Wife and Teacher

Yan Jueqian first met Xi Heng on a rainy night. The boy had killed 128 people by himself and lay in a pool of blood, barely breathing.

He was vicious enough, and mad enough. Yan Jueqian saw her own reflection in him, so she took him in and made him her apprentice.

"Once you're as good as Zhi Ruyu, you can leave my tutelage." That was what Yan Jueqian said to Xi Heng more than anything else.

Xi Heng knew that Zhi Ruyu was the person his master loved. In front of Zhi Ruyu, he would never get all of his master's attention.

On one mission, Yan Jueqian had to disguise herself as a man and marry a princess from a neighboring kingdom. But on their wedding night, when the veil was lifted, the face beneath the pearls and jade ornaments was Xi Heng's, slender and elegant as bamboo and pine.

Startled and affronted by the challenge to her authority, Yan Jueqian slapped him hard. "You fool."

Xi Heng let her hit and scold him, then silently knelt all night in the bridal chamber that belonged to him and his master.

Once the mission was complete, Yan Jueqian planned to shed her secret identity and quietly leave. To her surprise, Xi Heng outmaneuvered her.

The boy's blood spattered his sleeves as he used the moves she had taught him to strike down his gravely wounded master. "Now that you're dead, she can have eyes for me alone."

Only then did Xi Heng realize that Zhi Ruyu was Yan Jueqian.

Having killed his master by mistake, Xi Heng intended to follow Yan Jueqian in death. But when he raised his sword to take his own life, Jiang Qingran, the new envoy, stopped him in time.

Jiang Qingran would neither let him die nor let him live in peace. She saved him only to kill him again, dealing him a fatal blow each time before bringing him back to life, then raising her sword against him again.

She forbade him to cry for his master, and forbade him from dying for love. Whenever he tried to kill himself, she retaliated with punishments fit for hell.

He spent several years drifting through life like a living corpse. The last time, Jiang Qingran beat him until he was on the verge of death. As he lay dying on the ground, memories of the master he'd killed with his own hands came flooding back, and tears poured down his face.

His vision blurred. Through the haze, Xi Heng saw Jiang Qingran calmly remove the mask from her face, revealing the features he had longed for.

"Were you thinking of me just now?"

[Reading Guide]

1. One-on-one romance, both leads' first relationship, happy ending.

2. Yes, the master is a woman. The title means Grand Tutor.

3. The heroine is genuinely ruthless. When she gets serious, she'll slap and stab the hero. The hero is genuinely mad. When he loses it, he'll kill every imagined rival, including himself.

◆ The cover background is by the artist Paigu Xiaobao.

Theme: If you're afraid, why think about it? If you think about it, why be afraid?