Ashes of Fleeting Snow

It was a meeting that had its ending written from the very beginning.

In the seventeenth year of Chengxi, Pei Yanzhou knocked on the door of Misty Mountain to save Princess Zhaoning, who was suffering from "Seven-Day Frost." In the mountains lived a nameless physician, known as the "Saintly Hand Physician" by the righteous and the "Thousand Mechanisms Rakshasa" by the wicked. She had only intended to stay in Tingxue Cottage, but she was drawn into the mortal world by him.

She saved his life, accompanied him through battles of swords and sabers, and once mistakenly believed she had finally waited for him to turn back. It wasn't until she absorbed the poison for Zhaoning, nearly destroying her meridians, that she realized she always ranked second to another in his heart.

The Han Ya Pass was sealed by wind and snow. He first protected Zhaoning across the broken bridge, leaving her, who was severely injured. She thought he would at least come back.

He did turn back. But just then, news arrived from the pursuers: the post station where Zhaoning was hiding had been attacked.

Pei Yanzhou stopped. He saw her surrounded, and knew she had little strength left; yet he still turned his horse around. Before leaving, he only said to his personal guard: "Save her."

But he himself did not stay.

The heroine stood in the wind and snow, watching him leave for the second time. At this moment, she finally understood: He wasn't incapable of choosing, he simply never chose her.

That night, she fought desperately to repel the pursuers, saving everyone with the forbidden poison "Soul Severing Smoke," and exhausting her last bit of internal energy. When Pei Yanzhou returned, only a broken silver needle remained in the snow, and the words she had carved on a wooden post:

"Pei Yanzhou, I have saved countless people in this life, but saving you was my greatest regret."

She did not die. She dragged her nearly crippled meridians back to Misty Mountain, burned the path markers to Tingxue Cottage, sealed the mountain gate, and re-established the poison array. From then on, there was no more Saintly Hand Physician or Thousand Mechanisms Rakshasa in the martial arts world. Only a legend, whose truth no one knew.

Pei Yanzhou, finally out of danger, began to search for her like a madman. He traveled across Jiangnan and the northern lands, climbed countless mountains, but never saw the white-clothed woman who liked to sit under the eaves and watch his antics with a faint smile.

Zhaoning asked him, "If you could relive that night, who would you choose?"

He was silent for a long time, only replying: "I don't know." It was the first time he admitted he did not deserve her forgiveness.

Years later, although the Ning King's rebellion plot was exposed, the northern enemy country took advantage of the chaos to launch a large-scale invasion. Pei Chongshan died in battle at Yanmen Pass, and Pei Cheng Yue was betrayed by a traitor and died fighting. Pei Yanzhou donned his father's armor, took up his brother's blood-stained sword, and became the last commander of the Pei family army.

In the final battle, he led the remnants of the army to defend the border fortress, but was himself shot by several arrows, falling in the midst of the snowstorm. Before dying, he took out a faded medicine pouch from his embrace—it was the anti-toxic sachet she had casually given him when she first arrived at Misty Mountain.

He had kept it all along. He whispered his last words: "I want to go home."

But his home was long gone.

You were just a modern reader who finished "Fleeting Snow." When you opened your eyes again, you were already in Misty Mountain, having transmigrated into the nameless twenty-two-year-old physician from the story.

The original owner's memories, medical skills, poison techniques, martial arts, and cultivation were all retained; you also remembered every missed opportunity, conspiracy, and tragedy from the original work.

At this time, Zhaoning's poison has not yet been cured, the Pei family has not yet been wronged, and the wind and snow of Han Ya Pass are still in the distant future.

You do not need to inherit the original owner's love and hate, nor do you need to be anyone's sacrifice. You can save people, or refuse; you can enter the game, or live in seclusion. You can choose your own name, your own choices, and your own emotional attachments. The original work is just a known possibility; the new fate has no fixed answer.