“Mm……”
The unfamiliar surroundings left him momentarily disoriented. Where was he now? Yun Hao opened his eyes in a slight daze, still somewhat absent-minded.
His head hurt.
He pressed a hand to his forehead and slowly sat up, looking around the room. The furnishings were simple—a bamboo table, a bamboo chair, and the rest filled with books and miscellaneous items. As the youth took in the unfamiliar yet familiar layout, memories gradually surfaced in his mind.
Past recollections and the present scene slowly overlapped. Yun Hao gradually realized—this was the bamboo house Elder Lin had once lived in.
“Hiss……”
He pressed his head and slowly lowered it. Memories surged like a tide. Last night’s events replayed in his mind. He had fled to a remote peak and curled up alone in the snow, shivering from the cold. But what hurt more was the hollow emptiness in his heart. It felt as though something had quietly slipped away, never to be found again.
Then he had slowly fallen asleep. He did not know how long had passed before he was gradually enveloped by warmth. The crackling of a burning campfire had gently woken him. He had seen his junior sister. In his panic, he had tried to run, but failed. After that, his emotions had completely lost control, and he had ultimately cried in front of her.
Yun Hao recalled everything in detail. His junior sister’s comfort from last night still seemed to linger in his ears. She had not asked a single question. She had simply held him gently and tenderly, stroking his head and giving him all the warmth she could.
Home…… Could he still have a home?
He had a special attachment to the idea of home. His former home had been a safe haven for him and his mother. As long as they were in that small, humble room, they could find endless security. Everything outside had seemed to have nothing to do with them. They only needed to live their own small, peaceful lives.
But his mother had passed away six years ago…… and he no longer had a home. Later, he met Senior Sister, stepped onto the immortal path, and became someone mortals could only look up to. Senior Sister had given him everything—caring for him meticulously and guiding his growth. Gradually, he had come to feel that she had also given him a home.
But now he had been driven out again…… Once more, he had no home.
Until last night, when his junior sister had held him gently and told him over and over that he would have a home—that wherever he was, that would be her home.
Yun Hao drifted in a daze, recalling everything……
Junior Sister…… That’s right, where was Junior Sister?
A sudden thought struck him. He was a cultivator. After everything that had happened, his body still felt somewhat uncomfortable. As an ordinary person, his junior sister’s condition must be worse than his.
At that realization, Yun Hao grew anxious. He threw off the blanket and prepared to get out of bed.
“Don’t move. You’re already this big, yet you don’t even know whether your body is well enough before trying to go out?”
A soft, sweet voice sounded. Yun Hao’s movement to get up immediately stopped. He turned stiffly toward the source of the voice. His junior sister stood there holding a porcelain bowl, looking at him with a bright expression.
The youth suddenly did not know how to respond. Last night’s events flashed through his mind again and again. His junior sister’s delicate face, slightly flushed by the firelight, made him strangely unable to meet her gaze directly.
He stared blankly for a moment, then shrank back under the blanket.
Lin Shengyu could not help but laugh at her senior brother’s dazed appearance. She looked adorable. Carrying a bowl of peach blossom porridge dotted with pink petals, she walked step by step to the side of the bed and sat down.
“I made some peach blossom porridge. Try it, Senior Brother.”
“……Mm.”
Yun Hao slowly sat up and reached for the bowl on the small table, but the moment his fingers touched the edge, Lin Shengyu lightly swatted his hand away.
“……This……?”
He glanced at his junior sister, trying to gauge her intention. Yun Hao suddenly felt awkward and did not know what to do.
Seeing her beloved looking so lost, the girl blinked her bright eyes mischievously and said softly,
“I’ll feed you. You just need to sit up. Your body is still a bit weak, so let me do it.”
Being taken care of like this by his junior sister made him somewhat embarrassed. In two more years he would be performing the coming-of-age ceremony, yet here he was being fed porridge by a girl a year younger than him. The youth’s face instantly turned red. He was already eighteen.
“……There’s no need. I can do it myself.”
Yun Hao still wanted to eat the porridge on his own. He was a cultivator. Right now, he was only somewhat physically weak—nothing serious.
Seeing that her senior brother refused, Lin Shengyu resorted to a little trick. Her eyes immediately filled with tears. Yun Hao panicked at once and waved his hands repeatedly.
“J-Junior Sister, that’s not what I meant.”
He grew anxious, his words stumbling.
“Then let me feed you, Senior Brother. Otherwise, I’ll always feel like you’re saying one thing but meaning another.”
After everything that had happened last night, he suddenly felt a sense of restraint toward his junior sister. It was not dislike—it was simply a strange inability to look at her directly. Yun Hao could not find any words to refuse and could only nod somewhat helplessly.
Watching her senior brother lower his head obediently, Lin Shengyu’s lips curved into a beautiful arc. She would slowly walk into his heart, bit by bit pushing Luo Shuiling out.
Huff～ Huff～
The girl gently scooped up a spoonful of peach blossom porridge with a porcelain spoon and blew on it carefully. When she felt the temperature was just right, she brought the spoon to her senior brother’s lips. She acted exactly like someone feeding a small child, making the same coaxing motions.
