A Princess’s Cold Night and a Commoner’s Bargain

‘Tsk… Is she suffering from princess syndrome?… Oh my God… You are so awesome… Hey, wait, is she really a princess?’

‘Hiss—’

‘That’s actually fine— Ugh, why am I even explaining myself to her?’

Seeing Ji Xue completely lose her composure, reduced to merely huddling on the ground and sobbing uncontrollably, Lin Mo rolled his eyes, finding even the thought of sparing her another glance to be a tiresome effort.

‘This is the Xuan Nv Sect, not the Imperial Palace. Why would I indulge you?’

‘Ha, if this were the Imperial Palace, perhaps I’d instantly drop to my knees, begging you to stop crying. But here? Hmph!’

Lin Mo immediately abandoned the princess, turning on his heel and retreating into his room. His body collapsed heavily onto the bed— ‘Whoa! This mattress in the B-grade dormitory is surprisingly decent!’

It was so soft, he felt as if he were sinking into a cloud of cotton, yet simultaneously supported by an invisible pair of hands cradling his lower back.

The moment his head touched the pillow, an overwhelming wave of drowsiness crashed over him like a tide.

Having been utterly exhausted from a day of incessant activity, when else would be a better time to indulge in a long, blissful sleep?

‘Wouldn’t it be wonderful to get some beautiful sleep?’

The night sky, dark as ink, silently bled across the horizon. All sounds fell silent.

‘…And yet, this damn sleep was utterly impossible!’

Outside the window, a persistent, mournful, and piercing wail, like a vengeful ghost seeking a life, incessantly drifted into the small courtyard!

‘Damn it! Where does she get all these tears?! She’s been wailing for hours! Aren’t you tired, sister?!’

‘Don’t you know there’s class tomorrow?!’

‘You—’

‘Oh! At this very moment, he desperately wished he could travel back in time to apologize to everyone who had ever complained about their roommates online.’

‘Back then, he had been so nonchalant, thinking, ‘What’s wrong with a little noise?’ or ‘If I’m truly tired, I can sleep through anything.’ Such pronouncements were nothing short of speaking from a position of privilege.’

In this dormitory environment, once night deepened and silence settled, his senses felt magnified tenfold! Even the slightest sound could explode within his skull, akin to someone plucking cotton right by his ear in the middle of the night!

Not to mention this banshee-like wailing—this demonic sound piercing his ears was something even an immortal couldn’t endure! Sleep? Impossible! All he felt was an urge to kill!

Lin Mo was utterly exasperated by the incessant crying, his temper flaring up in a sudden rush of anger.

“You’re too loud!”

He bolted upright from the soft bed, a surge of irrational fury compelling him to storm out and kick open the door in a fit of rage—but he abruptly halted just before reaching it!

‘Never mind, never mind… the door didn’t do anything to me…’

Lin Mo forcibly suppressed the impulse, pushing open the door with an irritable sigh.

In the courtyard, the little princess had, in fact, moved her spot.

She was no longer sprawled on the cold ground but had shifted to a chilly stone bench, burying her face deeply into the equally cold stone tabletop.

The moonlight, clear and cold as water, descended like an invisible veil of frost, silently washing over her disheveled hair and still-damp tear stains.

Her eyelids were tightly shut, yet short, stifled sobs occasionally escaped her lips—it was unclear whether she had truly succumbed to exhaustion and fallen into a deep sleep, or if she had mastered the peculiar art of crying and sleep-talking simultaneously.

Lin Mo’s lips twitched.

‘Soft-hearted? Hardly.’

He was simply plagued by a splitting headache from this soul-sapping wailing! If he allowed her to continue her banshee cries, how would he possibly muster the energy to deal with those formidable individuals in the Hall of Clarity tomorrow?

Sighing, he stepped forward, heading towards the center of the courtyard.

But at that very moment—

“Mm… Mother…” A muffled, indistinct murmur drifted from the table, thick with a nasal sniffle and tinged with fragility. “…I’ll… try my best… Don’t leave…”

Her voice was faint and helpless, broken and intermittent:

“…Mother… I… I’m so cold…”

Lin Mo’s steps abruptly faltered.

His gaze swept over Ji Xue’s luxurious gauze dress, which was visibly flimsy and utterly incapable of warding off the cold, then he felt the biting, bone-chilling air that permeated the Xuan Nv Sect’s courtyard at night…

A wave of exasperation washed over him, and he couldn’t help but roll his eyes dramatically in his mind. ‘Sleeping on a stone table dressed like that? Of course, you’d be cold…’

“Mother… I… I’ll try my best… Can I… call you ‘Mama’?”

Lin Mo observed Ji Xue’s face; even with her eyes closed and deep in slumber, her features lacked the usual relaxation of sleep, remaining taut and strained.

She appeared to be afraid of something, her entire body trembling, though whether from the cold or some other reason, he couldn’t tell.

