Barbecue for Qian Renxue

"You... what are you doing?"

Qian Renxue finally could not help asking.

She truly could not connect the young man before her, so focused on grilling meat and filled with the air of everyday life, with the domineering Lingxiao Hall Master who had seized people from the gates of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, surrounded by countless powerful subordinates.

Xiao Yin turned the skewers over and smiled without looking up. "This is a craft from my hometown... well, taught to me by my master. It's called 'barbecue.'"

"He said that when true friends wanted to talk from the heart, the best setting was one like this—eating and chatting in a relaxed atmosphere. Food could lower people's guard and open their hearts."

He pointed at a smooth stone beside him. "Sit down. It'll be ready soon. Oh, and this..."

He took out two jade wine cups and a jug of rich, fragrant wine, placing them on a clean stone nearby.

Qian Renxue hesitantly walked over and sat on the stone. Watching Xiao Yin work and smelling the strange aroma of spices mingled with meat before her, she experienced a scent unlike anything she had known before.

The leaping firelight reflected off Xiao Yin's focused profile and her stunningly beautiful face, warm and hazy.

All around them were the silent forest, the babbling stream, the occasional chirp of insects, and... the man grilling meat before her.

This feeling... was unfamiliar, strange, yet not unpleasant.

There was none of the solemn severity of the imperial palace, none of Spirit Hall's heaviness, none of the pressure of disguise, nor the exhaustion of scheming.

There was only a simple bonfire, simple food, and... a person she could not see through for the moment, yet who seemed willing to show her a different side of