“I have a very serious matter to discuss with you.”

When dawn was approaching, Xin Mei crouched beside Lu Qianqiao and pushed him awake. At that moment, he still seemed drowsy, with a strand of hair stuck to his lips and his dark eyes looking somewhat innocent and confused.

“You’re a man, and I’m a woman, right?”

Given that Xin Mei’s expression was rarely so serious, Lu Qianqiao felt he should give her some face, so he covered his eyes with his hand and nodded woodenly.

“Many supposedly very learned old men write books saying that men and women shouldn’t have physical contact, and talk about ‘seeing no impropriety.’ If a man accidentally sees a woman’s skin, he must marry her as his wife, right?”

Lu Qianqiao dozed drowsily in the gentle rise and fall of her soft voice, nodding again.

“Then… I absolutely will not marry you! You know that, right?”

He was nearly asleep and nodded instinctively.

Xin Mei clapped her hands hard: “So I just want to tell you—I need to relieve myself!”

The demon-binding rope around her waist was grasped in his hand, so she really couldn’t go far. Relieving oneself required exposing skin… well, more than just “skin”…

Lu Qianqiao lowered his hand and stared at her expressionlessly, showing no reaction whatsoever.

Xin Mei repeated: “I need to relieve myself.”

He still showed no reaction, only blinking his eyes in a dazed manner.

She tearfully got up, found a reasonably thick tree, crouched behind it, still sobbing: “You… you’re not allowed to peek!”

After hiding theatrically for a long while with no sound from the other side, Xin Mei grew anxious and poked her head out, shouting: “How can you really have no reaction? Peeking at someone relieving themselves is a very despicable interest!”

Lu Qianqiao blinked dazedly, then… then he yawned, rolled over, and immediately fell asleep again.

So he was actually someone who liked to stay in bed!

Xin Mei pounced on him and vigorously slapped his face: “Get up, get up, get up!”

Her wrist was caught. Lu Qianqiao, finally awakened by the slapping, looked frosty, his hair disheveled, lying on his back glaring at her: “You’re quite bold!”

She flew into a rage: “I need to relieve myself!”

“Relieve myself”—these words seemed both unfamiliar and familiar. Lu Qianqiao’s just-awakened brain wasn’t quite sharp. After pondering for a while, he suddenly understood. In an instant, his expression developed from shock to guilt to anger, finally becoming embarrassment.

He quickly released her hand as if burned, watching helplessly as Xin Mei ran toward the deep forest.

Lu Qianqiao now had no sleepiness at all. He got up and ran his fingers through his hair, but a talisman paper fell from his body—quite unfamiliar, definitely not his own. The talisman was made from thousand-year-old phoenix tree bark, suitable for bird spirit beasts to inhabit. It must have accidentally dropped from Xin Mei during her vigorous movements earlier.

It was her mount, that pelican, right?

He examined it briefly, folded the talisman paper, and put it in his bosom.

This… he had no experience in this area. That… woman… how long did she need? One incense stick’s time? Two incense sticks? Fine, he’d give her a meal’s worth of time. If she didn’t return, he’d… he’d wait another meal’s worth of time…

Looking at the sky, how long had passed now? She still hadn’t returned. Should he go after her to check? No, better wait a bit… in case that what… better wait a while longer…

For the first time in his life, Lu Qianqiao found himself in difficult inner turmoil.

After three meals’ worth of time, he suddenly stood up, just about to go search, when he heard the soft sound of footsteps on fallen leaves behind him. Turning around, he saw a disgruntled Xin Mei returning with an armful of fresh mushrooms, covered in dew.

“You…” He was still somewhat embarrassed, not knowing what to say.

Xin Mei threw the mushrooms on the ground with a stern face. What a perfect escape opportunity that had been! But searching her entire body, she couldn’t find the talisman paper where Qiuyue dwelt. It must have accidentally fallen out when she was slapping him earlier. Damn! Without her mount, in this endless deep mountain forest, she could barely move, let alone escape.

“…Is Qiuyue with you?” she asked.

Lu Qianqiao thought for a moment and nodded.

“You’re not allowed to harm it!” Remembering Lu Qianqiao’s mention of roasted pelican last night, she panicked. “Qiuyue is very old, its meat is tough and not tasty at all!” (Qiuyue cried in Lu Qianqiao’s bosom: I’m not even six years old yet, how am I old?)

After a moment of silence, Lu Qianqiao said: “That depends on whether you behave.”

Xin Mei hugged her arms and stepped back, facing death with dignity: “Hmph! You can have my body but not my heart!”

…He felt that trying to have a serious conversation with her was definitely a wrong choice.

He roughly sorted and washed the fresh mushrooms she had just picked, put them in last night’s leftover noodle soup, and they could eat once it boiled. As last night, he ladled a bowl and placed it by her feet. Xin Mei turned her head away in a show of pride: “I won’t eat! Unless you return Qiuyue to me!”

Oh, if she wouldn’t eat, so be it. Lu Qianqiao calmly began eating himself. The dried meat in the noodle soup, having soaked overnight, had released all its fragrance and seemed much more tender.

He was definitely doing it on purpose, because his bowl contained lots of meat, and fragrance filled the air as he ate heartily.

Xin Mei secretly glanced at him several times. Seeing him eating with his head down, paying no attention to her side, she quietly reached for the bowl. Just as her fingertips touched the edge, she heard him move slightly. She jerked her hand back like lightning and continued her proud act.

