The blade pressed against his Adam's apple.
Ice-cold.
Razor-sharp.
Shen Mingxuan could even feel every beat of his pulse transmitting clearly onto the paper-thin surface of the blade. He stood rigidly, lightening his breathing, terrified that a single careless move or the bobbing of his throat would cause his blood to splatter on the spot.
Gu Ruoli's hand holding the knife was remarkably steady.
Her gaze was even steadier. Those eyes, clear as autumn waters, held no anger or mockery in this moment, only a calmness bordering on judgment. She looked at him as if evaluating the quality of an object or determining the life and death of a prey.
"Miss Gu," Shen Mingxuan spoke with difficulty, his voice slightly hoarse from the tension. "I... truly realize my mistake."
Gu Ruoli said nothing.
She merely pressed her wrist down slightly.
The blade drew a fraction closer.
Shen Mingxuan was forced to slowly bend his knees in response to the pressure. He did not want to kneel, but with his life hanging by a thread, he had no choice. When his knees touched the bluestone slabs, the icy chill seeped through his bones, freezing him straight to the heart.
He knelt.
Beneath the matchmaking tree of Qingyun Temple, before the thousand-year-old ginkgo draped in prayer ribbons, and in front of a girl he was meeting for the very first time, he knelt.
His posture was undignified.
His state of mind was even more so.
Suddenly, Shen Mingxuan twitched the corners of his mouth and smiled.
The smile was faint, carrying a deep sense of helplessness and a bit of self-deprecation. Forget it. Since things had reached this point and he had already lost all face, he might as well lay everything out in the open.
"Miss Gu," he raised his head, looking directly into Gu Ruoli's eyes. "Standing you up last time was my fault. But... I did not mean to slight you intentionally."
He paused, his voice lowering.
"In my early years, I was engaged to be married. The girl was a childhood sweetheart, and we... had a very good relationship."
Speaking of this, his eyes glazed over for a moment, as if he were looking through the person in front of him to see a distant, warm silhouette.
"But shortly after the wedding date was set, she fell ill. It was a sudden illness, and in less than half a month... she was gone."
Shen Mingxuan's voice was calm, so calm it bordered on numb.
"Later, people said I had a harsh fate, that I was a jinx to my wives." He tugged at the corners of his mouth. "I originally didn't believe in such things. But sometimes... I cannot help but wonder if it truly is my bad luck that implicated that girl..."
He took a deep breath and looked back at Gu Ruoli.
"So over these years, I have had no desire to discuss marriage. It is not that I don't want to, but that I don't dare. I am afraid... of ruining someone else's life."
"When my father arranged the matchmaking meeting last time, I actually... skipped it on purpose." He smiled bitterly. "I figured that if I broke the appointment, the lady's family would certainly be angry, and the marriage prospect would naturally fall through. This way... I wouldn't have to disobey my father, nor would I doom the girl."
After finishing, he lowered his eyes, no longer looking at Gu Ruoli.
"I came here today, first to apologize, and second, to explain things clearly in person." His voice was sincere. "Miss Gu is a wonderful person; it is I who am unworthy. I hope... you will not let an unbearable person like me delay your good fortune."
His voice faded.
The surroundings were quiet.
Only the sound of the wind blowing the prayer ribbons rustled softly.
Gu Ruoli looked at him quietly.
The knife in her hand still pressed against his throat.
But the scrutiny in her eyes gradually changed. That icy sense of judgment faded, replaced by a complex, thoughtful expression.
She had heard about the early passing of the Shen family young master's former fiancee. It was just that the local rumors were mostly vague, only mentioning a lack of fortune or dying of illness. She originally thought it was just a common unfulfilled marriage.
She never expected...
That it was actually like this.
He loved so deeply that he remained unmarried to this day.
Unwilling to ruin others, he would rather destroy his own reputation.
This man's character was actually quite good: devoted, kind, responsible, and on top of that...
Gu Ruoli's gaze swept from Shen Mingxuan's brows and eyes to his straight nose, and then landed on his lips, which were slightly pursed from tension.
He was... quite pleasing to the eye, too.
