Warmth, and the pleasant scent of frost and snow.
That was the first thing Lou Yue noticed upon waking.
Her face was buried in the crook of Xiao Rangchen’s neck. His chin rested against the top of her head, and his palm lay against the small of her back, the heat of it seeping through the thin fabric of her clothes.
Their bodies were not pressed tightly together; they were simply lying in a relaxed, comfortable position.
The moment she opened her eyes, a warm, gentle pressure brushed over her hair. It was his chin.
Lou Yue turned over expressionlessly, presenting her back to him.
The corners of Xiao Rangchen’s lips lifted, a trace of amusement flashing through his eyes.
“In a few days, it’ll be the Seventh Night Festival. Shall we go to the mortal realm?” he asked, gazing at her slender back.
“No,” Lou Yue said, one word at a time, her tone edged with gritted-teeth irritation.
A muffled laugh rumbled from Xiao Rangchen’s throat.
The sound only made Lou Yue more annoyed. Just as she was about to turn around and kick him out of bed, a solid chest pressed against her back.
Xiao Rangchen lowered his head and kissed the back of her puffed-up head. “The Qixi Festival in the mortal realm is especially lively. We’ve never been there before. Let’s go take a look, hmm?”
Lou Yue wriggled toward the edge of the bed, trying to get away from him.
Xiao Rangchen did not press closer. Instead, he continued coaxing her in an unhurried voice. “There’ll be all kinds of sweet treats, lanterns burning through the night, lion dances and acrobatics—and the molten-iron fireworks and fireworks displays you love.”
He let out a faint sigh. “If we miss it, we’ll have to wait another year…”
Lou Yue immediately turned around and glared at him, eyes wide.
Xiao Rangchen met her gaze, the smile on his lips deepening. “Come on. You accompany me while we stroll around, and I’ll accompany you to sleep. We can help each other out.”
Lou Yue raised her foot and kicked him.
As though he had anticipated the move, Xiao Rangchen reached out and caught her ankle. With the same fluid ease, he pressed her slightly cool sole against his warm abdomen, as naturally as if they had done it a thousand times before.
Lou Yue pursed her lips.
There was an unpleasant feeling of being seen through and handled exactly as he pleased, mixed with an indefinable softness—as though the tenderest place in her heart had been lightly brushed by feathers, leaving her flustered and helpless.
She had discovered that the “lover” she had chosen was not merely attractive. He was also unfathomably shrewd.
Still, with her tendency to lose interest after three minutes, if he had not possessed some skill, he probably would not have held on to the position of her “lover” for so long.
“I’m actually a little curious,” Lou Yue said.
When he quietly waited for her to continue, a mischievous smile curled her lips. Slowly, she asked, “After all these years, am I really the only lover you’ve had?”
The amusement in Xiao Rangchen’s eyes abruptly froze.
Lou Yue burst out laughing. The frustration of having been so thoroughly manipulated by him vanished in an instant, leaving her feeling completely refreshed.
She jumped out of bed. “Weren’t you the one who wanted to go to the mortal realm? Why aren’t you up yet?”
Xiao Rangchen watched her walk lightly toward the inner room, her brows and eyes alight with mischief. Helplessness deepened in his gaze, though it was also laced with indulgence.
The year he returned, he had brought up again the matter of marriage that Lou Yue had mentioned in the Chaos Abyss. She, however, had brushed him off with the words, “Miss your chance and you’ll never get it back.” After that, no matter how often he brought it up, she refused to agree.
When Lou Yue came out after changing, she saw Xiao Rangchen still sitting on the bed in a daze and urged him again.
Only then did Xiao Rangchen rise. He took out a message butterfly and sent Lou Chengfeng a written message:
“I’m taking Lou Yue to the mortal realm for a while. I’ll leave the affairs of the alliance in your hands, Uncle.”
His fingertip paused. With an entirely calm expression, he changed the final words, “Uncle,” to “Father-in-law.”
Lou Yue’s eye twitched. “…Do you have no shame?”
Xiao Rangchen put away the message butterfly and calmly changed the subject. “Do you want to go straight to the imperial capital, or look around elsewhere first?”
“The imperial capital,” Lou Yue answered without hesitation. She wanted to see where an ancient emperor lived, and experience the Qixi Festival beneath the Son of Heaven’s feet, just like in the television dramas.
