Chapter 67.1

In the hospital, Xie Yanzhao carefully applied medicinal ointment to Ruan Mingfu’s wounds. Every time the ointment made contact with her skin, her brows furrowed more deeply due to the sting.

“Hiss—”

When he touched a particularly painful spot, Ruan Mingfu winced, her whole body trembling slightly as cold sweat dotted her smooth forehead.

Father Ruan, who was watching nearby, winced in sympathy.

He couldn’t stop himself from gasping repeatedly, and unsurprisingly, his attitude toward Xie Yanzhao was far from friendly.

“Be more gentle, you’re hurting her.”

Xie Yanzhao was already being as gentle as possible, but the ointment itself was irritating, and there wasn’t much he could do except proceed with extreme care. When he heard Ruan Mingfu hiss again from the pain, Father Ruan finally lost his temper.

“Gentler! How many times do I have to tell you? Be careful, you clumsy oaf!”

“Old Ruan—”

Even Ruan Mingfu couldn’t bear to watch her father acting like a nitpicking mother-in-law.

Father Ruan shot Xie Yanzhao a fierce glare.

Though he knew, rationally, it wasn’t his son-in-law’s fault, just looking at Xie Yanzhao made him feel annoyed, as if he was just itching for an excuse to pick on him!

Xie Yanzhao: “…”

What’s it like having such a hard-to-please father-in-law?

Xie Yanzhao remained obedient, refraining from arguing back.

Ruan Mingfu’s knees and elbows, now covered in red ointment, looked even more gruesome. Curious, she tried to rub it off with her hand, only to find the color had dried on her skin and wouldn’t budge.

“Huh? This stuff won’t wash off, will it?”

“It’ll come off,” Xie Yanzhao explained, “it’ll fade in a few days.”

Ruan Mingfu nodded, half-understanding.

Father Ruan, who had been interrupted, was visibly displeased. He shot another fierce glare at Xie Yanzhao before subtly pushing him aside. Forcing a smile, he asked his daughter, “My dear daughter, are you hungry? Dad will get you something to eat.”

Ruan Mingfu shook her head.

These were just surface wounds, looking scary but not serious. A bit of ointment, and they’d heal in a few days.

The real issue was her foot.

Somehow twisted, her ankle had quickly swollen, and the pain worsened over time. Her face had turned pale, and she was in too much discomfort to even think about eating.

“Where on earth is the doctor?” Father Ruan paced back and forth like an anxious ant on a hot pan.

During one of his turns, he caught sight of Xie Yanzhao holding his daughter’s hand. His irritation grew. Storming over, he wedged himself between them and snapped at Xie Yanzhao.

“Can’t you read the room?” Father Ruan glared at him. “Can’t you see my daughter’s in pain? Go find the—”

“Dad.” Ruan Mingfu tugged at her father’s hand, exasperated.

“Hmph!”

Father Ruan shot another sharp look at Xia Yanzhao but didn’t say anything more.

Xie Yanzhao: “…”

It really seemed like his father-in-law had a particular grudge against him.

Not wanting to argue with the elders, Xia Yanzhao quietly moved to the other side of Ruan Mingfu and, out of sight, gently took her hand again.

Seeing this, Father Ruan grew even more angry.

He suspected Xie Yanzhao was deliberately provoking him!

With a loud harrumph, Father Ruan expressed his displeasure once more.

Xie Yanzhao: “…”

Ruan Mingfu: “…”

After traveling through time, why did her dad become so childish?

Just as things were getting tense, the orthopedic doctor finally arrived.

She was a female doctor.

Upon examining Ruan Mingfu’s swollen ankle, the doctor frowned. She pressed down on the injury, causing Ruan Mingfu to nearly roll her eyes from the pain.

“Ah! It hurts, it hurts, it hurts…”

Father Ruan’s heart nearly shattered in worry.

“Doctor, be gentler, please.”

“I know,” the doctor replied coolly. “But if I don’t examine the bone, how will I know what’s wrong? What if I misdiagnose her?”

Father Ruan wisely kept quiet after that.

Xie Yanzhao, watching closely, was also distressed. “Doctor, please be careful.”

The female doctor, evidently not one to tolerate complaints, shot him a side-eye. “You want to do this instead?”

Xie Yanzhao: “…”

With both of them silenced, the room finally grew quiet. After a few more moments of examination, the doctor had a diagnosis.

“This is going to hurt a bit, so brace yourself.”

As soon as the words left her mouth, Ruan Mingfu felt a sharp, intense pain in her foot. Her heart skipped a beat, and before she could cry out, she was enveloped in a strong, familiar embrace. The presence of that comforting warmth helped ease her anxiety.

