282: Chapter 282 Life is short, so seize the day!

However, he wasn't a completely oblivious straight man. "I choose you, of course."

"Really?"

Xu Zhixia smiled with a hint of mischief.

She turned around, walked over to a flat rock by the bank, and sat down. Her legs were crossed, her rolled-up trouser cuffs still hadn't been let down, and her damp calves shimmered in the sunlight.

Lin Fan had originally planned to pack up his things and leave.

The sour fruits had been picked, the water bottles filled, and the medicine taken—even though taking it had resulted in a major medical accident.

Everything that needed to be done was finished, and Su Qingxue and the others were still waiting in the cave.

But just as he stood up, Xu Zhixia called out to him, "Lin Fan."

"What is it?"

She got off the rock, walked toward him, and stopped less than half a meter in front of him.

"Your performance just now left me very unsatisfied."

Lin Fan was slightly stunned: "Unsatisfied with what?"

"Operation, duration, and drive."

Lin Fan: "……"

Xu Zhixia extended a finger and tapped him on the chest.

"From beginning to end, all the initiative was in my hands."

"I was the one who loosened the buttons, I was the one who tripped, I was the one who pressed against you, and I was even the one who slipped you the medicine."

Her finger traced a circle on his chest.

"And you?"

"Aside from passively taking it and occasionally talking back, what else did you do?"

Lin Fan's temples twitched twice.

Xu Zhixia continued twisting the knife, "Do you think that since I set up the trap anyway, you count as the victim?"

"And that way, your psychological burden when going back to face Su Qingxue can be a little lighter?"

Lin Fan didn't make a sound.

"Therefore." Xu Zhixia curved the corners of her lips, "I am unsatisfied."

"Even if you're unsatisfied—"

Before he could finish his sentence.

Xu Zhixia pressed both hands onto his shoulders, throwing her entire center of gravity against him.

Lin Fan took half a step back, his back hitting the tree trunk.

"Xu Zhixia!"

"Hm?"

"You..."

"What about me?"

She stood on tiptoe, her breath brushing against his earlobe.

"This time, you have to take the initiative."

"Just now—"

"Just now doesn't count." Xu Zhixia directly interrupted, "That was a reaction to the medicine, not you."

"This time I want you to be sober."

"Do it yourself."

Lin Fan stared into her eyes.

The last string in his mind stayed taut for three seconds.

After three seconds, he figured out one thing: life is short, enjoy it while you can.

He grabbed Xu Zhixia firmly by the lower back.

……

He didn't know how much time had passed.

Twenty minutes? Forty minutes? Lin Fan had already lost all ability to keep track of time.

The only thing he could be sure of was that this round of physical exertion was even more brutal than yesterday's life-or-death battle with Wang Laoliu.

His body, which had undergone Triple Enhancement, demonstrated a crushing, practical value at this moment.

Xu Zhixia truly lived up to being a doctor; every time he was about to burst out, she would interrupt him.

It was just like forcefully extending one's life by taking an elixir.

Before the enhancement, he would probably have lost all strength in his limbs by now, lying flat and waiting to be rescued.

Xu Zhixia leaned against the tree trunk, her chest heaving violently, her hair completely disheveled with a few blades of grass caught in the strands, and a faint flush spreading from her neck down to her collarbone.

She turned her head slightly to look at Lin Fan.

"Now."

"Hm?"

"Tell me."

Her trailing voice was still suppressing unrecovered gasps.

"Who is better-looking?"

Lin Fan opened his mouth, just about to speak, when a finger pressed against his lips.

"Think it through before you answer."

That finger slid down from his lips, the fingertip tracing down his chin and pressing against his Adam's apple.

"If you don't answer well—"

She tilted her head and smiled sweetly.

"Today, I'll make you, this ox, understand one thing."

"What it means when they say there is no such thing as a ploughed field that gets ruined, only oxen that get worked to death."

Lin Fan shuddered.

Not from the cold, but from fear.

He lowered his gaze to look at Xu Zhixia's current state. This woman had just gone through two rounds of tossing and turning, yet she was still smiling with such high spirits?

