Jingliu retraced her steps and returned to the door of Zero's room. She grasped the doorknob and slowly pressed it down, opening the door to the master bedroom.
She lightened her steps as she walked in, went around to the other side of the bed, carefully lifted a corner of the blanket, slowed her movements, and lay flat on the bed.
Listening to the steady breathing of the person beside her, Jingliu let out a breath of relief.
Luckily, she didn't wake him.
Thinking about it, Zero had always slept deeply. During the time they practiced swordsmanship together, he either overslept or stayed up all night waiting for her.
Zero had an excellent alcohol tolerance. The number of times he had gotten drunk could be counted on one hand, and the few times it did happen were all because of Dan Feng's alcohol.
This time, Jingliu had deliberately brought wine that Dan Feng had given her.
She had originally planned to drink with Zero, but in the end, it all went to him.
At celebration banquets, Jingliu had seen many people drunk, some noisy and rowdy, others collapsing to the ground.
By comparison, Zero was especially worry-free when drunk. He still kept his reason, either quietly staying where he was or going to sleep.
Before he finally gave in to drunkenness and sleepiness, he even had the presence of mind to remind her to go rest in another master bedroom.
Jingliu didn't know how to describe how she felt.
Zero placed such importance on their relationship, constantly watching his boundaries, afraid of crossing any lines.
Talking about ceremonial wine, hair-tying rites…
Jingliu was deeply moved by his sincerity, but at the same time felt that he really didn't understand romance.
There was no helping it. That was just the kind of person he was.
Once he made up his mind about something, he would never change it.
If Zero said they would wait until marriage, then anything more intimate would only happen after marriage.
Because she understood his personality, Jingliu dared to share a room with him.
She was used to sleeping alone. This time…
She closed her eyes and waited for a long while, but her own heartbeat kept her awake.
With no other choice, Jingliu turned onto her side, shifting from lying flat to lying sideways. She looked at the person beside her, tracing the lines of his profile little by little with her gaze.
In the end, her eyes settled on the corner of his mouth.
When Zero's face was at its most relaxed, with no expression at all, the corners of his mouth naturally turned downward, giving him a distant, cold look.
He seemed… to rarely allow himself to wear a cold expression. In front of others, he always wore a gentle smile, making people think he was simply born with a smiling face.
They had known each other for a long time. Jingliu only realized this belatedly, after they had been together for a while.
Most of the time, Zero was controlling his expression, as if it had already become muscle memory.
Jingliu knew she couldn't change this, so she could only take it step by step, little by little, letting him relax in front of her.
This time, she had finally seen an expression other than his smile.
When morning came, Zero would probably show an expression she had never seen before, right?
Jingliu thought to herself that she really had been led astray by Zero.
She relaxed, closed her eyes, and as drowsiness crept in, unconsciously moved closer to the warmth beside her.
A night passed. Zero was woken up by the vibration of his jade communicator.
With his eyes closed, he instinctively reached toward the source of the sound. After fumbling around for a bit, he turned off the jade communicator without even looking.
Half-asleep, Zero wanted to go back to sleep.
He turned onto his side. Before his cheek could touch the pillow, his chest seemed to press against something soft.
Zero opened his eyes, and all drowsiness vanished instantly.
First, he saw a fluffy, slightly messy crown of hair.
Then, warm breath.
Zero stared at the face right in front of him.
It was Jingliu.
Because of his movement, their upper bodies drew even closer.
Zero froze for a long while.
He remembered that when he got drunk, he would remember everything that happened.
Before losing consciousness, hadn't he clearly told Jingliu where the master bedroom was?
Had he… lost his memory?
Had he crossed a line?
His first reaction was to put some distance between himself and Jingliu.
Holding his breath, he carefully lifted the blanket. After exposing only the collarbone of the person beside him, he stopped.
Zero carefully examined Jingliu's shoulder, neck, and collarbone. He didn't see any marks.
Wait, given the self-healing ability of people from the Xianzhou… even if there had been marks last night, they should have disappeared by now.
Thinking of this, he was still uneasy. He immediately opened the system to check his status.
After repeatedly confirming that he wasn't wearing any "mental illness" buff that would cause memory loss, Zero first let out a sigh of relief, then sucked in a sharp breath.
After reading that parable, he had guessed that his backup plan was the system.
Now it seemed that all buffs and debuffs were working to stabilize his mental state and keep him alive as long as possible.
His thoughts spiraled out of control.
Was it possible… that even without a buff, he could still lose his memory?