Even the pain in her foot seemed to lessen a bit.

Father Ruan, holding his daughter’s hand, watched Xie Yanzhao hug her tightly. For a brief moment, he felt a pang of loss.

Fortunately, the treatment didn’t last long.

The doctor then pulled out an ice pack and applied it to Ruan Mingfu’s ankle, the cold soothing her swollen injury.

“All right, keep the ice on for thirty minutes, and then you can leave,” the doctor said, packing her things. “Tomorrow, switch to a hot compress. This medicine should be applied twice a day, and I’ve given you a three-day supply.”

Xie Yanzhao took the prescription. “Doctor, how long until her injury heals?”

“If things go well, it’ll take three days. A slower recovery might take up to a week.” The doctor lifted her medical bag. “Just make sure she rests that leg as much as possible. If it’s not better in three days, come back for a follow-up.”

“Thank you, Doctor. We understand,” Father Ruan said, walking her out.

By the time the treatment was over, Ruan Mingfu looked as if she’d been pulled from a pool of water, with her hair stuck to her sweat-drenched face. She looked pale, as if she had just recovered from a serious illness.

Seeing her in this state made Father Ruan’s heart ache even more.

“Sweetheart, are you okay?”

“I’m… I’m fine…”

Feeling much better now, Ruan Mingfu wriggled out of Xie Yanzhao’s embrace and even had the energy to chat with her father.

“Dad, why didn’t you and Mrs. Ruan let me know you were coming?”

“I meant to tell you…” Father Ruan trailed off, clenching his fist. “Good thing we arrived when we did. Who knows how badly you would’ve been bullied by those two women?”

At the mention of them, Father Ruan’s face darkened.

“Wait! Do you think your mother-in-law and sister-in-law will come after you for revenge because of the fight?”

If they dared, Father Ruan thought, it would be a perfect opportunity to push for divorce!

“They have nothing to do with me,” Xie Yanzhao said after a brief pause. “Even if you and Mom hadn’t come today, I wouldn’t have let them off.”

Ever since the nanny and her daughter had harassed Ruan Mingfu, Xie Yanzhao had been planning to teach them a lesson.

But with Xu Zhu keeping a close eye on him, he hadn’t been able to find the right opportunity.

“Dad,” Ruan Mingfu tugged her father’s sleeve. “Actually… you can’t really blame him for all this.”

She glanced at Xie Yanzhao before giving a brief explanation of the family conflict.

Father Ruan: “…”

He looked at Xie Yanzhao with a touch of pity.

Tsk, tsk, what a poor guy.

Well!

As a magnanimous man, he would let it slide this time.

Father Ruan let out a cold snort.

“If those women come looking for trouble again…”

“Don’t worry, Dad,” Xie Yanzhao’s eyes darkened with determination. Just thinking about how pitiful Ruan Mingfu had looked earlier made his anger flare. “Leave the Xie family’s affairs to me. I won’t let them harass Mingfu ever again.”

The fierce look on his face made it seem like he was ready to go on a rampage.

Even Father Ruan felt a bit uneasy seeing him like that.

“Alright, I doubt they’ll dare to come back after this.”

Father Ruan knew better than anyone how tough Mrs. Ruan could be. Just recalling how miserable that mother and daughter looked when they arrived, he couldn’t help but touch his own face.

Back when they first got married, he had also experienced Mrs. Ruan’s “hospitality.”

But after today, Father Ruan realized she had actually gone easy on him back then.

Feeling touched.

Ruan Mingfu noticed it too.

Thinking of how ruthless Mrs. Ruan could be made her teeth ache.

“That doctor really is amazing,” Ruan Mingfu wiggled her foot, her face filled with surprise. “It doesn’t hurt at all anymore.”

Upon closer inspection, the swelling had gone down quite a bit, and it no longer looked as frightening as before.

“Be careful,” Father Ruan patted her on the shoulder. “What if you hurt it again? Let your mom make you some pig trotters soup for the next few days. You need to build up your strength—you’re way too skinny.”

“It’s you who needs to build up strength! Look at you, you’re even thinner than me!”

Father Ruan had suffered a lot at the farm.

He was so thin now that Ruan Mingfu was genuinely alarmed.

“Dad, since we’re at the hospital, why don’t you and Mom get checked up?”

Xie Yanzhao agreed, “Mingfu’s right. You and Mom should really have a thorough check-up.”

“Well…”

With both his daughter and son-in-law insisting, Father Ruan couldn’t refuse.

“Alright then.”

At this hour, there wasn’t any need to wait in line, which was convenient.

“Dad, I’ll go with you.”

“No need,” Father Ruan waved his hand. “I’ll go with your mom in a bit.”