She walked around the South Flower Garden. The usually quiet garden today seemed a bit crowded due to the addition of over a hundred disciples from other halls, exhausting a group of little immortal attendants who were busy serving tea and pastries, each one panting from fatigue.

Disciples chatting in groups of twos and threes were everywhere, but Shao Yi was nowhere to be found. It turned out his skill at hiding was quite high as well.

Xuan Yi was getting irritated from walking around when suddenly her shoulder was lightly tapped. Zhi Xi, who had been busy attending to the disciples from other halls, was tired enough that fragrant sweat dotted her forehead. She handed her a small plate of tea snacks and smiled slightly. “You’re hungry, right? I secretly saved some good things for you. Gu Ting and Fucang are over there—go sit and eat. I’ll come over when I’m free.”

After speaking, she ran off again like a spinning top, with no time to sit down and rest at all.

Xuan Yi looked down at the porcelain dish in her hand. Inside were four golden chestnut cream cakes—nothing particularly special. It was just that last time among the tea snacks Gu Ting brought, these were the better ones, so she had kept picking these to eat. This made Zhi Xi think she liked eating them.

Gu Ting and Fucang were sitting under a willow tree. Gu Ting was waving at her. She was ten thousand times unwilling to go over, but she didn’t want to go against Zhi Xi’s kind intentions. After pausing for a moment, she still slowly walked toward that willow tree.

“Your injury healed?” Seeing her walk especially smoothly, Gu Ting couldn’t help but be surprised. Wasn’t it said that the Zhuyin Clan recovered from injuries extremely slowly? She had only used one year to heal wounds that would take thirty years to recover—it was simply a miracle.

Xuan Yi smiled as she sat on the stone stool, saying, “My divine power is meager and I have no martial skills at all, so naturally my wounds heal quickly.”

Gu Ting couldn’t make sense of her reasoning. He could never really connect with her in conversation. With any casual remark from her, he had to ponder for a long while before he could figure out her strange thought process. He simply didn’t speak anymore, only pouring her a cup of tea while smiling and continuing his earlier topic with Fucang. “Supposedly when the Sword Dao awakens, you should go into the Thousand-Year Dream. Are you prepared? Sleeping for a thousand years isn’t very comfortable.”

Xuan Yi was burying her head drinking tea and eating snacks when the four words “Thousand-Year Dream” suddenly drilled into her ears. Her hand trembled and she knocked over her teacup, spilling tea all over her skirt.

He had never seen this little princess so careless before. Gu Ting looked in amazement at her frost-colored lotus dress hem, its color stained by the spilled tea. He flicked his fingertip, and the tea droplets seeped out from the skirt hem one by one, flowing onto the grass. The frost-colored lotus dress became clean and dry again.

Xuan Yi was surprised. “Senior Apprentice Brother Gu Ting, what magical art is this?”

Gu Ting was a bit smug. “My father taught me this over these past months. We should learn some magical arts too. In case there’s another accident, we’ll have more means to protect ourselves.”

He wasn’t stupid after all. As soon as Xuan Yi arrived, Fucang stopped talking. When the Thousand-Year Dream was mentioned, her tea spilled. He had no intention of staying here to get in the way. He immediately stood up and smiled. “I’ll go help Senior Apprentice Sister Zhi Xi attend to the disciples from other halls. I’ll come back later.”

…This was the worst situation. Under the willow tree, there was deathly silence. Xuan Yi slowly ate her tea snacks. Opposite her, Fucang was motionless like a statue. She also didn’t move. Why should she leave? If anyone should go, it should be him.

The next moment he moved. Xuan Yi was like she’d been struck by lightning and nearly jumped up. Gu Ting’s teacup also crashed over.

Fucang held the teapot and glanced at her indifferently—so he had only been reaching for tea.

She pinched half a tea cake and turned her head away to not look at him. This was bad. After seeing him today, she seemed a bit off—startled and jumpy, too unsightly.

Xuan Yi placed her empty teacup on the table and crooked her finger. “Teapot.”

Who was she arrogantly ordering around? Fucang looked at her, but in the end still pushed the teapot to her side. Xuan Yi slowly filled her cup with tea, lowered her head to think for a moment, and suddenly spoke. “You’re going into the Thousand-Year Dream?”

The white-robed Shenjun opposite had a calm expression without the slightest ripple. His dark, profound eyes met hers for a while before he said in a low voice, “What about it?”

Xuan Yi was stunned for a long time, actually having nothing to say. Indeed, there was nothing she could say about it.

