Baiheng felt like she was about to regress into some shrieking, white giant loaf of bread.
Obviously, her relationship with Jingliu was the best.
So why didn't Jingliu tell her, and instead told the other three?
Baiheng, oh Baiheng, do you still remember what you once said to Jingliu?
Her best friend, after hearing those words from her, she must have been hurt, must have been sad, right?
Realizing she liked a 20, year, old Zero, Jingliu must have hesitated, right?
But as Jingliu's friend, what had she done?
Even her fox ears drooped, unable to perk up, as she held the jade communicator in her hand, sinking into her thoughts.
She felt guilty about what she had said before, yet angry at the other three for keeping things from her. Emotions surged inside her all at once, and her head was full of only one thought, 'I deserve to die!'
Her friend must have hesitated for so long before finally deciding to take that step.
And in the end, she ruined it all.
Baiheng screamed silently, hammering the bed with her fists.
When she finally calmed down, her jade communicator rang.
[Jing Yuan: ?]
[Jing Yuan: Dan Feng, Yingxing, you guys... I really give up...]
Baiheng grabbed the communicator at lightning speed.
[Baiheng: What the heck's going on? Hurry up and tell me! Forget it, I'll just say it face, to, face. I'm coming to find you guys now.]
[Dan Feng: Just come to my place.]
Seeing the other two agree, Dan Feng's lips curved into the faintest smile.
A perfect chance to gather with his old friends.
The Dragon Lord ordered a servant to prepare the rooms where the three used to stay, ready good wine and side dishes, then sat early in the courtyard waiting.
He drank alone, waiting for his three friends.
After finishing one pot of wine, he finally heard rustling and voices outside the wall.
Dan Feng clearly recognized the voices of the three.
Baiheng grumbled, "Why do we have to climb over the wall?!"
Jing Yuan answered righteously, "Because that's how it always goes in the storybooks!"
Yingxing snorted, "It's already too late at night. We shouldn't disturb those picky dragon scholars."
At that, the three started muttering complaints again.
They often heard about the Dragon Lord's conflicts with the scholars. As his closest friends, naturally they stood on Dan Feng's side, and took any chance to throw shade.
Dan Feng set down his wine cup, the corner of his lips tugging slightly, and looked up at the wall's eaves.
The three clambered over one by one.
Baiheng smiled first, then frowned, "Wow, Dan Feng, how long have you been waiting?"
Though it had only been about an hour, Dan Feng betrayed nothing on his face, shaking his head calmly, "Not long."
Jing Yuan lugged a big bag of skewers, grumbling, "All Yingxing's fault, insisting on stopping by the hotpot place to buy berry wine."
Yingxing hugged the wine protectively and shot back, "Mhm, mhm, all my fault. But it's even more Jing Yuan's fault, refusing the Dragon Lord's feast and demanding barbecue instead!"
The two started bickering, childish to the extreme, even toddlers might've sounded more mature.
Dan Feng shook his head helplessly, lowering himself for once to play host, moving dishes together with Baiheng to make space for Jing Yuan's barbecue and Yingxing's berry wine.
Once the four were seated, Baiheng immediately hardened her face, striking first to interrogate them about what happened.
Jing Yuan, the scapegoat, stood out first. He feigned hesitation, glanced at Dan Feng and Yingxing, then said, "I thought you already knew, Baiheng, "
Baiheng instantly saw through his attempt to shirk blame. She clenched a fist and slammed it onto the stone table. Ignoring the sting in her hand, she glared, "Cut the crap, spit it out."
The three took turns talking, quickly filling her in on everything she had missed.
Baiheng listened, dumbfounded, unable to believe it, "I just got drunk! How could I have missed so much? Why didn't you guys tell me?"
Dan Feng looked at the sky, the ground, anywhere but at Baiheng.
Yingxing buried himself in skewers.
Jing Yuan's eyes darted, then he pushed the blame again, "Yingxing, why didn't you say anything?"
Dan Feng followed up, "Yingxing, why didn't you tell Baiheng?"
Yingxing slowly typed a question mark, then laughed in exasperation, "Fine, fine, it's all my fault. Jing Yuan, your chicken wings are gone."
Jing Yuan, "Wait, the chicken wings are innocent, "
In that instant, Baiheng understood Jingliu.
She understood why Jingliu would fall for Zero.
Compared to the clowns around her, Zero was downright normal. Who could resist a normal person?
Baiheng tried to drag the derailed conversation back. "Did she say anything about her plans?"
Dan Feng's expression carried a trace of smugness. He shook his head, "Baiheng, you're late. The three of us already made a move."