He seemed to laugh helplessly. After a while, he said: “Stop fooling around. Eat.”

His voice was calm, not maliciously mocking.

Xin Mei tearfully picked up the bowl: Qiuyue! I’m not a good master! Just wait for me to finish eating before I figure out how to rescue you from the demon king!

Xin Mei had thought he would drag her to Baitou Mountain to find Lord Meishan, but unexpectedly, after crossing mountains and valleys for several days, they returned to the Imperial Tomb.

Walking the cherry blossom-lined sacred path for the second time, she felt quite composed. Fortunately, this time Lu Qianqiao didn’t lock her in a room, keeping her tied to his side throughout, until they entered a small hall called Guihua Hall.

“General, you’ve returned.”

Si Lan brought tea, glaring viciously at Xin Mei. He still remembered how she knocked him out that night—this was absolutely the greatest humiliation of Si Lan’s life!

Xin Mei pretended not to notice, looking around at Guihua Hall’s decorations while stretching her ears to listen to Si Lan report on the various demons and spirits at the Imperial Tomb over the past few days.

“Since you, General, retrieved the inner core from the tiger demon for Tao Guoguo, he’s been in secluded cultivation these past days. Yesterday he finally recovered fully, and his appearance has returned to normal… Manager Zhao says he’s been pouring his heart into writing a new opera script, which will definitely match the twelve puppets you carved, General… The bear demon from the northwest came to propose to Miss Yinglian for the fifty-third time, spreading white lotus flowers all along the path, but Miss Yinglian burned them all with fire…”

She listened with boredom, unable to help yawning. Finally, when Si Lan finished, Lu Qianqiao left Guihua Hall and went up a slanted small hillside covered with snow-white, lustrous pear blossoms. In the grove, two people were talking. Hearing footsteps, they turned around together. Seeing Lu Qianqiao, they couldn’t help but be delighted.

“Brother Qianqiao!”

A tall seventeen or eighteen-year-old youth called out somewhat shyly. His features were fairly handsome, though his round eyes and round face still held some childishness. Behind him spread a pair of tender yellow large wings that rustled excitedly.

Lu Qianqiao nodded: “All better?”

The youth blushed slightly: “Yes, completely recovered. Brother Qianqiao, I’m always causing you trouble… If you hadn’t stopped me, I almost committed the grave error of stealing mortal souls… I’ll never run around carelessly again.”

Pleasant feminine laughter came from behind. A beautiful girl in a pink silk dress walked to the youth’s side, smiling: “After Guoguo recovered, he’s been repeating these things constantly. I actually think when you lost your inner core and looked eleven or twelve, you were cuter than now.”

Tao Guoguo’s face grew redder: “Sister Yinglian, you’re just teasing me…”

Then he suddenly noticed a girl standing beside Lu Qianqiao—peach-blossom face, willow-like figure, staring blankly at the sky, lost in some ethereal thoughts. He couldn’t help but shudder, jumping up and pointing at her with a shout: “It’s you?! How can you be here?!”

Xin Mei withdrew her gaze in surprise to look at him, examining him from top to bottom twice. She suddenly clapped her hands in realization: “Eh? Aren’t you that little bird demon who pretended to be a fierce ghost?”

Tao Guoguo felt both fear and hatred toward her, his finger trembling: “You you you… you bad woman…”

Xin Mei looked at him seriously: “Mm, you’ve grown up. What’s behind you aren’t chicken wings anymore… you’ve become a proper bird-man.”

Tao Guoguo’s face turned green. He tremblingly folded his wings, his mouth finally turning down as he burst into tears and ran away.

Yinglian laughed, looking at her, then at Lu Qianqiao, her voice gentle: “Brother Lu usually doesn’t get close to women. I really never thought he would hit it off with Miss Xin. It seems little sister can drink a wedding cup from Brother Lu.”

Si Lan couldn’t help interjecting from behind: “Miss Yinglian, you’re mistaken. She’s the General’s prisoner! How could the General possibly… with this kind of girl… hmph!”

Yinglian appeared quite surprised: “How can this be?”

Lu Qianqiao said nothing, only pulled the demon-binding rope. Xin Mei involuntarily followed him forward, saying as she walked: “I want to bathe.”

His hand twitched again, and he looked back at her expressionlessly.

She kept a straight face: “Men and women shouldn’t have physical contact. Hurry up and release me, or else you’re trying to peek.”

“You bathed once this morning.”

He stated the facts.

“I want to bathe again.”

She was quite unreasonable.

Lu Qianqiao didn’t answer and continued pulling her forward.

Xin Mei grew anxious: “You… you want to peek?!”

He seemed to laugh—a laugh tinged with mockery and a bit of teasing: “I imagine it would be much like looking at a wooden board.”

“You…” She flew into a rage.

Yinglian watched the two of them walk away, talking as if no one else existed. For a long while, she said nothing.

Si Lan felt somewhat sympathetic and said in a low voice: “Miss Yinglian, she’s really just a prisoner. That girl can break the Yunwu Array. The General fears she might leak the secret, so he keeps her tied to his side with the demon-binding rope.”

Yinglian smiled slightly and turned to leave: “Brother Si Lan, you’re overthinking. I’m just curious, that’s all.”