“Wu Wu, have you packed everything? I’ve got the boat tickets. After tonight, we’ll go to Hong Kong, and no one will be able to control us anymore!”
A slick male voice sounded in her ear, carrying an uncomfortable urgency.
Jiang Wu’s consciousness was pulled back from a chaotic storm of lightning and thunder. Before the pain in her soul had even dissipated, the voice drilled into her mind.
She opened her eyes.
Her gaze fell upon a mottled, peeling yellowish wall, on which hung a faded poster printed with the words: “Heighten Vigilance, Defend the Motherland.”
The air was thick with the salty, fishy smell of sea breeze, mixed with the musty odor of old wooden furniture.
Where was this?
Wasn’t she undergoing her ninth heavenly tribulation for ascension?
The violet-gold heavenly lightning had struck her soul into oblivion—how could she end up in a place like this?
A flood of memories not her own rushed in.
Jiang Wu, nineteen years old, married the regiment commander of the island garrison, Qin Lie, a year ago.
Because she was beautiful and had been spoiled by her family since childhood, she had developed the temperament of a “drama queen.”
After marriage, unable to bear the island’s austere and monotonous life, and disdainful of her husband Qin Lie for being an unromantic block of ice who only cared about military duties, she had been swayed by the sweet talk of Zhou Mingyuan, a clerk from the cultural troupe. In a moment of impulsiveness, she agreed to elope with him.
Tonight was the appointed time.
A suitcase sat beside the bed, containing all the valuable items in the household—a few polyester shirts, two wristwatches, and Qin Lie’s just-issued allowance for the month.
After digesting this information, Jiang Wu nearly choked.
She, the most talented enchantress of the Union of Joy Sect, who had cultivated for a thousand years and was on the verge of ascending to immortality, had been struck by heavenly lightning at the final moment and thrust into the body of this lovesick fool?
Elope?
With a slick, pretty-faced playboy?
Abandon a… military officer husband?
Jiang Wu sat up and examined her new body.
The person in the mirror had snow-white skin, eyes like painted landscapes, and a cascade of jet-black hair flowing over her shoulders like seaweed.
She was a natural beauty, but a spoiled, willful impatience lingered between her brows, tarnishing her overall charm.
But it didn’t matter—the foundation was excellent.
Jiang Wu revealed a satisfied smile.
She then glanced at the open suitcase, its contents pitifully sparse.
The original host was truly a fool. To think of running off with a rogue man for such meager belongings—what a disgrace to the name “Jiang Wu.”
She rose leisurely, walked to the suitcase, and took out the clothes one by one, returning them to the wardrobe.
The few crisp banknotes she pulled out and slipped into a red-covered booklet.
Just as she finished, the door creaked open from the outside.
A tall, upright figure stepped in, backlit, blocking the doorway completely.
The man wore a crisp green military uniform, the epaulets reflecting a cold, hard light in the dimness.
His posture was like a pine tree, with broad shoulders, a narrow waist, and long legs encased in military trousers, outlining a powerful physique.
The fading sunset glow from the island shone behind him, casting a golden halo around his silhouette, yet it did nothing to soften the sharp, imposing aura he exuded.
His features were as if carved by the sharpest blade—every inch perfectly chiseled and heroic.
His jaw was tight, his thin lips pressed into a straight line.
When his gaze swept over her, Jiang Wu felt the room’s temperature drop by several degrees.
This was her cheap husband, Qin Lie.
Jiang Wu’s eyes lit up.
This… this was absolutely…
A divine specimen!
This solid, powerful waist, this body brimming with masculine vigor, this unyielding will and vitality emanating from his very bones…
This was clearly the most exceptional “furnace cauldron” she had encountered in her thousand years of cultivation!
If she could dual cultivate with him, not only could she regain her peak strength, but there was even hope of ascending directly to immortality!
And that fool of an original host, to abandon such a specimen for some oily, scheming man outside?
