Has Le Zhengyu Learned to Care About Others?

"Knock, knock, knock... Knock, knock, knock..." A rapid, relentless pounding came from the door, as though it were about to shake the entire room apart.

"Who is it?" Gu Yue muttered irritably, still half-asleep, silently cursing whoever was disturbing her dream. She rolled over, preparing to bury her head and go back to sleep, but the knocking showed no sign of stopping.

"Damn it! Which bastard keeps knocking? If I catch him today, I'll burn him to ashes!" Gu Yue finally reached the end of her patience. She leaped out of bed in fury, not even bothering to put on her shoes before storming toward the door.

She yanked the door open viciously. A biting gust of cold wind made her shudder, instantly clearing much of the fog from her mind.

"Achoo... Achoo..." Gu Yue sneezed several times in a row. Rubbing her nose, she narrowed her eyes at the person outside. When she saw who it was, she froze. "Le... Le Zhengyu? Why are you here? Didn't I already give you the blueprints? What else do you want?" Her face was filled with wariness, as if she were deeply on guard against him.

Le Zhengyu paid no attention to Gu Yue's attitude. Smiling, he raised the two exquisite boxes in his hand and said softly, "I came to discuss something with you. I also brought you a little gift." As he spoke, he gently shook the boxes, gesturing for Gu Yue to look at them.

Gu Yue pressed herself tightly against the doorframe, suspicion and fear flickering in her eyes. After hesitating for a moment, she cautiously asked, "Th-these boxes don't have bombs in them, do they?"

Le Zhengyu stood at the doorway, still carrying the crisp chill of the outdoors. A few unmelted snowflakes seemed to rest in his hair. He wore a half-smiling expression that Gu Yue found extremely punchable, and the two black gift boxes tied with silver ribbons in his hands looked completely out of place with his casual outfit.

"Bombs?" Le Zhengyu scoffed and stepped inside as naturally as if he were returning to his own home. He glanced at Gu Yue's bare feet on the icy floor but said nothing. Instead, he walked straight to the small dining table, set the boxes down, pulled out the sturdiest-looking wooden chair, and sat down with a faint creak.

The room was small and simply furnished, with the lingering atmosphere of sleep still in the air. Le Zhengyu's intrusion brought with it a subtly aggressive pocket of cold air.

"No water?" he asked as though it were perfectly natural, his gaze sweeping over Gu Yue's tiny open kitchen.

Gu Yue took a deep breath, and the cold air stabbed painfully into her lungs. She shot Le Zhengyu a glare, then turned and strode to the refrigerator. She pulled out a bottle of ice-cold mineral water, returned, and practically slammed it onto the table in front of him. The bottle struck the wooden tabletop with a sharp crack.

"Le Zhengyu, I'm warning you. If you don't have any serious business, take your stupid boxes and get lost," Gu Yue snarled. She pulled out another chair and dropped heavily into it. Deliberately crossing her legs, she raised her chin high in a defensive, provocative posture, though her toes curled slightly from the cold.

Le Zhengyu seemed entirely unconcerned by her anger. He leisurely twisted open the cap and took a small sip of water. His eyes lingered for a moment on Gu Yue's reddened ankles before shifting to the two boxes on the table.

"Of course I have serious business." He set down the bottle and lightly tapped the lid of one box. "Otherwise, did I come all this way through the freezing wind this early in the morning just to get yelled at by you?"

"You never know." Gu Yue snorted. "It's not like you haven't done more boring things before."

Le Zhengyu smiled. There was a trace of helplessness in that smile, along with something else Gu Yue could not understand. He did not respond. Instead, he reached out and untied the elegant silver ribbon on the first box. As the ribbon slipped away, he lifted the lid.

Inside was neither the prank item Gu Yue had imagined nor anything frightening. Instead, it was a neatly arranged box of uniquely shaped, obviously expensive handmade chocolates. Their dark brown sheen was decorated with flecks of edible gold foil and crushed nuts, while a rich sweetness tinged with slight bitterness quietly spread through the cold air.

Gu Yue paused, her imposing manner weakening by half, though her words remained sharp. "What is this? A sugar-coated bullet? You think a box of chocolates can buy me off?"

Sitting across from her, Le Zhengyu wore an expression unlike his usual arrogance or careless ease. His face was clouded by a rare and deeply unnatural awkwardness.

"Gu Yue..." Le Zhengyu began. His voice was not as bright and crisp as usual, but somewhat stiff. Gu Yue was about to throw out a habitual jab, but she stopped when their eyes met. There, she could clearly see a trace of guilt. Her eyes widened at once, and her heart skipped a beat. Her first thought was that it was absurd. Le Zhengyu? Guilty? Toward her? That was less likely than the sun rising at night in Shrek City. She subconsciously uncrossed her legs, knocking several reference books leaning against the table corner to the floor with a soft clatter. As she bent down to pick them up, she did not hesitate to viciously pinch the outside of her thigh. A sharp pain immediately shot through her, making her suck in a faint breath.

