Habit

Horse-stance training was actually manageable. Once he immersed himself in his martial art, he really could forget everything around him.

Sleeping was the real test.

Not knowing, or not being certain, had been fine; he could not be bothered to think too much about it. But now he knew perfectly well that his bedmate was a girl. What man could lie beside someone like that and remain as free of stray thoughts as before?

Worse still, they had both washed today. Luo Qi had even changed clothes during his trip into town, and a faint, clean fragrance still lingered around him, wafting right beneath Zhao Changhe's nose.

Zhao Changhe, who always slept flat on his back, made the exceedingly rare choice of turning outward today and curling up on his side. After nearly an hour, his eyes were still open. He could not sleep at all.

Luo Qi, by contrast, lay quietly on his back, eyes half closed, seemingly cultivating with a calm and peaceful mind.

But how could he possibly cultivate? He was cursing inwardly too.

This was fucking ruinous. Cultivating inner breath demanded focus and tranquility above all else, but how was I supposed to focus lately? How was I supposed to calm my mind?

I'd be lucky not to suffer cultivation deviation...

Sometimes Luo Qi wondered whether killing Zhao Changhe secretly a little earlier would have prevented all this damned trouble... He had reasons to kill him in the first place.

Yet he had not dared to act at first. He still needed Zhao Changhe's "merit" to carry him along; otherwise, he might not even have been allowed to stay here. That brief delay had led to this... Ever since Zhao Changhe had saved him dinner, it had become genuinely hard to bring himself to kill him.

Ask the stronghold to move me to another room? But he knew that would not work. A private room was a privilege reserved for the middle and upper ranks, and he did not qualify yet.

If I had to share, would they assign a woman to live with me? In my dreams. Assign me another man instead... and I'd kill him, guaranteed.

After all the twists and turns, this really was how things had ended up. He could neither leave nor escape it.

The laughable thing was that today he no longer felt wound as tight as yesterday. They had already slept together, after all. He was used to it, and Zhao Changhe really did not grab or touch him improperly. He could be trusted.

Then let it be.

A flicker of panic suddenly rose in Luo Qi's heart. When had he ever imagined that one day he would so calmly accept sharing a bed and pillow with a man?

Habit truly was a terrifying force.

Before either of them realized it, Zhao Changhe's faint snores finally began. As though receiving some signal, Luo Qi relaxed too and slowly drifted to sleep.

Early the next morning, before the cook's customary calls as he delivered cornmeal buns from door to door had even reached them, Luo Qi woke with a start.

His first reaction was that something was wrong: the hard pillow had become comfortable.

He opened his eyes groggily, and his heart immediately lurched.

What pillow?

He was nestled against Zhao Changhe's shoulder, with one arm wrapped around his waist. All that was missing was a leg thrown over him.

Luo Qi cautiously drew back.

He had been worrying that Zhao Changhe might unconsciously hug him in his sleep, yet Zhao Changhe had slept perfectly properly. The one unconsciously grabbing people had turned out to be himself.

Luo Qi nearly cried. He should never have drunk that damned wine!

Fortunately, Zhao Changhe, normally just as easily awakened as he was, seemed not to have woken today and was still snoring away. Luo Qi breathed a sigh of relief, wrapped the disheveled quilt around himself with feigned composure, and quietly waited for the cook to knock on their door.

Sure enough, the instant the cook knocked, Zhao Changhe woke as quickly as a wound-up spring. He stretched, turned to look at Luo Qi, and smiled at him. "Morning."

Everything was as usual.

The heart lodged in Luo Qi's throat finally settled back into place. Smiling, he patted Zhao Changhe's shoulder. "Go get breakfast."

This time, Zhao Changhe hesitated a little. After a brief struggle, he reluctantly climbed out of bed, then hunched over as he went to fetch the cornmeal buns.

Luo Qi's face went blank. He understood.

The bastard must have been awake already, pretending not to know... Otherwise, the thing standing upright beneath his quilt would have been rather embarrassing.

"Pah." Luo Qi spat softly, a blush involuntarily spreading over his face.

Did that little bit really warrant this?

He clearly was a lecher!

But at least he knew how to handle things. This way, it wasn't awkward.