She had originally agreed to this matchmaking meeting just to save face for her elders and go through the motions.
Coming to meet him today, she had intended to interrogate him and teach this boy who stood her up a lesson, letting him know the temper of the women from Shuzhou.
But now...
Gu Ruoli slowly withdrew the knife.
With a soft click, the short blade returned to its sheath.
Shen Mingxuan only felt the pressure at his throat loosen, and that oppressive chill instantly dissipated. He froze for a moment, instinctively raising a hand to touch his neck. Fortunately, the skin wasn't broken.
Gu Ruoli tucked the knife back into her sleeve, crossed her arms, and looked him up and down.
That gaze did not look like she was appraising a blind date; rather, it was as if she were picking out a horse at the market or selecting a sword in a weapon shop.
Focused.
Critical.
But... full of interest.
Shen Mingxuan felt entirely uncomfortable under her stare and was just about to speak...
"What you just said," Gu Ruoli suddenly spoke, cutting him off, "is it all true?"
"Every word is true," Shen Mingxuan said solemnly.
Gu Ruoli nodded. Then, she made a move that Shen Mingxuan completely did not expect. She reached out and grabbed him by the back collar of his clothes.
Her movements were fast, precise, and ruthless!
Before Shen Mingxuan could even react, his entire body was hoisted up. No, not hoisted, dragged. Gu Ruoli grabbed his collar, turned around, and started walking toward the temple.
"Wait! Miss Gu! What are you doing?!" Shen Mingxuan panicked, attempting to struggle.
But this girl's grip strength was astonishing.
He was a grown man.
Yet he couldn't break free!
"Going to find Taoist Priest Ziyun." Gu Ruoli didn't look back, her voice as calm as if she were saying the weather is nice today.
"Why are we looking for the Taoist Priest?!"
"To read our horoscopes."
"Read what horoscopes?!"
"Yours and mine."
Shen Mingxuan: "...???"
He was dragged along, stumbling, his collar choking his neck painfully. He could only follow along while anxiously saying, "Miss Gu! I just explained everything clearly! My fate is..."
"I heard you." Gu Ruoli interrupted him. "You said your fate is harsh and you jinx your wives."
She paused, but her footsteps did not stop.
"What a coincidence."
"My fate is naturally even harsher. I want to see if your jinx can even affect me."
Shen Mingxuan: "...Ah?"
Gu Ruoli finally looked back at him.
A very faint, almost provocative smile flashed through her clear, autumn-water eyes.
"My mother said that when you meet a suitable, good man, you should strike while the iron is hot," she said word by word. "I think you are pretty good. So now, we are going to find the priest to do a reading and see if your curse can overcome me."
Shen Mingxuan was completely dumbfounded.
What in the world was going on?!
He tried to reason with her. "Miss Gu! Marriage is a major life event, how can it be treated like a child's game! We just met for the first time today..."
"That is why we are going to read our horoscopes," Gu Ruoli said as a matter of course. "If our birth charts match, it is a match made in heaven. If they don't match..."
She paused and looked back to smile at him.
The smile was beautiful.
But a chill ran down Shen Mingxuan's spine.
"If they don't match, I will tie you up and take you back to Shuzhou, and have my mother find a way to change your fate." Gu Ruoli's tone was light. "In short, the man I have my eyes on cannot run away."
Shen Mingxuan: "......"
He gave up struggling.
Looking like a fish scooped onto the shore that had lost all its dreams, he allowed Gu Ruoli to drag him along, leaving an invisible trail of despair on the bluestone path.
...
Not far away, Pei Cijing and Shen Ninghuan stood shoulder to shoulder, taking in the entire scene that had just unfolded.
From the blade pressed against his throat, to kneeling and pleading, to finally being dragged away—the whole process took no more than the time it takes to drink a cup of tea. Halfway through, Shen Mingxuan had cast a pleading look in their direction.
His mouth opened and closed.
He silently mouthed the word, "Help."
Pei Cijing merely blinked at him, then turned his head and said to Shen Ninghuan, "My lady, look at those ribbons. Red paired with green, quite festive."
