Doudou has a father — cold and handsome in appearance, tall and fair-skinned, with an unmatched elegance. Twenty-two years old, broad-shouldered and well-built, with a modest family fortune and a bit of influence as well.
He is now seeking a suitable lady to accompany him. No need for a beauty that could topple nations, only one lovely enough to charm a city — gentle, virtuous, and kind to Doudou!
Interested parties may come to XXX for a matchmaking meeting!
This marriage notice instantly became the hottest topic throughout the capital. Everyone was guessing what kind of man this father was. Was he truly that handsome? What was his family background like?
After all, such a matchmaking notice had never appeared before. It was completely unprecedented, and curiosity alone was enough to drive the entire city wild.
While the capital was in an uproar because of the notice, far away from the city, in a small village called Peach Blossom Village, a beautiful young girl slowly opened her eyes.
Before her stood five or six men dressed in black, each holding a longsword.
Standing in front of them was a middle-aged woman. Her clothes were disheveled, her long hair loose, and her body covered in blood. She trembled violently, yet still stood firm without retreating even half a step, shielding the girl behind her.
Her voice was hoarse as she said, “Aren’t you after my life? Then come at me. I only beg you not to hurt my daughter.”
One of the assassins replied coldly, “Neither of you will leave alive.”
As he spoke, he raised his sword and thrust it toward the woman without hesitation.
At that very moment, everything changed.
The girl, whom they had already assumed dead, suddenly struck the assassin’s hand with a silver hairpin. In the same instant, she snatched the sword from his grasp. A flash of cold light streaked through the air.
The assassin’s exposed eyes widened in terror and disbelief. He collapsed to his knees and fell lifeless to the ground.
Only then did the other killers react. Looking at the girl standing protectively before the woman like a god of slaughter, they all charged toward her at once.
The girl they had dismissed most casually actually possessed such terrifying skills. They absolutely could not give her another chance.
Unfortunately for them, heaven did not seem to favor them today.
The girl moved like death itself. Her sword wasted not a single movement. One strike, one life. In moments, five of the six men had fallen.
When only the last assassin remained, her sword flashed once more, and the man crumpled to the ground.
His eyes were wide with fear. They had thought this would be an easy job. After all, the client had said they were merely two weak women with no power to resist.
Had they known this girl was so terrifying, they never would have accepted the task.
The girl dragged the bloodstained tip of her sword across the assassin’s face, slicing a long wound through his skin as blood poured down. She lifted the cloth covering his face with the sword tip and asked coldly,
“Who sent you?”
“It… it was your father.”
Before the girl could speak, the middle-aged woman cried out in denial, “You’re lying! Impossible! It could never be my husband! You’re lying!”
The girl swung her sword mercilessly.
One of the man’s arms was severed instantly.
“AHHH!” the assassin screamed in agony, curling up on the ground.
Then the girl smiled.
Her smile was bright and innocent, like that of a pure, naïve young maiden untouched by the world — yet it sent chills deep into the assassin’s bones.
Her voice remained icy.
“The person who hired you… man or woman?”
The assassin clutched at his bleeding shoulder with his remaining hand, trying desperately to retreat while glancing around for an escape route.
But the girl gave him no chance.
Another slash.
His second arm flew off as well.
“AHHHHH!”
Both arms were gone now.
Terrified out of his mind, the assassin hurriedly shouted, “I’ll talk! I’ll talk! It was a woman! A woman! She said you were in her way, that you both had to die! That’s all I know! I’ve told you everything!”
The girl said coldly, “Go. If you survive, take a message back to that woman for me. Tell her… we’ll be returning to see whether she is doing well.”
The man scrambled up and fled in a miserable panic.
Only after he disappeared into the distance did the girl turn back.
The middle-aged woman stared at her blankly, her face filled with terror.
The girl walked over and gently helped her up.
“Mother.”
The woman immediately stepped back despite her injuries, forcing herself to remain standing as she looked at the girl with full suspicion.
“Who… who are you?” she demanded. “You are not my daughter, Lin Youyou.”
Her daughter was someone she had raised personally. She knew exactly what the girl could and could not do.
The young woman before her had her daughter’s body. She had never left her mother’s sight before.
But those eyes… and that ruthless way of killing just now…
That was absolutely not her delicate, sickly daughter who had been raised sheltered within the inner chambers.
The girl — Lin Youyou — merely smiled.
“Mother, you once said that no matter where I was in this life, you would stay by my side and take care of me forever. You said I was the most important person to you.”
The woman froze.
She had once been the honored mistress of the Lin household. Yet because her daughter Lin Youyou had always been weak and sickly, she willingly gave up wealth and luxury to live in this remote village.
And she truly had once made that promise to her daughter.
“When did I ever say such a thing?”
“When I was five years old. After I fell into the river and was rescued. When it was only the two of us together, you said it to me personally.”
Holding the bloodstained sword in one hand while supporting the stiff and wary woman — her birth mother, Madam Xu — with the other, Lin Youyou said softly,
“Mother… when I died just now, my soul went to another world.”
“W-What?”
Madam Xu trembled violently. Her eyes widened in shock, and a cold chill ran down her spine. She was so stunned that she did not even notice Lin Youyou helping her sit on the stone bench in the courtyard.
She even forgot about the corpses lying everywhere nearby.
“I truly died just now,” Lin Youyou continued. “For some reason, my soul drifted into another world. It was completely different from this place — a world a thousand years into the future.
“There, I worked hard to learn martial arts. I struggled to survive. I wanted to make up for the helplessness of this life… where I was murdered and unable to protect you, Mother.
“I never expected Heaven to show me mercy and send me back to the moment of my death.
“This time… I will definitely protect you and never let the assassins kill you again.”
Lin Youyou’s words filled Madam Xu with icy fear, and she shuddered uncontrollably.
Thinking back to the danger just moments ago, if her daughter had not suddenly risen and killed the assassins, then both mother and daughter would certainly be dead now.
Even so, Madam Xu still found it difficult to believe the person before her. The changes were simply too great.
And after surviving such an assassination attempt, she had become like a frightened bird startled by the mere twang of a bowstring — wary of everyone and everything.
Lin Youyou naturally understood her mother well.
After all, for the past fifteen years, Madam Xu had always remained by her side. Lin Youyou understood her better than anyone.
This woman was kind and gentle. She lacked the commanding presence expected of the mistress of a great household, yet she was a truly good mother… and a genuinely good person.