Chapter 54

Shi Ye stood downstairs at the apartment building, the night breeze causing her skirt to sway slightly, the moon necklace around her neck feeling cool against her skin. The two red streaks of Qi Jin's taillights disappeared completely around the street corner, as if taking away the overly real liveliness and warmth of the family dinner. She stood alone at the dimly lit stairwell entrance, feeling that everything she had just experienced—Grandpa Qi's hearty laughter, the exquisite yet homely dishes, the curious or friendly glances from her relatives, Qi Jin's weighty words—was like an overly vivid dream, now being quickly scattered by the cool night breeze, leaving only some chaotic, still warm fragments that prickled at her heart.

She took a deep breath, turned, and went upstairs. Her footsteps echoed softly and lonely on the stairs.

I had just reached the door and hadn't even taken out my keys when the door was suddenly pulled open from the inside.

Lin Xiaoyu looked like a startled (or perhaps overly excited) rabbit, wearing fluffy rabbit pajamas (a set with her Anxin Rabbit pillow), her eyes wide open, her cheeks flushed with excitement, and her hand clutching her phone with the screen still lit, clearly ready to receive "frontline reports" at any moment.

"Sister Shi! You're finally back!!!" She lowered her voice, but the excitement in her tone almost burst through the roof. "How was it?! Come in quickly! I want to hear the details! Every single detail! Not a single one can be missed!"

Shi Ye was pulled into the house by her, and the door slammed shut behind him. The living room lights were on, and there were potato chips, cola, and a bunch of opened snack bags on the coffee table. A melodramatic romance movie was playing silently on the TV—clearly, Lin Xiaoyu's "waiting" tonight had been quite fulfilling and... full of anticipation.

"Let me catch my breath first." Shi Ye placed the small box that Grandpa Qi had given her (which she had been clutching in her hand without daring to look closely) on the entryway cabinet, took off the flat shoes that Qi Jin had given her, and put on her slippers.

Lin Xiaoyu followed closely behind her, her eyes scanning her like searchlights, from head to toe, finally settling precisely on the necklace around her neck, confirming it was still there, and then revealing a satisfied smile of "I knew it."

"Tell me quickly!" She pressed Shi Ye down onto the sofa, then sat cross-legged on the carpet opposite her, cupping her face in her hands and striking the perfect "gossip-loving" pose. "How's Grandpa Qi? Was he fierce? Did he give you a hard time? Who was at the family dinner? Was the food good? Where's Senior Qi Jin? Did she protect you? Is that Lin Wei causing trouble again? And..."

A barrage of questions rained down on her like a machine gun, and Shi Ye felt her temples throbbing again. She picked up a glass of water from the coffee table, took a sip, and the cool liquid slid down her throat, slightly calming the nerves that Lin Xiaoyu had ignited.

“Grandpa Qi is a very nice and warm person.” She answered the simplest question.

"Really?!" Lin Xiaoyu's eyes lit up even more. "I knew it! Someone who can teach someone as outstanding as you (although a bit aloof) must be amazing! And then? Is the family banquet super luxurious? Like in the movies, with long tables, silver cutlery, and a servant standing behind everyone?"

Shi Ye imagined the mahogany round table in the Qi family's house piled high with Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, crab roe tofu, and home-style stir-fries, as well as Grandpa Qi's booming voice urging her to eat, and Qi Jin's nonchalant way of picking out fatty meat for her... "Hmm, it's quite a feast, but... not that extravagant, just like an ordinary family gathering."

"A typical family gathering?" Lin Xiaoyu was a little disappointed, but then she cheered up. "How was the atmosphere? Was it tense? Did anyone try to intimidate you?"

A show of force? Shi Ye recalled Lin Wei's probing tea and feigned intimacy, and Qi Jin's crisp and decisive retort. "...It's alright. A distant relative named Lin Wei said a few words, but Qi Jin..."

"What happened to Senior Sister Qi Jin?!" Lin Xiaoyu immediately caught the key words and leaned forward. "Did she fiercely protect her wife?! Tell me, tell me!"

Shi Ye was stunned by her phrase "protecting his wife," and his lips twitched. "...It just means she shouldn't meddle in other people's business."

"Wow!!!" Lin Xiaoyu clutched her heart with both hands, her eyes practically bubbling with pink bubbles. "'She doesn't need to know me from others'—is it something like that?! Ahhh, the novel is coming to life! Senior is so cool! Shi Ye, what did you feel at that moment? Was your heart racing and your heart pounding?!"

Shi Ye: "..." She felt her face starting to burn again. Did Lin Xiaoyu read her mind?

"It's alright," she said dryly, trying to get away with it.

"What do you mean 'it's alright'!" Lin Xiaoyu complained. "How can such a crucial scene be glossed over! Details! I need details! What was the senior's expression when she said that? Who was she looking at? What was her tone like? What were the reactions of the people around her? And you! What was your expression at the time? Did you blush? Did you secretly look at the senior?"

Shi Ye was caught off guard by her questions and could only briefly describe the scene, omitting the details of his racing heart and flushed cheeks. But Lin Xiaoyu was no ordinary person; she immediately caught the truth from his slightly darting eyes and slightly reddened ear tips, letting out a suppressed, excited "hehe" laugh, and then happily rolled around on the sofa.

"I knew it! I knew it! The CP I ship is real! It's so sweet!" After rolling around for a while, she got up again, staring intently at Shi Ye. "Sister Shi Ye, you better tell me honestly, what exactly do you think of your senior?"

This question was like a small hammer, gently tapping the most chaotic part of Shi Ye's heart. She lowered her eyes, looking at the ripples in the water glass in her hand.

What were you thinking?

She didn't know.

