Chapter 35: Stay Any Longer, and You'll Have to Stay the Night
"Since you're already here, stay for dinner before you go."
Chu Xingchen spoke casually, but his tone carried a hint of gratitude. After all, she was helping him solve a problem that had troubled him for days. It was far better than running around aimlessly with those useless spirit stones taking up space in his storage ring.
"No nee—" Yaoqin began instinctively, but the words stopped in her throat when she heard what came next.
"I'll cook today."
Chu Xingchen paused mid-sentence and looked at her. "No need for what?"
Yaoqin quickly changed her words. "No need to make too much."
Although she had long reached the Golden Core Realm and no longer required food, she hadn't eaten anything beyond her sect's provisioned tea for quite some time.
But if the one cooking was Chu Xingchen himself…
It was hard not to feel tempted.
A refined man of culture and poetry, with a gentle smile, offering to cook personally—who could resist that?
Besides, in her eyes, Chu Xingchen carried a kind of natural charm that made everything he did shine brighter.
Chu Xingchen nodded. "Alright. But the kitchen's empty. Yingling, take your junior brother and buy what you like to eat."
"Got it, Master!" Li Yingling responded at once. It had been too long since she'd eaten her master's cooking—especially his spicy rabbit stew.
This time, she would make sure to buy two rabbits.
To her, buying ingredients meant deciding the menu—a power she thoroughly enjoyed.
Once his two "leaky jackets" left for the market, Chu Xingchen turned back to Yaoqin and gestured toward the teapot.
"Have some tea while we wait?"
Yaoqin nodded with a faint smile. "Alright."
Chu Xingchen poured her a fresh cup, his tone warm. "You've looked tired lately. Have you been resting at all?"
Yaoqin blinked, caught off guard. She quickly lowered her gaze. Truthfully, she hadn't rested much—ever since receiving those Blood Qi Spirit Stones, she had been working tirelessly to purify them.
Had her exhaustion shown on her face?
As if reading her thoughts, Chu Xingchen continued softly, "Still, it suits you better this way. You look less cold, more approachable. Before, you always seemed so distant."
He chuckled lightly. "I still remember the first time I went to the Bamboo Jade Pavilion to hear you play. I didn't even catch a glimpse of your face."
Yaoqin took a sip of tea. The flavor wasn't particularly fine, but for some reason, it felt unexpectedly gentle.
"You thought the Bamboo Jade Pavilion was a pleasure house?" she asked dryly. "There's a couplet at the door—few can even answer it. Those who do are allowed into the main hall. To see my performance through the veil was already quite the privilege."
Chu Xingchen nodded, smiling. "That's true. I spent half a month trying to solve that couplet before I was even allowed to see your shadow through the curtain."
Yaoqin's lips curved faintly as she countered, "When I turned around that day and saw you standing under the lantern light, I thought you might be a scholar of great talent. It wasn't until I spoke to you that I realized you were nothing but an uneducated scoundrel."
Chu Xingchen raised a brow. "Then why did you see me again the next time?"
"I suppose I just didn't hate that scoundrel too much," she replied, lowering her eyes to the teacup in her hand. A single tea leaf floated at the center, slowly spinning.
When she lifted her gaze again, her expression grew more serious. "Your spiritual energy is pure and abundant—at least late Golden Core. A year ago, you were only at Foundation Establishment Peak. If you didn't turn to demonic cultivation, how did you advance so quickly? Were you lying to me before?"
In the cultivation world, asking such a question was considered deeply impolite.
Breakthroughs were personal—sometimes the result of rare fortune, sometimes from the deep accumulation of one's own cultivation method.
One might attract envy—or expose weaknesses.
So, generally, no cultivator questioned another's sudden progress.
Chu Xingchen sighed softly. "Let's just call it an opportunity. I can't really explain it clearly. But yes, when I saw you last year, I was indeed still at Foundation Establishment Peak."
Yaoqin didn't press further. She simply nodded lightly and took another quiet sip of tea.
With her earlier questions answered, Yaoqin's expression softened.
Chu Xingchen casually kept the conversation going, chatting with her about places he'd been, strange encounters, and all the reckless things he'd done over the past year.
By the time Li Yingling returned with a basket full of groceries, quite some time had passed.
Chu Xingchen asked her to entertain Yaoqin for a bit while he carried the vegetables into the kitchen.
As expected, Li Yingling had bought far more than necessary—most of it clearly things she liked to eat.
Chu Xingchen glanced over the ingredients and selected a few suitable dishes to prepare.
In this world, the pursuit of fine food had always been lacking.
Most cultivators could live without eating once they reached the Foundation Establishment Realm, and since the powerful ruled the world, cuisine was not exactly a refined art.
That was why, in a world of bland palates, Chu Xingchen's cooking easily stood out as unmatched.
And judging from Yaoqin's expression when she took her first bite of braised pork, his skills had once again conquered another heart.
At first, she maintained her usual composure, eating with grace and poise. But when she saw Li Yingling devouring her food with abandon—almost licking the plates clean—something within Yaoqin shifted.
Although she kept her elegance, her chopsticks began to move faster, as if unconsciously competing.
Her refined, deliberate chewing puffed her cheeks slightly like a squirrel's, creating an unexpectedly adorable contrast to her normally icy demeanor.
Li Xingtian, on the other hand, ate little. He was, after all, the one Li Yingling once praised for being able to drink chicken bathwater without flinching.
For him, eating was merely a formality. A few bites for appearance's sake, and he was done.
Chu Xingchen occasionally fought Li Yingling for certain dishes, watching her pout reluctantly before, as always, giving in with a sigh.
The atmosphere was warm and comfortable, laughter drifting through the courtyard.
For Yaoqin, it was a rare sense of calm she hadn't felt in years.
The man before her—still so confident, still so full of life—had not been consumed by the bitterness of the cultivation world.
He was still shining in his own peculiar way, stubbornly holding onto his principles where so many others had long since lost theirs.
She had once met him when he was struggling as a wandering cultivator, poor and battered. Yet even then, he had refused to bend his will.
Now, he was no longer a mere drifter.
A Golden Core cultivator, a sect master—albeit of a very small sect.
So small, in fact, that including himself, there were only three members.
A master who squabbled with his disciples over food, a sect of warmth and laughter rather than grandeur—small, yes, but undeniably alive.
Dinner ended peacefully, and Yaoqin didn't linger.
After all, it was already dark.
If she stayed any longer… she might just have to stay the night.
——————
When Yaoqin returned to her own residence, her maid greeted her in a rush.
"Miss, you're finally back!"
Yaoqin removed her outer robe calmly. "In Yuzhou City, what danger could I possibly run into?"
Xiaoling's lips twitched—danger?
She wasn't worried about danger.
She was worried her lady had been sweet-talked by that man again!
But she swallowed her thoughts and reported instead, "Miss Zhao came again. She's been waiting downstairs for nearly two hours."
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