Suspended in mid-air, Qin Luoyi glanced down at the little fox demon who was wiping away tears and smiled knowingly.
“Hmph, this little brat still wants to spar with me? Try again in a few hundred years.”
With that, she straightened her back and stretched lazily, then closed her eyes and gently leaned backward, lying down.
Casually, she also tipped Yun Mu off the artifact where he had been sitting cross-legged, flipping over to sprawl on his stomach as well.
“Mm… After helping you train every day these last few days, I really haven’t gotten any good rest at all.”
“Miss Luoyi, are you leaving now?”
The sudden letter, the fast-moving artifact, and the girl’s uncharacteristic behavior just now, all brushed past Yun Mu’s heart like a gentle breeze, making him sense something was off.
“That’s right, Imperial Father sent a four-word message summoning me home. I don’t know if he’s up to something ridiculous again, but as the eldest daughter, I have to go back and help, don’t I?”
“I see. Well then, let me wish you all the best in advance.”
“Mm, all the best, huh…”
The girl shifted slightly, reaching her hand into his sleeve and pinching the flesh at his waist, mumbling softly, “You clearly saw my little secret, and now that we’re about to part, that’s all you have to say?”
Her little hand was cold.
Little secret?
Could it be…
Yun Mu paused, recalling the scenes he saw a few days ago when soaking in the medicinal bath with the girl, and couldn’t help but feel a bit flustered.
So Miss Luoyi already knew I saw those things?
And yet I deliberately kept it hidden for so long, wasn’t that just unnecessary…
“Sorry, um… That memory must have been passed on when I was absorbing your power. I didn’t mean to see it.”
“If it wasn’t on purpose, why didn’t you tell me about it?”
“Miss Luoyi, you called it your little secret. Even though I saw it unintentionally, it’s still something I saw. So unless you bring it up yourself, I shouldn’t just say it without your consent—that would be rude. And even if you do bring it up, I should pretend it’s the first I’m hearing of it.”
Seeing the girl remain silent, Yun Mu paused briefly before continuing:
“Think about it—if I casually treated your innermost matters as ordinary talk, that wouldn’t be good for anyone, right?”
“Mm… So you’re saying, you kept it from me out of kindness?”
“Something like that, I guess.”
“I see, I see…”
Murmuring to herself, Qin Luoyi’s lips curled up slightly as she seemed to understand his meaning.
She didn’t particularly like people exposing her secrets to her face.
But she still deliberately asked, “But what if, after I found out about it, I wanted you to come clean with me on your own?”
She wanted to get a better sense of Yun Mu’s character.
“If you directly told me you knew I was hiding something, I’d tell you everything I saw, heard, and even thought. But if you didn’t mention it first, I wouldn’t assume anything about your thoughts on my own.”
“Mm, not bad, not bad.”
The girl squeezed him again, a trace of satisfaction in her voice.
“By the way, since when did you start talking so bookishly? Weren’t you always the quiet type?”
“Uh… I’m not sure, maybe it’s because I’m in a new environment? More people around, more reasons to talk?”
“Is that so?”
“I suppose.”
“Never mind, never mind. Anyway, I think you’re pretty good like this. Even if you come across as preachy sometimes, it’s still better than being a sullen gourd.”
“Preachy, huh? Well, as long as you like it.”
“Hmph! You…”
“Mm? Miss Luoyi, what did I do?”
“Shut up!”
The girl pulled her hand from his sleeve and clapped it over his mouth, her pretty face flushed with either the morning glow or a shy blush.
“Honestly, saying such embarrassing things with a straight face—so annoying!”
“Sorry…”
“I said, shut up!”
***
The morning breeze, moist as dew on the clouds, arrived, and the maple leaf artifact sailed swiftly toward the border of the Hundred Demons.
The two fell into a long silence, only broken when the girl spoke again.
“By the way, Xiao Yunzi, aren’t you curious about who saw us that time, or what that song I sang meant?”
“I am curious, but if you don’t want to say, Miss Luoyi, I can also not be curious.”
“Pfft… The way you’re all serious is actually kind of cute.”
Seeing Yun Mu’s solemn expression, Qin Luoyi couldn’t hold back her laughter.
She reached out and patted his head before continuing,
“It’s really nothing hard to talk about. That song was something I made up on the spot, the tune I hummed naturally while lying atop the tallest tower of Lixun Imperial City, watching the sky full of kites set off to the northwest, a year after my mother died.”
“Did you know? My mother lies at eternal rest in the far western borderlands of Lixun, killed by the very beasts she saved with her own hands.”
“Miss Luoyi…”
“At that time, I hid in the darkness, watching her kill those beasts with my own eyes. That’s right, kill those beasts. Strange, isn’t it? Shouldn’t it have been my mother who was killed by them?”
The girl didn’t continue directly.
Her voice carried a trace of bitterness as she summoned the Green Dagger.
She sat up, pulled her legs onto Yun Mu, then bent over and whispered,
“Because after that, Mother’s power went out of control. I could only watch the gentle mother I knew, surrounded by flames, turn into a demon.”
“Do you know how gentle she was? Even when she was no longer herself, she was still chasing me through the darkness, yelling for me to run while trying to kill me.”
As she spoke, she gently drew the dagger across the boy’s collarbone.
No blood came out, and the dagger dissolved into a ghostly green light that disappeared within, the wound healing instantly.
“It’s just like this power of mine. So, when I said those things as a child, Mother didn’t want me to have power like hers. But alas, things rarely go as one wishes…”
With that, the girl sat up again, glanced at the nearing border, cleared her throat, and her tone regained its usual cheer.
“Ah, I really shouldn’t be saying all this now. Talking about sad things at parting is taboo in Lixun, don’t you think, Xiao Yunzi?”
Her words, tinged with sorrow, fell quietly into Yun Mu’s ears.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk, what’s with you? Weren’t you the one who wanted to know? Now that you do, you’re all silent. Do you regret it, or do you regret taking on this karma?”
“I don’t regret it. I just feel bad for accidentally reopening your old wounds.”
“Then… why not make it up to me? A flower, a piece of cake, or something that’ll make me happy?”
At this, Yun Mu shook his head, not believing such things could heal the scar named ‘grief’ in her heart.
“All right, all right, it’s so strange. I remember your emotions were taken by that something-or-other Glazed Bone, but now you seem even sadder than I am.”
The girl stood up as she spoke, bent down, and pinched his cheeks with both hands, forcing him into a smiling expression.
“Mm, that looks much better. Now then…”
Qin Luoyi patted his shoulder, giggled twice, and then kicked him in the chest, knocking him right off the artifact and sending him tumbling toward the ground.
Yun Mu didn’t panic.
He knew the girl wouldn’t harm him, so he simply let himself fall.
Just as he neared the ground, the girl activated the power she had infused at his collarbone, suspending him in mid-air.
From above, her voice rang out again.
“Xiao Yunzi! See you next time!”
“Mm, goodbye.”
He only smiled.