Tsk, Yezi, you really outdid yourself!

"Yezi?"

When Yezi still did not return, Gu Yi hesitated for a while, then stood up and called out.

All was quiet. No one answered.

Had she run off on her own?

Forget it. Those people were after her, not me.

Besides, I already saved her once. I'd better keep out of it this time.

He had been set up by He Yan once, so he found it hard to trust another stranger.

Even a subordinate who had been by his side for three years had betrayed him, let alone someone he had never met before.

Gu Yi was about to sit back down when he happened to glimpse a small bundle beneath the tree roots, where Yezi had been sitting.

He frowned. She had been carrying that bundle all along. If she had run off on her own, she should have taken it with her. Why would she leave it behind?

Could she have been caught while relieving herself?

He stared at the bundle for a while, but finally could not help picking it up. "Fine, I might as well see this good deed through. I'll find her, take her to a nearby town, and then we'll go our separate ways."

Gu Yi hefted the bundle in his hand. It felt very light, as though there were nothing inside.

Had she left an empty bundle behind?

At that thought, Gu Yi hurriedly opened it. There was nothing inside but an envelope.

Gu Yi held the envelope, hesitating over whether to read the letter as well.

But a strange fragrance wafted from the envelope.

"This is..." Gu Yi's vision swam, and he felt dizzy and unsteady.

"Oh dear, Sister Yiyi, what's wrong?" Yezi's voice reached his ears, but Gu Yi no longer had the strength to answer.

His vision went black, and he toppled to one side, his head heavy and his legs weak.

"Sister Yiyi?" A soft embrace caught him and held him close. "Sister Yiyi, from now on..."

Gu Yi could no longer hear what followed. He just felt as though something was wrong with his brain.

I fell for it again!

"Ugh... my head hurts..."

Murmuring softly, Gu Yi opened his bewildered eyes.

"Miss Ye, you're awake?" A gentle voice rang out, startling Gu Yi fully awake.

Gu Yi: "???"

Hiss... that little brat named Yezi seemed to have drugged me.

Gu Yi, oh, Gu Yi, it's a miracle you've lived this long. How could you fall into the same trap twice?

"Miss Ye, are you feeling unwell anywhere?" The young man before him, dressed in moon-white robes, was watching him anxiously.

"Huh?" Gu Yi opened his mouth. "Where is this?"

"Miss Ye, this is the Tianmu Sect." As the young man looked at Gu Yi, his ears reddened without him realizing it.

"Oh..." Gu Yi held his forehead. He had no idea what Yezi had drugged him with, but his head was killing him.

"Miss Ye, actually, it would be more appropriate to call you Junior Sister Ye. I brought you back on my master's orders."

Seeing how uncomfortable Gu Yi looked, the young man hurriedly said, "Oh, right. My name is Xie Wenyun. You can just call me Senior Brother Xie."

Gu Yi raised his head in utter bewilderment. What did that mean?

How had I become the junior sister of this Xie Something-yun?

"This is your bundle. I haven't touched it, and I've left it on the table." Xie Wenyun thought for a moment. There seemed to be nothing else to explain. "I'll head back, then. Get some rest."

As soon as Xie Wenyun left, Gu Yi sprang off the bed in a single movement.

He opened Yezi's bundle, which had clearly been empty before, and a clattering pile of things spilled across the bed.

Rouge and face powder, low-grade talismans and magical artifacts, and even two bottles of Bigu pills.

Frowning, he rummaged through the pile before finding a note inside a bamboo tube.

He unfolded the note, his brows drawing tighter the more he read.

Finally, he flung it straight onto the bed. Damn it, that little brat!

He picked the letter back up and carefully read it again, confirming that he had not misread it.

The gist of the letter was that Yezi was the only daughter of the Ye Family in Qingcheng. Because her father was an old acquaintance of an elder from this Tianmu Sect, Yezi had learned some cultivation techniques as well and reached Foundation Establishment.

Later, the Ye Family had fallen on hard times. Before her father died, he had entrusted Yezi to that elder, who had agreed to take her as a disciple.

But she had her own ideas. The young girl had fallen in love with someone and wanted to go find that person.

Besides, she had been used to living freely since childhood and did not want to be bound by a sect's rules. So she had run away before the people from the Tianmu Sect arrived.

When he had saved her, the Tianmu Sect's disciples had found her trail and were chasing her.

Gu Yi raised his hand and examined the jadeite bangle on his wrist. It seemed to be a small defensive magical artifact.

"Heh, she even gave me the ancestral bangle that could prove her identity. She really went all in."

The pills and magical artifacts on the bed had all been left by Yezi as an apology to him.

She had sounded Gu Yi out several times because, although he was good-looking, his clothes were ordinary. At a glance, he did not seem like a cultivator from a sect out gaining experience, and was most likely an unaffiliated cultivator.

She also knew a little medicine. From Gu Yi's pale face and the dark circles beneath his eyes, she had known that his health must be poor.

She had noticed that Gu Yi kept his eyes closed and did not even dare look directly at moonlight, and guessed that something was wrong with his eyes as well.

He was practically an invalid-oh, no, a sickly beauty...

Later, after drugging Gu Yi unconscious, she had checked his pulse and learned that his constitution was weak. Sure enough, he did not have long to live.

Although the Tianmu Sect was no major sect, it would certainly be able to do something for his condition.

At the end, she had even added a question: "Sister Yiyi, do you already have a Dao companion?"

Judging by his pulse, it seemed that he had frequent intercourse, irregular menstruation, and a tendency toward abdominal pain...

Gu Yi: ...

What on earth was all this?

I'm a man. How could I menstruate?

Gu Yi's face alternated between red and white. Yezi really had some nerve. Was she not afraid he would tell everyone about this and have the people of Tianmu City go arrest her?

Gu Yi put the letter and everything on the bed into his Qiankun Ring, and his head began to ache again.

Gu Yi had intended to find a chance to escape, but he leaned weakly against the bedside. In his current state, he was even more frail and delicate than Lin Daiyu. Never mind escaping-even leaving this room would be difficult.

Presumably, that also had something to do with the drug Yezi had given him.

She was determined to cement his identity as the Ye Family's only daughter.

Gu Yi sat on the bed and thought for a moment. He had wanted to find a small sect to hide in, but had never considered doing so as a woman. What was more, he had now become the disciple of that whatever elder from Tianmu City, and the young lady of the Ye Family...

Besides, his own identity was already unusual.

If he refused to admit that he was the Ye Family's only daughter now, he would probably be questioned about his own identity.

There was no way he could hide the fact that he was a man. They might even follow the trail and discover that he was Gu Yi.

Gu Yi lay back on the bed, the corner of his mouth twitching. It seemed he had no choice. Apparently, his only option was to admit that he was the Ye Family's daughter.

He recalled how Yezi had insisted on fleeing with him earlier, even tugging at his sleeve with a pitiful act.

Presumably, she had already been planning to use him then.

"Tsk! Yezi, you really outdid yourself!"