Chapter 1
It was a beautiful, sunny day. The sky stretched endlessly overhead without a cloud in sight, and the weather was pleasantly comfortable. Yet within the tranquil forest, the river flowed unusually fast, as though carrying something along with its turbulent current.
A person had been swept downstream and washed ashore. She lay on her back beside the weed-covered riverbank, her ears ringing while the lower half of her body remained submerged in the icy water. She thought she was not far from death, but heaven seemed to have other plans.
Suddenly, a wave of discomfort overwhelmed her. She forced herself upright and began coughing violently, expelling the water she had inhaled through her mouth and nose. Her hazy consciousness gradually cleared…
When she realized she was still alive, she did not feel particularly happy. She merely lay back down, unwilling even to pull the rest of her body out of the water.
She opened her pitch-black eyes and gazed at the bright sky above. It was an endless, cloudless expanse of blue. Doing this was perhaps one of the few things that could bring her a sense of peace.
During her school days, whenever she had physical education class, she would lie on the grassy field just like this, staring blankly at the sky and emptying her mind. Why had she enjoyed doing that so much? Perhaps it was because all her classmates had someone to talk and play with, while she was always alone.
Her name was Yang Lulong. After accidentally falling into a river, she had been carried to this unfamiliar place.
Withdrawn by nature, she had very few friends and had never experienced a romantic relationship. Her parents divorced when she was very young, and custody of her was awarded to her father. However, after her father found a new wife, she became an unnecessary presence in their new family.
After entering university, she naturally began to lose contact with them. The only time they reached out was when her younger half-brother got married and invited her to attend. She did not go, nor did she offer even a perfunctory word of congratulations.
She still remembered how happy she had been when her little brother was first born. She had wanted to play with him, but he did not seem to like her. Every time she approached him, he would burst into tears and vehemently resist her presence.
For the first time in her young life, she learned what it felt like to be disliked. Before long, she began to feel that her father and stepmother disliked her as well. As for her biological mother, her memories of her had already grown vague.
Over time, the once-lively girl stopped speaking much at home. Eventually, she became reluctant to speak to anyone at all.
She could technically be considered missing now, but she could not think of anyone who would report her disappearance to the police. Even her harsh supervisor, after failing to contact her for missing work for so long, would probably just send her a letter of dismissal.
She had already watched her life flash before her eyes and reviewed the entire first half of her existence, yet the Grim Reaper still had not come for her.
She began to feel cold. Even the sound of the wind blowing through the grass reached her ears with perfect clarity.
The grass suddenly rustled.
They were in the middle of nowhere, so it could very well be some kind of wild animal. What if it was a wolf? She might become its lunch.
As the thought crossed Yang Lulong’s mind, fear crept into her heart, but her body remained motionless. A moment later, she felt relieved again.
It did not matter if she died like this. She only hoped it would not hurt too much…
With that thought, she closed her eyes.
She expected sharp teeth to sink into her flesh. Instead, a warm hand touched her neck, seemingly checking her pulse.
Yang Lulong did not dare open her eyes. She was afraid to let someone else see her in such a miserable state.
Then she felt warm breath brush across her face as the fragrance of jasmine lingered around her. Somehow, the scent gradually soothed her anxious heart.
After a while, she heard footsteps moving away. Only then did Yang Lulong dare open her eyes slightly and look in the direction the person had gone.
Amid the lush green trees and bushes, a white figure gradually disappeared from sight.
The jasmine fragrance from that person still lingered in the air.
Yang Lulong wanted to leave before the person returned, but she had lost all feeling in her lower body. After soaking in the freezing river for so long, there was no way she could stand.
With great difficulty, she pushed herself upright with her hands and attempted to drag the lower half of her body out of the water. Unfortunately, she was too slow. Before she could move, she heard several people talking noisily in the distance.
It appeared that the person had gone to summon others for help.
Yang Lulong had no choice but to lie back down and continue pretending to be unconscious.
The voices of several men gradually drew nearer, mingled with those of women.
“She’s a Qianyuan. Wanniang, are you really going to take her back to your home?”
“It’s fine. It’ll be more convenient for me to care for her there,” someone answered in a gentle voice.
“But you’re still unmarried, and you’re a Kunze… If other people start gossiping…”
“Why are you talking so much nonsense? Let’s bring her back first. Saving her life is more important,” another woman interrupted.
Yang Lulong listened to them discussing something, but she could not understand what they meant by “Qianyuan” and “Kunze.”
She felt herself being lifted before someone hoisted her onto their back.
The group did not stop talking throughout the journey. Although Yang Lulong could hear every word perfectly clearly as she pretended to be unconscious, she could barely understand what they were talking about.
Her curiosity was piqued, so she secretly opened her eyes a sliver. She saw a flash of white—the person who had discovered her was walking beside the one carrying her.
Afraid of being discovered, Yang Lulong hurriedly squeezed her eyes shut again.
“The clothes she’s wearing don’t look like something an ordinary person would wear.”
“She might belong to one of the wealthy families in town. And she’s even a Qianyuan…”
“If that’s true, wouldn’t we receive a generous reward?” The man’s delight was evident in his voice.
“What are you dreaming about? If she wants to thank anyone, she’ll thank our Wanniang first. If Wanniang hadn’t discovered her…”
“Female Qianyuan are quite rare. The only ones I know of live in the capital. They’re all the daughters of nobles and generals—every one of them is either wealthy or powerful.”
“But Wanniang… if you’re going to bring her into your home and care for her, you still need to be careful. She’s a Qianyuan, while you’re a Kunze. There must be boundaries between you…”
“I know…” Wanniang replied with a helpless laugh, glancing at Yang Lulong as she was carried along.
She had gone out to gather medicinal herbs that day when she discovered the woman lying beside the riverbank. Fortunately, she had checked and found that the woman was still alive, so she called the villagers over to help.
Wanniang was the only person in the entire village who possessed any medical knowledge, so she had no choice but to bring the woman back to her own home and care for her.
Yang Lulong continued listening to their idle conversation throughout the journey. It turned out that the first person to discover her was a woman named Wanniang. She also seemed to be some kind of doctor. The villagers had decided to take Yang Lulong back to Wanniang’s home, which might be a small clinic or something similar.
At least, that was what Yang Lulong assumed. Those were the only parts of their conversation she understood. Everything else they said made no sense to her. They kept talking about “Qianyuan” and “Kunze.”
It seemed she had truly been brought to an extremely remote place. There was not even a hospital nearby. She only hoped there was a bank where she could withdraw some money. She also needed to find a way to explain everything to her supervisor and convince him not to fire her. Then she would have to think of a suitable way to thank these people, perhaps by having an embroidered banner of gratitude made for them.
She had thought she might finally be able to leave everything behind, yet in the end, she still had to return to reality and continue living the same life as before.
At that thought, Yang Lulong could not help feeling sorrowful.
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