Chapter 59: A Mother’s Doubts and a Friend’s Reassurance

“Stop beating around the bush,” Hua Yan retorted. “It was clearly you who was afraid to sleep alone, clinging to us for company. How has it suddenly become *us* who can’t bear to sleep without you?”

Hua Yan crossed her arms, casting an exasperated glance at the pink-haired little girl before her.

“Tell me honestly, why this sudden urge to sleep by yourself?”

“Well, it’s just… I’m the big sister now, aren’t I?” Hua Xiangrong mumbled. “I asked my classmates at the academy, and they all said their parents stopped sleeping with them ages ago.”

Hugging her pillow, Hua Xiangrong’s small head drooped low, her voice growing increasingly faint.

“Even Little Pomegranate, who’s so timid, sleeps by herself… I, I just bragged to them that I do too…”

“So, from today onwards, I want to sleep by myself!”

“Oh, come on, that’s no big deal, just a little white lie…”

Hua Yan’s words trailed off as she suddenly realized she shouldn’t teach a child that way. She quickly cleared her throat and amended her statement.

“Ahem, I mean, a gentleman’s word is his bond! Since you’ve made such a bold claim, you must strive to achieve it! Er… Rongrong is amazing!”

“Mm!”

Receiving her mother’s affirmation, the pink-haired girl’s eyes brightened, and she nodded vigorously.

“Then, Mother, I’m going to sleep in the side room! I’ve already made my bed, so you and Mother don’t need to worry!”

“Good night!”

With that, she hugged her pillow and scampered out of the room, her footsteps light and quick.

“Good night.”

Hua Yan waved at the small figure, using her divine sense to confirm the girl had settled safely in the side room before turning back.

As she turned, her gaze met a serene, cool, and tranquil face.

Yun Xueshang sat on one side of the bed, her head tilted slightly as she watched Hua Yan.

Wait! Something was wrong!

Rongrong was gone. Tonight… wouldn’t it just be Yun Xueshang and herself sleeping together?

Hua Yan snatched the quilt, pulling her knees up and shrinking onto the bed, burying her flushed face in the bedding as the realization belatedly struck her.

They weren’t even married! This, this man and woman alone… how could it be proper!

“Yan’er?”

Observing her peculiar behavior, Yun Xueshang tilted her head slightly and asked softly, “Is something wrong?”

She paused, as if something had occurred to her. “Are you worried about how we should sleep now that Rongrong has left?”

The white-haired immortal’s expression was composed, her tone considerate.

“I promised you on the first night we shared a bed that if it caused you discomfort, I could sleep outside and return early the next morning, coaxing Rongrong into believing we slept together.”

“Now… that promise still stands.”

For some reason, despite her usual candor, a strange feeling caught in her throat as she spoke, causing her voice to falter slightly.

“I…”

Hua Yan slowly lifted her face from the quilt, her almond eyes wide as she stared at the white-haired girl by the bed. In the warm candlelight, Yun Xueshang’s expression remained calm and unruffled, as if speaking such words were the most natural thing in the world.

‘You just don’t want to sleep with me, do you? The moment Rongrong leaves, you want to leave too?’

‘Am I, Hua Yan, so utterly unworthy of even a moment more of your company?’

A bitter, stifling resentment suddenly surged within her, tinging her words with a defiant edge.

“I don’t care where you sleep! Go wherever you please!”

With that, she rolled over, pulling the quilt tightly around her, leaving only the back of her red-haired head visible to Yun Xueshang.

“Alright.”

Yun Xueshang merely took it as her unspoken agreement. She lowered her eyes, nodded, then rose from the bed and walked towards the door.

***

“Wait.”

Just as her hand was about to touch the doorknob, Hua Yan’s slightly awkward voice suddenly sounded from behind her.

Yun Xueshang turned around, looking at the graceful figure still facing away from her on the bed.

“You… tell me honestly, do you… want to stay, or do you want to sleep outside?”

The red-haired girl remained facing away, her hands tightly gripping the bedding. Her small, exposed ears were already burning red, and her voice drifted out, low and indistinct.

‘Hmph, Yun Xueshang! I’ve asked it this bluntly. If you still dare to say you dislike me… you’re dead!’

“I…”

Yun Xueshang paused in surprise, then her brows gently curved into a smile as she answered honestly, “I want to sleep with Yan’er.”

“……”

“S-since you’ve already said so…”

The red-haired girl still had her back to Yun Xueshang, but her voice couldn’t conceal the quiet joy that was creeping in.

“Then, I, I can’t really kick you out… It wouldn’t be very good to make you sleep outside alone, after all… I, I’m still very considerate!”

She paused, her voice as thin as a mosquito’s buzz. “Hurry up and get in… before I change my mind…”

“Mm, alright.”

