Chapter 7: The Courtyard of Rumors and the Unofficial Engagement
The Celestial Yun Palace had always been a noisy place—a complex, vibrant symphony of official whispers disguised as polite etiquette.
But after Lin Xue's dramatic thunderstorm incident and the subsequent "synchronization failure," the gossip didn't just spread; it instantly multiplied, breaking through all diplomatic barriers.
Every single servant, minister, and noblewoman had their own confidently held theory about the mysterious Lin Xue.
"Did you hear? She's not from this world. Some say she's a fox spirit who bewitched the poor Crown Prince with lightning."
"I heard that she literally glows when she's angry, and her hair stands on end."
"Please, she's clearly a heavenly envoy—sent specifically to test His Highness's virtue and patience."
"Test? From the looks of the training courtyard wreckage, he's failing spectacularly."
Lin Xue had accidentally overheard the entire, evolving saga by the time she finished her breakfast tea.
By lunch, she had completely given up on trying to correct anyone's version of the truth.
"Let them talk," she muttered to herself while pacing through the tranquil, misty bamboo garden.
"At least this week, no one is directly accusing me of imperial arson."
"Yet," a familiar, infuriatingly calm voice replied right behind her.
She stopped mid-stride and spun around. Prince Han Jinhai stood at the edge of the courtyard, his hands behind his back, wearing the same perfectly composed expression that somehow made her want to throw a teacup directly at his face.
"Are you following me again, Your Highness?" she asked, resting her hands on her hips.
"Supervising," he corrected smoothly, taking a slow step toward her.
"You have a demonstrated talent for attracting trouble."
"Correction: trouble aggressively attracts me.
There is a subtle difference in the coding, you see."
He didn't smile, but there was a distinct flicker of reluctant amusement in his sharp eyes.
They began walking side by side through the deep green garden, an almost domestic silence falling between them.
The sound of rustling bamboo filled the air, cool and surprisingly tranquil.
But tranquility in the palace was always short-lived.
A small group of court ladies—all dressed in beautiful, expensive silks—appeared at the far end of the path.
They bowed deeply and dramatically, but their eyes were fixed on Lin Xue, and their voices were low and conspiratorial behind their lace fans.
"Your Highness," they chorused sweetly.
"My lady," they added, their voices dripping with fake curiosity.
"How truly radiant you look today, Lady Lin—your aura must be completely… intertwined with celestial energy."
Lin Xue forced a wide, slightly painful smile. "More like the result of bad sleep and far too much caffeine, ladies."
The women blinked, clearly processing the unfamiliar words, but not the meaning.
Jinhai, mercifully, coughed suddenly into his fist, successfully covering a genuine, quiet laugh.
As the women finally departed, Lin Xue let out a long, heavy exhale.
"You know they are absolutely convinced we're—uh—cosmically bonded now, right? They think the stars decreed it."
"Let them think what they want," Jinhai said dismissively.
"Oh, that's incredibly easy for you to say. You're not the one getting called 'Lightning Consort' in the main hallways."
He immediately stopped walking, his calm melting away.
"They called you what?"
"Relax.
It's probably just very elaborate fanfiction."
"Fan—what now?"
"Never mind," she said quickly, waving a hand.
"Different world vocabulary.
You absolutely would not survive the comment section."
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That night, the tension in the palace shifted from amusing to politically dangerous.
The Emperor summoned Jinhai to a closed-door court meeting.
When he returned late that evening to the outer courtyard where Lin Xue often waited, his expression was completely unreadable, heavier than usual.
Lin Xue looked up from her desk, where she was trying to sketch a circuit diagram based on an ancient rune.
"Let me guess.
I'm either promoted, arrested, or exiled to the farthest reaches of the kingdom—again?"
"None of the above," he said, his voice flat. "But the ministers are… gravely concerned."
"About what, specifically?"
"Your influence."
"Influence? I've literally been hiding quietly in your courtyard, reading scrolls, all week."
"Exactly," he said quietly, stepping closer. "And yet, your mere presence is being debated vehemently in the highest council chambers.
Some genuinely believe you are a direct heavenly blessing sent to elevate the realm. Others… call you a curse that must be purged."
She blinked, processing the summary.
"So, half the entire government thinks I'm a delightful gift from the gods, and the other half actively wants to delete me from the system."
"That," Jinhai said, looking straight at her, "is an accurate summary."
"Fun. I absolutely love stressful, high-stakes politics."
He hesitated for a moment.
"You may want to… stay entirely out of sight for a few days, Lin Xue."
She frowned, sensing the shift in his worry. "You mean I have to actively hide from the people I'm supposed to be helping save?"
"I mean stay safe," he insisted, his voice hardening with concern.
"If someone decides that testing your strength is necessary to prove their 'curse' theory—"
"I can handle it," she cut him off.
