Lu Dantao was speechless.
She knew it. That bastard could never say anything decent.
Xue Yao crossed his arms and leaned back against the rough tree trunk, asking with a half-smile, “So, are you bathing or not?”
With him asking like that, Lu Dantao actually found it a bit strange.
Just earlier, he had been the one constantly saying “endure it,” yet now he was urging her to bathe.
She could not help but look him up and down.
Xue Yao still stood there with his arms crossed, but one of his fingers was unconsciously held across the tip of his nose.
Lu Dantao clicked her tongue inwardly. ‘Still pretending like nothing’s wrong, when in reality he can’t stand that sour stench on himself either.’
She spoke slowly, “Bathe. Of course I’ll bathe.”
She was going to take her time bathing and let the stench choke him.
She walked up to him, took out the half-eaten wild fruits from her arms, and stuffed them into his hands, imitating the tone he had used earlier on the slope.
“Watch them carefully. Don’t lose them. If the fruits go bad…” She paused, then made a slicing gesture with her hand. “You’ll end up just like these fruits!”
Xue Yao: “…”
He looked at her deliberately swaggering figure as she walked away and could not help but let out a chuckle.
Lu Dantao walked to the riverside and looked around. Towering ancient trees blocked out the sky, and in the distance, mountains overlapped layer upon layer, shrouded in mist.
The whole place looked like a primeval forest.
In a place like this, aside from her and Xue Yao, these two utterly unlucky souls, probably no one else would come.
She bent down and gently brushed the surface of the water with her hand.
It was July, in the middle of the afternoon.
The sunlight was scorching, yet the river water still carried a cool chill.
Lu Dantao looked carefully. The river water was crystal clear, with no snakes and no fish.
It should… be fine, right?
She untied her belt, then suddenly remembered something and abruptly turned back, shouting toward Xue Yao, “You’re not allowed to go far.”
Otherwise, if she ran into something later, before her hired muscle could even arrive, she would already be dead.
Seeing that Xue Yao was sitting with his back to her at a distance that was neither too near nor too far, Lu Dantao finally felt at ease enough to undress and step into the water.
After that, she added another sentence, her voice raised even louder, “And you’re not allowed to come too close either, and absolutely no peeking!”
Xue Yao was idly snapping a dry branch in his hand. Hearing this, his movement paused. She really was overthinking things.
“Who would look at you,” he replied.
Lu Dantao did not hear him clearly. She pressed her changed clothes down into the water with a stone to soak out the smell, then immersed her whole body into the cool river.
Within the deep and silent valley, on the shimmering surface of the water, the delicate and pretty young girl softly hummed an out-of-tune little melody.
But not long after, a breeze swept past the treetops, and she suddenly shivered, a layer of fine goosebumps rising along her back.
Through the reeds, Xue Yao listened to her intermittent humming, yet his gaze was fixed on the sturdy old pine tree in the distance.
Back then, had his father also come here, sat here, and felt this very breeze?
He looked around. It was already afternoon, and he needed to find a suitable spot now to get through the night.
In the deep forest, the temperature changed drastically at night. Clothes and food all had to be properly prepared.
He took out the wild fruits from his arms. The once plump and red fruits, having been left for some time, already showed slight yellowing along the edges.
The irritation from being threatened by Lu Dantao earlier surged up again.
It was all his own fault for meddling. If he had not insisted on picking wild fruits for her, he would not have been threatened by her like that.
Xue Yao flicked his wrist, about to throw the fruits far away—
But from behind came Lu Dantao’s shout, “Yan Yun.”
Xue Yao paused mid-motion. “What is it?”
He silently withdrew his hand, stared at the wild fruits in his palm for a moment, and in the end, tucked them back into his robe.
Forget it. Otherwise, if she got hungry later, she would probably stir up more trouble for him.
“I keep feeling… like someone is watching me.” Lu Dantao’s voice came faintly from behind the reeds.
