“Ling-shidi, do you need my help?” Pan Die’an asked, concern peppering her words.

Gui Linghuo glanced down at the woman and shook his head. “I can still reach here, it’s not that dangerous either.”

Pan Die’an looked a bit sheepish.

Gui Linghuo was around the same age as her little brother when she had left her home to come to Yunjing Pavilion to become Lin Cangyuan’s disciple. Although she was born in the upper realm and her parents were both cultivators, they were not the strongest. Her little brother had passed away when he was about two-hundred. Though she had willingly left behind any thoughts of the mortal world in order to pursue cultivation, she still thought about her family from time to time.

Seeing Gui Linghuo so obedient at an age where he should be his most rambunctious made her heart ache. She glanced at the man standing beside her and scowled, hating iron for not becoming steel.

Wu Ze’xi, who had been helping Shan Yu with some of the decorations, felt a sudden chill run down his back. He looked up and met Pan Die’an’s gaze.

“My dearest, what have I done wrong this time?”

“Hmph.”

Some people were thirteen and carried the weight of their world on their shoulders, others were nearly three hundred years old and were not even half as mature.

Wu Ze’xi looked at Pan Die’an helplessly. When he turned back to his task at hand, he was met with two sympathetic gazes. He sighed. Please—he would rather not have sympathy from two children.

Once Pan Die’an were far enough, Shan Yu wiggled closer to Wu Ze’xi.

“Shixiong, are you going to ask Pan-jiejie to marry you?”

Wu Ze’xi nearly tore the decorations from their new homes. He looked at Shan Yu in surprise. “Marry? Me? Who? Who am I marrying?”

“Pan-jiejie,” Shan Yu whispered.

Wu Ze’xi stared at her, his eyes bulging more and more by the second. He glanced over his shoulder to make sure the subject of their conversation wasn’t around before he quickly shook his head. “I’m not. And don’t go around spouting this nonsense everywhere.”

“Why not?” Shan Yu asked in confusion.

“Wh—why would I?” Wu Ze’xi asked with a bit of helplessness.

“You like her,” Qin Siyi jumped into the conversation.

“M-me?” Wu Ze’xi stared on blankly as his heart hammered against his chest.

Shan Yu hadn’t been around as long, but Qin Siyi at least had been at Yunjing Pavilion for a few years. Although she was still young, she still understands that Wu Ze’xi and Pan Die’an interacted with each other and treated each other differently than they did others. They acted like they hated each other sometimes, but there were many, many other times where they obviously cared for one another.

“I do not like—” Wu Ze’xi glanced over his shoulder again. He got extra close and lowered his voice to barely above a whisper. “I do not like Pan Die’an. So don’t bring up me liking her in front of her, okay?”

Shan Yu and Qin Siyi glanced at each other uncertainly.

Wu Ze’xi pressed his hands together. “I’m begging you, little ancestors. If she hears that I ‘like’ her, I’m afraid I won’t be able to enjoy a few more years of living.”

“Alright…” Shan Yu pouted.

Wu Ze’xi left to hang the decorations, leaving Qin Siyi and Shan Yu to make sure the table was decorated well.

Shan Yu fiddled with the ornaments as she watched Qin Siyi arrange the table cloth. “Shijie.”

“Hm?”

“If you liked someone, would you tell them?” Shan Yu asked curiously.

Qin Siyi froze. She glanced over her shoulder. “Would you?”

“I would,” Shan Yu nodded enthusiastically. “I tell Shizun all the time!”

Qin Siyi pursed her lips in an attempt to stop her laughter. “You do, don’t you?”

“Yeah! I always tell him that I’m going to marry him. Too bad he doesn’t believe me,” Shan Yu pouted. She glanced at Qin Siyi. “But would you?”

“Mm,” Qin Siyi smoothed the cloth down with her small hands. She leaned against the table for a while as she thought. “I think it depends.”

“On what?”

“Who this person is,” Qin Siyi said.

Shan Yu frowned. “What does that have to do with anything? You like him, don’t you?”

Qin Siyi’s face warmed slightly. “Well, I’m just an orphan. My cultivation isn’t that great either. If I ended up liking the young master of a prominent family, then his family might reject me.”

Shan Yu grew indignant at this made-up scenario. “And that guy isn’t going to stand up for you!?”

“Well, I mean, it would be one-sided, right?” Qin Siyi looked at Shan Yu in surprise.

