“Explain this to me clearly—what exactly is your problem? And does it have anything to do with me?”
Yun Xuechang opened her mouth but couldn’t speak.
Her thoughts were a tangled mess. She hadn’t wanted to tell Hua Yan.
She was afraid, afraid that the girl who always smiled so brightly would be shocked, disgusted, and no longer want to be close to her upon hearing her blasphemous thoughts.
Therefore, she had wanted to first clear her Spiritual Platform before interacting with Hua Yan again.
She still wanted to stay intimately by Hua Yan’s side.
But since Hua Yan had asked, and judging by her stance, she clearly wanted to know the answer urgently, Yun Xuechang didn’t want to lie to her anymore.
“It does have to do with Yan’er.”
After much deliberation, she ultimately chose to be honest.
Sure enough.
Hearing this, Hua Yan’s heart sank threefold.
The courage she had mustered earlier to get to the bottom of this also deflated.
After all, no matter how strong-willed and competitive a girl might be, who would willingly listen to the person they love personally reject them?
Moreover, this was the first person she had ever felt this way about, the one she had pursued even as a woman, and had spent day and night with for months.
Who knew how Hua Yan’s heart had secretly stirred these past months?
Gazing at the white-haired girl before her, filled with joy but too shy to voice her love; accompanying this blockhead, sometimes frustrated by her denseness, sometimes moved by her unintentional actions, her feelings tangled, joy and worry intertwined.
Hua Yan suddenly didn’t want to hear Yun Xuechang’s answer so much anymore.
Her stubborn eyes dropped dejectedly, and the hand gripping the other’s wrist slowly loosened.
“I… I’m the one who’s sorry to Yan’er…”
Yun Xuechang’s apologetic words continued, but Hua Yan was no longer in the mood to listen.
“Hah, what are you sorry to me for? You haven’t done anything wrong.”
She tugged at her stiff lips, forcing a bitter smile.
“No, it is my fault.”
Yun Xuechang shook her head.
“I saw a scene in the novella Daoist Su gave me, and I couldn’t help but put Yan’er and myself into it. It was presumptuous. That’s why I can’t share a bed with Yan’er.”
She paused, her voice dropping lower.
“I… I’m afraid I wouldn’t be able to resist… secretly kissing you.”
Hua Yan dumbly raised her head, looking at the expression on Yun Xuechang’s face—that usually calm and indifferent face had long shed its coolness.
Flecks of shy red colored her cheeks, and even those crimson eyes that always looked directly at others when speaking were now slightly averted, carrying a hint of unconscious bashfulness.
The girl’s gloomy heart was instantly dyed with pink excitement.
“Then… then what novella did you read? And… and why did you… want to… kiss me…?”
Hua Yan, her face flushed, cleared her throat lightly, then raised a clenched, fair hand to cover her unconsciously raised lips.
“It’s a popular novella about love between women. Daoist Su said it hasn’t been officially published yet. She just gave it to someone like me who doesn’t usually read novellas to get my opinion, and it can’t be shared. So I can’t tell you the specific content, Yan’er.”
Yun Xuechang answered honestly according to her interpretation of the novella. After a pause, she continued.
“Because I read about scenes of women being intimate in the novella, but I felt none of the characters described were as beautiful as you, Yan’er. And I don’t know why, but when I read their story, I thought of you, Yan’er.”
“I wanted to replace the protagonists in the novella with you and me, so I wanted to kiss Yan’er.”
The more Hua Yan listened, the brighter the smile in her light golden, almond-shaped eyes became.
Heh heh, I knew my charm was irresistible.
Winning over this blockhead is just a simple matter, anyway.
She now understood—this blockhead before her wasn’t an unfeeling stone, just too dense and difficult to enlighten.
But, fortunately, it seemed she wasn’t beyond saving.
She just needed the beautiful and gracious Hua Yan to offer more guidance.
“Yan’er, if I continue sleeping while holding you, I’m afraid I really won’t be able to resist secretly kissing you.”
Yun Xuechang was still standing before her, continuing somewhat uneasily.
“Master taught me that… that would be taking advantage of a woman. I can’t…”
“Who says you can’t?”
Hua Yan cleared her throat again, her face flushed as she turned her head away, but the smile at the corner of her mouth couldn’t be hidden.
Her beautiful eyes, filled with shyness, kept fluttering as she secretly observed Yun Xuechang’s expression.
“G-generally speaking, that’s true. But what about lovers who share mutual feelings? Then so-called kissing is just the most ordinary thing.”
“Lovers who share mutual feelings…?”
Yun Xuechang was stunned. Hua Yan’s words were like a flash of light, suddenly illuminating a vague corner of her mind.
That’s right… Lovers are those who can casually be intimate with each other, who can even kiss each other in front of others.
I’ve seen that, both in the Xiaoyao Sword Sect and in the mortal world.
“So what does it mean to share mutual feelings?”
She hurriedly pressed.
“Sharing mutual feelings means two people like each other… ahem, that is… it’s… uh… when you can’t see each other, you think of the other person all the time; you remember their good points, feeling everything about them suits your heart; you’re willing to share your joys and sorrows with them… a-and also… think about kissing them, being close to them…”
Hua Yan stammered through her explanation, her face heating up uncontrollably again at the last sentence.
Then she quickly straightened her tilted head and tentatively asked.
“Uh… y-you should have this kind of feeling too, right?”
