was right to follow them, so since she was unconsciously trusting him, then she would give him all her trust.

After she had filtered all her thoughts, Zhong Chen came back with lots of gauzes, balms, and many other first aid items. As he entered the room, she stared at him again. There were many times that her eyes would move away from the items he brought in and look at his face instead.

Why had she constantly gone back to look at his face? Because his mask was off. Without his mask, she saw a silver diamond shaped mark on his forehead.

Zhong Chen knew that she would stare at his forehead and face, so he did not give any reactions to it. Instead, he pushed all his focus on her wounds. When he concentrated on her wounds, he seemed to feel pain in his chest.

He first started with lifting his robes from her body so that her legs, arms, and back were exposed. After that, he used the water he brought to clean the dirt, rocks, and leaves from her wounds. Once done with cleaning, he opened the container for the balms and applied them to her wounds.

While doing so, he said, "I made these balms so that they wouldn't leave a scar. Since you're a girl, I'm sure you don't want any scars."

She wanted to thank him, but since her throat was also hurt in the process of her running away from the animals, she could not. However, Zhong Chen seemed to be able to tell that she wanted to talk, so he handed her a cup with an unknown liquid. When he saw that she could not lift up her hands for that would drop his robes from her, he held the cup to her lips and told her to drink it.

"Your throat must have been hurt when you were screaming out for help," he told her as she drank the liquid.

For the first time since she was in the forest, she could drink liquid. This satisfied her, but what satisfied her even more was the taste of the liquid and the cooling sensation in her heated throat. When she finished drinking the liquid, she finally felt as though her throat had recovered a little and she could talk now.

"Don't try to talk yet," Zhong Chen warned her. "Even if you feel that it's fine now, it's not. Give it some time to heal first before you try talking again."

The words she initially wanted to say were dropped at his warning. Though she was sad, she still accepted it. She knew that no matter what type of wound, they all needed time to heal and using it immediately after care would only do more damage.

Seeing that she was listening to him, he walked to the other side of the bed and started to take care of her back. Her back had the worst wounds as she was dragged on the floor for a long time. It had been stabbed by vines, spores, rocks, and infected by the muddy parts of the ground.

Using a different smashed mixture instead of a balm, he placed them on her back evenly and thoroughly. When he was done, he grabbed the gauzes and started to wrap it around her torso in an orderly form. Since she was unable to lift up her arms and he did not want to touch her private parts, he tried his best to wrap it around her stomach, shoulder, and neck.

Once he was done with the back, he asked, "How are you feeling now? Don't answer. Just nod if you feel alright and shake your head if you don't."

Hearing his words, she shook her head. She was very hungry. Despite Zhu Jin managing to hunt a boar, she did not get to eat a single piece from it despite doing all the hard labor of cleaning and carrying it.

As though he understood her, he said, "I'll go make some food for you and get you a change of clothes."

Wanting to demonstrate her understanding, she nodded her head. After he saw her nod her head, he headed out of her room. At the same time, he made sure to grab all the stuff he brought to her room.

However, just when he was about to disappear behind the door, he came back in and told her, "By the way, this is your room from now on. Didn't you want to meet the priest from the Temple of Clairvoyance?"

After telling her these words, he finally left and closed the doors only to leave her in pure shock and surprise with excitement embedded in them.