001
Yutao had long since grown tired of her days among countless blossoms. She had originally gone down the mountain to seek out her old sisters to discuss cultivation matters, but who would have expected that halfway there she would be ambushed by a group of Taoist priests? In a moment of carelessness, she had been struck by those detestable Taoist priests and sent tumbling off a cliff, nearly losing her life.
In her dazed state, she felt a pair of hands pressing continuously against her chest. She struggled to open her eyes. After an unknown amount of time, as her vision slowly focused, she saw a man’s face.
His brows and eyes were handsome, and beneath his high-bridged nose, his well-defined thin lips were especially pleasing to look at. A mature and reserved aura surrounded him, making him appear both refined and abstinent. Especially those well-jointed hands pressing on her chest—they stirred endless imagination.
Before her consciousness could fully return, the woman beside him, her eyes red, lowered her head and asked, “Yutao, how are you? If anything feels uncomfortable, tell Yunyang.”
Her tone was full of concern and worry, yet her face was completely unfamiliar. Yutao did not recognize her at all.
She remained stunned for a moment, staring wide-eyed as she took a closer look. The clothing and accessories of the two people before her appeared very strange.
Sensing the girl’s expression, the man immediately withdrew his hands from her chest and asked, “How do you feel?”
His voice was low, like the sound of a zither brushing past her ears. Yutao’s muddled mind cleared slightly. Her red lips parted faintly, as if the air around her had been drawn away by the man before her. Her voice came out soft and weak: “My neck hurts…”
As soon as she finished speaking, a flurry of noises sounded from the doorway, followed by two people entering the room. The elderly woman in front immediately asked, “Has she woken up?”
The woman burst into tears of relief. “She’s awake. She said her neck hurts.”
“She still knows it hurts?” The elderly woman glared at the person on the bed, anger rising. “Good thing Yunyang came back today, otherwise she would’ve reported to the King of Hell by now.”
Though her words sounded harsh, there seemed to be a trace of concern in them. Before Yutao could fully process the situation, the man beside the elderly woman quickly tried to smooth things over. “Mother, Yutao has just woken up. Let Yunyang take a look at her first.”
The elderly woman had finally lowered herself to speak with Old Man Lu about this marriage arrangement, yet her granddaughter not only refused to appreciate it but even caused a scene by attempting to hang herself to break off the engagement. Now, after only saying a few words, she was contradicted by her own son. She felt both angry and upset.
Seeing that the girl had already awakened, the worry in her heart eased. With a huff, she turned and left the room.
The atmosphere inside lightened somewhat. The girl remained silent, and Lu Yunyang reached out to take her pulse. “Where do you feel uncomfortable?”
His warm fingertips rested lightly on her wrist, and that warmth instantly spread throughout her body. Yutao’s eyes widened. At the same time, a flood of memories that did not belong to her surged into her mind.
These memories told the story of a tale from a script. In that story, a girl with the same name as her was merely a supporting female character—a childhood friend of the female lead. Later, a group of educated youth came to their hometown, and she fell in love with one of the male educated youths.
Because she had someone in her heart, when she learned that her family had arranged another marriage for her, she went to discuss it with the female lead. However, the female lead misled her into using hanging herself as a threat to force her family to cancel the engagement—and in the end, she truly lost her life.
After receiving these memories, Yutao was so shocked she nearly jumped out of bed.
She, the foremost fox spirit of the demon realm, had beauty and a perfect figure. She had always done as she pleased, yet now, after possessing a corpse and returning to life, she had become Su Yutao—the supporting female character controlled by the female lead in that story?
If the man before her had not saved this body, she would truly have been finished.
Having finally woken up, Yutao did not want to die. She lifted her eyes and answered the man’s earlier question, “My head hurts, my chest feels tight… I… will I die?”
Lu Yunyang met the girl’s dark eyes. The slightly upturned peach blossom eyes were misty, like clouds lingering in a mountain valley after rain, evoking a sense of tender pity.
“You won’t die.” His gaze shifted to the faint reddish mark around her neck. “As long as you don’t do something foolish like hanging yourself again.”
Yutao lowered her long lashes. This man was good-looking, but not only was he blunt, his tone seemed to carry a hint of dissatisfaction toward her.
“So Yutao is fine now, right?” The man behind him stepped forward and asked Lu Yunyang, “Do we still need to do any… emergency treatment or something?”
