Chapter 146: Treating the Foot Injury

That evening, Xiao Ding accidentally barged into Gao Wanjun's bathing room and was met with a harsh reprimand. Left completely speechless and turning to leave, he was suddenly called back by Gao Wanjun.

"What else is the matter?" Xiao Ding stopped in his tracks, turning his head to ask.

"Help us kill that rat first," Gao Wanjun said, her tone softening considerably.

Xiao Ding scoffed inwardly, thinking to himself that for a dignified military general with formidable martial arts skills to be afraid of a mere rat was utterly absurd!

However, he dared only to think this in his heart and kept his mouth shut. The rat had no idea how it had entered the room, perhaps frightened out of its wits by the occupants, and was now cowering in a corner, entirely forgetting how to escape.

Xiao Ding walked over, raised his foot, and crushed the rat to death with a single stomp. He then turned to leave once more.

"Wait a moment," Gao Wanjun called out, stopping him again.

"What is it?" Xiao Ding turned back, looking at her with a puzzled expression.

"Would you mind taking the dead rat with you as well?" Gao Wanjun said in a low voice.

She was afraid of a dead rat too? Xiao Ding genuinely could not fathom this woman. He walked over to the corner, picked up the dead rat by its tail, and carried it out the door.

"You are forbidden to ever come peek at me bathing again! Otherwise, I will never let you off!" Gao Wanjun shouted at Xiao Ding's retreating back.

Gao Wanjun's shout served only to remind Xiao Ding. *Oh, right!* he thought. *I could actually sneak over later and see what this ice-cold beauty looks like while bathing! After all, Gao Wanjun is quite a stunner, and looking at her would definitely be a feast for the eyes!*

Yet, Xiao Ding immediately dismissed the thought. He remembered the time he peeked at Yue Yurou bathing in the snake cave at Mount Luoxia. Back then, it had set his heart ablaze and stirred up overwhelming, fiery desires—it had been sheer torture. Better not to go look, Xiao Ding mused, worrying that once he saw, he would lose control of himself.

Thinking of Yue Yurou, his thoughts naturally drifted to her current state. He wondered how the little Daoist nun was doing now. She still had to return to Mount Yuqing to succeed as the sect leader, bearing such a heavy responsibility at such a tender age must be quite exhausting for her. He also wondered if Zhang Long had safely escorted her and Tang Yunzhi to Mount Yuqing.

Upon returning to his own room, Xiao Ding's mind remained filled with the scene from the bathing room moments earlier. He had been too nervous at the time to look closely; although Gao Wanjun's clothes were not on her body, she had been holding them in front of her chest. As he recalled, he seemed to have only caught a glimpse of her arms and legs—they were snow-white, her thighs long and fair, with smooth and delicate skin.

As expected of a pampered young lady from a royal estate! Truly a peerless beauty!

Xiao Ding fell asleep with his mind full of Gao Wanjun's shadow. He had expected that falling asleep while thinking of a beauty might lead to some romantic dreams, but in the end, he didn't dream of anything at all.

Waking up early the next morning, Xiao Ding sat up on his bed and practiced the Heart-Melting Art for a while before hearing the sounds of martial arts practice drifting from the neighboring courtyard.

This time, Xiao Ding did not step out to watch, lest he be guarded against like a common thief, or worse, subjected to another scolding.

Although he had no intention of going out today, the sounds from next door easily traveled into his ears. As Gao Wanjun practiced, she suddenly let out a startled cry of "Ouch!", immediately followed by the anxious voices of two maidservants calling out, "Miss! Miss, what's wrong with you?"

Xiao Ding thought to himself, *What has this eldest Miss Gao gotten herself into this time?*

Suspecting that Gao Wanjun might have met with some accident, Xiao Ding quickly pushed open his door and walked toward the moon gate leading to the courtyard.

Upon reaching the moon gate, Xiao Ding saw the two maidservants supporting Gao Wanjun. Gao Wanjun wore an expression of intense pain, using a pearwood spear as a crutch with one hand while leaning her other hand on a maid's shoulder. Her left foot hovered lightly above the ground, barely touching it. It appeared she had sprained her ankle.

It seemed that instead of practicing the sword this morning, she had been practicing with the spear.

Approaching them, Xiao Ding asked, "General Gao, what happened?"

One of the maids replied, "When the Miss was practicing her spear just now, she stepped on the snow, slipped, and accidentally sprained her ankle."

