Xue Yao felt that he had died, yet it also seemed that he had not completely died.
His mind was muddled and heavy. At one moment, it was a residence where blood flowed like rivers. At another, it was a pitch-dark dungeon with no light of day.
His whole body alternated between chills and heat, while cold laughter and wailing cries swirled endlessly in his mind.
Suddenly, a sharp sound pierced through the layers of haze trapping him and shot straight into his brain.
The sound was like metal scraping against the ground, and also like a suona abruptly bursting out in a mournful tune he seemed to have heard before. It stabbed at his eardrums with pain, even more suffocating than the cold, deathly still dungeon.
He endured it again and again, but in the end he could not bear it any longer. He suddenly opened his eyes.
A blinding light flooded into his vision. Following the sound, he looked over—
Only to see a young girl struggling to move a medicine furnace in front of the door. The base of the furnace scraped against the ground, producing that grating noise.
Sunlight spilled across her smooth forehead, making the small red mole between her brows appear even more vivid and delicate.
This red mole…
Xue Yao narrowed his eyes.
The red-moled girl, Lu Dantao, seemed to sense something. She turned her head back toward the room in confusion. Inside, it was completely quiet, and the young man was still lying peacefully on the bed.
She frowned tightly.
He had already been asleep for two days.
How much longer was he going to sleep?
Could it be that he would never wake up?
“Sister Ah Tao.” A young medicine boy’s voice called out from the courtyard.
Supporting herself against the doorframe, Lu Dantao turned her head and responded, “What is it?”
The young medicine boy pointed behind him. “The medicine has been collected.”
“Coming!” Lu Dantao placed the palm-leaf fan in her hand onto the table and hurried out the door.
This was already the fifth time Lu Dantao had gone to fetch medicine.
The male lead’s injuries were not light. Although the wounds had already been cleaned and bandaged, the medicine could not be stopped.
The old physician came to check on him once every morning and afternoon, prescribing two doses of medicine each day.
Pulse diagnosis was charged per visit, and the medicine was charged separately as well. It was outrageously expensive, and it did not even include decocting the medicine.
Taking the medicine from the young apprentice, Lu Dantao patted her money pouch with a pained expression. It had originally been bulging full, but now it had gone flat.
She tilted her head again to look at the small packet of medicine in her hand. No wonder the analysis posts had concluded that the old physician would make house calls regardless of wind or rain, day or night.
With this kind of pricing, if it were her, she would go even if blades were falling from the sky.
As Lu Dantao thought this over, she stepped into the room, already calculating in her mind whether she could use some physical means to wake the person up.
Suddenly, an arm caught her off guard and yanked her backward.
Before Lu Dantao could even react, a cold, sharp object had already silently pressed against her throat.
Based on her many years of watching dramas, Lu Dantao immediately deduced that this thing was a dagger.
The cold, hard touch against the skin of her neck made goosebumps instantly crawl all over her back.
Her voice trembled. “W-Who are you?! What do you want?! I don’t have any money.”
“Don’t make a sound.” A hoarse young male voice, heavy with exhaustion, sounded from behind her.
A man?
Lu Dantao subconsciously glanced toward the bed. The bedding there was in disarray, and the person who had been lying there had already disappeared without a trace.
The one behind her was the male lead?
“Where is Pei Di?” the young man asked coldly.
“Pei Di?” Lu Dantao froze for a moment, then repeated the name with the same pronunciation. She instinctively shook her head. “I… I don’t know.”
The young man behind her did not respond. He merely pressed the tip of the blade slightly harder against her neck. The cold, sharp edge made Lu Dantao suck in a breath, and her mind cleared a little as well.
No, wait.
Pei Di?
The big villain? Her ex?
Did the male lead know him at this point?
Why didn’t she remember the analysis posts mentioning this?
Maybe she had missed it. It just so happened that the past few weeks had been exam week, and she had been so busy that she did not keep up with updates.
But that was not important.
What was important was…
The male lead already had a grudge against the villain. For her, this was extremely favorable.
A grudge? She had one too!
Pei Di had exterminated the original host’s entire family. This was a revenge she would definitely help carry out.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend. So what was her relationship with the male lead now?
Allies!
“Don’t know?”
The young man’s warm breath brushed past her ear. Lu Dantao instinctively wanted to tilt her head away, but with the dagger at her neck, she forced herself to stay still.
