The Cliffside Small Building faced the mountain body, its back to the sheer cliff. Beyond the precipice stretched a vast sea of clouds, surging under the pale moonlight.
Inside one of the building’s rooms, Zi Xunyi sat gracefully on a chair beside the table, clad in a flowing purple gown.
Freshly brewed tea sat on the table, steam billowing from the teapot’s spout, accompanied by a plate of delicate pastries she had made herself.
The stunning purple-clothed girl alternated between gazing out the floor-to-ceiling window and taking a sip from her teacup, a trace of nervousness flickering in her expression.
She had waited quite a while, but the man from the previous night had yet to appear. Zi Xunyi let out a long sigh, staring at the tea and snacks on the table as she sank into self-mockery.
—What am I doing? Looking like I’m eagerly waiting for him!
Though Zi Xunyi truly wanted to talk with him more about her future, his motives were ultimately impure. She should avoid contact with him as much as possible—it would be best if he simply stayed away.
Even if he did show up, she shouldn’t greet him with this attitude, or it might lead to misunderstandings and persistent entanglement.
—Cold, aloof, indifferent.
Zi Xunyi patted her cheeks with her hands, forcing her face into an emotionless mask.
Suddenly, a burst of aura hurtled toward the building at tremendous speed, snapping her to high alert.
“This is…”
Her wariness swiftly morphed into tension.
Zi Xunyi held her breath and whipped her head toward the floor-to-ceiling window, her beautiful eyes fixed unblinkingly.
Starlight plummeted to the floor, shattering into a mosaic of iridescent colors that revealed Yan Zhen’s figure.
He wasn’t dressed in the Inner Academy uniform but in simple white casual clothes, his short hair neatly cropped, his features handsome and sharp, his frame lean yet solidly muscled—a bona fide young heartthrob.
Those gray-black eyes held a maturity and melancholy far beyond his years. As a reincarnator bearing memories from his previous life, he yearned to hold his beloved wife once more but could not. And there might be sorrows beyond anyone’s imagining.
Rebirth implied death beforehand, after all.
—Perhaps, she and he would endure a heartrending separation of life and death in the future.
The thought set Zi Xunyi’s heart fluttering, softening her gaze toward Yan Zhen.
“Zi Ji, I’m back.”
Yan Zhen’s voice carried the magnetic allure of a mature man, laced with a hint of anxiety that his “wife” might be upset. But when he spotted the tea and pastries on the table, his eyes brightened.
“Were you waiting for me like this?”
Zi Xunyi quickly tightened her expression, replying coolly,
“You’re imagining things. I just got a little hungry and had some snacks.”
With that, she reached out with slender, crystalline fingers, picked up a piece of mung bean cake, slipped it into her mouth, and took a delicate bite. She pursed her lips, then set the remainder down on the plate.
Yan Zhen hesitated for a moment. Rather than taking the seat across from her, he sat beside Zi Xunyi instead. She tensed immediately, her delicate brows furrowing as she scooted swiftly to the other side, creating a safe distance. She watched him warily.
Yan Zhen looked disappointed but made no move to close the gap. Instead, he offered a gentle smile.
“I’m hungry too. Mind if I have some?”
Zi Xunyi turned her face away.
“Eat if you want to. It’s nothing valuable anyway.”
Just snacks she had made with her own hands.
Yet Yan Zhen reached right for the piece she had bitten into, picked it up from where she had left it, and popped it casually into his mouth, savoring it with evident enjoyment.
Zi Xunyi’s face flushed a deep crimson. Pointing at him in a mix of embarrassment and irritation, she exclaimed,
“You—you can’t just take the one I already bit! The plate’s full of others!”
Yan Zhen blinked at her with wide, innocent eyes, swallowed the mung bean cake, and said,
“I saw you set it down and figured you didn’t want it anymore. Didn’t want it to go to waste, so I ate it.”
Zi Xunyi glared at him, fuming.
“If you pull rogue stunts like that again, don’t come back. You’re not welcome here.”
Yan Zhen bowed his head, looking for all the world like a pet scolded by its master.
“I didn’t mean to… I just… I’m used to it. Sorry.”
Used to it? Zi Xunyi’s anger ebbed away in an instant. Could it be that in the future, she shared such intimate affection with him?
“Would I… really feed you a snack I’ve already bitten?”
Yan Zhen lifted his head again, gazing at her lovely face, and shook his head gently.
“No, it was always me snatching the snack right out of your hand while you were eating it, then watching you blush. You looked so adorable.”
The scene bloomed vividly in Zi Xunyi’s mind.
She sat in the back garden, admiring the view while nibbling on a snack, when a hand snaked from behind, boldly encircling her slender waist. The half-eaten treat was rudely plucked from her fingers and fed straight into her scoundrel husband’s mouth.
“So sweet!”
Not satisfied with her snack, the rogue wanted to take further liberties in broad daylight. He planted a kiss on her cheek, his hands wandering restlessly.
Overcome with shyness, her body went limp as she struggled weakly.
“Husband, no… the maids are still watching~”
/（/ /o/ω/o/ /）/
“Ahem.” Zi Xunyi shook off the bizarre fantasy in a hurry and said sternly, “We’re not in that kind of relationship right now. I hope you’ll respect me.”
Yan Zhen replied softly,
“I’ll be more mindful going forward. My fault for upsetting you again.”
Under that gaze brimming with indulgence, Zi Xunyi felt profoundly uneasy, as if she somehow owed him.
His spot before her was empty, so she lifted the teacup and poured him a steaming serving of tea. As her emotions settled, she steered the conversation elsewhere.
“I’ve stayed cooped up in this little building most of the time, rarely venturing out. So how exactly did we meet?”
Yan Zhen sipped the fragrant tea and exhaled a puff of warm vapor.
“You’re cultivating the Divine Intercourse Chapter of the Heavenly Sovereign Earthly Queen Yin-Yang Miraculous Method, aren’t you, Zi Ji?”
“Correct,” Zi Xunyi affirmed, more convinced than ever that Yan Zhen spoke the truth.
She had stumbled upon the Divine Intercourse Chapter by chance—no one else knew she practiced this divine soul merit law—yet Yan Zhen had pierced the secret at a glance. Only his status as a reincarnator could account for it.
“We met in a dream,” Yan Zhen said, his voice thick with nostalgia as he began his tale. “As you cultivated the Divine Intercourse Chapter, your divine soul drifted through the void, drawn by the ripples of my own soul into my dreamscape. That’s where we first laid eyes on each other.”
“And then?”
“I’m something of a soul cultivator myself. At first, when this vision of ethereal beauty—a purple-clothed girl straight out of legend—appeared in my dream, I thought it was a heart demon plaguing me. So I poured out all sorts of incoherent ramblings, using you as my tree cave to vent my pent-up negativity.”
Who was the heart demon, indeed… Zi Xunyi huffed to herself but kept listening.
“In truth, I’m a transmigrator from another world, reborn into this one. I always felt like an outsider here. The things I said would have branded anyone else a lunatic, but you—this ‘heart demon’—were different. You listened quietly to every word, chiming in now and then, your breathtakingly beautiful face alight with genuine interest. In an instant, you filled the void inside me.”
