A little while later, out on the street.
Lightning flashed across the sky from time to time. Ye Yunchi threaded through the crowd with her sword in hand. Only after they were far from the Hundred Flowers Grove residence did she turn and ask:
"How are you feeling?"
Xie Jinhuan walked beside her in his cloak. Beneath his bamboo hat, his face was flushed from the snake venom. The moment he stopped, his knees buckled. "Huh?"
Ye Yunchi frowned and swiftly caught his arm. She did not dodge his dead weight as he leaned against her, instead checking his pulse at once. She discovered that a fierce blaze seemed to be burning inside him, threatening to burn straight through his mortal shell. Even his skin was scalding, and his hot breath carried a faint, unusual fragrance that stirred a woman's qi and blood.
Seeing this, Ye Yunchi knew the lust locust snake venom had fully taken effect. She was about to go back and demand the antidote when she noticed that the man leaning against her still had eyes like a cold, deep pool, without the slightest trace of carnal desire. He even tried to pull away and stand on his own:
"Lust locust snake venom really is potent. But man is born still; this is his heavenly nature. When moved by external things, the desires of his nature arise. Thus the sages established rites and music to regulate mankind. Though I can't escape human nature, I still remember the propriety taught in books. I can just about endure it-"
As a Confucian woman, Ye Yunchi could not help being moved beneath her veil hat. Faced with the world's fiercest aphrodisiac, this young man could still remember propriety and restrain his desires, even remembering that men and women should not