After her dramatic cousin stopped acting up, the aloof doctor got anxious.

Chapter 76 Disfigured

Shen Ruo paused for a moment, then quickly walked out of the yard with her phone in hand.

Outside the gate is a rural road, and the streetlights are far apart, making the light dim.

A car was parked on the side of the road with its hazard lights on.

It's Qi Wenshen's car.

Shen Ruo stood at the gate of the courtyard, looking at the car from dozens of meters away, feeling happy but also a little sour.

He drove dozens of kilometers from the city to this small suburban village and waited by the roadside for who knows how long, just to take her back.

Will he pick up and drop off the female lead like this in the future?

"Shen Ruo, your boyfriend is here?"

Xiao Chen followed her gaze.

Shen Ruo hummed in agreement.

Anyway, it was pitch black outside, so they didn't know who was in the car.

Zhou Lan also saw the car, and her nose wrinkled with jealousy. "Oh my god, they even came all the way to pick you up. I'm so jealous of you."

Shen Ruo: "Jealousy makes people look hideous."

"Alright, alright, hurry up and go, don't keep them waiting."

Zhou Lan waved to her, then turned to look at the other colleagues, "How about we take a taxi back to the city and then split up?"

Xiao Chen suggested from the side, "How about I have my dad give you a ride?"

"No need, no need. Your dad is tired enough today. We can just take a taxi."

After Zhou Lan finished speaking, she winked at Shen Ruo and added in a low voice, "Treat me to dinner later. I've been covering for you for so long."

Shen Ru glared at her, but the tips of her ears turned red.

She turned and walked toward the car with its hazard lights on.

Qi Wenshen sat in the driver's seat, one hand on the steering wheel, his profile clearly defined in the dim light of the instrument panel.

He wore a dark shirt, revealing his sexy collarbone at the collar. He looked more relaxed and less sharp than during the day, but his imposing presence was no less.

Shen Ruo opened the passenger door, got in, and fastened her seatbelt.

Then she turned her head and gave Qi Wenshen a sweet smile.

"Cousin, have you been waiting long?"

Qi Wenshen glanced at her, his gaze sweeping across her face before he looked away and started the car.

"soon."

He was telling the truth.

After get off work, he didn't go home. He went up to the break room and lay down for a while before leaving at 8:30.

Shen Ruo leaned back in her seat, completely relaxing. She was full and satisfied, with Qi Wenshen sitting next to her. The car's heater was on, and soft music was playing from the stereo. She felt this moment was perfect.

"cousin."

"Um."

Shen Ruo pointed to the back seat, where her basket was placed.

"I picked some peaches for you, freshly picked, they taste much better than the ones you buy at the fruit shop, try them when you get home."

"Um."

Shen Ruo felt his reaction was a bit cold, and just as she was about to say something more, she felt another sharp pain in the back of her neck.

This time the pain was more pronounced than before, so much so that she involuntarily shrank her neck.

She reached out and touched it.

It's gotten even bigger.

It's so itchy, like there are countless ants crawling on it.

She reached out and scratched it, then scratched it again. Qi Wenshen glanced at her in the rearview mirror.

"What's wrong?"

Shen Ruo lowered her hand, smiled, and said, "It's nothing, just a little itchy. I probably got bitten by a bug."

Qi Wenshen looked at her neck in the mirror.

There was a faint red patch on the back of her neck, not the small red dots like mosquito bites, but a whole patch, and the redness was not normal.

His brow furrowed.

"What kind of insect bit you?"

"I don't know, maybe it was some kind of caterpillar I encountered in the peach orchard."

Qi Wenshen glanced at her neck again; the red patch seemed to have grown a little larger than before.

His fingers tapped on the steering wheel.

"Should we go to the hospital?"

Shen Ruo waved her hands repeatedly, "No need, no need, it's a minor problem, a little floral water will do."

Qi Wenshen didn't say anything more, stepped on the gas, and drove the car faster.

Once inside, Shen Ruo changed her shoes, and Qi Wenshen did the same.

Shen Ruo sat down on the sofa and picked up a strawberry from the coffee table to eat.

Qi Wenshen strolled in slowly, placed the basket of peaches on the dining table, and then sat down next to Shen Ruo.

He didn't say anything, he just looked at her.

Shen Ruo felt uncomfortable under his gaze, so she took another strawberry and popped it into her mouth. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Are the strawberries delicious?"

"tasty."

Give me one.

Shen Ruo took a strawberry from the fruit plate and handed it over.

Qi Wenshen didn't take it. Instead, he lowered his head and bit the strawberry on her fingertip. His lips brushed against her fingertip, warm and slightly moist.

Shen Ruo's fingers recoiled as if she had been electrocuted.

Qi Wenshen chewed on a strawberry, looked at her, swallowed the strawberry, reached out and put his arm around Shen Ruo's waist, pulling her to his side.

Qi Wenshen lowered his head, his nose touching hers, his breath brushing against her lips.

Then he kissed her.

Shen Ruo closed her eyes and responded to his kiss.

His kiss was as domineering as ever; his lips pressed against hers, and his tongue pried open her teeth, entwining with her pink tongue.

She tilted her head slightly, trying to adjust the angle, which caused her hair to slip off the back of her neck, revealing a patch of red skin.

Qi Wenshen's fingers stopped.

He released her lips, stepped back a little, and looked over her shoulder, his gaze landing on the back of her neck.

The living room lights were so bright that every detail of that skin was clearly visible.

On the back of Shen Ruo's neck, starting from her hairline and going down, there was a large patch of abnormal red, like the marks left by something burning from the inside.

The red edges are irregular, spreading outwards in a map-like pattern, with the central part being the darkest, almost purple.

Qi Wenshen's expression changed.

"What is this?"

"I just got bitten by an insect. I might be having an allergic reaction; it's swollen quite a bit..."

"This is not a caterpillar."

He had spent a year rotating through the emergency room and had seen far too many patients with rove beetle dermatitis.

Without exception, all of those patients had this irregular erythema on their skin.

Rove beetles don't bite, but they contain a highly acidic toxin that is released when a beetle is swatted on the skin, corroding it like sulfuric acid.

Judging from the shape of the red spots on Shen Ruo's neck, she must have felt an itch on her neck in the peach garden and then reached out to pat it.

That one slap killed the rove beetle on her skin, and the highly acidic toxins seeped into her skin at that moment.

"It's a rove beetle."

Qi Wenshen tightened his grip on her shoulders.

what?

Shen Ruo certainly knew what a rove beetle was.

Rove beetles, also known as poison widows.

I studied nursing, and dermatology is one of the key topics in that subject.

She thought it was just an ordinary caterpillar, so she didn't wash her skin or apply any medication. It's been four hours since around 5 p.m.

Shen Ruo suddenly stood up, rushed to the full-length mirror in the living room, and turned to look at her neck.

A palm-sized area on the back of his neck was red as if it had been burned.

The areas where the red was most concentrated had turned purplish-brown, which looked alarming.

It will bubble.