“Then… where am I sleeping tonight?”
Xun Xue tilted her head, her blue eyes curiously sweeping over the few simple straw huts before her.
Lu Qiancha pointed to her own hut and said, “There, that one’s yours. I’ll be cultivating outside tonight, so I won’t be sleeping here.”
“No staying up late.”
Xun Xue pouted, her arms naturally slipping around Lu Qiancha’s waist—precisely wrapping around the tail that was supposed to be invisible—and gently kneaded it. “Let’s sleep together tonight~”
Lu Qiancha quickly twisted her waist, freeing her tail from Xun Xue’s grasp, then rolled her eyes. “If my Shifu and Shimei find out, who knows what kind of trouble that’ll cause.”
“So what if they do?”
Xun Xue straightened her back righteously. “You’re my daughter; it’s only natural for a daughter to sleep with her mother!”
Lu Qiancha’s mouth twitched, too lazy to argue further.
She raised a hand and snapped a P futon out of her Storage Bag, then sat cross-legged on it, striking the five-pointed star pose toward the sky—silent protest.
“Hmph…” Seeing this, Xun Xue’s lips puckered even more, sighing softly, “My daughter’s grown up… she’s starting to look down on her mother…”
Just then—creak!
The wooden door of the nearby straw hut suddenly swung open!
“Shixiong!”
With a clear voice tinged with excitement, a slender figure wrapped in a thin quilt rushed out—none other than Gantang.
Her dripping wet hair still glistened, her moist skin shimmering under the moonlight, the thin quilt loosely wrapped around her, outlining her youthful and graceful curves. She had clearly just finished bathing.
“Shixiong, you finally came back! You scared me! Where were you so long? Are you hurt?!”
Before she could finish speaking, Gantang anxiously scanned Lu Qiancha from head to toe, then flung her arms around him without hesitation.
Lu Qiancha instinctively tried to dodge, but when her gaze met the worry and grievance filling Gantang’s reddened eyes, her heart softened.
She didn’t move, allowing the water-scented and fragrant Shimei to bump firmly into her embrace.
“Bad Shixiong! Stinky Shixiong! You didn’t come back for so long! I thought… I thought you…”
Gantang’s tearful accusations exploded in Lu Qiancha’s ear as her body trembled slightly, though the expected wailing never came—because a small paw, warm and firm, landed gently atop her head in a comforting gesture.
“Don’t worry, I’m perfectly fine.”
Lu Qiancha’s voice was low and soft, a gentle smile spreading across her face. “You’re a grown girl now, you can’t be crying all the time.”
“Hmph! Who’s crying!” Gantang blushed fiercely and quickly looked away. “It’s… that untrustworthy, heart-stopping guy who’s so awful! Absolutely unforgivable!”
Watching her Shimei fall into that familiar “victim” act, Lu Qiancha couldn’t help but laugh and felt a flicker of indulgence in her eyes.
“Alright, alright, it’s my fault. How about tomorrow I go to the neighboring Mountain City and buy you your favorite Osmanthus Cake from the Ruyi Workshop? Deal?”
“No way! You think I can be bribed with some snacks?” Gantang shook her head vigorously like a rattle.
“Then what do you want as compensation? I promise to get it for you.”
Lu Qiancha chuckled indulgently, as if she had gone back to the days when Gantang had just come to the mountain and followed her around like a little shadow, pleading, “Shixiong, please buy me Osmanthus Cake.”
“Hmph hmph…”
“Shixiong,”
Gantang’s eyes twinkled as a mischievous, “victory is near” smile blossomed on her face, and she said each word slowly and deliberately, “I want to—hug Shixiong’s tail! And sleep! With! It! All! Night—!”
The air froze instantly.
This wasn’t quite like the Gantang who had just arrived at the mountain, Lu Qiancha felt a vein twitch on her forehead.
Considering the recent tragic treatment of her tail, she couldn’t help but press her palm to her forehead, her voice filled with helplessness. “Can I refuse?”
“I unilaterally refuse your refusal, Shixiong.”
Gantang immediately tightened her grip, hugging even tighter, her chin raised proudly.
