"Good Wife" Commendation Ceremony

The lingering warmth of dinner had yet to fade, and the dishes and chopsticks on the table had not been cleared away. Warm yellow light spilled across the tabletop, casting several long shadows. The air was filled with the mingled aroma of braised pork ribs and seaweed egg-drop soup. What should have been a cozy, relaxing dinner turned into a gunpowder-laced confrontation between two sides moments later.

The cause was simple. Picking his teeth, Xie Xie frowned and fired the first shot. "Can you two wake up already? Gu Yue's personality is seriously a problem. She looks quiet and gentle on the surface, but she's incredibly domineering underneath, and she especially loves using her hands. Haven't you noticed? The moment anyone argues with her even a little, that look in her eyes can freeze them to death. And if that doesn't work, she just starts throwing hands. She calls it 'sparring,' but it's really just oppression."

Le Zhengyu, seated across from him, immediately echoed him with a lingering look of fear on his face. "Exactly. Last time, I merely questioned whether the angle in her soul-tool blueprint was imperfect, and she crumpled the blueprint into a ball and threw it at me on the spot. It nearly hit me in the face."

The two sang the same tune, their accusations aimed directly at Gu Yue, who had been silently clearing the dishes.

Gu Yue paused. Her fingers tightened slightly around the dishcloth, but she did not turn around. She simply continued wiping the already spotless plates as though those words were nothing more than a passing breeze.

However, Xu Xiaoyan, seated beside Tang Wulin, could no longer sit still. She slammed her chopsticks down with a smack, her delicate brows shooting up as her voice rose several octaves. "Xie Xie! Le Zhengyu! Are you two blind or what? The 'violence' and 'oppression' you're talking about are obviously concern making her act rashly! Gu Yue has a sharp tongue but a soft heart. Other than Boss, if we weren't her friends, who else would get that level of 'special care' from her?"

Tang Wulin had been lowering his head to drink soup. At her words, he raised his head, his eyes—usually carrying a hint of honesty and determination—now filled with seriousness.

Unlike Xu Xiaoyan, he did not get worked up. He slowly set down his spoon, cleared his throat, and prepared to launch into a lengthy discourse on "the superiority of Gu Yue's personality." (Though he was putting on an act, he had already cursed Xie Xie countless times inside. He simply could not lose his composure in front of Gu Yue.)

"First," Tang Wulin said steadily, raising one finger, "Gu Yue has never acted to vent her emotions. It's a method of correcting mistakes founded upon absolute confidence in her own strength."

Xie Xie rolled his eyes and was just about to interrupt when Tang Wulin raised a second finger. "Second, Gu Yue's care for me is all-encompassing, without a single blind spot. All you see is her forcing me to train, but you don't see what lies behind it. Once, I failed a theory exam three times in a row. I was furious then, and I refused to come out of my dorm room. But Gu Yue brought me meals every day without fail. Whether I ate or not, she sat beside me and kept me company. Even when I lost my temper at her and knocked over the water she handed me, she never argued back. After I was done venting, she silently cleaned everything up and came again the next day."

Le Zhengyu tried to find a flaw in that logic. "That was simply her basic responsibility as a companion. It doesn't prove that she has a good personality. It only proves that she's patient."

"No, it was different." Tang Wulin shook his head, a softness appearing in his eyes that only ever surfaced when he faced Gu Yue. "During that time, she shut herself in the library for three days and three nights to help me. She read through all the notes from the past several years and made dense notes of her own. On the fourth day, she came to find me and gave them to me. Can any of you care about someone enough to wear yourselves down for them like that?"

Seeing this, Xu Xiaoyan immediately added fuel to the fire. "Exactly! And Sister Gu Yue is so thoughtful! Last time, I casually mentioned that I was prone to allergies during seasonal changes. That very night, there was a bottle of custom anti-allergy spray by my bed. She had gathered medicinal herbs and mixed it herself."

"And that time we went to the academy's back mountain, I nearly got scratched by a tree branch. Sister Gu Yue reacted instantly and pulled me away, but the back of her own hand was cut open. So we wouldn't worry, she forcibly stopped the bleeding with soul power and did not even put on a bandage. She only treated it after we returned to the academy. You call that a bad personality? She practically tore out her heart and showed it to us!"

"Right, right, right!" With someone backing him up, Tang Wulin grew even more imposing. He raised a third finger, and there was even a trace of pride in his voice. "And there was the most obvious time of all. I went out on an academy mission, but my communicator died and shut off. Gu Yue called dozens of times and got no answer. Then, ignoring the ban, she sneaked out of the academy and searched the mission zone all night, inch by inch. Her eyes were bloodshot, her spiritual power was severely overdrawn, and her entire body was trembling. When she finally found me, she collapsed directly into my arms. Would she still 'oppress' me at a time like that? She would only use her life to protect me. Isn't that kind of personality worth cherishing?"

