The snow beneath their boots actually began to hiss and melt as Wangchen’s internal Qi regulation completely, catastrophically lost control of its temperature in the face of sheer, overwhelming desire.

Ji’an pulled her thumb back, oblivious to the nuclear meltdown occurring inside the Ice Genius.

"You had a little..." Ji’an muttered, her voice suddenly slightly hoarse.

She looked at the glaze on her thumb, and then, completely forgetting where she was and who she was with, she popped her thumb into her mouth to clean off the sweet sauce.

Gulp.

The sound of Xie Wangchen swallowing hard echoed loudly in the silence.

His eyes were glued to her lips. His hands gripped the edges of the empty jade lunchbox so tightly that the magical stone actually began to crack under the pressure.

The tips of his ears weren’t just red; they were practically glowing with a feverish, desperate heat.

’He touched my lips,’ Wangchen’s mind screamed, a chaotic symphony of possessive greed and desperate longing. ’He touched me. And he tasted it.’

The urge to drop the box, grab the lapels of Ji’an’s white robes, pull her against him, and taste the glaze directly from her mouth was a physical, agonizing pain in his chest.

He leaned forward, just a fraction of an inch, his dark eyes burning with a dark, heavy hunger that had absolutely nothing to do with pork belly.

Ji’an finally registered the shift in the atmosphere. The temperature was rising around them.

The look in his eyes wasn’t puppy-dog devotion anymore; it was the look of a starving predator that had just been handed a drop of blood.

’Oh no. Oh no no no,’ Ji’an’s internal alarms blared. ’I crossed a boundary! I wiped the homie’s lip! You don’t wipe the homie’s lip!’

"Uh. Right. Anyway!" Ji’an said loudly, scrambling backward on the stone steps, her face flushing a brilliant shade of crimson. She snatched the lunchbox from his lap. "I should go wash this! And you should... meditate! Yes! Meditate on the... the ice!"

Wangchen didn’t move. He continued to stare at her lips, his chest heaving slightly, looking like a man who was fighting a losing battle against his own demonic nature.

"Ji’an..." Wangchen whispered, his voice dangerously low, reaching out a pale hand toward her.

"WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?!"

The voice hit the courtyard like a physical thunderbolt.

Ji’an shrieked, nearly dropping the lunchbox, and scrambled entirely to her feet.

Wangchen’s hand froze in mid-air, the dark, heavy lust in his eyes instantly shattering, replaced by a flash of profound, murderous annoyance.

Standing beneath the circular moon-gate of the courtyard, radiating an aura of absolute, apocalyptic horror, was Elder Qin Changxu.

The ancient master of the Heartless Dao looked as though he had just walked in on a murder scene.

His face was entirely drained of color. His eyes were wide, staring in abject terror at the scene before him.

From Elder Qin’s perspective, the tableau was a nightmare of the highest order. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

He had walked in to see his prized, emotionless, supposedly ’straight’ and purely disciplined disciple sitting on the steps, his face flushed, his eyes dark with desire, leaning in close to the gray-aproned chef.

He had witnessed the thumb-wiping. He had seen the agonizing, palpable sexual tension hanging in the air like a thick fog.

’A cut-sleeve! My Flawless Ice Root disciple is a cut-sleeve!’ Elder Qin’s soul shrieked, centuries of traditional, stuffy Daoist upbringing violently clashing with the reality of his disciple’s blatant gay panic. ’This demonic cook is seducing him! He is dragging my pure, unsullied disciple onto the crooked path!’

Elder Qin marched into the courtyard, the air freezing instantly around him, creating a localized blizzard of pure, outraged fury.

"Xie Wangchen! Step away from him!" Elder Qin commanded, pointing a trembling finger at Ji’an. "And you! You insolent, corrupting little wretch! What kind of demonic charm arts are you practicing on my peak?!"

Wangchen stood up slowly. The flush vanished from his ears, replaced by a terrifying, glacial calm.

He stepped purposefully in front of Ji’an, using his own body to completely shield her from his Master’s spiritual pressure. His hand rested firmly on the hilt of Winter’s Sigh.

"Master, this is not what you think it is. Brother Lin merely came to deliver me some food; he doesn’t have any intention towards this disciple." Wangchen spoke up as his guard was up against the enraged Elder Qin.

’If anyone here has ill intentions, then it’s definitely not Lin Ji’an, it’s me...’ Of course, Xie Wangchen couldn’t say it out loud, pressing his lips together tightly as he thought.

’If Master attacks him, I won’t hesitate to draw my sword,’ Wangchen decided with absolute, treasonous certainty. ’Master or not, I will freeze him to the bone.’

But before Wangchen could commit high treason, a hand grabbed his shoulder and firmly shoved him aside.

"Excuse me," Ji’an huffed, stepping out from behind Wangchen’s protective shadow.

The panic she had felt over the accidental lip-wipe vanished entirely, replaced by the deep, simmering irritation of a chef dealing with a complaining, unreasonable restaurant manager.

She dusted off her apron, lifted her chin, and fixed Elder Qin with a look of profound, unimpressed condescension.

"Demonic charm arts?" Ji’an repeated, crossing her arms over her chest. She let out a short, mocking laugh. "Elder Qin, with all due respect to your advanced age and deteriorating eyesight, I am holding a lunchbox, not a love potion. I was wiping barbecue sauce off your disciple’s face because he eats like a toddler."

Elder Qin’s jaw dropped. The sheer disrespect was staggering. "You... you dare speak to me with such insolence?! You are trying to corrupt his Dao! You are a distraction! An impure, worldly distraction!"

"Impure?" Ji’an raised an eyebrow, stepping forward. She wasn’t an Outer Disciple anymore. She tapped the glowing green jade token on her belt. "I am now the direct apprentice of the Drunken Sovereign, Qin Changxu, not a low-class disciple of the outer sect."