Yun Xueshang softly acknowledged, the smile in her eyes growing warmer. She extinguished the lamp, then quietly and gently climbed onto the bed, sharing the same brocade quilt with Hua Yan, a person’s width separating them.

That was the space usually reserved for Hua Xiangrong. Yun Xueshang did not move closer, remaining dutifully in her original spot.

‘So fragrant…’

In the dark silence, a wisp of floral scent quietly wafted from the pillow, identical to the fragrance Yun Xueshang had smelled in the illusion—rich yet not cloyingly sweet.

She couldn’t help but shift, rustling softly as she turned from lying flat to lying on her side, facing the source of the floral scent.

“……”

The room fell silent once more, leaving only two shallow breaths and the quiet acceleration of heartbeats in the darkness.

“Yan’er, thank you.”

After a long moment, Yun Xueshang spoke softly.

“Thank me for what? Just for letting you sleep in the room?”

Hua Yan quickly responded in the dark, evidently wide awake herself.

“No, I wanted to thank you… thank you for being here. Without you, I truly wouldn’t be able to play the role of Rongrong’s mother well.”

Yun Xueshang’s voice was ethereal and earnest, and contrary to Hua Yan’s expectations, the topic she spoke of was entirely about the child.

She paused, a hint of hesitation in her words.

“Actually, these past few days, I’ve been wondering… am I a truly incompetent mother to Rongrong? Perhaps I only agreed to play this role because I liked Rongrong’s sweet demeanor, or because I yearned for this rare familial affection… But can I truly do it well?”

Listening to her words, Hua Yan turned over, meeting those red eyes filled with a faint apology in the darkness.

“How could you think that? Rongrong clearly likes you so much, and she’s never even realized she came to another world.”

“Because, from Rongrong’s descriptions, the ‘me’ in the other world wasn’t a competent mother.”

Yun Xueshang’s eyelids drooped slightly, a trace of sadness in her voice. “She was like me, never knowing how much seasoning to add when cooking—yet Rongrong had already grown accustomed to it…”

“She was like me, easily tricked out of spirit stones by street vendors—and I, as her mother, even had to be reminded by my daughter, Rongrong…”

“She raised Rongrong alone outside the sect… I don’t know, if it were me—me, who is so similar to her—would I also harden my heart and leave Rongrong to wait and hope outside alone, waiting for her mother’s occasional visits…”

“I feel… that no matter which world’s me, perhaps I can’t be a good mother.”

Her voice softened. “After all, I was raised by Master… I never had a mother. I…”

“That’s not true at all!”

Hua Yan loudly interrupted her, her tone indignant. “You just said it yourself, those were the actions of the ‘you’ in another world—the you in *this* world is different!”

“The Yun Xueshang I know carefully looks after Rongrong’s feelings, tries hard to make delicious meals, and awkwardly yet earnestly strives to play the role of a mother, a role she’s never experienced before!”

“You say you were raised by Master and never had a mother—what about me?”

Hua Yan stared at her silhouette in the darkness, enunciating each word. “I have parents, but they traveled constantly, rarely returning home since I was very young.

I, too, was raised solely by my grandmother—but even so, don’t I still run and jump, eat, drink, and play to my heart’s content?”

“What if we didn’t have a mother in our childhood? In our lives, there were still people who cared for us like mothers—for me, it was my grandmother; for you, it was your Master.

This doesn’t prevent us from giving that same care to Rongrong!”

“I can’t even cook, and at first, when I met Rongrong, I would argue and fight with her… But that doesn’t stop me from loving her like my own daughter, even if, in the first ten years of her life, in any world, there was no such person as Hua Yan!”

“You don’t know how much seasoning to add? No problem, just leave it to me! You’re easily tricked out of spirit stones? No problem, I have plenty of spirit stones anyway!”

She puffed out her cheeks, glaring at Yun Xueshang. “No matter what, both Rongrong and I, Hua Yan, have decided on you! You *are* Rongrong’s mother! Since you promised me, stop overthinking things, and don’t even think about escaping!”

“I…”

Yun Xueshang gazed blankly at Hua Yan’s silhouette in the darkness.

Though she couldn’t see clearly, she could distinctly imagine Hua Yan’s appearance at that moment—surely pouting slightly, looking at her with a hint of disdain and a touch of huffiness, just as she usually did.

Just like her usual vibrant and radiant self.

According to Rongrong, this was probably what they called “tsundere,” wasn’t it?

Yun Xueshang’s lips slowly curved into a genuine, gentle smile, which also warmed her eyes.

“Thank you, Yan’er.”

‘Having you truly is wonderful.’

“Tsk, what a nuisance.”

Hua Yan mumbled softly, rustled as she turned over, and said nothing more.