Jinshi was now sound asleep. The only sounds he produced were the soft ones of his breathing, escaping his slightly opened mouth.

No whimpers and no sobs, at long last. Just a calm, peaceful sleep. Exactly what he needed.

Maomao, who was still lying in his bed, firmly pressed against his body, let out a sigh. It was indeed unbelievable just how much a single day, no, a single minute could change someone's destiny, either for the better or the worse...

This time, it was obviously the latter.

Had Jinshi arrived just a tiny bit later at the shed... then it would have probably been her who would have gotten injured, maybe breaking a few of her bones during the impact with the ground or even suffering such a head injury herself, who knew, but... at least, nothing would have happened to him.

But no. As it looked like, the universe had entirely different plans for them, and thus, she was now spending the night in Jinshi's bed and holding an amnesiac Jinshi in her arms who was so afraid of the darkness that he had even been crying. Who would have imagined that something like that could really occur one day? Well, she certainly hadn't. Not even in her wildest dreams.

Feeling his muscular upper arm under her head and absent-mindedly rubbing his side with one hand to keep him asleep, the apothecary was trying to process everything she had experienced just now. Easier said than done. In fact, it was so difficult that it made her head hurt. Never before had she seen the young lord being that defense- and helpless as he was right now. So pitiful that it was almost tearing her heart apart '

She had to admit that she was also feeling quite lost and helpless herself, for she still wasn't very sure how to exactly deal with that "new" Jinshi. For the moment, she was mostly listening to her gut feeling, which seemed to work quite well actually. And yet, her doubts and insecurity stubbornly remained.

Maomao lowered her gaze and heaved another deep sigh, as a new thought crossed her mind. A rather incredible one, to be honest... One so utterly incredible, she barely believed it herself, but...

...she wished the old Jinshi, the "celestial nymph" back.

She truly did.

Granted, there had been times when she hadn't really known how to deal with his former self either (there, she involuntarily remembered a certain hunting trip and shuddered so violently that, for a second, she feared having woken Jinshi up), but that had been nothing compared to now. Not even close.

The apothecary's muscles tensed, and she felt a sudden chill down her spine while a horrible, unprecedented fear started paralyzing her body. Very different from the pleasant way poison did it.

What... what if his head injury had caused more damage than they all had thought? And what if his unusual behavior and abnormal freezing were just the beginning, a harbinger of something even more terrible?

That thought had been lingering inside her all that time and now, it showed its full effect in the silence of the night.

Out of a sudden, Maomao found it hard to breathe and almost gasped for air, while her hands clutched Jinshi's clothes.

What if his wound ended up being lethal, and no one, neither her nor anyone else, would be able to save his life?

After all, there were cases where people suffered head injuries and then dropped dead even several days after. Her father had explained to her that it could occur when a blood vessel tore in the head, causing a hemorrhage in the skull and brain. An awful thought and an even more awful way to die.

And yes, Maomao was well aware about how often she used to complain that Jinshi was irritating, annoying, clinging to her like a leech, and dragging her into all kinds of trouble and messes, but... that still didn't mean that he had deserved something like that! No! He hadn't deserved it at all, neither the pain nor the fear and definitely not death!

Well, of course she perfectly knew that a person had to leave when their time had come, since it was nothing but the natural course of life that nobody could escape, however, in that case, it just didn't feel right. Way too unfair, in her opinion. Even though the world naturally didn't give a damn about such banal things like fairness, she had witnessed it herself all too often...

She didn't care anymore how much he might still get on her nerves in the future, she just wanted the old Jinshi back!

At long last, she managed to regain control over her breathing and immediately looked into Jinshi's face again. He was still in a deep sleep. Good. She pressed her head against his chest once more and just proceeded to stare into the dark for several minutes without moving a muscle. Yet her disturbing thoughts still refused to let her go.

If she were the one to die, she would be able to live with that somehow (no pun intended), but the death of someone else was a load way too heavy for her small shoulders. Of someone who had been completely healthy just a day ago and would have continued to be if she had never fallen on top of him.

But even if he didn't die... what if he stayed like that forever? Forever without a memory of his past life, so out of place in that world? Of course, it did occur to her that she would surely be punished in such a case if she wasn 't able to fulfil the Emperor's command, but what worried her more at the moment, was the possibility that Jinshi's brain might be left with permanent damage...

Then, even if he were to survive something like that, that would mean that she had basically ruined his life forever...

Maomao pressed her lips together, and her usually clear blue eyes were robbed of their shine from the mere thought.

A bit later, she grimaced as though she were in pain and desperately tousled her hair with one hand, however still being careful not to move too much for Jinshi's sake, so she wouldn't bother him.

Argh! How she would have loved to cut his head open with a sharp knife and see for herself whether he really was haemorrhaging internally, but of course, that was completely out of question. And not only that: for that thought alone, she risked getting her own head cut... from her shoulders. But she still couldn't help it. All that uncertainty was torture.

For now, they could do not much more than pray that nothing serious had happened to his brain tissue and skull and that he would fully recover despite all the highly concerning symptoms he showed.

The apothecary nearly let out a cynical laugh. Pray? Seriously? Ha! How ridiculous!

Now, her own hands had started to tremble as well.

That couldn't be true! Why was she so useless? Just why?!

Suddenly, she realized that she had clenched her hands so firmly into fists that her fingernails were burying themselves painfully into her palms. The apothecary briefly closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths to return to her senses.

She couldn't just let herself get carried away and get overwhelmed by her thoughts and assumptions... she wasn't allowed to... but still was unable to do anything to stop it. Never in her life had she been forced to face such a situation before...

Right beneath her ear, Maomao could hear Jinshi's heartbeat and still felt the movements of his breathing. Both were normal for now, neither too fast nor too slow.

And despite all that evidence that he was definitely very much alive, she couldn't find any peace no matter how hard she tried.

Thus, she additionally placed her hand on his heart once again, feeling it pulsate under her palm, counted its beats for a while, and then, while also rubbing his cold feet slightly with her own, reached out for his hand with her other one and carefully lifted it from the back of her head.

Next, she tightly grabbed him by the wrist and checked his pulse. Even though she already knew that her actions didn't make any sense, for she could already feel his heart, however, she just couldn't do anything about that odd urge.

"Maomao..." she heard him mutter quietly and happily in his sleep. Perhaps, he could feel her grip even in his dreams.

Yet the apothecary didn't care about that.

"Not allow the darkness to swallow you..."

she thought bitterly.

"Yeah, sure... as if I were that powerful..."

Then she buried her forehead in his chest and clenched her teeth for the umpteenth time. She was at a loss. Desperate. Furious.

"Damn... Damn it!"

Despite her own horrible fatigue, Maomao barely slept that night. She had the impression of being stuck in a nightmare that had become reality...

Shortly before sunrise, she finally managed to fall into a light slumber.

Holding on to Jinshi's wrist the entire time without letting go. Not even for a second.