The Mountain Lord's Daughter

He would scold, and he could scold in the most unpleasant way.

As for her decision, Yue Zhiheng didn't care. "Do as you wish."

He truly didn't care whether Zhan Yunwei slept on the floor or on the roof, as long as she was under his watchful eye.

Yue Zhiheng came out of the inner room, standing closer to the bed, while Zhan Yunwei had been sitting outside waiting for him to bathe, farther from the bed.

Zhan Yunwei realized that some things are easy to say, but hard to do. For instance, she couldn't walk over to the bed with a calm expression as if everything were normal, yet she didn't want Yue Zhiheng to notice her hesitation. She could only speak up.

"I can't sleep. I'll sit for a while."

Clearly, Yue Zhiheng hadn't been waiting for her. Since last month, he had barely had time to sleep.

In fact, for a refiner, time was always a luxury.

Many master refiners worked day and night, guarding their furnaces without rest. When it came to the probability of staying up late, no one in the entire Spirit Realm could surpass them.

Yue Zhiheng was even worse. Aside from refining, the Che Tian Mansion was also busy. Not to mention, even if someone was nearby, enduring tribulation lightning, he would still sleep if it was time to do so.

His hand paused at his collar, and eventually, Yue Zhiheng lay down fully dressed.

Zhan Yunwei realized she was far less at ease than Yue Zhiheng. In her past life, they had the title of "Daoist partners" for three years, but the time they actually spent together was minimal. Yue Zhiheng would only come when there was some disturbance in the immortal mountain, and they would spend a night together, each disliking the other.

Living peacefully with Yue Zhiheng was a very unfamiliar situation for her.

Zhan Yunwei sat on the chair for a while, feeling bored. She wanted to practice spirit control techniques, but her spiritual power hadn't been unlocked.

Out of sheer boredom, she picked up the book Yue Zhiheng had been reading earlier. It was a book about refining techniques, titled On Controlling Fire. The book compared the impact of different spirit fires on the quality of magic tools.

What surprised her was that there were many annotations and additions in the book, written by Yue Zhiheng himself. Contrary to his cold and erratic nature, his notes were neat and well-structured, not mature, but resembling the careful work of a child completing an assignment.

How strange, Yunwei thought. For families from immortal mountains, much thought was put into the education of their descendants. They were taught knowledge and proper manners from an early age. Most children from immortal families would understand much of the proper etiquette by the time they could walk.

Calligraphy training started early too—though not all of them could write with the grace of dragons and serpents, at the very least, their characters were refined and had a certain dignity.

But Yue Zhiheng's handwriting was not like that. According to common knowledge, the Yue family had once been a prestigious immortal family with a strict code of conduct. It seemed impossible that their young master would write with such childish handwriting.

Adding to her confusion was the secret she had accidentally discovered about the mute girl tonight. Zhan Yunwei began to wonder about Yue Zhiheng's background.

Was he really raised as a young master of the Yue family?

Suppressing her confusion, Zhan Yunwei continued reading and found that the content of the book aligned well with Yue Zhiheng's personality.

For example, On Controlling Fire stated: "When refining a spirit sword, the process lasts thirty-six hours. If the fire reaches sixty percent, it is refined; if seventy percent, it is overly yang, and at eighty percent, it will be overdone."

Yue Zhiheng's note said: "Nonsense. Sixty percent spirit fire results in a tool with yin properties, making it a failure. Seventy percent is the minimum, with intermittent suppression. Every two hours, cool it down. It cannot be a good product otherwise."

It was almost as if he was specifically pointing out that if you couldn't use seventy percent fire, you weren't skilled enough, and if you used sixty percent, the product was just a waste.

Although Yunwei wasn't particularly knowledgeable about fire control, she knew that those who dared to use seventy percent spirit fire to refine a weapon were ruthless. A slight mistake could destroy not only the spirit sword but even the furnace itself.

The process of suppressing the fire and cooling it down was even more complex, requiring a refiner's mental focus, sitting still for days and nights.

No wonder the quality of the spirit tools she had seen, those with lotus patterns, had been exceptionally good. When it came to refining, Yue Zhiheng certainly had great skill.

