Upon hearing the sound, Zhu Yu was sitting in the courtyard and imdiately jumped up at the commotion.
Lu Qing also stood up, looking towards the source of the sound.
Liu Yueyao walked in front, seeing Lu Qing and Zhu Yu in the courtyard, and without ti for formalities, she spoke first, "Sir, Madam, the Fu brothers have returned."
Seeing it was Liu Yueyao and hearing that the Fu brothers had returned, Zhu Yu let out a big sigh of relief, then saw that behind Liu Yueyao, Fu Lu was carrying soone on his back as they entered.
The heart that had just settled back in its place suddenly hung up high again.
"What happened?!" Zhu Yu hurriedly went forward; the courtyard was dark and she couldn’t make out the situation of the person on Fu Lu’s back.
Fu Lu saw the expression on Zhu Yu’s face and imdiately guessed what she was thinking, hastily saying, "Madam, fear not, the one on my back is not my elder brother!"
Fu Wen, who had originally followed behind, quickly stepped forward a few paces upon hearing this, allowing Zhu Yu to see him clearly: "Madam, I’m here."
Zhu Yu saw Fu Wen catching up from the back, and seeing that he was also intact and well, she finally let out a complete breath of relief.
"Who is the person you brought back?" Lu Qing asked with so suspicion, looking at the person on Fu Lu’s back, whose condition was unclear if they were dead or alive.
"This person went to the Headdress and Shoes Workshop today in broad daylight to demand an explanation, constantly shouting about life and death. Later, he was politely brought in by the staff over there, and when dusk just fell, we saw several Protectors from the workshop sneakily carrying him out, using a carriage to throw him to the outskirts. We followed and found that he was beaten until his skin was torn and flesh exposed; we suspected that he might have discovered so secret of the workshop and thus was nearly beaten to death.
So we picked him up first. Manager Liu didn’t know what to do with this person, so he said to bring him here first to ask for your decision."
Liu Yueyao, very perceptively, held up her small lantern higher, moving closer to the person on Fu Lu’s back, allowing Lu Qing and Zhu Yu to clearly see the person’s condition.
Indeed, the person was severely beaten; their clothes were almost soaked with blood, both arms hanging limply in front of Fu Lu, nearly no movent from breathing visible in the body.
"This place won’t do. Find another secluded location, lay him down, and see if there is any chance of survival," Lu Qing instructed.
Liu Yueyao imdiately signaled Fu Lu to carry the person and follow her, while Zhu Yu went back to her room to fetch her set of tools and followed along.
After winding through several turns, they finally arrived at another small courtyard.
Zhu Yu had visited Yunyin Pavilion many tis before, but had never fully grasped its entirety; the main building was already full of secrets, and she hadn’t expected so many hidden spaces behind it.
This small courtyard was quite convoluted from where they stayed; lacking familiarity, it would be difficult to find the route. However, the courtyard contained a room with basic furnishings—a bed and so tables and chairs. Though sparse, it was not uncomfortable for an ordinary person.
Lu Qing found it satisfactory and instructed Fu Lu to carefully place the person on the bed.
Zhu Yu stepped forward, asking Fu Wen to hold the oil lamp closer, pulling open his eyelids for a look; under the bright oil lamp, the person’s pupils still constricted slightly.
She felt the side of his neck and his wrist for a pulse; though faint, careful feeling could perceive it.
"He’s still alive," Zhu Yu said, as she skillfully opened a leather bag, taking out needles and threads, speaking to Lu Qing, "but I don’t have Yan Daoxin’s skills, so I can’t be sure if he’s been poisoned by sothing strange.
So, after dealing with the external wounds, whether he survives will depend on his fate."
Liu Yueyao had never seen Zhu Yu do this before; though she was well-inford in the Capital and there was little she couldn’t uncover, beyond the Capital or even Jin Country, her information was not so reliable.
Therefore, she watched as Zhu Yu skillfully used alum, vinegar, cypress decoction, and strong liquor brought by Fu Lu to carefully clean the wounds on the unconscious, senseless injured person, then swiftly used a fla-heated Black Iron knife to trim away unrepairable, damaged excess flesh and skin, making the wound clean and neat. Fresh blood finally oozed out before she switched to needle and silk thread to ticulously stitch up the more severe gashes with dense, tight sutures.
Zhu Yu did all this with practiced ease, calm and composed.
Lu Qing and the Fu brothers, watching from afar, were unsurprised, observing calmly from a distance.
Conversely, Liu Yueyao, who was usually poised, showed a face that reddened and whitened alternately, eyes wide, until watching that the person, covered with wounds, under Zhu Yu’s maneuvers, gradually returned to a semblance of a whole human form, the chaotic wounds finally cleaned and stitched into scars, did her complexion stabilize.
The man was gravely injured, with nurous wounds of varying sizes and depths; completing the treatnt left Zhu Yu nearly unable to straighten her back from exhaustion.
"Fu Lu, help apply ointnt to his wounds, then cover them with clean cloth strips." Zhu Yu called Fu Lu over to help, then stepped aside, rubbing her sore back.
Lu Qing pulled her over to the table to sit and rest, while Liu Yueyao hurriedly handed Zhu Yu so tea: "Madam... you are truly brave! How well you managed to treat all those wounds!"
"Actually, I’m not particularly skilled in this; it’s just under pressure," Zhu Yu waved her hand.
Liu Yueyao thought Zhu Yu was being modest, unaware she was telling the plain truth.
After all, the things she was truly skilled at were far more thrilling than stitching up wounds.
"This man is severely injured; those who attacked him presumably intended to beat him to death," Zhu Yu said after drinking so tea and catching her breath to Lu Qing, "but it’s peculiar.
The wounds on this man are chaotic, not like they could be made by one person, but more like he was mobbed and barely kept alive.
There are many ways to kill soone; the simpler the process, the more certain the outco.
Especially when the attackers outnumbered him, leaving him powerless to resist or escape, tying soone up and stabbing them, hanging them with a rope, or poisoning them would all be much more straightforward, yet instead, they chose to beat him to near death only for him to survive...
This is indeed quite strange."
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