Once she saw Jiang Fanyin and the young runner disappear over the slope, Song Boxue hesitated no longer. Her lips curled into a faint smirk as her Alpha spiritual power surged to full capacity.
The men in black felt a sudden roar in their heads, and one by one, they collapsed to the ground.
Spiritual suppression lasts only a brief moment. Song Boxue tucked away her dagger and snatched a saber from one of the fallen men.
With clean, decisive strikes, she pierced the legs of the masked men. She had never been soft-hearted toward enemies; today, not a single one of them was walking away.
However, she couldn’t disable them all before the suppression wore off.
“Are you, are you human or a ghost?” The two men who had escaped the initial wave held their sabers, huddling close together in terror.
Song Boxue raised her blade, her eyes cold and unblinking. “Why don’t you come find out for yourself?”
Combativeness was an Alpha’s nature, and she was no exception.
On the other side of the slope, Constable Wang and a group of students saw Jiang Fanyin and the young runner sprinting toward them. Standing among the crowd, Jiang Wuyi’s eyes flashed with surprise, which he quickly masked.
“What happened? Where is the Magistrate?” Constable Wang rushed to meet them.
“The Magistrate was ambushed! Quickly, go save her!” The young runner was gasping for air.
The crowd gasped. Jiang Wuyi was the first to step forward, moving toward Jiang Fanyin. “Yin’yin, don’t be afraid. With me here, no one will hurt you.”
Jiang Fanyin’s eyes flickered with coldness. “Commander Jiang should immediately take his men to rescue Magistrate Song.”
Realizing the gravity of the situation, she didn’t wait for a response. She turned and bolted back in the direction of Song Boxue.
She shouldn’t have retreated. Those masked men were clearly Jiang Wuyi’s doing; if she had stayed, they might have hesitated. Her heart was a chaotic mess of guilt. I shouldn’t have run away.
Seeing this, Jiang Wuyi panicked and followed with his saber drawn.
He had ordered his men to kidnap Jiang Fanyin so he could play the hero. According to his plan, that “dog official” Song Boxue would have abandoned her out of cowardice. Why was Jiang Fanyin the one running out? Where had the plan gone wrong?
The students exchanged glances. Seeing Jiang Wuyi leading soldiers and the yamen constable, they emboldened themselves and followed.
“Song Boxue!”
A woman’s startled cry rang out from ahead. The following students felt their hearts sink. Were they too late?
But as they drew closer, they froze in unison.
The air was thick with the scent of blood. Over a dozen masked men lay scattered on the ground.
Standing in their midst was a figure in green official robes, gripping a long saber with an expression of chilling slaughter. Though she looked like a delicate, refined young gentleman, she stood there like an asura from hell, striking fear into the hearts of all who saw her.
Suddenly, that murderous expression vanished as her lips curved into a smile. “Sister Jiang.”
It was as if ice had suddenly thawed. The killing intent evaporated instantly.
Combined with the earlier cry and the address of “Sister Jiang,” the crowd finally realized that the “Master Jiang” accompanying the Magistrate was actually a woman.
Jiang Fanyin grabbed Song Boxue’s arm firmly. “You.” Are you hurt?
The words caught in her throat, choked by the guilt welling up from within.
Song Boxue’s vision blurred slightly. She squeezed Jiang Fanyin’s hand. “I am fine. Take all these people back and throw them in the dungeon to await trial.”
Constable Wang snapped into action, leading the runners to bind the men. Every single man on the ground had had their hamstrings severed; they had all fainted from excessive blood loss.
Song Boxue spared a glance for Jiang Wuyi before pulling Jiang Fanyin toward her. She whispered, “Sister Jiang, I’m a little thirsty. Let’s go back.”
Because her control over her spiritual power was still unrefined, her pheromones were reaching a breaking point. The glands behind her ears were throbbing violently. She needed soothing, and the person in her arms was the only one who could provide it.
A little thirsty.
Meeting that intense gaze, Jiang Fanyin’s heart tightened. She supported her as they walked toward the exit.
The onlookers watched in silence, momentarily forgetting how to react.
Jiang Wuyi gripped his saber, staring darkly at his unconscious men. These were his trusted confidants, and now they were all crippled. That “dog official” was actually this formidable.
He shot a look at Advisor Zhou. He couldn’t let these men confess his involvement.
Inside the carriage, Jiang Fanyin leaned against Song Boxue, not daring to move.
Song Boxue’s cool fingers brushed against her neck. A low, raspy question came from behind her: “Sister Jiang, are you willing to help me?”
Jiang Fanyin’s body stiffened. She closed her eyes briefly, her pale knuckles white as she gripped her sleeves.
“If you are unwilling, I will not force you,” came a low sigh by her ear.
