The Bigshot Married Himself to the Heiress-Chapter 35 - 0 Do You Love Me?

This was a valley, teeming with plants and an abundance of wildflowers in various colors. However, Sienna Johnson, solely focused on finding hemostatic herbs, was in no mood to appreciate the scenery.

"Tell me what herbs you’re looking for, and I’ll help you find them."

"I need to find Thuja Leaves and beautyberries. These can stop bleeding within a minute; they’re first-rate hemostatic herbs... but I don’t know if we can find them here."

Sienna Johnson carefully described the appearance of these medicinal herbs to Adrian Desmond. Since Adrian’s night vision was better than hers, he actually managed to find some.

"Is this it?" Adrian asked, holding up a plant, roots and all.

"Let me see." Sienna Johnson took it and scrutinized it closely. She even tore off a leaf and chewed it. Her eyes brightened as she nodded. "Yes!"

They had found Thuja Leaves. The leaves had many small, scale-like branches of varying lengths and were reddish-brown. Their surfaces showed leaves growing in opposite pairs, and a cross-section was yellowish-white. The texture was brittle, easily snapped, and had a faint, aromatic scent. What Adrian had found were indeed genuine Thuja Leaves.

Sienna Johnson was overjoyed. "Adrian, you’re saved!" she exclaimed.

I was never in any real danger of dying! Adrian thought.

Adrian had endured far worse injuries. This was just a gunshot wound, and not even in a vital spot. The injury was nothing serious. However, he thoroughly enjoyed the feeling of Sienna Johnson caring for him. This woman must like me too, he figured.

"We need to find more!"

Sienna Johnson found quite a few more Thuja Leaves nearby. She gathered them and then looked for a place to treat Adrian’s wound.

"Hey, don’t move! Let me do it!" Sienna Johnson stopped Adrian from trying to pull up the Thuja Leaves himself, which made him smile wryly. She’s treating me like a porcelain doll, he thought. I’m not that fragile.

"We need to find a place so I can inspect your wound and see how deep it is. Are there any bullet fragments left? Ideally, it should be disinfected... Otherwise, if it gets infected, we’ll be in serious trouble..." Given their current circumstances, none of this was really possible.

"When I was on the cliff, I saw a small wooden cabin at the bottom of the valley..." Adrian said, looking ahead. "It should be just up there."

"A cabin? Does that mean there are people around?"

"I don’t know."

"Then let’s go check it out."

Sienna Johnson supported him as they headed towards the small wooden cabin.

After about five or six minutes of walking, they indeed spotted a small, rudimentary wooden cabin.

Just as Sienna Johnson was about to help Adrian inside, he stopped her, his gaze wary as he stared at the cabin.

Confused, Sienna Johnson asked, "What’s wrong? Is it dangerous?"

"I’ll go check. You hide."

"Okay."

Sienna Johnson found a large rock and hid behind it, letting Adrian scout the cabin alone. It wasn’t that she was being uncooperative; she knew that if she went with him, she wouldn’t be any help and would likely just slow him down.

"Mai!" Adrian called from the doorway of the wooden cabin, waving to her. Sienna Johnson quickly jogged over, held his arm, and asked, "No danger?"

"If there was, I wouldn’t have called you over."

Sienna Johnson helped Adrian into the cabin. It was tiny, barely ten square meters, with a wooden bed. Inside, they found rice, flour, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar... Sienna Johnson couldn’t understand why such a cabin, stocked with supplies, would be in a place like this.

"This isn’t a trap, is it?" Sienna Johnson asked warily.

Adrian chuckled at her somewhat naive question. "...You don’t seriously think they built this cabin and stocked it with food just to lure us in, do you?"

"Then why would there be food here, in a place like this, with no one around?"

"This is a hunter’s outpost," Adrian explained. "When hunters go deep into the forest, they sometimes can’t get out for weeks. They prepare these supplies for themselves."

Sienna Johnson wasn’t concerned about that. Knowing there was no immediate danger, she focused on treating Adrian’s wound. By the light of an old-fashioned kerosene lamp, she examined it.

She gently probed the wound and could feel the bullet. "The bullet isn’t deep; it can be removed. Do you have a knife?"

Adrian handed her a sharp dagger. She had him lie flat while she skillfully started a fire and began to boil water, her movements incredibly practiced. Adrian watched her, a hint of suspicion in his voice as he asked, "How do you know how to do all this?"

"Do what?"

"Start a fire, boil water!"

Sienna Johnson tossed the dagger into the pot of boiling water to sterilize it. "What’s so hard about it? Don’t tell me you can’t?"

"I can!"

Sienna Johnson fell silent.

"When I was young, I did whatever it took to survive," Adrian said, gazing at her profile, his eyes distant.

Sienna Johnson took the dagger out of the pot, rinsed it with some of the cooled boiled water, and then cleaned his wound. After assessing its size, she said, "I’m going to make an incision. Brace yourself!"

"Mm. I’m not that fragile. Do what you have to."

Sienna Johnson shook her head gently at his attempt at bravado and focused on removing the bullet.

Sienna Johnson’s hands were long and nimble. One of her seniors in medical school had once said her hands were perfect for a surgeon.

"It’s out."

"Give it to me." Adrian took the bullet. Sienna Johnson cleaned his wound again with more cooled boiled water, then applied the crushed Thuja Leaves. The bleeding stopped quickly.

Sienna Johnson tore her Ao Dai into strips, sterilized them with boiling water, and then dried them by the fire. By the time Adrian’s bleeding had stopped, the cloth strips were dry. "Lift your hips a little; I’m going to bandage your wound."

Adrian lifted his hips, and Sienna Johnson began to wind the strips of cloth around his torso. He watched her intently the entire time. Her disheveled hair fell forward, brushing against his abdomen with her movements, and a familiar heat began to build in his groin.

"Done," Sienna Johnson said, finally letting out a sigh of relief after working for a while.

Suddenly, Adrian pulled her down on top of him. Her eyes widened. "Are you crazy? I just stopped your bleeding!"

"Mai, I want you."

Sienna Johnson lightly slapped his shoulder. "You’re injured! You need to rest. I’ll go make us something to eat. You take a nap, and food will be ready when you wake up."

"I am hungry," he growled, "but only you can satisfy me."

"Adrian, stop it!"

"Give yourself to me, Mai!"

...

Later, after their vigorous lovemaking, Adrian’s wound started bleeding again. When Sienna Johnson saw the bandages stained red, she was furious.

"I’m done taking care of you! Go ahead and bleed to death, for all I care!"

Adrian wore a lazy, thoroughly satisfied expression. He was exceptionally handsome, and his deep-set eyes, when fixed on someone, could make them believe he was utterly smitten.

"And you’re still smiling?"

Though her words were harsh—Bleed to death, for all I care!—her hands were already busy. She reapplied the Thuja Leaves and tended to his wound again.

"Mai," he murmured, "I love you. Do you love me?"

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