After that barrage of irrefutable evidence, Xie Xie and Le Zhengyu were rendered speechless. They looked at Tang Wulin's devout expression, which practically proclaimed, "My Gu Yue is the best in the world," then at Gu Yue beside him. Though she still had her head lowered, the corners of her lips had curved slightly upward, and her eyes shone especially brightly because of those memories. The two of them suddenly felt a little uneasy.

This was not a personality analysis meeting at all. It was practically a "Gu Yue Is a Wonderful Wife" commendation ceremony.

Xie Xie held it in for a long time before finally finding an opening to strike back. Looking at Tang Wulin's face, which seemed to have the words "wife-protecting maniac" written all over it, he dragged out his tone sarcastically and gave a humorless snort.

"Oh my, listen to that. Listen to the wild things he's saying! Staying up all night to study notes, risking her life to save her husband... Wulin, you really don't know how lucky you are. You're the one with the good fortune to treat Gu Yue's 'high-pressure control' as 'deep affection and care.' She's your wife, of course she treats you well! If it were us, that would be 'an overbearing personality' and 'oppressing the working masses'! You're really good at those double standards!"

"Pfft—cough, cough, cough!"

Tang Wulin, who had been drinking soup, nearly choked to death on his own saliva. He coughed violently, his entire face red as he patted his chest and stammered out a defense. "Xie Xie, what nonsense are you talking about? What wife... We're comrades, partners..."

However, it was already too late.

The air in the dining room seemed to freeze in that instant.

Gu Yue, who had been quietly cleaning up like an obedient little kitten, froze completely. Her cool, otherworldly face visibly reddened from the roots of her ears, spreading swiftly down her neck until even her fair forehead was flushed. It was not ordinary embarrassment. It was the shame and indignation of having the most secret corner of her heart suddenly exposed, mixed with the panic of having her feelings seen through.

"Xie. Xie!" Gu Yue abruptly turned around. Her eyes, normally as calm and indifferent as water, now seemed to contain two tiny flames as she glared straight at the culprit.

Xie Xie jumped at that look. Realizing that he might have gone too far, he instinctively shrank his neck. "I... I was only joking..."

"A joke?" Gu Yue bit her lower lip. Her voice was soft and trembling, yet it carried an unquestionable pressure. She slammed the dishcloth onto the table and strode straight toward Xie Xie without another word. Though she did not lay a hand on him, her icy aura already bore down on him from all directions. "Get out! Right now! Immediately!"

Xie Xie still tried to talk back. "Is that really necessary..."

"Get out!" Gu Yue repeated, her voice rising several octaves this time, carrying a hint of humiliated indignation that almost sounded like a sob.

Seeing that the situation had gone wrong, Le Zhengyu knew that although Gu Yue did not hit people when she truly got angry, her spiritual "freezing ray" was even more unbearable than a beating. He hurriedly pulled Xie Xie to his feet. "Go, go, go. We said the wrong thing. We're leaving, we're leaving." As he pushed Xie Xie toward the door, he turned back and gave Tang Wulin a meaningful look. "Wulin, why aren't you hurrying up and comforting your girl?"

Tang Wulin stood there helplessly. Looking at Gu Yue, who seemed ready to explode while desperately holding herself back, he opened his mouth, then finally managed to squeeze out, "Um... Gu Yue, Xie Xie just has a loose mouth. Don't be angry..."

Gu Yue ignored him completely. She merely shot Xie Xie a vicious glare, as though saying, "This isn't over." Then she grabbed a throw pillow from the sofa and rushed into her bedroom like a gust of wind, slamming the door shut with a bang.

Silence instantly returned to the living room, leaving only the lingering echoes of dishes and chopsticks clinking together.

Xie Xie and Le Zhengyu were driven out into the hallway in disgrace. Xie Xie rubbed his nose and smiled awkwardly. "Looks like that joke went too far."

Le Zhengyu sighed. "Who told you to poke where it hurt? Look at Boss. Gu Yue obviously has him wrapped around her finger, yet you just had to tear through that last layer of window paper."

There was no argument from behind the bedroom door, contrary to what they expected.

Instead, about a minute later, an extremely faint sound of bedding rustling came from inside. Then Tang Wulin carefully pushed the door open a crack and poked his head in. Gu Yue was curled up entirely beneath the blankets like a startled ostrich, with only her long black hair and the tips of her ears—red enough to bleed—showing. The blanket rose and fell with her breathing, and every now and then, one or two muffled, suppressed laughs escaped from beneath it, sounding both embarrassed and helpless.

"Um..." Tang Wulin pressed himself against the doorway, his voice as soft as a mosquito's buzz. "Gu Yue, are you okay?"

A muffled mumble came from beneath the blanket. "You're not allowed to talk to me... I'm going to sleep..."

Tang Wulin could not help laughing, the corners of his mouth stretching nearly to his ears. He knew that Gu Yue probably would not be able to sleep properly tonight. That brief exposure had utterly shattered the aloof goddess image she had worked so hard to build, leaving behind only a blazing heart pounding wildly in her chest.

Outside the door, Xie Xie and Le Zhengyu looked at each other. Listening to the faint sounds coming from inside, they exchanged helpless smiles.