"Achoo..."
The bamboo-awning boat drifted unsteadily across the rippling river.
With that sneeze, Liu Ruyun woke up.
Aside from a bone-chilling cold, her mind felt hazy and unfocused.
"Miss, you're finally awake! How are you feeling?"
Just then, the curtain was pulled aside, and a stream of golden sunlight poured in. A fresh, youthful face leaned right into Liu Ruyun's field of vision.
"Miss?"
Liu Ruyun frowned, suddenly finding it rather amusing. What a rustic way to address someone...
"Young lady?"
Xiang Feng corrected himself.
"..."
Liu Ruyun's face darkened.
The breath she had just drawn nearly choked her right back out.
He looked like a reasonably handsome young fellow—why did he start off by calling her a country bumpkin?
"Did you save me?"
Liu Ruyun asked.
Having felt somewhat depressed earlier, she had drunk quite a bit of alcohol and gone for a stroll to clear her head, only to slip and tumble into the lake.
At the same time, she instinctively pulled the cotton quilt closer over her body.
Beneath it was a vast expanse of snowy white, like towering, precipitous mountain peaks that rose and fell with her breathing...
"You—you took off my clothes?"
Liu Ruyun's pretty face turned frosty.
Her eyes, sharp as razor blades, locked onto the young man before her.
"Yeah, well, you fell in the water, didn't you? I fished you out, and you were completely knocked out. I was worried you'd catch a cold, so I took your clothes off. Look over there, they're almost dry now."
Completely oblivious to the freezing expression on the woman's face, Xiang Feng grinned with rustic simplicity, revealing a row of neat, white teeth in a clean, transparent smile.
"You!"
Liu Ruyun's face grew even uglier. She had been seen entirely by this man.
"Oh, right."
Xiang Feng slapped his forehead. "You were in the water quite a while and swallowed a lot of it. I even gave you mouth-to-mouth and CPR..."
"Stop, stop, stop right there!"
Liu Ruyun pulled the quilt up to cover her vital areas.
This bastard really had stripped her clean—he hadn't even left her a single scrap of modesty!
And worse, he had kissed her, and even touched her!
Scumbag!
"Miss, your complexion looks terrible. What's wrong? Are you in pain anywhere?" Unaware of the abnormal atmosphere, Xiang Feng leaned in a little closer.
"Don't you think you have something else to say to me?"
Liu Ruyun ground her teeth, glaring fiercely at Xiang Feng.
"Something else? Like what?"
Xiang Feng scratched his head in bewilderment, looking completely clueless.
"You saw my entire body. Don't you think you owe me an explanation?"
Liu Ruyun's face grew even colder. Shouldn't this bastard be apologizing to her?
"Oh, I get it!"
Xiang Feng's eyes lit up with sudden understanding.
"Hmph!"
Liu Ruyun raised an eyebrow, a proud, chilly puff of air escaping her refined nose.
"You've got a great figure. Super white skin, nice size, and that mole on your chest is really unique—"
"Stop, stop right there!"
Mortified and furious, Liu Ruyun glared at him. You dog, I told you to apologize, not critique my body!
"What's wrong, Miss..."
"First of all, I am not a 'miss,' nor am I some country girl."
Liu Ruyun took several deep breaths, fighting down the raging inferno in her chest. "My name is Liu Ruyun."
"Second, you saved me, and I should naturally thank you. But you had no business stripping off my clothes, and even less business looking. That's extremely impolite, do you understand?"
"Uh..."
Xiang Feng understood, but he felt deeply aggrieved.
"I don't really get it."
"Huh?"
Liu Ruyun's delicate brows shot up.
"If I didn't take your clothes off, you would've caught a chill. And if I didn't look, how else was I supposed to check you over?"
Xiang Feng frowned, looking somewhat disgruntled as he muttered, "A patient hides nothing from their doctor. If I don't look, don't touch, and don't ask, how am I supposed to treat anyone? Back in my village, which of the girls and aunts hasn't let me examine them? They never made a fuss. I saved your life, and here you are nagging and complaining."
"Ha!"
Hearing this, Liu Ruyun was angry enough to laugh.
"You took advantage of me, and I'm supposed to thank you?"
"Miss Liu, let me correct you. I did that out of sheer necessity to save your life. You fell into the water drunk; if I hadn't gotten there in time, your family would be planning your funeral right now."
Xiang Feng put on a serious expression and said righteously, "You're young and pretty—would dying like that be worth it? Let me reiterate: I am a doctor. To a doctor, there is no distinction between men and women. Of course, Miss Liu, your figure is the best among all the women I've ever met, and the prettiest, too. Even bigger than Widow Wang back in our village..."
"..."
Liu Ruyun's pretty face flushed red. Her lips parted, wanting to speak, but no words came out.
"You—are you really a doctor? You don't look that old."