"Lin Xue," he said sharply, using her name with a low, intense edge that immediately silenced her.
She went completely still.
He rarely used her name like that—not with that tone of raw, undeniable worry.
"I won't allow anyone to hurt you," he added softly, the statement quiet but absolute.
Her heart stuttered, betraying her.
"…That almost sounded dangerously close to caring about me."
"I care about the stability of the dynasty, which you are now tied to," he corrected quickly, pulling his control back.
"Uh-huh.
Sure.
You're just being intensely patriotic and responsible."
He looked quickly away, but the corner of his mouth twitched upward—the tiniest, fastest smile she'd ever seen him manage—and it was gone as soon as it appeared.
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Days passed, but the tenacious rumors didn't fade.
If anything, they evolved into something stranger and more powerful.
Every time Lin Xue walked through the palace halls, eyes followed her intently.
The servants bowed slightly deeper.
The guards saluted with an unnerving, nervous respect.
It wasn't fame she felt.
It was a potent mixture of raw fear and overwhelming fascination.
One afternoon, while sorting through dusty, forgotten scrolls in the deepest part of the imperial archive, she found a thin, dull jade tablet tucked away behind an old, massive ledger.
Its surface pulsed faintly, marked with an ancient, complex emblem identical to the pattern on her pendant.
When she touched the cool stone, a soft, powerful whisper echoed clearly in her head.
Two souls.
One fate.
When ice meets thunder, the seal will awaken.
She jerked her hand back instantly, heart racing a mile a minute.
"Oh no.
Nope.
I'm done.
No more magical Wi-Fi downloads for today, thank you."
But the warning—and her own insatiable coder's curiosity—gnawed at her.
She slipped the tablet quickly into her sleeve and hurried out, heading straight toward the training grounds.
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Jinhai was already there, practicing a breathtaking series of precise sword forms under the ancient, blossoming plum trees. Snow fell in faint, delicate petals around him, melting harmlessly before they could touch his perfect, crystalline blade.
He looked utterly unreal—disciplined, distant, every single motion carved from perfect precision.
"Your Highness," she called, running up the stone steps.
"Found something weird. Again."
"Of course you did, Lady Lin," he murmured, lowering his frost sword with a sigh.
"Show me the latest world-ending artifact."
She handed him the tablet.
The very moment his cool fingers brushed the stone, frost instantly spread across its surface, merging dramatically with the faint glow of lightning that lingered from her previous touch.
The jade pulsed once, then twice, vibrating strongly between them.
A powerful circle of dazzling light immediately unfurled beneath their feet, forming runes older and more complex than any mortal tongue.
Jinhai's eyes widened, the composure momentarily gone.
"This is a binding sigil!"
"Binding like… spiritual Wi-Fi connection, or binding like a marriage contract?" she asked, a nervous laugh escaping her.
He gave her a long, hard, conflicted look. "…Yes."
The light flared violently, blinding them both.
Before either could fully react, the complex circle tightened, locking instantly around both their wrists with threads of brilliant blue and silver energy that solidified like wire.
Lin Xue froze, staring at the shimmering, beautiful chain connecting her to the Prince. "You've got to be kidding me.
You are absolutely kidding me right now."
The pendant on her chest began to pulse rapidly in rhythm with the new seal—once for her, once for him—a frantic, shared beat.
Jinhai swallowed audibly, his gaze fixed on the bright energy binding their wrists.
"It seems… Lady Lin, we are officially bound."
"Define bound, Your Highness!"
"Our qi.
Our spiritual fates.
And possibly… our entire lives."
She blinked, then burst into a stunned, slightly hysterical laugh.
"Okay, wow.
That has to be the fastest engagement in palace history! We didn't even get dessert!"
"Lin Xue."
"Yes, Your Highness?"
"Don't—"
"—make jokes when we are cosmically handcuffed by fate?" she finished, a wide, genuine grin spreading across her face.
"Too late.
It's the only way I can cope."
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Later that night, after the Astronomers and worried ministers had been shooed away, and the binding seal still shimmered faintly between them, she found herself sitting beside him under the plum tree, watching the slow, gentle snowfall.
Neither spoke for a long while, simply staring at the line of beautiful energy connecting their wrists.
Finally, she broke the silence.
"You're taking this whole fate-binding, cosmic-handcuff thing incredibly calmly, Prince Jinhai."
"I have spent my entire life being told exactly what destiny expects of me," he said, his voice surprisingly soft and reflective. "Perhaps this time, I will simply watch and see what it expects of us."
Her heart gave a small, warm, traitorous skip.
The pendant glowed again, its light warm between them—a silent, shared heartbeat linking two souls bound by an accidental code error, or perhaps, by ancient, powerful design.