Yingxing, equally confident, added, "We helped Jingliu put together a strategy guide for chasing men, "
Baiheng, "..huh?"
Did she mishear? Chasing men? And put together by these three lifelong single dogs?
She couldn't wrap her head around it. Frowning, she turned to Jing Yuan for help.
Jing Yuan, face full of pity, nodded, "I tried to stop them. Didn't work."
Baiheng's tail fur practically exploded in fury.
"You just said a chasing men guide, right?!"
Dan Feng spoke coolly, "Of course. What, do you imagine Jingliu orbiting around some man every day?"
Baiheng, '...He has a point.'
She had nothing to say.
Seeing their two friends looking doubtful, Dan Feng and Jing Yuan immediately pulled out their jade communicators and read the guide aloud in detail.
Baiheng listened, her head spinning. Was this still the language of the Luofu? Why couldn't she understand a word?
She leaned in to look at the actual notes. Her tail fur fluffed up again in rage.
"You just copy, pasted?! You didn't even bother to switch the pronouns! And what the heck is this about 'women admire strength'?"
Yingxing thought it over, then said, "But that's universal, isn't it? Isn't Jingliu strong enough?"
Baiheng took a deep breath and asked Yingxing, "Tell me, if a woman was way better at forging than you, how would you feel?"
The master smith, unmatched among long, lived species, crossed his arms, face proud, "Hmph, your hypothesis doesn't hold. If such a genius really existed in the Artisan Commission, of course I'd learn from her!"
Baiheng, 'Yep, that was Yingxing for you.'
No wonder he was the Commission's ultimate overachiever.
"I know what you're worried about. You're afraid the guy would resist Jingliu because of pride."
Dan Feng's smile didn't reach his eyes, his tone icy, "But you're underestimating the Sword Master. Would she ever fancy that kind of trash? Trust her."
Jing Yuan quietly added, "Don't worry, Baiheng. Zero's not like that."
Zero didn't care at all about who was stronger, he was just a laid, back salted fish.
"I didn't mean it like that..."
Baiheng suddenly fell silent. Then, "Wait, but you can't just copy, paste word for word either, right?"
Yingxing repeated his line, "It's universal. Jingliu can understand it."
Baiheng drew another deep breath. Pointing at "send flowers," she said, "Okay, this one's not bad. Just today. I heard from a friend about a rich lady who blew 100,000 credits on flowers to propose to her boyfriend!"
Dan Feng's usually expressionless face practically spelled out the word classy.
Baiheng kept going, "But spending credits like that... uh, Zero's not short on money, is he?"
The fox girl turned to Jing Yuan to confirm.
Jing Yuan nodded, did a quick mental count, and gave a conservative number in the tens of billions. Both Baiheng and Yingxing gasped.
"Next one, hero saves beauty? He's just a staff member. always stuck on the Luofu. What danger is he going to run into?"
Baiheng's heart ached for Jingliu, "Sword, showing... uh, that might work. Let's leave it pending. Otherwise... how about cooking him a meal someday? What do you think?"
The three praised her idea immediately.
They trusted the Sea King's abilities without a doubt, and right away set that as the plan for Jingliu.
Dan Feng even said he could finally use up his thousand, year ginseng.
The three exclaimed at Lord of the Moon's extravagance.
Dan Feng never hid such things. He said he had picked it himself from his private vault, intending to gift it to General Tengxiao, but the man refused.
Jing Yuan, "It's just cooking a meal. Why would you need thousand, year ginseng?!"
Faced with Jing Yuan's doubts, Dan Feng sighed, saying the private vault for precious items was simply too vast, and he was too lazy to put it back.
Yingxing couldn't believe it, "How big could it be?"
Dan Feng said casually, "All together, over a thousand square meters."
The three, 'Damn rich people!'
After cursing him out, Yingxing sighed, "If only I could live long enough to see them really get together, that would be enough."
The lifespans of long, lived species were too vast. As a short-lived one, would he really get to witness that day?
Hearing this, Dan Feng's gaze swept across the markings at the corners of Yingxing's eyes, and he said with certainty, "You will."
The four of them ate and drank, joking and bantering for a while, then, familiar with the routine, headed off to the rooms the Dragon Lord had prepared for them.
———
The next day, when the four called Jingliu over and she heard their idea, she raised an eyebrow.
Jingliu crossed her arms, speaking slowly and deliberately, "So then… out of the five of us, does anyone actually know how to cook?"
The other four, "..."
It was over. They had gone out of bounds, stumbled right into a blind spot of knowledge.
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