Gazing at the blood-soaked woman before him, Lin Haochen’s heart lurched violently.
He hadn’t felt such a powerful emotional stir since five years ago.
‘It’s actually her!’
The purple hair and purple eyes, the beauty mark just below her right eye—these were her unique traits!
‘There’s no mistaking it!’
Lin Haochen gently wiped the dust from her face.
Her exquisite features remained captivating even under the grime, but her face was marred by a shocking, fresh wound.
Lin Haochen took a deep breath and lifted the woman into the back seat of his car.
‘Good thing I bought a G-Wagen; the interior is spacious enough.’
After laying her flat on the back seat, Lin Haochen’s brows furrowed.
She wasn’t just severely injured; she was also poisoned.
If she hadn’t run into him, she wouldn’t have survived for another hour.
‘As a Martial Cultivator, even if she’s only at the Fourth Layer of the Martial Artist Realm, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say she could do as she pleased in a small place like Jin City.
How could she have sustained such severe injuries?’
Lin Haochen shook his head, casting aside his distracting thoughts and beginning the healing process.
Although Lin Haochen hadn’t treated a patient in two years, he was still a Divine Physician whose medical skills were at their Peak.
Healing her wounds and expelling the poison from her body would be a simple matter for him.
‘And that includes healing the wound on her face!’
However, Lin Haochen didn’t have the necessary medicinal herbs on him, aside from a single divine pill of his own creation.
For now, he could only stop the bleeding, relieve her pain, and promote rapid wound closure.
Expelling the poison and healing the scar would require further treatment.
Lin Haochen placed a pill in her mouth, then unsealed the acupoints he had previously blocked.
The medicine quickly took effect.
Her complexion visibly improved, the poison was suppressed, and a trace of color finally returned to her cheeks.
In just a minute, her right hand twitched.
By then, Lin Haochen was already back in the driver’s seat.
He had to get to an auction; otherwise, his sister’s birthday surprise would be missing a piece.
Two minutes later, the woman in the back seat awoke.
Realizing she was in a car, she immediately sat up, on guard.
The sudden movement tore at her wound, and fresh blood seeped out again.
“Hiss—”
“Who are you!”
The woman gritted her teeth, clutching her abdomen as she spoke to Lin Haochen with great difficulty.
But as she looked at his profile, she felt a faint sense of familiarity.
“Don’t move, or your wound will tear open again,” Lin Haochen said calmly.
When the woman heard Lin Haochen’s voice, her face filled with surprise.
‘That voice…
it’s familiar!’
She stared at Lin Haochen’s eyes in the rearview mirror for a moment, and then it hit her.
“Are…
are you…
Lin Haochen from the Lin Family?”
Driving, Lin Haochen glanced at the woman in the back through the rearview mirror, the corner of his mouth lifting in a barely perceptible smile.
“Yes.
Long time no see, Ye Ying.”
“You…
you’re really Lin Haochen?”
“Of course.
Lin Haochen from Jin City Third Middle School.”
Ye Ying stared at Lin Haochen in disbelief.
She never imagined anyone would save her, let alone that her savior would be her old classmate, Lin Haochen!
“Th-thank you for saving me.”
After confirming Lin Haochen’s identity, Ye Ying turned to gaze out the window, her mind a whirlwind of thoughts.
She had thought she was dead, yet here she was, saved by Lin Haochen.
‘But…
in my current state, what’s the difference between being alive and being dead?’
In the reflection of the car window, she saw the scar on the right side of her face.
She slowly reached up and gently touched her cheek.
A jolt of pain shot through her, and tears streamed down her cheeks—not from the pain, but from the sight of the ghastly wound.
Although Ye Ying was a Martial Cultivator, she was, first and foremost, a twenty-four-year-old woman.
And what woman could ever accept being disfigured?
Especially when she had once been a devastatingly beautiful woman.
Lin Haochen silently watched Ye Ying through the rearview mirror.
He’d never imagined he would meet his secret high school crush again after seven years, especially not under such strange circumstances.
For all six years of middle and high school, Lin Haochen and Ye Ying had been classmates.
Back then, the Lin Family was still prominent, and he was considered a golden boy.
Yet, in the presence of Ye Ying, a seemingly ordinary transfer student from the Imperial city, he’d actually felt a sense of inferiority.
It was only later that he realized it was because he’d fallen for her.
Unfortunately, during those six years, Lin Haochen and Ye Ying rarely interacted, and their relationship never went beyond being just classmates.
Back in those days, Lin Haochen used to fantasize that Ye Ying would get into trouble in Jin City, and he would be the one to show up and save her.
Afterward, they would start to grow close.
It was a cliché plot, but during those awkward school years, what boy didn’t have similar daydreams?
But who could have predicted that as time passed, the Lin Family would be annihilated, that Lin Haochen would spend five years transforming himself to reach the Peak, and that Ye Ying would prove to be no ordinary transfer student?
Yet now, here she was, in such a desperate plight.
It was the classic ‘hero saves the damsel’ scene he had always imagined, but it was far from how he’d pictured it.
“Lin…
Lin Haochen, can I ask you a favor?”
Ye Ying wiped away her tears and forced a smile as she looked at Lin Haochen.
After Lin Haochen nodded, Ye Ying continued, “Could you help me buy some clothes and a veil in a bit?
I…
I…”
“Okay.”
“Thank you.”
Silence filled the car for a long time after that.
Ye Ying simply stared out the window, her eyes vacant.
Lin Haochen, for his part, occasionally glanced back at Ye Ying, memories of years past slowly bubbling to the surface.
“Um…
aren’t you…
aren’t you curious about how I ended up in this situation?
Most people would’ve called the police by now, wouldn’t they?”
When the car reached the underground garage of the Global Financial Center and Lin Haochen got out, Ye Ying lowered her window and called out to him.
Lin Haochen continued walking, merely giving a dismissive wave of his hand.
“After what my Lin Family went through, I can understand what you’re experiencing.
Besides, I’m a Divine Physician.”