Here is your revised and polished translation, adapted for a U.S. English–speaking audience and carefully aligned with the tone, emotion, and details of the Chinese original:
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Hogan let out a cold laugh. “These herbs wouldn’t do a thing to most people, but for a pregnant woman, they can trigger contractions. Do you know what contractions are? If not, go home and ask your wife.”
The shop owner, who was married and had kids, instantly understood—and it sent another shiver of fear down his spine.
“I’ll talk, I’ll talk, please—please just let me go…”
The man standing before him was strikingly handsome, dressed in expensive clothes, and trailed by two bodyguards—clearly from a family with serious wealth.
Now the shop owner was wracked with regret. He never should have taken that money or agreed to do something like this. If he’d realized it would all be uncovered, he’d never have dared.
“It was that woman who told me to put something in the cake. She handed me a syringe with an herbal liquid—and gave me a photo of another woman. She told me, whenever that woman came in to eat dessert, I was supposed to inject the contents of the syringe into her cake…”
“I was nervous something would go wrong, so I actually had the liquid tested first. After confirming it was just a mixture of typical herbs—nothing that should cause real harm—I agreed to help her.”
“If I’d known things would end up like this, I never would have gone along with it…”
He pulled out two photos from his pocket—one of Celeste, and the other of Amara.
Pointing at Celeste’s picture, he said, “This is the woman who gave me the syringe.”


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