Song Boxue took Jiang Fanyin’s dagger and made a sharp cut across her own palm. The sudden surge of pain helped her cling to her fleeting sanity. If she couldn’t rely on the female lead for soothing, she had to learn to endure it on her own.
“Song Boxue!” Jiang Fanyin grabbed the bleeding palm and carefully wrapped it in a handkerchief.
She looked up and collided with a pair of eyes that were both burning and restrained. Her heartbeat suddenly spiraled out of control.
Jiang Fanyin bit her lip, her thick lashes trembling before she slowly closed her eyes. She tilted her chin up, exposing the elegant curve of her neck.
Beneath that jade-white skin, faint bluish veins were visible—like a dark river flowing silently under a sheet of ice. It was as if a high-and-mighty deity had lowered herself, exposing her weakness to a restless Alpha, driving her to the brink of madness.
Song Boxue leaned down. Between the opening and closing of her thin lips, she was mesmerizing.
Licks, bites—dense and meticulous, lingering without end.
It wasn’t that I profaned a deity, Song Boxue thought dizzily. It was that the deity was willing to fall with me.
The rich scent of lemon filled the carriage. The one taking wanted more. Song Boxue’s long fingers brushed against Jiang Fanyin’s collar, pulling and testing, as her lips moved downward toward the collarbone.
At that moment, the carriage entered the rear courtyard of the yamen and came to a stop.
Song Boxue picked up the person in her arms and stepped steadily onto the ground. Possessiveness roared in her mind, seducing her remaining logic. The person in her arms had eyes like autumn water and a body so soft it made her heart tremble. She kicked the door open and hooked it shut with her toe.
In the frantic scramble of movement, Jiang Fanyin landed on the bed against a soft quilt. A pair of hands moved toward the silk sash at her waist.
Suddenly remembering something, Jiang Fanyin grabbed Song Boxue’s hands, a flash of alarm crossing her eyes.
They stared at each other in silence, the smoldering fire of restraint flickering in their eyes.
Song Boxue’s hands froze. She averted her gaze. “You, you should rest well.”
With hurried steps, she fled the room.
Inside, Jiang Fanyin ignored the daze and chaos in her heart. She tightly gripped the parchment hidden beneath her sash, remaining motionless for a long time.
Outside, Song Boxue looked up at the sky.
She had temporarily marked the female lead!
Though Jiang Fanyin wasn’t an Omega, so it arguably wasn’t a “marking” in the biological sense, let alone a success. To the female lead, it was perhaps just a long, lingering bite.
But it couldn’t hide the fact that she had lost control and performed her first temporary mark. She had even wanted to possess Jiang Fanyin more deeply—to mark her permanently.
Jiang Fanyin was the female lead; she had her destined male lead and her own path in life. But the first half of her life was tragic—this was a “bittersweet” angst novel. She would go through endless cycles of breaking up and making up with the male lead, suffering for half her life before finding a “happy ending.”
Song Boxue rubbed her temples, her mind a chaotic swirl of thoughts.
“My child, are you alright?” Madam Song rushed over upon hearing the news, only to find her daughter sitting irritably on the doorstep, massaging her brow.
She scanned Song Boxue from head to toe, letting out a sigh of relief only when she was certain there were no injuries. “How on earth did you run into assassins? And where is Fanyin? Is she hurt?”
Those two were practically glued at the hip these days, inseparable even for a simple outing. It was enough to make anyone’s teeth ache with sweetness, yet as a mother, all she got was endless worrying. It was truly exhausting.
“We are both fine.”
“That’s good, then. You nearly scared me to death.” Madam Song patted her chest and sat down beside her daughter.
She could tell at a glance that something was weighing on her daughter’s mind.
“I was quite scared myself.” Song Boxue murmured, touching her chest, her gaze as deep and inscrutable as the sea.
Madam Song reached out and pulled her into a shoulder hug. “Don’t be afraid, it’s all over now. I’ve had your fortune told—you have a resilient fate. No one can truly harm you.”
Song Boxue remained silent, thinking to herself that the original owner had been personally ushered into the afterlife by her mother’s own poison; “resilient” was hardly the word for it.
“Mother, if you hadn’t met Father back then, would you have married someone else?”
Madam Song shot her a glare. “That deadbeat father of yours.”
The sentence had barely begun before Madam Song pressed a handkerchief to her eyes. “Your father left us so early, boo-hoo.”
Song Boxue: “…”
She was guilty as charged; she shouldn’t have asked. The moment her father was mentioned, Madam Song’s weeping would become a never-ending performance.
“Mother, I’m going to check on Sister Jiang.”
Madam Song lowered her handkerchief, her sobbing stopping instantly. Little heartless brat, forgetting your mother the moment you have a wife. Hmph.
________________________________________
Author’s Note:
Song Boxue: The female lead just received a very long bite from me. Yes, that’s exactly what it was.