Tang Wulin and Xie Xie fell silent at the same time.
Gu Yue walked to the door and stopped.
Her gaze swept over their faces.
"Move."
The two words were as cold as ice picks, stabbing into the air.
Tang Wulin instinctively took a step back.
Xie Xie stayed where he was, but the corner of his mouth twitched.
Gu Yue said nothing more.
She took a deep breath and raised her hand.
Just as her fingertips were about to touch the door—
It opened from the inside.
Lin An stood in the doorway.
Morning sunlight slanted in through the window and fell across him.
His face still wore the lazy look of someone who had just woken up.
His skin was very fair, and his eyelashes cast faint shadows beneath his eyes.
He wore a simple white shirt, its collar slightly open, revealing a slender collarbone.
Tang Wulin's face turned red in an instant.
He hurriedly looked away, fixing his gaze on the tips of his shoes.
Xie Xie's hand shook. The soy milk in his plastic cup sloshed, nearly spilling out.
Gu Yue opened her mouth.
All her anger, all her resentment, all the questions she had rehearsed over and over in her heart vanished the moment she saw that face.
Only one question came out.
"You're awake?"
Her voice sounded soft, almost unlike her, and just a little hoarse.
Lin An looked at the three people crowding the doorway, then at the students poking their heads out in the hallway. He felt a little helpless.
He'd cultivated last night, and this crowd had freeloaded off him all night.
Now that the sun was up, why were there even more of them?
The moment he appeared, the gazes in the hallway turned scorching.
"It really is him!"
"That seven-colored light last night... cultivating next to him really makes you improve faster!"
"He looks even better up close..."
The hostility and discontent from before melted away without a trace in the face of tangible benefits.
Gu Yue had no time to care about the people behind her.
She stared blankly at Lin An.
The boy had just woken up, a lock of hair sticking up slightly, his face carrying the dazed look of someone not fully awake.
With that face of his, it made people want to—
No. It made dragons want to.
She wanted to leap into his arms, lick his face, and see him look startled.
Gu Yue's throat bobbed.
She swallowed.
An unnatural flush rose to her cheeks.
Lin An sensed something.
He lowered his head and glanced at his slightly open collar, then discreetly covered the patch of skin that was far too pale.
These people...
There was something off about their eyes.
As expected, humans who hadn't been spayed all had a defect.
"I already know what happened."
He spoke in a mild tone. "I paid your fine for you. Don't send me any more messages from now on."
Gu Yue froze in place.
It was like a basin of ice water had been poured over her head, the chill soaking through her from head to toe.
All those unrealistic fantasies from last night shattered completely in that moment.
She didn't care.
What fine? What disciplinary notice? How could she possibly care about those things?
But he had said not to message him again.
Gu Yue's eyes suddenly reddened.
Moisture quickly gathered in them.
Tang Wulin and Xie Xie were feeling awkward.
They'd been caught sneaking a look, and now they didn't know where to turn their eyes.
They hadn't noticed anything amiss with Gu Yue at all.
"S-sorry, I didn't mean to."
Tang Wulin flushed red as he mumbled and held out the bag he'd been clutching for ages.
"B-breakfast... buns and soy milk. They're still hot."
"Me too!"
Xie Xie hurriedly raised the soy milk, fried dough sticks, and cut fruit in his hands, chiming in repeatedly.
Lin An looked at the two bags of breakfast, a faint curve appearing on his face.
"Thanks."
Then he changed the subject.
"But I still advise you to get spayed as soon as possible and completely eliminate your weakness."
Tang Wulin's hand, holding out the buns, froze in midair.
His face slowly turned from flushed red to deathly pale.
"N-no need. I want to challenge my own weakness."
He shook his head repeatedly, the tips of his ears turning bright red.
At an age when his heart was just beginning to stir, the girl he liked was telling him to get spayed.
He just couldn't accept it, no matter what.
He even instinctively clamped his legs together.
Gu Yue saw Lin An's distant coldness toward her, then watched him smile at Tang Wulin.
It was as if someone had seized her heart, squeezed it hard, then twisted it once more.
It ached with bitterness.
She stepped forward, her voice lowered, carrying a hint of stubbornness and an irrepressible hurt.
"What I said is true. You really were my wife in a previous life. I wasn't lying to you."
Her eyes red, she stared stubbornly at Lin An.
"Are you still unwilling to acknowledge me?"
Tang Wulin was completely dumbfounded.
He stood rooted to the spot, his mind buzzing.
Before, he'd always felt that Gu Yue had some inexplicable feelings for him.
But now, seeing Gu Yue with red eyes, telling Lin An, "You were my wife in a previous life"—
He suddenly felt like a complete joke.
A clown.
So from beginning to end, he'd just been imagining things.
A loss he couldn't quite explain welled up inside him, weighing heavily on his chest.
At the same time, a subtler hostility began to take root in his heart.
The little fondness he'd still had for Gu Yue vanished completely in that moment.
In its place came a wariness and aversion born of instinct.
He still kept his honest expression.
But his gaze toward Gu Yue had already turned somewhat cold.
"Seriously, Gu Yue, what are you doing?!"
Xie Xie couldn't take it anymore and complained, looking thoroughly displeased.
"Just a few days ago, you liked Wulin, didn't you? And now you've moved on? You only added each other as friends yesterday—"
Before he could finish, Gu Yue kicked at him.
"Shut up!"
Gu Yue's violet pupils suddenly narrowed into icy vertical slits.
An aura of extreme danger spread from her.
"I'm warning you. From now on, don't talk to Lin An."
"Don't think I don't know what you're up to."
There was no mistake.
That face.
That aura.
That mark she had yearned for across hundreds of thousands of years.
This was her Dragon Queen.
The reincarnated reunion she'd waited endless ages to see.
Her wife from a previous life.
Even if she was now only half of the Dragon God, she would never allow anyone to lay a hand on her.
Early in the morning, seeing those two bastards skulking around the Dragon Queen's door had already stretched the last thread of her patience to its limit.
She was afraid.
Afraid that one day she'd wake up with a whole green prairie on her head.
"Enough... Gu Yue."
Lin An rubbed his brow, his voice betraying his exhaustion.
"I didn't mean that."
He sighed.
"My communicator—even my every move—is under constant surveillance. That's why I told you not to send me messages whenever you want. Listen, getting close to me is dangerous."
It was the truth.
The Lin Family's security system monitored all his communications at all times.
If Gu Yue kept contacting him, it would sooner or later draw even more unwanted attention.
He was saying this partly for Gu Yue's sake, and partly to spare himself the trouble.
More importantly—
Gu Yue should have known when to back off.
Wasn't she trying to revive the Soul Beast Clan and take revenge on the human world?
Getting involved with a human like him, who was under close surveillance, wouldn't help her grand plan at all.
Lin An thought that any normal person would know to keep their distance after hearing that.
But he had underestimated Gu Yue.
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