That settled the matter.

Tian Fangfang still felt somewhat embarrassed and secretly asked Gu Baiying when Xu Fu and his daughter went outside, “Master Uncle, how can we take Little Dou’s bed?”

“You want to sleep?” Gu Baiying looked at him as if he were an idiot. “Don’t sleep at all tonight. And,” he looked toward outside the house, putting away his casual demeanor, “I also want to figure out what exactly is going on here.”

After Xu Fu and Dou Niang brought in the bedding, they went out. Only Zanxing and the others remained in the room.

The inner room was also very small, not even as large as the thatched cottage in Li’er Kingdom’s secret realm. Against the wall was placed an earthen kang with rather thin bedding spread on it. The inner room had no windows, so no stove was lit either, making the room quite cold. Some tassels made of coarse thread hung on the red clay walls—clearly Dou Niang’s handiwork. The bright tassels added some vitality to this simple room. There was also a half-worn wooden cabinet in the inner room that appeared to be Dou Niang’s “dressing table.”

This father, Xu Fu, seemed to treat Dou Niang well. Though the family was poor, his considerations were quite thoughtful.

Tian Fangfang called out from over there, “Master Uncle, how should we sleep?”

Earlier, Xu Fu had spoken so solemnly that everyone thought this bed could accommodate six people. Now it seemed that, let alone six people, even two slightly plump people would be a tight squeeze.

Before Gu Baiying could respond, Mu Cengxiao spoke first, “Let Senior Sister Meng, Junior Sister Yang, and Mendong sleep on the bed. Tonight Senior Brother Tian, Master Uncle, and I won’t sleep—we’ll keep watch in the room in case of accidents.”

Zanxing looked at the narrow bed—a place usually slept in by Dou Niang alone—which could now barely squeeze the three of them. However, Zanxing said, “Since we’ve lost all our yuanli and are no different from ordinary people, staying awake all night on guard duty probably won’t work. How about we take turns keeping watch? One person per shichen, but Mendong doesn’t need to.”

“I agree,” Meng Ying also said.

Since leaving Li’er Kingdom’s secret realm, their group hadn’t had time to rest. Normally, this would be fine, but now that they were all “ordinary people,” they had to consider energy issues.

“Fine,” Gu Baiying said indifferently, holding his Embroidered Bone Spear as he sat down on the floor next to the bed.

There was no fabric to use as padding here, but fortunately, the floor had been swept very clean by Dou Niang—not a speck of dust anywhere. Zanxing looked at the bed. Dou Niang’s family was indeed very poor—they had only brought two sets of bedding: one with a red base and green floral pattern, and one with a green base and red floral pattern. They were probably stuffed with cotton and were quite warm.

This desert was hot during the day, but at night, the cold air drilled straight up through one’s feet. Zanxing handed the green-based red-flowered bedding to Gu Baiying, “Master Uncle, cover yourself with this when you’re keeping watch at night to avoid catching a cold.”

The green-based red-flowered bedding looked quite roughly patterned, and the quilt was quite old, giving off a rustic countryside feeling. Gu Baiying glanced at it and disdainfully pushed it away, “Who wants to cover themselves with this?” As soon as he finished speaking, he sneezed.

Everyone looked at him in unison.

Gu Baiying became angry from embarrassment, “What are you looking at?”

“Master Uncle, you should still cover yourself with this quilt,” Mendong rolled off the bed in one motion and wrapped the green quilt entirely around Gu Baiying. “If you get sick at this critical moment, we really won’t be able to leave.”

Gu Baiying was about to refuse when Tian Fangfang had already lifted his robe. This action startled Mu Cengxiao so much that he immediately stood in front of Meng Ying, blocking her view.

“This is…” Mendong was somewhat bewildered.

“This is what Junior Sister taught me,” Tian Fangfang proudly patted his thigh. Under his ethereal flowing robe, cotton pants looked particularly substantial. “When it’s cold, you can add pants under the gauze robe—no one can see from the outside anyway. When we entered Li’er Kingdom’s secret realm on this trip, it was cold at night, so I took a pair from my Qiankun Bag and wore them underneath. Perfect for now.” He clasped his fists toward Zanxing, “My Junior Sister truly has a pure heart and orchid-like nature!”

Zanxing: “…That’s not how you use ‘pure heart and orchid-like nature.'”

“Anyway,” Tian Fangfang lowered his robe hem again, “I have cotton pants, and Junior Brother Mu is also wearing the padded jacket Miss Liu made for him, so we’re not cold. But Master Uncle, your clothes are beautiful, but they don’t block the wind well. It’s cold at night, so just wrap yourself in this quilt to prevent one of us from falling ill before we even fight the Mo Sha.”

He was completely casual about it, not caring at all about Gu Baiying’s instantly displeased expression, still thinking he had made quite a reasonable point. Zanxing looked at Gu Baiying wrapped in that distinctly rustic quilt and couldn’t hold back a “pfft” of laughter.

“What are you laughing at?” Gu Baiying glared at her angrily.

“Nothing,” Zanxing said with great amusement, “I just remembered that when I first entered the sect, I said that Taiyan Sect’s tendency to prioritize ethereal appearance over warmth was unacceptable.” She spread her hands, “Look, now it’s come true, hasn’t it?”

