The rustling sound behind him made Xia Lei weirdly nervous. Shentu Tian-Yin was the goddess he’d dreamed of after all and he’d be lying if he said he was not bothered by it. He moved his gaze to the view beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows and looked at the tall buildings, the blue sky, anything to move his attention somewhere else. 

His actions, however, were like covering his own ears whilst stealing a bell. Shentu Tian-Yin’s voice came quickly again from behind him. “I’m done. You can turn back now.” 

Xia Lei got nervous again at those words. He turned and was stunned by the beautiful sight which met his eyes.

Shentu Tian-Yin’s jade feet had no blemishes, were not too big or too small, and every toe was delicate and lovely. She did not have any rough skin on the soles of her feet either - her jade feet were white and tender. Her legs were smooth, round yet slender, and the flawless skin on them was in the best condition possible. Her beautiful legs were not as long or as strong as Liang Si-Yao’s but they had a baby-fat pretty softness to them. 

“Nn, you may begin.” Shentu Tian-Yin’s cheeks were still red. She was actually more nervous than Xia Lei. 

Xia Lei made a sound of agreement and sat by the bed. “I’ll have to hit you a few times. It’ll hurt a little so you’ll have to endure it.”

“Huh?” Shentu Tian-Yin said in surprise, “You’re going to hit me?”

“Well, the thing is, your father’s condition is due to a blockage in his blood vessels. If I can clear the blockage his condition will improve and he will be able to awaken. That’s why I need to recreate similar conditions and try to clear your blocked blood vessels. I’ve never tried this on a human before. I need to understand how this would work on a human body and get more information,” explained Xia Lei.

“But how will you get information from my body if it’s a negative result? You have just needles and nothing else.”

Xia Lei smiled. “You don’t have to worry about that. I’ll hit you now, okay?”

“You… be gentle. I’m afraid of pain.” Shentu Tian-Yin nibbled on her cherry lips and looked rather pitiful. 

This voice, this expression - it made one think that this was not about poking silver needles but about a man and a woman stealing an apple. Xia Lei pricked her in the thigh with a needle without saying anything. 

“I’m going to do it. Endure it.”

“Do it, I… I’ll endure it.”

Xia Lei lifted his hand and swung it down on Shentu Tian-Yin’s calf with a smack. 

“Ah! It hurts!” Shentu Tian-Yin couldn’t help crying out. Her delicate brows were furrowed and she clenched her teeth, but her face was red with embarrassment. This expression would move even a senior monk. 

Xia Lei steeled his heart and delivered more slaps to the same area. Her delicate skin turned red, then started showing the beginnings of a bruise. 

“I need to hit you on the thigh too.” Xia Lei couldn’t really bear to do so but he still said it. 

“My thigh too?” Shentu Tian-Yin sounded nervous. 

“The blood vessels are open. I need to damage the same blood vessels and create a second blockage. Your father’s blood vessels are quite severely blocked. Think of a pipe that’s been clogged in several places - can the blood flow through? I have to find a way to make it flow through all the blockage.”

“Hit me then,” said Shentu Tian-Yin, “I’m willing to get hit for my father’s sake.”

Xia Lei raised his hand and a slap descended with a loud smack on Shentu Tian-Yin’s right thigh. The thigh with a bit of baby fat rippled, and her round buttocks trembled. 

“It hurts.” Shentu Tian-Yin didn’t seem to be lying about being afraid of pain - tears welled in her doe-like eyes. 

Xia Lei did not hold back anymore. He braced himself and his heart, then rained heavy blows down. Her thigh turned red, swollen and started to bruise, much like her calf had. 

“You’re so brutal.” Shentu Tian-Yin bit her lip as he said, “Even my father has never hit me like this.” 

Xia Lei laughed dryly. “Aren’t I also doing this for your father? All right, I’m done. I won’t hit you anymore.” As he spoke, his left eye locked onto the swollen area on her calf and twitched, revealing the situation under her skin. He picked up a needle with practised ease and plunged it into her skin. 

The needle-wielding Xia Lei was now focused and had no distracting thoughts in his head. 

Being pricked by an acupuncture needle did not actually hurt, but was more of a feeling of soreness. Shentu Tian-Yin did not cry out in pain. She looked at Xia Lei quietly and a faint smile appeared on her lips. Her two dimples seemed to hold mellow wine - one could be intoxicated with just one look. 

With the experience of handling internal energy and acupuncture from experimenting on the rabbit, Xia Lei progressed smoothly. He found that the walls of human blood vessels were much stronger than those of a rabbit’s and could withstand greater amounts of internal energy and it was far easier to clear blockages than in a rabbit. The whole process took him just an hour and he cleared all the blocked blood vessels in Shentu Tian-Yin’s leg in that time. Before his acupuncture treatment, two areas on Shentu Tian-Yin’s leg were red and bruising. The red swollenness and bruises disappeared after treatment, leaving faint marks of redness. These patches of redness were due to broken capillaries and there was no way for him to repair those hair-thin capillaries with acupuncture. 

