Martial King's Retired Life-Novel

In Times of Bad Health, True Feelings are Revealed

Ming Feizhen’s cup of wine slipped through his fingers and shattered on the ground. “How come Boss is here?!”

Watching Ming Feizhen frantically search for a hiding spot, Hong Jiu said, “Why are you panicking, Leader? Miss Shen is a nice person if you ask me. She started searching for you as soon as she entered when she has been running around all this time.”

“She is nice, but I don’t have the strength to withstand beatings at the moment.” Ming Feizhen crawled under the bed, though it wasn’t easy due to his height.

As Hong Jiu helped push Ming Feizhen under, he mumbled, “What does having the strength to withstand beatings have to do with anything? Why would Miss Shen beat you?”

Once he was set, Ming Feizhen tugged the bed sheet down to cover himself. “Think about it: during all the time I was missing, she was risking her life to find me and even nearly fell into Jiang Chen’s grasp. What do you think she’d do if she found out I got kidnapped because I was procrastinating?”

Ming Feizhen hadn’t forgotten the beating he ate after rescuing Shen Yiren at Canhu Town, so there was no way he was going to flirt with any risks.

Hong Jiu scrunched up his face as he reflected on what Ming Feizhen taught him moments ago. All of a sudden, Ming Feizhen crawled back out.

“Leader, why aren’t you hiding?”

“It’s not that I don’t want to but that I can’t.” Ming Feizhen dusted himself. “It’s a rat hole in there. As soon as I went down there…”

“Strange. I thought small animals fear you.”

“They do. I’m covered in rat droppings.”

“…”

As he listened to the footsteps edging closer, Ming Feizhen started mumbling, “Crap, crap, crap, I’m screwed, I’m scr-, I know!”

As the door opened, Shen Yiren’s scent entered. Everything about her, from her light steps to the sunset highlighting her skin was perfect, but anyone who saw her in that moment would be more focused on her assets stretching out her robe. Despite the absolute messy and dusty state of the room, she only had eyes for him.

“Feizhen!” Shen Yiren rushed over to the side of the bed, but her smile became wide eyes. She had feared Ming Feizhen would be in horrific shape, but she tried to convince herself otherwise all the time. Instead of being greeted with his usual reassuring smile, he was bed ridden, taking shallow breaths and had a pale face. “Wh-what happened, Feizhen?”

Ming Feizhen fought with himself to open his eyes. When he saw Shen Yiren, he weakly smiled and replied, “B-Boss… I thought I might never see you again.”

“Wh-what happened to you?”

Why the bed-ridden situation? Because Shen Yiren wouldn’t hurt him if he was injured. Why was he bed ridden? It fell into Hong Jiu’s laps to come up with an explanation.

“Miss Shen, my brother, he… might not make it.”

“Him?” Shen Yiren’s joy turned to dread. “Wh-why?”

“Hang on.” Ming Feizhen faked a cough and softly explained, “There is still hope.”

“Feizhen, how exactly are you?”

Hong Jiu stole a quick glance at Ming Feizhen’s eyes, then sorrowfully elaborated, “Jiang Chen caught him with a palm attack. He now presents with symptoms of early-stage, uh, mad dogness.”

Ming Feizhen: “…”

Shen Yiren: “Did Jiang Chen hit him, or did a dog bite him?”

If glares could inflict damage, Ming Feizhen’s glare would’ve had Hong Jiu bleeding from his orifices.

“I-I just got a little hurt. Boss… I’m fine.”

Shen Yiren finally found a little relief when she heard a more energetic voice from Ming Feizhen. A second later, she noticed the bottles of wine scattered across the floor. “You’re hurt, so this alcohol…”

Hong Jiu and Ming Feizhen made eye contact, then Hong Jiu suddenly slapped himself twice and said, “It’s all my fault. I’m horrible. I forced my injured brother to drink with me.”

“That’s ridiculous. How can you let someone injured drink alcohol,” scolded Shen Yiren.

“Yeah, the injured can’t drink, Leader.”

“Then don’t make me drink! Get! Out! I don’t want to see you.”

Ming Feizhen couldn’t have been happier that Hong Jiu promptly exited. Frankly, he was worried about what other nonsense Hong Jiu would come up with.

Shen Yiren helped Ming Feizhen up once Hong Jiu left. “Feizhen, are your injuries severe? I should’ve expected this… People will take advantage of you now that you’re defenceless. Where did you get caught? Have you seen a doctor?”

Ming Feizhen shook his head as if it was hard to. “I wasn’t feeling well, but I’m feeling much better after seeing you.”

“You…” With a rosy hue on her cheeks, Shen Yiren chided, “What are you saying? Can’t you be serious?”

Ming Feizhen wasn’t fearless. He was just occupied with distracting Shen Yiren from asking why he was kidnapped. “What do you mean I’m not serious? Boss, as soon as I see you, I feel like life flows into me. It was worth it.”

“I… failed to look after you. Had I noticed the happenings in the capital sooner…” Shen Yiren dejectedly sat down on the side of the bed and placed her hand on Ming Feizhen’s forehead.

Upon catching a whiff of her hand, Ming Feizhen couldn’t help taking a closer look at Shen Yiren. “Boss, it looks like you’ve lost a bit of weight.”

Shen Yiren’s eyes resembled panda eyes, and her robe was noticeably looser on her than before the whole fiasco. On a more positive note, her aura was a lot more dominating. Nevertheless, Ming Feizhen was more concerned about her visible fatigue. No matter how sharp a sword was, constantly accumulating clashes took a toll on it.

“Boss I… I’m actually okay.”

“I know you’ll be okay… I kept telling myself that you’ll be fine, that you had to be fine, so that I wouldn’t think about the state you were in and be distracted from finding you.”

Ming Feizhen grabbed hold of Shen Yiren’s hand and sincerely conveyed, “Boss, it’s been hard on you… And, thank you.”

Shen Yiren squeezed Ming Feizhen’s hand. “You bet. Who do you think I am?” She playfully smiled and continued, “You think only you can save me? I’ll save you when you’re in trouble – no matter where you are.”

Ming Feizhen didn’t say a word until his guilt finally destroyed him. “Boss… I want to tell you something.”

“Go ahead.”

After a long and hard think, Ming Feizhen decided to express his true thoughts. “It’s a challenge to move at the moment. Could you please… feed me?”