Chapter 893 — Otherwise I'd Have Come Out on the Losing End

"Let General Mighty accompany you. He can sniff out the spring, and he will keep you safe," Wei Zhao said.

"Got it!" Shen Yushu darted out of the cave and went off with General Mighty to fetch water.

"I... what should I do now?" Gu Mengyao had never been through anything like this and had no idea how to proceed. With Shen Yushu gone, she was at a loss.

"There is a dagger tucked along the side of my shoe. Take it out, cut open the wound on my leg, and pull out the bullet..." Wei Zhao truly had no strength left. That he could still stay conscious long enough to speak was a miracle in itself.

"All right!" Gu Mengyao did not dare delay. She bent down and, sure enough, found a dagger along the side of Wei Zhao's shoe. She glanced at the gunshot wound on his leg and hesitated. "You... take off your trousers?"

"You will not help me?" Wei Zhao smiled bitterly. Where would he find the strength? Had the situation not been so desperate, he would never have asked Gu Mengyao to do such a thing! She was a complete novice who did not even know how to remove a bullet. Watching how gingerly she handled everything, Wei Zhao could not help worrying whether she was up to it.

But Wei Zhao truly had no other choice! He could not hold out until they got down the mountain or until help arrived. He had to drain the poison from his body before he lost consciousness!

"Oh..." Gu Mengyao's cheeks flushed. She understood that Wei Zhao could not possibly have the strength to remove his own trousers, but pulling them off for him herself was so embarrassing!

The young lady gritted her teeth, and with trembling hands she reached for Wei Zhao's belt. But in her nerves, she could not undo the buckle no matter how she tried, and soon she was sweating all over with anxiety! She did not want to waste time, but the more flustered she grew, the more mistakes she made. Gu Mengyao nearly resorted to biting it with her teeth.

"There is a clasp on the side. Just open it..." Wei Zhao watched the young lady's little face, flushed pink with fluster, and had a sudden urge to lean over and take a bite of it. Mm, adorable.

"Oh..." A little embarrassed, Gu Mengyao unfastened the belt as Wei Zhao had instructed. Then her movements came to a halt...

Never had the young lady imagined that one day she would be pulling off a man's trousers... Yet this scene was not unfolding on a wedding night, but inside a shabby cave, and the two of them were not about to do anything romantic...

Gu Mengyao gritted her teeth, hardened her heart, and yanked Wei Zhao's trousers down. Watching the young lady's fierce expression, Wei Zhao found it rather amusing. Why did she look like some brazen ruffian of a woman?

Beneath the trousers, Wei Zhao wore only a pair of shorts, and the young lady's heart leaped into her throat again! She was almost afraid to look, and yet she had to — because right now, time was life! The young lady still knew that much.

"You... spread your legs a little..." The young lady pursed her lips, a different person from her usual self. At this moment she was like a shy young bride, gazing at Wei Zhao, half-refusing and half-yielding, a feast for the eyes.

Wei Zhao moved his leg with difficulty, and only then did Gu Mengyao suddenly realize that he was wounded — how could he be moving? She hurried to reach out and help him.

But Wei Zhao was straining to part his legs, and Gu Mengyao wanted to help him too. Both of them moved at once, and the result was that Gu Mengyao's hand brushed against a place it should not have touched... And so, quite wickedly and quite shamefully, Wei Zhao responded... And so, the young lady's face turned even redder, like a boiled lobster.

Wei Zhao smiled bitterly. Even in a situation like this, his body still had to react? How wicked.

Gu Mengyao was at a loss. The shocks this day had brought were simply too much!

"In the hospital, you touched me all over, so today I'm touching you back. Otherwise I'd have come out on the losing end!" Gu Mengyao babbled, trying to justify her earlier embarrassment.

Watching the young lady defend herself with such a laughably feeble excuse, Wei Zhao found it rather amusing. So the young lady had this adorable side to her too. Beneath that cold, icy exterior, there beat a lovely, passionate heart...

"Fine... but I am about to pass out. Once you have pulled the bullet out, you may touch me however you like..." Wei Zhao joked as well.

Though Wei Zhao's joke was a little indecent, in such an atmosphere it served as important seasoning to lighten the mood. Hearing his words, Gu Mengyao shot him a glare, then burst out giggling and raised the dagger in her hand. "Act up again and I'll cut it off!"

At another time and place, Gu Mengyao could never have said such a thing. But buoyed by Wei Zhao's earlier joke, the words had simply slipped out, and once spoken she rather regretted them and shut her mouth again.

Still, those few jokes had eased the shyness from Gu Mengyao's heart, and she began to study Wei Zhao's wound carefully.

"What do we have to do?" Gu Mengyao asked.

"Cut the wound open and take the bullet out," Wei Zhao said.

"How do I cut?" Gu Mengyao felt at a loss as to where to begin.

"However you like — whatever's easiest for you," Wei Zhao said.

"Will it hurt you a lot?" Gu Mengyao could hardly bring herself to do it.

"It will. But if you don't cut, I may well die of the poison." Wei Zhao knitted his brows. "I don't know what kind of poison Zhen Yingjun used, but it suppresses the nervous system. If we don't get it out, I'm afraid there'll be trouble.

What Wei Zhao feared was that once the poison took effect, it would plunge him straight into unconsciousness instead of into the jade pendant's space. Unconsciousness from exhaustion and unconsciousness from poison were not the same thing, and Wei Zhao dared not take the risk.

"Oh!" Hearing that Wei Zhao would die if the bullet was not removed, Gu Mengyao was so frightened that she cast all her misgivings aside. Gritting her teeth, she took the dagger in her hand and, trembling, began to cut at the wound on Wei Zhao's leg.

"Young miss, you need to use some force, be a bit more ruthless... right now you're performing a slow slicing..." Watching Gu Mengyao carve at him little by little, Wei Zhao was momentarily speechless. "This is one of the Ten Great Tortures of the Qing dynasty!"

"Ah!" Gu Mengyao's face flushed red at once. She nodded, and at last put a little more strength into her hand, though it was still more tentative than not.

Luckily Wei Zhao's dagger was very sharp, and Wei Zhao's endurance was formidable as well — otherwise he would likely have broken down.

At last Gu Mengyao had cut the wound open, and the bullet inside could be vaguely made out. But having reached this point, she again had no idea how to proceed! After all, there were no tweezers or tools of the sort at hand, and surely Gu Mengyao could not just reach in and dig it out with her fingers?

"Now I can see the bullet, but how am I supposed to get it out?" Gu Mengyao asked hesitantly.

"Whatever's easiest for you..." Wei Zhao's eyelids were already drooping in a fight to stay open, and the pain from the wound on his leg was no longer enough to rouse his mind.