Shui Yue's Mirrored Splendor (6)

Over the next two or three days, the atmosphere in the manor settled into a strange calm before the storm.

No one brought up sensitive subjects like exploring the secret realm, illusions, or when they would leave. It was as though they really were guests who had stumbled into paradise and never wanted to go home, all tacitly maintaining the harmony on the surface.

By day, they drank tea and played chess, admired flowers and watched the fish. Sometimes, when the mood took her, Shui Yue played the zither, its notes flowing like a mountain stream. Their conversations never strayed beyond poetry, scenery, and the arts. No one spoke a word of serious business.

Shen Yuxi seemed to have returned entirely to normal. He no longer did anything as unsettling as he had the other day. Most of the time, he sat quietly to one side, reading or meditating. When Shui Yue deliberately approached him, he remained courteous but distant and cool.

Only sometimes, when Shui Yue used an excuse like serving tea, pointing something out on the chessboard, or straightening his collar to make a slightly intimate gesture, Shen Yuxi did not openly avoid her or show resistance.

He allowed that much contact and, when he was in a good mood, occasionally played along. But he never initiated it.

Whenever Chu Shihan saw the two of them draw close, an indescribable tightness and irritation rose in his chest, as if something were lodged there. In the end, he forced the impulse down, reminded himself to put the larger matter first, and kept watching and waiting.

To his quiet relief, the channel carrying his junior brother's thoughts finally reopened after being blocked for so long. Once more, those wildly wandering inner monologues, so often enough to make him rub his