The Pavilion Master Is Forced to Owe a False Love Debt

Lou Zhaoxi was the master of the Demon Subduing Pavilion. After being reborn, she hadn't even had time to celebrate before one piece of bad luck after another came her way.

Bad news: Somehow, she'd managed to attract a peacock of a man.

Even worse news: This body was a good-for-nothing, and only intimate contact with him could ease its condition.

After Chu Zhiyuan threatened and cajoled her, she had no choice but to strike a deal with him: a marriage contract and a new identity.

The young man was famous for looking down on everyone, and his reputation was infamous.

She thought she'd have to work hard to handle him in the days to come, but to her surprise, he was obedient and even called himself the model husband.

Whenever she helped someone settle their romantic entanglements, the red threads she conjured would wind around her wrist. The young man's gaze would turn very strange.

He leaned close to her ear. "Wouldn't it be wonderful if one of those red threads tied you and me together?"

Lou Zhaoxi despised him for casually proclaiming his love. It was all insincere, she thought, until she found in Chu Zhiyuan...

The love and desire that had vanished from her.

Day by day, she found it harder to control herself. She wanted to be close to him, wanted the two of them to become one.

Yet the young man only looked at her innocently, rubbing the red mole behind her ear.

"If you don't tell me, how could your husband know what you want, A He?"

Chu Zhiyuan said everything a man in love would say and did everything a man in love would do, but he did not love her.

He used forbidden arts, even suffering backlash, to bring her back to life. He accompanied her as she put herself in danger again and again, and came within a step of the gates of death himself.

Even so, he was certain that all he wanted was for her to live, right up until the final step of his scheme.

He liked seeing her frown at him, even if it was out of disgust.

He liked seeing that she couldn't live without him, even if he was the reason.

He could hardly wait to see Lou Zhaoxi's reaction when his scheme succeeded.

But he had underestimated her. She discovered everything early.

She died in front of him.

It turned out she had always been clear-headed. He was the only one who couldn't live without the other.

He grew more and more deranged, resorting to every means at his disposal, until he finally learned that Lou Zhaoxi wasn't dead at all.

Her career was thriving, and she was surrounded by people who admired and desired her.

She smiled at someone else with a warmth she had never once shown him.

Why was he suffering so much while she could walk away so easily?

He ignored the knife Lou Zhaoxi drove into his abdomen. Under her disbelieving gaze,

the red thread bound their wrists tightly together.

"A He, look. This is the debt of love you owe me."

Reading guide:

* One true pairing, both leads have only ever been with each other, happy ending, no suffering for the heroine.

* Cold-faced cutie x cheeky flirt.

* An alternate-world demon-hunting mystery. Many original worldbuilding details. They start as bickering partners before their true identities are revealed, then become lovers entangled in a sea of hatred, with a groveling male lead trying to win her back.

Theme: All things have a spirit.