He Fell in Love with Me After I Stabbed the Villain

The first time Xie Chaoheng met Xi Yusu, he was hunting ghosts and subduing demons alongside the original novel's male and female leads.

Black hair, red lips, handsome features and a clear, refined bearing, with eyes like green mountains blurred by rain and mist.

The young man held a whip and stepped into the air. Beneath the moonlight, she clearly saw the brilliant sheen of the red camellias embroidered on his robe.

When he saw her, he smiled, drew her close, and told her to be careful.

Seeing him like that, Xie Chaoheng assumed he still had a good heart and hadn't turned evil yet.

But before long, she came upon him standing at the top of a frost-white cliff, with a blood-red pool of demon spirits below, its demonic energy surging into the sky.

Xie Chaoheng: Can I still run for it?!

The young man was handsome, his robe damp and cold. When he saw her, he gave a faint smile and gently asked what kind of death she wanted.

Remembering that in the book he'd seemed to go easy on the people who admired him, she had no choice but to lie and say she was in love with him.

Sure enough, Xi Yusu spared her.

She thought she'd escaped disaster and was just about to pack her things and flee. Instead, he smiled as he pinched her cheek and fed her a Heart-Eating Pill that would make her obey. He told her to keep his secret safe, or she'd die horribly.

To get the antidote and soften his heart, and also to make sure he wouldn't be the first to stab her when he became a villain later on, she gave him a Zhaodian Red rose nourished with immortal dew, carried him through mist-shrouded, ghost-haunted roads when he was blind, and even created a one-of-a-kind Spring of All Sounds talisman for him.

Later, beneath the mountains of Yingshui, he carried her up the three thousand steps of the human world, promising her both this life and the next.

As his eyes grew gentler and gentler, Xie Chaoheng almost believed she was going to succeed.

But in the Fusang divine ruins, the young man was filled with murderous intent. Sword in hand, he stepped over bones and coldly advanced toward her.

Xie Chaoheng finally understood that he was born heartless and would never be moved, no matter what she did.

So, while he was gravely wounded, she stabbed him without hesitation, snatched the antidote, and ran.

Three months later, in the dead of night, Xi Yusu came to her bedside and stared straight at her with his blue-gray eyes. "Aheng, didn't you say you loved me? Where else do you think you can run?"

Xie Chaoheng picked up the dagger by her pillow and stabbed him again. He only smiled, took her hand, and pushed the dagger in deeper, then traced her face with his fingers.

Bright red blood slowly slid over her brows, eyes, and lips. He watched her in a trance, then smiled with delight. "I love you. You can stab me as many times as you want."

"Just don't ever leave me, in any lifetime."

Xie Chaoheng: Did I stab him so many times that I broke his brain?!

*

The sea of suffering cannot be crossed; there is no shore to return to. The world is a blazing furnace, and he is but an insect. Only she is the goddess who gives him a thread of hope.

*

Note:

1. The female lead was born into the book. No System. She knows magic and can fight.

2. The male lead doesn't understand love at first, but later loves her deeply. He's a delightfully unhinged type.

3. The setting includes a lot of original worldbuilding. The original novel's leads are not portrayed as villains.

Theme: The world is a furnace, fate is its fuel, and kindness is how we fight back.