Above the courtyard on Elementary Learning Peak,

a few especially bright stars flickered coldly, like chips of ice in the twelfth month of winter. You could see the light in them, but you could not feel any warmth.

The Milky Way stretched across the middle of the sky, denser than before, a hazy spill of broken light.

If you looked closely, it seemed as though countless stars were crowded together inside that glow—and yet it also seemed as though they were all fast asleep.

“Oh, my dear girl... what you described just now—that’s what liking someone is...”

Xu Bei’er had already left Tushan Jingci’s courtyard, but sitting there alone, Tushan Jingci still stared blankly ahead, replaying those last words over and over in her mind.

Her lashes fluttered as she lowered her eyes, as though she were trying very hard to digest something.

Her expression was tangled with emotions she herself could not quite name.

“So this is... liking someone?”

She murmured it under her breath, so softly it sounded as though she were asking herself—or perhaps asking the silent night.

“Is liking someone... supposed to feel like this?”

“Could it be that I... I...” Tushan Jingci suddenly sat up straight. Her heart lurched into a frantic gallop, thudding so hard it felt as though it might burst from her throat. “Could it be... that I really do like him?”

“But... how could that be?”

At some point, a faint blush had crept across her cheeks. Her thoughts were a hopeless tangle, impossible to sort out no matter how hard she tried.

“No, impossible, impossible... how could I possibly like him...”

She pressed her lips together tightly. In those beautiful fox eyes, a flash of panic passed, then confusion, and beneath it, a thread of feeling even she could neither name nor explain.

All at once, Tushan Jingci shot to her feet, lifted her skirts, and ran out of the courtyard without looking back.

“Huh? Young Lady, where are you going? Young Lady—”

Yueshi was sweeping the courtyard. The moment she looked up and saw her young mistress hurrying away, she immediately called after her.

“Sister Yueshi, I’m going out for a bit! I’ll be back later!”

The girl only waved a hand as she ran farther and farther off, her voice scattering into the night wind.

“The Young Lady really is something... running out this late at night...”

Standing there in the courtyard, Yueshi watched the figure disappear and could not help muttering in quiet complaint.

Deep down, she was starting to regret it—regret softening two years ago and letting the Young Lady go see Xiao Mo.

Since then, the Young Lady had become impossible to restrain, running off to Xiao Mo’s place every few days.

At this rate...

When Madam arrived, how was she supposed to explain any of this...?

......

Moonlight flowed like water through the bamboo grove.

Xian Xichun lay dozing leisurely in a hammock strung between two thick bamboo stalks.

Over the past two years, he had not spent all his time sitting on that bluestone slab. After all, once the days dragged on long enough, a man had to make himself comfortable somehow.

So he had rigged up this hammock between two sturdy stalks of bamboo, so that when he stood watch at night, he could at least sleep a little more soundly.

As for whether someone might sneak in under cover of darkness to assassinate Xiao Mo, Xian Xichun was no longer especially worried.

Leaving aside the fact that the Tushan clan had not sent anyone to trouble Xiao Mo since the assassination attempt two years ago—even if someone did come, his natal flying sword would alert him.

Just like now.

His sentient natal flying sword floated quietly in the air, the tip swaying gently from side to side like an alert hound, keeping watch over the surroundings for any would-be killer.

A moment later, the sword suddenly stopped in midair. Its tip trembled slightly as strands of sword qi began to spill from it, aiming straight in one direction.

But very soon, as though it had sensed a familiar aura, it relaxed again and returned to its lazy, drifting rhythm.

Lying in the hammock, Xian Xichun slowly opened his eyes, yawned, and muttered helplessly to himself, “Honestly. Coming by again this late at night? Young people these days really do have a lot of energy.”

He shook his head, rolled over, and casually set up a barrier around himself, intending to shut out all outside disturbances.

And yet, before long, someone stepped right through it.

Carrying a food box, Tushan Jingci came to his side, bent slightly, and called out softly, “Master, I brought you a late-night snack. Master?”

Hearing his student’s voice, Xian Xichun could not help sighing.

How could he not know? She was not really there to bring him a snack.

