The second the door clicked shut, Shu Mingye locked it with zero hesitation. Then he promptly scooped Linyue up.
Linyue let out a soft sigh. "You're going to make me lazier than I already am."
"Good," Shu Mingye said smugly, carrying her to the bed like she had absolutely no say in the matter. "Then you'll depend on me more. I'll doeverything for you."
Linyue gave him a flat look. The way he said "everything" sounded too sweet to be innocent. Sweet but also dangerous. The kind of dangerous that could not be trusted near locked doors. Still, she let it slide. For now.
"I don't mind," she said playfully as he set her down. "But what if I get too used to it? What if one day you're not around when I need someone to carry me around? Will I be forced to sleep on the floor like a sad pie?"
Shu Mingye knelt beside the bed, his expression softening as he brushed her hair behind her ear. "I'll always be by your side, Pie. No matter what. Unless…" He paused, gaze darkening. "Unless you're the one who leaves me first."
Linyue's teasing smile faded. She looked at him seriously. "You're so confident. But who knows? Maybe one day you can't be by my side."
His dark eyes locked on hers, sharp yet strangely soft, and his voice dropped low. It came out rough like he was saying something he usually kept buried. "I'll take you everywhere with me. And I'll go everywhere with you. Either way, I won't leave you behind. I'll never leave you." Then more quietly he added, "And if one day I'm not beside you… it means you're the one who left me first."
Linyue froze. Her chest felt tight in a way she wasn't ready for. This wasn't his usual playful teasing or smug confidence. This side of him came out rarely. Quiet and full of words that sounded simple but carried something deeper beneath. Like he was speaking from a place she couldn't quite reach. His voice calm, his face composed, but something in his tone… as if he already believed she would leave him behind.
She frowned slightly. "Why did you say that like I'm really going to leave you?"
Shu Mingye gave her a small smile, but his eyes didn't match it. "I was just making a point," he said in that light, careless way he used when trying to hide something. "If I said I'll never leave you, then logically, if I'm not there, it's because you left me. Makes perfect sense, right?"
His words wanted to sound like a joke, but they didn't.
Linyue reached out, her hand resting over his. Her voice was steady but full of quiet weight. "I will never leave you."
That made him go still. For a moment his smile stayed in place, but something behind it cracked. It was quick that anyone else might have missed it. But not her.
He looked away and chuckled softly. "I see. That's good."
His tone was light and easy, but there was something underneath it. A quiet sadness he clearly didn't want her to hear. She didn't fully understand it, but she could feel it pressing against her chest all the same.
Shu Mingye's heart tightened painfully at her words. She said she wouldn't leave. For now. He really, really wished he could destroy that self-sealing array inside her. So he could keep this version of her. The warm, teasing Pie who stayed by his side willingly. Who let him hold her and who laughed with him. But he couldn't. The cost was too high. It was not worth it. He wouldn't take the chance. So instead, he held on to this moment.
He leaned in close, his fingers brushing gently against her cheek. "I love you, Pie," he whispered. "You just need to remember that."
Linyue, completely casual, replied. "I know. I love you too."
Shu Mingye blinked. His brain paused. "…What did you say?"
She tilted her head, pretending to think. "I said I know."
He cupped her face with both hands and stared like he couldn't believe his ears. "You said you love me?"
Linyue smiled sweetly. "Of course. What's there to be surprised about? I already gave my everything to you."
And just like that, Shu Mingye nearly broke down. His eyes stung. His chest tightened. He pulled her into his arms and hugged her so tight she let out a surprised squeak. "It's the first time you said it," he whispered, his voice slightly shaky.
She wrapped her arms around him too, leaning into his warmth. "I should've said it earlier."
"No." He shook his head against her shoulder, hugging her even tighter. "Now is perfect. Just… remember that too. Remember that you love me."
Linyue chuckled softly against his chest. "Of course. How could I forget it?"
He closed his eyes and held her like she was everything. "Yes. Don't ever forget it."
"I won't."
Chaos Couple Update: One confessed love casually, the other imprinted the moment eternally.
*****
The next five days passed in a blur. They had now stayed in Xuanyi Pavilion for a full week. Shockingly, nothing burned down. No walls cracked. No chairs went airborne. It was peaceful. Suspiciously peaceful.
Shu Mingye still went back and forth between Master Tian Mo and Master Yin Xue every single day, trying to win their blessings. Results so far? A firm and consistent no. It was starting to look like he was collecting rejections like rare jewels.
Meanwhile, Linyue spent her days at the training ground. Her mission? Practice arrays without accidentally demolishing the landscape. Progress? Respectable.
She could now lift stones. Or stones. And more stones. The conclusion was she could lift stone and only stone. The important thing was there were no explosions. No flying benches. No bald trees crying in the corner. Even the training ground itself remained intact. A new personal record. The mysterious shoe from last time though, was still gone. May it rest in peace.
Linyue even mastered a few small arrays like heating, tiny sparks of fire, and that innocent breeze array. It had graduated from "mild weather simulator" to "potentially deadly wind slap." Not bad. She figured it might come in handy during a fight. She hadn't touched the advanced arrays yet. She had learned her lesson. Slow and careful. Because next time it might not be just a single shoe flying into oblivion. It could be the whole pavilion.
On the not-so-funny side, there were still no good updates about the angry cabbage cases. The number of patients kept growing and now it was spreading faster than before. Master Yin Xue was trying everything, but curing madness with herbs was like trying to patch a cracked wall with soup. Was it possible? Maybe. Was it likely? Not at all.
Mental illness was not something that went away with a pill or a sprinkle of spirit dust. Even Soup Man had started looking like he needed soup himself. Still, there had been no disasters so far. No chaos. Unless someone counted Shu Mingye's dramatic sighs whenever he returned from his daily master-blessing missions. The days were mostly quiet. Soft kisses, stolen moments, and lots of floating rocks filled Linyue's time.
Today, she had just finished her array practice. No explosions, no scorch marks, and only one pigeon that had gotten briefly stuck in a levitation field before flying off angrily. A solid success overall. She brushed off her sleeves and turned to leave when she spotted Shen Zhenyu walking toward her, looking as serious as ever. Which, to be fair, was his default setting.
"Linyue," Shen Zhenyu said when he reached her. "We just got news. The angry cabbage cases have now spread to the west."
"The west too?" she asked, her brows knitting together.
Shen Zhenyu nodded once. "Yes. Soup Man informed me earlier. And the capital cases exploded. They can't cover it up anymore. People are starting to panic. The north is also getting worse. Here, Prince Lu said there were more than twenty attack cases reported just today."
Linyue frowned, her arms crossing tightly. "So suddenly?"
"Yes. And we still don't know how it happens," Shen Zhenyu replied.
Her expression darkened. "How about Sister Meiyu?"
Shen Zhenyu understood right away. "She still can't control her spiritual sense well enough. Not for this."
Linyue let out a soft sigh. "This is getting worse. But…" she paused, her brows furrowing, "I haven't heard of any angry cabbage cases in Shulin."