Not long after, a maidservant brought in the newly decocted medicine. Yan Xiaohan personally received it, bringing it to Fu Shen with a concise command: “Drink.”
Fu Shen looked at the steaming medicinal soup with a look of despair, silently gathering his courage.
Yan Xiaohan saw his expression and couldn’t help but laugh, teasing: “My lord, if your leg wasn’t lame, would you have already run away by now?”
“Get out,” Fu Shen glared at Yan Xiaohan: “Stop nagging. Just put the medicine down, I’ll drink it myself!”
Yan Xiaohan truly hadn’t expected drinking medicine to be so difficult. After all, in his eyes, Fu Shen had always been quite disciplined, never shirking what needed to be done, almost never willful.
He softened his voice to coax: “It’s not a large dose of medicine. Just close your eyes, grit your teeth, and it’ll be gone in a few sips, truly.”
Fu Shen painfully turned his head away.
“Are you afraid it’s bitter? Is it really that unpalatable?” Yan Xiaohan picked up the bowl and tasted it himself, frowning slightly. It was indeed bitter but not unbearable. Why was Fu Shen so resistant?
“This doesn’t make sense,” he observed Fu Shen’s pale lips and face, frowning and barely enduring. He guessed he might be nauseated by the medicine’s smell. He put the medicine bowl aside, took Fu Shen’s hands, and gently rubbed the Neiguan acupoint on his wrist, tentatively asking: “Ordinary people wouldn’t have such a big reaction, especially not you. Is there something unspeakable? Can you tell me?”
Fu Shen’s hands were held, soft and limp. He didn’t avoid the topic, just looked a bit dejected, reluctantly bringing up past events: “When I was young, I was sickly and often had to take medicine. My mother passed early, and my wet nurse didn’t care much about me. When I refused to drink medicine, she would pinch my nose and force it down. Over time, it became a habit – I’d vomit whatever I ate.”
Yan Xiaohan’s gaze gradually turned cold, softly asking: “Didn’t anyone in your family notice?”
Fu Shen twisted his mouth: “My father was at the border, away from home for years.”