“I don’t know,” Lu Dantao said. “But I do know him.”
“You might not believe it, but I am actually Pei Di’s fiancée.”
“I used to be,” Lu Dantao added.
“But not anymore. Now, I am his enemy.”
“Enemy?”
“Mm-hmm!” Lu Dantao wanted to nod but did not dare to, so she could only lift her chin and tilt it back slightly. “That bastard, just to climb up the ranks, wiped out my entire Lu family. Luckily, my father and mother had made arrangements early and sent me out of the capital.”
“But who would have thought that dog wouldn’t even leave me a way out. He brought people to chase me relentlessly, driving me all the way to the edge of a cliff.”
“It was so dark and the road was so slippery. He chased me desperately while I ran for my life. In the end, with one misstep, I fell off. Luckily, I usually prayed to many gods, so I had their protection and was blessed with great fortune. I fell into a lake and managed to keep my life.”
“To avoid him, I fled all the way to the border.”
“That’s how I ended up saving you,” she emphasized.
Xue Yao lowered his gaze, his eyes sweeping over the smooth skin of the girl’s forehead in his arms. She was slightly tilting her head back, and the red mole between her brows was completely exposed before his eyes.
Killed her entire family?
A trace of ridicule tugged at the corner of Xue Yao’s lips. If he did not know her, he might have actually believed it.
Lu Dantao.
This name could be said to resound throughout the capital.
The only daughter of the Prefect of Jingzhao. Because of the red mole between her brows, she had been sent to a Daoist temple as a child and served there as a young acolyte for several years. When he was young, he had even knelt on a cushion and paid respects to her.
But what she was most famous for was her obsessive infatuation with the second young master of Pingyuan Marquis Residence, Pei Di, back then, constantly chasing after him all day long.
He alone had witnessed that sort of thing no fewer than several times.
The last time he heard her name was half a year ago, when he had been imprisoned in the dungeon of the Eagle Guard. That dog Pei Di had deliberately come before him to show off, saying that the memorial day of the Defender Duke Residence would be his grand wedding day.
The future daughter-in-law of the Pei family, who should have been staying steadily in the capital, was now appearing in Shouzhou, thousands of miles away, and was even insisting that she had saved him…
Lu Dantao waited for a while, but when the person behind her still gave no response, she decided to press on. “I know you’re very tense right now, but…”
“Don’t act impulsively. I’m a good person.”
“Otherwise, I wouldn’t have carried you back from the mass grave and even found a physician for you, right?”
“If possible, I hope… you can put the knife down first.”
“Heh.” A cold laugh came from behind her. “Nice story.”
Feeling the cold blade press a little deeper against her throat, Lu Dantao could not help but roll her eyes.
Were male leads nowadays all a bit abnormal?
She was already telling the truth, yet he was still pressing harder.
“Nice story? I…” The words of Lu Dantao’s rebuttal reached her lips, only to be forced back by the coldness at her throat.
Take the indirect route, take the indirect route. Do not provoke him.
Her mind raced wildly. Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck her. She recalled the insurance training camp she had accidentally wandered into during the summer of her freshman year. What had that instructor said again? Identify the client’s pain points and deliver a targeted solution.
Lowering her eyes, she stared at the cold, pale arm stretched across her shoulder.
“He was the one who injured you, wasn’t he?”
Feeling the dagger in his hand pause for a moment, she rejoiced inwardly. ‘Yes! The insurance method works!’
“You hate him, don’t you? You want revenge, right?”
How could Xue Yao not want revenge?
That dog Pei Di, three years ago, had colluded with the emperor to fabricate the treason case of Defender Duke.
In just a few days, his elder sister, the Empress, hanged herself in the palace. The entire Defender Duke Residence was executed. His heir elder brother, along with the Xue family army, was buried in the northwest frontier.
And he had been imprisoned by Pei Di in the dungeon of the Eagle Guard for three years, subjected day and night to ever-changing methods of torment and humiliation, all to force from him the whereabouts of the remnants of the Xue family army.
A little over a month ago, he had discovered a note hidden in his food. It detailed a method of escape and instructed him to flee to Shouzhou, where the remaining forces would be waiting quietly for his arrival.
At that time, he had suspected whether it was yet another trap set by Pei Di, just like before, building a stage to watch him struggle like a trapped beast upon it.
