Chapter 6: Mangosteen

He Xi had more than once noticed that, appearances aside, Pei Yan was unusually clingy—or to put it more aptly, his emotional needs ran exceptionally high.

Like right now.

Pei Yan leaned in close, his dark eyes fixed on her without blinking. The corners of his eyes drooped slightly, the earlier lazy smile gone, leaving only a heavy, clinging gloom. His breath pressed warm against the tip of her nose.

"A Xi, are you going to leave me? Going to hide from me, go find company elsewhere, and leave me here alone?"

His fingertips closed silently around her sleeve, knuckles pale. His voice was soft and sticky, like cold, damp vines winding around bare skin. "Going to help your cousin prepare for his wedding, spending every day with other people—will you turn around and forget all about me?"

The boy tilted his head slightly, his nose brushing her ear. His voice came out low and hoarse: "Just a few days ago we went out together every day. A few days apart, and you can bear to leave me behind? If you stay too long, will you just decide not to come back?"

His hand tightened without meaning to, crushing the fabric of her sleeve into wrinkles, fingertips digging hard into the cloth, gripping so fiercely he was nearly clamping down on her wrist.

He nuzzled into the hollow of her neck again, like a vine finding something to cling to, though a layer of obsessive darkness clouded his eyes.

"What if someone else comes courting you and you waver? A Xi, what if you decide to throw me away? What if you stop liking me..."

His words came thick and fast. His presence seemed to be everywhere, wrapping her up from head to toe.

The sky was vast and the earth wide, yet He Xi felt boxed in, nowhere to escape.

She watched his face, so close she could count his lashes. Her breathing quickened a little. "Pei Yan, don't be like this. I'm only staying at my cousin's house for a few days. Once the wedding banquet is over, I'll come back."

A thick gloom surfaced on Pei Yan's face. "But if I'm not with you, and some man out there sweet-talks you into not liking me anymore—then what?"

This boy, who should have been bright and bold and full of spirit, now let a dangerous, damp, clinging darkness seep into those clear eyes.

He Xi didn't know why, but she wasn't afraid. If anything, she felt a flicker of excitement.

She reached up and cupped his face, her eyes curving into a brilliant smile. "I won't. Besides you, I won't like any other man."

Pei Yan caught the hand on his face and said stubbornly, "What if there's a younger man than me?"

"I'd still like you."

"What if he's better-looking than me, has a nicer voice than me, knows better how to make you happy?"

He Xi sighed. "No matter how good someone else is, what does that have to do with me?"

He said nothing, eyes unblinking.

He Xi leaned into his arms and tilted her face up to smile at him. "I remember promising you I'd marry you. I keep my word. I won't go back on it."

Pei Yan pinched her cheek. "Really?"

"Of course it's real." He Xi laid it out for him reasonably. "Besides, when I was little, my cousin's family took good care of me. My cousin is getting married—how could I not go? My parents care about propriety above all else. If I don't go, Father will definitely be angry. And if Father gets angry..."

Pei Yan finished the sentence for her. "He'll refuse to let you marry me again."

He Xi nodded. "Exactly."

Pei Yan's expression said *depressed* in bold letters.

He Xi made him another promise. "I'll think about you day and night. Okay?"

Pei Yan's face improved a little, but his fingers pinched the flesh of her cheek again. "We agreed. You can only like me. No liking anyone else."

He Xi smiled and murmured, "Mm, mm." In her heart, though, she was thinking: *If he really does have someone else he likes, like in my dream, then I won't keep liking him either.*

The mountain wind was strong, and they still had to worry about Old Man He suddenly getting up to check on his daughter's room. They couldn't stay outside too long.

But Pei Yan didn't want to part with He Xi so soon either.

On the way back, Pei Yan carried He Xi on his back, walking slowly down the mountain path.

He Xi slept soundly, brows relaxed, completely unguarded, trusting the boy carrying her home with her whole heart.

Yet beneath that gentle, misty quiet, dark currents churned.

"So fragrant... so fragrant..."

Fragmented, rasping whispers drifted out from deep within the thick white fog. There was no distinct human shape—just clusters of gray, murky phantoms writhing in the gaps between tree trunks, the mist stained black and sticky where they passed.

The girl's pure, vivid life force was an irresistible lure to the lonely ghosts and wild spirits of the mountain.

Pei Yan's steps never faltered. He only lifted his eyes and cast a flat glance toward the dense forest where the voices hid.

Every phantom that had crept out shrank back into the fog at once, not daring to leak a wisp of black qi. The whole mountain forest went dead silent, not a single sign of prying left.

The night lay heavy, the mountain mist cool.

Pei Yan carried the sleeping girl steadily. With a light leap, he landed soundlessly in the back courtyard of the He family's separate residence.

He moved with extreme care, afraid that even the smallest sound might wake the person in his arms. He pushed open the half-closed window lattice and stepped inside.

At the bedside, he bent down carefully and laid He Xi gently on the soft bed. He tucked the blanket around her and smoothed the stray hairs from her forehead with his fingertips.

She slept sweetly, breathing even, long lashes casting faint shadows beneath her eyes.

Pei Yan leaned over, gazing down at her peaceful sleeping face, and pressed an impossibly light, tender kiss to the center of her smooth brow.

"A Xi, dream of me."

He murmured it low, his gaze lingering on her features with reluctant affection. A moment later his form shifted into a slender black shadow. His toes tapped the windowsill, and using the night and the thin mist, he leaped out cleanly.

Not long after his aura had cowed them, the countless black shadows that had cowered in hiding sensed his departure and crept out from the darkness one by one.

Dense layers of black mist phantoms surged, greedy eyes fixed on the embroidered tower lit by faint light on the second floor, slowly closing in on He Xi's room.

But just as the last of the evil spirits was about to touch the tower's railing, an invisible wave of qi swept across the entire courtyard. Every surging wisp of black mist froze in place, unable to advance or retreat.

Moonlight spilled over the eaves, cold and bright.

On the rooftop sat a young figure, relaxed and at ease.

He was tall and clean-limbed, a plain Daoist robe lifted by the evening wind, sleeves fluttering. Black hair drifted in the night breeze, his features bold and sharp and dazzling.

The youth looked down at the evil spirits below, a casual, arrogant smile curving his lips. His voice rang out clear and bright.

"Seeking death."

The instant the words fell, his always half-lidded eyes snapped open.

A yellow talisman appeared between his fingertips out of thin air, blazing with golden flame, pure and righteous.

Golden Daoist light swept across the whole courtyard. Every frozen wisp of black mist and evil spirit was pierced by the gold in an instant, burned, annihilated.

The courtyard returned to clarity and silence.

The youth in blue robes flicked the leftover talisman ash from his fingertips. He shifted into a lazier sitting position, one long leg dangling carelessly over the eave, the other knee bent and raised, one hand propping his chin idly, elbow on his knee.

He tilted his head slightly, his gaze passing through the hazy night and the window paper, settling quietly on the girl's peaceful sleeping face inside the second-floor window.

The evening wind stirred the fine black hair at his forehead, thinning out the sharp, imposing air left from exorcising the spirits, until only bright youthful spirit remained.

His fingertips rubbed his jaw absently, his gaze stuck fast to that tranquil figure. He laughed softly.

"My A Xi sleeps so pretty—cleaning up that trash wasn't wasted effort after all."