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After examining Shi Changyuan, Lin Ling touched his own lips, checking where Shi Changyuan had bitten him yesterday. Then he let out a long breath and said thankfully, "You probably didn't break my skin. If you had, you might really have been poisoned."

Seeing the lingering fear on Lin Ling's face, Shi Changyuan suddenly realized that if this matter was not resolved, Mushroom might be traumatized by kissing in the future.

"It won't happen."

Shi Changyuan patted Lin Ling's back and soothed him. "Dreams are always the opposite. Ling Ling won't lay mushroom eggs, and I won't be poisoned because of it."

"And no blind fool would dare point fingers in front of me. If some Taoist really came to break us apart, I'd have him dragged away and beheaded." Shi Changyuan's expression and tone were exceedingly serious.

"It was only a dream, and an utterly unreasonable one at that." Shi Changyuan smiled suddenly and said to Lin Ling, "You have quite the imagination. Ling Ling could write storybooks."

Having been mocked, Mushroom puffed up angrily.

Even so, Lin Ling still had his own worries. "I clearly know I can't give birth to little mushrooms, so the mushroom eggs were fake. But I also clearly know that I'm a poisonous mushroom. That part isn't fake."

"What if? What if you accidentally get poisoned? Then, just like that awful Taoist said, I really won't have a husband anymore."

As he spoke, Lin Ling counted on his fingers, trying to give an example. "I've been a poisonous mushroom since birth. Back when I was still on the roof beam and hadn't gained sentience, a thief sneaked into your study one day, acting all suspicious."

"Later, someone came in, so he hid on the roof beam. Then he found me."

Lin Ling grew furious at the memory. "I was obviously just an ordinary mushroom then, and I hadn't done anything to him, but he seemed to want to pick me!"

Shi Changyuan nodded and gave his sharp assessment. "Itched to steal."

"So I stabbed him hard, and he immediately went numb all over and fell from the roof beam. He even said he saw lots of little people in the air."

What Lin Ling described sounded extremely familiar, and Shi Changyuan remembered it at once.

It had been shortly before the unification of the realm, when Shi Changyuan was still fighting the last kingdom. The man had been a spy embedded among his shadow guards for a long time. Had he not been exposed, the war might have lasted much longer.

Yet he had ultimately revealed himself in an eerie manner, seemingly possessed. They summoned imperial physicians in hopes of curing him and interrogating him for intelligence, but almost everyone was helpless.

For a time, everyone believed it was a sign from Heaven. Once word spread, morale soared, and before the New Year, Great Li achieved the unification of the realm.

"So it was you." Shi Changyuan smiled and pinched Lin Ling's cheek.

Lin Ling nodded, still shaken. "So I really am a very poisonous mushroom!"

Shi Changyuan sighed. "But Ling Ling's cultivation has improved. Can't you already control the strength of your poison?"

Even hallucinations could only alter dreams.

"Ling Ling can control it himself," Shi Changyuan continued. "So if Ling Ling doesn't want me to be poisoned, then I won't be poisoned."

Shi Changyuan looked at Lin Ling and, before he could speak again, suddenly kissed him. It was gentle and brief.

With their foreheads pressed together, Shi Changyuan smiled. "If Ling Ling is truly worried, why not test it out and see whether I'll be poisoned?"

"I can have the imperial physicians standing by at any time."

Lin Ling's long lashes trembled. He pulled back slightly from Shi Changyuan, then carefully leaned in to kiss him again.

Imitating what Shi Changyuan had done before, he licked the other man's lips and gave them a light bite, terrified that he might bite too hard.

Just as Lin Ling wanted to pull away, Shi Changyuan instantly clasped the back of his neck and, catching him off guard, invaded without restraint.

The tip of his tongue swept across Lin Ling's palate, making his entire body tremble. He clutched Shi Changyuan's lapels tightly, barely managing to support himself so he would not collapse limp.

Yet the other man was deliberately wicked. He reached out as well, prying open Lin Ling's tightly clenched fingers one by one, threading their fingers together, and finally interlocking them. Lin Ling fell completely into his embrace, softening into a boneless heap.

In that instant, Lin Ling was like a drowning man who had lost his final straw. The numbness rising from his tailbone made him dizzy. He could not escape or hide, and he looked at Shi Changyuan through tear-blurred eyes, pitifully begging for mercy.

But only whimpers could spill from between his lips.

Watching Lin Ling still struggle to steady his breathing, Shi Changyuan chuckled and kissed away the tear at the corner of his eye.

"Ling Ling, it's all right."

Upon hearing this, Lin Ling, still not fully recovered, gave a muffled whine and burrowed into the blankets, covering himself completely.

It was not all right—

Lin Ling shut out Shi Changyuan's startled gaze.

He had forgotten that he was still transformed into an aphrodisiac mushroom and had not yet returned to normal. Once poisoned, it would only induce arousal, not hallucinations.

Feeling the changes in his body and recalling several previous occasions like this, Lin Ling was utterly furious.

It was over.

It seemed he had been poisoned.

What kind of poison was this? Why did it only poison him?—

II

Mushroom sulked. Shi Changyuan coaxed and wheedled him until he quickly learned the reason, then laughed for quite a while before explaining to Lin Ling that it was normal.

After Shi Changyuan laughed, no amount of coaxing could make Lin Ling any more willing to come out.

After waiting for a long time, Shi Changyuan discovered that Lin Ling had fallen asleep again beneath the blankets.

He dug Lin Ling back out from the blankets so Mushroom could breathe fresh air, then blocked out the light from the window for him.

Qingming Festival had already passed, and the spring rain had long begun to fall in a soft, steady drizzle.

"Your Majesty, shall I assist you in changing?" Shunde asked from behind the folding screen.

Shi Changyuan fell silent for a second, then ordered, "Prepare cold water. I'm bathing."

After bathing and changing, Shi Changyuan returned to Lin Ling's bedside and watched him for a long time, seeming to struggle over whether to wake him.