“Oh dear little girl,” a naturally cheerful female voice sounded leisurely, Xun Xue’s playful eyes locking onto Gantang, “Forcing others to do what they don’t want… isn’t very ladylike, you know?”
Only then did this silly little Shimei notice that a strange woman was standing beside her Shixiong!
“Who are you?”
Gantang’s gaze fixed on Xun Xue—her plump and graceful figure was near perfect, causing Gantang to subconsciously glance down at her own somewhat inexperienced form, and a small flame of jealousy inexplicably sparked in her heart.
“My name is Xun Xue.”
Xun Xue smiled innocently but possessively slipped her arm around Lu Qiancha’s shoulders, pulling her closer, “And I am the most~ intimate~ family member of little Qiancha~”
Little Qiancha? Family?
The combination of those three words struck Gantang’s mind like a bomb!
“Waaah—!!! Shixiong—!!” An earth-shattering wail burst forth! “Only a month apart! And you’ve… you’ve been kidnapped by an evil woman?! You don’t want me anymore—?!”
Gantang cried so hard she gasped for breath, as if witnessing the sky collapsing.
“?!?!”
What does kidnapped mean? What evil woman?! Lu Qiancha was completely dumbfounded by her Shimei’s bizarre train of thought. What did this little Shimei usually have in her head?!
Xun Xue frowned, clearly unhappy with the “evil woman” label. “Little one, you should be responsible for your words. Evil woman? I think you’re the rude little brat here.”
With the tension mounting like colliding meteors, Lu Qiancha felt her head about to burst and quickly shouted, “Stop! Both of you, stop arguing!”
She first nodded reassuringly at Xun Xue, then turned to the tear-streaked Gantang with helplessness. “Go back inside. I’ll explain everything to you slowly.” Her tone was firm and non-negotiable.
Gantang pouted, wiping her face haphazardly with her sleeve, erasing most of the tears she’d just shed, then followed them into the straw hut, her expression wary and aggrieved.
The moment the wooden door shut, the outside world was cut off.
There was no need to hide anything from Gantang now. Lu Qiancha deliberately withdrew the Wanshang Shen Ying Jue.
A swirl of light transformed the handsome youth Lu Qiancha into nothing, replaced by a blue-haired little girl—Lu Qiancha.
“Gantang, let me introduce you—this is Xun Xue, the source of the True Essence Blood within me.”
Lu Qiancha paused, meeting Xun Xue’s eyes filled with expectation, then sighed and spoke resignedly, “You could say she’s my… mother.”
“Hmm hm.”
Xun Xue’s eyebrows lifted in satisfied delight, her chin slightly raised.
“!!!”
Hearing those words, Gantang’s mind instantly short-circuited as if she’d received a shock.
Under the candlelight in the room, she finally noticed that Xun Xue and Lu Qiancha’s true form bore a striking resemblance—about seventy to eighty percent similar.
Silence filled the room, the candle flickering softly.
The next moment, Gantang sprang forward like a released spring and gave Xun Xue a perfect ninety-degree bow!
“Honorable Auntie—!”
Her voice was loud enough to blow the roof off!
“Please—! Bless your daughter to marry me! I am truly sincere in my feelings for Shixiong!!”
What followed was a deathly silence inside the room.
A “well” seemed to materialize above Lu Qiancha’s head. Without hesitation, she slapped Gantang’s boldly raised hand with lightning speed!
“Ouch!” Gantang yelped in pain, clutching her hand and nearly jumping up.
“Gantang!” Lu Qiancha practically shouted, her face a mix of embarrassment, exasperation, and a faint flush.
“What did you take tonight?! If you keep talking nonsense, do you want me to throw you into the lake to sober up?!”
“Hmph~” Gantang pulled back her hand, pouting pitifully as she blew on the three faint claw marks left on her palm, still complaining, “Stinky Shixiong… I was just joking to lighten the mood… you went way too hard…”
Then she shifted topics seamlessly, grumbling, “Look, look! Your claws are so sharp! You should trim them, they hurt!”
Lu Qiancha: “….”