Gu Ran transmigrates into this world, hoping to be a cold-faced poison doctor who cares only about money, not romance.
The first person she saves is Xie Lin, the lavishly spending master of Listening Snow Tower.
Payment in full, silver needles to ward off disaster. She thinks it’s a simple transaction: he pays an exorbitant fee, and she cures a deadly poison.
But when she is trapped in a deadly predicament in enemy territory, pierced by countless arrows, the man who should be thousands of miles away arrives through a field of corpses, his black robes stained with blood.
He stands atop a mountain of corpses, gazing coldly at the army before him, yet reaches out to her alone with a trembling hand.
“Gu Ran, so in your eyes, I’m nothing but a pawn?”
Gu Ran snaps the poison-coated jade hairpin in her hand and turns away without hesitation. From then on, their paths never cross again.
Later, the Red Nightmare plague sweeps across the land. The court collapses, and all order breaks down.
The lofty master of Listening Snow Tower gives away his entire fortune just to obtain one dose of medicine from her.
He kneels in the muddy ruins, covered in blood as he shields her and takes a fatal blow for her. His voice is as humble as dust:
“A Ran, this time, let me be your medicinal catalyst, all right? Don’t leave me.”
Gu Ran looks at the man before her, humbled to the dirt, and cannot bring herself to feed him the antidote she has just concocted.
The System’s cold alert sounds: [Host, warning! Target Xie Lin’s vitality has fallen by 90%. He’s willing to give up his life just to find you.]
Gu Ran lets out a long sigh, and at last a ripple stirs in her eyes. “What a nuisance. I can cure illness, but I can’t cure love…”
She lightly touches his lips with her fingertips, her gaze shifting. “Fine. Since you’re so eager to be my medicinal catalyst, you can forget about running away for the rest of your life.”