He gave a low murmur of assent.
The imperial capital was even more prosperous and bustling than Lou Yue had imagined. Perhaps because Qixi was approaching, the whole city had already begun decorating with lanterns and colored banners. Even during the day, the streets were packed with people. At night, the city blazed with lantern light and grew even livelier.
When they checked into an inn, Lou Yue vaguely saw Xiao Rangchen hand the proprietor several spirit stones. She knew nothing about the value of spirit stones and assumed they were simply the usual payment for a room. Thus, when the proprietor said that only one room remained, she thought nothing of it.
For the next two days, she went to sleep with her back to him and a full arm’s length between them, but woke nestled in his arms, their positions so familiar it was almost absurd.
Lou Yue decided to stop fighting it.
A lover was a lover. They had already been together for so many years; what difference would another two make?
“Is it good?” Xiao Rangchen asked, glancing sideways at the person beside him, who was eating with great relish.
Lou Yue swallowed the dumpling in her mouth and nodded. She speared another one and held it out to him. “Try it?”
Xiao Rangchen gave a slight shake of his head. “Too sweet.”
Lou Yue paused. How did he know it was sweet if he hadn’t even tried one?
Xiao Rangchen led her to another shop and bought some plum-blossom cakes filled with red bean paste for her to try, asking whether she liked them.
Lou Yue noticed the meaningful smile the shopkeeper’s wife gave them. The moment they stepped out, she looked up at him and said, “I saw a shop selling sugar figurines up ahead. Go have the owner make one in your likeness.”
Xiao Rangchen seemed a little hesitant.
“Hurry up. I’ll wait here.”
Once he had finally walked far enough away, Lou Yue quickly returned to the shop.
“Madam, have you seen him before?”
“Oh, thank goodness you finally asked!” The shopkeeper’s wife’s face broke into warm, good-natured smiles. “Your husband is so attentive to you. Three days ago, he came to the shop and bought a portion of every flavor of cake we had.”
She pointed to the spot where Lou Yue and Xiao Rangchen had just been speaking.
“There—he stood right there, frowning as he ate his way through every single one.”
“I thought it was strange at the time. He clearly doesn’t like sweet things, so why insist on buying and tasting them all? Now that I see the two of you together, I understand.”
The shopkeeper’s wife covered her mouth and chuckled. “He wasn’t buying them for himself. He was tasting every flavor for you.”
Three days ago, Lou Yue had still been in the Wilderness. She had not yet agreed to accompany him, much less said anything about coming to the imperial capital.
“He wasn’t buying them for himself. He was tasting every flavor for you.”
The shopkeeper’s words echoed repeatedly in Lou Yue’s mind, impossible to dispel.
Her footsteps gradually slowed.
Her heart was beating strangely fast.
She turned around at once to look for him. Yet the surrounding streets were packed with people. Forget Xiao Rangchen—even the shop she had just left had vanished from sight.
On the brilliantly lit main street, a decorated carriage rolled past. The sound of gongs and drums mingled with laughter, while colored ribbons and lanterns swayed in the night. People crowded together shoulder to shoulder, making it nearly impossible to move.
Lou Yue walked for a while without catching sight of Xiao Rangchen. In the end, she found a less crowded spot and waited for him to come looking for her.
Beside her was a small mask stall run by an elderly woman with poor eyesight. Lou Yue removed the hairpin from her head and traded it to the old woman for a mask, which she put on so that passersby would stop staring at her.
After she had waited for a while, the crowds in the street not only failed to thin, but grew even more packed and boisterous.
At that moment, a tremendous boom erupted in the night sky. A dazzling firework blossomed overhead, spilling brilliant colors across the darkness and illuminating the entire street.
The crowd instantly erupted into thunderous cheers. Voices, music, and the pounding of drums blended into one spectacularly festive scene.
A sudden, urgent longing surged through Lou Yue.
She wanted to see him immediately.
Without another moment’s hesitation, she rose from the stone step and plunged into the surging crowd.
At that moment, on another long street bright as day with lanterns, Xiao Rangchen held a sugar figurine in each hand, his brows drawn tight as his sharp gaze swept over the endless stream of people before him.
