Two Rabbits Running Side by Side, Part 3

The sound of the scabbard striking the ground rang out crisp and clear.

Yun Yao’s hand, poised to push Mu Hanyuan away, froze inches from his chest, barely nudging him back.

“Reluctantly” pulling back from her ear, a faint glimmer flickered in Mu Hanyuan’s eyes. After a few breaths, without turning, he raised his voice softly toward the outside.
“Wait outside.”

“…Yes, this subordinate… takes his leave!”

The White Tiger Guard’s Right Envoy, dazed, stumbled as if unsure whether to turn left or right. After two steps, he doubled back to retrieve his fallen blade, then awkwardly retreated from the bath chamber.

Facing the tattered curtain he’d slashed, his face flushed with embarrassment. He backed away several steps until he was nearly out of the chamber, beyond earshot of the pool, before his burly frame stiffened and stopped.

Inside the bath chamber.

The moment the armored figure vanished beyond the curtain, Yun Yao unhesitatingly thrust her palm, shoving Mu Hanyuan a丈 away, creating distance.
Ripples spread across the pool, stirring waves.

“City Lord,” the shame of being caught drowned out the earlier shock of hearing “Master.” Yun Yao patted her thin armor, glaring coldly at him across the distance. “I told you last night—I’m not your old acquaintance, nor do I have any interest in men. If you keep crossing this line, I’ll have no choice but to break my promise and abandon this so-called personal guard role!”

Since being pushed, Mu Hanyuan hadn’t moved, standing still in the pool’s center. His eyes, mottled with light and shadow, held emotions too deep to decipher.

Yun Yao felt an inexplicable strangeness.

In that brief moment, the Mu Hanyuan before her seemed to transform into another person.

Before, he was languid yet dangerous, like a beast caged in a sunless abyss for countless years. Now, that beast had suddenly gone dormant, sealed into a serene ink-wash painting of mountains and rivers.

Yet, hidden within the intricate strokes and shaded foliage, no one could discern the true face lurking beneath.

Just as Yun Yao began to suspect he’d noticed some inevitable flaw and considered fleeing—

“You’re right.”
In the misty pool’s center, he blinked his damp lashes, as if waking from a dream.
Lowering his gaze, he gave a self-mocking chuckle.

“A Master so selfless, a paragon of the immortal sects, wouldn’t even kill me—she’d never stoop to being a personal guard for a vile demon like me in the demonic realm, would she?”

Yun Yao: “…”
He was cursing up a storm.

His words doused the anger and indignation of being trifled with, replacing them with a surge of guilt.

Before she could find an excuse, Mu Hanyuan summoned his robe from the air, casually draping and tying it.

He stood by the pool’s edge, his long black hair loosely bound with a silk ribbon, pristine and untarnished.

Yun Yao tilted her head, sensing something off.

As he flicked his sleeve, the bronze mask in the water began to float toward him—

*Swish.*

Halfway past Yun Yao, she snatched it from the air.

Mu Hanyuan’s brow furrowed slightly, turning to look down at the youth with a stranger’s face by the pool’s edge.
“Give it back.”

“…”

Now Yun Yao saw it clearly and was certain—
The blood-red demonic mark at the corner of his eye had vanished in the moment the mask fell.

“Your demonic…”

His gaze sharpened, silencing her.
She couldn’t seem too familiar with him.
After a moment’s thought, she shifted her words. “City Lord, how did your hair suddenly turn from white to black?”

Mu Hanyuan glanced at her coldly. “Are you an old friend of mine?”

Yun Yao choked. “Of course not.”

“Then it’s none of your concern.”
He looked at the bronze mask in her hand. “Give it back.”

“…”

Muttering to herself, Yun Yao acknowledged her current role was beneath his. Unwilling to argue further, she released the mask, letting it float back to him.

Mu Hanyuan turned, securing the mask to his hair.
Then, sleeves lowered, he strode toward the outer chamber.

The echo of the scabbard’s fall still lingered in her ears, and Yun Yao had no face to follow directly.

After climbing out of the pool, she didn’t dare extend her divine sense, instead creeping lightly to the other side’s curtain.

Fortunately, there was no attempt to conceal the conversation outside, the voices clear enough to hear.

“…Rest assured, City Lord, this subordinate saw nothing. If a single word leaks, I’ll offer my head!”
The deep, resonant, yet panicked voice was unmistakably the Right Envoy who’d scrambled out earlier.

*Rustle.*
Mu Hanyuan’s sleeve brushed his cheek lightly.

“Then let it be. No unjust killings. All who surrender are to be integrated. Combine the White Tiger and Vermilion Bird divisions, reassign ranks with all demoted one level. Vacant positions will be filled by the White Tiger Division—”

Yun Yao, listening from beyond, was stunned.

Less than a teacup’s time ago, she’d clearly heard Mu Hanyuan say, “Kill them all, bury them in Tianyun Abyss.” Now, he was ordering their integration?
Talk about changing orders overnight—or within an hour.

No wonder in her past life, within a month or two, Mu Hanyuan had reopened the Demon Sovereign Hall and unified the demonic realm’s main cities, yet in this life, nearly a year had passed with little movement.

It seemed that though he’d fallen to demonic ways, his fate still held a path to redemption…

Leaning against the jade screen by the pool, Yun Yao felt a faint relief.

*Swish.*
The curtain before her fluttered like butterfly wings.

As the gauze settled, a figure in plain robes and a bronze mask appeared before her.

“…Eavesdropping?” His voice, filtered through the mask, carried a metallic chill, his gaze cold and emotionless.

“When did I—” Yun Yao began to retort instinctively.

“Then why are you standing here?” Mu Hanyuan asked.

“I-I was just—” Yun Yao faltered, glancing at him sideways. “This screen and curtain don’t even have a door. I could hear everything from the pool. How is that eavesdropping?”

Mu Hanyuan gave her a cold look. “Making excuses.”

Yun Yao: “?”
“?????”
In all her life, she’d never heard such audacious, condescending words from her own disciple!

“Upset?” He turned back, his cool gaze sweeping over her. “You’re just my guard. Before today, three months ago, we had no connection. What right do you have to be angry with me?”

“…”

Her urge to roll up her sleeves died abruptly. Yun Yao froze in place.

Right.
How had she forgotten? She’d already expelled Mu Hanyuan from her sect.

Even if piercing his heart and condemning him to death was a ruse, declaring before the immortal sects and the world that Qianmen had no such disciple and they had no ties was undeniably real…

The feather on the youth’s crown drooped slightly.

“Not coming?”

A few yards away, his cold, clear voice sounded.

Yun Yao looked up.
The white-robed zither master, masked in bronze, stood with hands behind his back, waiting. Seeing her glance, he spoke again. “You’re my personal guard. Do you understand the meaning of ‘personal’?”

“Where to now?”

“To Tianyun Abyss to accept the Black Tortoise Guard’s surrender. I need to show myself,” Mu Hanyuan said, turning as she reached his side. “You’re coming.”

Yun Yao followed, her mood heavy. “What, starting today, do I have to attend you even while you sleep?”

“No need to attend. Just share my bed.” His voice was calm.

“?”
Yun Yao almost thought she’d misheard, stopping to stare at him.

“What now?” Mu Hanyuan paused, turning back naturally.

Yun Yao gritted her teeth. “Share… your bed?”

“Yes.”
He raised his sleeve, touching his chest. “Someone I trusted most stabbed me here once. Now, I fear sleeping alone.”

Yun Yao choked.
His dark eyes gazed at her calmly. “You said you have no interest in men, so what’s wrong with sharing a bed tonight?”

“…” Yun Yao: “?”