Liu Ruyun wasn't a feudal-minded woman. As a sales manager for Yunshang Group, what kind of schemers and flashy playboys hadn't she seen?
Compared to the wolves in the corporate world, Xiang Feng was much easier on the eyes.
Without him, she probably wouldn't even be alive.
"Of course! Genuine and authentic. I've been making house calls since I was ten, and I'm twenty this year. Not small at all." Xiang Feng said with absolute solemnity.
"Making house calls since you were ten? Are you making this up?"
Liu Ruyun looked entirely skeptical.
Shouldn't a ten-year-old child be studying in school? A doctor? Making house calls? He probably couldn't even write his own name yet.
"You have a fairly severe case of gastritis, you fractured your left shin when you were a child, and you also suffer from mild anemia."
Xiang Feng stared at the woman and smiled faintly.
He certainly wasn't making it up. From the time he was two or three and just learning to babble, he had gone up the mountain to train under the old codger—practicing martial arts, meditating, learning characters, and studying medicine. As he grew older, he had to haul water, chop firewood, do the laundry, and cook; he had to do every single chore.
Starting at age ten, Xiang Feng began going down the mountain to make house calls in the neighboring villages.
And the old codger kept all the consultation fees!
Today was Xiang Feng's very first day escaping that sea of bitterness down the mountain, and who would have thought that shortly after getting on the boat, he would run into Liu Ruyun drowning.
"..."
Liu Ruyun stared blankly for three full seconds before crying out, "You really are a doctor?"
"Please call me Xiang Feng, the little miracle doctor of Qingyun Mountain."
"Xiang Feng?"
Liu Ruyun murmured softly. Her gaze drifted to the rustic medical box by the cabin entrance, and she believed him a little more.
Anemia and gastritis were nothing—just occupational hazards of her job.
But how on earth did he know about her fractured shin?
"Xiang Feng, thank you for saving me. Um... could you step outside for a moment so I can put my clothes on, and then we can talk properly?" Meeting Xiang Feng's clean, pure gaze, Liu Ruyun's face turned slightly pink.
Chatting with someone while stark naked felt entirely too...
"Alrighty, I'll wait for you outside."
With a nod, Xiang Feng handed the clothes to Liu Ruyun and stepped back out.
"This guy really stripped me clean down to nothing... he didn't even leave my underwear..."
Holding her clothes, Liu Ruyun burned with embarrassment. Especially when she discovered that her underwear had actually been washed by Xiang Feng, she felt so mortified she wanted to dive headfirst into the water and drown for real.
"Xiang Feng, I want to talk to you."
After getting dressed, Liu Ruyun stepped out of the cabin.
"Sure thing! What do you want to talk about, Miss Liu?" Xiang Feng asked with a cheerful smile.
"You've seen my body. You need to take responsibility for me."
The words slipped out before Liu Ruyun could stop them, a fresh blush spreading across her face.
"Take responsibility? How do I do that?"
Xiang Feng froze, his eyes nearly popping out of his head in shock.
"Come home with me, marry me, and be my husband."
Flushing red to the tips of her ears, Liu Ruyun said it with absolute finality.
"Marry you? As a matrilocal son-in-law?"
Xiang Feng's face instantly twisted in dismay as he muttered to himself.
The old codger had told him to go down the mountain to uncover the mystery of his birth and complete a task for him, and now he was supposed to go be a live-in son-in-law for someone?
However, after casting a glance at Liu Ruyun, he quickly made up his mind.
When he was saving Liu Ruyun, he had gained a very clear understanding of her body.
Liu Ruyun was no ordinary person; she possessed the rare Profound Ice Spiritual Physique, which only appeared once in a hundred years.
If he engaged in embryo incubation and cultivation work with her, his own strength would undoubtedly soar by leaps and bounds!
Being a live-in son-in-law? That was definitely worth it!
"What? Does marrying me feel like a grievance to you?"
Liu Ruyun arched an elegant eyebrow, a hint of a sneer playing across her classic melon-seed face as she lifted her chin with indescribable haughtiness and allure.
Of course, Liu Ruyun had the capital to be arrogant.
As the absolute prettiest of Xianhai's three great beauties, her suitors were as numerous as crossing carp, countless beyond count.
Though the Liu family was only a second-tier minor family in Xianhai, because of Liu Ruyun's fairy-like beauty and devilish figure, she was quite famous in the city.
"A grievance? Not really."
Xiang Feng shook his head, muttering softly, "Miss Liu is gorgeous, stunningly beautiful, and has a great figure. Marrying you is fine, of course. But why do you want to marry me? We've only just met—did you fall for me just like that?"
"You're not very old, but you sure have thick skin."
Liu Ruyun couldn't help but laugh.
