283: Chapter 283 This woman is a bit strange

"Xu Zhixia."

Xu Zhixia didn't stop walking, nor did she look back. "Hmm?"

"You... is it your first time?"

Xu Zhixia's footsteps came to a halt.

She turned her head, stray hairs clinging to her cheeks, as sunlight leaked through the gaps in the canopy, striking half of her face.

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Then, she smiled.

That smile was extremely faint, the corners of her mouth moving only a tiny arc, but paired with the slight red of her eye corners and her crumpled collar, it inexplicably made one's heart feel congested.

"Lin Fan."

"Hmm."

"You couldn't possibly not know that hospitals can perform this kind of repair surgery, right?"

"It's not expensive, just tens of thousands of yuan."

Lin Fan's face froze for half a second.

Repair surgery.

These four words spun around in his mind.

He indeed knew that nowadays medical aesthetic technology was so advanced, this kind of project wasn't considered a major engineering feat at all.

But...

Lin Fan didn't take up that thread.

When Xu Zhixia finished speaking, her chin lifted slightly, an action used to mask her guilty conscience.

Furthermore, her body's reaction during the first time just now didn't seem like an act.

Answering a question with something unrelated was an answer in itself.

What surprised Lin Fan was why, if it was her first time, she wouldn't just openly admit it?

Don't other women usually scramble to claim it's their first time?

This woman was somewhat peculiar.

The two walked back along the original path, neither speaking again.

For a long time, the sweltering heat in the woods gradually receded, the salty and fishy scent of the sea poured in from ahead, and the light grew brighter inch by inch.

The sea breeze blew over from ahead.

In the direction of the distant Karst Cave, a figure stood at the edge of the platform.

Song Ya rested one hand on her forehead to block the light, standing on tiptoe and looking out toward the woods.

Seeing Lin Fan's figure emerge from the tree line, her entire person visibly let out a sigh of relief.

Seeing that figure, Lin Fan likewise let out a sigh of relief.

As long as nothing happened to the Karst Cave, it was fine.

When the two climbed up to the Karst Cave platform, Song Ya trotted over with short steps.

"Lin Fan! Why did you guys take so long!"

"I was looking for some herbs to nourish Qi and blood with Xu Zhixia, so we were delayed."

"Oh oh..." Song Ya acknowledged.

Xu Zhixia behaved extremely naturally.

She took out the herbs she had just picked and sorted them on the platform.

Her movements were smooth and well-organized.

She seemed like a completely different person from the woman by the stream just now who could say "Move yourself."

Lin Fan glanced at her as he passed by, starting to doubt the number of personalities Xu Zhixia possessed.

As soon as Lin Fan reached the supplies area and wanted to take out the water, Liu Feifei's voice drifted over.

"Oh, you're back."

She leaned against the cave wall, toying with a piece of dry tree branch in her hand, peeling its bark for fun.

"You were gone so long, did you get lost?" She lifted her chin, her gaze bouncing back and forth between Lin Fan and Xu Zhixia, "Or... went to do something else?"

She pronounced the two words "something else" with particular emphasis, her tone rising at the end.

Song Ya didn't speak on the side, but her eyeballs swept across Lin Fan's face.

Deep inside the Karst Cave, Su Qingxue also looked over in this direction.

She didn't speak.

But her gaze pierced through the light inside the cave, landing on Lin Fan and lingering for a long time.

There was no questioning, no anger, and no deliberate avoidance.

Just looking at him, Su Qingxue had already accepted Lin Fan; this point was beyond doubt.

But accepting a man was one thing.

Sharing this man with another woman was quite another.

What was Su Qingxue's status?

The helm of Shengtang Group.

A woman worth hundreds of billions.

Growing up, she only ever discarded things; there was never anything she needed to fight others for.

Now she was being asked to share a man with Xu Zhixia.

What kind of international joke was this?

This wasn't called sharing; this was called a dimensional strike hitting her own head.

Lin Fan caught that momentary anomaly, but he chose not to step on this mine right now.

Explanation? With his eloquence, it would probably backfire; Su Qingxue was already sensitive during pregnancy, and her hormone levels were more unstable than a time bomb.

Liu Feifei was still chattering away over there.

"I say Dr. Xu, how come after going out for a stroll, your face is all flushed?"

"I heard that only after being nourished by a man will one's complexion change in a short period. I wonder if this saying is correct?"

"What do you mean by that?" Xu Zhixia stopped the action of sorting fruits in her hands, turned her head slightly, and looked at Liu Feifei.

"No special meaning." Liu Feifei smiled innocently, "Just curious."

"Curious." Xu Zhixia straightened her body and slowly walked toward Liu Feifei.

"Liu Feifei, I suggest you swallow that sentence back."

Liu Feifei raised her chin, "What I said is the truth..."

"Say one more word," Xu Zhixia interrupted her, "and tomorrow you won't be able to open your mouth."

As these words fell, the air in the cave grew a fraction colder.

Liu Feifei's lips moved, "Who are you trying to scare..."

"I'm not trying to scare you."

"If I want to make you lose your voice, I don't need to hit you or pinch you."

"Slightly adjust the dosage of a single herb, and your vocal cord mucosa will swell and close within seventy-two hours."

"It doesn't hurt or itch, you just won't be able to speak."

"By then, you won't even be able to make a sound when you cry."

Liu Feifei's face turned pale.

She turned her head to look at Lin Fan, hoping the de facto person in charge of this camp would speak up for her.

Lin Fan was stacking water bottles and didn't even raise his head.

Lin Fan had to consider Zhou Kai and didn't want to make things difficult for Liu Feifei, but Xu Zhixia didn't need to hold back.

She was a doctor.

This identity was more useful than any weapon on the Deserted Island.

Because everyone could get injured, and everyone could get sick.

Offending a doctor was no different from offending the King of Hell.

Liu Feifei swallowed a mouthful of saliva and forcefully swallowed back the words that were on the tip of her tongue.

She wasn't stupid.

She had personally experienced the probability of Xu Zhixia keeping her word.

Once that bowl of anti-inflammatory herbal soup was drunk last time, her throat immediately felt comfortable the next day. This kind of precise control over medicinal effects, used in reverse, was precise control over medicinal harm.

Liu Feifei shut her mouth.

The cave returned to silence.

The afternoon time passed very slowly.

Su Qingxue ate a few sour fruits in batches, and Xu Zhixia brewed some herbs for Su Qingxue. After drinking it, her complexion indeed improved a little.

Zhou Kai and Liu Feifei cooked, and everyone made do with a meal.

After the meal, before it was dark, everyone found their respective places to rest.

Xu Zhixia knew clearly that Su Qingxue couldn't stay in the cave for a long time.

If she stayed in such a confined space all the time, Su Qingxue would probably become depressed.

With Lin Fan's consent, she helped Su Qingxue walk around the beach.

Lin Fan squatted on the platform, watching the two women walking. If there were no snakes, no monsters, and no danger, and he cleared a few plots of land in the mountains to grow some vegetables, wouldn't this be an earthly paradise?

Song Ya squatted beside him for a while, watching him in a daze.

Then she spoke.

"Lin Fan."

"Hmm."

"Come out with me for a moment."