23 Chapter 126: Deep, Slow Pulse

Chu Mingxi inherited her father’s legacy and took charge of the Imperial Medicine Hall. While procuring medicinal herbs in the Northern Region, she happened to save a young man. Only after taking the youth's pulse did she realize the delicate youth was actually a girl. As a healer, she never asked about a patient’s past, so she saved her without a single question.

A year passed and she had long forgotten the incident. One day, upon returning home, her mother informed her that the Marquis of Jingyuan had personally visited the mansion to propose a match for the family’s little Heir. The Heir claimed to be an old acquaintance from the Northern Region.

Chu Mingxi: “It was only a casual act. I don’t expect repayment.”

Wei Qingchen: “But I do! I can offer myself in marriage!”

Chu Mingxi: “……”

On a certain hurried evening.

Chu Mingxi pressed her lips together and gave her a light kiss on the cheek.

Wei Qingchen’s eyes narrowed, yet she still murmured, “Not enough.”

A smile touched Chu Mingxi’s eyes, though her voice remained cool and clear. “Then what do you want?”

Wei Qingchen’s heart skipped a beat. Color flooded her face as she leaned close, her red lips brushing Chu Mingxi’s ear, and whispered in the smallest voice, “Tonight… I want to go to the carriage…”

She never finished. Chu Mingxi raised a hand and pinched her arm hard.

“You. Bastard.” Chu Mingxi ground the words out through clenched teeth—the exact same words she had spoken that day inside the carriage.

“Mm-hmm. I’m a bastard.” Wei Qingchen answered at once, turning to press a kiss against the fair, cool curve of her neck. Sticky and coaxing, she added, “All right. Tonight we’ll go to the carriage.”

Chu Mingxi: “……”