Chapter 111

Along with its prosperity, Ping Chao Kou was ceaselessly crowded. It wasn’t just the city gates—multiple gates had already been opened early on, so congestion was expected—but after the three, using the names they’d assumed in Fangcheng, finally fought their way to an inn with a vacant room, they realized upon entering that indeed, Ping Chao Kou lived up to being Yongzhou’s wealthiest city: every inch worth its weight in gold, rendering even that final inn room pitifully cramped, barely large enough for one person to lie down, and any more would require everyone to sidle past each other.

The confined space did not trouble Yun Shen. He climbed onto the bed first, sitting cross-legged, then beckoned, coaxing Chen Shu to step up too. She lay nestled between his legs, blinking as she glanced out the door.

Now, this tiny room truly could not fit a third person. He Yu remained silent for a moment before letting out a dry chuckle. “Then I’ll return to my own room first…”

Chen Shu answered with eager excitement, about to raise her hand in farewell, but Yun Shen seized her wrist with one hand.

He guided her arm gently but firmly back to her side, though his eyes weren’t on her. Instead, he swept his gaze left and used his other hand to remove the bottles and jars hanging from his waist. “Don’t fidget,” he said.

These very bottles and jars were bought moments earlier, in passing, at the bustling market of Ping Chao Kou.

It was also during this trip that Yun Shen had finally explained his so-called “solution” to them.

It was simple. Since this Bride’s Blade Challenge was only open to men, and the lone person among them confident of winning—Chen Shu—was a woman, the solution was to make her “become” a man, or at least make her appear like one.

As he explained this, Yun Shen browsed multiple small and large pharmacies along the road, even a pawnshop. Dressed plainly, they were met with indifferent faces by shopkeepers, who nevertheless jubilantly saw them off. Not for any other reason—he only bought heavily discounted items that had sat unsold for years. Even Chen Shu couldn’t help but feel a flicker of doubt as she paid the silver.

“Can you really put these things to use?” Lying between Yun Shen’s legs now, she couldn’t resist asking.

In truth, most were spur-of-the-moment purchases: some aided cultivation, others nourished the body—nothing to do with disguises. What Yun Shen relied on was his inherent power as a sword spirit to alter forms.

But how could he explain that to Chen Shu? A soft smile curved his lips as he swept aside Chen Shu’s stray bangs with cool fingers. He pinched her cheek gently before replying warmly, “Whether it works or not, we won’t know until we try, will we?”

“This cost me quite a bit!” Chen Shu muttered half a complaint, but obediently closed her eyes. Yun Shen, holding a dollop of ointment on his soft fingertip, began tracing slow strokes across her face.

His fingers carried the slightest coolness, and the slick, greasy paste—whatever it was—spread thickly over her skin. It felt cooling, yet also densely suffocating, sealing her breath within, until it filled her entire mind.

His fingers moved deliberately from her eye sockets to her nose tip, then over her lips, lingering particularly on her lower lip as they brushed back and forth twice. Then they circled back to her ears, pressing occasionally as if exploring—each press snapped her mind away from that lingering shiver and back to the sensation of the soothing breeze.

The quieter it grew inside, the livelier the sounds from the outside became. Indistinct at first, voices drifted through the lattice window with the sunlight onto her ears—snatches of vendors’ shouts followed by a loud crash downstairs—perhaps a stall or cart toppling over. Maybe a fine blade had slipped loose and embedded itself in a beam.

After a while—or perhaps only moments, though every second felt drawn out—as Yun Shen opened more bottles and jars, Chen Shu couldn’t bear it. She opened her eyes, lifted her head, and meant to ask him. But at that very moment, Yun Shen bent his head near her ears, pressing lightly at her skin.

Their lips brushed past each other’s.

Leaving behind a phantom warmth unlike Yun Shen’s usual cool tinge.

The room went utterly still. Even the daylight spilling through the window seemed to waver at that inadvertent touch. Chen Shu blinked wordlessly up at Yun Shen, her mouth parting then closing dumbly, her expression dazed and uncertain.

Yun Shen was looking at her too.

Surprise was written plainly on his face—rare even for someone habitually composed—as if he hadn’t anticipated the collision either.

Like a kiss but not quite. Though purely accidental, neither could pretend those ripples it caused hadn’t risen and trembled in the wake.

Something surged and raced through both of them—or perhaps only within Yun Shen; Chen Shu could feel it. A breathless, searing heat lingered from that instant, scorching far longer than such a fleeting brush should have.

It was easy to imagine the fiery volcano smoldering beneath his icy skin.

So tender and so intimate that it made her ache to draw closer.

“I…” Chen Shu blurted out, the word slipping free before she could decide what to say. Hesitation stalled her for a long moment, leaving her tongue-tied. Finally, she managed awkwardly, “…Your lips… they’re warm?”

“…My heart is warm, too,” Yun Shen answered, as if finally catching his breath himself. He inclined his head to one side with a low chuckle. “…I told you not to move. Why were you so restless?”

“I was worried!” Chen Shu declared with self-righteous indignation, suddenly energized. She leaned in, eyes wide, peering intently at Yun Shen. “Were you playing a trick on me earlier? You seem so flustered! Like writing something on my face—”

A soft laugh escaped Yun Shen. Gently but firmly, he pressed his hand against her cheek to stop her advance. He took a deliberate breath to steady himself before replying, “Flustered? Why would I be? I’m simply concentrating on altering your appearance. If you keep moving, how can I possibly proceed?”

“Then why were you so tense just now?!” Chen Shu snorted indignantly. She drew back, crossing her arms and adopting the posture of the wronged party. “I thought something truly worrisome had happened… It was just a little touch! Unless… Unless you secretly fancy me? Like in those romance tales—”

“Yes,” Yun Shen said.