Some mild symptoms of mental illness included memory loss, while severe cases didn't necessarily cause it.
Zero considered his mental state stable. Even if he did have a condition, it would be a mild one that didn't require medication.
Because of that, he had never gone to the Alchemy Commission for treatment, and didn't even know how many conditions he might have.
Zero's mind was a mess.
If he really had lost his memory, then what exactly had he done yesterday? Had he… offended Jingliu?
Soon, the movement of the person beside him disrupted his thoughts.
Jingliu pressed closer to his chest and, with practiced ease, lifted her leg and draped it over his.
Zero's expression darkened. He shifted, trying to pull away, but she leaned in again.
Wide awake now, and mindful that Jingliu was still sleeping, he could only close his eyes briefly and stop moving.
Unable to look at his jade communicator to pass the time and unwilling to disturb Jingliu's sleep, Zero turned his attention to her sleeping face.
After watching for a while, he noticed something off.
Although Jingliu's eyes were closed, her eyelashes were trembling nonstop.
Zero, "..."
Understanding dawned on him.
Jingliu was awake. She was pretending to sleep.
This was… to avoid awkwardness, probably.
They had done something more intimate last night. Thinking back to Jingliu's expression then, Zero found it amusing.
Clearly, Jingliu had been very shy, yet for his sake, she had still put on a calm, composed front and very seriously… well, punished him.
How should he put it? Their progress had been somewhat beyond his expectations.
Zero didn't like having his plans disrupted by others.
Even if he planned to stay home all day, and someone showed up uninvited, he would feel displeased.
No matter how trivial the matter, it couldn't go beyond his control.
But Jingliu's expression back then had been too interesting.
After some thought, Zero decided to relax his restrictions a little for his lover.
Of course, the bottom line was still the same.
Some things could only be done after marriage.
Staring at Jingliu's faintly trembling eyelashes, Zero thought, what a pity, Jingliu would have to wait a bit longer.
No matter how shy or awkward it was, waiting was the only option.
This was an unavoidable morning issue. There was no other solution.
Jingliu seemed unable to keep pretending. She slowly opened her eyes and met his gaze.
Zero smiled back at her.
Jingliu returned the smile, but her movements were anything but gentle. She flipped over him, looking down at Zero from above.
Only then did Zero realize she was wearing a spaghetti-strap nightgown, one strap nearly slipping off her shoulder.
He deliberately avoided looking, lifting his head to focus intently on her face.
Feeling around for the blanket beside him, Zero pulled it up while saying calmly, "Don't catch a chill."
Jingliu slowly raised her hand, pulled the strap back into place, and adjusted her nightgown.
She let out a soft laugh.
"I've noticed that whenever you're embarrassed, you change the subject."
Zero, "..."
He sighed and asked, "Punishing me again?"
Jingliu didn't answer. She responded with action.
After it was over, the two of them kissed for a long time. She was slightly out of breath, wearing an expression that could almost be called compliant.
Between going along with Jingliu's wishes and messing with her head, Zero chose the latter without hesitation.
He pretended to get up and leave, but Jingliu grabbed him in one swift motion.
Half-embarrassed and half-annoyed, Jingliu shot him a glare.
Zero had no choice but to cooperate, letting her have her fill without crossing any lines.
Of course, he didn't forget to mess with her head either. But as he talked, she got angry, her face flushed as she leaned in to block his mouth with hers.
Zero withdrew at the right moment. He carried Jingliu to the bathroom, filled the tub, tested the water temperature, and gently placed her inside. He kissed the top of her head, put the bathrobe within her reach, and then returned to the bedroom.
He tried to find pajamas in the walk-in closet. To his surprise, he actually found some in his size.
Zero changed into them, then started tidying the bed, stuffing things that needed washing into the washing machine. After that, he went to the bathroom to ask Jingliu what she wanted.
Jingliu finished bathing quickly, wrapped in a bathrobe, towel-drying her hair.
Zero asked, "What do you want to eat?"
As she dried her hair, Jingliu tilted her head to look at him. Her gaze drifted downward, and she froze.
Zero smiled. "Alright, we'll talk about the rest later. Come on, let's order delivery first."
Jingliu just looked at him without saying a word.
Zero sighed.
He didn't want to say those kinds of… overly frivolous words to Jingliu outside of certain situations.
He stepped closer, took the towel with one hand, and placed the jade communicator into Jingliu's hand with the other.
Using very light force, he dried her hair and lowered his voice.
"After we're married, let me enjoy myself then."
