Chapter 8: Azure Blood

Candlelight flickered across the cerulean luminescence pulsing beneath Xiao Jingxuan's skin.

Su Mingli's heart thundered as fragmented memories surged—the azure droplet from her lab's explosion, its unstable genetic code still screaming warnings across time. Now that same unearthly glow pulsed in this man's veins.

She anchored herself with a sharp inhale. "Your blood—" Her voice cut like glass. "Explain."

Xiao Jingxuan reclined with lethal calm. "Shouldn't the physician diagnose her patient?"

Silence stretched before she seized his wrist. His skin burned fever-hot beneath her fingers. The pulse beneath her fingertips wasn't human—steady yet arrhythmic, like twin heartbeats warring in a single chest.

"This isn't illness." She released him, voice glacial. "Your blood has mutated."

"Can you fix it?" His smirk deepened.

Her nails bit into her palms. Three years ago—the precise timeline of her breakthrough experiments. If temporal interference had weaponized her research…

Xiao Jingxuan's gaze sharpened. "You recognize this condition."

"To treat it," she countered coldly, "I require full disclosure of your motives."

He laughed darkly, catching her chin with calloused fingers. "You're far more than a scarred noblewoman, aren't you?"

She jerked free. "Celebrate later, Your Highness. Your life..." Her smile turned surgical. "...currently resides in my hands."

The candles guttered as night deepened around them.