Chapter 23: Quantum Confusion and Childhood Sweethearts

“Entangled… entangled together?!”

Mu Wanqing abruptly covered her flushed face, her expression one of utter shock.

Yet, through the gaps between her fingers, her bright eyes glinted.

Meanwhile, her mind had already begun to automatically play out an indescribable scene: silhouettes of two figures intimately embracing under a romantic moonlit night, disheveled school uniforms, and…

“You two… doing that… wouldn’t it be… too soon?” she whispered.

Her fingers fidgeted bashfully.

Su Liyue: ‘What in the world?’

‘What kind of demonic scenario was her best friend conjuring up now?’

“Exactly! What if there’s a baby then?” Mu Wanqing leaned closer, whispering with a squeal.

“Pfft—!”

Su Liyue nearly spat out a mouthful of old blood, almost three meters away.

‘A goddamn baby?!’

‘Am I the type of person who would be both attacker and receiver (TL Note: A Chinese slang term, ‘zigong zisou,’ referring to self-cest or a person who plays both roles in a relationship with themselves)?!’

“Qingqing, listen to me! Quantum entanglement is actually…” she said, gripping Mu Wanqing’s shoulders.

“I know, I know!”

Mu Wanqing nodded vigorously, a look of ‘I understand’ plastered across her face.

“It’s just… entangled by day, entangled by night, and then the intimate entanglement leads to…”

“Chirp!” Jiuwu, being no longer a fledgling, quickly grasped the meaning of their conversation.

It covered its eyes directly with its wings, yet deliberately left a tiny gap, revealing a ‘shame, shame, shame’ expression of pure gossip.

Su Liyue felt a chill breeze sweep across the back of her neck.

‘Craving by day, craving by night? How utterly ravenous am I for my own body?!’

‘Do you think I’m a fava bean?’

But the next second, Su Liyue sensed something amiss.

‘Wait a minute! This Starcrossed Magic Academy doesn’t have nine years of compulsory education, nor does it teach biology.’

‘So, Mu Wanqing… could it be that she actually believes babies come from something like a goddess’s blessing, a legendary understanding?’

‘Very likely!’

“Qingqing… you don’t actually think… that kissing or hugging can lead to a baby, do you?”

Mu Wanqing’s face instantly flushed crimson.

“O-of course not!”

“You need… you need that…” Her voice grew progressively softer, until she simply buried her entire face in Jiuwu’s feathers.

Phoenix Jiuwu blinked innocently, displaying an expression that seemed to say, ‘You humans are truly complicated.’

Heaven knew how ridiculous it looked for a bird to wear such an expression.

Su Liyue, upon realizing the situation, instantly froze.

‘What the hell? This script isn’t right!’

She even wished she could immediately use a Transfiguration spell to turn herself into an ant and burrow into a crack in the ground.

‘Who the hell said there were no s*x education courses in another world? Even if my best friend hasn’t studied it, her knowledge base is far too extensive!’

“Wait… are you talking about…”

Skeptical, she hesitantly mimed a classic textbook gesture.

Her left hand formed an ‘O’, and her right index finger carefully passed through the center.

“Whoa!” Mu Wanqing instantly sprang up like a cat whose tail had been stepped on.

Her cheeks were so red they could fry an egg.

“Yueyue! You actually know that gesture too!”

Phoenix Jiuwu’s beak was agape, wide enough to fit an entire dragon crystal.

Its tail feathers fanned out in astonishment.

It flapped its wings, tracing a trajectory of awe in the air, as if proclaiming:

‘As expected of that Lord, their conquest speed is practically instant-cast magic!’

Su Liyue instantly froze in place.

She felt as utterly bewildered as if a petrification spell had been cast upon her.

‘So, the clown was me all along?!’

Having recovered, Mu Wanqing began another barrage of critical hits:

“And Yueyue~ didn’t you say you always snuck off to the Ye family’s house to spend the night since you were six?

And before you were ten, you often bathed with him and such…”

At this point, she suddenly covered her mouth, gasping in alarm.

“Don’t tell me… you two started that quantum entanglement back then?!”

Su Liyue was utterly speechless, at a loss for words.

‘So, was it still possible for her to quickly learn time-reversal magic now?’

“Qingqing! W-where did your mind even go?!”

Su Liyue’s ear tips were bright red as she gesticulated incoherently.