So this was... I'm pretending, he knows I'm pretending, I know he knows I'm pretending, he knows I know he knows I'm pretending, and then we both tacitly keep pretending.

What even was this...?

Zhao Changhe brought the cornmeal buns over, unsure what expression he ought to wear. He simply tossed them over with a blank face. "I'm going to train. Be careful hunting too. It's not exactly risk-free. Once I get a little closer to Instructor Sun, I'll see if I can get you reassigned..."

Luo Qi smiled faintly. "Got it. Off you go."

Zhao Changhe fled in some embarrassment. Watching his slightly awkward posture, Luo Qi angrily tore the bun into little pieces, as though pinching the soft flesh at Zhao Changhe's waist.

"Such a lecher, and still pretending to be a straight-laced guy!"

Zhao Changhe was terribly wronged. A vigorous young man often woke with morning wood even when nothing had happened. What did that have to do with being lecherous?

Besides, his senior brother smelled lovely after washing, and when he had leaned against him, the sensation against his arm had been so soft... Zhao Changhe had been single since birth. How was he supposed to withstand that?

"Zhao Changhe!" Instructor Sun's irritated voice rang out.

"Ah..." Zhao Changhe felt as though he were back in a classroom, caught red-handed by a professor. "Instructor..."

"I only praised your diligence yesterday, and today you're already letting your mind wander? Tell me the key points of that diagonal rising cut I just taught you!"

Rising? I wasn't making a move on him. He was making a move on me... Uh, wait...

Zhao Changhe: "..."

So women really did slow down cultivation, didn't they? Look, my horse stance was a complete mess last night, and my thoughts were a complete mess this morning too.

Honestly.

"Sorry for the trouble, Instructor. Please teach me again. I'll punish myself today by practicing it three thousand times!"

Zhao Changhe hardened his resolve, trying to drown out thoughts of romance by throwing himself wholeheartedly into training. But as it turned out, that was not really necessary.

Habit truly was a terrifying force.

He had never imagined that after that day, he would become even more casual around Luo Qi than before.

His standing in the "Novice Village" had risen now. Nobody dared object when he took an extra bowl of dinner back each day, so he brought food home for Luo Qi every evening. Sometimes, after hunting an animal, Luo Qi would quietly run into town to sell it and buy wine for Zhao Changhe.

It was not that wine mattered more than meat. Rather, they had discovered that warm wine genuinely aided Zhao Changhe's Blood Baleful Art, and the effect was quite good.

They ate together, casually exchanging whatever they had seen and heard. Afterward, as usual, one practiced external arts and saber techniques by the door while the other cultivated inner breath on the bed. Once they finished, they went to sleep together without saying much more.

There was nothing much to say.

When Zhao Changhe occasionally slung an arm around Luo Qi's shoulders without thinking, Luo Qi no longer dodged. Sometimes he even hooked an arm around Zhao Changhe's shoulders himself, swaggering through the stronghold to show what good buddies they were. Everyone else found it perfectly normal; nobody's thoughts strayed in the slightest.

Neither of them reacted to that degree of physical contact anymore.

Zhao Changhe no longer needed to hunch over, and Luo Qi no longer felt an electric current shoot through him.

Even when they woke in the morning and found one person's hand resting on the other, they simply yawned and moved it away as though nothing had happened.

Both had a bellyful of concerns and goals of their own, and neither had any intention of getting tangled up in romance. Once they grew accustomed to it, things really were that simple.

Their greatest unspoken understanding was merely to bathe separately. That was all.

Clang! A flash of saber light struck the iron rod flying past in front of him with perfect accuracy, knocking it to the ground.

Beside him, Instructor Sun bent down and picked up the rod. A fresh mark lay precisely over the notch already cut into it, without the slightest deviation.

After practicing day and night, Zhao Changhe had graduated from stationary targets to moving ones, accurately striking his intended spot on objects sweeping past at a moderate speed.

Where his eyes went, his saber followed.

Nearly twenty days had passed since the night he confirmed that Luo Qi was female.

He had officially mastered the fundamentals of saber technique in a little over twenty days. A month had passed since he crossed into this world.

When he crossed over, it had been late October, with light snow.

Now it was November, bitter frost, and the winter solstice.