Chapter 67: So you have been taking this medicine since childhood?

“He’s already awake?”

Just then, Li Rui also came out of his own room. He still disliked the idea of Zhang Xiaolan being alone with another man, so his expression was somewhat unfriendly.

He had instructed Xiao Lian to come take care of Ling Xiao, but Zhang Xiaolan insisted on tending to him herself. This made Li Rui feel a twinge of jealousy—this was the first time he had seen her so concerned about another man.

“He woke up just now,” Zhang Xiaolan replied, turning back to him. Li Rui approached the bedside with his hands behind his back and cast Ling Xiao a scrutinizing glance.

“If you want to arrest me, just do it! Don’t make things difficult for Sister Lan.”

Ling Xiao, still wary of Li Rui, forced himself to sit up despite the lingering dizziness and heaviness in his body, trying to adopt a posture as if facing execution. But Zhang Xiaolan pressed him gently back onto the bed.

“Ling Xiao, let’s not talk about that for now. With your condition, how can you keep doing this ‘work’? Do they even treat you?”

Zhang Xiaolan knew Li Rui no longer had the same intense desire to take Ling Xiao in as before, so she quickly shifted the conversation to Ling Xiao’s illness. Besides, this was what truly worried her at the moment.

Li Rui, of course, understood her intentions, but he still disliked how close she was to Ling Xiao.

When he saw Zhang Xiaolan push Ling Xiao back to rest, a look of discontent crossed Li Rui’s face. He deliberately turned away, not looking at them as a silent protest.

“Heh! This isn’t an illness at all—it’s poison they use to control us, afraid we’ll betray them, so they resort to such methods.”

Ling Xiao gave a bitter laugh at Zhang Xiaolan’s question, then explained the cruel reason behind it with helpless resentment. This was the vicious means the organization used to keep their people in check.

“What! That’s inhuman. Tell me—how does it work? What about the antidote?” Zhang Xiaolan exclaimed, realizing at last that Ling Xiao was under the control of poison.

No wonder, the last time she tried to persuade him to stay, Ling Xiao had said he had no choice but to return. Even Li Rui was shocked by his words and unconsciously turned back, wanting to learn more.

“I don’t know. The antidote is prepared and distributed monthly by the branch leader. Sometimes, as punishment for failing a mission or making mistakes, they delay the dose so the person suffers the agony of the poison’s effects,” Ling Xiao explained, leaning against the bed.

“And the antidote isn’t a real cure, is it? It just suppresses the symptoms and makes the poison’s grip even stronger,” Li Rui interjected immediately. He knew that if the assassin organization used poison to control their people, of course they would want to keep them alive to serve, but also strengthen the hold to make them obedient.

“Did you have to take this poison since childhood?” Zhang Xiaolan asked with a frown, her concern deepening. Had Ling Xiao suffered this way since he was a child? The thought filled her with outrage and sorrow for him.

“No. We were captured as children and began training. In the second year, they made us kill each other, leaving only the survivors. After that, those who qualified were forced to take the poison, and the rest—the unfit—were killed. At the end of every month, the branch leader gathered everyone to drink the decoction, to stay alive and keep the poison at bay.”

Ling Xiao described the organization’s selection and training process. Though it was effective, it was unbearably cruel. Anger and indignation flared in Zhang Xiaolan’s heart.

“And the antidote? Surely they wouldn’t let you all die,” Zhang Xiaolan said, though she knew cruel reality left little room for hope. Still, she cared about their fate—about Ling Xiao’s fate.