Mu Anqi ate a simple bowl of tomato and egg noodles at Mu Xiaobai's house, drinking even the noodle soup until it was completely gone.
"Do you want to eat anything else?" Mu Xiaobai tilted her head. "Dessert? Fruit?" [T/N: TvT I am feeling sad for my little Xiaobai, It should have been her!! I say as I get dragged in a white room again]
"Not for now… I can't eat anymore." Mu Anqi rubbed her round belly. Good food always healed the heart, and being with Mu Xiaobai made her calm and relaxed. Mu Anqi looked at Mu Xiaobai, thought for a moment, and asked, "Has General Ji contacted you?"
"Yes," Mu Xiaobai replied. "I provided the general with all kinds of desserts, and in return, the general signed me up for a baking class."
"Then, what do you think of the general… this ghost?" Mu Anqi asked tentatively.
Mu Xiaobai looked a bit puzzled. In her understanding, this wasn't the first time Mu Anqi had asked this: "In my opinion, General Ji is very nice. But if she treats you badly, I'm willing to leave with you." Clearly, she had misunderstood Mu Anqi's meaning.
"No, no, no, not at all. The general treats me very well too." Mu Anqi scratched her head, feeling a bit troubled. Mu Xiaobai obviously didn't understand topics about feelings, so Mu Anqi rephrased, "Do you think… the general is reliable? If someone were to be with her for a very long time…"
"More reliable than my former master," Mu Xiaobai answered sincerely. "And General Ji is very powerful."
"…" That answer really fit Mu Xiaobai's personality. As for Mu Xiaobai's "illusory former master"… never mind. Mu Anqi opened her friends list. Naturally, this kind of thing was better discussed with other players, but it seemed that none of the players on her list were in a similar situation. Hmm, Wu Sansheng and the White Fox Demon King might have a bit of ambiguity, but in that case, it looked like the White Fox Demon King was casting a wide net, while Wu Sansheng remained unmoved by temptation.
What's there to hesitate about? Isn't General Ji's personality already quite clear? Even before everything was openly addressed, her possessiveness was already so strong. Except when she needed to exercise restraint with her teammates, any "intimate" contact or verbal "cornering" from the game's spirits would provoke strong displeasure from General Ji.
Moreover, General Ji's obsession was very obvious. No ghost king would extend an invitation in the beginner stage and then recruit someone in the second game. A ghost with General Ji's personality… once she sets her sights on a "target," she intends to claim it.
Mu Anqi was very aware of herself as a "target," and she wasn't even opposed to this level of possessiveness.
…In truth, there wasn't much to hesitate over, but facing such emotional matters directly still made Mu Anqi slightly uneasy. She held her chest, and just thinking of General Ji's face—whether in her fierce ghostly form or her normal appearance—made her heart flutter.
"I might… be with General Ji." Mu Anqi said softly, looking at Mu Xiaobai, her ears flushed pink.
"Congratulations." Mu Xiaobai didn't seem surprised by the news. She immediately asked, "So, do you need a wedding cake?"
Mu Anqi: "…No, that's a bit too soon for me."
At least… at least they should date first, right? [T/N: Nope just sign the papers and kiss that's all! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*.✧]
"Alright then." Mu Xiaobai looked a bit disappointed. She took two bags of frosted cookies from the fridge and handed them to Mu Anqi. "Two gifts—one for you, and the other for General Ji."
"Thank you."
With the gifts in hand, Mu Anqi left Mu Xiaobai's house and headed to the General's residence.
This time, she didn't see little Xia Fenghua, which was quite unusual. The moment she stepped into the General's residence, General Ji's voice rang in her mind:
"Come to the 'training ground.'"
Mu Anqi: …
No way? No way? One moment she just confessed, and the next moment she has to continue the devilish training? Couldn't General Ji be a little gentler!
Holding back her emotions, Mu Anqi hurried to the backyard. Upon arrival, she noticed several new weapon racks had been added, filled with axes, halberds, swords, spears, and other weapons, as well as long whips, nine-section whips, and so on. Another rack held various short knives and daggers.
No… this can't be. She hadn't mastered daggers or staff techniques yet, and now she was supposed to start a new skill line? Mu Anqi nearly fainted. She stared blankly at the weapon racks, then looked at General Ji. "General, you…"
"I'm not adding extra lessons for you, don't worry." Ji Huaichu's eyes held a smile.
Mu Anqi breathed a sigh of relief, then took two gift bags from her storage ring. She handed one to Ji Huaichu and said, "This is a gift from Mu Xiaobai for you—frosted cookies."
"Alright." Ji Huaichu took the frosted cookies, then quietly asked, "Do you want to start training now, or… do you want to give me an answer first?"
"…How much do you know about the world I come from?"
"That depends on what aspects you mean," Ji Huaichu said. "I'm not a rigid person, nor exactly ancient. My acceptance of new things is fairly good."