Xue Yao: “…”
He fell silent for a moment. “I’m not looking at you.”
“…” Lu Dantao was instantly choked with frustration.
She was not making this up. It was real.
She stopped moving, folded her arms across her chest, and looked around warily.
The towering ancient trees cast dense shadows all around. Looking into the distance, everything appeared vague and indistinct. It was impossible to tell whether it was merely the swaying of tree shadows or if something was actually hiding among them.
But she just felt that there were eyes staring at her.
“I’m not being sarcastic,” Lu Dantao emphasized.
“Then stop washing and come out.” Xue Yao’s cold voice came from behind the reeds.
Lu Dantao was practically speechless: …
She was truly at a loss.
This person was usually full of schemes, yet all of them seemed to be used on her, was that it?
If she were really taken hostage, by the time he reacted, she would already be dead.
Her corpse would probably have floated downstream by then.
Men really could not be relied on.
Cursing inwardly, she carefully edged toward the shore. As her foot stepped onto a slippery stone, she suddenly trembled, and a sharp pain shot through her ankle.
She sucked in a breath and bent down in pain, about to check her ankle, when her gaze accidentally swept across the water’s surface. Her whole body instantly froze—
Beneath the water, a vague shadow was slowly rising upward.
She blinked hard, suspecting that her eyes were playing tricks on her.
But as that thing drew closer and the ripples in the river became clearer, Lu Dantao finally confirmed that she had not seen wrong.
That was no illusion.
That really was a person!
That person’s entire body was an unnatural bluish-white. Long hair spread out like water weeds, and a pair of eyes showing only the whites stared at her silently and fixedly.
Lu Dantao wanted to scream, but her throat felt as if it were stuffed with cotton, and no sound would come out.
In panic, she wanted to retreat, yet she was afraid that any large movement would alert the person in the water.
She could only force herself to move as lightly as possible, fumbling as she grabbed her clothes from the shore and threw them over herself. Not caring whether she had put them on properly, she bolted toward Xue Yao.
Xue Yao’s ears twitched slightly, sharply catching that the breathing behind the reeds had suddenly become rapid and chaotic. He abruptly stood up and turned around. “What’s wrong with you—”
Before he could finish his sentence, a warm, soft body suddenly crashed into his arms.
The touch was warm and soft. His lapel was tightly clutched by the person in his arms. She pressed herself completely against him, as if she wished she could climb right onto him. Even through the layers of clothing, he could feel the girl trembling uncontrollably.
Xue Yao’s mind had not yet caught up when he heard the trembling voice of the girl in his arms by his ear. “There’s a water ghoul…”
“What?”
Lu Dantao suddenly released his collar, shivering as she quickly pointed toward the river. “There’s a water ghoul in the river.”
Before her words had even finished, she immediately grabbed onto his lapel again, even tighter than before, her fingertips turning pale.
“A water… ghoul?” Xue Yao frowned.
What was that?
He raised his eyes toward the river, but the reeds were thick, and the distance was far. Even with his height, it was difficult to clearly see what was happening in the water.
He tried to step toward the riverbank, but Lu Dantao, who was practically “hanging” from his chest, blocked his way.
He moved to the left, and she followed to the left.
He moved to the right, and she hurriedly shifted to the right as well.
Xue Yao closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “If you keep blocking me like this, how am I supposed to check?”
The girl in his arms shook her head frantically, her grip tightening even more, showing no intention of letting go at all.
Xue Yao had no choice. He turned sideways and, half-embracing and half-dragging this human “pendant,” struggled his way to the riverbank.
Lu Dantao was terrified. What she had just seen had shaken her to the core.
Disheveled long hair, a deathly pale face, a figure rising straight up from the depths of the water… it was practically the embodiment of all her childhood nightmares combined.
“Has it come up?” She buried her face tightly behind Xue Yao’s shoulder, her voice muffled and trembling.
