Chapter 87: Opening the Door Is Risky

“I’ve practiced a marvelous martial art called the Spring-Return Art,” Lin Xiaosu said. “Do you know what spring-return means? Miraculous healing hands. Its greatest power is treating injuries.”

“No matter how powerful an ancient martial art is, there’s always a limit to how much damage it can recover from. Come on...” Changye reached out and lifted him into her arms.

“It really isn’t necessary to treat it. Look...” Lin Xiaosu raised his injured right hand.

The ghastly wound on his arm, where flesh had been torn open, suddenly began to writhe.

Changye’s eyes flew wide open.

It took only about five minutes for that terrifying wound to close on its own. Lin Xiaosu lightly rubbed his left hand over it, and the blood clots fell away. His arm was whole again, as if nothing had ever happened.

Changye stared, mouth slightly open, at the medical miracle unfolding before her.

“If you really want to help me, just lend me your thigh to rest on.” Lin Xiaosu sat down and leaned against her leg.

Changye drew a soft breath. “The Spring-Return Art can really restore wounds in such an astonishing way?”

“You think this is astonishing?” A faint smile touched Lin Xiaosu’s lips. “The reason this technique was created in the first place is the truly astonishing part.”

“The reason... what reason?”

“There was once a eunuch who had success, fame, and everything else one could want—except for that. So he created this technique.”

Changye said, “And then? Don’t you dare tell me that he... he succeeded.”

“Do you know who passed this technique on to me? The descendant of that very eunuch. So tell me—do you think he succeeded or not?”

Changye closed her eyes briefly. “My heavens. Ancient martial arts can be this miraculous... How long will your hand need to heal?”

“Soon. By sunset, maybe even sooner.”

“So we don’t need to go to the hospital; we just sit here by the tea garden all afternoon?” Changye said.

“Exactly.”

“Then rest well.”

Lin Xiaosu lay on her thigh, while the midsummer sun quietly drifted west.

The village washerwoman had already gone home with her basket in hand. She could never have imagined that she had just walked a circle around death’s gate.

On the way home, she was still singing.

Her voice was clear and bright, laced with the local accent, and if one listened carefully, it seemed to be a love song about a boy and a girl.

Changye’s gaze slowly lowered to the man resting on her thigh.

His eyes were closed, as though he were taking a sweet afternoon nap.

For some reason, Changye felt a deep peace and joy in her heart. Her hand lifted slightly, as if she wanted to touch his face, but she stopped when it was still half an inch away. After the fierce struggle earlier, she had collected the corpse of that little bird, and now her hand was poisoned too.

Her own poison.

As a poison bearer, she could kill an elephant with a kiss. She had no way of understanding the ordinary human tenderness of a boy and a girl. No matter what stirred in her heart, her actions would never support it.

Time flowed on, and a cool breeze drifted lazily through the air.

The tea garden gradually sank into dusk.

Starlight rose, making the world seem faint and dreamlike.

At some point, Lin Xiaosu opened his eyes and quietly looked up at Changye above him.

At this moment, Changye’s face from the neck upward had returned to her true appearance, because after such an intense battle, she needed to reveal her original form.

Her features were exactly the same as Little Night’s at home, but her skin was even better. With the starry sky as the backdrop, she was so beautiful she seemed almost unreal.

As if by instinct, Changye withdrew her gaze from the distant stars, lowered her head, and met Lin Xiaosu’s eyes.

Her heart gave a slight jolt.

“Is it better now?”

Lin Xiaosu slowly extended his right hand. With a faint hiss, the bandage wrapped around it fluttered apart like butterflies in flight.

When the butterflies passed, his right hand was pristine and new.

To bring the dead back to life and replace flesh upon bones—the wondrous art of healing hands.

Changye let out a long breath. “Miraculous healing hands. Good. I was worried your bone-white hand would frighten your mother when you got home.”

Lin Xiaosu smiled. “So, do you want to talk about the gift you gave me now?”

“Mmm... what do you think of it?”

“How should I put it? Different people feel differently about these things.” Lin Xiaosu said, “My mother would probably love it like a treasure, but I... I’m afraid I won’t be able to stay at home.”

“Why not?”

Lin Xiaosu gave her a sideways look. “You developed the function yourself and you don’t even know? You even developed the ability to bear children. I’d really like to ask—whose egg cells are those inside her body?”

“Whose would they be? She’s a bio-robot. Her physiological functions are real; of course they belong to her. Whose else would they be?” Changye’s eyes shifted slightly, a little unnaturally.

Lin Xiaosu sighed. “Bio-robot bodies follow the laws of nature. It’s entirely possible for them to produce their own egg cells. That brings up a huge problem, though. If a human and a machine are combined and produce offspring, what exactly are those offspring supposed to be? Aren’t you afraid you’ve opened the door to something absurd?”

That was the terrifying thing about science.

Scientific progress overturns common sense.

Ordinary people have a father, a mother, and an endless ancestral chain stretching back through countless generations.

But modern science can already create bio-robots.

Every organ in a bio-robot is highly realistic, and in theory they could also have children.

So what are their children supposed to be?

