With her deceased husband as her dowry, would Your Highness dare to marry her?

"Although I am blind, I have memorized the acupoints. As long as you don't move, I will be able to pinpoint the acupoints accurately," Lin Ci said softly.

Pei Jinxuan raised his head slightly, glanced at himself, and his inappropriate reaction still lingered. His face instantly turned hot, and he wished he could grab his clothes and get up to leave.

However, Lin Ci's hand had already reached up, the needle tip pointing directly at his chest.

"Don't move," she said.

Pei Jinxuan couldn't run away even if he wanted to, so he simply closed his eyes and thought about unrelated things, childhood fun, romance... He thought about everything but it was no use, so he started reciting the Tao Te Ching. When he couldn't memorize the Tao Te Ching, he switched to reciting the Hundred Family Surnames. He finally managed to suppress his evil thoughts, but when she touched him with her icy fingertips, all his efforts were in vain.

Her hands would be like a hidden fire; even if her fingertips were as cold as water, the moment they touched his body, they would ignite him.

"Your yang energy is too strong. If you hold it in for too long, it will damage your liver. You need to release some of it," Lin Ci said seriously, completely unaware that her hand was only making the fire burn even brighter.

Pei Jinxuan's Adam's apple bobbed repeatedly, his fingers gripping the mattress beneath him. After a long while, he finally managed to utter a soft "hmm" through his nose.

Lin Ci's hand continued to search for acupoints on his body, slowly extending from his chest to his navel, then winding down to his lower abdomen. A little further down his lower abdomen, a ball of fire gathered, which she almost touched.

Pei Jinxuan couldn't help but tilt his head back, desperately suppressing any inappropriate thoughts, but a shy, tingling sensation still escaped from his throat.

"Well……"

"What's wrong? Did it hurt?" Lin Ci was completely unaware of what was happening. She couldn't see anything, only feel the burning hot body.

Pei Jinxuan was so frightened that his blood ran cold.

"It doesn't hurt," he said, his voice a little hoarse. "It's itchy."

Itchy? Lin Ci frowned. That shouldn't be the case. She didn't believe it and reached out again to gently massage the acupoints she had just been rubbing, one after another, lightly and slowly.

"Where does it itch?"

Pei Jinxuan remained silent for a while, then said, "My feet itch."

"Feet? That has nothing to do with my golden needles." With that, Lin Ci pierced his body again, but this time the needle went slightly off-center, and a drop of blood spilled out.

The slight stinging pain actually brought Pei Jinxuan back to his senses. He gritted his teeth for a moment, suppressing his anger, and said in the most ordinary tone, "Since you entered the manor, I haven't had a proper talk with you yet."

"That's not true. When haven't we talked? We talked in the carriage, and we talked in the palace."

I'm talking about you.

"Me?" Lin Ci chuckled. "What's there to talk about? Your Highness has already figured me out, hasn't he?"

"You can't really figure a person out." Pei Jinxuan turned to look at her. She lowered her head and carefully felt the acupoints on his body, then slowly inserted the gold needles.

"Where are your parents?" Pei Jinxuan asked, as if he had just met her for the first time.

Lin Ci was quite frank, saying directly, "I have no parents. My master said he found me near a wolf's den. I cry so loudly that I scared the wolves away."

"Oh, how old were you that year?"

"She was born not long ago." Lin Ci paused. "That's what my master said."

"So you've been following Xiaoyaozi ever since?"

"Yes, I don't know anyone except my master, so where can I go?"

"Didn't you ever think about running away?"

"I thought about it, but after being beaten up by Master, I stopped thinking about it." Lin Ci tilted her head and smiled, revealing a touch of girlish innocence. If time could be reversed a few years, she would be incredibly beautiful at the age of sixteen.

Pei Jinxuan's heart ached at that smile. He shifted his gaze, looked up at the roof beam, and murmured, "If only I had met you sooner."

"It's no use getting to know me earlier. In the prince's eyes, I'm just a village woman. Even if we pass each other by, you won't give me a second glance."

"Who said that?"

"That's true. When you're out and about, people come and go. Can you really look at every single face? Your eyes can't keep up."

Pei Jinxuan opened his mouth to refute, but for a moment he was speechless. After carefully considering Lin Ci's words, he realized that they did make some sense.

"And what about you?" Lin Ci countered, "What are your parents like?"

Pei Jinxuan remained silent for a long time before saying, "My father was the emperor, and my mother was the empress. I was their youngest son and was spoiled from childhood. Before I was ten, I always rode in a sedan chair and almost never got off the ground."

Lin Ci chuckled, "No wonder, you look so otherworldly."

The words that came out of her mouth didn't sound pleasant. Pei Jinxuan couldn't help but glance at her and saw that, sure enough, the corners of her mouth were slightly turned down, showing her disdain for his past.

He wanted to explain, but the words caught in his throat. She had been carried off by wolves, beaten by her master, and forced to make a living on the streets since childhood. To tell her about his privileged childhood would sound like an absurd tale of "let them eat cake."

He remained silent for a long time, so long that Lin Ci thought he didn't want to talk anymore and was about to change the subject when she heard him sigh deeply, his voice lowered, "When I was sixteen, my father passed away, and my mother also passed away. My elder brother ascended the throne, and my second brother rebelled."

He paused, hesitated for a moment, and then continued, "My second brother wasn't born to Mother, but he treated me like a biological brother. He always thought of me when he had something fun or delicious. But the first time my sword drank the blood of my second brother, I realized from that day on that I understood that people don't die like they're written in stories; they don't say so much..."

He stared at the roof beams, his gaze settling on a point of emptiness.

"It fell to the ground and remained motionless."

After saying that, he smiled, as if he had said something that had nothing to do with him.

Lin Ci's hand froze in mid-air, the golden needle lingering in the air.

She sensed that he had many unavoidable circumstances, and now, looking back on his phrase "out of touch with reality," it seemed a bit like someone who was talking without understanding the situation.

Lin Ci gently placed the gold needles back into the needle pouch, pursed her lips, and said in a low voice, "I was a bit too harsh with my words just now."

"Which sentence?" Pei Jinxuan turned to look at her.

“The phrase ‘untouched by worldly affairs’.” Lin Ci lowered her eyes, poured some more medicinal wine into her hands, and gently rubbed it. As the wine warmed, her face stopped burning.

"I thought you were born into a privileged family and didn't understand the hardships of life, but I didn't know that your suffering is all tied to the blood of your family."

"Being born into an imperial family, the life of luxury is real, but so is the fact that I have no control over my own destiny. My second brother is intelligent; even Father praised him, saying he would surely become a pillar of the state. But this pillar has fallen in my hands. I have already lost one brother; I don't want to lose another. I am determined to eliminate the Prince of Liang."

Pei Jinxuan narrowed his eyes, his gaze darkening.

Lust dies, anger ignites.

Lin Ci didn't speak, but simply picked up the gold needles again and felt around for the acupoints on his body, inserting them one by one, steadily. His body was no longer as hot as before, so she didn't need to deliberately avoid those spots when she touched him.

She was a physician; how could she not know that he had fallen in love?

Lin Ci gently twirled the needle tip with his fingertip.

His body became hot again.

Pei Jinxuan suddenly reached out and gently gripped her wrist...