Chapter 38: The Shocking Discovery of Poisoned Love
In the midst of his muddled consciousness, Long Qinghan felt a pair of familiar hands gently caressing his face. A warm body leaned against him, lifting him up and resting him on their chest.
Soft lips touched his, and water was slowly fed into his mouth. A gentle sigh echoed in his ears, followed by a familiar voice murmuring his name, “Qinghan—”
The familiar scent of sandalwood enveloped him, lulling him into a peaceful drowsiness, as if he could forget all his troubles by staying in this embrace and fall into a serene sleep.
“Xuanyang, Xuanyang…” His lips uttered the familiar name, but there was no response, only the sound of soft breathing.
Whose sigh was that, whose call? A hand seemed to be touching him, moving slowly across his body, leaving a trail of warmth in its wake. The hand drifted down his back, soothing the scars there, and then it slid further down…
To his hips?!
“Damn it, scoundrel!” Long Qinghan shouted, suddenly waking up.
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“Huh?” Long Qinghan was taken aback. Luo Yuchen’s personality was even colder than his, often leaving people puzzled by his words.
Luo Yuchen didn’t speak further, instead repeatedly wiping his hands, as if something disgusted him.
Long Qinghan sighed. Despite knowing Luo Yuchen for so many years, he still couldn’t grasp his temperament. “Yuchen, do you know when I arrived here?”
“Late last night, around the end of the zi hour.” Luo Yuchen tossed the now-clean handkerchief onto the table.
Long Qinghan was confused. “But how did I get here?”
“You…” Luo Yuchen began, but a knock on the door interrupted him. “Come in.”
“Master, your medicine.” A small servant entered, holding a bowl of medicine, and handed it to Luo Yuchen.
“Feed it to him,” Luo Yuchen ordered coldly. The servant acknowledged and raised the spoon, preparing to feed Long Qinghan.
Long Qinghan, startled, quickly grabbed the bowl and gulped down the medicine. He wiped his mouth with his sleeve and returned the empty bowl to the servant.
The servant took the bowl, cleaned up the broken porcelain, and left.
Long Qinghan breathed a sigh of relief. Luo Yuchen, obsessed with cleanliness and famously lazy, would never personally feed him the medicine.
After watching Long Qinghan drink the medicine, Luo Yuchen extended the silver thread wrapped around his hand and reached for Long Qinghan’s wrist. “Last night, I was still awake when I heard sounds nearby. I came to check and found you lying unconscious.”
Long Qinghan froze. In his half-conscious state, he had felt familiar hands touching him. It must have been that person who brought him here.
But why hadn’t they shown themselves?
Luo Yuchen silently checked Long Qinghan’s pulse, and Long Qinghan didn’t ask any further questions. He knew that prying information from Luo Yuchen would be futile. Luo Yuchen’s cold nature was innate, unlike his own cold exterior that hid a warm heart. If not for their deep friendship, Luo Yuchen wouldn’t have bothered treating him and might have simply thrown him out of the valley.
“Your complexion has improved significantly. With a few more days of rest, the poison in your body will be cured. As for the gu…”
“Wait,” Long Qinghan interrupted, shocked. “What did you say? Poison? And gu?”
Luo Yuchen glanced at him indifferently, retracting the silver thread, and began twisting it around his fingers. “You mean to say you didn’t know you were poisoned or had gu? Then why did you come here?”
Long Qinghan was at a loss for words. He was both frustrated and anxious. He sighed and said, “I didn’t know I was poisoned or infected with gu. As for why I’m here, I assume someone brought me. Could you please explain everything to me?”
“What do you want to know?” Luo Yuchen asked.
Long Qinghan frowned and asked seriously, “What kind of poison is this? When did I get it, and what are the symptoms?”
“Slow Heart Poison. You’ve had it for about a month. Symptoms include drowsiness, nausea, declining health, and increased susceptibility to illness.” Luo Yuchen paused before adding, “From the look of you, have you taken any unusual medicines recently?”
Long Qinghan was thunderstruck, as if a bolt of lightning had struck him on a clear day. “What did you say?!” The timing of the poison’s onset and the symptoms matched perfectly. A month ago, the only unfamiliar thing he had consumed was…
“No, it’s impossible. How could he poison me?” Long Qinghan shook his head, grabbing Luo Yuchen’s arm in desperation. He asked urgently, “What is this poison? Will it kill me?” His voice trembled uncontrollably by the end.
Luo Yuchen frowned, pulling away from Long Qinghan’s grip. He replied, “Slow Heart Poison, as the name suggests, gradually slows your heart until it stops completely, leading to a silent death. The symptoms are mild and hard to detect, making this poison rare. It’s made from a blend of high-grade toxins. The poisoned person will gradually lose their appetite, grow increasingly drowsy, and their health will deteriorate. Eventually, they will either starve, fall ill, or die in their sleep.”
“No…” Long Qinghan shuddered in fear. Why would that person want to harm him? Why?
“How was the poison administered?” he asked.
“Taken every three days,” Luo Yuchen replied flatly.
Long Qinghan’s pupils contracted. Every three days! He remembered that the medicine Feng Xuanyang had given him was to be taken every three days.