The message butterfly had not responded.
He vaguely regretted wasting time at the sugar-figurine stall.
Lou Yue bore his life mark, so she was safe. However, the mark could not sense her location, leaving him unable to find her quickly.
Xiao Rangchen pressed his thin lips together. His aura turned cold and heavy, but he did not stop walking as he searched for Lou Yue’s figure.
The crowd grew more and more congested. Chilling energy radiated from him, and spiritual power gathered at his fingertips. He was just about to freeze the entire crowd in place and search for her by force when he suddenly sensed something and slowly turned around—
A familiar figure wearing a white tiger mask leaned close to him.
“Tsk, tsk. I found you first.” Lou Yue’s voice came from behind the mask, bright and lightly smug.
Xiao Rangchen lowered his eyes, his gaze locking firmly onto the slits of the white tiger mask.
Those dazzling peach-blossom eyes reflected the fireworks exploding across the sky, shining brighter than all the lights in the mortal world.
When he remained silent for a long while, merely staring at her with solemn intensity, Lou Yue raised a hand and pushed the mask up, revealing the bright, striking face beneath it.
The corners of her eyes lifted slightly, her expression carefree and teasing. “Hey, Xiao Rangchen, you couldn’t possibly not recognize—”
Her voice gradually faded when it met the deep, solemn gaze in his eyes.
The faint smile and composure he had worn before were gone. All that remained was scorching intensity and utter focus, like a flame burning in the dead of night, wrapping itself around her entire being. The surrounding figures and fireworks all faded beneath that gaze.
Xiao Rangchen slowly bent down and lowered his head toward her.
Fireworks burst magnificently across the night sky behind him. Golden, red, and silver-blue sparks rained down everywhere, casting a soft glow over his cold, sharply defined features.
Everything fell silent. Only their mingling breaths and the warmth drawing closer and closer remained.
A gentle kiss carrying the chill of frost and snow landed on her lips.
Lou Yue’s lashes trembled before she slowly closed her eyes, allowing his breath to envelop her.
After a while, their lips parted.
An arm pulled her into a broad, warm embrace.
The street was filled with clamoring voices and endless noise, yet Lou Yue could clearly hear two hearts gradually falling into rhythm within their chests, resonating together in steady, powerful beats.
She raised the hand hanging at her side and gripped the fabric at his waist.
At that very moment, all the memories she had forgotten surged into her mind like floodwaters breaking through a dam—
Xuan Du: him walking toward her step by step, the earnestness in his eyes when he told her he liked her;
The moonlit wilderness: the reverent way he had lightly kissed her hairpin;
The tide of demonic-heart mist: her tangled struggle, unwilling to believe that his feelings were genuine;
His firm declaration that he liked her as a person, regardless of whether she was a man or a woman, and the joy that had bloomed in her heart;
The fireworks in the ruins: the hopeful look in his eyes as he asked whether she could have what she desired if what she desired was her;
Him standing beneath the tree, his eyes shining with an entire galaxy of stars as he reached out a hand to her;
Everything that had happened after his spiritual power ran wild during his tribulation—the dual cultivation, their falling into the Abyss of Chaos in each other’s arms, and their forced separation there.
She remembered it all.
And there was more. At the very beginning, when she had gone to the summit of Cangya for his sake, there had been their true first meeting in the rear mountains.
The memories she had once lost returned along with everything else.
She remembered all of it.
Holding the quiet woman in his arms, Xiao Rangchen paid no attention whatsoever to the various looks cast at them by the passersby. He merely lowered his head and pressed a kiss to the crown of her soft hair.
“Shall we keep walking around?”
“Let’s go to the highest place, somewhere closest to the fireworks,” Lou Yue said softly in his embrace.
In the next moment, Xiao Rangchen appeared atop the highest tower in the city with her in his arms.
After a long while, Lou Yue left his embrace. When she happened to notice the sugar figurines in his hand, she froze for a moment before laughing. “Hey, so these are the sugar figurines you bought?”
Xiao Rangchen lowered his eyes to look. The tiny sugar figurines of a man and a woman had long since stuck together in his one-handed grip, their faces smeared into a single shapeless mess. It was impossible to tell which was which.
Xiao Rangchen fell silent.