Yun Hao suppressed his shame and obediently opened his mouth with an “Ah～,” swallowing the peach blossom porridge his junior sister offered. As he tasted it, a faint fragrance of peach blossoms appeared in his mouth, carrying a slight sweetness. It was exceptionally delicious.
Lin Shengyu watched the surprised look on her senior brother’s face and could not help but feel waves of happiness and pride. Over these past two years, she had deliberately learned how to cook various dishes—all for the sake of living together with him in the future.
Filled with joy, she continued feeding the youth spoonful after spoonful. The atmosphere between them was warm and gentle.
Suddenly, Yun Hao seemed to remember something. He swallowed the porridge his junior sister had just fed him and lightly refused her next offering.
“What’s wrong? Are you full already?”
Lin Shengyu looked puzzled. He had not even finished half the bowl, and she had not even had her turn to enjoy feeding him yet. Why was he full so quickly?
Faced with his junior sister’s question, Yun Hao gently shook his head. After hesitating for a moment, he spoke with some reluctance.
“……Yesterday, how did you find me?”
This was the question on Yun Hao’s mind. Yesterday, he had used spiritual energy to cross several uninhabited peaks, going very far from Western Peak. How had his junior sister—an ordinary person—managed to find him?
Moreover, after she found him yesterday, he had cried until he fell asleep. When he woke up this morning, he was back in Elder Lin’s bamboo house. This was all too strange.
Lin Shengyu paused for a moment. The girl’s delicate face softened into a smile as she placed the porcelain bowl on the small table. Then, under her senior brother’s gaze, she gently extended her small hand. Yun Hao looked at his junior sister in surprise, only to find that she was also smiling at him.
“As you can see, Senior Brother, my spiritual power has slowly recovered.”
Yun Hao was about to say something, but his junior sister leaned in and gently covered his mouth with her hand. Her face was slightly flushed, and her eyes held a trace of infatuation.
She asked softly, her voice carrying both a hint of coquettishness and a trace of pleading,
“Senior Brother…… will you live on Western Peak from now on?”
Yun Hao was momentarily speechless. He did not know how to answer. At that moment, Lin Shengyu’s soft voice sounded again beside his ear, carrying a trace of shyness.
“Only when Senior Brother is here will I have a home. And…… I also want to create a home together with Senior Brother.”
His junior sister’s straightforward feelings stirred up the memories from last night. She had said…… he would have a home. Wherever he was, that would be her home.
Gratitude toward his junior sister from last night welled up in Yun Hao’s heart, yet he still hesitated. After a moment, he lifted his head and met her slightly pleading gaze. His heart softened, and he nodded.
Lin Shengyu’s eyes lit up with joy.
“Senior Brother agreed to stay here!”
She was extremely happy! She wanted to stop here for today, but she still hesitated. Opportunities to see Senior Brother this vulnerable were too rare. This was also the perfect chance to slowly get closer to him.
Lin Shengyu lowered her head. A red flush spread across her small face. She made up her mind—she would seize her own happiness. Her voice was soft, carrying a hint of shyness.
“Then…… Senior Brother, don’t you feel that always calling me ‘Junior Sister’ is a bit distant?”
Yun Hao had not realized what she meant. He looked somewhat confused. Had they not always addressed each other this way?
“I think it’s fine…… Besides, you’ve always called me Senior Brother too, haven’t you?”
His slowness in this regard made Lin Shengyu’s shyness fade considerably, replaced by a surge of irritation. Senior Brother really was a big dummy. He still did not understand what she meant.
She felt both embarrassed and annoyed.
“I’m different from Senior Brother! You’re a man, and I’m a woman.”
Yun Hao was momentarily stumped. He did not quite understand. But he had always called her Junior Sister. Suddenly changing the way he addressed her left him at a loss for what to say. After a while, he asked tentatively,
“What does Junior Sister want me to call you?”
Lin Shengyu turned her flushed little face away, her voice as soft as a mosquito’s.
“……Yu’er.”
Yun Hao froze. Although her voice had been very quiet, he had still heard it. “Yu’er……” He repeated it silently in his heart and suddenly felt a bit embarrassed as well.
So, overcoming the shame in his heart, he gently called out,
“……Yu’er.”
“Mm.”
Lin Shengyu turned back but did not look at him, only responding softly.
Both of them felt somewhat shy. But soon, Lin Shengyu picked up the still-warm peach blossom porridge again and continued feeding her senior brother.
Neither of them spoke, yet they both felt exceptionally at ease.
Lin Shengyu gently closed the bamboo door and stepped out of Yun Hao’s room. She could no longer hide the shyness in her heart. Holding the small table against her chest, even her snow-white neck had turned pink.
Senior Brother had just asked her—had they not always called each other Senior Brother and Junior Sister? But in truth, she had already thought of a better way to address him. She simply did not want to use it yet. She would wait until their wedding night, in that moment of springtime intimacy, before calling him by that name.
With all the love in her heart, she would call him—husband.