He had courage and enough patience.

Yunwei couldn't help but hum inwardly. Capturing people, too, Yue Zhiheng had been able to make the immortal mountain suffer for several years.

She flipped a few more pages, but because she had no foundation in refining, the content became harder to understand as she went further, and it took her quite some time to make sense of it.

The sounds of insects gradually quieted. When Yunwei started to feel sleepy, she realized that it was already the middle of the night.

She put down the book but was once again faced with the issue of sleep.

Luckily, Yue Zhiheng had already fallen asleep, so she didn't have to walk past him under his watchful eyes.

The moonlight poured into the room. She saw that Yue Zhiheng was lying on his side, facing outward, with his left arm as his pillow, looking like he had already fallen asleep.

But Yunwei knew that if she tried to make a move at that moment, his cold and eerie whip would immediately bind her hand.

Having attempted this many times in her past life, she now knew better than to waste her energy and suffer.

What bothered her was that Yue Zhiheng had fallen asleep first, lying on the outside, leaving only the bed's inner space for her. How could she get over to that spot?

Yue Zhiheng had not removed his outer clothing. His eyes were closed, and he looked like a cold, aloof young noble from a royal family.

Seeing his calmness and indifference, Yunwei couldn't help but feel unsettled.

They were both uninterested in each other, yet he could sleep peacefully, while she had to stay up late reading books outside!

Forget it, she would treat him like a piece of wood.

After thinking it through, Yunwei hesitated but decided not to take off her outer robe. The wedding gown she was wearing was elaborate and heavy. Sleeping in such a garment was clearly uncomfortable, but it was a small inconvenience compared to lying next to Yue Zhiheng in just her undergarments.

She had already used the cleansing charm in the room earlier, so she was clean. Yunwei carefully lifted the hem of her skirt, stepped over Yue Zhiheng, and moved to the empty space left on the bed.

She let out a sigh and lay down at the farthest side from Yue Zhiheng. Perhaps the book was too hypnotic, or maybe because she knew that Yue Zhiheng had no interest in her, she quickly felt a wave of sleepiness wash over her.

At the fourth watch, the moon hid behind the clouds, and the fireflies dispersed.

Yue Zhiheng opened his eyes, his brows furrowed.

Since the moment Zhan Yunwei arrived, he had slowly awoken from his dazed state. If Zhan Yunwei intended to foolishly make a move against him, he wouldn't hesitate to strike back.

But the girl stood by the bed for a long time. Yue Zhiheng almost lost his patience, and finally, she moved, tiptoeing past him.

Her movements were light, yet he could still feel the slight sinking of the bed and the faint rocking of the frame.

After a while, she settled into a position she seemed satisfied with, and then lay still.

Yue Zhiheng closed his eyes, intending to continue sleeping. But gradually, he realized that falling asleep again was not as easy as he had hoped.

Yue Zhiheng had slept with women before, not that it was a rare occurrence. Before he was thirteen, he mostly shared a bed with a mute girl.

Back then, the dilapidated house leaked when it rained, and in the corner, there was only a thin layer of straw and old scraps of clothing they had collected. Whether it was the scorching summer or freezing winter, the two half-grown children had to huddle together in a small corner.

Even earlier, when he was around seven or eight, every time he was sick and nearly couldn't survive a cold winter night, the mute girl would wrap a worn cotton jacket around him, holding him tightly and occasionally patting him to keep him from falling asleep.

They didn't have the luxury of sleeping through the night. If they did, they would never wake up again.

Because of this, he didn't find anything special about having a woman lying next to him.

However, as Zhan Yunwei's breathing became steady, the fragrance in the tent grew stronger. The warm scent spread in the air like jasmine after rain—very faint, yet pervasive.

It was already a bit warm on this summer night in May. Zhan Yunwei seemed restless in her sleep, occasionally shifting slightly.

With every breath he took, the warm fragrance of her body filled his senses.

He frowned, realizing that even though he had slept beside women before, the difference between Zhan Yunwei and the mute girl was striking.