Upon hearing this, Gu Baiying became even angrier and was about to take off the bedding when Mendong had already moved close to his ear and quickly whispered, “Master Uncle, spiritual meridians, be careful!”

His motion to remove the quilt stopped abruptly.

Meng Ying, being the face of Taiyan Sect, still wanted to preserve the little Master Uncle’s pitiful dignity at this moment and said, “Then let’s do it this way. Mendong sleeps on the inside, Junior Sister and I sleep on the outside, and we’ll take turns keeping watch every shichen.”

Zanxing asked, “What if we oversleep?” There were no roosters here—once you closed your eyes and opened them again, who knew what time it would be?

“You think everyone is like you?” Gu Baiying said irritably, “I’ll go first.”

Since he had already said this, the others naturally had no objections, so it was settled.

Mendong slept against the wall on the innermost side, Meng Ying slept in the middle, and Zanxing slept on the outermost edge of the bed. On the floor, Tian Fangfang and Mu Cengxiao had already lain down. Gu Baiying sat with his back against the bed, the Embroidered Bone Spear placed beside him.

The oil lamp wick in the room was trimmed very short, the flame weak as if it might extinguish at any moment.

Light snoring came from Xu Fu in the outer room next door, along with occasional goose calls from the courtyard outside. The bedding gradually warmed up.

Zanxing turned over. The oil lamp on the table cast a soft light and shadow on the wall, and the young man’s back was straight. It was like that night in Li’er Kingdom when she had been frightened by the monster that broke in during the night, and Gu Baiying had been forced to stay behind.

It was inexplicably reassuring.

She quietly propped herself up and whispered, “Master Uncle, are you asleep?”

All around was quiet. The others didn’t know whether they were asleep or pretending to sleep—no one spoke. Gu Baiying didn’t respond, only staring at the flame in the oil lamp in a daze.

Zanxing moved a bit closer to him. From this angle, his vermilion hair ribbon looked gorgeous and alluring in the lamplight, making Zanxing inexplicably think of how he had almost been buried under silk flowers thrown by girls at the Auspicious Serpent Festival.

“Master Uncle,” she said softly, “I still think there’s something wrong with Dou Niang’s father.”

“Even an idiot would know something’s wrong with him,” Gu Baiying finally spoke, probably deliberately lowering his voice to avoid disturbing his sleeping companions.

Zanxing was stunned for a moment, then smiled at the back of his head, “You’re starting to become more human now.”

When she had first arrived at Gufeng Mountain, she had only felt that this young man was arrogant, conceited, and domineering. Now, after going through Li’er Kingdom’s secret realm together and sharing hardships, though he was still difficult, she could occasionally glimpse his clumsy concern beneath his cold exterior.

It wasn’t just him—she was the same way. When she first entered this strange world, everything felt unreal, and she constantly thought about going back. Those senior brothers, junior brothers, senior sisters, and junior sisters were nothing more than unfamiliar paper figures to her. But without realizing it, through daily interactions and traveling together, she had long since considered herself one of them.

Like tonight, in this strange city, because the others were in this room with her, she felt hardly any fear.

“If you don’t want to sleep, you can start keeping watch now,” Gu Baiying said coldly, clutching that floral quilt.

Upon hearing this, Zanxing immediately lay down, burrowing into the red-based green-flowered bedding and closing her eyes, “I’ll sleep right now.”

The room became quiet again.

Before long, Tian Fangfang’s snoring gradually began, and Mimi lay curled up in a ball at the foot of the bed, sleeping sweetly.

The weak lamplight in the room flickered, with only the young man’s silhouette cast on the wall, creating warm-colored shadows.

……

This sleep was very deep.

Without a rooster’s reminder or anyone else to urge her, in the middle of the night, Zanxing was awakened by the cold.

The quilt that had been properly covered over her—originally a warm cotton quilt—now felt like a piece of cold iron, pressing heavily on her body. Her entire body was enveloped in cold air. She opened her eyes in the darkness, was stunned for a while, then realized—why had the oil lamp on the table gone out?

The room was pitch black. Zanxing was dazed for a moment, then suddenly sensed something was wrong.

This room was quiet in an excessive way.

Before she fell asleep, Xu Fu next door had been snoring, Tian Fangfang’s snoring had also gradually started, and there had been geese flapping their wings in the courtyard. But now, there was nothing—the surroundings were as quiet as death. As if in this impenetrable thick darkness, there were no longer any living creatures.

Where was Gu Baiying? Where were the others around her? Weren’t they supposed to be keeping watch?

Countless guesses flashed through Zanxing’s mind in an instant. This broken plotline had developed to this point and had some horror elements. She secretly reached toward the head of the bed, where the Panhua Stick was placed.

The next moment, someone’s lowered voice rang out: “Don’t move!”

Zanxing was delighted: “Master Uncle? You’re still here!”

“Something’s wrong here, Junior Sister, be careful,” Meng Ying said in a low voice beside her.

Zanxing was stunned. “You’re all here?”

“Of course we’re all here,” Gu Baiying scoffed. “Even your cat woke up from the cold, yet you could continue sleeping soundly without any awareness. Yang Zanxing, if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I really wouldn’t believe there could be someone as carefree as you in this world.”

Just as Zanxing was about to defend herself, she heard something on the roof go “clang.”

Immediately after, a strong wind flashed past in front of her.

Gu Baiying chased after it.