The Tired Villainess

Han Suyin - 3.19

Han Xiu turned and turned in the palace looking for a place where he could treat his injury. He wanted to go to the physician's court but he had no idea where it was in the maze that they called a palace.

'Arlo? If you can hear me, I want to die.'

'Hello?'

'I said I want to die, Arlo!'

'Host, you can not die unless you fulfil all of the wishes'

'You sneaky bastard! What if I don't treat my injury? What are you going to do?' 

'I will be required to give you a punishment, host.'

'What.'

'Arlo? You still there?' 

No answer.

Han Xiu really wanted to punch something. And he did. Well, tried to. He balled up his fist and swung at the pillar beside him, quickly regretting his action. The marble pillar stood tall and Han Xiu hunched over holding his fist with his other hand.

"Ouch, ouch, ouch! Why did I do that?" 

Han Xiu sighed and closed his eyes. As he was thinking of what to do, his feet started to lead him somewhere. Han Xiu looked down at his moving figure, puzzled. 

'Host, I'm leading you to the physician's court as you are getting weaker.'

Han Xiu bit back his question and thanked Arlo. He really was about to faint due to his injury. Li Weiyuan was silently following Han Xiu, confused at the man's weird antics. Eventually, when Han Xiu made it to the physician's court, he saw that it was empty. 

With a sigh of relief, Han Xiu plopped himself down on the nearest chair and closed his eyes. After a while, Han Xiu noticed that his injury wasn't magically healed. 

'Arlo?'

'Yes, host?'

'Why am I still bleeding to death?'

'Host, I can only lead you to the physician's court, I cannot treat you otherwise I will be the one getting punished.'

'By who?'

No answer.

Great.

Li Weiyuan managed to slip into the physician's court without Han Xiu noticing. Han Xiu was too busy thinking about how not to die. He tried leaning up on the chair to glance around but he stretched his waist and groaned in pain. He tried to kick something but his shoe flew off and hit a bottle on the side.

As the bottle was falling, Li Weiyuan emerged from his hiding spot and caught it. Han Xiu sat looking at Li Weiyuan, frozen. Li Weiyuan walked to him and stretched out his arm which had the bottle.

"...You can use this medicine to treat your wound."

Han Xiu was frozen for a few more seconds before he slowly took the bottle from Li Weiyuan's hand. His other hand was pressing his wound, trying to minimise the bleeding.

"...You are a weird man."

"So I've been told."

Han Xiu's eyes started to droop and Li Weiyuan's eyebrows furrowed. He turned around and was about to walk out of the physician's court when he heard the sound of glass shattering.

He turned back and saw Han Xiu passed out with the bottle of medicine spilled on the floor. Li Weiyuan sighed and started to walk back to Han Xiu. He looked down and saw that the blood from his injury was darker than normal blood.