"Gu Yue, what's wrong?" Le Zhengyu had clearly noticed her little movement and the sound she made. There was a barely detectable note of concern in his voice, which only made Gu Yue feel more awkward. She quickly straightened up and haphazardly stacked the books she had picked up, dusting her hands as if to cover herself. "N-nothing." Yet her thoughts were boiling over. This really isn't a dream? The pain is so clear.

Le Zhengyu did not seem to investigate her odd behavior further. His attention appeared to be entirely occupied by his own emotions. He cleared his throat. "I'm sorry, Gu Yue." At last, he forced out the words. Each one was clear, yet carried an unfamiliar heaviness. "A few days ago... I could clearly see that you were so exhausted you could barely keep your eyes open. Your dark circles were so bad, and you were sprawled over the table like you could fall asleep the very next second... But I still, I still only cared about pushing you, forcing you to keep revising the Battle Armor design blueprints for me. I was too selfish and too inconsiderate. I was wrong."

Gu Yue was completely stunned. Her mouth hung open, but all the sharp remarks she had prepared to hurl at any moment caught in her throat. Not a single word came out. She simply stared blankly at Le Zhengyu, at the earnest apology on his face that was almost clumsy, and at the words "I'm sorry" that she had never imagined she would hear from someone as proud as a peacock. Her mind buzzed as countless voices screamed inside her head. Has the sun risen in the west? Le Zhengyu knows how to apologize? And such a... such a formal apology? Did he take the wrong medicine? Or did something go wrong with his martial soul cultivation and affect his mind?

The storm raging in her heart left her temporarily unable to organize her thoughts. She wanted to say, "Good that you know," wanted to say, "So you do have a conscience after all," and even wanted to stab at him as usual with, "What's the use of saying this now?" But when the words reached her lips, they became only a few meaningless, short breaths. All she could do was wave her hand vaguely, her movements stiff.

Once Le Zhengyu had started apologizing, it seemed as though he had set down some burden, and the rest of his words flowed much more smoothly. Not only did he repeat his earlier apology, but he also began listing his "crimes" from those days in detail: ignoring the upper limit of the critical energy circuit load that she had repeatedly emphasized, impatiently arguing back when she pointed out conflicts between materials, and even relentlessly questioning her over some detail when she had been nodding off from exhaustion... He listed each offense one by one with such sincerity that Gu Yue almost began to hallucinate that the person before her had been replaced by some high-level soul beast skilled at imitation.

Gu Yue's thoughts slowly shifted from extreme shock into a complicated mixture of absurdity, doubt, and a faint softening she did not even want to admit to herself. She looked at Le Zhengyu's face, which truly showed fatigue and reflection—perhaps he had not rested well these past few days either?—and listened as he enumerated his own faults. Her initial alarm gradually settled, replaced by a powerful urge to end this surreal conversation as soon as possible.

"Al... all right," she finally found her voice, though it was still dry. "I understand." She interrupted Le Zhengyu's self-criticism, which seemed likely to continue, and tried to restore her expression and tone to normal. She even forced out a somewhat unnatural smile meant to say that the matter was over. "What's done is done. You... you should go back and rest first."

Le Zhengyu seemed to want to say something else, but when he saw Gu Yue had already turned around and started flipping through books—though her mind was completely blank—he paused. In the end, he only said softly, "Then don't overwork yourself," before turning and leaving her dormitory.

Only after she heard the door close gently did Gu Yue suddenly loosen her fingers, which had been clenched white. She slowly exhaled the breath she had been holding, leaned back against her chair, and rubbed her temples. The spot on her leg that she had pinched still ached faintly, clearly reminding her that everything that had just happened was real.

Le Zhengyu... had apologized.

The realization circled repeatedly through her mind. She shook her head, trying to dispel that strange feeling. Gu Yue slumped onto the table and buried her face in her arms, feeling that today's events were simply... too inexplicable.

"This world has really gone mad." Gu Yue pulled the zipper of her thick coat all the way up, wrapped herself tightly, and headed toward the forging room. The wind and snow outside were fierce, but what she carried in her heart felt even more unreal than the weather. She walked quickly, her boots crunching over the snow. At this time, Tang Wulin was most likely in the forging room. Other than cultivating and eating, it was the place where he spent the most time.

