Xiao Rangchen’s resolute words seeped into Lou Yue, slowly driving away the ache that had settled deep in her bones.
Lou Yue lifted her arms and embraced his broad back. “Xiao Rangchen, don’t make me wait again…”
Though she had always believed he would return, she never wanted to experience that endless, hollow anxiety again—the grievance and worry that had accompanied the waiting.
Xiao Rangchen cradled her face in his palm, his fingertips caressing the delicate skin of her cheek. The tips of their noses brushed together as he kissed her lightly trembling, damp lashes.
“From now on…” His voice was low and hoarse. “Wherever you are, I’ll be there.”
“I’ll never leave you again.”
Lou Yue looked up into his reddened eyes. They were filled with surging pain, remorse, and a longing too deep to dissolve. She tilted her head back, closed her eyes, and pressed her lips to his.
Xiao Rangchen immediately clasped the back of her head, his fingers sinking into her soft hair as he deepened the kiss.
All the warmth they had been deprived of during their long separation ignited the instant their lips and tongues met. The heat made them both tremble, and the kiss grew increasingly urgent and fierce.
Just then, the communication butterfly inside their storage ring lit up. After going dark, it lit up again.
Lou Yue used considerable effort to push at Xiao Rangchen’s shoulder, and only after quite some time did she manage to make him pull back slightly.
She raised a finger, and the communication butterfly fluttered out, circling them.
Lou Chengfeng’s voice came from the other end, mixed with the clamor of a crowd. “Where are you? We’re all waiting for you to set off the fireworks and firecrackers. You disappear on us, and now you’re dragging your feet? Hurry up and get over here!”
Xiao Rangchen lowered his head and kept kissing the tip of her nose and her cheeks, his scorching lips rubbing against her skin.
Lou Yue struggled to speak. “This year, you do it.”
Her voice was soft, her breathing unsteady.
Lou Chengfeng paused. “What are you doing?”
Xiao Rangchen’s kisses grew denser, sliding from the corner of her lips toward her jaw. The searing heat brushed over her skin again and again, making her tremble.
Lou Yue steadied her voice. “I just woke up.”
“Then hurry over. Everyone’s waiting for you. You’re the one who does it every year. Today’s an important day for the alliance, and everyone’s in a good mood. It wouldn’t do for you not to show up. Get moving!” Lou Chengfeng cut off the communication as soon as he finished speaking.
The moment the connection ended, Xiao Rangchen did not wait for her to say another word. He buried his head against her once more, covering her lips and prying them apart, holding her firmly and refusing to let go.
Lou Yue gripped his shoulder, her mind spinning from his kiss, her reason all but drowned.
The communication butterfly that had not yet been returned to the storage ring lit up once again, its flashing light urging them to leave.
Xiao Rangchen intensified the kiss, refusing to let Lou Yue pull away.
The butterfly went dark, but only moments later, it lit up again.
Lou Yue mustered her strength and bit him before finally breaking free. Her chest rose and fell. After a long while, she spoke between breaths, her tone carrying a trace of helplessness. “I have to go… We’re setting off fireworks for New Year’s Eve.”
Xiao Rangchen rubbed his lips against hers, his tongue brushing lightly over them as he tried to slip inside again.
Lou Yue had no choice but to raise a hand and cover his mouth, stopping him.
His deep, heated eyes locked onto hers. The instant their gazes met, ripples stirred in both their hearts.
Lou Yue did everything she could to look away, afraid to meet his eyes again.
“They’re all waiting.”
A moist kiss landed in her palm, and her fingertips curled involuntarily.
She pressed her lips together and ruthlessly pushed him away, putting some distance between them. “I’m going to change. Wait here. We’ll go together in a little while.”
With that, she strode straight back into the room, as though she would hesitate if she stayed even a moment longer.
By the time Lou Yue had changed and was standing before the mirror, tidying herself, Xiao Rangchen came over and gently wrapped his arms around her from behind.
Reflected in the mirror, she wore a long, wide-sleeved gown that faded from purple to blue. A string of ice-crystal beads hung from her waist with a soft, tinkling sound, accentuating her slender, sharply defined waist.