Shen Ninghuan pursed her lips into a smile. "Indeed."
The two of them tacitly ignored Shen Mingxuan's cries for help.
Since her older brother's life wasn't in danger—if Miss Gu really wanted to kill him, she would have ended it with one slash just now, so why bother dragging him off to check their horoscopes?—there was no need for them to intervene.
Bullying the few with the many wasn't appropriate.
Besides...
[Ding! Successfully consumed gossip: "Blind date at blade-point, brother-in-law dragged away to check horoscopes." Gossip points +156.]
The system notification chimed in his mind.
The corners of Pei Cijing's mouth curled up slightly.
Balance: 3874 points.
Not bad.
He watched as Shen Mingxuan was dragged through the moon gate by Gu Ruoli, disappearing toward the rear hall. Only then did he smack his lips and turn to ask Shen Ninghuan, "My lady, didn't you say the Gu family is a family of scholars? This Miss Gu... her martial skills are quite extraordinary."
Dragging a grown man with one hand, her steps were light and her breathing steady.
This was not something an ordinary young lady could do.
Shen Ninghuan pondered for a moment. "Uncle Gu indeed doesn't know much about martial arts. But Aunt Gu... I heard she comes from a military family. Miss Gu's skills were probably learned from her maternal grandfather's side."
As she spoke, her gaze remained on the moon gate.
Just now, when Gu Ruoli dragged Shen Mingxuan past them, the distance was no more than thirty or forty feet—well within the range of her "Mind Reading" perception.
She had heard those inner thoughts loud and clear.
Especially that one sentence—
"When you meet a suitable, good man, you must strike when the time is right."
The corners of Shen Ninghuan's lips turned up.
This Miss Gu was actually quite a straightforward person, daring to love and hate, acting decisively without being coy or pretentious. If she really could make things work with her older brother...
She thought of her mother, who had passed away early.
That woman, gentle as water, had been most worried about her brother's marriage before she died. She had held her hand, saying with a thread of breath, "Huan'er... in the future, you must help your brother... find someone who understands his heart..."
If her mother's spirit was watching from heaven and saw today's scene, seeing a girl daring to drag her brother off to check their horoscopes, saying she wanted to see if she was "tough enough to not be cursed by his fate"...
She would probably laugh, right?
Shen Ninghuan was lost in thought.
Suddenly, a hand reached out in front of her, its long, slender fingers waving back and forth.
"My lady?" Pei Cijing's voice pulled her back to reality. "Come back to earth. Your brother has already been dragged away. Next... it's our turn."
He looked at her with a beaming smile, his eyes sparkling.
Only then did Shen Ninghuan remember their main purpose for coming to Qingyun Temple today—to burn incense and pray for blessings, tie ribbons, and hang blessing plaques.
"Mm," she nodded gently, a faint blush rising on her cheeks.
Pei Cijing took two items out from his sleeve.
Two colorful ribbons.
A pair of blessing plaques.
The ribbons were a true red, made of excellent material that felt smooth and supple to the touch, with auspicious cloud patterns embroidered along the edges in gold thread. The blessing plaques were made of premium red sandalwood, polished smooth and warm. One was carved with the four characters for "Of One Heart and Mind," and the other with "Year After Year."
One look was enough to tell they were quite valuable.
"Father went to the Great Xiangguo Temple the day before yesterday and specifically asked the Abbot to consecrate them," Pei Cijing said, handing the ribbons and plaques to Shen Ninghuan. "He said this thousand-year-old tree of love is very efficacious, and insisted that we must hang them up."
Shen Ninghuan took them.
The ribbons were heavy, and the plaques felt warm to the touch.
She looked up at the ginkgo tree.
The tree was over a hundred feet tall, its branches gnarled and its leaves forming a massive canopy. At this moment, many ribbons and plaques were already hanging on the tree—red, yellow, and green—fluttering in the wind like a tree full of colorful dreams.
Most of the pilgrims stood beneath the tree, their heads tilted back as they forcefully tossed their ribbons and plaques upward—
Some managed to hook them onto the branches, drawing cheers.
Some fell back down, but the throwers weren't discouraged; they just picked them up and threw them again.