Chen Shu just blinked.

Her words hung unfinished, swallowed back instinctually. Her tongue darted out to lick her lips.

Sunlight washed over her cheek, casting a delicate halo around the soft downy hairs lining her face. Light played within the shifting depths of her bright eyes, looking quite spirited.

It was within that frozen breath, that suspended instant, that Yun Shen concealed the subtle motion of his fingers weaving a spell. Only a whisper escaped his lips, a murmur. Faster than thought, faster than Chen Shu could comprehend, minuscule alterations blossomed across her features. A slight adjustment to the nose, a new line shaping the lips, a subtle shift of the eyelids’ curve – tiny, seemingly insignificant changes. Yet, cumulatively, they softened the vibrant, youthful playfulness of her features, lending instead an air of composed solidity, even a touch of masculine bluntness, rendering the face ambiguously poised between genders.

“…Are you playing another trick on me?” she finally stammered, her voice thick with suspicion.

Yun Shen couldn’t contain it any longer. A rich laugh bubbled out of him. Shaking his head, he turned away to busy himself with organizing the array of unguent jars and bottles, pointedly ignoring her challenge.

Convinced she had stumbled into a carefully set “trap,” Chen Shu simply couldn’t let it go. Suspicion hardened with each passing second. She shuffled the short distance over quickly, clutching Yun Shen’s sleeve, nearly draping herself over him. In her fiercest tone, directed right at his ear, she accused, “Aha! I knew it! You are messing with me! That stuff you smeared on my face earlier must be—”

“Wasn’t it you who asked?” Yun Shen cut in lightly, a gentle smile playing on his lips. He lifted a hand, the movement simple. Instantly wary, Chen Shu flinched back, darting away from his touch and fixing him with a glare. He chuckled again, his voice softening. “Regarding those things… If you truly suspect I’ve played a prank, you should go and see He Yu. Ask him to examine what exactly I just applied to your face. Then you’ll know.”

His gentle tone, laden with seemingly unfeigned concern, extinguished Chen Shu’s flicker of unexplained pique like a guttering flame under water. Awash in confusion, her anger subsided, leaving a residue of uneasy bewilderment. She cautiously touched her cheek, her lips pursing as she shot Yun Shen one last dubious stare. “So… I should go ask him?”

“Go,” Yun Shen replied without looking up, his focus entirely absorbed by tidying his supplies.

Chen Shu had half a mind to linger, to address the impossible, unspoken weight of his earlier “Yes,” lingering like an oversized presence crammed awkwardly within the confines of their cramped corner room. But Yun Shen had already lowered his head, deliberately shutting her out. She chewed silently, her thoughts churning. Then, her hand flew back to her altered face, jolting her memory: this face was crucial for entry into The Bride’s Blade Challenge. If Yun Shen had smeared something compromising on her skin, barring her entry… why, she’d miss her sword! Miss it outright! That would be unbearable.

Weighing it up, the sword tipped the scales decisively over thoughts of Yun Shen. Its allure was far stronger. She sucked in a breath, sprang off the bed in one swift motion, and marched out of the room, her footsteps a sharp, impatient chatter fading down the hall as she shut the door behind her.

Only when her silhouette vanished from sight, and only when the minor disturbance stirred by her exit settled, allowing the minuscule flecks of dust illuminated in the sunbeams to drift lazily down to rest, did Yun Shen at last raise his head.

His countenance remained outwardly composed, every feature as refined and intelligent as ever. Save for one stark detail: his eyes. Veins, stark crimson, had exploded across the whites of his eyes in those fleeting moments. They saturated his sclera entirely, consuming the clear differentiation between iris and white; his entire gaze was now steeped in a deep, unsettling scarlet.

Repressed yet unmistakably ragged breaths tore through the silence of the small room.

When they had been so agonizingly close, had his composure slipped a fraction later, had his head dipped but a split-second too slow to conceal the frantic pounding of his heart ignited solely by Chen Shu’s proximity — she would have detected him.

One mere touch. He hadn’t even tasted her lips—their flavor yet a mystery: perhaps the crisp purity of morning spring water, perhaps mingled with the damp fragrance of rain-sodden earth from her pillow the night before. Yet its searing potency had already shackled his senses the instant before he made contact, binding his awareness in white-hot chains. All he could absorb was the sight of her bewildered blink, her lashes brushing against the daylight. The glimpse of her dampened lips, glistening faintly where her tongue had just swept across them. Not vividly red, not strikingly voluptuous, yet filled with a plumpness like ripe fruit. He could not have torn his gaze away had he tried.

Slowly, Yun Shen turned away. His hand closed the final lid.

Chen Shu didn’t pull the door entirely shut behind her when she left. Through the slight gap, voices echoed from the hallway beyond, shifting from muffled whispers to distinct conversation. A voice, masculine and rough-edged—unmistakably He Yu. And then her voice—the chattering, lively voice that filled Yun Shen’s thoughts constantly, echoing through wakeful days and penetrating the depths of his restless dreams. Chen Shu had returned already.

“…Truly incredible. It’s you, yet it’s not you. How he managed this… Yun Shen’s skill leaves one speechless…”

“He is extremely skilled… and his heart’s genuinely kind! The very first time I met him, he pulled me out of that shady merchant’s snare using nothing but his words! Honestly, this time I really thought he did decide to prank me! I threw a fit…”

Yun Shen listened, a faint awareness finally piercing the fog in his mind. “His heart’s… genuinely kind…” he murmured to the empty air. A soft, rueful laugh escaped him.

Within the solitude of that unnoticed corner, the violent crimson storm in his eyes began, slowly, to recede.