While Xiang Feng's appearance wasn't the kind to drop jaws, his slightly tanned face had sharp, distinct contours, a high bridge of the nose, and large eyes that made him quite pleasant to look at. His eyes were bright and clear, and his smile was pure and clean.
As a corporate high-flyer and senior urban executive who had seen all manner of playboys, pretty boys, and fresh meat, how could she easily fall for a handsome face?
"First, you're not hard on the eyes—you've got a bit of rugged charm. Second, no matter the reason, you've touched my body, and you have to take responsibility. Therefore, you have to marry me!"
"Uh..."
Xiang Feng blinked.
Just because of that, she was going to marry him?
"Did you or did you not see my body?"
Liu Ruyun's gaze was piercingly sharp.
"I saw it."
"Did you or did you not touch my body?"
"I... I touched it."
"Should you take responsibility?"
"I should!"
Xiang Feng blurted out.
"Well, there you go. Row us ashore, and we're heading straight to the Civil Affairs Bureau to get our marriage license." Displaying the full momentum of a career woman, Liu Ruyun didn't give Xiang Feng a chance to argue, immediately settling the matter.
Once she was married, all those noisy voices at home and the annoying flies at the workplace would automatically vanish. Since she hadn't died even after jumping in the river, this time, Liu Ruyun was going to live for herself!
"W-well, alright then."
With a wry, helpless smile, Xiang Feng pushed off with his bamboo pole. The little awning boat drifted gently, slowly making its way toward the bank.
"What? You look unhappy?"
Sitting at the bow of the boat, Liu Ruyun looked all the more charming with her long, straight legs encased in light blue jeans. Her white feet splashed in the water with supreme contentment.
"No, I was just thinking about something." Xiang Feng shook his head.
"What kind of thing? Tell me about it." Liu Ruyun tilted her head up and asked.
"Getting married the moment I get down the mountain... you're pretty, your voice sounds nice, and your figure is great. It feels a bit surreal, like a dream, and it's all so sudden," Xiang Feng admitted honestly. "Though, when you said earlier about going home with you, did you mean acting as a matrilocal son-in-law?"
"As a live-in son-in-law, I won't have to wash my mother-in-law's feet, right? Your family won't bully me, will they?"
Looking deeply worried, Xiang Feng furrowed his single, straight eyebrow into a knot.
"Pfft!"
Liu Ruyun burst into laughter, blooming like a lily in a mountain valley—fresh, refined, and fragrant, with two shallow dimples on her fair cheeks that were utterly intoxicating.
"You won't have to be a live-in son-in-law."
Liu Ruyun smiled. "After we get the license, you just need to accompany me home once to meet the elders. At worst, they might just not like you very much."
"I get it now. So you weren't actually charmed by my dashing looks—you're just using me as a shield?"
Xiang Feng's brow furrowed even tighter.
"What? Unwilling? Or scared?"
Liu Ruyun cast a sultry glance, smiling playfully at Xiang Feng.
She neither denied nor confirmed it.
"Scared?"
Xiang Feng curled his lip, looking thoroughly unimpressed. "I'm not just the little miracle doctor of Qingyun Mountain; I'm also its top martial artist. Even the old codger is no match for me, hmph!"
"Top martial artist? The old codger?"
"My grandfather."
"You call your grandfather 'the old codger'?" Liu Ruyun was even more astonished.
"It's a term of endearment and affection. For instance, the old codger always calls me a little bastard or a little turtle's egg." Xiang Feng rubbed his nose.
"..."
Liu Ruyun felt a bit scrambled.
"Right, since we're about to get married, what should I call you? 'Miss Liu' doesn't sound intimate enough." Xiang Feng added.
"Uh..."
Liu Ruyun froze as well. She had never been married before and had never researched such trivial details. Pet names like 'darling' or 'sweetheart' sounded too sickeningly sweet and didn't fit her career-woman persona at all.
"What do couples in your village call each other?"
"Old woman, room-mate, my other half."
Sincere and rustic, those phrases carried a distinct local flavor. The term 'old woman' in particular made Liu Ruyun's face turn crimson.
"Let's just stick with husband and wife." Liu Ruyun wiped the sweat from her forehead.
"Alright, hold on tight, wife, I'm picking up speed!"
With that, Xiang Feng put his back into punting the boat. The two quickly reached the shore, where Liu Ruyun found her car and drove straight to the Civil Affairs Bureau with Xiang Feng in tow.
Filling out paperwork, taking photos, swearing the oath, and getting the license—it took a mere half-hour to complete.
"Wife, where are we going next? How about you treat me to a meal so we can celebrate?" Stepping out of the Civil Affairs Bureau, Xiang Feng said happily.
"Um... how about I take you home to meet my family first?"
Liu Ruyun clearly still felt a bit awkward about being called 'wife,' but she had no regrets. At the very least, she could take control of her own destiny instead of being manipulated by others.
"I don't mind."
