279: Chapter 279 A woman with high intelligence, even crying is a weapon.

Xu Zhixia turned her head and stared at him. "I am just a weak woman with no power to truss a chicken, yet I followed you deep into the remote mountains and accompanied you to this desolate wilderness. You are an enhanced human with a knife and a Superpower, yet you don't even dare to take a pill I handed over."

"If I were you... let alone a single pill, even if you handed me a pound of it, I would dare to cram it into my mouth."

She paused, her tone turning faint again. "But come to think of it, with your advanced stage of persecutory delusion, it's only human nature for you to guard against me."

Lin Fan raised his head and glanced at her.

The look in Xu Zhixia's eyes changed, and her tone changed as well. "Lin Fan, do I look that much like a bad person?"

She raised her hand to wipe her face, her voice somewhat hoarse. "Qingxue suspects me and thinks I harbor malicious intentions to harm you. Her hormones fluctuate greatly during pregnancy and she lacks a sense of security. I can understand that."

"Even you?"

"You've come to suspect me too?"

"What on earth did I do wrong to make you guard against me like a thief?"

Lin Fan fell silent.

Xu Zhixia raised her head, her eye sockets already flushed red.

"In civilized society, my parents treated me as a bargaining chip and desperately sent me to the Yang Family."

"Stranded on this broken island, I still have to risk my life to prove that I am not a bad person."

"Clearly I don't have an antisocial face, why does everyone feel like I have ulterior motives?"

"My parents treat me as a tool, Qingxue treats me as an imaginary enemy, and now even you think that you'll be poisoned by me..."

Speaking to the end, her voice suddenly broke off.

Tears fell down without warning.

Lin Fan's hand holding the water bottle froze in mid-air.

Xu Zhixia usually behaved too calmly and professionally—so calmly that people forgot she was also a person of flesh and blood.

Just because she was a doctor who could wield a scalpel didn't mean there were no grievances in her heart.

Just because she could stitch up flesh wounds didn't mean there were no cracks in her heart.

However, the string of reason in Lin Fan's mind remained tightly strung.

These tears were half-true and half-false.

The grievance was real, but using it to break through his psychological defense line was also real.

For a high-IQ woman, even crying was a weapon.

Lin Fan frowned. "Dr. Xu, I am not targeting you."

"Then who are you targeting?" Xu Zhixia wiped her face indiscriminately, her emotions switching freely.

She raised her damp eyes to look at him, the corners of her eyes tinted with an endearing red. "Are you targeting this island? Targeting Wang Laoliu? Or targeting that hopeless suspicion of your own?"

Lin Fan was choked up for a moment.

Xu Zhixia took half a step forward.

Lin Fan subconsciously raised his hand. "Stop."

Xu Zhixia paused her steps and suddenly burst into laughter through her tears, her smile carrying a hint of self-mockery. "Look, now that I am a little closer to you, you're still afraid that I'll eat you."

Lin Fan fell silent for two seconds. If he didn't guard against it, she would use the beauty trap again, and he really couldn't take it.

Yet when he saw Xu Zhixia's expression, he ultimately didn't have the heart.

The system didn't sound an alarm, the medicine was fine, shouldn't this injured little beauty be comforted?

"Fine."

Xu Zhixia stood in place without moving.

Lin Fan reached out to her, palm facing upward. "Give me another one."

Xu Zhixia was stunned. "What?"

"The medicine."

"Didn't you say I don't trust you?"

"Then let me prove it. As long as you're willing, I can eat a whole bottle?"

Xu Zhixia looked at his hand and didn't take out the medicine immediately.

"Are you sure?"

"Stop talking nonsense."

Xu Zhixia lowered her head and unscrewed the medicine bottle.

This time she didn't throw a temper tantrum again, pouring out a white pill from inside and placing it in Lin Fan's palm.

Lin Fan tossed the pill into his mouth and picked up half a bottle of water to wash it down.

Gulp.

The pill slid down his throat.

Xu Zhixia watched him finish swallowing before taking the medicine bottle back.

"Satisfied now?" Lin Fan put the bottle back into the back basket.

"Don't put on that wronged little wife look, I'm just living a bit cautiously."

Xu Zhixia snorted. "Cautious to the point that when someone treats you well, you don't appreciate it?"

Xu Zhixia turned around and walked to the stream, pulling her damp hair backward.

"Hurry up and fetch the water. Qingxue is still waiting in the cave for those sour fruits of yours."

Lin Fan nodded, considering this matter over.

He continued to squat down to fill the bottles.

After filling three or four bottles, he suddenly felt the back of his neck growing a bit warm.

The heat surged upward from his stomach, traveling all the way up his chest to his throat.

Lin Fan's motion of screwing on the bottle cap slowed by half a beat.

Xu Zhixia was washing her hands downstream without turning back.

"What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing."

Lin Fan screwed the bottle cap tight and put it into the back basket.

He pressed the fourth bottle into the water.

The stream water was very cool.

But when his fingers touched the water, the coolness only lingered for a split second before it was immediately suppressed by the heat inside his body.

Lin Fan frowned. This wasn't right.

He immediately turned his face back.

"Xu Zhixia."

"Hmm?"

"That medicine of yours, is it really for clearing heat?"

Xu Zhixia turned back to look at him.

"That's right."

"It's just for reducing internal heat."

Xu Zhixia brushed away a strand of damp hair that had fallen across her forehead with a casual gesture. "What else did you think it was?"

Lin Fan stared at her.

That heat in his stomach didn't subside; instead, it seemed to be catalyzed by something, beginning to spread through his blood vessels to all his limbs and bones.

Every pore of his body was radiating a scorching temperature.

He wanted to push down the woman in front of him.

Lin Fan shook his head. The heat in his mind kept surging upward in waves, and his vision even began to experience slight distortion.

Xu Zhixia's voice was very close, piercing into his ears alongside the sound of water.

Xu Zhixia glanced back. "Oh, Lin Fan... Why... why is your face so red?"

"It seems I've seen these symptoms of yours before. Do you feel right now like all the blood in your whole body is about to burn up?"

"Yeah!" A muffled grunt escaped Lin Fan's throat.

"I know."

"The medicine Yang Ningcong took is different from ordinary people's; its medicinal properties are very domineering."

"It doesn't help you slowly vent your internal heat; instead, it draws out all the fire in your body all at once, and then thoroughly resolves it."

As she spoke, she stretched out two ice-cold fingers, gently resting them on the artery at the side of his neck.

The coolness of her fingertips formed a stark contrast with the scorching touch of his skin.

"Here, it's beating very fast."

That bit of coolness not only failed to alleviate the agitation and heat, but instead acted like a drop of cold water splashed into boiling oil.

Lin Fan abruptly stood up, his body swaying slightly. He wanted to submerge his entire body into the icy stream water.

At this moment, a hand pressed down on his shoulder. The force wasn't big, but it kept him from moving forward again.

"Don't move around."

Xu Zhixia's voice was right behind his ear. "Do you want to use cold water to dissipate the heat?"

She shook her head and walked around to stand in front of him.

"That will only trap all this heat inside your body, and by then it will burn up your meridians from within."

Her hand slid down from his shoulder, tracing his arm until her fingertips finally landed on the inner side of his wrist, her thumb gently pressing against the place where his pulse was beating.

"Xu..."

Xu Zhixia placed her upright finger against Lin Fan's lips, while her other palm rubbed his lower back with moderate firmness, as if helping him relax his tense muscles.

"I'll help you channel it, maybe it can go a bit faster..."