“She’s fine once she’s awake.” Lu Yunyang responded while packing his things. He glanced back at the girl on the bed. “I’ll prescribe some medicine to replenish her qi. She just needs to lie down for a couple of days.”
Before she could even exchange a few words with her savior, he was about to leave. Yutao instinctively reached out and grabbed his arm. “But my chest still feels tight, I can’t catch my breath, and my head hurts a lot. Could you take another look?”
She had not expected it, but the moment she grabbed him, she was startled. The man’s forearm was firm, and at the instant of contact, she felt it tense suddenly, making it seem even more powerful.
She paused slightly, then subconsciously gave it another squeeze.
Lu Yunyang stared at the girl’s slender hand, swiftly turning his arm to break free from her hold. He explained calmly, “Your headache is due to lack of oxygen to the brain from suffocation earlier. Once your head stops hurting, your chest won’t feel tight, and your breathing will return to normal.”
His gaze was indifferent. Yutao sensed his resistance, and after a brief turn of thought, she quickly understood.
Yes, she was now human. In front of others, she needed to be more reserved, more dignified. Being too frivolous would frighten her savior.
With that realization, she quickly composed herself. Before she could speak, the man turned to the two people nearby and said, “Uncle, Aunt, today’s incident happened because of me. I have something I’d like to say to Yutao alone.”
After what had happened, Su Dahe and his wife had nearly been scared to death. Now that Yutao had recovered and Yunyang had returned from the city, it was indeed time for the two of them to talk things through.
“Alright, we’ll wait outside,” Su Dahe said, quickly pulling his wife out of the room.
From these brief exchanges, Yutao sensed something unfavorable toward herself, especially the phrase “today’s incident happened because of me.”
However, she could not think it through for the moment. She propped herself up against the headboard and looked at the man, pressing her lips together slightly as she said, “Doctor Lu, thank you for saving me.”
Though she was a demon, she still understood that a life-saving grace should be repaid in full. At present, she had nothing to repay with—and likely never would—but…
At that moment, the light shone brightly. The man stood partially against the light, his handsome face bathed in its glow, making his features appear even more defined and sculpted. He was tall, with a straight posture, long legs, and a firm figure, exuding a sense of resilience.
With a face and body like his, she could offer herself in marriage!
She certainly would not suffer a loss by doing so.
Thinking this, she raised her eyes slightly, a faint smile touching her brows. “How should I repay you?”
Her voice was soft and pleasing; anyone who heard it would feel their heart stirred. Yet Lu Yunyang looked at her with a strange expression.
The life-and-death ordeal had left her exhausted. Her face was pale as frost, yet her eyes held a trace of allure. As she lifted her head slightly, her slender neck was exposed, and her thin lips were lightly bitten, making her appear even more pitiful.
He stepped closer to the bed, his gaze fixed on her face. Instead of responding to her question, he said, “I’ve been in the city for training these past few days and only just returned, so I didn’t know that my grandfather had agreed to your grandmother’s request for us to marry.”
“You don’t like me, and to me, you’re just like a younger sister. Since we’re both in agreement, the matter of marriage ends here. I hope you won’t make impulsive decisions like today over trivial matters in the future.”
“I’ll speak to my grandfather. You should rest well.”
After saying this, he did not give Yutao a chance to respond. He picked up his small case and turned to leave the room.
“Hey…” Yutao instinctively got out of bed, but the moment her feet touched the ground, her legs gave way as if they no longer obeyed her.
With a “thud,” her entire body collapsed onto the floor.
Pain spread through her limbs. At the same time, the memories buried deep within her mind surged forth all at once.
Grandfather, grandmother, marriage, cutting her throat—these words reminded her…
The man before her was precisely Lu Yunyang, the marriage partner arranged by the Su family for the original owner, whom the original owner had tried to reject by threatening suicide, the man who lived at the end of the village.
Lu Yunyang was not described much in that story. From fragmented memories, Yutao only knew that he was a well-known figure in Honghe Village. Not only was he handsome, but he was also a warm-hearted doctor. The women who wanted to marry him could line up from the village entrance all the way to its end.
Yet such a man was disliked by the original owner. Not only that, she had even been misled by the female lead into using her life as the price to break off the engagement.
How could Yutao possibly accept such a way of ending an engagement?
But the pain in her knees was unbearable. She could not focus on the memories she had just received. She simply raised her head and looked at the man, who had already turned back after reaching only a few steps from the door. Her eyes, like rippling spring water, filled with tears.
“Doctor Lu, could you help me up?”