Xiao Rangchen’s gaze traveled upward, sweeping over the smooth, delicate skin at her collar, the long tassel earrings swaying from her ears, and finally the intricate gold ornament adorning her forehead.
The cool, striking colors of her clothing gleamed against the faint golden light, setting off her already luminous complexion. She looked both noble and aloof.
His tone was sullen. “We’re only going to set off fireworks. You didn’t have to dress so beautifully.”
Lou Yue cast him a sidelong glance through the mirror. She was dressed ordinarily enough; he made it sound as though she had gone to the trouble of putting on formal attire.
She pried his arms from around her waist, caught his hand, and pulled him outside.
Before long, the two of them arrived at the terrace of the Assembly Hall, the highest point of the Free Cultivators’ Alliance.
Three banquet tables had already been set up there, and all the familiar faces were present.
The moment Lou Chengfeng saw them arrive hand in hand, a storm surged through his heart.
Lou Yue had said she had just woken up, yet she had come with that brat. Wait… Could they have been together just now?
Damn it!
He glared fiercely at them. With their cultivation, neither of them could possibly fail to notice his stare. Yet one deliberately ignored him, while the other knew only how to gaze at the person beside her.
Lou Yue released Xiao Rangchen’s hand and stepped toward the railing.
The street below erupted in cheers like a landslide and a roaring sea, the noise surging into the heavens.
The broad avenue stretched endlessly in both directions from beneath the Assembly Hall. Tables and chairs covered it in dense rows, vanishing into the distance.
Not only was the street packed so tightly that not even a drop of water could pass through, but the rooftops on either side were also filled with banquet tables. Anywhere a person could stand, squeeze in, or set down a cup of wine was crowded with people.
“Alliance Master—!”
Lou Yue’s gaze swept over them. She raised her wrist and flicked a strand of spiritual power toward the sky.
The next instant, guided by her power, the fireworks arranged throughout the city shot into the heavens one after another, exploding in succession across the dark night sky.
They were like raging flames spreading across a plain, like shattered snow cascading down, like the surging depths of the sea, like a galaxy turned upside down. Layer upon layer, cluster after cluster, they transformed the heavens into an endless display of splendor. Radiance flooded the sky, magnificent and dazzling.
Lou Yue gazed at the brilliant fireworks, her heart stirring faintly.
She could no longer remember what the fireworks had looked like the first two times they had been set off. Every time they bloomed, all she could think of was the fireworks she had personally conjured back then in the ruins, trying to soothe Xiao Rangchen’s melancholy.
She turned her head toward the person standing beside her.
Xiao Rangchen was looking at her too.
Her lips moved silently.
Farewell to the old year; may every year bring peace.
The radiance pouring across the sky fell against her cheek and illuminated the tenderness in her eyes before sinking into his heart.
Bright and dazzling, just like that year.
Xiao Rangchen’s Adam’s apple bobbed. The hand hanging inside his sleeve reached toward her side. His fingertip brushed over the delicate lines of her palm before slipping between her fingers and slowly, gradually tightening around them.
Lou Yue paused. Then her fingers curled, and she slowly tightened her hold in return.
Their wide sleeves happened to conceal their tightly clasped hands.
They stood beneath the vast canopy of fireworks, their gazes entwined. All the splendor in the world seemed to become nothing more than a backdrop in each other’s eyes. In their eyes and in their hearts, there was only one another.
Lou Chengfeng was just about to say a few words to Lou Yue when he turned his gaze and collided with the way the two of them were staring at each other.
“…”
His teeth hurt.
He stiffly turned his attention back to the sky.
After a while, he scoffed inwardly.
That brat had coaxed his daughter back so quickly? The handprint probably hadn’t even faded yet.
Unacceptable.
It felt as though the fresh, tender cabbage from his own garden had been carried off and trampled by a pig the moment he turned around—a frustration and indignation that left him utterly stifled.
The fireworks continued to bloom for a full half hour before gradually fading away.
Yet even after midnight, the banquet remained noisy and lively.
Lou Yue leaned casually against the railing, watching the two men beside her raise cup after cup.
Lou Chengfeng prattled on without end, even repeating “You little brat, I can’t stand the sight of you” several times. He was clearly drunk.
