The Dragon King’s Betrothal

Xue Jingyao was born prematurely on the Qingming Festival in 1998, beside a solitary grave. Due to her fragile health and an inauspicious birth time, she suffered from a persistent, unexplained fever from the age of ten. Her parents, desperate to save her life, consulted a Kanshi Xiansheng who diagnosed her condition as Xiebing, a supernatural affliction that ordinary medicine could not cure. The master prescribed a Chongxi ritual, a traditional practice where a girl is symbolically married off to a spirit to ward off evil. During the eerie ceremony, Jingyao was dressed in red and made to kowtow to a large red rooster and a spirit tablet. She was given a Longxing Yupai, a jade plaque that was said to protect her and ensure her safety, with the strict warning that she must never remove it.

After the ritual, Jingyao’s health improved dramatically, and she seemed blessed with extraordinary luck, surviving dangerous accidents that should have killed her. However, her mother became increasingly protective and forbade her from dating, claiming that Jingyao already had a husband she must remain loyal to. Jingyao dismissed these warnings as superstition as she entered university, where she longed for a normal romantic life. Her best friend, Su Weiwei, encouraged her to attend a class gathering where she met a charming senior named Song Lin. During a nap, Jingyao experienced sleep paralysis and saw a mysterious man in red robes sitting by her bed, a vision that left her terrified yet intrigued.

At the gathering, Song Lin pursued Jingyao aggressively. Despite her reservations, she allowed him to walk her home. In the car, his demeanor shifted from gentle to menacing, and he drove her to a remote wilderness. Song Lin revealed himself to be a monstrous entity intent on eating her. Just as he was about to kill her, the man in red from her vision appeared, crushing Song Lin’s head with a single step. The man identified himself as Yu Qingzhou, the husband engraved on the spirit tablet. He rescued Jingyao but warned her not to remove the Yupai again, threatening to twist her head off if she disobeyed.

Upon returning home, Jingyao discovered that her father had been injured and was in a coma, an event her mother blamed on Jingyao angering Yu Qingzhou. Jingyao learned that the love letters she received from Song Lin had appeared at her parents' bedside, indicating that the spirit had been stalking her. Forced to confront her supernatural husband, Jingyao knelt before Yu Qingzhou’s spirit tablet and begged for his help to save her father. Yu Qingzhou agreed but demanded she meet him at Wuli River at midnight.

That night, Jingyao encountered a spectral figure claiming to be her grandmother, who had died years prior. The entity attempted to bite her, revealing its true predatory nature. Jingyao realized that the Yupai had disappeared again, leaving her vulnerable to these supernatural attacks. Her mother took her to Mr. Guo, the Kanshi Xiansheng who had performed the original ritual. Mr. Guo revealed that Jingyao had a Four Yin constitution and that one of her souls had been taken at birth. Without the Yupai, she was attracting various ghosts and monsters. He explained that the only way to save her was to fully become the Dragon King’s woman, marked by his seal, a path that would bind her eternally to Yu Qingzhou and the supernatural world.