Chapter One Hundred and Nineteen: Drunkenness

Looking at the rapid changes in Linger’s expression, Bai Lixian asked with concern, “What is it? Are you feeling unwell?”

Linger was still brooding over how he had taken advantage of her, and she did not catch his meaning at all. She only nodded in a daze, which led Bai Lixian to spring up at once and say, “Where does it hurt? I’ll go and fetch the imperial physician right now.”

Only then did Linger come to herself. The moment she heard that he was going to summon a doctor, she panicked. In this life, she hated doctors the most; whenever she saw one, nothing good ever followed. The result was always the same: medicine, more medicine, and still more medicine. She hurriedly called out to stop him. “I’m fine. It’s only my back that hurts.”

Seeing her little face wrinkled like a steamed bun and her brows twisted like waves, Bai Lixian asked softly, “Does it really hurt that much?”

Of course it hurt. It wasn’t your body that was pierced by the hidden arrow, so how could you understand my pain? And this Cloud Phoenix Continent is so backward it doesn’t even have painkillers! Linger grimaced. If she had known, she would never have blocked the hidden arrow for him in the first place, leaving herself now lying helpless on the bed like a living corpse.

Bai Lixian lowered his head and pondered for a moment. Soon, his eyes lit up, and he said to Linger, “I have a way to make it stop hurting. Wait here for me!”

So wait she did. She was already in pain anyway; a little more made no difference. She might as well treat it as having one extra round of her monthly misery.

After a while, Bai Lixian returned carrying a round little wooden bucket. He sat down by Linger’s bedside and shook it twice, whereupon the clear tinkle of liquid sounded from within.

Smiling, he set the bucket beside her hand. “This is very effective. It comes from the Western Wei region, and it’s not easy to get in Eastern Chu. When your body hurts, just drink a few mouthfuls and the pain will go away. Want some?”

What on earth was this? The way he described it, it sounded like one of those traveling quack remedies that claimed to cure everything. Yet the way he boasted about it did not seem fake. Linger shot him a resentful glance. You really are stingy, keeping such a good thing from me for so long.

When Bai Lixian’s hand touched the lid of the wooden bucket, he suddenly slapped his own forehead. “Look at me, how forgetful I am. I didn’t even bring a cup. Linger, don’t be anxious. I’ll go fetch one.”

Linger lay on the bed, watching Bai Lixian scamper off to get a cup, and a herd of frustrations thundered through her mind. Couldn’t he stop teasing her? Couldn’t he just skip these tiny details?

After waiting quite a while and still seeing no sign of him, Linger was too exhausted even to complain anymore. She glanced at the little wooden bucket lying beside her and sighed. Fine. Relying on others was worse than relying on herself. Better to do it herself and have full bellies and warm clothes.

Anyway, for the time being, only Linger, the invalid, was living in the Phoenix Rest Palace, and Bai Lixian had been staying inside the palace all along, so there was no one else around. Struggling, she drew her hand from beneath the quilt, lifted the lid of the little bucket, and at once a rich fragrance filled the room.

Linger sniffed and found the aroma oddly familiar, but the scent was enticing enough to make her stomach protest, so she did not bother dwelling on what it was.

Tilting the bucket, she took a large gulp. The liquid inside was sweet, mellow, and fragrant. After just one sip, she was hooked. Looking more closely, no wonder it seemed familiar: wasn’t this wine?

She had not expected such a fine thing on this continent. To be honest, Linger was not fond of drinking at all. She hated the helpless feeling of losing control when drunk, and the blank spots after waking only made her want to get angry.

As she drank the wine, her thoughts began to drift. There were all kinds of things in her mind, some from modern life, some from after her transmigration. Unaware of it herself, she had drained the bucket clean.

The wooden bucket looked small, but it held quite a lot of wine. The consequence of drinking it all was that two flushes of red rose to Linger’s cheeks. By the time Bai Lixian returned from rummaging through the palace wine cellar for a pair of goblets suited to drinking wine by night, he was struck dumb.

Linger looked up and saw his mouth hanging wide open. She had no doubt that he could swallow an egg whole without missing. Bai Lixian stared at her in disbelief. In a daze, the two exquisite goblets in his hands slipped from his grip, clattered onto the bed, and rolled to the side of the bucket.

Their rims pointed toward Bai Lixian, as if the cups were two mouths mocking him.

Refusing to give up, Bai Lixian lifted the bucket lid. When he saw that not a single drop of wine remained, he could only accept the truth helplessly and turned to look at Linger. “You drank all of it?”

Fine wine in a jeweled goblet—that was the proper way to drink wine. To Bai Lixian, Linger’s conduct was sheer waste, as graceless as a cow chewing peonies, lacking all refinement.

Linger shot him a look of disdain. Stingy man. But after a bit of wine, the pain in her back really had eased more than a little. Her back felt better, though her head had grown a bit useless.

Then she looked at Bai Lixian again and was startled to find that he seemed to have become Sun Wukong transforming himself, one becoming two, two becoming four. A perfectly good face flashed and wavered, then turned into four. Linger shook her head and looked again: there were still four.

“B-b-buzzing... Bai Lixian, why have you grown four faces?” Linger reached out with both hands to cradle his head, tugging him closer as if she meant to see that face clearly.

Bai Lixian pressed a hand to his forehead. He understood now: Linger was absolutely drunk. Faced with a drunken woman, and one who was injured to boot, Bai Lixian, even if he had two heads and six arms, still would have no way to deal with her. He was completely at a loss.