“Hmph!” Shan Yu puffed up her cheeks. “Who wouldn’t like you? Shijie is even prettier than I am! In the future, you’ll be way prettier! Any man who doesn’t want you is just blind!”

Qin Siyi’s face flushed. “Shan Yu, what are you saying?”

Shan Yu became even more excited. She stood and held Qin Siyi’s hand. “Don’t worry, Shijie! If Shizun doesn’t ask for my hand in marriage by the time I’m eighteen, I’ll ask for yours!”

“W-what?” Qin Siyi stared at the child. “No! No, what are you even saying?”

“I’m being sincere!” Shan Yu said. The more she thought about, the more she liked the idea. “We would be the perfect couple too! We can go around Jianghu together—you play the guqin and I play the pipa. We’d be the perfect match.”

Was that also the only reason this child wanted to marry their shizun? Because she thought the guqin and the pipa were the perfect pair?

Qin Siyi hesitated before saying, “What about Da-shixiong?”

“Da-shixiong plays the flute,” Shan Yu wrinkled her nose. “A pipa and a flute are not destined to be.”

Qin Siyi wanted to hold her head in her hands. “Shan Yu, love isn’t just about whether you and your partner will look good together. It’s also about—”

“It’s also about caring for each other, right?” Shan Yu grabbed Qin Siyi’s hand. She looked up at the girl with a bright smile. “Well, I care about you a lot! I bet I care about you more than Da-shixiong and Shizun. If I can’t be your beloved, then who can?”

Qin Siyi felt her face warm. She quickly shook herself out of it. What did a six-year-old snot-nosed brat know? She smiled weakly. “Alright.”

“You don’t believe me!”

“I believe you. I believe you, okay?” Qin Siyi pulled away from Shan Yu and stood. She frowned slightly and cupped her chin. “I should go to the kitchen to see if they have the menu correct.”

Shan Yu watched Qin Siyi leave the dining room silently. The stuffy feeling in her chest grew as her small hands gripped her knees.

“You’ll see in the future,” Shan Yu grumbled.

“See what?”

Shan Yu looked up in surprise.

Gui Linghuo stopped a bit away from Shan Yu. In his arms were the last of the decorations. He looked at Shan Yu with a hint of suspicion. “What did you do?”

“Da-shixiong, don’t you think the guqin and the pipa are a perfect pair?” Shan Yu asked.

Gui Linghuo sighed. “This again? I told you, Shizun isn’t interested in someone much younger than him by this much.”

“Just answer me! Don’t you think they’re good?”

“I suppose,” Gui Linghuo mumbled. He glanced at Shan Yu. “What’s wrong? Did Siyi say that they don’t match?”

“She didn’t believe me when I said I cared about her the most!”

“…What?”

“I said I cared about her the most and that we’ll get married, but she just said ‘alright’. She obviously didn’t believe me!”

Gui Linghuo nearly dropped the items he was holding. He rushed to put them aside. “What did you say to her?”

“That I care—”

“No, no—why did you say this to her?”

“Because I said I want to marry her.”

Gui Linghuo stared at the child. “You’re…never mind.”

“I’m what? What?”

“Nothing,” Gui Linghuo shook his head.

“Da-shixiong!” Shan Yu whined as she clung into his waist. “I’m what?”

“You’re insufferable!” Gui Linghuo grabbed Shan Yu’s head and shoved her lightly. “Let go of me!”

“I’m not letting go!” Shan Yu wrapped her legs around Gui Linghuo’s legs. “First you say Shizun won’t marry me, and now you think Shijie is right to not want to marry me! Then who do you think should marry me?!”

Gui Linghuo stared down incredulously at the tantrum-throwing child latched to his waist. “I think you should save your future partner the trouble and just stay single your entire life.”

“If I stay single, then you have to stay single!”

“Why me?”

“Your personality is bad! You’re weird and crazy!”

Gui Linghuo took a deep breath. Before he could grab Shan Yu, the child untangled herself and sprinted away, screaming for Qin Siyi along the way.

While Shan Yu was fending for herself, Gui Yin was fending for himself as well.

He allowed himself to be dragged around by Ye Liuxing and Jiu Jingyi. His ears gradually became a funnel where information was placed in, only for it to quickly fall out the other end. As he looked up at the blue sky and at the two people in front of him, only one thought surfaced in his head: “I can’t even use the excuse that I’m an introvert to go home.”