Xia Lei wiped away the sweat on his brow and put his needles away. “All done! Look at the result - not bad, huh?” he said happily. 

Shentu Tian-Yin got up and looked at her leg, then exclaimed in surprise, “It’s true. I did not take any medicine and you made the swelling go away with needles. It’s miraculous! How did you do it?” 

Xia Lei laughed. “With needles - as you saw.” 

Shentu Tian-Yin rolled her eyes at Xia Lei. She was not happy with his answer but the truth was as he’d said; he had used silver needles to clear the blockages in her blood vessels. She could not question him further on that but she said, “Lei, if this is the case, can you bring forward the time of my father’s treatment?”

Xia Lei shook his head. “Not yet. We must wait a week.” 

“Why not? I think you can do it already.” 

“You’re a regular person, a healthy person. Your father is a patient who has been bedridden for three years. His body is weak. Let him build nourishment for two more days and I can also rest easier when I treat him. Plus, I’ve only experimented for a little while on you. I don’t have enough experience. I need more experience and this needs time too.” 

“Then do it again. I’ll let you hit me and prick me.” Shentu Tian-Yin was more anxious than Xia Lei. 

Xia Lei smiled wryly. “I’ll be honest - I used internal energy when I pricked you with needles. I cannot recover internal energy by simply resting for a while and eating something. I cannot continue today; I’m already exhausted. Another day.”

“Sure, it’s all up to you,” said Shentu Tian-Yin. She grabbed the trousers she had put by the side of the bed and was about to put them on when she seemed to suddenly remember something and said, “Turn around. No peeking.” 

Xia Lei was speechless.

He had already seen, hit, touched and pricked her when she was trouser-less but she still made him look away when she put her trousers on - What was the meaning of this? 

Women’s minds were an enigma. 

Fu Chuan-Fu led the four men back into Shentu Tian-Yin’s office scant minutes after they exited the lounge. The four men looked like rural workers who moved bricks at construction sites earlier but they were now dressed in suits and wore sunglasses. They now looked menacing from head to toe and very much like professional bodyguards. 

“Milady, these four will follow you around from now on. They shall be your personal guard,” said Fu Chuan-Fu. 

“No, not personal guard. I want a discreet guard. They will get suspicious if I am too difficult to harm,” said Shentu Tian-Yin. 

“But…” Fu Chuan-Fu started saying, then stopped.

“It’s all right. I have Xia Lei to protect me. It’s not as if you don’t know his capabilities. Consider increasing security when he is not with me,” said Shentu Tian-Yin.

Fu Chuan-Fu glanced at Xia Lei, then nodded in agreement. He obviously believed in Xia Lei’s abilities. 

Fu Ming-Mei walked into the office at that moment holding a red invitation in her hand. She walked up to Shentu Tian-Yin and handed it to her. “Big Sister Tian-Yin, Gu Ke-Wu sent someone with an invitation. It’s an invite to a dinner at Distinguished Gathering.”

Shentu Tian-Yin opened the invitation and frowned. “He’s inviting me to Distinguished Gathering for dinner? Huh. Must I go if he invites me? Go tell that person who delivered the invitation to let Gu Ke-Wu know that I am too busy to go.” 

Fu Ming-Mei smiled. “I knew you’d decide not to go. I’m not going to bother telling him myself. I’ll call the gate-guards to tell him to go away.” As she spoke, she walked to the desk, picked up the phone and made to use the internal line. 

Shentu Tian-Yin stopped her just as she was about to press the button. “Hold on. I’ll go. You go tell the person who delivered the invitation that I will attend. I will attend with my fiancé.” 

Fu Ming-Mei couldn’t help glancing at Xia Lei with a faint thought-provoking smile on her lips. 

He was a boyfriend before and now he’d been upgraded to fiancé.

Shentu Tian-Yin looked at Xia Lei. “Accompany me, Lei. Gu Ke-Wu is always after me. This is a good opportunity to crush his hopes once and for all.” 

Xia Lei nodded. “Okay, I’ll accompany you.” 

“Ming-Mei, go to the jewellers’ and pick out two rings. Lei and I shall wear them tonight.”

They’re going to wear rings too?

Xia Lei was dumbstruck. 

“Okey-dokey, I’ll go pick out the rings now. I’ll get the best diamond ring.” Fu Ming-Mei seemed to be wishing for the whole world to be in chaos. 

‘It’s just an act - why are even rings being used? I’d better not let Si-Yao know about it or I’m dead…’ thought Xia Lei to himself.