“I haven’t even… even had my monthly cycle yet…” The words caught in her throat, and she swallowed the phrase “Auntie Ma” (TL Note: A Chinese slang term for menstruation, literally ‘big auntie’) whole.

‘This rotten world doesn’t even have that brown sugar and ginger trope (TL Note: A common Chinese folk remedy for menstrual discomfort)!’

She had intended to say “Auntie Ma,” but feared her best friend from another world wouldn’t understand the Earth-specific slang.

Yet, knowledge from her past life’s biology classes flashed through her mind: no first menstruation indicated her body wasn’t fully mature.

This realization quickly sparked another thought.

‘She recalled that in her previous life in the cultivation world, female cultivators didn’t seem to experience menstruation.’

‘And she’d heard it from the Saintess of Jade Lake.’

‘Moreover, since she had transmigrated to this magic world, this female body was already almost sixteen, with no signs of it.

Perhaps…’

“Wait!”

Mu Wanqing suddenly straightened her small face, speaking with utmost seriousness.

“Yueyue, you haven’t even had your monthly cycle yet, and you’re… quantum entangled with Ye Xingchen every day like that?”

“My mother said that’s an extremely irresponsible way to treat your body!”

Su Liyue nearly choked on her own saliva.

‘Goddamn quantum entanglement and irresponsibility!’

‘This girl’s understanding of quantum entanglement was truly next level!’

Memories abruptly flashed back.

She remembered it was the year she turned six.

The starlight spilled through the window lattice.

The tiny girl was soundly asleep, holding her other half, Ye Xingchen.

To better control her dual body, she would sneak to the Ye family’s house almost every day.

There, she would meditate and cultivate with herself, even occasionally training back-to-back.

During practice, she would even attempt to spar with herself.

As for sleeping… cough, well, it was her own body anyway, so what was wrong with using it as a natural pillow?

Su Liyue’s parents would always watch the two “children” doting on each other with a smile.

From time to time, they would tease Ye Xingchen’s parents:

“Look, your little Moon has been spirited away by our little Star again.”

Little did they know that this loving “childhood sweetheart” pair in their eyes was actually just a single soul practicing with itself!

“We were cultivating… no, not cultivating! We were sparring with our techniques!” Su Liyue blurted out, only realizing she had slipped up again.

Phoenix Jiuwu suddenly let out a “Chirp!” and tumbled from Mu Wanqing’s shoulder.

Even it now understood the true meaning of “entanglement”!

“Dual cultivation?!” Mu Wanqing’s eyes widened in disbelief.

Her eyes were practically as big as those of Black Cat Detective (TL Note: A popular animated Chinese cartoon character known for his large, expressive eyes)!

Based on the clues, her internal mini-drama instantly loaded.

Combining the crucial clues: Yueyue’s “Void Magic,” their strange tacit understanding, the fact that outsiders couldn’t learn it, and that embarrassing “quantum entanglement,” the meaning couldn’t be clearer… It was all because… because…

“I get it! So you two are performing a magical version of ‘Yin-Yang harmony,’ aren’t you?!”

“And a child’s version at that!”

“No! You don’t get it!” Su Liyue’s face flushed crimson.

“Was your physics class taught by a P.E. teacher?”

“And your chemistry experiments were all used for imagining erotic novels, weren’t they?”

‘This girl’s imagination must have been trained by the Joyful Union Sect (TL Note: A fictional cultivation sect often associated with dual cultivation and erotic practices)!’

‘If she kept imagining, she’d probably unlock eighteen different positions in a moment!’

“Physics? Chemistry?”

“As in, alchemy and potion courses!”

“Phy… alchemy courses?!”

“Ah! So is your Yin-Yang dual cultivation some new type of alchemical reaction?” Mu Wanqing seemed to have a sudden realization.

“Wait! Ye Xingchen spends all day in the alchemy laboratory…”

“Don’t tell me… he’s researching how to have quintuplets?!”

Phoenix Jiuwu had already used its claws to draw a formula on the ground:

[Chaos Fire + Void Magic + Alchemical Potion = Five Times the Joy]

Next to it, five stick-figure babies were drawn.

The familiar textbook in Su Liyue’s hand dropped to the ground with a thud.

‘Was it still not too late for her to quickly escape this place and return to Earth?’