You've Been Poisoned

Jiang Lan tilted his head up to look at Ye Lingling's face and blinked.

Then his little mouth opened slightly, and he let out a soft "Wow."

After taking off her veil, this big sister seemed completely unrelated to the word "auntie." She was as pretty as Sister Shui Bing'er—though Mama Bo Saixi was still the prettiest.

"Do you believe me now?" Ye Lingling asked as she looked at him.

"I do." Jiang Lan nodded obediently. "You're not an auntie. You're a big sister."

Ye Lingling smiled and tied her veil back on.

Dugu Yan leaned closer and looked at Jiang Lan. "What about me? What about me?"

Jiang Lan thought for a moment. "Auntie."

The smile on Dugu Yan's face visibly froze, cracked, and collapsed.

She took a deep breath, her chest heaving so dramatically that Ye Lingling silently shifted half a step away. Then she reached out, pinched Jiang Lan's cheeks on either side, and pulled them outward like kneading dough.

"Say... that... again..." Dugu Yan enunciated each word through gritted teeth, two dangerous flames burning in her eyes.

Jiang Lan's mouth was stretched into a flat oval, and he mumbled out a string of garbled sounds. "Guh gah... But the way you smiled at me just now really looked like an auntie... Mama Bo Saixi said children should be honest..."

A vein throbbed at Dugu Yan's temple.

Mama Bo Saixi again. She had no idea who this Bo Saixi was, but she was now certain that this elder had an exceptionally unique—and infuriating—way of educating children.

"What else did your Mama Bo Saixi say?" Dugu Yan asked through clenched teeth.

"She also said that if someone bullies me, I should hit them back with my fists." Jiang Lan looked innocently at Dugu Yan with his large, clear black-and-white eyes. "Auntie, are you going to bully me?"

Dugu Yan froze completely, not knowing what to say.

She silently released Jiang Lan's cheeks and even rubbed the reddened spots for him. The gentleness of the motion made Ye Lingling's eyes widen.

"...Call me big sister." Dugu Yan's tone softened somewhat, but she still refused to give up.

"Auntie."

"Call me big sister!"

"Auntie."

"Call me big sister, and I'll buy you orange cake."

Jiang Lan had already opened his mouth, ready to say "Auntie," but when he heard the words "orange cake," he forcibly swallowed it back. He tilted his head and thought seriously for a moment, then lifted his face and called out in the sweetest, most obedient voice of his life, "Big sister."

When Doro heard "orange cake," she perked up too. She poked her head out from Jiang Lan's shoulder, her large purple eyes sparkling as she cried eagerly at Dugu Yan, "Doro! Dorodoro!"

"What is it saying?" Dugu Yan looked suspiciously at the suddenly enthusiastic little white ball.

"It says it wants some too, and it wants two." Jiang Lan translated for Doro, then added, "I want two too."

Dugu Yan's mouth twitched. A top student of Heaven Dou Royal Academy and the beloved granddaughter of Poison Douluo had actually been extorted for four orange cakes by a kid in a penguin outfit and a little white ball. But she had already said it in front of Ye Lingling, so she could not take it back.

"Fine, I'll buy them for you after the match." Dugu Yan straightened up, crossed her arms, and resumed her lazy yet sharp demeanor. "But let's be clear: if you lose this match, the cakes are canceled."

The instant Jiang Lan heard that, his gaze changed.

That soft, adorable little meatball from before vanished, replaced by a young Soul Master brimming with fighting spirit.

He clenched his chubby fists, his joints cracking softly. Looking up at Dugu Yan, he was so serious that even the air around them seemed to grow heavier.

Seeing the sudden sharpness in his eyes, Dugu Yan felt an inexplicable jolt in her heart.

She was a Soul Master, and her instincts were far keener than an ordinary person's.

In that instant, she sensed a faint, almost imperceptible pressure from the tiny child who barely reached her knees.

It was like teasing a little kitten, only for it to stand up and punch you—then realizing that this cat was strong enough to smash through a wall.

But the feeling vanished in an instant. Jiang Lan returned to his harmless appearance and bounced twice in place while hugging Doro.

Doro looked at Dugu Yan and said, "You're poisoned."

"What did you say?" Dugu Yan's expression instantly froze.

Dugu Yan stared at the little white ball before her. Those purple eyes were looking calmly at her, with no hint of a joke.

How could she possibly be poisoned? Her grandfather was Poison Douluo Dugu Bo. Who would dare poison her?

Seeing that Dugu Yan did not believe her, Doro explained, "No one poisoned you. You were born with this poison. Once it erupts, you'll definitely die."

The smile vanished completely from Dugu Yan's face.

She stared at the little white ball before her. Those purple eyes calmly met hers, without flickering, evasion, or even the slightest trace of a joke.

The pet of a child she had known for less than fifteen minutes was saying that she was poisoned—and that it was a poison she had carried since her mother's womb, one that would kill her without question once it erupted.

Absurd.

Too absurd.

Her grandfather was Poison Douluo Dugu Bo, a Titled Douluo-level master of poison. Among all poison users on the continent, if her grandfather claimed second place, no one would dare claim first.

She had grown up surrounded by poison. At the age of three, she had begun coming into contact with all kinds of poisonous herbs and venomous insects. Her grandfather had given her countless medicinal baths to strengthen her meridians. How could anyone have poisoned her without her grandfather noticing at all?

Dugu Yan's first reaction was to sneer. But before the corner of her mouth could rise, a fact she had never told anyone pierced her mind like an icy needle.

How had her parents died?

Dugu Yan had never met her parents.

Ever since she could remember, only her grandfather had been by her side.

When she was little, she had asked her grandfather where her father and mother had gone. She remembered his expression at the time very clearly.

In those eyes, always so sharp and fierce, flashed something she had not understood back then but later realized was guilt and pain.

Her grandfather had said that they were poisoned by a poison he could not cure.

She had always believed that her parents had been murdered, poisoned by one of her grandfather's enemies.

But what if the poison had been carried from the womb?

What if her mother had already been poisoned while carrying her, passing the poison on to her, and her mother's death had not been an accident but the result of the poison erupting?

What if the poison was hereditary? Then all those medicinal baths her grandfather had desperately given her over the years had not been to strengthen her meridians at all, but to suppress the poison she had carried since birth?

Dugu Yan's pupils contracted, and a layer of cold sweat seeped across her back.