Chapter 26
Shi Yan opened up a bag that he had brought back, pulled over a small coffee table with wheels, then took out a bunch of stuff and laid them out on the table. He Nuo watched as Shi Yan arranged several bottles and cans on the table before pulling over a chair and sitting in front of him. Shi Yan examined the left, then the right of his private area, “It’s better to sit like this anyway, if you were lying down it wouldn’t be easy.” Then he went to pull one of He Nuo’s legs over.
He Nuo used his hands to block him, “No.. no need. I’m fine.”
“No need? I brought these things over, then you say there’s no need? What are you thinking? And you even said that you’re alright, is it your wish to become an eunuch? Idiot.” Shi Yan didn’t hold back and pushed He Nuo’s hands aside.
He Nuo couldn’t cover up his panic, “I’ll do it myself.”
“Why are you so full of nonsense? How are you going to apply it yourself? Go ahead and try, I’ll see.” Shi Yan leaned back on his chair and uttered impatiently.
He Nuo was being stared to death by Shi Yan who had on a face that said “if you won’t do it then I will”, so he helplessly extended his hand and took some of the stuff on the table to examine them. There was alcohol, ointment and even Yunnan Baiyao1?! Common sense told him that he should apply the alcohol first, but the problem was that he didn’t know how he should apply the alcohol. If he wanted to apply it to his injury, he would have to open up his legs and lift the swollen right ball that was covering his thigh. He Nuo would rather die than open up his legs and touch that kind of place in front of Shi Yan, so after he took a cotton ball and dipped it in alcohol, he looked at Shi Yan with a silly expression. What he meant was that Shi Yan should at least turn around to avoid such a scene.
But Shi Yan had no intention of avoiding anything. He saw that He Nuo wasn’t doing anything, so he s.n.a.t.c.hed the cotton ball and pushed him against the couch, “Are you even a man! Haven’t you been to a bathhouse! Don’t tell me you’ve never seen naked guys before!”
Shi Yan took the cotton ball and rubbed it on the base of his thigh. The cooling sensation was accompanied by the pain inducing effects of the alcohol, so He Nuo’s body trembled slightly. Shi Yan lifted his head and looked him in the eye, “It shouldn’t hurt too much, I’ll just wipe it a bit.”
It really didn’t hurt too much, because there wasn’t an open wound, so the alcohol wouldn’t seep into any opening. It was only when Shi Yan’s hand touched He Nuo’s private area then he would shudder. Shi Yan saw that He Nuo had turned his face to one side and privately laughed at his shyness. He wanted to say something to distract him. Just now he saw that the previous wounds on his legs had not recovered, while new ones were added today, so he asked, “Did you use the alcohol I gave you? Or didn’t you read the instruction manual?”
“Alcohol?” He Nuo’s thoughts were all muddled so he couldn’t keep up with Shi Yan’s thoughts.
“Medicinal alcohol, I gave it to you last week, don’t f.u.c.king tell me you didn’t use it!”
“I, I didn’t use it.” He felt Shi Yan’s hands stop moving, then He Nuo added, “The smell is too strong, I was afraid that it would attract attention.”
“f.u.c.k!”
“The medicine, I ate it. Thank you.”
Shi Yan took the chance when He Nuo was speaking to lift his legs up and placed them on his chair’s armrests. He Nuo’s face flushed immediately and he furrowed his delicate eyebrows. But he didn’t turn around and allowed Shi Yan to use his hands to separate his ball and thigh. Shi Yan used the cotton ball dipped in alcohol to wipe the area, then applied the ointment cream to the area evenly before opening the Yunnan Baiyao bottle. He poured the powder inside on the wound. After he finished, he looked up and coincidentally met He Nuo’s eyes who was sneaking a peek, and He Nuo’s first instinct was to immediately turn his head away, but he turned it back again. He looked at Shi Yan whose face looked akin to that of red clouds and muttered, “Un, thanks.”
Shi Yan knew that he was extremely embarra.s.sed, so he didn’t want to make things too difficult for him and changed the topic, “This Yunnan Baiyao is very effective, you’ll recover quickly after applying it, it’s my secret weapon. It’s similar to the poisonous medicine of the antiaris toxicaria2 you see in wuxia novels, they are both top grade treasures for healing wounds.
Shi Yan’s nonsense diluted the red glow on He Nuo’s face and eased the awkward atmosphere. He Nuo felt more at ease, so he wanted to sit up and wear his trousers. Shi Yan put his legs back down on the armrests, “This powder needs some time to be absorbed, so lie down for a bit first. Wear your trousers later, or else the powder would stick to your pants and it would be wasted.”
He Nuo nodded. He laid back down on the sofa. He still felt uncomfortable with his lower body stark naked, so he pulled his trousers over and placed his loosely between his legs. Suddenly, he didn’t really know what to say, and there really wasn’t much in common between him and Shi Yan. But, Shi Yan had stuff to talk about with him. At the very least, Shi Yan still had questions for him.
“How did you injure that area, don’t tell me you were stupid enough to open your legs and asked them to whip it?” Shi Yan took an ointment cream, “This is effective for promoting blood circulation.” Then he dug out a mound and applied it on He Nuo’s leg and started to help him rub it on.
He Nuo wasn’t used to his hand swimming about his thigh, so he sat up halfway and wanted to do it himself.
“Be a good boy and lie down, don’t move around unnecessarily.” He was pushed back down by Shi Yan, “Speak, who did it?”
He didn’t hear He Nuo’s reply, so he looked up, “I’m the one asking, what don’t you dare to say?” Shi Yan thought that He Nuo was afraid that they would take revenge so he didn’t want to report the perpetrator’s name. These two people’s thoughts operated in completely different ways, their lines of thoughts were eighteen thousand miles apart. He Nuo didn’t know who was the one who did it at all. After he was beaten down a few times today, there was someone who walked over before he got up (they would usually give him some rest time until he stood back up), he heard the sound of the iron chain and he couldn’t help but want to dodge, so a few people immediately came over to restrain him. When he heard the sound of the chain whipping through the air, he instinctively struggled fiercely to get out of their hold. But he didn’t know if it was on purpose, or because He Nuo was struggling that the chain had accidentally whipped that area.
No matter which scenario, He Nuo wouldn’t speak of any to Shi Yan. He saw that He Nuo continued to remain silent, so after Shi Yan finished applying the ointment cream in his hand, he walked over to the table and made a call.
“I don’t want to listen to your rubbish, I just want to know what happened today. Who did it?”
Shi Yan hung up the phone, and his eyes that he directed towards He Nuo had a fierce glint of ruthlessness.
1. Yunnan Baiyao (or Yunnan Paiyao; simplified Chinese: 云南白药; traditional Chinese: 雲南白藥; pinyin: Yúnnán Báiyào; literally: “Yunnan White Drug”) is a well-known proprietary traditional Chinese medicine marketed and used as a hemostatic with use in both human and veterinary alternative medicine.↩
2. Antiaris toxicaria is a tree in the mulberry and fig family, Moraceae. The Chinese of Hainan Island, refer to the tree as the “Poison Arrow Tree” (Chinese: 箭毒木; pinyin: Jiàndú Mù — “Arrow Poison Wood,”) because its latex was smeared on arrowheads in ancient times by the Li people for use in hunting and warfare.↩
T/N: Things are gonna start to get interesting (*＾▽＾)／