Climb up to tie them?
It was too dangerous.
The main trunk was thick, but the branches were very high up. Even the lowest branch was twenty or thirty feet off the ground. The trunk was smooth with nowhere to gain a foothold; even a highly skilled martial artist wouldn't dare try it lightly.
Shen Ninghuan weighed the ribbons and plaques in her hands, preparing to toss them like the other pilgrims—
Suddenly, her body felt light.
She let out a soft gasp, instinctively wrapping her arms around the person's neck.
Pei Cijing had scooped her up into a bridal carry.
"Husband?!" Shen Ninghuan's face grew hot. "This... in broad daylight, with everyone watching..."
"What are you afraid of?" Pei Cijing looked down at her, a deep smile in his eyes. "We must grasp our own destiny. How can we leave it up to the heavens?"
He paused, his voice softening.
"My lady, hold on tight."
Shen Ninghuan's heart skipped a beat.
She looked at the face so close to hers—eyes smiling, gaze gentle, the corners of his lips curved with a hint of mischief and a hint of earnestness.
Pilgrims all around were already looking over, pointing and whispering.
But suddenly, she wasn't afraid anymore. The shyness was still there, but more than that was joy—the joy of being cherished, favored, and brazenly claimed.
She wrapped her arms around his neck, buried her face in his shoulder, and gave a soft "Mm."
Pei Cijing smiled.
He held the person in his arms tighter and turned to face the thousand-year-old ginkgo tree.
To others, climbing the tree was a dangerous endeavor.
But to him...
It was child's play. As a martial arts master, proficient in the eighteen weapons of war, and with extremely high attainment in fist and grappling techniques, a little bit of Qinggong was nothing!
Pei Cijing took a deep breath and pushed off with his feet—
Whoosh!
His figure shot out like a speeding arrow!
No running start, no gathering of momentum. He just charged straight at the tree trunk while carrying a person. In the instant before impact, the tips of his toes tapped against the trunk—
Borrowing the force!
Launching into the air!
Shen Ninghuan only felt the wind howling in her ears and saw the scenery rapidly dropping away.
She instinctively closed her eyes.
When she opened them again.
They were already dozens of feet off the ground.
Pei Cijing's feet alternately tapped against the tree trunk. With every light tap, his body shot up another segment. He held her extremely steadily, his arms supporting her powerfully without a single tremble.
Gasps of amazement echoed from below.
"My goodness! He went up!"
"Climbing a tree while carrying someone? This... this Qinggong..."
Shen Ninghuan had no time to pay them any mind.
She looked up at Pei Cijing's jawline—sharply defined and glistening with a hint of sweat. Sunlight filtered through the leaves, casting dappled shadows across his face.
In just the span of a few breaths.
Pei Cijing had leapt into the tree canopy.
He landed firmly on a thick, horizontal branch, slowly exhaled, and looked down at the woman in his arms. "We're here."
Only then did Shen Ninghuan come back to her senses.
She stepped down from his embrace onto the solid branch. The branch was very thick, more than enough for two people to stand on. She held onto the trunk and looked down—
The entirety of Qingyun Temple was laid out before her eyes.
Layer upon layer of halls, blue-tiled flying eaves, pilgrims looking like ants moving slowly through the courtyards, and distant green mountains looking like painted eyebrows, shrouded in mist.
The wind blew through the treetops, making the leaves rustle.
At this height, there were no ribbons fluttering beside her, nor were there any blessing plaques swaying before her eyes.
"Up here..." Shen Ninghuan said softly, "is truly wonderful."
With that said, she tied the colored ribbons to a branch just within reach. The two ribbons hung down side by side, gently intertwining in the breeze. She then hung the wooden plaque beneath the ribbons. Catching the sunlight, the red sandalwood plaque glowed with a warm and gentle luster.
A smile touched the corners of her lips as she reached out to take Pei Cijing's hand.
Their fingers intertwined.
"My dear wife," Pei Cijing said with a smile, "now our destinies are tied tightly together, and no one can ever take that away."
"Mhm," she replied softly. "Tied tightly."