Xiao Ding looked down at the ground. Sure enough, there was a patch of hard, uncleared snow. Generally, after a snowfall, the snow where people had trodden would stick to the ground, making it difficult to sweep away completely. It was precisely because Gao Wanjun had stepped on such a patch of hard-packed snow while practicing that she had accidentally lost her footing and sprained her ankle.

Glancing at Gao Wanjun's trembling left ankle suspended in mid-air, Xiao Ding said, "It looks like a rather bad sprain, General Gao. Would you like me to treat it for you?"

With that, Xiao Ding bent down, intending to take off Gao Wanjun's short boot.

Gao Wanjun hurriedly struggled to dodge away, crying out in alarm, "Stop right there! You scoundrel, are you trying to take advantage of me again?! Put away your crooked thoughts, I won't let you succeed!"

Hearing this, Xiao Ding immediately straightened up. He thought that his well-intentioned offer had been construed by Gao Wanjun as harboring malicious intentions; such suspicions arising from ambiguous circumstances were notoriously difficult to explain away, and most of the time, it was simply better not to explain at all. Thus, he offered no defense.

At that moment, Gao Wanjun snapped at the maids beside her, "Go fetch a physician quickly! It hurts terribly!" With that, she glared fiercely at Xiao Ding, who was standing right in front of her.

"You two help General Gao back to her room to rest first! I'll go find a physician for her," Xiao Ding told the maids.

The two maids helped Gao Wanjun back to her room, while Xiao Ding hurried back to his quarters to send his subordinates to fetch the military physician.

Before long, the military physician arrived, and Xiao Ding accompanied him into Gao Wanjun's room. The room was filled with a delicate maiden's fragrance, quite unlike a man's quarters, which were usually permeated with the stench of sweaty feet.

The physician carefully examined Gao Wanjun's ankle, then wrote out a prescription and instructed someone to have the medicine prepared. Afterward, he advised Gao Wanjun to take her medicine and apply the poultice on schedule, saying that after half a month of recuperation, she would be able to walk again. Within the next two weeks, she must not walk on it or bump the injured area to avoid secondary injury.

Hearing this, Gao Wanjun furrowed her brows, her face a picture of bitter misery and utter gloom. Xiao Ding, standing nearby, felt a sense of schadenfreude and secretly smiled to himself. *Aren't you usually so arrogant?* he thought. *Humbled now, aren't you? Let's see if you dare to boss me around anymore!*

To his surprise, Gao Wanjun caught Xiao Ding's expression of secret amusement and immediately erupted, "Tian Xiaoding, are you gloating? Are you mocking me?"

"Your subordinate wouldn't dare! Your subordinate wouldn't dare!" Xiao Ding quickly wiped the smile from his face and bowed repeatedly.

"What 'wouldn't dare'? You were clearly laughing at me just now! Just you wait until my injuries heal, and see how I deal with you!" Gao Wanjun shouted loudly.

The physician standing nearby was utterly bewildered, wondering to himself, *Just how did this General Tian offend this female general? Why does it feel like the two of them are lovers having a quarrel?*

"General Gao, your subordinate had no intention of mocking you. Just now, I was merely ridiculing the physician's poor medical skills. For a sprain like yours, why on earth would it take half a month to recover? If I were to treat it, you would be completely cured in just three days," Xiao Ding said with a straight face. Naturally, he would never admit that he had been secretly laughing at her.

"You're saying you can cure me in three days?" Gao Wanjun asked doubtfully.

"Yes. I am not sure if General Gao has practiced internal martial arts, but for injuries like this, using internal energy for treatment yields results far faster than ordinary medicine," Xiao Ding explained.

"You're saying you know how to heal wounds with internal energy?" Gao Wanjun asked, still finding it hard to believe.

"Yes, I practice a technique that generates spiritual energy. This energy possesses healing properties and is remarkably fast when it comes to treating internal injuries, external wounds, and joint sprains," Xiao Ding replied.

"Then what are you waiting for? Why aren't you coming over to treat me?" Gao Wanjun demanded.

"I—I'm afraid of offending General Gao!" Xiao Ding said cautiously.

"For someone so indecisive and fussy, you certainly had no qualms harboring crooked thoughts earlier! Now that you're given a chance, you won't even seize it properly? Hurry up and heal my injury, and stop chattering nonsense!" Gao Wanjun commanded.

Xiao Ding sighed inwardly. *After all this time, in this proud young lady's mind, my treating her injury is still just another excuse for me to harbor ulterior motives!*