Chapter 9: Huo Jingzhao Stealthily Changes the Prescription

Seeing his life had been spared, the Old Doctor let out a huge sigh of relief and quickly knelt properly. “M-My Lord! Your honored wife, he… he’s not sick!”

He had thought that saying this would make the man quickly leave. To his surprise, the Ghost-Faced Man abruptly stood up upon hearing this. His voice turned exceptionally cold and sharp. “Not sick…?”

The man was tall and lean, not bulky, but as he stood still, the Black Armor on his shoulders, chest, and arms shifted with his breathing. In this dark, stormy night, he appeared especially broad and imposing.

“No illness—truly, none—!” Watching the dark shadow that seemed to fill half the medicine hall, the Old Doctor waved his hands repeatedly, so frightened he kept swallowing his saliva.

Huo Jingzhao frowned in thought for a moment. Then, as if struck by lightning, he said in a raspy voice, “No illness… Could it be he’s pregnant with my seed…?!”

The words were out, and he already had the impulse to burst out the door, rush straight to the Pei Manor, grab that person, and examine him thoroughly.

“No, no, no…! It’s even less that—!” Hearing him about to cuckold himself, the Old Doctor shook his head like a rattle drum in denial.

Sweating profusely, he scrambled up from the floor and cupped his hands towards Huo Jingzhao. “Judging from your honored wife’s pulse, he is pure in heart and few in desires, tranquil in thought… He should not have… engaged in marital relations for a very long time.”

As he spoke, the Old Doctor lifted his eyelids slightly, thinking to himself: The Ghost-Faced Man looks quite robust, his voice deep and husky, every move full of masculine energy. He doesn’t seem like the type who is… “incapable,” right?

Why then let his wife sleep alone?

Huo Jingzhao ignored his speculation. Instead, in a greatly improved mood, he flicked his robe and sat down, urging, “Continue.”

“…Yes.” The Old Doctor had no choice but to steel himself and go on. “Your honored wife sought this old man’s diagnosis only because he was frightened and couldn’t sleep. He wanted me to write some medicine for health maintenance. Moreover, he personally told this old man… he does not wish to… conceive again.”

He gritted his teeth on the last two words, speaking them very softly, but they still provoked a fierce killing intent from the Ghost-Faced Man.

“S-so… this old man prescribed him medicine to nourish blood and calm the mind, but which is unfavorable for conception… Aaah! My Lord, spare me!”

“Not up to him.”

Before he could even finish, Huo Jingzhao’s figure moved like a swift gale and lightning, standing firmly before the Old Doctor. He lifted him into the air with his bare hands. The fierce, bizarre Palm Wind was about to descend upon his crown.

“Old fool, I give you two paths. First: wait for someone to collect your corpse tomorrow. Second: rewrite that Prescription.”

“I’ll rewrite it right away—! Right away!” The Old Doctor, his face turning purple-red, immediately clasped his hands together and begged.

“Very good.” Huo Jingzhao slowly released his grip. With a faint, cold laugh, he called towards the door, “Sang, bring the item in.”

The Old Doctor hadn’t even had time to blink before another man in dark purple martial attire descended from the sky, using his Internal Energy to push a huge chest before his eyes.

“Th-this is…?” The Old Doctor trembled with shock and doubt as he touched the treasure chest. But Huo Jingzhao’s next words nearly made him faint from sheer excitement.

“Nothing much. Just ten thousand taels of gold.”

The Old Doctor understood immediately. Not daring to be the slightest bit negligent, he picked up his brush at once and wrote a new Prescription, presenting it before Huo Jingzhao’s eyes. “With these few medicinal ingredients, your honored wife will not resist marital matters too strongly. Taken continuously over days, he may even… develop desires for pleasure. However…”

“However what?” Huo Jingzhao propped his head up lazily, his throat beneath the hard mask faintly trembling.