But in the next moment, he still chose to take the risk. As long as he could leave the dungeon, there would be a sliver of opportunity.
So he followed the method written on the note and escaped from the dungeon. After a simple disguise, he found a caravan and traveled westward all the way to Shouzhou.
Who would have thought that halfway there, he would be caught up in a bandit attack on the caravan. Amid the chaos, he did not know who stabbed him. Severely wounded, he collapsed to the ground. As his consciousness blurred, he only felt himself being casually wrapped in a straw mat and thrown away.
When he woke up, he was already here, and he had also seen Lu Dantao.
Thinking about it now, that note was most likely Pei Di’s doing as well, luring him to Shouzhou just to wipe out the remnants of the Xue family army in one sweep.
But now that he had already arrived in Shouzhou, he would never sit and wait for death, nor allow himself to fall under Pei Di’s control again.
It was just…
Xue Yao silently swept his gaze around the room.
It was just that he did not know where that dog Pei Di was hiding, how many ambushes were set around him, how he should escape, and also, regarding the information about the remnants, what that dog had…
“Cooperate with me.” The girl in his arms spoke quietly, interrupting his thoughts.
“I was his former fiancée. I grew up with him. I know all of his weak points.”
“As long as we cooperate, with your ability and my strategy, we will definitely be able to fight our way back to the capital and chop Pei Di into minced meat!”
Xue Yao glanced at her.
Her words, however, reminded him of something.
She was Pei Di’s fiancée, a childhood sweetheart who had grown up with him.
In other words, she was a hostage in his hands.
And also Pei Di’s weakness.
She would definitely know where Pei Di was, and she would certainly know what ambushes were set around them.
Most importantly, since that dog had gone to such lengths to set up such a grand scheme, he must hold quite a lot of information about the Xue family army.
Rather than escaping and hiding everywhere, searching like looking for a needle in the sea, it would be better to stay here for now, recover from his injuries, turn the scheme against him, obtain the intelligence, and strike Pei Di when he least expected it.
As his thoughts surged, Xue Yao had already made his decision.
He withdrew the dagger, released Lu Dantao, and weakly leaned back against the wall.
Only after the dagger left her neck did Lu Dantao jump back, turning around in one motion. She hopped two or three steps away and looked at him cautiously, as if she were looking at a terrorist.
The young man leaned against the wall. His handsome face was covered in sweat, and those beautiful phoenix eyes were half-lowered, as if his strength had already been exhausted.
Lu Dantao took half a step forward and probed tentatively, “What’s your name?”
Xue Yao lifted his eyes, a trace of ridicule flashing through them. What was she pretending for?
He had originally intended to ignore her, but after a moment’s thought, he still spoke. However, he swallowed back the “Xue” that had already reached his lips.
“Yan Yun,” he said in the end.
Before that dog thief was killed and his blood feud avenged, he had no right to bear the surname Xue.
But the youngest son of Defender Duke, Xue Yao, courtesy name Yan Yun, was known by everyone in the capital, not to mention Lu Dantao, who chased after Pei Di all day long.
Sure enough, the girl before him lit up upon hearing it. Xue Yao swept a glance over her expression, like a starving wolf spotting meat.
The corner of his lips twitched slightly as he sneered inwardly.
Since he had decided to go along with the plan, he would not fuss over it anymore. He raised his arm and instructed, “Help me to the bed.”
“Oh.” Lu Dantao responded instinctively.
Only after taking two steps did she come back to her senses. ‘Wait, what’s with his attitude?’
‘He hasn’t even ascended the throne yet, so why is he already putting on the airs of an emperor? Do I look like a maid or something?’
She puffed up her cheeks, but when she turned her head and caught sight of his deathly pale complexion, she silently held it in.
Forget it. Better to treat him first.
If this dragged on any longer, her wallet would really be empty.
Xue Yao lay back on the bed and then gestured to her again. “The teacup.”
Lu Dantao took a deep breath and silently handed the teacup over.
“Then let’s consider it established,” Lu Dantao said.
Xue Yao glanced at her without speaking, but his meaning was clear, just two words. ‘What?’
“The Avengers Alliance.” Lu Dantao pointed her index finger back and forth between the two of them. “You and me, forming an alliance.”
“From now on, we’re allies. We have to share blessings together.”