Mental damage compensation? High-risk allowance?
Xiao Che was completely baffled by these unheard-of terms coming from her mouth.
He stared at this woman who spoke with such self-righteousness, momentarily at a loss for how to refute her.
Because what she said seemed… damn reasonable.
“Besides,” Lin Shu shifted to a more comfortable position in her chair, “as a delicate woman raised in deep chambers who must eventually marry, what if this method of mine gets out and I’m labeled a bewitching anomaly? Who would dare marry me then? This concerns my lifelong happiness, Young Master Xiao. Shouldn’t you provide some compensation?”
Xiao Che’s face darkened further.
An involuntary thought flashed through his mind—who did she think she could marry?
This inexplicable thought irritated him deeply.
He pulled out a stack of banknotes from his robe and tossed them onto the table without even looking.
“Is this enough?”
Lin Shu picked up the stack, slowly counted them, and her eyes lit up seeing the denomination of one thousand taels each.
Good heavens, this was five thousand taels! She’d struck gold!
She discreetly tucked the banknotes into her robe, her expression instantly transforming into one of compassionate solemnity, as if the mercenary woman from moments ago had never existed.
“Saving a life surpasses building a seven-story pagoda. Seeing Young Master’s sincerity, I must risk my life to try again.”
Xiao Che: “…”
He felt the tightness in his chest grow worse.
The remaining assistant and two apprentices from Huichun Pharmacy were quickly brought in.
The three trembled like quails, kneeling on the ground and shaking uncontrollably.
Having received payment, Lin Shu worked efficiently.
She approached the three, enduring the needle-like pain in her head, focused her concentration, and asked each in a cool voice: “Where did Wang Daifu hide the antidote formula?”
“Tell the truth.”
Incantation activated.
Their eyes instantly turned vacant, like puppets, answering mechanically.
“N-no idea.”
“Master never involved us in his affairs.”
“Hidden compartment? What hidden compartment? This humble one only knows there’s a rat hole under the counter…”
Lin Shu frowned.
She changed her question: “Besides Lin Wan’er, who else recently visited Wang Daifu with suspicious behavior?”
“No one.”
“Haven’t seen anyone.”
After several questions, the answers remained useless.
These people truly knew nothing.
The side effects of the Incantation struck again. Lin Shu’s vision darkened as she fainted.
Xiao Che watched her collapse and instinctively stepped forward, catching her falling body.
The person in his arms was light, unbelievably light. Through layers of clothing, he could feel her prominent bones.
Her face buried in his chest, her forehead burning hot, breathing faint as a dying butterfly.
“Someone! Summon the house physician!” Xiao Che’s voice held an urgency and irritability he didn’t recognize himself, as he scooped Lin Shu into his arms and strode swiftly toward the soft couch in the inner chamber.
The guards outside the study and the apprentices still kneeling on the ground were stunned by this sudden turn, momentarily frozen.
“All of you, get out!” Xiao Che gently laid Lin Shu on the couch, turning to roar at them.
The crowd scrambled out as if granted amnesty, stumbling over each other in their haste.
Soon enough, the estate physician arrived at a jog, carrying his medicine chest. The moment he stepped inside, he was so intimidated by Xiao Che’s keep-away aura that his legs turned to jelly.
“Young… Young Master.”
“Stop wasting time. Examine her.” Xiao Che stepped aside to make room, but his eyes remained fixed on the physician’s fingers as they pressed against Lin Shu’s wrist, as if they might crush something with the slightest pressure.
The physician began the examination with trepidation.
Time ticked by, and the study grew so quiet one could hear a pin drop.
The physician’s brow furrowed deeper and deeper, cold sweat beading on his forehead and dripping down. He switched to her other wrist and checked again, his expression shifting from grave to doubtful, and finally to utter bewilderment.
“Well?” Xiao Che’s voice was like ice fished out of a cellar.
The physician dropped to his knees with a thud, his voice trembling. “Young Master, Eldest Miss Lin… her pulse is extremely peculiar.”
“Explain.”
“The Eldest Miss suffers from dual deficiency of qi and blood, with signs of depletion in all five viscera. This doesn’t resemble an acute illness, but rather…” The physician weighed his words carefully, afraid of misspeaking, “it seems more like her body has been drained over many years, as if she’s been afflicted by a slow-acting poison.”
Slow-acting poison?
Xiao Che’s pupils contracted sharply.
He recalled how Lin Shu had looked on the verge of collapse in the dungeon, her pale profile when he fed her rice broth earlier, and the exhaustion she couldn’t quite hide in her eyes when she boldly demanded money from him.
So she hadn’t been pretending.
Her worn-out body simply couldn’t withstand the toll of that strange method.
But a slow-acting poison? Who would administer such a thing to the legitimate eldest daughter of the Prime Minister’s household?
Lin Shu had grown up in the Prime Minister’s estate, surrounded by servants coming and going. If someone had been poisoning her, how could it go undetected for over a decade?
It didn’t make sense.
“Anything else?”
“The Eldest Miss has severely depleted her mental energy, causing her qi and blood to flow backward, resulting in temporary unconsciousness. I’ll prescribe a mild tonic to regulate her system first. However, this physical depletion didn’t occur overnight—I’m afraid… I’m afraid she’ll require prolonged rest and recuperation. She must avoid further stimulation and cannot afford to strain herself mentally or physically.”
Xiao Che waved his hand, signaling the physician to go prepare the prescription.
The physician retreated as if granted a pardon, scrambling out on unsteady legs.
In the study, only Xiao Che and the unconscious Lin Shu remained.
He looked at her bloodless face, his brows knitted into a tight knot.
This whole matter had been strange ever since Lin Shu was confined to the woodshed.
She seemed like a different person—her behavior completely changed, and she’d acquired inexplicable abilities.
Yet this depleted body clearly told him she was still the same Lin Shu.
A Lin Shu whose body had been hollowed out by slow-acting poison.
What was really behind all this?
……
A splitting headache.
That was Lin Shu’s first sensation upon regaining consciousness.
Next came parched thirst, and an unfamiliar, crisp cold fragrance lingering at her nostrils—like pine trees after winter snow, clean yet aloof.
This wasn’t the scent of Tingxue Courtyard.
Her eyes snapped open.
What greeted her was a blue-gray canopy above, made of exquisite material but without any superfluous embroidery.
Shifting her gaze, she took in the room’s sparse, masculine furnishings. The curio shelf held not delicate ornaments but a pair of dark iron armguards and several volumes on military strategy.
On the wall hung a sheathed longbow.
Every detail exuded the domain of a man.
Lin Shu’s mind buzzed, jolting her instantly awake.
She lowered her head and quickly checked her clothing.
Fortunately, the clothes were still her own—though slightly wrinkled, they remained intact.
She let out a long sigh of relief, only for her heart to leap into her throat again.
Where was she?
“Awake?”
A cold voice came from nearby.
Following the sound, Lin Shu saw Xiao Che seated behind a desk by the window, holding a scroll. The candlelight cast shifting shadows across his peerlessly handsome face, making his expression unreadable.
“Where is this? What have you done to me?” Lin Shu instinctively shrank back, her voice laced with wariness.