Chapter 12 – A Wolfish Woman (2)

Zhao Xi didn’t want to dwell on how the man must feel. If anything, Shen Fei was like a life-size doll for her to move about and dress in clothes. Morbid frustration must be burning inside of him.

She focused on the task. It was quite difficult to dress Shen Fei in his undergarments. It wasn’t because Shen Fei was being uncooperative, but because of the splints on his body; she pondered if the splint should be worn above or under his undergarments.

If she kept the splint under his undergarments, it would be difficult task for her, and for him a painful one. But it seemed that she underestimated the weight loss a patient undergoes; the clothes could be easily worn over the splint, and the work was finally completed much to her relief.

Looking at his attire, it suddenly hit Zhao Xi that she had forgotten to buy clothes for this man. At that time, she was only thinking about rushing back and had not thought about much. Thank goodness his own clothes are now dry, else he would have to be nude again for another day. He probably wouldn’t be thrilled with the idea.

After ensuring that Shen Fei was properly dressed, Zhao Xi left him to cook their meal and prepare his medicine.

It was well autumn, and her black bear was fond of sleeping during this particular season; it spends 16 hours a day in slumber, with the remaining  8 hours awake. It should be already sleeping right now, so there was no need to worry about feeding it; there was also the off chance it had probably found food and ate.

The person she was worried about was Shen Fei. He was so picky that he refused to eat any of the fruits left on the table; all of the fruits were still wrapped in their leaves and left untouched. That meant he was hungry the whole day.

Zhao Xi made the fire burn stronger, and tried to cook the porridge faster. At her haste, the strong heat caused part of the porridge to become burnt. After serving it to him, she realised that he only ate the unburnt part; the burnt part, like the snubbed fruits, was left untouched.

Another thing she noticed about her patient was that he doesn’t eat fatty meat either. As Zhao Xi was worried that the porridge would be too plain, she added some meat to make lean meat porridge. It was unavoidable for some of the meat grind to have fats, and he meticulously picked those out from the bowl. He also left the thickened porridge paste behind, it sat unappetizingly at the bottom of the bowl. In the end, the bowl of porridge, that could be held in both hands and of which could already be considered a small serving, had leftovers.

Zhao Xi concluded: if this helpless man was left alone in the forest, he would definitelynot survive to see the next day.

As with her, she wasn’t picky about food, proving it so as she drank the remaining porridge in the pot. She then served him his medicine. As the concoction didn’t have any snake bile this time, it wasn’t as bitter as before. Also understanding that there was no point in prolonging the horrid taste from the medicine on his tongue, Shen Fei swiftly drank the potion and sucked on a preserved sweet. He then took the book that Zhao Xi had helped pick up from the floor, and continued reading.

Zhao Xi left the man be, took the fats that he had picked up into a bowl, and went to feed the snake that had contributed his precious venom.

Since there was nothing left to do, Zhao Xi prepared some bedding for the bench, ready to sleep on it. Last night, she had to sleep on the floor, worried of worsening Shen Fei’s injuries if she had shared the bed with him. Therefore, she bought the bench to use for herself; she could sleep on it at night, and during the day, she could also move it outside and let him rest on it. After preparing the bedding, Zhao Xi lay on the bench to test it. There was a new blanket and another old blanket beneath it, softening the wood’s hardness. Such luxury felt unfamiliar to her.

She lay there in a daze, slowly feeling sleep creep in. The sound of pages being flicked almost sounded like a lullaby in her ears—Shen Fei still didn’t have any intention to sleep yet. Again, Zhao Xi decided to let the man be, and got up to start wiping his hands and neck clean.

Other than being picky, this man also loved being clean. During these two days, whenever Zhao Xi carried him, fed him his medicine and food, he did not stop her nor was he cooperative. It was entirely left on Zhao Xi’s initiative to do so. However, it was a different story when it came to his body’s hygiene: only then would he coordinate with Zhao Xi’s efforts.

He would close his eyes and push his head forward when Zhao Xi wiped his face, he would look up, stretching his neck when the wet towel would reach there, and he would even help adjusting his clothes to make it easier for she to wipe the rest of his body. He doesn’t move either when she would wipe his hands.

Zhao Xi enjoyed playing with his hands; she found his fingers beautiful as they were long, slender and pale. Before she cleaned them, she had the habit of playing for a while, stroking and pinching them, spreading them apart and looking at gaps of his fingers, tracing palm markings and the veins that ran at back of his hands. Occasionally, she would use too much strength while playing, but Shen Fei never grumbled even if it was painful.

Even if his hands were the most elegant she has seen, a man’s hand was truly much different from a woman.