Was she even human, or was she a perpetual motion machine?

On the other hand, looking at himself.

His triple stamina hadn't bottomed out yet indeed, but after two consecutive rounds of high-intensity field labor, his cardiopulmonary function was already sounding frantic alarms.

If a third round really came...

He really wouldn't dare pat his chest in assurance.

Twenty-four years.

Lin Fan had never backed down from a fight, never backed down from moving bricks, and never backed down even when facing Wang Laoliu's muzzle.

But today.

Facing Xu Zhixia.

He backed down.

"You are better-looking."

The answer blurted out without hesitation.

Xu Zhixia narrowed her eyes: "Who do you like more?"

"You."

"What about chests? Whose is bigger?"

"Yours."

Three questions, three answers.

Smooth and flowing, accomplished in one go.

Lin Fan thought to himself, this wave was at least a full score.

However, Xu Zhixia looked at him and remained silent for two seconds.

"Lin Fan."

"Hm?"

"Those three answers you gave just now."

"Only the last one wasn't a lie."

The expression on Lin Fan's face cracked open a seam as Xu Zhixia gently patted his chest.

"Your heartbeat betrayed you."

"The first question was a standard compensatory lie. Your heart rate spiked."

"The second one was too; the frequency of your swallowing suddenly increased before answering."

"Only the third one—"

She lowered her head to glance at her own chest, then raised her head to look at him.

"That business about saying mine is big."

"You acknowledged it from the bottom of your heart, without a single hesitation, with incomparable sincerity."

"Your heart rate was steady as a rock."

"One hundred percent genuine, without a trace of falsehood."

Lin Fan froze in place.

What on earth was this?

A human lie detector? A living security scanner?

He had a suffocating feeling of being stripped right in the middle of the street.

"I didn't lie!" Lin Fan argued, "All three are true! You really are good-looking! And I really do—"

"Alright."

Xu Zhixia waved her hand, "I won't pursue it anymore."

She propped herself up from the tree trunk and bent down to pick up the scattered herbs on the ground.

Her movements were excessively calm, so composed as if nothing had happened just moments ago.

Lin Fan leaned against the tree, watching her back as she squatted down to pack up the things.

He unconsciously tilted his head slightly.

Then, he froze.

On the grass, the coat that had been padded beneath the two of them.

Right around the lower-middle part of the gray fabric.

A smudge of bright crimson.

Not big, just a small patch about the size of a copper coin.

It was somewhat blurred by sweat and mud stains, but that color was definitely not plant juice, not mud, and even less so fruit juice.

It was blood. Lin Fan stared at that smudge of red, not moving for three seconds.

Then he looked back at Xu Zhixia.

This woman, throughout the entire process, had used rhetoric as experienced as someone who had been at it for ten years.

The rhythm was as precise as if it had been rehearsed.

Afterwards, she could still interrogate him with an unblushing face about "whose chest is bigger."

Where was there any sign of... her being a first-timer?

But that crimson patch the size of a copper coin was right there.

Fabric doesn't act. Lin Fan suddenly recalled something.

Just a moment ago, there was a fleeting instant, so short that he almost overlooked it.

Xu Zhixia's entire body had stiffened for a moment.

Her ten fingernails had dug into the flesh of his back, with a strength that didn't seem like hers at all.

At the time, he thought it was a normal reaction.

Now, thinking back on that moment, that wasn't enjoyment.

It was sheer endurance.

Lin Fan opened his mouth, wanting to say something.

But Xu Zhixia had already stood up.

The herbs were wrapped up, tucked into her waist, and she turned to look at him.

"Let's go."

"If we don't go back now, Su Qingxue is going to blow a fuse."

She stepped forward, even kicking a small stone by the roadside.

Her movements were casual and her posture relaxed, as if everything was normal.

But Lin Fan's gaze was glued to her walking posture, unable to look away.

Her stride.

Was a chunk shorter than when she had come.

When her left leg stepped forward, there was an extremely slight stutter in her knee.

How was this any sequela of an "ankle sprain"?

Lin Fan looked at her back and spoke: ……