Xiang Feng said, "Still, don't we need to buy some gifts for the first time meeting the parents? Erguotou is good—strong stuff. Or maybe a bottle of the cheap local brew?"
"..."
Liu Ruyun shook her head with a smile; her family certainly wouldn't have any appreciation for cheap liquor.
"Little Feng..."
"Call me husband."
Xiang Feng corrected her with a dark face.
"H-husband."
Liu Ruyun murmured, blushing.
"Hey, your voice sounds really nice, wife." Xiang Feng grinned happily, craning his neck to look around inside the luxurious BMW, marveling at the towering skyscrapers outside the window and letting his smile grow even wider.
That old codger was such a bastard—the city was so wonderful, why hadn't he let him come down the mountain sooner?
"Husband, you'd better mentally prepare yourself. My family might give you a hard time, use harsh words, or even resort to physical violence. You still have a chance to back out."
Looking at Xiang Feng's innocent, pure smile, a trace of pity welled up in Liu Ruyun's heart.
She knew her family all too well; this shield wasn't going to be easy to wear.
"It's fine. You already called me husband—even if the sky falls, I'll hold it up."
Xiang Feng said nonchalantly.
"..."
Hearing this, a wave of warmth spread deep within Liu Ruyun's heart.
Even though Xiang Feng was as rustic as a mountain bumpkin, his smile was warm and always gave one an inexplicable sense of trust and security.
The car drove down Qingjiang Avenue for a full forty minutes before finally turning into Liu Family Manor.
It was a quaint and elegant courtyard house.
The moment Xiang Feng stepped out of the car, he was dumbstruck.
"Wife, your home is huge! You must be one of those legendary wealthy women. I guess I've been kept by you, huh?"
With his eyes wide in astonishment, Xiang Feng looked around everywhere.
"Pfft!"
Liu Ruyun, whose mood had been somewhat anxious, couldn't help but laugh out loud at that.
The little husband she'd fished out of the river was really quite amusing—his countryness was just right.
"Liu Ruyun, you bitch, you actually dare to show your face back here?"
Just then, a man walked out from the inner courtyard. The moment he laid eyes on Liu Ruyun, he launched into a barrage of vicious insults and curses.
"..."
The smile on Liu Ruyun's face turned to frost as she glared at the young man storming aggressively toward her.
His name was Liu Tianlong, and he was her cousin.
The eldest grandson of the Liu family!
"Why didn't you stay properly with Young Master Li last night? Do you have any idea how angry Young Master Li is? You useless, good-for-nothing bitch, I—"
"Slap!"
Suddenly, with a blur of a shadow, the crisp sound of a heavy slap echoed through the air.
"Speak to my wife with some respect. If you run your mouth again, I'll knock all your front teeth out."
Xiang Feng's voice was icy as he glared fiercely at Liu Tianlong.
"You fucking dare hit me? Do you know who I am?"
Liu Tianlong rubbed his burning cheek, taking a good long moment to process the fact that, yes, he had just been punched.
Standing before him was some guy wearing a battered promotional t-shirt with the words "Tongwei Feed" printed across the front.
Baggy trousers and a pair of black cloth shoes.
A dirt-poor peasant—what gave him the guts to hit him?
He, Liu Tianlong, was the eldest grandson of the Liu family, the future heir of the Liu clan, and the future chairman of Yunshang Group. Every casual conversation he had involved million-dollar deals.
How dared a mere peasant lay a hand on him?
"Bully my wife, and I'll beat you even if you're the King of Heaven." Xiang Feng snorted coldly, pulling Liu Ruyun behind him.
"Your wife?"
Liu Tianlong was dumbfounded. How on earth did that bitch get married overnight?
"That's right, starting today, I am Xiang Feng's wife. Look, here is our marriage certificate, genuine and authentic."
With a flush of springtime warmth in her eyes, Liu Ruyun glanced at Xiang Feng, her little heart pounding wildly. Was this what it felt like to be protected? Was this what falling in love felt like?
That damned sense of security.
She had originally thought Xiang Feng was slight of build, and having grown up in the mountains, would be timid and cowardly. But that shout of "Bully my wife, and I'll beat you even if you're the King of Heaven" was delivered with resounding force, and that slap to the face had been so satisfying to watch!
The Liu family was only a second-tier clan in Xianhai, and Yunshang Group's annual output value barely reached ten million—not worth mentioning in the eyes of true tycoons. But the Liu family had good fortune: Liu Ruyun was universally recognized as the top beauty of Xianhai, and possessing genuine talent on top of that, suitors and admirers practically beat down their doors.
Among the many suitors, Li Donghao of the Li Family stood out above the rest. The Li Family was the richest in Xianhai, a top-tier elite household. As long as Liu Ruyun climbed up to the Li Family's high branch, the Liu family would soar like phoenixes, and their family and business status would skyrocket overnight.