82: Allow me to know my home password

Silence returned to the room once again.

But this time, that suffocating awkwardness seemed to have faded significantly, leaving only a subtle ripple slowly spreading through the air.

"Thank you so much for today," Shen Zhixia thanked him sincerely.

For the first time, her gaze lacked that coldness that kept people at a distance, and the dead silence she had when facing her terminal illness had also faded, replaced by pure and genuine gratitude.

"If it weren't for you, I might have really..."

She didn't finish.

But the word "death" hung silently in the air between them—heavy, yet no longer so terrifying because it had been overcome.

Lin Chao waved his hand. "It's also because you were lucky."

"I just happened to get home from work and heard a noise from your side—a loud bang. I thought it was an earthquake."

"Speaking of which, it really was a coincidence."

He seemed to think of something, a smile curling at the corners of his mouth that even he didn't notice.

"You live right above me."

"Huh?"

A faint smile also involuntarily appeared on Shen Zhixia's face.

"I also feel... my luck today was particularly good."

Her voice carried a dreamlike murmur, and her eyes were a bit unfocused, as if she were remembering something.

"At that time, I was lying on the ground, my consciousness getting blurrier and blurrier..."

"The only thought in my head was whether you were back yet."

"Whether... you really lived downstairs from me."

"To be honest, I didn't think at all about whether you could actually get through my door."

Lin Chao clicked his tongue. "That's why! I told you earlier, you should hurry up and change your door lock password!"

"It's too dangerous!"

"What if it wasn't me who came in today, but some bad person with ill intentions?"

"Using your birthday as a password, anyone could just walk into your house!"

Shen Zhixia smiled and shook her head. "Others wouldn't know my birthday."

"Even people inside Kangyang Group don't know where I live."

She paused, her eyes shimmering. In those previously dead eyes, the light seemed to reflect, creating tiny glimmers of stars.

"As for you..."

"If you know, you know."

Her voice was as light as a feather, but it landed squarely on Lin Chao's heart.

"Maybe... next time, I'll need you to save my life again?"

"..."

Lin Chao was instantly speechless.

He quickly glanced at the time on his phone.

"Time's up."

"I'm going to start removing the needles."

He walked to the bedside and leaned over once more.

A faint fragrance, clearer than before, drifted into his nose almost imperceptibly.

It wasn't the scent of perfume.

It was the clean, refreshing scent remaining on the skin after a bath.

Lin Chao's movements paused almost imperceptibly.

He tried his best to keep his gaze within an absolutely safe and professional range.

Looking only at the acupuncture points.

Looking only at those Silver Needles still vibrating slightly between his fingers.

Absolutely not looking down or to the side, not even by a fraction of an inch.

Keep your eyes straight!

See no evil!

He frantically repeated these words in his mind.

But... some images don't cease to exist just because you don't look at them.

Shen Zhixia's upper body was completely bare.

The light in the room seemed to cast a soft halo over her skin, hazy and alluring.

That delicate skin was so white it was almost transparent, to the point where the pale blue veins beneath could be seen.

Those beautiful collarbones were like two butterflies ready to take flight, exquisitely startling.

And then there was... Lin Chao's Adam's apple bobbed uncontrollably as he let out a slight swallowing sound.

Damn it!

He cursed fiercely in his heart.

When he was inserting the needles earlier, the situation was urgent—a matter of life and death.

His mind was only on meridians, acupuncture points, and how to pull her back from the brink of death as quickly as possible.

At that time, in his eyes, Shen Zhixia wasn't a woman.

She was just a patient in need of treatment, composed of bones, muscles, and meridians.

Therefore, he could be single-minded, achieving absolute calmness and professionalism.

But now... the crisis was over, and she was alive.

Thus, the patient turned back into a woman.

A... vivid, fragrant, and extremely charming woman.

For a young, hot-blooded man, this was undoubtedly a huge and cruel test.

"I'm going to start."

He heard his own voice, which sounded somewhat dry and raspy.

He reached out, his two fingers precisely pinching the Silver Needle on her Jianjing Point.

His fingertips inevitably touched a patch of warm, startlingly smooth skin.

Shen Zhixia's body seemed to tremble slightly at this sudden touch.

Lin Chao's heart also skipped a heavy beat.

Almost as a reflex, he twisted the end of the needle and quickly pulled it out.

The movement was clean and agile, done in one go, so fast it was as if he were escaping.

Then, the next one.

His movements grew faster and more mechanical, as if only this could hide the turbulent emotions within.

The last Silver Needle was pulled out from her Zhongting Point at the center of her chest.

Lin Chao let out a long, heavy sigh of relief.

He straightened up abruptly and instinctively took a large step back, instantly widening the distance between them as if the bed were some kind of ferocious beast.

He didn't even dare to look at her. "It's done."

He kept his head down, flusteredly putting the Silver Needles back into the pouch one by one while speaking in a muffled voice.

"They've... all been removed."

Shen Zhixia slowly opened her eyes.

In those eyes that were originally as dead as an ancient well, two small flames seemed to have been lit, reflecting the light above and shining startlingly bright.

An unusual flush began at her pale cheeks and quickly spread to her earlobes, then down her slender neck.

Soon, her snow-white chest, which had been covered in Silver Needles just a moment ago, and her slender arms were all tinged with a faint, alluring pink.

Like a piece of fine warm jade that had been heated up.

Lin Chao's gaze only inadvertently swept past, and he felt his throat begin to go dry again.

He instinctively looked away, pretending to be engrossed in organizing his needle pouch, carefully wiping each Silver Needle and putting it back in its place.

Shen Zhixia also noticed her own loss of composure.

She suddenly grabbed the thin quilt nearby and, somewhat disheveledly, wrapped her bare upper body tightly, revealing only a pair of clear yet somewhat flustered eyes.

Neither of them spoke.

One was looking down, fiddling with the needle pouch, while the other was looking sideways at the night scene outside the window.

The atmosphere was a hundred times more awkward than when he was administering the needles earlier.

Lin Chao felt that if this continued, the air in the room would be sucked dry.

He cleared his throat and decided to find a topic to break the suffocating silence.