You've Been Poisoned

Jiang Lan looked up at Ye Lingling's face and blinked.

Then his little mouth fell slightly open, and he let out a soft "wow."

With her veil off, this young woman didn't look like an auntie at all. She was as pretty as Shui Bing'er. Of course, Mom Bo Saixi was still the prettiest.

"Do you believe me now?" Ye Lingling asked.

"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 in and asked Jiang Lan, "What about me? What about me?"

Jiang Lan thought for a moment. "Auntie."

The smile on Dugu Yan's face visibly petrified, cracked, and crumbled.

She drew a deep breath, her chest rising so dramatically that Ye Lingling quietly shifted half a step away. Then she reached out, pinched both of Jiang Lan's cheeks, and pulled them outward like dough.

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

Jiang Lan's mouth stretched into a flat oval. "Little Guga... but you really looked like an auntie when you laughed at me... Mom Bo Saixi says children should be honest..."

Dugu Yan's temple gave a sharp twitch.

Mom Bo Saixi again. She had no idea who this Bo Saixi was, but she was now quite certain the elder had a uniquely infuriating way of raising children.

"What else did your Mom Bo Saixi say?" Dugu Yan asked through gritted teeth.

"She also said that if someone bullies me, I should punch them back." Jiang Lan gazed up at Dugu Yan with wide, innocent eyes. "Auntie, are you going to bully me?"

Dugu Yan froze, unsure what to say.

She silently released his cheeks and even rubbed the reddened spots for him, so gently that Ye Lingling's eyes widened.

"...Call me big sister." Dugu Yan's voice softened, 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 the words "orange cake" made him swallow it back. He tilted his head and considered the offer carefully. Then he looked up and called out in the sweetest, most obedient voice of his life, "Big sister."

At the mention of orange cake, Doro perked up too. She poked her head out from Jiang Lan's shoulder, her large purple eyes sparkling, and called eagerly to Dugu Yan, "Doro! Dorodoro!"

"What is she saying?" Dugu Yan eyed the suddenly enthusiastic white fluffball with suspicion.

"She says she wants some too. Two pieces." Jiang Lan translated for Doro, then added, "I want two as well."

Dugu Yan's mouth twitched. She was an outstanding student of Heaven Dou Royal Academy and Poison Douluo's own granddaughter, yet a brat in a penguin outfit and a white fluffball had joined forces to extort four pieces of orange cake from her. But she had given her word, and she couldn't back out in front of Ye Lingling.

"Fine. I'll buy them after the match." Dugu Yan straightened and folded her arms, slipping back into her languid, sharp-edged manner. "But let's be clear: if you lose this match, there's no cake."

The moment Jiang Lan heard that, his eyes changed.

The soft, adorable little dumpling vanished. In his place stood a young Soul Master brimming with fighting spirit.

He clenched his chubby fists, his knuckles giving faint cracks, and looked up at Dugu Yan with such intensity that the air around them seemed to grow heavier.

Dugu Yan met his suddenly piercing gaze, and her heart gave an inexplicable jolt.

She was a Soul Master. Her instincts were far sharper than an ordinary person's.

For an instant, she felt a faint but unmistakable pressure from the little fellow who barely reached her knees.

It was like teasing a kitten, only for it to stand up and punch you—and then realizing the kitten could punch through a wall.

But the feeling vanished as quickly as it had come. Jiang Lan looked harmless again, hopping twice on the spot with Doro in his arms.

Doro looked at Dugu Yan. "You've been poisoned."

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

Dugu Yan stared at the white fluffball before her. Those large purple eyes regarded her calmly, with no hint of a joke.

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

Seeing that Dugu Yan didn't believe her, Doro explained, "No one poisoned you. You've carried this poison since you were in your mother's womb. Once it flares up, you'll die. There's no doubt about it."

The smile vanished completely from Dugu Yan's face.

She stared at the white fluffball before her. Those large purple eyes calmly met her gaze without flickering or turning away, without the slightest hint of a joke.

The pet of a brat she had met less than fifteen minutes ago was telling her she was poisoned. That she had carried the poison since before birth, and that once it flared up, she was certain to die.

Absurd.

Utterly absurd.

Her grandfather was Poison Douluo, Dugu Bo, a Titled Douluo and a master of poisons. Among everyone on the continent who used poison, if her grandfather claimed second place, no one would dare claim first.

She had grown up surrounded by poisons. She had handled poisonous herbs and insects since she was three, and her grandfather had given her countless medicinal baths to strengthen her meridians. How could anyone poison her without him noticing?

Dugu Yan's first instinct was to sneer. But before the corners 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.

For as long as she could remember, she had only had her grandfather.

When she was little, she had asked him where her father and mother had gone. She remembered his expression with perfect clarity.

Something had flashed through those usually piercing eyes—something she hadn't understood then, but later recognized as guilt and pain.

Her grandfather had said they had been poisoned by something he couldn't cure.

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

But what if the poison had been passed to her in the womb?

What if her mother had already been poisoned while carrying her and had passed it on? What if her mother's death hadn't been an accident, but the result of the poison flaring up?

What if the poison was inherited? What if all those medicinal baths her grandfather had worked so hard to prepare over the years weren't meant to strengthen her meridians at all, but to suppress the poison she had carried since birth?

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