The Old Doctor trembled with fear as he replied, “However, your honored wife’s body is pampered and suffers from blood deficiency. To conceive suddenly… he might very well be injured.”

The words spoken, the man sitting arrogantly in the chair fell silent.

Seeing him as motionless as a frozen sculpture of ice, the Old Doctor was terrified out of his wits. Just as he was about to beg forgiveness for his loose tongue, Huo Jingzhao suddenly bent down. He lifted a corner of his mask towards the Old Doctor, revealing a row of cold white teeth, his smile contemptuous and demonically sinister:

“I want to injure him. Harm him until he’s completely covered in wounds, until he can absolutely never leave me. Only then will I be satisfied.”

Wh-what… what kind of twisted person is this?! Staring at the man’s sharply defined, coldly menacing jaw, the Old Doctor didn’t even dare to breathe heavily.

“Sang, let’s go.”

“Yes.”

Huo Jingzhao withdrew the malevolent aura around him. His figure turned and swiftly departed the medicine hall.

At midnight, thunder rumbled and lightning flashed, but the long-overdue torrential rain still hadn’t fallen. Thus, the air was filled with an irritating, stuffy heat.

Tonight, after taking his medicine, Pei Lianyi had tried to sleep. Initially, he felt drowsy, but before he could sleep soundly for long, the heat broke him out in a thin sweat.

His disgust for sweat ultimately overcame his body’s exhaustion. Thinking it was too late to bother with a full bath and change of clothes, Pei Lianyi got up, took a handkerchief, and began wiping himself down.

His nature was extremely conservative. Even with no one else around, he refused to take off his sleepwear while wiping. Instead, he carefully pulled his clothes open just a small gap, slipping the hand holding the cloth inside to wipe.

Unbeknownst to him, this half-concealed, half-revealed appearance only served to further provoke the emotions of the voyeur lurking nearby.

After wiping for a while, Pei Lianyi walked over to the desk and suddenly noticed that the area around the Prescription was somewhat messy.

Just then, a violent gust of wind swept through from outside. He simply assumed the wind had blown things about and thought nothing more of it.

Pei Lianyi had just picked up a paperweight to press down the papers when a deep male voice suddenly echoed in the room:

“Master Pei… has a very nice figure…”

The paperweight clattered from his slender hand. With a slap sound, Pei Lianyi whirled around in shock, meeting the dark, cold eyeholes of the Ghost Mask.

The man was pacing the room with his hands behind his back, as leisurely and uninhibited as if he were in his own home.

“You—! W-when did you get in here…?!”

Thinking of how long the man might have been watching from the corner, Pei Lianyi sucked in a breath of cold air. His heart leaped into his throat.

His mind went blank. His body reacted first.

“No… Someone—! Ah!! Mm…! Mmph…!” He panicked, stepping back, about to call out, when the surrounding lanterns abruptly went dark. The Ghost-Faced Man, without another word, rushed forward and firmly covered his mouth.

The man seemed to be in a very good mood tonight. He was even humming a tune as he silenced him.

Pei Lianyi didn’t know what song he was humming. He only felt that every hair on his body, every pore, followed the Ghost-Faced Man’s humming into monstrous, surging waves.

“Shh… don’t scream. Tonight, I don’t intend to toy with you. Surely you wouldn’t want others to see you lying in my arms like this.” Huo Jingzhao leaned close to his face and whispered, his other hand still held behind his back.

“The moment you scream, they will wake up.”

Hearing his words, a wave of despair washed over Pei Lianyi.

The man had locked him tightly within his arms using just one hand. He truly couldn’t imagine anyone in the manor who could subdue this bizarre madman.

After weighing his options over and over, he grabbed the man’s arm with trembling hands and demanded, “Who exactly are you? I hold no grudge against you! Why… why do you treat me this way?!”

As he spoke, thinking of the physical discomfort since the fright, the humiliation of seeking a doctor alone, Pei Lianyi closed his eyes. His voice quavered as he said:

“I despise you. You… you disgust me.”

