Chapter 21: Supreme Commander and the fatuous ruler

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In a flash, Lou Zigui had downed half the bowl of ginseng lily soup into his stomach. Now Ning Xiaoyao was satisfied. She quickly wiped his lips and said, "Do you feel better after eating something? When you're sick, you have to listen to others." So speaking, Ning Xiaoyao raised the bowl and polished off the other half herself.

"Fatuous ruler," the fearless Lou Zigui gritted his teeth and cursed Ning Xiaoyao again after knowing he'd been played for a fool.

An embarrassed Ning Xiaoyao awkwardly lowered her head.

Lou Zigui felt a warm sensation rise up from his stomach to his chest. Immediately afterwards, he felt his body turn hot and a certain place down there swell until it hurt. "What did you give me to eat?!" Lou Zigui grabbed Ning Xiaoyao's hand.

"Ah?" Ning Xiaoyao's lost her grip on the bowl as Lou Zigui grabbed her hand. The empty bowl clattered to the floor.

In the space of these two sentences, Lou Zigui's entire body felt like it'd been lit on fire. Even his eyes were burning red. Ning Xiaoyao was completely floored. This shouldn't happen! Wait, why did she feel like she was burning up?

Though Lou Zigui had been matched up with six potential marriages, the first three girls had been born from old, established families and either died from sickness or unnaturally violent deaths. Following that, his next three matches were from ordinary families so that the fourth son of the Lou family could at least have a concubine or two. But all of those girls had sickened and died before the wedding day as well. After the death of the sixth, no families beyond those wanting to sell their daughters for profit were willing to marry into the Lou family. Because the Lou family disdained those families with calculating schemes, and because none of the good families wanted to marry their daughters over, and also because the Lou father and brothers all died on the battlefield before their wives passed away in succession, this Supreme Commander of Anyuan County had never tasted the flavor of conjugal love between a man and woman.

Lou Zigui only felt that his body was caught in the midst of a roaring fire that was burning him alive. This wasn't much better than being sliced to death with a thousand cuts. Feeling hot and dry, Lou Zigui raised his hands to scratch at his own skin.

"Don't," Ning Xiaoyao hurried to press his hands down. No matter what happened, he couldn't flay himself alive.

Blood streamed out of Lou Zigui's nose.

In the middle of treating herself, Ning Xiaoyao hurried to treat Lou Zigui's "poison" as well. But the spread of the poison was too fast, so her legs collapsed beneath her before she fell on top of Lou Zigui. Pale green light flickered in her palms as Ning Xiaoyao put up a last-ditch effort.

It's that scent of grass and trees again, Lou Zigui thought as he held onto Ning Xiaoyao. More importantly, as far as Lou Zigui was concerned, he'd held onto the scent that had enchanted him before. He turned over and pressed Ning Xiaoyao beneath his body.

It's done for...

These were the last three words to appear in Ning Xiaoyao's mind before she lost all rational thought.

--

The beaded curtains hanging over the dragon bed changed from violent motion to silent stillness in the amount of time it took to drink half a cup of tea. Ning Xiaoyao listened to the sounds of Lou Zigui's heavy breathing and foolishly spoke a few words from her medical experience. "Don't let it weigh on your heart. It's easy to get excited the first time, but it'll last longer when you have more experience."

Lou Zigui's eyes were fixed on Ning Xiaoyao, his drug-ridden red eyes slowly fading back to black. Once the pressure upon him had been relieved, his sluggish expression turned into a mixture of alarm and anger. Ning Xiaoyao boxed herself in the ears. Was now the time to talk about how long he lasted?! In the apocalypse, any person who took a fancy to another could find a place for them to roll in the sheets together. Humans that existed in a world where death was imminent lived hedonist lifestyles and found joys where they could. Ning Xiaoyao hadn't found anyone who caught her eye during her 18 years there, but neither had she embraced any high moral principles before. She didn't think that sleeping together was a big deal. In any case, she didn't find the sight of Lou Zigui annoying either, and was more preoccupied with how to explain to him about her gender. After finding out she was female, would he just kill her directly?!

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