“Stay the hell away from me!”
He roared, his voice laced with suppressed pain as he staggered toward the washstand in the corner.
There was a bucket of freshly drawn well water there icy cold.
Splash!
Without hesitation, Lu Zhaoye grabbed the bucket and dumped it over his head.
The freezing water mixed with the blood on his body and splashed all over the floor, instantly sending steam rising from his burning-hot skin.
He braced himself against the stand with both hands. Water dripped from his soaked hair, covering his eyes, his chest heaving violently as he gasped for breath, trying to suppress the beast inside him with this extreme physical cooling.
Su Wan stood by the door, quietly watching the scene. The smile on her lips gradually faded, replaced by a trace of genuine concern in her eyes.
She knew the drug had likely been obtained by Lu Qianqian from the black market it was extremely potent.
If it weren’t for Lu Zhaoye’s astonishing willpower, and his self-inflicted injury to stay conscious, any ordinary man would have lost control long ago.
Even now, he would rather hurt himself than touch her.
Su Wan took a deep breath, then turned and walked to the cabinet, skillfully pulling out a dust-covered first-aid kit
something she had only discovered in her previous life when she came to clean the room after he was driven out.
Carrying the kit, she walked up behind him.
“Big brother.”
Her voice was soft.
Lu Zhaoye stiffened. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he said coldly,
“Don’t come closer. Get out.”
“No.”
Su Wan crouched down, looking at the wound on his leg, now pale from soaking in water, yet still bleeding an alarming sight.
She took out scissors and gauze from the kit and swiftly cut open his pant leg.
“If you don’t want me running outside yelling that you bullied me, then stand still and behave.”
She looked up, her almond eyes slightly widened in a mock glare. But paired with her delicate, innocent face, it carried no real intimidation only a hint of endearing stubbornness.
Blinking, she added,
“Do you still want your leg or not? We still have a life to live. I don’t want a crippled husband.”
The word “husband” lightly struck Lu Zhaoye’s heart.
His chest trembled slightly. The veins on the back of his hand bulged as he gripped the stand, his knuckles turning white.
He wanted to say something, but his body instinctively cooperated with her.
Lowering his head, he watched the woman crouched by his feet, carefully tending to his wound, and felt an increasing sense of disbelief.
Moonlight streamed in, illuminating her profile the same pure, white glow he had only dared to glance at from afar in countless dark nights.
Now, that moonlight had fallen into the mud.
Yet instead of being tainted, it illuminated this broken, desolate place.
That deep loneliness the sense of being abandoned by the world began to fade under the gentle touch of her fingertips.
“Su Wan.”
His voice was hoarse, carrying a faint, barely noticeable tremor.
“Have you really thought this through? Following me won’t give you a good life. I’m a thug, I’ve got enemies, a bad reputation, and a mess of a family…”
“Isn’t that perfect?”
Su Wan skillfully applied medicine and bandaged his wound, finishing with a neat bow.
She stood up, clapped her hands lightly, and looked up at the man soaked, disheveled, yet still radiating raw masculine energy with a crescent-eyed smile.
“You’re a bully, I’m a shrew. You can fight and kill, and I’m excellent at settling scores. The two of us together we’re a match made in heaven for trouble.”
She poked his firm chest with her finger, smiling sweetly.
“From now on, we work as one. Anyone who dares bully us you break the men’s legs, I’ll ruin the women’s reputations. So, Lu Zhaoye, is this deal on?”
Lu Zhaoye stared at her.
For a long time.
Then he lowered his head. In his once lifeless eyes, a flame ignited ambition, and a hint of possessive obsession.
He wiped the water from his face and curled his lips into a wicked smile.
“Deal. If you’re not afraid of death, what do I have to fear?”
After his fierce declaration, silence filled the room for a moment.
Su Wan looked at the man before her like an unshakable mountain and her gaze unconsciously fell on his intact right eye.
In her previous life, she hadn’t been this composed.
Back then, she had been terrified, shrinking into a corner, trembling and crying.
In the eyes of the scheming Lu family, that reaction had been taken as proof that Lu Zhaoye had “assaulted” her.
At the time, Lu Gang’s blow hadn’t been stopped. To protect her, Lu Zhaoye had taken it head-on.
That strike had shattered his right eye socket.
The once proud man had become a despised, one-eyed cripple because of her weakness, driven out of the Lu family, disappearing into a stormy night without a trace.
Thinking of this, Su Wan’s heart clenched painfully, as if gripped by an invisible hand.
“What? Scared?”
Seeing her stare at his face in a daze, Lu Zhaoye mistakenly thought she had been frightened by his earlier words. A flicker of self-mockery crossed his eyes as he instinctively tried to step back.
“I’m not scared.”
Snapping out of it, Su Wan suddenly stepped forward and stood on tiptoe.
Under his stiff gaze, she raised her cool fingers and gently brushed the corner of his right eye.
Thankfully.
In this life, those eyes were still bright still whole.
“Lu Zhaoye, your eyes are beautiful.”
She murmured softly, her gaze filled with emotions he couldn’t understand guilt and relief intertwined.
Lu Zhaoye stared at her, his body heating up again, muscles tensing, his Adam’s apple bobbing sharply.
This girl…
What on earth was she doing?
As a special reconnaissance soldier carrying out a highly classified mission in disguise, his instincts immediately went on high alert.
He had watched this girl grow up from a little girl with pigtails to a graceful young woman.
Su Wan had always been timid and gentle, so scared she would avoid him even when he slaughtered a chicken.
But today…
She dared to strip Lu Ming in public, dared to force him into marriage at such a critical moment, and now even dared to tease him while he was still under the effects of the drug?
Too abnormal.
Narrowing his eyes, Lu Zhaoye scrutinized her harmless-looking face like an X-ray.
Could it be… she knew something?
This mission back home was highly confidential. Even his family believed he had returned because he couldn’t survive outside.
If Su Wan had been sent by certain people as a “spy,” using seduction to probe him…
At that thought, the fleeting warmth in his eyes was instantly suppressed by cold rationality.
He suddenly grabbed her hand, pulling it away from his face.
The force wasn’t strong, but the rejection was clear as he said coldly,
“Stop trying to sweet-talk me.”