Lou Yue took the sugar figurines from him and tried to pry them apart, but the soft, sticky sugar bodies refused to separate.
She stared closely at the blurred faces and asked doubtfully, “Is this supposed to be me?”
Xiao Rangchen gave a low reply, his tone carrying a hint of muffled displeasure.
Lou Yue looked up at him. “You made it?”
The sugar artisan had not known what she looked like, so there was only one possibility: Xiao Rangchen had made it himself.
Xiao Rangchen pressed his lips together. “Mm.”
Lou Yue sat down on the roof beside them and looked at the two figures fused together beyond distinction. She raised an eyebrow. “This is fine too.”
She put the conjoined sugar figurines into her mouth. Their sweet, clean flavor melted across her tongue, traveling all the way to the softest place in her heart.
Xiao Rangchen sat down beside her and quietly watched her.
Lou Yue’s gaze shifted from the brightly lit, lively street below to Xiao Rangchen’s face. “Xiao Rangchen, what would you have done if my memories had never returned? Would you have been disappointed or sad?”
Xiao Rangchen did not answer at once. Instead, he continued looking at her for a moment before slowly shaking his head.
“These past few days, I’ve been thinking that perhaps forgetting would have been a good thing. Then some of the painful and unhappy memories would disappear along with everything else.”
He stated with certainty, “From now on, every day of your life will become a happy memory.”
Lou Yue asked again, “Wouldn’t it feel unfair? You’d be the only one who remembered the past.”
Xiao Rangchen tucked the stray strands of hair from her face behind her ear. His fingertip brushed away a crumb of sugar from the corner of her mouth, and his eyes held an inseparable tenderness.
“As long as I remember, that’s enough.”
The corners of Lou Yue’s lips slowly curved upward.
Fireworks thundered beside their ears, exploding one after another across the night sky. Below them, laughter, drums, and lantern light intertwined into the warm bustle of mortal life.
They sat at the highest point in the imperial capital, with a gentle breeze, a warm night, and peaceful years stretching before them.
Fireworks would bloom every year. And every year, she would gaze up at the sky filled with them alongside the person beside her, year after year, for all the years to come.
“Give me your left hand.” She bit down on the sugar figurine and held out her hand to him.
Xiao Rangchen silently extended his left hand.
Lou Yue slid a ring she had prepared earlier onto the ring finger of his left hand.
She took the sugar figurine from her mouth, lifted her brows at him, and smiled with unabashed confidence. “Congratulations, Xiao Rangchen. You’ve officially become my boyfriend.”
Xiao Rangchen stared blankly at the ring on his finger, then looked at her, unable to react for a moment.
Lou Yue placed the other ring, set with gold and green jade, into his palm and held out her own left hand.
Xiao Rangchen instinctively slipped the ring onto Lou Yue’s ring finger as well. His palm brushed over her soft, slender knuckles, and he asked, somewhat slowly, “Officially become… your what?”
Lou Yue licked the sugar figurine and cast him a sidelong glance. “If you want to keep being my paramour, I don’t mind.”
Light flared in Xiao Rangchen’s eyes, but then uncertainty returned, and he asked, “Lou Yue, have you remembered?”
Lou Yue sighed and said with considerable regret, “It was destined. I was meant to remember it all with you.”
In the next moment, Xiao Rangchen abruptly pulled her into his arms.
Lou Yue hurriedly raised her hand to keep the sugar figurine from sticking to his clothes. With her left hand, now wearing the ring, she patted his faintly trembling back and teased him.
“Who was it just now that said, so seriously, ‘As long as I remember, that’s enough’?”
Xiao Rangchen buried his face against the side of her neck without saying a word. He only tightened his arms, holding her even more securely.
Lou Yue gently stroked the top of his head, gazing at the pair of sugar figurines in her hand, now melted together and forever inseparable. Her voice was soft, yet especially clear in the night:
“When we return, let’s get married.”
Xiao Rangchen’s low, husky voice sounded against her neck. “All right.”
The two green jade rings shimmered in reflected light, while the Milky Way and the mortal world rested at their sides.
She and he were no longer bound to the lives predetermined for them in a book.
Instead, they had become each other’s home, walking side by side through the passing seasons, watching the fireworks of every year together, faithful until death.
—The End—
