“Husband, you don’t even recognize me anymore?”
When Ji Youyou heard those words, her eardrums and pupils practically shook with shock.
Her husband was actually another man’s husband.
Ji Youyou was holding Yu Nu’s hand, and even her fingers stiffened. She slowly turned her head in disbelief and looked up at the man who had been her loving bedmate for the past year. With great difficulty, she asked:
“Husband… who is this man?”
It was the height of August, sweltering under the summer heat. As usual, Ji Youyou had gone to bring tea to her husband, Yu Nu, while he worked in the fields, and they had planned to return home together for lunch.
But when she arrived home, she saw seven or eight extraordinarily distinguished men and women standing beside the fence outside their small farmhouse.
Yu Nu’s hand was as cold as jade. He gripped Ji Youyou’s hand tightly, furrowing his long brows as he spoke to the man before him with obvious displeasure.
“Sorry, but you’ve mistaken me for someone else. I don’t know you. The woman beside me is my wife. Please don’t come between us and ruin our marriage.”
“Heh.”
Xie Lin let out a cold laugh.
His features were feminine and exquisitely handsome, and that cold smile only added an air of sinister danger that warned others to keep their distance.
He wore a cloak trimmed with peacock feathers over a crow-black robe. Incongruously, a sash embroidered with magnolia blossoms was tied around his waist. His appearance was both luxurious and delicate, while his beauty was so breathtaking that he looked almost like a seductive demon or ghost capable of stealing souls.
Xie Lin toyed with the black jade ring on his finger, rubbing it repeatedly as though he found the situation amusing.
His voice was deep and alluring as he quietly instructed the only woman standing behind him:
“Si Yirou, you know what to do.”
Si Yirou, the deputy sect master of Yuheng Sect, gave a slight nod and walked toward Yu Nu and Ji Youyou.
Yu Nu stepped in front of Ji Youyou. His long brows drew together as he warned the approaching Si Yirou:
“Miss, don’t come any closer.”
The moment he finished speaking, Si Yirou raised her hand and flicked her sleeve.
A cloud of pink powder flew from within her sleeve.
The powder dispersed through the air, and both Yu Nu and Ji Youyou inhaled some of it.
Ji Youyou coughed several times.
Then she felt Yu Nu pull his hand away from hers. He shook her hand off, as though desperately trying to sever all ties between them.
Ji Youyou looked at him.
He was already standing beside Si Yirou and Xie Lin, looking at her with an unfamiliar, icy expression.
Confused, she murmured:
“What…?”
The answer came from Yu Nu, whose voice had turned cold and distant, rejecting her as though she were a stranger.
“Miss Ji, I’m sorry. I am actually Yu Xuanhe, the Sword Sect disciple of Yuheng. That day, I was poisoned by the aphrodisiac of the Five Ghost Sect and fell from the cliff. You happened to save me. That poison causes its victim to become madly infatuated with the person beside them. That is why, through a twist of fate, I ended up becoming…”
He glanced at Xie Lin beside him and swallowed the word *husband*.
“That is why we ended up in this ill-fated relationship.”
Yu Xuanhe.
That name made Ji Youyou feel as though she had fallen straight into an icy pit.
Her heart was struck with another heavy blow.
The husband she had spent a year with.
The man she had rescued from the brink of death beneath the cliff.
He was actually saying that everything between them had merely been an accident.
An ill-fated relationship.
Ji Youyou stood there, stunned with grief and anger.
“An accident? Then what am I supposed to be?”
Si Yirou was Yuheng’s deputy sect master. Beautiful and alluring, she had always looked down on Ji Youyou, a mere mortal with no cultivation.
Finding Ji Youyou troublesome, Si Yirou barely even looked at her as she replied:
“Miss, I am the deputy sect master of Yuheng. Xuanhe is the Sword Sect’s disciple and the son of the celestial crane under the Heavenly Dao. Besides, we are all cultivators, while you are not one of us.”
“You should at least preserve some dignity as a woman. Xuanhe and Xie Lin are the dual-cultivation partners arranged by the two great sects. You should stop indulging in foolish fantasies.”
“Still, it is true that you saved Xuanhe. If you want gold, silver, or jewelry, we will compensate you accordingly. But if you insist on pestering him, we will not be polite and allow you to continue this entanglement.”
Si Yirou was also annoyed by women like Ji Youyou and wanted to preserve Yuheng’s reputation as an upright sect.
Ji Youyou was rendered speechless.
She was unarmed, while everyone before her possessed magical abilities. She was clearly at a disadvantage.
But what about the feelings they had shared over the past year?
Ji Youyou looked at Yu Xuanhe and Xie Lin.