She made her way familiarly to the forging room, did not knock, and directly pushed open the heavy metal door. A wave of heat mixed with the distinctive smell of metal rushed toward her, driving away the cold around her. Inside, Tang Wulin was bare-chested, sweat sliding along the lines of his taut muscles. The heavy forging hammer in his hand rose and fell rhythmically, and every strike against the red-hot rare metal burst with dazzling sparks and a dull boom. Xie Xie stood nearby with his arms crossed, watching with great interest.

Hearing the door open, Tang Wulin paused slightly and looked up. When he saw Gu Yue, a smile naturally appeared on his face, though his hands did not stop. The hammer fell again, scattering a burst of bright sparks. "I'll be done soon, Gu Yue. Go sit for a while." His voice sounded between hammer strikes, carrying the slight panting of exertion.

Gu Yue walked over and sat on a relatively clean bench, but her gaze drifted toward the snow swirling outside the window, and that scene appeared in her mind again. Only after Tang Wulin finished the final few strikes and submerged the roughly formed metal into the cooling liquid, producing a long hiss and a billow of white steam, did she look away.

Tang Wulin wiped away his sweat with a towel and walked over. "What's wrong? You look like you have something on your mind."

"Le Zhengyu came to my dorm earlier," Gu Yue said calmly.

Tang Wulin's hand holding the towel stopped.

"It was snowing so heavily outside, but he ran all the way over. His hair and shoulders were white with snow." Gu Yue continued, her tone carrying a complicated emotion she had not fully sorted out herself. "He brought two boxes of expensive chocolates and said he was... here to apologize to me."

The air seemed to freeze for a moment.

"What?!" Tang Wulin's suddenly raised voice even drowned out the lingering sizzle of the cooling liquid. His expression looked as though he had heard some fantastical tale, a mixture of shock, suspicion, and disbelief. He unconsciously clenched the towel in his hand, while his other hand, which had been hanging loosely at his side, curled into a fist, his knuckles turning slightly pale. "Gu Yue, are you serious? Le Zhengyu? He took chocolates to apologize to you?"

Xie Xie, leaning against the rack, also widened his eyes. His mouth hung slightly open as he looked from Gu Yue to Tang Wulin, appearing as though he had just heard earth-shattering news.

"Absolutely." Gu Yue nodded, confirming the unbelievable fact. "The chocolates are still sitting on the table in my dorm."

Tang Wulin fell silent, his brow furrowed as though he were trying to process the information. A few seconds later, he suddenly turned around, as if he wanted to return to the forging table, or perhaps simply wanted to do something to distract himself. His movement was abrupt. He had even forgotten the damp towel in his hand and casually flung it aside. One corner of the towel swept over metal fragments beside the forge that still retained some heat.

"Hiss—" With a faint sound, a small cluster of sparks that had not fully cooled was suddenly flung into the air. They traced several dark red arcs through the air and shot straight toward Xie Xie, who had stretched out his neck to listen curiously!

"Damn it! Boss, are you trying to murder me?!" Xie Xie was scared out of his wits. He let out a strange cry and threw himself backward in an incredibly awkward yet swift movement, narrowly avoiding the burning sparks. The sparks landed on the wooden floor behind where he had been standing, scorching several blackened spots and releasing faint wisps of smoke.

Tang Wulin was also startled back to his senses by the accident. He glanced at Xie Xie, who was patting his chest in lingering fright, and a trace of apology flashed across his face before being swiftly replaced by deeper thoughts. He looked back at Gu Yue, his gaze flickering somewhat unnaturally.

He cleared his throat, trying to make his voice sound steadier. "Um... Gu Yue, didn't you say before that you wanted to learn some forging from me?"

The topic shifted so abruptly and awkwardly that even Xie Xie could not help curling his lip.

Gu Yue looked at him. Her purple eyes were calm and unruffled, as though she had already expected this reaction from him. "Yes, I did," she replied.

"Then... how about tomorrow? I don't have class tomorrow afternoon, so I can teach you some basics." Tang Wulin spoke quickly, as though afraid Gu Yue would refuse, or perhaps afraid she would keep asking about Le Zhengyu and the chocolates. "We can start with identifying metals and getting a feel for the hammer."

Gu Yue looked at him quietly for two seconds. Just as Tang Wulin began to feel that his suggestion might have been too abrupt, she nodded. "All right."

"Great!" Xie Xie immediately came over, a grin spreading across his face. The earlier danger seemed to have already been thrown to the back of his mind. "Boss, something this interesting—can I come observe and learn too? I promise I won't cause trouble!"

Most of Tang Wulin's attention was still focused on Gu Yue. He seemed rather distracted by Xie Xie's request and merely waved his hand, replying casually, "Do whatever you want."