Or rather, she dared not know.

The mission was not yet complete (or rather, it had completely failed), the forced association progress bar hung high above her head, and the risk of the world collapsing was ever-present. And Qi Jin... Qi Jin was too good, so good that it felt unreal, so good that it made her afraid that all of this was just a mirage, a last gasp before the collapse, or that the 71% (now it may be even higher) forced association was at work.

"I don't know," she heard herself say, her voice low. "It's too chaotic."

Lin Xiaoyu's excitement subsided slightly. She leaned closer, looking at Shi Ye's somewhat pale face and the blankness in her eyes, and said more seriously, "Sister Shi Ye, I know you may have many concerns. But... feelings are something you don't always have to think about so clearly. Just ask yourself, when you're with your senior, are you more happy or more upset? When you see her protecting and caring for you, do you feel warmth or resistance in your heart?"

Shi Ye remained silent.

Happy? I think... I am. Although I'm always nervous, at a loss, and flustered when I'm with Qi Jin, the feeling of being steadily caught and silently protected is real.

Warmth? Tonight, when Grandpa Qi patted her hand and said "Come often in the future," when Qi Jin put some light dishes into her bowl, and even when Qi Jin brushed the fallen leaves off her shoulder... I did feel a strange warmth in that frozen place in my heart.

Resistance? Initially, there was resistance. Because of the mission, because of fear, because she didn't want to get involved in trouble. But now... that resistance seems to be slowly diluted and disintegrated by something more complex, something she can't control.

She looked up at Lin Xiaoyu. Lin Xiaoyu was looking at her with concern, her eyes clean and pure, without the cold calculation of the system or the fear brought by the collapse of the world, only the most sincere care and blessings for her "older sister".

"I..." Shi Ye opened his mouth, but ultimately shook his head. "Give me some more time."

Lin Xiaoyu didn't press her, but just patted her hand: "Hmm! No rush! Anyway, your senior isn't going anywhere! The way she looks at you is like she's glued with superglue!" She regained her lively demeanor and jumped up, "By the way! What about the gift Grandpa Qi gave us? Let me see it! What's this good stuff?"

Shi Ye then remembered the small box on the entryway cabinet. She got up, picked it up, and opened the deep red velvet box under Lin Xiaoyu's curious gaze.

Inside weren't expensive jewels, but a pair of... small, exquisite jade pendants carved from Hetian jade. The jade was warm and lustrous, strung together with red silk thread, symbolizing peace and good fortune. Below them was a note in Grandpa Qi's strong, vigorous handwriting: "For Xiao Jin and the Shi family girl. Peace and joy."

Simple yet profound and sincere.

Lin Xiaoyu exclaimed "Wow!" and picked up one of them, examining it against the light: "So beautiful! The jade is so fine! Grandpa Qi is so thoughtful! Sister Shi Ye, this is clearly a pair! You and your senior should each wear one! Quick, try them on!"

Looking at the pair of warm, smooth jade pendants, Shi Ye felt her chaotic thoughts soothed by their simple sentiment. She picked up hers, the red silk thread wrapping around her neck, the warm jade resting against her collarbone, next to the moon necklace—one cool, one warm, surprisingly harmonious.

"Beautiful!" Lin Xiaoyu clapped enthusiastically, then took out her phone. "Come on, take a picture! I'm going to send it to my senior! Tell her we received the gift and we love it!"

Shi Ye instinctively tried to stop her, but Lin Xiaoyu was too quick and had already snapped a picture. In the photo, she was wearing light apricot-colored loungewear (also a gift from Qi Jin), with a moon necklace and a jade peace buckle around her neck. Her expression was somewhat dazed, and the background was a mess of snacks and television lights.

Lin Xiaoyu quickly edited the message, added a photo, and sent it.

Almost immediately, Qi Jin's screen displayed "The other party is typing...".

A few seconds later, a reply came.

It's also a picture.

Clicking on it revealed another jade safety buckle, held by a long, slender, and clean hand with distinct knuckles, against a background that appeared to be the dim light inside a car. The jade gleamed warmly against the fingertips.

Below that was a line of text: "Grandpa's sentiment. I'm wearing mine too."

Lin Xiaoyu stared at the photo, her eyes wide, then let out a suppressed scream and shoved her phone into Shi Ye's hand: "Shi Ye! Look! Senior is wearing it too! She even took a picture to show you! Does this count as... official certification of matching couple items?! Ahhh, I'm dying!"

Shi Ye looked at the familiar hand and the warm jade on the phone screen, then touched the same feeling on his neck. His heart felt like it had been gently bumped by something, both sour and soft.

Is Qi Jin... responding in her own way?

Should I respond to Grandpa's blessing, or... something else?

She didn't know.

But she knew that the lake in her heart, which had just calmed down, was now being rippled with new, unstoppable waves by this small safety buckle.

She returned the phone to Lin Xiaoyu, walked to the window, and looked at the quiet night outside.

In my mind, the system remained silent, the progress bar for the forced connection stubbornly hanging there, but those cold numbers and warnings seemed to be temporarily isolated in another distant and blurry world by the two warm jade stones around my neck and the warmth spreading in my heart.

Tonight, perhaps we can temporarily forget the mission, forget the Honkai, and forget all the tangled thoughts.

All I remember is Grandpa Qi's hearty laughter, the warmth of Qi Jin's fingertips, and this warm, blessed peace buckle.

And...that tiny, unfamiliar stirring in my heart, sprouting from the ground, impossible to ignore.

Although the road ahead remains uncertain and fraught with danger.

But at least for now, she is not alone.

Her figure was faintly reflected in the windowpane, and two warm points of light on her neck were like two faint stars quietly shining in the dark night.