“Why? Why would he do this? Why would he want to harm me?” Long Qinghan’s body trembled as he shouted in anguish.
Luo Yuchen glanced at him and continued, “As for the gu in your body, it’s a Heart-Linking gu.”
“Heart-Linking gu?” Long Qinghan’s eyes glazed over as he asked, dazed.
“Yes. The Heart-Linking gu, as the name suggests, links two hearts. It involves a mother gu and a child gu. If the mother gu dies, the child gu will die as well. Conversely, if the child gu dies, the mother gu will remain unaffected.”
Long Qinghan let out a bitter laugh, hollow and self-mocking. “Then… I suppose I have the child gu.”
Luo Yuchen didn’t respond. He glanced at Long Qinghan with a hint of sadness before lowering his head. “A person infected with the Heart-Linking gu will bear a matching mark. You should check for it.”
Long Qinghan was startled. “A matching mark?” He frowned in thought. “I bathe daily and have never noticed a mark.”
Luo Yuchen’s eyes glimmered. He took out a pill and handed it to Long Qinghan. “Take this. It will reveal the child gu.”
Long Qinghan took the pill and quickly swallowed it.
“You’re not afraid it’s poison?” Luo Yuchen teased.
“Heh, I’ve already been poisoned by him. What harm could another poison do?” After swallowing the pill, Long Qinghan’s body began to heat up, and his breathing became rapid and hot.
“Perhaps you should remove your clothing and check,” Luo Yuchen suggested.
Long Qinghan nodded and struggled to unfasten his clothes, looking over his body.
Suddenly, a bright red mark caught his eye. It was on his left arm—a vivid red lotus mark, identical to the one on Feng Xuanyang’s forehead!
Long Qinghan was stunned. He slumped against the bed, murmuring to himself, “Why? Why do this to me? If you want my life, take it. Why go to the trouble of using gu?”
“Perhaps he wanted to feel it when your heart stopped beating,” Luo Yuchen’s cold voice pierced the last sliver of hope in Long Qinghan.
“Heh…” Long Qinghan chuckled bitterly, his body swaying as he leaned against the bed, his eyes dull, staring blankly ahead. “You said earlier, there’s a cure for my poison?”
“Who am I? No poison can stop me. But this poison cannot be cured overnight. You’ll need time to recover, and you must stop taking the poison. Otherwise, even I won’t be able to save you. As for the Heart-Linking gu, I can’t help, unless…”
“Unless what?” Long Qinghan asked anxiously.
“Unless you can obtain the heart’s blood of the person with the mother gu. Then I can create a way to remove it.”
“Heart’s blood? Heh, haha… heart’s blood…” Long Qinghan laughed bitterly. In his past life, he had pierced Feng Xuanyang’s heart with a sword, taking his life. How could he kill him again now?
He owed him. This was a debt he had to repay.
Long Qinghan said nothing more, only staring blankly at the ceiling, his bitter smile filled with despair.
Luo Yuchen stood up quietly and left without another word.
Long Qinghan stayed in the Medical King Valley for several days, gradually recovering. However, the psychological and physical blows left him despondent and haggard.
A few days later, he finally made up his mind and sought out Luo Yuchen.
“You want a human-skin mask?” Luo Yuchen asked, surprised.
Long Qinghan nodded. “Yes, and some of your special medicines.”
“What do you plan to do?” Luo Yuchen asked.
“I’m going to find him and help him.” His expression was resolute, but his words were filled with sorrow.
“Is it worth it?” Luo Yuchen was surprised by Long Qinghan’s response. “He wants your life.”
“If I don’t try, how will I know if it’s worth it?” His voice was cold, filled with pain and sadness.
Luo Yuchen sighed softly. “Aren’t you afraid you’ll die at his hands?”
“I’m afraid,” Long Qinghan said, looking up at the sky, filled with melancholy. “But—I’m more afraid that he’ll die by my hand.”
Luo Yuchen was stunned. He stared at Long Qinghan, and then a small smile appeared on his lips. In a voice so soft that Long Qinghan couldn’t hear, he muttered, “I can’t tell which one of you is the fool.”
He walked into the room, gathered some items, and threw a bundle into Long Qinghan’s hands. “Take it.”
Long Qinghan accepted it gratefully, smiled slightly, and bid him farewell. As he turned to leave and took a few steps, he suddenly stopped and asked over his shoulder, “If one day I die, will you bury me?”
“No.”
“Is that so?” Long Qinghan’s eyes dimmed as he resumed walking.
“I’ll bury you at his grave.”
Long Qinghan paused, a faint smile tugging at his lips. Without hesitation, he activated his qinggong and disappeared.
Feng Xuanyang, back then I took your life. Now, I offer mine to you. You want the world, I will help you take the world. This is what I owe you. I only hope that after I die, you will remember that there was once a man named Long Qinghan who loved you deeply.
…
After Long Qinghan disappeared into the distance, Luo Yuchen’s brief moment of tenderness vanished, replaced by his usual coldness. He glanced to the side and lowered his voice. “Satisfied with that explanation?”
A round of applause came from behind the wall. The sound of a hidden mechanism clicked, and a figure emerged from the shadows—
Thank you for the triple update~