The storm was about to break. Huo Jingzhao had originally intended to leave after switching the Prescription tonight. But just as he was about to depart, he heard the person in the bed murmur hoarsely:

Ziying… don’t blame Daddy…

Thinking of his son even in dreams… truly a wonderful father.

Watching the innocent, delicate appearance Pei Lianyi only wore in sleep, he found he could no longer move his legs.

Now, looking down at the disgust and fear on his face, Huo Jingzhao almost couldn’t control his own ragged breaths. “Is that so? Yet I like you very much. I think of you every night.”

Both shocked and furious, Pei Lianyi opened his mouth to bite him.

Sensing his intent, Huo Jingzhao immediately pulled his hand back.

“Trying to leave a mark on me again? Master Pei is far too impatient.” He let out a cold snort.

“Don’t… don’t come any closer.”

Seeing Pei Lianyi try to flee to the door and call for help, the Ghost-Faced Man’s face instantly turned icy. He abruptly pinned Pei Lianyi’s hand against the door panel.

“Ah…! Ugh!” Pei Lianyi had a bruise on the back of his hand from bumping it in the boat earlier that day. Having it pressed like this made the pain so intense his vision blurred.

Seeing his face full of agony, the Ghost-Faced Man seemed to pause for a beat. Then, in a rough voice:

“Your hand is hurt. How did that happen?” He asked, knowing full well the answer.

“It’s none of your business.” Pei Lianyi averted his gaze in revulsion, refusing to look at him.

“Or would you prefer I drag you out to the courtyard to discuss it?”

“Ugh…!” Afraid of being discovered by the servants, Pei Lianyi bit his lip and answered quietly, “I bumped it on a boat.”

Huo Jingzhao stared at him for a moment, then suddenly let out a scoff. “One bump and it swells up like this.”

Without waiting for Pei Lianyi’s reaction, he spat out two words flatly:

“So delicate.”

His mouth called him delicate, yet his large hand unconsciously rubbed at the reddened back of Pei Lianyi’s hand.

“Who did you go on the boat with?” he asked again.

This cold interrogation made Pei Lianyi, who had wanted to flee moments before, freeze.

He kept his mouth shut, refusing to answer. The Ghost-Faced Man suddenly grew agitated. “I never imagined the always dignified and self-restrained Master Pei would have a secret rendezvous on a boat with some wild man!”

Pei Lianyi leaned against the door, a flush rising on his pale face. “He… he is Ziying’s future husband.”

The Ghost-Faced Man abruptly stopped his actions. His voice dropped low as he asked:

“And what feelings do you have for him?”

Pei Lianyi looked up in confusion. For some reason, he could actually sense a hint of nervousness in this phantom-like, unbridled madman.

Thinking of Huo Jingzhao’s warm, strong embrace, he shook his head in utter turmoil.

“I… I don’t know. I don’t know.”

Watching his pitch-black hair sway in his confusion, Huo Jingzhao’s heart pounded like a startled deer. He fiercely grabbed Pei Lianyi’s hand and spoke with cold venom:

“From now on, you are forbidden from seeing any other men! If I ever find out, I’ll…”

“You’ll what?” The pain suddenly sparked Pei Lianyi’s temper. He shot back angrily.

“I’ll break your legs.”

A boom of thunder outside the window illuminated the Ghost-Faced Man’s tall, deep silhouette. The rain finally poured down in torrents. Bean-sized droplets hammered against the door, making Pei Lianyi’s heart tremble violently. A few strange, foreign sensations even rose within him.

Raised in luxury since childhood, even if his pinky finger was scratched by a flower thorn, servants would wail with concern and scramble to fetch medicine and bandages for him.

No one… no one had ever dared to be so insolent before him.

Anyone who dared touch a single finger of Master Pei would likely end up dead in the street that very day.

But the Pei Lianyi right now knew… this mysterious and powerful man was completely serious.