"I mean…" Mu Anqi scratched her head. "You should know… after confirming a relationship, people need to date, right? That… talking about marriage and such is too soon for me…" After all, in Mu Anqi's understanding, people in the past didn't seem to date.
Ji Huaichu hadn't expected this. She turned her head, adjusted her emotions, and softly said, "Of course you can."
"So, girlfriend?"
Mu Anqi certainly noticed Ji Huaichu's small gesture. When the word "girlfriend" was spoken, she felt a warm rush surge to her head and could only quietly respond with a low "Mm."
"My little girlfriend, today do you want to learn daggers or staff techniques?" Ji Huaichu seemed to be in a very good mood. Her voice was gentle as she leaned close to Mu Anqi's ear and asked softly, raising her hand to carefully hold Mu Anqi's fingers. "Or… both?" [T/N: I feel like it's crueler version of "dinner, bath or.. Me" lol]
"Just dagger techniques is fine." Ji Huaichu's fingers were warm, clearly paying close attention to these little details. After Mu Anqi answered, Ji Huaichu led her to the weapon rack and had her pick up a dagger.
"Just like before, do each movement correctly ten times first. Then I'll train your reflexes."
Mu Anqi: "…Okay."
This had nothing to do with the kind of first date she had imagined!
…
After a full day of training, Mu Anqi soaked in the medicinal bath, completely unable to understand why the first day of confirming their relationship had gone by like this.
Could this really be the experience of dating General Ji? Mu Anqi thought helplessly: this is… a rather unconventional kind of charm.
After finishing her washing up, Mu Anqi changed into her pajamas and returned to her room to rest. She walked to the window to close it—after all, this was Taiyin, the General's residence, and the night's yin energy was especially strong, making it feel colder. However, as she approached the bed, a shadow gradually took shape at the window. Under the bright moonlight, General Ji's expression grew even softer. She gently asked, "Little girlfriend, do you want a goodnight kiss?" [T/N: Bwhahaha!!! My stomach!! It was completely unexpected LOL!!]
"!!!" Mu Anqi's hand trembled as she tried to close the window, but Ji Huaichu raised her hand to hold it open.
"It's just a little joke… goodnight."
"G-Goodnight." Mu Anqi looked at this moonlit beauty, her voice slightly trembling. She lowered her gaze, then lifted it again after adjusting her emotions, and said once more, "Goodnight, my General Ji."
"Goodnight, my little player." The General dissipated into black mist. As it disappeared, the mist drifted into the room and lightly touched Mu Anqi's forehead—cold and fleeting—before vanishing completely in the next instant.
Mu Anqi touched her forehead, her face even redder.
No! No! Next time… next time she had to be a bit more proactive… it's just a goodnight kiss after all!
As soon as General Ji left, Mu Anqi's courage to run away from home returned. Strangely, even though she had previously been able to unconsciously say those teasing or praising words to General Ji without noticing, now that their relationship was officially established, she didn't know what to say when she saw her. Mu Anqi scolded her own "boldness," yet still felt a thrill from the "touch of the black mist that vanished instantly."
After tossing and turning in bed a few times, the drowsiness from the medicinal bath still wouldn't come. Mu Anqi stared at the bed canopy, listening to the steady beat of her own heart in the silent space—one beat after another, one beat after another—still feeling as if she had stepped into an illusion.
…Until the next day, when she was once again dragged off for training.
The General who visited at night seemed unreal; only the General before her now—with a blank expression, making her redo movements ten times whenever she got them wrong—felt real.
Mu Anqi felt mentally exhausted by this.
Of course, what Mu Anqi didn't know was that every night after General Ji left, she would return to the study, move aside various reports, then take out a script book sent by Bai Yulai from a hidden compartment, frown as she read it thoroughly, and then carefully put it back.
Of course, Mu Anqi didn't know that one time when General Ji took out a script book and saw its title, "The Fox Demon's Creamy Scholar", she couldn't hold back and crushed the book on the spot. Then she found Bai Yulai to give her a scolding and strictly forbade her from "sneaking in personal content."
Bai Yulai, who was sitting on the rooftop absorbing the moonlight's essence to cultivate, was inexplicably "forced" into a sparring session by the suddenly teleported General Ji, leaving only a pile of script pages behind.
Bai Yulai: "What? This book is still my favorite! You can't look at a love script with a biased eye! The fox and the scholar are both innocent!"
It wasn't until Ji Huaichu left that Bai Yulai dared to grumble: "Damn it! Why can this ghost be so close to a player? And my precious scholar doesn't even smile at me once!"
After grumbling, Bai Yulai continued absorbing the moonlight, her tail swishing occasionally. For the next game, she planned to take Wu Sansheng to the Black Mirror Vortex for training. Wu Sansheng had earned quite a few points this time, and along with drawing some good skills, it was time to experience the fully malicious Black Mirror Vortex! Over the past few days, Bai Yulai had been busy searching for suitable Black Mirror Vortices and reserving them in advance. Unlike that guy Ji Huaichu, who just acted recklessly in front of players, Bai Yulai needed to prepare thoroughly to show off.