So they had originally belonged together.
And she had merely been an accident.
“Fine. Then I want money.”
No matter how miserable Ji Youyou felt, she couldn’t sacrifice her own interests just to preserve her pride. She wasn’t going to angrily refuse the money.
The man was gone.
**But she was still going to get the money.**
Si Yirou gave a disdainful snort before taking a teleportation talisman from her sleeve. After reciting a spell, several boxes of gold suddenly appeared inside Ji Youyou’s already tiny farmhouse.
Though Si Yirou’s tone remained cold and mocking, she still put on a pleasant smile.
“You’re a smart girl. Keep this hundred taels of gold.”
Just as Si Yirou arrogantly prepared to leave, Xie Lin stepped forward and stood in front of Ji Youyou.
He scolded her:
“Si Yirou, are you some kind of living Bodhisattva?! You just casually gave this woman a hundred taels of gold? Xuanhe let her have him for an entire year for no reason—doesn’t that mean she already got the better end of the deal?”
“Besides, Xuanhe is the son of a celestial crane. Sleeping with him increases a mortal’s cultivation and lifespan. How many people would kill for such an opportunity? Why are you actually paying *her* on top of that?”
Xie Lin stepped closer.
Ji Youyou met his eyes and found herself unable to speak.
After all, if love was a matter of who came first, then Xie Lin had been there first.
Si Yirou was inexplicably snapped at and became somewhat awkward. She coughed lightly twice, not knowing what to say.
Xie Lin gave a sinister smile and scrutinized Ji Youyou again, his expression turning cold.
“You occupied my husband for an entire year. The fact that I haven’t demanded your life is already generous enough. And you still want money?”
Si Yirou wanted to say something and play peacemaker, but she didn’t dare provoke Xie Lin, leaving her caught in an awkward dilemma.
Yu Xuanhe’s cold voice settled the matter once and for all.
“Enough. Stop arguing. It’s only money. Mortals say that one day as husband and wife creates a hundred days of affection. Take the gold.”
“From now on, you and I have nothing to do with each other.”
“But if I hear any rumors coming from you, I will personally kill you.”
“What…?”
Tears were already gathering in Ji Youyou’s eyes, but she stubbornly held them back. For the sake of the last scrap of dignity she had left, she choked out:
“You would… kill me?”
Xie Lin smiled smugly.
Then he turned and walked back to Yu Xuanhe’s side, gazing at him affectionately.
Since Yu Xuanhe had spoken, Xie Lin declared triumphantly:
“Since my husband has said so, giving you some money as charity doesn’t matter. But if you continue pestering him or spread rumors that damage my husband’s reputation, I won’t spare you either.”
Si Yirou still possessed a little kindness. She spoke gently:
“Miss, try to let it go.”
How was Ji Youyou supposed to let it go?
Not only had she unknowingly become the other woman, she was now being threatened with death as well.
Ji Youyou wiped at her tearful eyes and secretly glanced at Yu Xuanhe.
His face remained as beautiful as jade, his bearing still pure and refined.
But he didn’t spare Ji Youyou even a proper glance.
“Let’s go.”
Yu Xuanhe’s voice was as cold as piercing ice.
Whether he was disgusted by her or simply wanted to sever all ties with her completely, she couldn’t tell.
In the blink of an eye, as though they had never been there at all, the people in the farmhouse transformed into several wisps of blue smoke and disappeared without a trace.
Ji Youyou felt a chill creep down her back.
She sobbed and collapsed onto the ground.
Silence descended.
The place suddenly felt empty.
Although only she and Yu Xuanhe had lived in this enormous mountain forest, they had been loving and affectionate with each other. Having someone by her side had kept her from feeling lonely.
But today, alone, she looked around and finally realized just how vast and silent the forest really was.
The mountains were terrifying.
What difference was there between her current situation and a woman being kidnapped and taken deep into the mountains?
She had no one to rely on.
She had transmigrated here.
All she had done was watch a video. She had seen a marketing account with millions of views editing together the plot of a melodramatic BL novel. Curious, she had clicked on it.
The video was about the male protagonist, Xie Lin, and the second male lead, Yu Xuanhe.
Yu Xuanhe had secretly helped Xie Lin all along and had even sacrificed his life for him.
Yet Xie Lin had not only committed countless terrible deeds, he had even said that Yu Xuanhe’s death was deserved.
Ji Youyou had been moved by the marketing account’s edited storyline.
Among the millions of comments, she had even left one herself:
“Xie Lin really doesn’t know what he’s got. Yu Xuanhe loves him so much. He might as well love me instead.”