She was genuinely afraid this blockhead would suddenly say “I don’t know,” or something like “I just want to kiss you because you’re pretty.”
If that really happened, Hua Yan would definitely be unable to resist grabbing Yun Xuechang by the neck and throwing her out of this room—no, throwing her off Yuxin Island and into the sea.
“I… I do have them.”
Yun Xuechang nodded, her eyes showing a look of sudden realization.
“I think of Yan’er when I can’t see her; I think Yan’er is the most beautiful under heaven; I also want to share new things I see with Yan’er, because I know you’d definitely be happy; I also want to kiss Yan’er.”
She spoke sentence by sentence, her heart growing clearer with each one.
“So this is what liking someone is.”
The corners of her eyes and brows curved, a gentle smile blooming.
“Then I think… I like Yan’er.”
But then, as if remembering something, she hurriedly asked with a hint of urgency.
“What about Yan’er? Do you like me?”
Hua Yan, who had been listening to this string of confessions, felt her heart sweeten and fill with shyness.
But hearing this question, she couldn’t help feeling both exasperated and amused.
What do you mean, ‘Do you like me?’ I’ve tried to flirt with this blockhead several times. This wooden head just didn’t notice at all?
Carrying a bit of annoyance at having fallen for this blockhead too early, and a bit of a desire to tease her, Hua Yan cleared her throat, crossed her arms, and deliberately said.
“Who knows? What if I don’t like you? What would you do then?”
“I… I…”
Stumped, Yun Xuechang immediately became flustered. She hurriedly took Hua Yan’s hands in hers, clutching them tightly in front of her.
“I don’t know… Yan’er, please teach me? I… what should I do to make you like me?”
“I’ll give you all the Spirit Stones I earn in the future to buy pretty clothes and jewelry; I’ll also go everywhere to play with you; I’ll cultivate less, I’ll always stay with you… Like this, could you like me?”
She spoke carefully, as if the red-haired girl before her were a precious, fragile object.
Looking at the urgent, flustered, pleading white-haired girl before her, Hua Yan’s heart instantly softened into a puddle. That little bit of temper vanished in an instant.
This blockhead…
“I’m sorry, Xuechang. I was deliberately teasing you just now. That was wrong of me. Actually, I like you too. I’ve liked you for a long time.”
She withdrew one hand from Yun Xuechang’s grasp, turned it over to envelop her palm, holding hands with her.
She looked seriously into the other’s eyes, speaking word by word.
“I truly like you too. I liked you back when we were at the Xiaoyao Sword Sect.”
“Really? That’s wonderful!”
The simple-minded white-haired Fairy immediately beamed with joy.
With her pure heart, she felt no annoyance at being teased, only the pure joy of knowing that the person she liked for the first time also liked her back.
“Mhm.”
Hua Yan looked tenderly at the person before her who had turned into a childlike state of happiness just from hearing her say she liked her.
Love softened and melted bit by bit in her heart.
Then, she took a step forward and did something even she might have found hard to imagine.
She tilted her head up slightly and gently pressed her own red, soft, thin lips against the cheek of Yun Xuechang, who was still smiling faintly.
Huh?
Yun Xuechang watched as the red-haired girl before her suddenly leaned close, bringing with her an intoxicating floral scent.
Then, something soft and damp was pressed against her own cheek…
She reached up and touched the spot Hua Yan had kissed, blinking dumbly.
The sweetness in her heart was like a sprout breaking through the soil, wildly germinating, rising, almost overflowing her entire heart.
The white-haired girl smiled, and the tuft of hair on her head stood up happily, bouncing up and down.
Her heart told her she liked this feeling.
“A-alright! That’s enough for tonight!”
Hua Yan, her face burning red, lowered her head, not daring to look into Yun Xuechang’s eyes anymore, her tone carrying a hint of panic.
“And don’t say anything more about sleeping elsewhere. It’s late, let’s go to sleep!”
Having said that, she darted away from Yun Xuechang like a startled rabbit, burrowed under the covers, turned her back, her ear tips red through and through.
“Mhm!”
Yun Xuechang’s face still wore a smile.
She extinguished the lamp, got into bed, reached out, and tightly embraced from behind that warm, soft, beloved figure she cherished.
The overwhelming floral scent assaulted her again. She couldn’t resist, leaning over Hua Yan’s shoulder, taking a deep breath.
“What are you doing all of a sudden! And don’t hold me so tight!”
Hua Yan, who had been hugged and sniffed vigorously, immediately protested in the dark, her face flushed, giving this restless fellow an elbow from under the covers.
“Oh…”
Yun Xuechang responded dejectedly, obediently loosening her grip, putting a little distance between them, only lightly encircling Hua Yan’s slender waist.
“…”
The bedroom fell into silence, leaving only the soft sounds of their breathing.
After a period of silence, Hua Yan’s thin, thread-like, shy voice sounded again in the darkness.
“Ahem… a-actually… it’s not like you can’t… hold me a little tighter…”
The still-excited and sleepless Yun Xuechang happily hugged her tightly again.
In the pitch-black bedroom, the two who had just shared their feelings for the first time pressed close together.
Very close, very close—close enough to feel each other’s body heat, to hear each other’s heartbeat.
Those heartbeats gradually synchronized in the darkness, as if their two hearts, drawing close for the first time, were also pressed tightly together.