She furrowed her brow and said flatly, “Nothing. Congratulations, Senior Apprentice Brother Fucang.”

The golden chestnut cream cakes were becoming harder and harder to eat. She simply tossed them aside, lowering her head to slowly pick at the closed-eyed dragons on her sleeve with her fingernails. After a long while, as if possessed by a ghost, she suddenly cautiously said in a small voice, “Senior Apprentice Brother Fucang, does this mean we won’t see each other again until after a thousand years?”

Fucang recalled that day in the sunset glow when she had asked a nearly identical question, that trace of loneliness revealed on her face, and her cool long hair that he had held in his palm… He abruptly closed his eyes. All his struggles had become so difficult and painful. Even now, she was still trying to drag him down.

He shouldn’t continue sinking. The absurd ambiguity should have ended in Qingqiu.

Xuan Yi waited for a long while only to see him silently drinking tea over there. Where was his Huaxu Clan etiquette and propriety? Just now too—not a single greeting. And before that—doing a series of evil acts to her like pinching her shoulders, grabbing her neck, bending her fingers, and seizing her wrists.

With a dark expression, she stood up. Suddenly she didn’t want to stay here for another moment. She couldn’t tell if she didn’t want to see him cold as ice, or if she didn’t want to see herself utterly defeated.

Xuan Yi turned and walked away angrily.

She could never touch it again—the dark silver thread embroidery on his sleeve cuffs. Only she knew what it felt like to pick at those embroideries. Only she knew what it felt like to sleep in his sleeve. He had no scent at all on his body, clean like the wind of the divine realm.

And there was the taste of his burning lips touching her fingertips.

Xuan Yi’s face suddenly flushed crimson, but quickly turned pale again.

Those things were nothing. She quickened her pace. Those things really weren’t anything. Weren’t anything at all.

The goddesses’ laughter like silver bells came rushing with the breeze over Hege Lake. Xuan Yi squinted over and saw Shao Yi, whom she’d searched for everywhere earlier, surrounded in the center like the moon among stars. He was quite leisurely, smiling happily.

She would make him unable to smile anymore.

*

When Xuan Yi reached the flower arbor, Shao Yi was chatting and laughing with a group of young goddesses like warblers and swallows. She estimated he had occupied at least more than half of the female disciples from other halls in the garden today. She really didn’t know what methods he possessed.

A goddess covered his eyes with a handkerchief, while another goddess beside him giggled and said, “Shao Yi, do you want to eat golden chestnut cream cake or mung bean cooling cake?”

Shao Yi’s voice carried a different kind of allure. “Want to eat.”

The goddesses laughed so hard their flowers trembled. Suddenly catching sight of Xuan Yi slowly walking up close, all the deities saw the closed-eyed dragon embroidery on her clothes and couldn’t help but change color one after another—it was the princess of the Zhuyin Clan! Xuan Yi placed her finger vertically against her lips, signaling them not to make a sound, while her other hand pointed outside the flower arbor.

This was bad—could it be the little princess of the Zhuyin Clan was jealous? Which of them could afford to offend the Zhuyin Clan? Immediately the goddesses all silently retreated and fled from the flower arbor in one rush.

Xuan Yi noiselessly walked to Shao Yi’s side. With a flip of her palm, she produced a ball of Zhuyin white snow and tossed it into his mouth. He made an “mm” sound and covered his mouth, unable to lift his head for a long time from the bitterness.

“Is it delicious?” She spread her handkerchief on the ground and elegantly sat beside him, slowly asking.

Shao Yi pulled off the cloth from his face, covering his lips and turning his head to look at her, his brow furrowed almost into a knot.

Xuan Yi picked up the teapot from the ground and kindly poured a cup of tea to hand over. “Rinse your mouth.”

Shao Yi wordlessly drained a cup of tea, set down the cup, and rarely showed a trace of coldness on his face that usually carried a smile. “This is too presumptuous.”

Xuan Yi said flatly, “Senior Apprentice Brother Shao Yi, I haven’t been presumptuous for just a day or two. Please absolutely don’t forgive me. Your secretive attitude makes me very unhappy. When I’m unhappy, I must make the person who made me unhappy even more unhappy.”

“So?” Shao Yi asked back.

“You love getting close to goddesses, right?” Xuan Yi looked at him and smiled. “What you said that day in Qingqiu has had me thinking until now. If you don’t tell me the truth for one day, don’t even think about approaching goddesses for that day. Zhongshan Longshen of the Zhuyin Clan—I mean what I say.”