When she looked up, she saw Song Qingzhi standing by the window, quietly watching her.
“Good… morning, Brother Qingzhi,” she said quickly, forcing a weak, flattering smile.
“Last night… thank you. I don’t know what happened, I suddenly felt really unwell…”
Song Qingzhi’s gaze was calm, revealing nothing of emotion. He said simply,
“You don’t need to go to the spirit spring today. Rest well.”
With that, he turned and left.
Su Tiantian watched his retreating figure, and once she was sure he had gone, she couldn’t help rolling around in her bed, silently screaming.
“System! Did you see that?! He stayed with me all night! He let me hold his sleeve while I slept! That perverted Jin Chuan is awful, but somehow he actually helped a lot!”
(System: Data recorded. Target behavior logic database updated. Severe warning: Demon Lord Jin Chuan possesses remote monitoring and punitive abilities. Host danger level increased to 70%. Please acquire valuable intelligence or find countermeasures promptly.)
“I know, I know!”
Su Tiantian’s feelings were complex half afraid, half secretly proud.
After breakfast, she decided to reward herself at her “Happy Farm” and think over strategies.
Su Tiantian arrived at “Happy Farm” quickly.
She was holding a freshly picked, plump vermilion fruit and happily took a bite.
As she turned, she saw Song Qingzhi quietly standing behind her.
His gaze swept over the other vermilion fruits she held, and the red-stained corner of her mouth.
“How do you feel today?”
“Much better!” Su Tiantian nodded enthusiastically, holding up the biggest fruit like presenting a treasure.
“Brother Qingzhi, do you want one? It’s really sweet!”
Song Qingzhi looked at her sparkling eyes and pure smile, silently for a moment.
He didn’t take the fruit.
Instead, he raised his hand, and a gentle spiritual energy rained over the drooping seedlings like soft rain.
The previously wilted leaves visibly perked up, vivid and green.
Su Tiantian was dumbfounded.
(System: Target used wood-type nurturing spell. Spiritual energy consumed: minimal. Motivation analysis: …no exact match found.)
Having done this, Song Qingzhi said nothing and turned to leave.
Su Tiantian looked at his cold back, then at the bright red vermilion fruit in her hand.
Then she glanced at the plump, thriving seedlings in the garden and blinked.
She seemed… to have figured out a bit about how to get Along with this iceberg of a man?
Moreover, with Song Qingzhi nearby, even Jin Chuan’s threat didn’t seem so frightening.
She pulled out her notebook and carefully added a line: “Relationship Cultivation Plan V1.1: Show weakness moderately (real illness preferred) to trigger protective instincts. Supplement with culinary temptation (vermilion fruit), results notable! Also, possibly unlocked ‘silent care’ achievement? Current greatest threat: remote monitoring + punishment + perverted Demon Lord ×1. Urgent countermeasures needed!”
Soon, Su Tiantian noticed that Song Qingzhi’s “attention” toward her seemed to have upgraded.
He was still taciturn, still expressionless, but the invisible distance between them had lessened slightly.
For example, he now allowed her to follow him to the spirit spring.
Occasionally, when she “almost stumbled,” he would extend a hand to steady her arm, instead of immediately using spiritual energy to lift her.
This was a qualitative leap!
Su Tiantian updated her notebook’s “Relationship Cultivation Plan” to V2.0.
The core idea: create every possible opportunity to normalize “accidental” physical contact.
That noon, Su Tiantian carried a plate of her newly created “spirit honey roasted vermilion fruits” and knocked on Song Qingzhi’s study door.
“Brother Qingzhi, I made these new ones, want to try?”
She blinked her big eyes and held out the plate toward his desk.
Leaning forward slightly, her arm “accidentally” brushed the back of his hand as he flipped through a book.
Warm skin touched briefly, then parted.
Song Qingzhi’s hand paused imperceptibly as he looked up at her.
Su Tiantian immediately put on an innocent, expectant smile, as if the brush had been entirely accidental.
His gaze lingered on her face for a moment, then returned to the plate of caramel-colored roasted fruits, exuding sweetness and faint spiritual energy. He finally picked one up.
“Acceptable,” he remarked, his tone unreadable.
(System: Target accepted host’s food! ‘Feeding’ achievement completed! Favorability… analyzing… ‘Responsibility’ and ‘habit’ components rising!)
Su Tiantian’s heart leapt: getting him to accept food was the first step!
She pushed her luck, pretending to be interested in the ancient books on his desk, leaning in, her fingers “curiously” grazing the edges of the pages.
“Brother Qingzhi, what are you reading?”
Her fingertip almost touched his fingers resting on the page.
Song Qingzhi didn’t pull away, merely turned his head slightly to look at her close, fuzzy-haired crown.
A faint trace of her mixed scent spirit honey sweetness wafted to his nose.
“Some formation scroll fragments,” he replied flatly.
“Formations…”
Su Tiantian echoed, pretending to be naive, though her heart skipped at the word.
She feigned calm as her fingers lingered over the pages, supposedly captivated by the complex runes.
In truth, she was silently instructing the system to record everything.
Just as her fingertip was about to touch his hand, Song Qingzhi naturally closed the book.
“If you have nothing else to do, you can go to the library and look at Records of the Nine Provinces, more interesting than this.”
He stood, subtly creating distance.
Su Tiantian: “…”
So close! Just so close!
But the library?
Once more, boldly (though sneakily) entering the library, Su Tiantian had a clear goal.
She first borrowed Records of the Nine Provinces as a pretense, then lingered near the sections on “Formation Basics” and “Mountains & Ley Lines.”
She remembered last time, Song Qingzhi had emerged from the deeper area.
That place seemed to require higher access privileges.
How could she get in?
She wandered among the books aimlessly while observing her surroundings.
Suddenly, she noticed the side of a bookshelf against the wall, an inconspicuous protrusion carved with cloud patterns.
The design seemed vaguely similar to a jade pendant Song Qingzhi usually wore.
Guided by instinct, she reached out and pressed it.