The moment she posted the comment, her phone exploded.
When she woke up, she had transmigrated to the bottom of a seemingly bottomless cliff, with a handsome, blood-covered man beside her whose bearing was pure and refined.
The man was seriously injured and clung to her, calling her wife, refusing to let go of her hand.
Although she was frightened, Ji Youyou was an optimistic person and quickly accepted the fact that she had transmigrated.
At first, she hadn’t wanted to save some random stranger.
But the man held onto her desperately, and in the end, she softened.
She saved him and found an abandoned wooden house nearby where they could settle down.
After waking, the man told her that he had completely forgotten his identity and origins. The only thing he remembered was that his name was Yu Nu.
He also claimed to be her husband and even told her a story about their love.
Ji Youyou actually began to believe that the body she had transmigrated into really had been married to him.
She lived with him for half a year.
Yu Nu was not only considerate and attentive, but also handled all the housework and every bit of farm work outside.
Ji Youyou gradually fell for him.
And Yu Xuanhe, being the son of a celestial crane with an extraordinary constitution, was also unbelievably… talented when it came to what they did at night.
Simply astonishing.
It was hard for Ji Youyou *not* to like him.
But she never expected that Yu Nu was actually Yu Xuanhe.
A prophecy fulfilled.
Yu Xuanhe really had “fallen in love” with her.
She should have realized it from the beginning.
She hadn’t transmigrated into some idyllic ancient farming paradise.
She had transmigrated directly into that BL novel.
That damn marketing account.
And now the most important question was she had never read the actual novel. She had only watched the edited video.
What was supposed to happen next?
Even if there was more to the story, what use could a woman possibly have in a BL novel?
The worst part was that she had become the other woman.
A cannon-fodder character.
Ji Youyou thought of Yu Xuanhe again.
After all, they had still been eating breakfast together lovingly that very morning.
It hurt.
Along with the heartbreak came an intense pain in Ji Youyou’s chest.
If she had to describe it, it felt like the way books sometimes described it—as though there were a bullet lodged inside her chest, with shrapnel endlessly exploding outward.
She wanted to grab a knife and stab herself in the chest, just to replace one kind of pain with another.
The pain was so intense that she didn’t even have the strength to cry.
Only tears fell, one after another.
At the summit of the snow-covered mountains of Yuheng, atop the dome of the sect, stood Yu Xuanhe’s residence Moon Catching Palace.
Celestial cranes favored cold and ice.
Thus, snow that had not melted for ten thousand years blanketed Moon-Catching Palace in white, making Yu Xuanhe seem even colder and more heartless.
“Yulang, this is the Forget-Love Soup I had the Medicine Immortal prepare. Drink it, and everything that happened in the mortal world beneath the mountain will disappear like smoke.”
Xie Lin had called Yu Xuanhe *Yulang* since childhood, and after getting him back, he had become even more attached to him.
He held out a jade bowl.
The medicinal liquid shimmered at the bottom, its reflection glinting sharply in Yu Xuanhe’s eyes.
“Why? Do I still need to drink Forget-Love Soup? I won’t develop feelings for a mortal woman.”
Yu Xuanhe sat at a pearwood writing desk, brush in hand as he concentrated on writing a letter. Even so, he found time to answer Xie Lin calmly.
“Yulang, I believe you. But we’re about to get married, aren’t we?”
“Besides, doesn’t your sword cultivation require you to sever all emotions and attachments? I’m only thinking of you. I’m afraid… I’m afraid you’ll suffer cultivation deviation…”
There was an obvious flaw in what Xie Lin said.
If severing emotions and attachments was truly required, then wouldn’t he and Yu Xuanhe develop feelings for each other as well?
What Xie Lin was actually afraid of was Yu Xuanhe developing genuine feelings for that mortal woman.
The dosage of Forget-Love Soup had been deliberately prepared so that Yu Xuanhe would forget everything that had happened during that year.
Yu Xuanhe put down his brush, accepted the jade bowl, and drank the Forget-Love Soup in one go.
“I’m tired. Go outside.”
“As for the wedding… you and Father can handle it.”
Yu Xuanhe spoke calmly before closing his eyes and gently rubbing his temples.
Xie Lin had nothing more to say. Reluctantly, he withdrew and closed the door behind him.
The moment the door shut, the tender and obedient man who only appeared in front of Yu Xuanhe disappeared.
A murderous chill returned to Xie Lin’s face.
Si Yirou was waiting outside the door.
Xie Lin’s expression was gloomy.
“Si Yirou, go find a few rough men. Have them thoroughly ‘play with’ that woman who slept with Xuanhe, and then kill her…”