Listening closely, he could tell something was off with her voice. It wasn’t quite a sob, but there was a faint clog, a hitch.
Was it… because of him?
Though his consciousness had been hazy earlier, he’d vaguely sensed someone calling his name, each shout louder than the last. Even now, the faint ache lingering in his arm seemed to testify to how hard she’d gripped him.
She was still so soft-hearted.
Xiao Hanjin let out an almost imperceptible sigh. “Alright, I’ll listen to you.”
Di Ronghua steadied her breathing. “Let go. Let me see your injury.”
“Ronghua.”
The man’s thin lips brushed near her ear, his low voice murmuring, “Who told you getting burned by a Flame Beast’s fire means death? It’s just a rumor—don’t take it seriously. I won’t die. I still have to take care of… Jiangjiang.”
“Let me see it!”
Her voice spiked sharply, laced with uncontrollable anger.
Xiao Hanjin’s eyes flickered slightly.
He didn’t provoke her with words like he had during the day. After a brief standoff, he released her.
Di Ronghua turned to face him, staring straight into his eyes.
The man’s Adam’s apple bobbed. He suddenly chuckled. “Ronghua, you look like a tyrant bullying the weak right now.”
Di Ronghua stared at him expressionlessly, her gaze unwavering.
Xiao Hanjin: “…”
He dropped the smile. The atmosphere grew strange. Under her near-erupting stare, he slowly began to undo his robe.
The air turned even weirder.
It felt like concern, like intensity, like awkwardness, and maybe even a hint of something ambiguous.
Yet her eyes remained utterly righteous.
It was the usually thick-skinned man who turned his head away. “Seen enough?”
Enough? How could it be enough?
Beneath the wrapped gauze, where normal skin should have been, was a charred, near-rotting mess—far worse and more horrific than any typical burn.
Di Ronghua’s gaze seemed to sting, her pupils shrinking as her fists clenched tight.
“Xiao Hanjin, are you doing this on purpose?” She looked up at him, her face growing colder, yet trembling with suppressed emotion. “With your martial skills, stealing two Moonvine Flowers shouldn’t be hard. Why kill a Flame Beast?”
“…Maybe to get a little injured?”
He paused, then laughed softly. “So you’d pity me, feel grateful, and give me one more chip to win you back.”
Before she’d left Beixi, she’d checked his pulse. The damage to her organs wasn’t something one or two Moonvine Flowers could cure.
She needed long-term, uninterrupted medicine.
So he’d had to kill the Flame Beast.
He just hadn’t expected her to learn where the Moonvine Flowers came from—or that he’d been injured.
The curve of his lips deepened. “So, Your Highness, did I succeed or fail?”
He’d laid it out like that—the most palatable answer. If she followed this卑劣 logic, it was all his own doing, and she didn’t need to care.
But… Di Ronghua didn’t buy it.
“Are you trying to make me and Jiangjiang take medicine every day?”
“Since I got it, eating more can’t hurt.”
“…”
Her fingers tightened further. She closed her eyes. “Xiao Hanjin, you didn’t have to do this.”
Watching her struggle to suppress her emotions yet fail, Xiao Hanjin’s throat tightened. “Ronghua, don’t say things like that to me.” He reached out, pulling her into his arms, and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I’d do anything for you willingly. I’ll be fine—you don’t need to overthink or worry, hmm?”
