After finishing that piece of calligraphy, Yun Che flexed his wrist. After writing continuously and focusing so intensely, the fingers of this body really had grown a little sore and weak.
“Sister, my hand is sore. Let me rest for a bit.” He said it casually and naturally controlled Li Zijun’s body to fall backward…
“Wait! You…”
Li Zijun’s cry rang out in the sea of consciousness, but it was already too late.
Yun Che had already flopped onto the bed covered in soft brocade.
“…”
For a moment, silence fell.
He was lying on Li Zijun’s bed.
A refined orchid fragrance drifted from the bedding, and beneath him was the smooth, soft feel of cloud brocade. The pillow was just plump enough to support his neck.
This was simply worlds apart from the hard wooden board bed and coarse blanket he had in Shenxiao Palace.
The bed was simply too comfortable. He even unconsciously rubbed Li Zijun’s cheek against the soft pillow and let out a very faint, satisfied sigh.
“This bed… is really soft. It’s much more comfortable than my hard board bed…
“And Zijun’s scent is so nice. So fragrant.”
In the sea of consciousness, there was deathly silence.
Li Zijun’s thoughts were in violent turmoil, with shame, annoyance, anger, and a trace of indescribable embarrassment all mixed together.
She had only lost control of her body, not her bodily sensations.
She could clearly feel how her body had relaxed into that bed just now, how it had rubbed against the pillow, and even the vibration in her chest from that sigh…
Then Li Zijun’s thoughts came through in a voice almost bursting with embarrassment and annoyance.
“Xiao Che! Get up! Right now! Immediately!”
Yun Che jolted, and most of his consciousness instantly cleared, but his body was still sunk into that long-missed softness and comfort, and he even developed a trace of shameless reluctance.
“Don’t… Sister Zijun…” he dragged out the words, his voice carrying a sleepy nasal tone and sounding surprisingly a little cute. “Let me sleep a little longer…
“Just a little while… This bed is really too comfortable. I’ve never slept on such a soft bed in my whole life…”
He even curled up a little more and buried his face deeper into the pillow with its elegant orchid fragrance, letting out a satisfied murmur.
“Xiao Che!” Li Zijun’s thoughts this time were not only filled with embarrassment and annoyance, but also with a trace of panic she herself had not even noticed, and… a kind of helplessness that came from having her bottom line touched.
She could not let him indulge himself any further!
If he dared sleep in her bed this time, then next time… next time, under soul control, who knew what even more outrageous thing he would do!
That thought rang like an alarm bell in her sea of consciousness.
She had to stop him immediately! Right now!
“Get up! Immediately! Right now!” Yun Che could tell from Li Zijun’s voice that she seemed truly angry this time.
He knew he had taken the joke too far.
“I’m up, I’m up!” He immediately begged for mercy and dared not delay any longer. He quickly controlled the body to spring up from the bed, moving so fast that he nearly twisted his waist.
After sitting back down by the bed, Yun Che lowered his eyes and kept his hands properly on his knees, putting on a textbook posture of repentance. “All right, Sister, I was wrong… really wrong.
“I just… couldn’t hold back for a moment. I swear, there won’t be a next time.”
Li Zijun said irritably, “You still want there to be a next time?”
Yun Che jolted and said ingratiatingly, “No, absolutely not. I was wrong, I was wrong!
“Wasn’t that… just a conditioned reflex? My bed was really too hard. It was my first time sleeping on such a soft bed, and I couldn’t hold back for a moment…”
He explained in a flustered mess, using Li Zijun’s face to make a pitiful apology, his hands properly on his knees as he sat by the bed, as meek as a cat caught in the act.
Li Zijun’s thoughts were still in violent turmoil, and although her embarrassment and annoyance had not yet faded, Yun Che’s line about “that bed being too hard and sleeping on it for many years” was like a thin needle that accidentally pierced the anger rising in her heart.
After a moment of silence, her thoughts came through, and the sternness in her voice was replaced by a complex note of inquiry.
“You… aren’t doing well over there?”
Yun Che froze.
He had not expected Li Zijun to ask that.
She did not keep rebuking him for being improper, nor did she ask where he was. Instead, she was… concerned about whether he was doing well.