Her gaze shifted slightly, settling on the person to her right. Since arriving, he had not spoken a word. Whenever someone toasted him, he simply drank—neither refusing nor saying anything.
Aside from Lou Chengfeng, Liufeng Xin, Hong Chou, Big Brother Wei, Fat Second, and the others had taken turns as well, as though they had planned it in advance.
In short, the amount Xiao Rangchen had drunk that night was nearly equal to what all of them had consumed together.
Yet there was not the slightest hint of drunkenness in his dark eyes. Instead, they had grown deeper and brighter, like black obsidian steeped in a cold pool, inexplicably alluring.
Only when Lou Chengfeng’s voice abruptly fell silent and his wine cup overturned, leaving him completely unconscious, did Xiao Rangchen pause with the cup at his lips and slowly set it down.
Lou Yue lifted a hand behind her. Before long, Lou Chengfeng, along with the others who had drunk themselves senseless, was carried back to his room.
The surroundings quieted, leaving only the two of them.
Lou Yue folded her arms and glanced sidelong at the man looking down at her. “So you secretly trained your alcohol tolerance again over these past three years?”
“No.” His voice was low and hoarse, steeped in liquor. “The wine ran out that day.”
He was referring to the day in Luanyuan when he had made his decision—to cultivate with her as a dual cultivation partner.
Lou Yue raised the corners of her eyes. “So your drinking habit came back, and that’s why you drank so much tonight?”
Xiao Rangchen gathered the hand she had casually rested on the armrest into his palm. His fingertips slowly pressed along her knuckles as he said, “Only when they’re all drunk will they stop coming to bother us.”
Lou Yue: “……”
Still holding her hand, Xiao Rangchen rose.
After a few flashes of movement, they had reached the entrance to the ruins.
His dark eyes, swirling with hidden currents, turned toward her.
Lou Yue did not move for a long while. Xiao Rangchen simply waited in silence, neither urging her nor pressing her.
His hands, usually cool, were burning hot now. The heat traveled from their clasped hands through her body, forcing a restless warmth to rise within her. Sweat gathered in her palm.
In the end, she led him into the ruins.
The moment her foot crossed into the courtyard, a scorching hand locked around her waist and pressed her against the closed door.
A hot, urgent kiss fell upon her, carrying all the force of desire suppressed for far too long.
Lou Yue slid a hand up his taut neck, tilted her head back, and kissed him in return, her hand following the opening of his robes.
All their patience burned away in that instant, leaving only the most primal urgency as they sought one another, determined to fill every last trace of the emptiness left by those three years apart.
Xiao Rangchen lifted her slightly and pressed between her knees.
One of Lou Yue’s feet slid down along the lean strength of his lower back.
She began to sweat, her breathing quick and ragged.
Between their lips and teeth lingered the mingled taste of wine and frost-cold snow.
“Lou Yue……” Xiao Rangchen kissed her, his throat tightening as a hoarse murmur escaped him. “I’ve missed you so much……”
Yet such intimate contact did not ease their torment in the slightest. Instead, it drove their suffering to its peak. Every inch of contact only added fuel to the fire.
The spring-bloom tree in the courtyard rustled beneath the night wind. Again and again, the breeze brushed past the tips of its white petals, skimming only their edges.
The tiny petals of the spring-bloom tree were delicate to begin with. Unable to withstand the repeated caress of the wind, one pure-white petal soon drifted down before Lou Yue’s hazy eyes.
Her chest rose and fell violently, and she trembled faintly.
Xiao Rangchen pulled her arms behind his neck and clasped them together.
The next moment, her body left the ground.
A heightened cry escaped her throat before she could restrain it.
From the corner of her eye, she saw the petal that had still been drifting gently downward suddenly caught up in a fierce gust. It was swept recklessly into the sky.
The clusters of white blossoms on the branches began to sway as well beneath the wind rushing straight toward them.
The flowers of the spring-bloom tree were small, and the stamens hidden within their tiny petals were even more slender and fragile. The wind seemed to know exactly where the tree was least able to withstand its touch, striking that spot again and again.
The sound of the wind tangled with every other noise in the night, driving the temperature in the courtyard higher and higher.
