If Life Were Only as at First Meeting

Under the dual backlash of the pervasive mountain toxins and the forced use of his soul power to suppress Mo Wuyan, Ye Shu could no longer hold on. His eyes closed, and he simply fainted.

Xia Hanmo wasn’t faring much better.

After being bombarded relentlessly by Mo Wuyan, she was now severely wounded.

Fortunately, those Mo family disciples could still serve as nourishment.

She slowly descended to the ground, and the corpse-fluid—the liquefied remains of the Mo disciples—began to converge from all directions, seeping into the soles of her feet, surging up through her meridians, and being absorbed by her Chaotic Venom Constitution to mend her injuries.

A hint of color finally returned to Xia Hanmo’s face.

She exhaled a stale breath of air and cast her gaze toward the figure lying unconscious on the ground.

“You!”

At that single glance, the Little Fairy Doctor was instantly stunned.

The boy’s face, streaked with dust yet still bearing a trace of delicate handsomeness, was identical to the person imprinted in her memory.

Xia Hanmo’s delicate frame trembled, and her beautiful eyes quivered.

“Ye... Ye Shu?”

She strode over quickly, crouched down, and—her hands almost trembling—carefully brushed away the dirt and leaves from his face, revealing features so familiar they could not be more so.

It was him... It really was him...

He was alive. He was truly still alive.

That face she had seen countless times in her dreams was now right before her, living and breathing.

An overwhelming surge of joy flooded the Little Fairy Doctor’s mind.

“Ah...”

She stared at his face, dazed, and then suddenly broke down. Tears streamed down her delicate face in large droplets.

This explained everything now.

Why the Mo family had suddenly turned on each other. Why Mo Wuyan had frozen in place.

It was all because Ye Shu had been pulling the strings from the shadows.

“Cough! Cough!”

Ye Shu, still unconscious, suddenly let out a violent coughing fit, spitting a mouthful of black blood onto the ground. The blood sizzled as it landed, corroding a patch of earth.

Xia Hanmo snapped back to reality and noticed that the black veins on Ye Shu’s neck had almost spread to his heart meridian.

It was her Seven-Colored Soul-Severing Mist!

“Xia Hanmo, look at yourself! You stupid fool, what have you done?!”

“You nearly poisoned your own man to death!”

Biting her lip, Xia Hanmo’s voice choked with tears, her eyes filled with regret and self-blame. Scolding herself as punishment, she fumbled to lift Ye Shu and cradle him in her arms, letting his head rest on her lap.

Then, she leaned down abruptly and kissed him.

Her pale lips pressed tightly against Ye Shu’s, carrying the gentle warmth of a young woman. Unfortunately, Ye Shu was in no state to enjoy this moment.

As Xia Hanmo sucked deeply,

the toxins around Ye Shu’s heart meridian began to retreat. The black lines receded from his chest, traveling back along his neck and into his mouth, where the Little Fairy Doctor swallowed them down.

After about the time it takes half an incense stick to burn, the toxins were completely drawn out.

Only then did Xia Hanmo slowly pull back. She looked down at Ye Shu, whose complexion had regained its rosy hue, and a trace of lingering fear flashed in her eyes.

If Ye Shu had died here,

she didn’t know what she might have done.

To be thorough, she took a milky-white pill from her chest, placed it in her mouth, then leaned down and kissed Ye Shu again. Using her tongue, she pried open his teeth, transferred the pill, and gently blew a breath to help him swallow.

Only then could it be considered foolproof.

“He’ll be fine now...”

She murmured softly, her voice barely above a whisper.

She held him in her arms, sitting amidst the ravaged valley, her head lowered as she silently gazed at the boy’s peaceful sleeping face, saying nothing, as if she could watch him forever.

If only it could be.

Forever and ever...

Forever and ever, she wanted to look at him like this.

Time flowed like water.

Before long, Ye Shu, nestled in the Little Fairy Doctor’s embrace, stirred slightly, as if about to wake.

Seeing that Ye Shu was about to open his eyes, Xia Hanmo’s heart suddenly felt an unexplainable panic. She lifted her head abruptly, her gaze sweeping over the devastated valley, the grotesquely twisted corpses, and her own hemp clothes stained with blood and grime. Finally, her eyes landed on the green mark on her wrist.

“I... I...”

Her lips trembled. She hurriedly set Ye Shu down, scrambled to her feet, and backed away a few steps, as if fleeing from something terrifying.

Her mind was in chaos.

Countless times in her dreams, she had imagined their reunion. But now that the moment had come, she was afraid.

She was covered in blood, drenched in poison, and steeped in slaughter.

And he? He was still the same clean and untainted boy.

“Hanmo...”

In his sleep, Ye Shu murmured softly.

The Little Fairy Doctor’s body shuddered. Stumbling backward, she finally spun around and bolted out of the valley.

Almost the moment she left,

Ye Shu on the ground snapped his eyes open, sat up straight, and gasped for breath.

“Xia Hanmo? Xia Hanmo?”

He looked around wildly, but the valley was empty, with only startled birds taking flight.

...

“Huff... huff...”

After leaving the valley, Xia Hanmo ran without direction, driven by sheer panic. She finally stumbled over a protruding tree root in a dense forest and crashed to the ground.

She didn’t get up right away. Instead, she lay there, face down.

“I’m sorry... I’m sorry...”

She buried her head in the dirt, apologizing over and over. Her heart was a tangled mess of joy and sorrow.

Joy, because Ye Shu was alive—truly alive.

Sorrow, because

she was no longer the Little Fairy Doctor she used to be. Fifteen years had passed, and her hands were stained with too much blood and too many sins. She was no longer the girl from Yuanyang Town who sat back-to-back with him and said she wanted to heal everyone.

Was she still... a good person?

Would he still like her...

If only everything could have stayed the same as it was back then.

The Little Fairy Doctor buried her face in the dirt and cried out loud, laughing while crying, crying while laughing.

If life could only be as it first met, how could the autumn wind grieve over a painted fan?