Chapter 62: Negotiation

The only plausible explanation was that his Senior Sister had somehow misunderstood him. As for the nature of that misunderstanding, there were currently too many missing clues to trace it back to its root.

Su Ling’s cheek twitched a few times. If he were to let her keep spying on him from the shadows—while he wouldn't actually come to any harm—it would still be thoroughly agonizing.

Ever since his spiritual soul had undergone a massive surge, his sensory perception had skyrocketed exponentially. At this critical juncture, not even the slightest disturbance could escape his awareness.

Right now, Su Ling’s intuition was abnormally sharp, which magnified Ruan Xiu’s hostile gaze a hundredfold. It felt like needles pricking his back, making him intensely uncomfortable.

Perhaps this was the price of growing stronger. Generally speaking, heightened perception allowed him to preemptively dodge sudden dangers the moment before they struck.

Yet precisely because of this, he was also deeply troubled. Until he fully adapted to these acute senses, any slight movement was nothing short of torture.

This was also why, despite sleeping for so long at Chen Pingan’s house, he still hadn't felt fully rested. Mental exhaustion was one factor, but the other was that sleep allowed him to rapidly adapt to these abnormally sharp perceptions.

Standing in place before the blacksmith's shop for a long while, Su Ling finally lost his patience. He turned around and walked toward the spot where his Senior Sister was hiding.

"Senior Sister, just how long are you planning to spy on me?"

"..."

In a patch of lush grass not far from the resting pavilion, the foliage suddenly gave a rustle, though no sound was uttered. It seemed the person hiding within was still pretending she hadn't been discovered by Su Ling...

Su Ling: "..."

Witnessing this scene, the corner of Su Ling’s mouth twitched. He took a deep breath to smooth away the depressed expression on his face.

"Senior Sister, is there some misunderstanding between us? Please, let's clear it up face to face."

"..."

*Squeak, squeak~*

A crisp sound, resembling that of a rabbit or a mouse, suddenly emanated from the half-meter-tall grass right in front of him.

"..."

Hearing such an out-of-place attempt at imitation, Su Ling widened his eyes in utter shock. He hadn't expected that, in order to avoid exposing herself, his Senior Sister would actually resort to mimicking an animal sound, attempting to make him think there was nothing inside the grass but a wild rabbit?

Such a thing was utterly impossible. To put it bluntly, within a radius of a hundred miles around the blacksmith's shop, no wild beasts existed at all. After all, the terrifying noise generated during the forging of iron was enough to drive away any creatures inhabiting the nearby area. Any beast that lingered in this region for long would have its body shattered by the thunderous echoes of the hammer.

Aside from birds and beasts occasionally flying across the sky above the forge, not a single terrestrial quadruped existed on the ground.

***

"...Senior Sister, please step out so we can talk properly..." Su Ling went against his conscience, suppressing the urge to burst out laughing, and spoke with a voice strained from holding back his amusement.

After all, he had never imagined that his once fiercely hot-tempered Eldest Senior Sister could possess such a cute side. It was genuinely delightful.

*Rustle, rustle...*

A faint sound of friction came from the leaves, and immediately afterward, a well-proportioned figure rose from the grass. It was Ruan Xiu, who had been hiding in the lush vegetation for so long.

Su Ling fixed his gaze on her, and his expression suddenly froze, for the Ruan Xiu before him was breathtakingly and stunningly beautiful.

Ruan Xiu kept her head lowered, deliberately avoiding his direction. Her flushed, delicate face was painted with a deep, blushing crimson across her cheeks.

Her normally neat and pretty face was now extraordinarily captivating to him. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to call her a feast for the eyes, though, at the root of it, base desires were at play.

...

With tear-filled eyes that looked as though she was about to cry, Ruan Xiu was currently wracked with excruciating awkwardness and intense shame. After all, she had repeatedly ignored her Junior Brother who had proactively sought her out.

Realizing she could no longer hide and wishing to maintain her dignity as a Senior Sister, Ruan Xiu had chosen to show herself. However, her demeanor was bizarrely unnatural—she looked practically paralyzed by social anxiety.

"...Junior Brother Su, it's so late, why have you come to the blacksmith's shop again..."

Ruan Xiu’s crisp, melodic voice reached his ears, causing Su Ling’s heart to skip a beat. An emotion he had never felt before surged within his chest—commonly known as being struck by sudden infatuation.

"..."

Perhaps because Ruan Xiu’s mind was in utter chaos at the moment, her words were riddled with flaws. She was nothing like her usual self, which made her look exceptionally adorable.

At these words, Su Ling gave a light cough to compose himself and cast away his momentary lapse of composure. He glanced at Ruan Xiu, who stood before him looking utterly at a loss, resembling an adorable little white rabbit that had fallen into the clutches of an evil wolf.

Quickly collecting his emotions, he wore a faint smile and asked gently,

"Senior Sister, this probably isn't a good place to talk."

"...That's true."

Gone was Ruan Xiu’s past domineering aura; her demeanor now carried a distinctly feminine gentleness. She strode forward on her long legs, stepping right over the half-meter-tall grass.

Covering her burning, crimson face with her hands, Ruan Xiu brushed past Su Ling with quick steps and hurriedly dashed back into the blacksmith's shop.

The forge had not yet been extinguished; the interior was brightly lit. It was clear that Ruan Xiu had been wrestling with a deep internal conflict, which was why, even after all this time, she still hadn't put out the lights to rest.

"What on earth is this misunderstanding? Is it really worth agonizing and embarrassing herself this much..."

***

Witnessing this scene, Su Ling scratched his head in bewilderment. A moment later, he still walked toward the blacksmith's shop. It seemed that if this misunderstanding wasn't resolved, it would be awfully difficult to communicate normally with Ruan Xiu in the future...

Inside the forge, the atmosphere was somewhat heavy and terrifyingly quiet, save for the faint crackling of the burning candles.

As for Ruan Xiu’s breathing, it was virtually imperceptible, reflecting extreme caution and apprehension. This left Su Ling somewhat tongue-tied, equally unsure of how to start the conversation, because the Ruan Xiu before him was genuinely agitated and uneasy.

An aura of "keep strangers at a distance" radiated from her, yet her posture was restless and jittery, as if everything around her made her uneasy—like a small animal locked inside a cage.

If Su Ling hadn't been blocking the doorway, Ruan Xiu in this state likely would have bolted through the exit long ago, giving him no time to react.

"..."

Su Ling remained silent for a moment, then bit the bullet, looked toward Ruan Xiu not far away, and forced an awkward smile.

"Haha, Senior Sister, it's just that you happened to see my body, there's no need to be this awkward about it, right?"

"..."

"Senior Sister?"

"..."

Seeing that Ruan Xiu maintained her cold, untouchable expression and continued to glare at him with hostile eyes, Su Ling had a premonition: if he made any out-of-line move right now, the next thing greeting him might well be a dragon's breath of fire.

By then, it would inevitably burn away his clothes, recreating that shameful scene from earlier.

And if that happened, it would truly be a case of falling into a cesspool—even if it wasn't shit, it would smell like it...

At the thought of such a hair-raising scenario, Su Ling’s cheek twitched. With a complex expression filled with many emotions, he looked back at Ruan Xiu by the wall, who was still keeping her guard up against him.

"...Senior Sister, what do it take for you to forgive your Junior Brother?"

"First... you are not allowed to tell anyone that you... that you saw my bo... body!"

Just then, her cold voice rang out like heavenly music. Hearing this, Su Ling widened his eyes and looked with pleasant surprise at Ruan Xiu, whose face was flushed completely red.