"Sorry, but this blood is poisoned."

"What, what!"

Upon hearing Xu Fan's words, Xia Bodang's hand froze instantly in midair!

The taste of blood in his mouth suddenly became acutely sensitive, and he rushed to the side, desperately gagging himself with his hand.

As Xu Fan watched Xia Bodang dry heaving on the side, he helplessly shrugged his shoulders and said, "Well, I'm just a country quack and can't neutralize this poison directly, so I had no choice but to force it out."

"Hmm, as far as I know, after the poison of the Yuanyin Scatter is mixed with virgin blood, the onset of the poison speeds up—death by poisoning occurs within about five minutes."

After briefly explaining, Xu Fan couldn't help but sigh, muttering to himself, "I didn't expect that my casual sprinkle would actually take a life..."

"You brat! I'm going to kill you!"

Hearing about his current predicament, Xia Bodang, while still clutching his throat, was ready to fight Xu Fan to the death.

But thinking of how little time he had left, he cursed and rushed towards the Divine Doctor.

"Antidote, quick, Divine Doctor, give me the antidote!"

He begged and cursed as he seized the antidote from the Divine Doctor, and hastily administered it to himself.

"Huuh..."

After taking the antidote and estimating that the poison shouldn't harm him now, Xia Bodang immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

"Dammit, son of a bitch..."

Now remembering Xu Fan splashing blood on his face, Xia Bodang, cursing under his breath, was determined to settle the score with Xu Fan!

"Um, I'm saying, aren't you curious where he got that antidote from?"

Seeing that Yi Qiu and Zhao Yunfeng were still stunned, Xu Fan rolled his eyes and had to speak up to remind them.

With that reminder, the two finally understood no matter how foolish they were.

The antidote had been prepared early, and this incident was clearly related to Xia Bodang!

Zhao Yunfeng hummed unhappily, feeling embarrassed that he needed Xu Fan's help to solve the case...

"Mr. Xia, please assist us in the investigation."

But he had no other choice at this point, and had to take Xia Bodang away with Yi Qiu and the others.

Soon, everyone dispersed, leaving only Xia Yanyu and her mother.

Xia's mother was very grateful to Xu Fan for saving her daughter Xia Xiaodie tonight and walked directly to Xu Fan, smiling, "Your name is Xu Fan, right? Thank you for saving my daughter this time."

Xia's mother looked quite similar to Xia Xiaodie with a motherly charm, and Xu Fan nearly slipped and called her mother-in-law.

"Heh heh, you flatter me, I just did what I should do, after all..."

"Cough cough."

Before Xu Fan could finish, Xia Yanyu sent him a warning glance.

It wasn't that he was afraid of this Ice Queen, but with that look from her, Xu Fan lost interest in being glib.

"Miss Xia, just don't forget to raise my salary when we go back, I'm off to bed."

With dwindling interest, Xu Fan casually waved his hand and left on his own.

Xia Yanyu watched Xu Fan's retreating figure until long after he had gone, then she came back to her senses.

It seemed she remembered Xu Fan speaking of a marriage arrangement, and she looked towards her mother.

"Mom, I have something I want to ask you."

"When Grandfather was alive, did he ever arrange a marriage for Xiaodie?"

Xia's mother looked at Xia Yanyu with a puzzled expression, then fell into deep thought.

After a long while, Xia's mother shook her head and said, "I don't remember clearly, but I don't think so..."

"However, your father mentioned before he passed away that your grandfather and some highly skilled individual had made a certain agreement, it's been many years, and I don't really remember the details."

It seemed that the mention of Xia Hengzhou's disappearance flashed a hint of sorrow in Mother Xia's eyes. She wiped her eyes and asked, "Yanyu, why did you suddenly bring that up?"

"It's nothing, Mom. It's getting late, let me take you back to your room to rest."

Xia Yanyu shook her head with a bitter smile, not offering her mother much of an explanation.

As she helped her mother towards the bedroom, she couldn't help but be somewhat distracted.

If what Xu Fan said about the marriage is true, then what should I, how should I decide...

...

After returning to his own dormitory, Xu Fan quickly washed up and then prepared to go to sleep.

A lot had happened that night, and dealing with it all had left him quite tired. Now, as he lay in bed, he was on the verge of falling asleep.

Knock, knock, knock.

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door, and Xu Fan opened his eyes in confusion. Who could it be this late, almost two in the morning?

"Who is it?"

"It's me, Xia Yanyu."

Outside the room, Xia Yanyu's voice came through, and Xu Fan let out a breath, immediately jumping out of bed.

Her coming to him at this hour probably meant that there had already been a result from Xia Bodang, and she wanted to inform him.

He opened the door to see Xia Yanyu standing at the entrance.

She was wearing only a thin nightgown, perhaps for fear of exposing too much, draped with an overcoat on her upper body, but even so, it was hard to conceal her enticing figure.

Seeing the expanse of smooth, white skin at Xia Yanyu's neck, Xu Fan felt his breathing grow a bit heavier.

Although he had said before that he wasn't interested in this "old virgin," Xia Yanyu was cold, but still a great beauty.

And he, as a bona fide man's man, couldn't help but react.

"Heh heh, should I take this as you trying to tempt me?"

He laughed heartily and then started to tease the beauty before him.

But to his surprise, Xia Yanyu's face turned stern as she looked at Xu Fan coldly and said, "Forget it, I'll come find you tomorrow."

"Hey, it's just a joke, what's the big deal..."

Xia Yanyu was quick to take offense and turned to leave. Xu Fan pursed his lips and hurriedly called her back.

After inviting Xia Yanyu into the room, Xu Fan sat on the bed and asked, "What did they find out?"

Xia Yanyu sighed and explained, "The poisoning, it was indeed premeditated by Xia Bodang."

"He spent a lot of money, and with threats, made the villa's sous-chef poison Little Die's food, planning to use it as a leverage to pressure me to step down."

Xu Fan nodded and asked, "What about Bingdilian? Does he know anything?"

Xia Yanyu shook her head and said, "He didn't admit it, even when Zhao Yunfeng threatened to use torture."

"Moreover, I feel that Bingdilian is probably unrelated."

"Hmm, it must be someone else."

Xu Fan nodded and said, "Even tigers don't eat their own offspring. Xia Bodang this time, probably just wanted to threaten you and wasn't really planning to harm Little Die."

When Xu Fan was diagnosing Little Die, he had already guessed as much.

If Xia Bodang really wanted to take Little Die's life, he could have instructed the chef to use a larger dose of the poison.

"Also, I've already spoken with Yi Qiu. From now on, he won't deliberately make things difficult for you."

Xu Fan was taken aback by Xia Yanyu's words. He truly hadn't expected that Xia Yanyu would be so considerate to think of these things as well.

"Alright, that's all I wanted to say. If there's nothing else, I'll go ahead and leave."

As Xia Yanyu turned to leave and was about to step out of the room, Xu Fan, without quite knowing why, felt that she had come tonight for more than just these matters.

"Wait, Xia Yanyu, is there something else you want to say?"

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