Gong Shangyu stared at Zhou Ruolin, who was frozen as if by Time Stop, her brows still tightly knit, as if she was unwilling to give up just like that.
Because she kept feeling that something was off, that inexplicable sense of familiarity could not have come out of nowhere.
Gu Qingying, seeing her still lingering there, grew impatient and tugged at her sleeve, saying, “Hey! Isn’t the result obvious? He’s been frozen! He’s not a System holder! Let’s hurry up and leave, Master could be arriving at the Inn any moment!”
“Hmph. No, it’s not enough.”
Gong Shangyu shook her head, her gaze stubborn and unyielding.
“Right now we can only prove he doesn’t have a System, but that doesn’t mean he’s not a reincarnator, and we can’t even confirm whether his real gender is male or female!”
“Besides, what if he, like Mo Qingyou, has one of those high-level Systems? What if he’s just pretending to be frozen by my Time Stop?”
“You…”
Gu Qingying rolled her eyes so hard they almost flipped over at Gong Shangyu’s twisted logic.
“Gong Shangyu, have you gone crazy? How many ‘what ifs’ are you going to have! Admit it, you just don’t want to accept that you guessed wrong!”
“We’ll know if I was wrong with a single test!”
As she spoke, Gong Shangyu took out a porcelain vial from her robe, a determined expression on her face that wouldn’t rest until she achieved her goal.
“If Time Stop can’t reveal his gender, then I’ll just find out whether he’s a man or a woman! He can’t possibly fake that, right!”
Gu Qingying eyed her warily and asked, “What on earth is that thing you’ve got?”
Gong Shangyu smiled, “This is Xuan Yin True Water. It’s colorless and tasteless; if a man drinks it, there’s no reaction at all, it’ll just seem like regular water. But if a woman drinks it, even just a little bit, her cheeks will uncontrollably flush red. This little treasure I collected back when I had some sway in the Pill Cauldron Pavilion.”
Gu Qingying glanced at the Xuan Yin True Water with a hint of disdain flashing in her violet eyes.
“Why do you always have these strange things on you…”
Gong Shangyu chuckled, “That’s none of your business! Anyway, I’m definitely going to use this Xuan Yin True Water to test him!”
Gu Qingying looked at the jade vial in her hand and helplessly rolled her eyes again.
“You really are… persistent.”
Gong Shangyu laughed, “It’s not about persistence, it’s about seeking the truth and giving myself peace of mind. It’s not the ten thousand possibilities I fear, it’s the one in ten thousand that could happen! What if? What if he’s really our Third Junior Sister in disguise, using some secret technique or pill we don’t know to change her Adam’s apple, body shape, even her aura?”
“My Xuan Yin True Water targets fundamental yin energy. As long as that guy is a woman, there will definitely be a reaction!”
Gong Shangyu insisted.
“If I don’t completely rule out the possibility that Zhou Ruolin is Zhou Laosan, I won’t be able to sleep tonight!”
Seeing Gong Shangyu’s expression of ‘not turning back until she hits a wall’, Gu Qingying knew persuasion was pointless and could only pinch the bridge of her nose in resignation.
“Sigh… Fine, just hurry up, and let’s go as soon as you’re done. I really get the creeps the longer we stay here.”
Seeing that Gu Qingying had given her tacit approval, Gong Shangyu immediately got to work.
She silently walked back to the Imperial Seat, uncorked the vial, and carefully dripped a few drops of clear Xuan Yin True Water into the untouched cup of tea in front of Zhou Ruolin.
The true water blended into the tea and vanished instantly.
“Hmph! What do you mean ‘doesn’t work’! Dear Senior Sister, just admit it, you were overthinking this time!”
Gu Qingying tugged at her arm, “Second Senior Sister, stop dawdling! Think about it—Master must be close to the Inn by now! If we don’t hurry back and he finds out we snuck out and even broke into the Imperial Palace, imagine how he’ll punish us!”
Just thinking about Master possibly being back at the Inn already, maybe even searching for them inside, Gu Qingying grew more anxious by the second.
