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Chang Ji cast a swift glance at the scene inside before promptly shutting the door.

Gu Changjin lifted his robe and squatted down, feeling Mama Zhang's pulse at her neck. His brows relaxed as he softly spoke to Rong Shu, "Mama Zhang isn't dead. Rong Shu, you didn't kill anyone."

He opened his palm and gently pressed it against Rong Shu's icy, blood-stained hand, continuing, "Let go now. Leave it to me to deal with."

Glancing at Heng Ping, he signaled for him to fetch the medicine.

His hands were warm.

His deep, resonant voice held a calming power.

Rong Shu's tightly clasped hands finally loosened.

She looked at Gu Changjin, about to speak when she felt an itch in her throat. Black blood trickled from the corners of her lips, dripping onto the front of her clothes with a "pitter-patter."

It hurt so much.

—"If I die, Miss will die too."

Rong Shu suddenly grasped the meaning behind Mother Zhang's words.

She had been poisoned. The medicine that Mother Zhang fed her daily was both a poison and its antidote.

Her throat was in excruciating pain, but at this very moment, the ache somehow alleviated her emotional torment.

Noticing Gu Changjin's abruptly altered expression, Rong Shu let out a gentle laugh.

How unusual; this man, who remained unperturbed at all times, was now wearing a face full of panic.

She wanted to tell him that she was fine, that the pain had subsided.

Indeed, it was gone. After such intense agony, she felt weightless, as if she were a cloud soaring higher and higher into the sky, unable to touch the ground.

Until a pair of strong arms embraced her tightly.

The scent of pine resin, dampened by the rain, enveloped her, and Rong Shu's consciousness grew increasingly hazy.

A heavy thud echoed through the room once more.

The previously motionless Luo Yan had also fainted, her eyes rolled back, lips turning purple, and face flushed red as if someone was choking her, preventing her from breathing.

"Save her quickly!" Gu Changjin declared in a solemn voice.

His tone was calm, but his hands were slightly trembling.

With gritted teeth, Gu Changjin pulled out a pill from his waist, pressed it with the heel of his hand to break the wax seal, and then swiftly chewed it.

Gently prying open Rong Shu's jaw, he fed her the pill.

Pressing on a pressure point on her jawbone, his voice muffled, "Rong Shu, swallow."

The moment those words left his mouth, an overwhelming sense of familiarity swept over him.

It was as if at some point, he had done this before and spoken these exact words.

Thump... Thump...

His heart felt clenched tightly, causing him almost unbearable pain and leaving him gasping for air.

Gu Changjin's eyelashes quivered, forcefully suppressing the dull pain in his heart. He slowly pushed the bitter medicine to the back of her tongue, then firmly pressed with his long finger.

Rong Shu felt the pain.

The spot where he held her jaw hurt, and so did the wound on her tongue. Yet, it was precisely this pain that pulled her consciousness from the haze.

"Rong Shu, swallow," Gu Changjin repeated. "Swallow."

His tongue brushed against hers, urging the bitter medicine towards her throat.

The young maiden's thick eyelashes fluttered slightly. She cracked open her eyes, gazing at Gu Changjin's close proximity, feeling utterly dazed.

He whispered against her lips once more, "Rong Shu, swallow."

There was an unusual urgency in his voice. Unconsciously, Rong Shu swallowed the medicine.

She wanted to say, "It's so bitter."

But his tongue was still nestled between her lips, their breaths intertwining. Rong Shu found herself unable to speak, only managing to slowly lift her eyelids, staring at him in a daze.

Gu Changjin's mouth was filled with bitterness.

When he had fed her the medicine earlier, his sole focus had been on getting her to swallow it, and he hadn't noticed how intimate the act was. Now that she had taken the medicine and relaxed, the intimacy of their lips and tongues touching was like a wildfire spreading through his senses, setting his reason ablaze with a crackling intensity.

He dared not use the water in the room, so in his desperation, he had resorted to such an intimate method of administering the medicine. But now that she was conscious, using the same approach would be taking advantage of her vulnerability.

Gu Changjin swallowed hard, lifting his head slightly. His warm lips brushed against the tip of her nose as he asked softly, "You were poisoned. This medicine will protect your heart meridian. I need to give you another detoxification pill. Can you chew and swallow it by yourself?"

Rong Shu blinked slowly and murmured, "Mm... Sir Gu, Mother Zhang..."

"Don't worry, she's alive," Gu Changjin reassured her in a gentle voice. Tilting his head slightly, he instructed, "Chang Ji, the medicine."

Chang Ji had been listening attentively all along.

He had just stopped Mother Zhang's bleeding, and upon hearing Gu Changjin's words, he quickly fished out a small jade bottle from his chest, poured out a white pill, and handed it over.

His gaze remained lowered, not daring to lift his eyelids even a fraction.

Just now, as the Master held Miss Rong in his arms with his back to them, although he couldn't see clearly, he could roughly guess how the Master had fed her the medicine.

At this moment, he wished he could carry away Mother Zhang to create some space for the two of them.

Gu Changjin placed the antidote in Rong Shu's mouth, his gaze lingering for a moment on her injured tongue.

The tip of the tongue was densely packed with nerves. Given how she had bitten it until it was bloody and how much she feared pain, even a gentle touch would likely be excruciating. Earlier, when he had fed her the medicine, his grip had been a bit firm, seemingly... touching her wound.

"Does the wound on your tongue still hurt?"

As soon as he spoke, the air seemed to grow still for a few moments.

It would have been better if he hadn't said anything, for his words evoked memories of their entwined lips and tongues just now.

Rong Shu averted her gaze and croaked, "It doesn't hurt."

Gu Changjin looked down at her.

This girl tended to pinch something whenever she lied, but lacking strength now, her fingers merely trembled slightly.

His gaze froze for a moment before he suddenly took her left hand and gently turned it over, revealing the wound on the palm of her hand to his sight.

It turned out that the blood on her hand was not only from Mother Zhang but also her own.

Gu Changjin's jaw clenched as he reached for a bottle of medicine, bending down to apply it to her wound. Just as he was about to ask if the young lady was in pain, he lifted his eyes to see her long eyelashes closed, her head leaning against his chest, sound asleep.