Gu Baiying looked toward Zanxing.

Zanxing was still wearing his snow-white robes, with a lake-green hair ribbon tied around her waist like a spring willow branch. Her long hair was loose behind her, and she lay listlessly on the table by the window, fiddling with a clay figurine in her hands. She sighed, “If only I had known back then to ask Senior Brother to roast more and store them in the Qiankun Bag.”

The young man paused for a moment, then drew a red wooden box from the bag at his waist and tossed it onto the table in front of Zanxing.

The wooden box landed with a “thud” in front of her. Zanxing was startled and looked up at Gu Baiying: “What’s this?”

“Food.”

Zanxing was more surprised than moved. Opening the wooden box, she indeed saw several delicate pastries inside. These pastries even had colors – pink and tender, shaped like flowers.

She looked at Gu Baiying in amazement: “Master Uncle, you carry pastries with you? How refined.” No wonder he wouldn’t eat this or that in the Li’er Kingdom palace – turns out he brought his lunch.

“I’m not like you,” Gu Baiying said irritably. “The Sect Leader stuffed this into my hands.”

Zanxing looked at the bright red wooden box carved with the “Phoenix Summoned by Flute” pattern and fell silent for a moment. This festive style was indeed Shaoyang Zhenren’s handiwork.

Seeing that she made no move to eat, Gu Baiying asked: “Why aren’t you eating?”

“Master Uncle,” Zanxing looked at him, “I heard that Master Sect Leader is skilled at maintaining eternal youth and is extremely particular about food. The pastries and meals in Jinhua Hall contain no oil or sugar and taste like sandpaper.”

Gu Baiying probably hadn’t expected Zanxing to still have the mood to think about such things at this time. He wasn’t one for patience, so hearing this, he snorted: “Eat it or don’t.”

“I was just saying, I didn’t say I wouldn’t eat it.” Zanxing picked up a piece and brought it to her lips: “Just no sugar and oil, that’s fine. As long as there’s no poison, it’s good.”

She took a bite.

This flower-shaped pastry was unexpectedly delicious. It wasn’t like sandpaper, nor was it bland and tasteless. It had a light sweetness and melted in the mouth with exquisite fineness, as if flower petals were being crushed between lips and teeth, carrying a refreshing sweet fragrance.

Mimi crept over, trying to steal a bite, but Zanxing pressed down on her head.

“Master Uncle, the food from Jinhua Hall is so special.” Zanxing swallowed the sweetness in her throat and praised sincerely: “This is much better than the meals in the Li’er Kingdom palace. Master Sect Leader dotes on you. No wonder Mendong wants to become the sect leader just for a taste of this food.”

“Shut up,” Gu Baiying couldn’t listen anymore. “Just eat your pastry.”

Zanxing said no more and ate the pastry in her hand with relish, breaking off a piece for Mimi as well. The appetite during hunger is always particularly memorable. One person and one cat ate quickly, and when only one flower pastry remained in the box, Zanxing slapped away Mimi’s paw that was reaching for the pastry, picked up the wooden box, and asked Gu Baiying: “Master Uncle, would you like to eat one too?”

“No.”

“Oh, I figured you wouldn’t.” Zanxing put the last piece into her mouth without any psychological burden: “Thank you, Master Uncle.”

Gu Baiying gazed at the person sitting at the table.

The disciples in the sect always tried their best to present an ethereal, otherworldly image, as if they didn’t partake of earthly food. They would never let others see them with such a hearty appetite. Even ordinary women in the mortal world would deliberately eat less to fit into slender, narrow skirts and maintain graceful figures.

But Yang Zanxing never would.

She lived roughly and comically, always inexplicably satisfied, and would show her listless appearance in front of others without burden, confidently saying, “I’m hungry.”

That kind of freedom and authenticity could, in certain moments, make one envious.

While eating, Zanxing said, “Master Uncle, you’re good to me.”

Gu Baiying snorted, suddenly remembering something, and reminded her: “Yang Zanxing, don’t misunderstand, I’m not…”

“I know,” before he could finish, Zanxing interrupted him. “Master Uncle takes care of me out of an elder’s devoted care for a junior. Don’t worry, your bell hasn’t rung, I won’t misunderstand.”

Gu Baiying said nothing more. Zanxing thought she was being quite tactful. She had originally thought that the original story gave Gu Baiying so many scenes because it wanted to develop a destined romantic storyline for her; otherwise, why would there be all this about the two of them alone in danger and getting injured? But now it seemed she had been overthinking. However… with Gu Baiying’s dog-like temperament, would the Jiexin Bell even ring?

As she was thinking, she heard Gu Baiying’s voice behind her: “Yang Zanxing.”

“What?”

“That day in the imperial tomb, why did you let Yinli’s primordial spirit possess you?”

Zanxing turned around and looked at him: “Master Uncle, why are you suddenly asking this?”

Under the lamplight, the young man’s eyes were like dark ripples. His eye color was a beautiful deep tea brown, usually bright and clear, but now in the dim firelight, they appeared profound.

Seeing that he asked seriously, Zanxing thought for a moment before answering: “Because Yinli was too pitiful, and no one could help him. If I could help him, it would count as doing a good deed.”

“The primordial spirit of the demon race possessing you damages your cultivation.”

Zanxing finished the last bit of pastry, closed the wooden box, and tapped her fingers on the intricate patterns on the box: “If I lose this bit of cultivation, will I be beaten to death by others? If I gain this bit of cultivation, will I become the number one in the cultivation world’s sects? Since having a bit more or less makes no difference, why regard it as so important? Besides, my cultivation hasn’t been affected now.”

He disagreed: “You were just lucky.”

“This is a fact,” Zanxing said, looking at him. “You also sympathized with Yinli in your heart; otherwise, you wouldn’t have smashed the merfolk statue by the sea with your spear. If you had encountered Yinli’s primordial spirit in that corridor that day, you would have done the same.”

The room fell silent for a while.

“I wouldn’t.”

His snow-white brocade robes were stained with dust and bloodstains. The wild goose patterns on his collar were exquisite and neat, and the vermilion hair ribbon was like blooming crimson flowers in the night, making the young man look dignified and handsome with bright, beautiful features. When he wasn’t being arrogant, he always seemed to have an unapproachable coldness about him.

Zanxing asked: “Why?”

Gu Baiying’s voice was very calm: “The Serpent Witch saw the ending from the beginning. Fate arises and fate perishes, all in but an instant. Even if he exchanged his demon core for a mortal body, in the end, he would only fulfill the original ending.” The young man seemed to think of something, his eyes growing dark as tide water. “Even if you let Yinli’s primordial spirit possess you and he saw Princess Lizhu, he would still turn to ash and smoke, and Princess Lizhu wouldn’t remember anything.”

“Nothing would have changed.”

The wild geese on his robes seemed ready to take flight. His voice in the room no longer carried its usual flamboyance and rebelliousness, but was low, as if containing some kind of bitterness.

Zanxing looked at Gu Baiying.

He was still as she had first seen him – upright and handsome, just like his silver embroidered bone spear, beautiful and majestic.