That caught him off guard even more than any interrogation, as if something hard in his heart had been gently touched.
“I-it’s just okay, more or less,” he finally said softly, sounding a little downcast. “It’s just… the life of an ordinary disciple.
“The lodging is a bit shabby, cultivation resources are tight, and occasionally… I get looked down on.”
He said it lightly, but the words “hard board bed I had slept on for many years” and “looked down on” weighed in his speech like stones.
Li Zijun’s thoughts fell silent again.
She could imagine it. A small cultivator with no background, and apparently no remarkable talent either… otherwise, why would he have had to learn even entry-level Confucian cultivation from scratch?… struggling at the bottom.
Hard board beds, the cold stares of fellow disciples, a lack of resources…
These things were as distant to her as another world, but for this youth named Xiao Che, they were the reality of every day.
And she had just been flying into a rage because he had accidentally lain down on her soft, comfortable bed.
A subtle sense of guilt, mixed with even deeper pity, quietly grew and diluted her earlier embarrassment and annoyance.
“…Doesn’t your back hurt from sleeping on a hard board bed every day?” she suddenly asked, and the concern in her thoughts sounded so natural.
Yun Che had not expected her to ask that, and he unconsciously rubbed the small of his back. “I’m used to it. Sometimes after getting tired from cultivation, I just fall asleep and don’t even care whether it hurts. It’s only harder in winter, when the cold wind seeps into the seams between your bones.”
He said it casually, but Li Zijun seemed able to see through his description and picture that thin figure curled up under a thin blanket, braving the cold night.
“Doesn’t your sect… have any better accommodations for disciples?” she could not help asking, her tone carrying a hint of indignation she herself had not even noticed.
“Yes, but that’s treatment only core disciples and true disciples get… cave abodes and spirit courtyards.” Yun Che smiled, and that smile, through Li Zijun’s face, looked a little bitter. “It’s just that I…”
“I still don’t have that ability yet.”
“I have to earn everything myself.”
Earn everything myself.
He said those three words very calmly, but they made Li Zijun’s heart tremble slightly.
She thought of herself, born into the top Confucian family of the Li family, the same Li family that had once produced a Confucian Sage. With extraordinary talent, she had been the darling of heaven in others’ eyes since childhood, always enjoying the best resources, her path already paved flat and bright.
When had she ever needed to earn anything herself?
This youth, six years younger than her and calling her Sister, was living a completely different life.
“You…” She hesitated, but in the end still asked, “Is there… no one at home to look after you?”
Yun Che was silent for a moment.
“I’m an orphan. My parents passed away when I was little,” he finally said, his voice very light. “I was fostered in someone else’s home from a young age and was never valued.
“So besides myself, there was no one else I could rely on.”
An orphan!
That word made Li Zijun’s heart clench hard. All the earlier questions seemed to have found their answers…
Why he craved strength so much, why he sometimes acted with reckless abandon, why he was so instinctively attached to even the slightest warmth and comfort…
The thoughts in her sea of consciousness softened completely.
“…I’m sorry,” she suddenly said.
Yun Che froze. “Why is Sister apologizing?”
“I…” Li Zijun paused, her thoughts carrying apology and a hint of regret. “I shouldn’t have been so fierce to you just now. I didn’t know that you…”
“No, no, Sister, you weren’t wrong!” Yun Che hurriedly waved his hands. “I was the one who overstepped. How could I just lie in Sister’s bed at will?
“I’m the one who should apologize! I’m already beyond grateful that Sister is willing to teach me!”
He explained anxiously, afraid that Li Zijun would blame herself because of it.
Seeing how eager he was to admit fault and how afraid he was of making her angry, Li Zijun instead felt a faint ache in her heart.
“Forget it. If it’s my bed, then sleep in it if you want.” She finally said, her voice returning to its usual gentleness, even softer than usual. “Sleep as long as you like.”
“You…” Her thoughts carried a gentle warmth. “If there is a chance in the future… I will definitely give you the softest bed.”
She said it naturally, as if it were only an ordinary promise from a sister to her younger brother.
Yet Yun Che felt warmth in his heart and even wanted to cry. In all his life, apart from Ruoyi, this was the first time someone had been so kind to him!
“Mm, then I’ll wait for it,” he said with a smile.