Had her brain been addled by the sea breeze?!
Qin Lie’s gaze swept around the room before finally settling on the opened, now-emptied suitcase beside the bed. In his dark, profound eyes, emotions churned.
He had just returned from the training ground when he heard the rumors circulating around the camp.
They said his new wife was throwing another tantrum, complaining that he didn’t spend time with her and demanding to return to her parents’ home.
He thought she was just throwing another one of her spoiled fits, as usual, but he never expected she had even packed her luggage.
Was she really planning to leave?
“Jiang Wu.”
He spoke, his voice as cold and hard as his demeanor, like two stones grinding together.
“What are you making a fuss about now?”
His tone carried suppressed anger and deep exhaustion.
Over the past year, he had dealt with far too many troubles caused by her and endured far too many of her unreasonable tantrums.
He was a soldier. Defending the country was his duty.
He didn’t have the time or energy to deal with a wife who was never satisfied and always stirring up trouble.
If it had been before, the original host would have jumped up and started throwing a fit upon hearing his accusatory tone.
She would either point at his nose and scold him for being unromantic or wail and cry about her miserable fate.
But today, the expected hysteria didn’t happen.
The woman across from him simply watched him quietly. In her beautiful eyes, which were always filled with impatience and criticism, there was now a hook-like glimmer he had never seen before.
That gaze seemed to be assessing a rare treasure, moving from his brow bone to his nose bridge, then to his tightly pressed thin lips, and finally settling on his meticulously fastened collar.
Qin Lie felt uncomfortable all over under her stare.
In his twenty-six years of life, it was the first time a woman had looked at him with such an unabashed, undisguised gaze.
It gave him the illusion that he was prey.
“Have you looked your fill?” He frowned, his voice growing even colder.
Instead of holding back, Jiang Wu walked toward him.
She was wearing a somewhat old cloth dress, yet she moved with a swaying grace.
She stopped in front of him, tilting her delicate little face upward. Her eyes shimmered with a watery light, as if holding a spring within.
“Darling, you’re back.”
Her voice was soft and sweet, carrying a natural coquettishness, like a feather lightly brushing against the tip of one’s heart.
Qin Lie tensed up completely.
He had never heard Jiang Wu speak to him in this tone before.
In the past, she would either call him “Qin Lie” by his full name or simply use “hey” instead.
The term “darling” coming from her mouth made him feel both unfamiliar and wary.
He instinctively took half a step back, wanting to create some distance.
But Jiang Wu followed, her slender fingers lightly grabbing his sleeve.
Her fingertips were warm, and through the thin fabric of his uniform, that warmth seemed to sear into his skin.
“You…” Qin Lie’s words caught in his throat.
He watched as Jiang Wu fumbled under the pillow and took out a folded piece of paper.
It was the divorce report he had already signed.
He had long grown tired of this exhausting marriage. As soon as she signed it, they could part ways and each go their own path.
He thought she had finally made up her mind to sign it.
That would be a relief in itself.
But the next moment, Jiang Wu’s actions left him completely stunned.
Right in front of him, she used her delicate jade-like hands to slowly, bit by bit, tear the divorce report into pieces.
The shreds of paper fell like snowflakes from her fair fingers.
“This kind of thing is just too inauspicious,” she said, as if it wasn’t enough. She gathered the fragments, walked to the window, and tossed them out with a flick of her hand.
The white pieces of paper fluttered in the sea breeze, scattering into the grass in the yard.
After doing all this, she turned around and flashed Qin Lie, who was staring dumbfounded, a smile that could topple cities.
“Darling, from now on, let’s live well together, okay?”
That smile was like a night-blooming cereus quietly blooming in the dark—stunningly beautiful and carrying an indescribable, enchanting strangeness.
Qin Lie looked at her, feeling for the first time a strong, uncontrollable sense of unfamiliarity rising in his heart.
Was the woman before him still his wife, Jiang Wu, who only knew how to throw tantrums and cry?