consummating the marriage?

After being overwhelmed by immense joy, Duan Xingzhi quickly calmed down.

He lowered his eyes and looked straight into hers.

He couldn't help but reach out and cup her face in his hands, his movements gentle, as if he were handling a fragile dream, but his voice was hoarse and barely audible.

"This is the antidote to empathy... right?"

Shen Zhiyi nodded honestly.

She lowered her eyelashes shyly, "I need... cough cough... my blood, and yours, your... you know."

You understand, right?

She looked at him with clear, innocent eyes.

Duan Xingzhi felt his heart plummeting, and even his boiling blood gradually cooled down.

really.

She wanted to untie the only connection she had with him, even at the cost of losing her innocence.

If the empathy is broken, will she still look at me again?

Will I still worry about him and miss him like I do now?

By then, what reason could he possibly have to stay by her side?

Duan Xingzhi closed his eyes.

He suddenly released her, took a half-step back, as if she were some kind of scorching flame.

His aura turned cold and hard again.

"I will only consummate my marriage with my own wife." He pursed his thin lips, but his eyes remained fixed on her.

Shen Zhiyi was slightly taken aback. "You're married?"

Duan Xingzhi: "..."

"No."

"That settles it then!" She patted her chest, looking as if she had almost been startled, then suddenly realized, "I know, are you... afraid of being disliked by your future wife?"

Duan Xingzhi:

He lowered his eyes, looking at Shen Zhiyi's innocent face, moved his lips, and suddenly felt a dryness in his throat, unable to utter a single word.

Shen Zhiyi grew anxious.

He stepped forward and said, "Why are you so stubborn?"

"You're supposed to be such a skilled assassin, how can you be so inflexible in the face of adversity?"

"I'm starting to wonder how you even managed to complete those tasks."

"We made this choice out of detoxification, a choice we had no other choice but to make. If your future wife truly loves you, she won't care about this."

Duan Xingzhi: ...

There was no other choice.

I won't care.

Not a single word was something he wanted to hear.

His face grew increasingly sour.

Shen Zhiyi, however, remained oblivious and continued to analyze the pros and cons: "Besides, this is a matter of life and death."

"If we don't untie it, what if you encounter danger on a mission, or I get poisoned while testing herbs? Wouldn't we be harming each other?"

“Then let’s die together.” Duan Xingzhi stared at her intently, then suddenly interrupted.

A mad, dark light flickered in his calm, cold eyes.

"Who wants to die with you?" Shen Zhiyi pouted and poked his hard chest. "I'm doing just fine here, unlike you who goes out fighting and killing, living on the edge..."

"Besides, even if we consummate the marriage, I'll be the one who suffers, okay?"

When she met Duan Xingzhi's icy, frosty eyes, her imposing manner suddenly diminished, and she withdrew her hand, her gaze drifting as she touched her nose.

"Okay... thinking about it carefully, I didn't really lose out too much."

She muttered softly, "If consummating our marriage once could bring me the solution to the Heartbreak Curse, then it would be worth it."

After all, this is the most potent love poison in the world.

If she could really solve it, wouldn't her master be smiling in his grave?

As Shen Zhiyi pondered this, a slight smile involuntarily crept onto her lips.

Seeing that she was distracted and didn't seem to care much, Duan Xingzhi pursed his thin lips into a straight line.

Suddenly I felt a little angry.

Her mind was only focused on her medical and toxicological skills.

He doesn't exist at all.

He raised his fingers and pinched her chin, his fingertips gently squeezing her soft cheeks, his eyes darkening.

"Shen Zhiyi, I am not a tool for your research."

"I am a human being, with flesh and blood, and with emotional needs and self-respect."

Shen Zhiyi's cheeks puffed out as he pinched her, her brows drooping dejectedly, and she mumbled, "Then tell me."

"What do you want in return for consummating our marriage?"

"Pfft—cough cough cough!!!"

Xiao Ding, who happened to be passing by, overheard this and spat out all the water he had just drunk.

His face turned bright red from coughing.

Dr. Shen, what kind of outrageous and inappropriate words are you spouting?

consummating the marriage?

She actually forced the slave to consummate their marriage?!

Duan Xingzhi swept a cold, murderous glare across them.

Xiao Ding felt like prey caught on a sharp arrow, his hair standing on end.

He remembered the tiger skin that had been thrown at him that day, and, terrified, covered his eyes, screaming, "I...I...I didn't see anything! I didn't hear anything!"

"I'm blind! And deaf!"

"Please continue, please continue..."

He stumbled and staggered back, but after only a few steps he fell down with a "plop." Ignoring the pain, he continued to flee for his life, rolling and crawling.

After running for several miles, he crashed into Apan, who had just recovered.

"What happened?" Apan helped him up, looking surprised. "Why are you so scared? Has another ferocious beast appeared?"

Xiao Ding lowered his hands and glanced back, still shaken.

I found myself far from the riverbank.

He finally caught his breath, thinking to himself: It really is a ferocious beast!

He patted Apan's shoulder earnestly, "Brother Apan, let me give you a piece of advice: you should give up on Doctor Shen as soon as possible."

"There are plenty of fish in the sea, why be hung up on just one?"

Besides, they've long been captivated by the aversion to slavery!

He shook his head, not daring to say another word, and ran home in a flash.

Apan looked towards the riverbank, then at the pharmacy.

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!