Jingliu gave a barely audible hum in response.
Zero dried her hair little by little. By the time he finished, the delivery had arrived.
After they ate, Jingliu checked the time, searched the StarNet for a long while, and repeatedly confirmed that it was okay to bathe the day after drinking before finally agreeing to let Zero shower.
Zero let out a sigh of relief and quickly went to the bathroom.
With nothing to do, Jingliu flipped through the jade communicator, her mind uncontrollably replaying what had just happened.
Suppressing her embarrassment, she returned to the master bedroom, only to find that the bed she had intended to deal with was gone.
She searched around and finally found the clean, dried bedsheets and clothes inside the stopped washing machine.
She thought, since I'm free anyway, I might as well make the bed and iron the clothes.
When she finished and returned to the dining area, she saw Zero looking at his jade communicator with one hand while writing something on paper with the other.
Seeing her, Zero looked up and smiled.
He slid the paper toward her.
In the same tone he might use to ask what to eat today, he asked Jingliu, "What day do you want to get engaged?"
Jingliu, "..."
Zero didn't show it on his face, but inside, he felt a rare trace of… nervousness? Hesitation?
He didn't quite know how to describe the feeling.
He had deliberately looked it up on the StarNet. Most couples proposed before getting engaged.
So he figured he could set the engagement date first, and then propose afterward.
Zero picked five auspicious dates, one month, six months, one year, three years, and five years later.
For long-lived beings, these spans were nothing. If anything, they might make him seem too impatient.
He guessed Jingliu would only choose from the last three options.
After all, one month or even half a year was way too fast.
Jingliu studied the paper for a while, then looked up and named her chosen date.
Zero, "..."
As expected of Jingliu. She always went beyond his expectations.
Zero maintained his smile. "Six months from now? Okay."
He fell silent for a moment, then abruptly shifted to talking about children.
At Jingliu's age, pregnancy would be too dangerous.
Half-joking, Zero tried to prepare her in advance.
"Children are the most useless thing there is. As someone's child myself, wouldn't I know?"
Jingliu's gaze softened. She shook her head and gently comforted him.
"What parents don't love their children?"
"They don't care whether their children are outstanding. As long as they're safe and healthy, that's enough for them."
Hearing this, Zero racked his brain listing all kinds of shortcomings children had.
Jingliu responded calmly, refuting each one in turn.
Zero, "..."
He didn't really understand, but he also didn't have much attachment to the idea of carrying on a family line. To him, children were nowhere near as important as Jingliu.
It wasn't until a workday, when Zero arrived at the Divination Commission, that he recalled Jingliu's words about children and parents. His smile gradually disappeared.
His seniority really had dropped. Jingliu really did see him as Hua's child.
Because of something Jingliu had said earlier, that being stuck alone in a position unsuited to you would be exhausting.
Jingliu had thought he was sad, thought his relationship with Hua was one-sidedly bad.
She never could have imagined that the two of them had completely talked past each other, and somehow the conversation still continued…
Zero instinctively shifted the blame onto Dan Feng.
'Dan Feng, you're done for! You and your reincarnation had better not fall into my hands! Otherwise, I'll pluck your dragon tail bald!'
Zero made up his mind to teach the Imbibitor Lunae a lesson.
Pulling his thoughts back, he took out that book of parables and continued reading.
After reading that extremely information-dense parable, he stopped, afraid of drawing the wrong conclusions.
He read several more stories but found nothing. When he turned the page again, he saw a name that absolutely shouldn't appear in a children's parable.
Zandar One Kuwabara.
This person was the first to join the Genius Society.
He was the first to propose the "Imaginary Tree" theory and had even created a special stellar computer.
How special? That computer became the Aeon of Erudition.
Someone like that should have had many more astonishing achievements.
For some reason, Zandar, like Zero himself, vanished from the universe. Outsiders only knew of Zandar's "Imaginary Tree" theory and his achievement of creating an Aeon.
Zero looked closely.
This wasn't a parable. It was a paper.
Zandar was the first author.
Confused, Zero couldn't understand why Zandar's paper appeared in this book.
Though puzzled, he still held an attitude of reverence for a genius and decided to read it carefully.
After just one glance, he was instantly discouraged.
'This was a paper? Zandar wrote this?'
The wording… how did this resemble a paper at all? It was clearly an imaginative novel. It shouldn't have been submitted to a journal, it should've gone to a magazine.
Why did it feel like a joke?
Zero skipped the main text and flipped to the acknowledgments at the end.
There, Zandar mentioned a name.