After all, she did not want to get scolded by Master because of Gong Shangyu’s inexplicable stubbornness.
Under Gu Qingying’s relentless urging and the pressure of reality, Gong Shangyu, despite the thousand doubts still swirling in her mind, had no choice but to compromise for now.
She glared fiercely at Zhou Ruolin, who remained perfectly motionless on the Imperial Seat, as if she wanted to imprint his image into her mind.
“Hmph! Lucky bastard!”
Gong Shangyu grumbled resentfully, then once more activated her Time Stop Domain.
A gentle light enveloped the two of them, and everything around them instantly froze in place.
Gong Shangyu quickly grabbed Gu Qingying, and the two of them sped out of the Imperial Study as fast as possible, darting through the still corridors of the Imperial Palace like gusts of wind, heading straight for the Inn.
They had to make it back to their rooms in the Inn before Lu Li returned, or else their absence would arouse suspicion.
When the two women, using the advantage of the Time Stop Domain, finally hurried back to the courtyard where the Inn was located, they saw Lu Li’s familiar figure from afar standing right at the door!
Lu Li was already at the door of their guest room, one hand raised, about to push the door open and enter!
“See! What did I tell you!”
Gu Qingying pointed at Lu Li frozen at the door, patting her chest in lingering fear as she said to Gong Shangyu, “That was close! We were just a tiny bit away from getting caught! All your fault for dawdling in the Imperial Palace, insisting on testing that stupid water!”
Gong Shangyu, seeing Master so close, finally let out a sigh of relief, but still couldn’t admit defeat.
“Hmph! Didn’t I make it back just in time? If it weren’t for my Time Stop System, we’d probably be stuck at the door with Master questioning us right now!”
Neither of them dared to waste another second.
While the Time Stop System was still in effect, they slipped past Lu Li like wisps of smoke, silently entering the guest room first.
As soon as they entered the Inn room, the two of them hurriedly started faking the scene.
Gong Shangyu quickly withdrew her Time Stop power, while Gu Qingying dashed to the low table in the center, deliberately messing up the originally tidy tea set, then set out a Go board and two boxes of pieces.
Almost at the exact moment the Time Stop was lifted, Gong Shangyu plopped herself down on one side of the board, while Gu Qingying immediately sat opposite.
The two of them simultaneously grabbed a few pieces, pretending to be absorbed in a tense match.
They even purposely started quietly arguing over one of the moves.
“No take-backs! You were about to place your stone right there!”
“Nonsense! I was going to place on Heavenly Origin!”
Creak—
The door opened and Lu Li stepped inside.
The moment he entered, his gaze fell on his two disciples in the middle of their game, a trace of subtle surprise flickering across his face.
Hm, odd.
Lu Li felt a hint of doubt in his heart.
When he approached the door earlier, he hadn’t sensed any movement inside the Inn room and thought these two brats had snuck out to play out of boredom.
Yet as soon as he opened the door, he found them both sitting inside playing Go?
And by the looks of it, they were engrossed in the match, even quarreling over a move?
Did his divine sense fail him?
Or was he just momentarily distracted?
Lu Li’s gaze swept over Gong Baiyu and Gu Qingying with a puzzled look.
He saw Gong Baiyu holding a black piece, brows furrowed in deep thought, while Gu Qingying held a white piece, a hint of pride on her pink eyes, staring intently at the board.
Their postures, expressions, even their subtle breathing and micro-expressions, perfectly matched two people absorbed in a tense match—no flaws to be found.
Hmm?
Maybe… I really was just overthinking it?
Lu Li shook his head, forcibly suppressing that faint, nagging sense of oddity in his heart.
Maybe he’d been worrying too much lately, seeing ghosts everywhere.
Disciples quietly playing Go in their room was far better than running around causing trouble outside.
Lu Li didn’t disturb his two focused disciples, just said calmly, “Disciples, your Master is back.”
At Lu Li’s words, Gu Qingying and Gong Shangyu instantly put down their pieces and greeted him with bright smiles.
“Ah… Master! You’re back!”
“Master! You’re finally back!”
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