Yue Zhiheng, a mature man both in body and mind, naturally understood the difference, but he still felt disdain in his heart. However, it was still bothersome to him, so he used his spiritual power to block his sense of smell, finally managing to drift off into a light sleep.

As daylight broke, Zhan Yunwei woke up, only to find that Yue Zhiheng was still in bed.

She moved too suddenly, and if Yue Zhiheng wasn't dead, he certainly couldn't lie there indifferent.

He rubbed his brow and sat up, giving her a glance before calling out, "Come in."

Zhan Yunwei could clearly sense the weariness and dissatisfaction in his eyes. She found it puzzling. After all, she had slept later than him, so if anyone should be dissatisfied, it should be her.

Shi Hu and Bai Rui were waiting outside, and upon hearing the call, they entered to change Zhan Yunwei's clothes.

Yue Zhiheng didn't want anyone to serve him and went behind the screen to change his own clothes.

Shi Hu saw that Zhan Yunwei was still wearing her wedding dress from yesterday and looked surprised. Her youthful expressions were written all over her face.

Bai Rui, however, was not surprised at all. She had expected it and brought a new robe to replace Yunwei's wedding dress.

After Zhan Yunwei changed into her new clothes, someone came in from outside and quietly said, "The old ancestor has asked the young master to take the young lady to the front hall for breakfast."

Zhan Yunwei remembered this scene from her past life as well.

The "old ancestor" referred to Yue Zhiheng's grandfather. In his youth, he was an extraordinary artifact cultivator, but after injuring his legs, he became unable to walk and simply moved into the Artifact Refining Hall, where he had been in seclusion for many years.

Her father had once mentioned the old Yue ancestor with great respect.

Later, she learned that the Yue family had sided with the dynasty and helped slaughter the "corrupted" commoners, which made the Mountain Master sigh heavily, his emotions complex and difficult to describe.

Yue Zhiheng hadn't expected that his marriage would be known to his reclusive grandfather so soon, and that he would be asked to bring Zhan Yunwei to meet him.

He looked at Zhan Yunwei and asked, "Shall we go?"

Zhan Yunwei understood that the old man meant well. Perhaps he couldn't go against the Ling Emperor and was still sentimental about their past connections with the Immortal Mountain. The only way he could help her was by giving her a little more comfort within the Yue family.

The Yue family was full of intrigue, but no matter what, Yue Zhiheng now ruled everything with a single hand.

Whether or not there were any feelings between her and Yue Zhiheng, or how awkward her position was, if he took her to the front hall today, it would be a clear declaration of his stance—she would be recognized as his wife and would fare much better in the Yue family.

Anyone with ulterior motives behind the scenes would have to reconsider.

In her previous life, she had rejected this gesture of goodwill, but this time, Zhan Yunwei nodded decisively and said, "Let's go."

"Then let's go," Yue Zhiheng said.

The two left the courtyard. The Yue residence was a house granted by the Ling Emperor a few years ago. It wasn't as extravagant as the noble houses in the royal city. Although Yue Zhiheng had only recently gained the emperor's favor, the Yue family had not moved to the royal city, so their house had not changed.

Along the way, several immortal servants and maids greeted them.

Yue Zhiheng said, "If you hear anything unpleasant, just insult them back directly."

Zhan Yunwei didn't expect him to say such a thing. After all, who would begin a family reunion with sharp words and insults?

"Who would say anything unpleasant?" she asked.

Yue Zhiheng thought for a moment about the people in his family, and then said coolly, "Anyone might."

Zhan Yunwei was taken aback, "I don't insult people."

After all, insults were forbidden in the Immortal Mountain.

Yue Zhiheng glanced at her coldly and sneered, "Then learn. I'm rarely in the mansion. Even when I am, I won't help you."

Though he might curse and insult people in his own way, he often resorted to direct action, meaning that even if these people had something unpleasant to say, they would have to keep it to themselves.

"…"

Zhan Yunwei hadn't expected that in her past life, when she was passive and cold, closing the door and ignoring everyone, this time she would face life head-on and the first thing she needed to learn was how to insult people in the Yue family?