She was clearly trying to make him take the hint and leave, so he would not interfere with her nightly tryst with Xiao Mo...

Xian Xichun sat up in the hammock and said with a helpless look, “Jingci, I can just sleep with a barrier around me. I won’t see anything, and I won’t hear anything either, so there’s really no need to chase your teacher away, is there?”

“That won’t do.” Pouting, Tushan Jingci spoke with utmost seriousness. “I have something very important to say to Xiao Mo tonight. What if you eavesdrop, Master?”

“...”

Xian Xichun was speechless for a moment. He very much wanted to ask, Xiao Mo can’t even hear you, so what exactly are you planning to say to him?

But in the end, he simply scratched his head, got out of the hammock, and took the wine and roast chicken Tushan Jingci handed him.

“All right, all right. Then I suppose I’ll have my midnight snack at two in the morning...”

With that, he trudged off toward the other side of the bamboo grove, muttering under his breath as he went, “Honestly. Who eats a midnight snack at two in the morning...?”

Once Xian Xichun had gone far enough away, Tushan Jingci finally turned and entered Xiao Mo’s courtyard.

She sat down beside him, cupping her pale little chin in both hands. Like a peony blooming in stillness, she simply gazed at him quietly.

“Xiao Mo, I came to see you again tonight...”

Tushan Jingci spoke softly, as though Xiao Mo were not in seclusion at all, but quietly listening to her.

“Xiao Mo, I actually came tonight because there’s something I want to tell you.” Sitting up straight, she folded her hands obediently on her lap and began in an earnest voice. “Bei’er came to see me this evening.”

“Bei’er is the girl I used to be very close with—the one who cried all the time when we were little. You remember her, right?”

“But ever since you went into seclusion, Bei’er doesn’t cry much anymore. And now she has someone she likes too—that demon called Xu Chu.”

“The two of them like each other, and they were even engaged. But something happened recently, so Bei’er came to me in tears. In the end, though, she thought things through herself and ran off to find Xu Chu.”

“I’m getting off track, I’m getting off track...”

Tushan Jingci hurriedly waved both hands, as though trying to brush all those unimportant topics away.

“In any case, what it comes down to is... is...”

As she spoke, a faint flush slowly spread across her cheeks, like peach blossoms just beginning to bloom in spring, color gathering petal by petal.

“In the end, Bei’er asked me whether I had anyone I liked, and I said no.”

“Then she asked me whether there was anyone I cared about.”

“And I said... that there was someone I really did care about.”

Tushan Jingci lifted her eyes and looked quietly at the motionless young man before her, her gaze so gentle it seemed as though it might spill over.

“I said I think about him all day, that he fills my mind completely. Even though he can be terribly stubborn sometimes, enough to make me angry, the moment he appears, it feels as though I forgive him at once... and as long as he’s by my side, it’s as if my whole world turns bright.”

“Then I asked Bei’er... what liking someone actually was...”

Tushan Jingci lowered her head. Her fingers hooked around one another, as though she were a child who had done something wrong, the tips unconsciously winding together and apart.

“And Bei’er said... said...”

Her voice grew softer and softer, until it was as light as the flutter of a butterfly’s wings.

The faint blush on her cheeks had spread all the way to her ears, even tinting the tips a delicate pink.

At last, she gathered her courage, drew a deep breath, and slowly spoke.

“Bei’er said... that this is what liking someone is.”

She raised her head. Her beautiful eyes were filled with shyness and unease, like a crystal bead of dew trembling on a morning petal, ready to fall at any moment.

“Xiao Mo... is this really what it means to like someone?”

“When you like someone, does it really... feel like this?”

The instant she voiced what had been in her heart, it felt as though something inside her had been gently lifted away, revealing the hot, beating heart hidden beneath.

“Xiao Mo... does that mean I like you?”

As she spoke, the girl rose to her feet, clenched her small fists, puffed out her cheeks, and sulked.

“Dummy Xiao Mo... did you hear me...”

Her voice was no more than a murmur, but it carried endless tenderness and bashfulness.

“Xiao Mo!”

“I... like you.”

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