When Lin Yue opened her eyes, she was met with a pair of peach blossom eyes filled with icy shards. A young man in a moon-white robe waved a Xiangfei bamboo fan, the oriental pearls inlaid in his hair crown swaying with his movements, casting tiny specks of light on the tip of her nose. "This woman has come to the men's academy in broad daylight. Is she trying to emulate Zhuo Wenjun and sell wine at the bar?"
"Lu Li?" Lin Yue reflexively called out the name, earning laughter from the surrounding scholars. She looked down at her lilac-colored skirt. The golden lotus embroidered on the cuffs rose and fell with her trembling fingertips—this body was clearly not her quantized consciousness. A calico cat had crouched on her shoulder, its mechanical claws tugging at her hair, its gears spinning rapidly: "Time and space dislocation detected. Current coordinates: Ancient Earth, Tang Wude Year 4, Bailu Academy, Zhongnan Mountain."
The fanning young man suddenly leaned in, his breath, scented with pine smoke and ink, brushing against her ear. "So, young lady, you've heard of Lu Li too? Coincidentally, it's by that humble name." Lin Yue nearly bit her tongue. The face, a perfect match for her memory, now wore the frivolous air of a dandy, though the teardrop mole at the corner of her eye was still alluringly in its old spot. She clutched the hem of her skirt and took a half step back, her back bumping against the stone table. The still-dry ink in the inkstone splattered, spreading a dark cloud along the hem of her skirt.
"Mr. Lu, what a refined taste!" a sharp female voice suddenly rang out from the moon-shaped door. A girl with twin buns, carrying a food box, her jade pendant jingling at her waist: "Miss Wang sent almond yogurt, specifically asking for..." The words trailed off, the girl staring at Lin Yue's ink-stained skirt, her almond eyes wide. "Where did this wild girl come from?"
Lu Li tapped his folding fan lightly against Lin Yue's shoulder, a faint silver-purple halo appearing and disappearing—an instinctive reaction to his code flow. Suddenly, Lin Yue had an idea. She tugged at his wide sleeves and pulled them against her chest, her fingertips brushing against the soft, silky silk of his waist. "Didn't my cousin say he wanted to teach me calligraphy?" She blinked, catching a glimpse of the girl's flushed face. "Cousin, could it be that I've got the wrong person?"
A strange wind suddenly blew up in the corridor of the academy, and the calico cat with its fur standing on end sounded the alarm: "Warning! Residual data of super-dimensional consciousness detected!" Lu Li's pupils flashed with the data stream unique to the code, and his folding fan slammed shut and hit her forehead: "Since you know you have to learn calligraphy, how come you can't even hold a pen?" When he held her hand, the warmth came through the overlapping skin, carrying a familiar tremor that did not belong to this era.
At dusk, Lin Yue crouched in the woodshed, petting her calico cat, listening to Lu Li scolding a servant outside. Suddenly, the robotic cat displayed a holographic projection, showing Miss Wang tucking a mandarin duck handkerchief into Lu Li's sleeve. "The twin lotus flowers on this handkerchief were embroidered by me personally..."
"This is clearly a water lily." Lu Li's voice was as cold as ice. "And young lady, do you know that men and women shouldn't touch each other?" He took a half step back, his wide sleeves sweeping across the stone table. The ink in the inkstone splashed onto the mandarin duck handkerchief, creating a strange pattern. "This complements your embroidery."
Lin Yue laughed so hard she fell into the straw. The calico cat meowed in dissatisfaction, "We've detected abnormal fluctuations in the target person's emotional entropy. We recommend establishing a resonant frequency as soon as possible." Before she finished speaking, the door to the woodshed was flung open. Lu Li's clothes were stained with straw, and his hair was askew, giving him a rather messy and beautiful look. "So you've been lazing around here."
He reached out to pull her up, but Lin Yue suddenly grasped his wrist. The moment their skin touched, both of their minds exploded with intense light—she "saw" Lu Li's code core frantically analyzing the ancient Earth ritual system, while deep within his code stream, a program marked "Lin Yue Priority" was flashing furiously at a frequency of 143.8 Hz.
"You really are..." Lin Yue hadn't finished her words when a sudden cry came from outside the courtyard: "Fire! Fire!" Thick smoke seeped in through the window lattice. The calico cat's mechanical claws sprayed fire-extinguishing foam, but Lu Li grabbed Fate by the scruff of the neck: "Where did chemical fire extinguishers come from in ancient times?" He took off his outer robe and wrapped it around Lin Yue. The hairband in her hair fell apart, and her black hair cascaded down like a waterfall: "Hold on tight."
In front of the library, where the fire was raging most fiercely, Miss Wang was sobbing breathlessly: "The only copy of the Nanhua Sutra is still in there..." Lu Li handed Lin Yue to the servant who had arrived and turned to rush to the fire, but she grabbed his clothes and said, "You went there even though you knew it was a trap?" Her time thread penetrated his meridians along the contact point, "The southeast wind turns to the north wind, this fire..."
"So someone needs to divert the wind." Lu Li turned back, the teardrop mole at the corner of his eye strikingly alluring in the flames. "Look! This is true... code turbulence." As he rushed into the fire, Lin Yue saw his wide sleeves transform into silver-purple data streams, weaving a fireproof barrier amid the blaze. On the eaves of the library, a calico cat used the remains of its collar to create a miniature tornado, directing the flames into the open air.
When Lu Li emerged, his body charred black, clutching the charred books, Miss Wang burst into tears, "How could Lu Li be so careless of himself!" Lin Yue hurried forward and pulled out a handkerchief from her sleeve—a handkerchief she had woven that afternoon using the thread of time, embroidered with two crooked concentric circles. She stood on tiptoe to wipe the ash from his face, her fingertips lingering briefly on his lips. "Don't be so reckless next time."
Lu Li suddenly grabbed her wrist and, in full view of everyone, stuffed the charred tome into her arms. "Since you're worried, help me repair these ancient books." He lowered his voice, the distinctive electronic twang of code blending in with the embers. "A spacetime anchor point has been detected in the foundation of the library. It will be destroyed in three hours."
At midnight, Lin Yue crept into the study, clutching the fragments of an ancient book scanned by the calico cat. Moonlight streamed through the window lattice, casting a silver edge on the profile of Lu Li as he bent over his desk. He paused, gripping the wolf-hair brush. "Come here, grind the ink." As the inkstone spun in the inkstone, she suddenly realized the reflection wasn't her own face—it was their own face, in some parallel universe, as they resonated within the core of the Lovers' Nebula.
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