Chapter 424: Extra 19.

"I regret that people sometimes treat our strength as if it means we should never be tired. I regret that the sect’s problems cannot all be solved with one good decision. But I do not regret building this life with you. Not for a moment."

Yan Cijin listened without interrupting.

"And if I could change one thing," Bai Li continued, "I would have met you sooner."

Yan Cijin went quiet. The words were so simple that they slipped beneath all the teasing and touched something she did not often let herself examine. They had met when they were already on their own paths, old enough to have made mistakes and young enough to believe there would always be another chance to correct them. They had not wasted time once they understood what they wanted, but there were still years before their meeting that neither could share with the other.

"If we had met sooner," Yan Cijin said at last, "I would have fallen in love with you sooner. Then I would have had to wait even longer before we got married."

Bai Li laughed. "That is your response?"

"It is a serious problem. I have suffered enough."

"You have suffered nothing."

"I had to wait through your entire confession."

Bai Li covered her eyes again. "We are never going to escape that story."

Yan Cijin drew her hand away and kissed her palm. "Nor should we. It is one of my favorite memories."

The words settled gently between them. Bai Li looked at her wife for a long moment, then leaned in and kissed her. Yan Cijin met her with the same familiar warmth, one hand resting at the back of Bai Li’s neck. The kiss began as a small expression of affection and deepened naturally, carrying the comfort of all the years they had spent learning each other. There was no need to hurry. The evening belonged to them, and for once no elder was waiting outside the door with another report.

Yan Cijin brushed her thumb along Bai Li’s jaw. "We should enjoy this while we can. Tomorrow we may spend the entire day crawling through an old cave."

"If it is a cave, I expect you to complain about the dust."

"I will complain about the dust, the cold, and the possibility that ancient formations are designed by people who have never considered the comfort of their visitors."

"I will make sure we bring warm cloaks."

"And tea."

"Naturally."

"And something sweet."

Bai Li looked at her. "You intend to treat an ancient mystery like a picnic."

Yan Cijin smiled. "I intend to treat my wife like a person who gets hungry."

Bai Li’s expression softened. "Then I will bring something sweet."

They moved from the window to the bedchamber after the cups had been put away. Their private time became more intimate, filled with quiet laughter, tender kisses, and the kind of touch that had become a familiar language between them. They were both adults who knew what they wanted from each other and trusted each other enough to ask. Yan Cijin sometimes teased Bai Li for being too serious, but she never doubted her wife’s tenderness. Bai Li sometimes pretended that her composure remained untouched, but Yan Cijin knew all the small signs that showed how deeply she was affected by even the simplest affection.

The door closed. The brazier burned low. Outside, the stars continued to shine over the peaks.

Later, when the room had grown quiet and Yan Cijin lay curled against Bai Li beneath the covers, the world felt very far away. Bai Li rested her forehead against her wife’s. Yan Cijin’s hand lay over Bai Li’s heart, and the familiar rhythm beneath her palm seemed steadier than anything else in the world.

"Do you really have no regrets?" Yan Cijin asked softly.

Bai Li brushed a kiss against her forehead. "I have one."

Yan Cijin raised her head. "What?"

"That I did not meet you sooner."

Yan Cijin stared at her, then let out a soft laugh that almost became a sigh. "You are not allowed to say that when I am trying to be serious."

"I am serious."

"Then I shall have to make the same request of the heavens. If there is another life, let us meet earlier."

Bai Li drew her close. "If there is another life, I will find you."

Yan Cijin settled against her chest. "You had better. I would be very annoyed if you were late."

Bai Li kissed her hair. "I would not dare."

Outside the window, the stars appeared unusually bright over Mount Hua. A faint silver glimmer gathered around the forbidden summit, so subtle that even a cultivator looking directly at the mountain might have mistaken it for moonlight on the stone. The glow moved along the upper ridge and then disappeared beneath the earth.

Neither woman noticed it.

For that night, they were content to be together.

Bai Li woke once during the final hours before dawn.

The room was dark except for the faint silver light resting along the window frame. The brazier had burned down to a few red coals, and the air beyond the quilt had grown cool. Yan Cijin was curled against her, one hand resting over Bai Li’s heart and her cheek tucked beneath Bai Li’s chin. Her breathing was slow and even. A loose strand of hair lay across Bai Li’s throat, and the weight of her wife’s arm around her waist made it difficult to imagine any reason to move.

Bai Li stayed still.

She could hear the mountain. It was a familiar collection of sounds: wind moving through pine needles, water running somewhere below the residence, the faint creak of a wooden beam as the temperature changed, and, far away, a single cough from a night guard who was probably trying to stay awake at the end of his shift. The ordinary sounds had comforted her for years. They told her that Mount Hua was alive around them,

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TO BE CONTINUED.