Xue Yao did not answer immediately.
His gaze turned cold as he stared at the river’s surface. A corpse was slowly floating up, its long hair tangled, its skin swollen and bluish.
He did not understand what Lu Dantao meant by “water ghoul,” but he could determine that this corpse had been submerged in the water for at least seven days.
A person who had drowned seven days ago, unless weighed down by something heavy, should have already floated to the surface long ago.
Why had it only appeared now?
Moreover, along the way here, the surroundings had all been deep mountains and dense forests, without a trace of human presence.
Even the thatched hut his father had built back then had been destroyed many years ago.
Then where had this corpse… come from?
Could it be that the idyllic settlement his father had mentioned in his memories was nearby?
After waiting so long without getting a response from Xue Yao, Lu Dantao grew increasingly anxious. Yet she did not dare open her eyes and could only keep them shut as she repeatedly urged, “What is it? What exactly did you see?”
Xue Yao came back to his senses, his tone steady. “I do not know what this ‘water ghoul’ you speak of is, but what is in the river is only an ordinary corpse.”
A corpse?
Lu Dantao blinked. Not a water ghoul?
How could a corpse float straight upward like that?
She loosened her grip on his lapel slightly and tilted her face up to confirm, “Are you sure?”
Xue Yao instinctively lowered his head to look at her. “What is there to be un—”
His words abruptly cut off.
A patch of luminous, fair skin suddenly crashed into his view without warning.
Sunlight poured down, outlining the smooth and graceful curve of her rounded shoulders. Droplets of water slid slowly along her delicate collarbone, eventually disappearing into the slightly open front of her clothes.
Xue Yao only felt a buzzing sound explode in his mind, ringing from his head through his ears, as a rush of heat surged straight to the tips of his ears.
He froze for two or three seconds before suddenly snapping back to his senses. Almost in a fluster, he shoved Lu Dantao away in one motion, then staggered several steps backward, abruptly turning his back to her.
Lu Dantao was pushed into a stumble and barely managed to steady herself.
Her eyes were blank with confusion. She stared at Xue Yao’s back, as if he were avoiding her like the plague, for several seconds, then turned her head in a daze to glance at the river.
The corpse floating in the river was so grotesque and horrifying that even the previously crystal-clear water now seemed tainted.
And she, this incomparably beautiful girl bathing in the river, had also become dirty.
She slowly turned her head. After several deep breaths, tears surged up, and she stared at Xue Yao’s back with grief and indignation.
And him, this damned man, the one who brought her here, urged her to go into the water, while he himself had not even touched the river, that pretentious, aloof king of acting cool NPC—
He actually thought she was dirty!
And even pushed her away so forcefully!!
Xue Yao finally managed to steady his heartbeat, forcibly suppressing the burning sensation at the tips of his ears. He adjusted his posture before turning around, about to scold her to hurry up and get dressed properly.
But to his surprise, he saw her small face scrunched up into a tight knot, her cheeks puffed up with anger, her eyes and the tip of her nose flushed red, tears swirling in her eyes.
Her face, which had already been washed clean, now carried a faint blush from her turbulent emotions. Her wet black hair clung to the side of her neck, still dripping with water.
Xue Yao froze. On second thought, he immediately understood. As a young woman, having just gone through such a frightening experience, and perhaps because he had seen her body, she must now be both ashamed and furious, wishing she could disappear from the face of the earth.
He softened his tone, intending to gently persuade her to put on her clothes first, and to solemnly promise that he would never reveal a single word of what had happened today, nor would he damage her reputation in the slightest.
But he had only just opened his mouth, not even managing to utter a single syllable.
Lu Dantao suddenly took a big step forward, rushed up to him, raised her tear-streaked face, and cried out in grief and indignation:
“Am I really that dirty?!”
“You jumped that far away, like you wanted to fly straight into the sky, didn’t you?”
Xue Yao: “……?”