They have parents, but no line above them.

Their parents would have “emerged from a crack in the rock.”

It was a little too absurd.

“You can just enjoy her affection function and switch off the reproductive function.” A faint blush rose on Changye’s cheeks. This really was not a topic suited to the moment.

They sat beneath the big tree. From afar, they looked no different from any ordinary couple, perhaps even more intimate, since Lin Xiaosu was still resting on her thigh and had not gotten up.

“She’s just a machine you made! If we’re going to play this game, why not be more direct?”

“What do you mean, play a game? This isn’t a game... Direct? How direct?”

Lin Xiaosu flipped his hand, wrapped an arm around Changye’s neck, and turned his body in one smooth motion. Now she was in his arms, and his lips descended.

Changye was stunned. Her lips shut tight at once.

She only had time to close her mouth; she had no way to resist the force of his movement. His lips still brushed hers, and then, without warning, her very first kiss in life arrived, warm and sudden.

Changye shoved him away.

The force behind that push was immense, truly all she had.

Lin Xiaosu was pulled free from her.

Changye’s expression changed completely. “Are you trying to die? Quick... take a pill, now...”

She flipped her hand, and a purple pill appeared in her palm, which was trembling ever so slightly.

Strictly speaking, that pill was not yet a finished product.

It was only an experimental one.

Its effects were not guaranteed.

The poison in her body also came in layers.

She could neutralize the first layer, the poison on the skin.

But her lips, having been in long contact with saliva, were no longer merely skin. Even she could not guarantee that she could cure such poison.

This little wretch never gave anyone peace of mind. Once his blood got hot, he just had to kiss her.

“You really think your poison can hurt me?” Lin Xiaosu said with a lazy smile, refusing the pill outright.

Changye’s eyes widened.

“The Spring-Return Art’s greatest power is purification of poison. I just took a massive dose of poison straight into my veins and still managed to dissolve it. Why would I be afraid of a kiss?”

Changye’s pulse quickened.

Yes. The poison in her hair had gone directly into his bloodstream. In theory, not even a few pills could truly cure that; at the very least he should have been lying in bed for a month.

And yet he was lively and vigorous in an instant.

Could it be that his Spring-Return Art really...

“So, from here on, you’d better stop resisting. Let’s treat this as an experiment.” Lin Xiaosu reached out again and drew her into his arms. His lips hovered very close to hers.

Changye panicked. “Just press against me like before is enough. The tongue can’t touch... mm...”

Time seemed to stand still.

The world seemed not to exist.

Beneath the great tree, two figures clung tightly to one another, lips joined, teeth brushing, breath mingling.

Changye’s hands slowly lowered. Her eyes gently closed, and her whole body softened.

A long, long while later...

Her eyes opened again. She looked at the rather handsome face right before her. Their breaths mingled. Her own breath was toxic too, but when she wore human skin, it passed through the most mysterious purification. There was no purification now, of course, but at this level of toxin, neither of them cared anymore.

“Tell the truth—can you handle it?” Changye’s voice was like a breath of orchid fragrance.

“Honestly? A little intoxicating.”

“Huh?” Changye reached out and drove a silver needle into Lin Xiaosu’s neck.

Above the needle, a tiny glow flickered, like a miniature signal tower.

At the top was a red light, meaning extreme danger. In the middle was yellow, meaning there was some toxin in the body. At the bottom was green, meaning safe.

At that moment, the red light on the needle was lit.

Changye’s heart went abruptly empty. The purple pill appeared again and was pressed toward Lin Xiaosu’s mouth.

But in an instant, the red light went out.

The yellow light came on.

Changye froze.

Then the yellow light went out, and the green light lit up.

Changye let out a long breath. “Now do you understand how dangerous it is? Will you still kiss people so casually in the future?”

“What just happened proves exactly that we can kiss casually.”

With a flip of his hand, Lin Xiaosu laid Changye across his lap.

“For ten seconds of pleasure, it’s not worth charging through death’s gate!”

“This isn’t ten seconds of pleasure. This is opening a door!”

“You can open this door only. Don’t even think about... opening another one!” Changye’s cheeks were slightly red.

“What do you mean?”

“You know what I mean...”

“I may not know, but I can guess recklessly enough...” Lin Xiaosu said as his hand moved gently over her. “Is the level behind this door even higher?”

Changye slapped his hand away and gave him a glare. “That’s the most poisonous place on my body, so don’t even think about it.”

Her meaning was clear enough.

She was not refusing to let him open that door; she was only stressing that opening doors comes with risks, and one must act with caution.

Lin Xiaosu’s gaze flickered, as though weighing whether to open that door or not.

Changye hurriedly changed the subject. “Hey, stop thinking about those nonsense things. Say something positive.”

“You start.”

“Today you made another contribution, and a big one at that,” Changye said.

“So? Should the commission be doubled this time?” Lin Xiaosu asked.

“The commission? You’ve got money on the brain, haven’t you?” Changye shot him a look. “Can’t you think of something more advanced?”

“For me, as long as the detective office is thriving, that’s already pretty advanced.”

Changye said, “You can join Hidden Dragon now.”