Lin Mo pursed his lips, then turned and re-entered the room. A moment later, he emerged, cradling Ji Xue’s silk brocade quilt.

‘Tsk, consider it a good deed…’

He bent down, intending to drape this soft, fragrant fabric over the huddled imperial princess—

Creak!

His left foot, unexpectedly, tripped on the cold threshold, and a harsh, grating sound of wood instantly tore through the courtyard’s silence!

Ji Xue, who was on the ground, sprang upright as if a cat whose tail had been stepped on!

The moonlight illuminated the crisscrossing tear streaks and smudges of dirt on her face, her eyes still holding traces of lingering terror. Upon recognizing Lin Mo before her, she first froze, then almost instinctively lifted her sleeve, harshly scrubbing at her cheeks, roughly wiping away the humiliating marks along with her tears!

It was as if a switch had been flipped.

The fragile, whimpering little imperial princess of moments ago vanished. When she next lifted her gaze, that familiar, domineering arrogance, disdainful of all, had re-coalesced in her brows.

Her eyes were sharp as blades, her imperious demeanor unmistakable, radiating a chilling aloofness that pushed others a thousand miles away.

“Commoner! What do you want?!” she demanded, shrinking back warily, widening the distance between them like a hedgehog bristling its quills.

Lin Mo straightened up, expressionlessly shaking the silk brocade quilt in his hand. “Seeing that you haven’t completely cooled off yet, I’m kindly here to collect your corpse.” His tone held a hint of seriousness.

“Ridiculous! How could an imperial princess like me die so easily?!” Ji Xue’s voice suddenly rose, sharp with offense. “It’s you, instead! You dared to severely injure a member of the imperial family! This is a grave crime of insubordination! By the laws of the Immortal Dynasty, you should be executed—!”

“Save it,” Lin Mo cut her off, his voice tinged with mockery. “This is the Xuan Nv Sect, not your imperial palace. No one here will indulge your theatrics. Once you’re done crying, go back to sleep like a good girl; there’s class tomorrow.”

With that, he turned to re-enter the room, still clutching the quilt.

She was less… troublesome when she was sprawled there, drooling in her sleep.

“Wait—!” Ji Xue’s sharp voice snagged him from behind.

Lin Mo impatiently halted his steps. “Now what?”

Ji Xue’s phoenix eyes, brimming with fury, glared at him. “You hypocritically brought out my quilt, weren’t you just trying to humiliate me? Forcing me to sleep exposed on these cold stone tables and benches from now on?! Fine! I’ll endure it! But mark my words, this humiliation today—”

“Just shut up!” Lin Mo could no longer tolerate her paranoid ramblings. He spun around and shoved the soft bundle in his arms roughly against Ji Xue. “Snap out of it! I was worried you’d freeze to death out here!”

“Freeze? Absurd!” Ji Xue staggered from the impact, angrily swatting away the bothersome quilt. “We cultivators have spiritual energy to protect our bodies, making us impervious to heat and cold! How could I possibly freeze to death?! You’re clearly—Ah—Ah—choo!”

A thunderous, utterly un-immortal-like sneeze erupted without warning, instantly shattering her forced dignity and righteous indignation.

The air solidified eerily.

Lin Mo raised an eyebrow, watching Ji Xue’s face instantly flush crimson like a cooked shrimp.

He pointed to the swirling cold mist above, then to his own thin Xuan Nv Sect uniform. “You’re just a little shrimp in the Qi Condensation stage, so don’t pretend you’re impervious to heat and cold with spiritual energy protecting your body… alright?” His tone held a provocative, teasing edge.

Next, he jerked his chin towards the brightly lit room in the small courtyard, his attitude firm. “Stop babbling. The quilt is yours. Cover yourself properly and go back to sleep. If you keep dawdling out here in the cold wind,” he narrowed his eyes, “I guarantee I’ll make you truly ‘experience a night of cold cultivation’ outside.”

Clutching the warm quilt, Ji Xue’s lips trembled, as if she intended to argue further, but in the end, she merely squeezed out a short, forceful snort from her nose. “…Hmph!”

Once inside the room, an indignant Ji Xue simply tossed the quilt onto the bed, then stood there, utterly motionless.

“What now? Are you going to arrange it with your eyes?”

“…I wouldn’t know how! How could I possibly do such lowly work? You do it!”

“Hey, don’t push your luck—”

“I’ll give you spirit stones, thirty of them.”

“Do you think I’m that kind of person? Fellow Daoist Ji, if you can sleep, then sleep. If you can’t, then—”

“Thirty spirit stones are equivalent to thirty years of expenses for a mortal, enough to make one a magnate in the mortal world.”

“…If you can’t, then I’ll help you, Princess.” Lin Mo immediately sprang from the bed he had just collapsed onto, deftly helping Ji Xue make up her quilt.

“Hmph, commoners are commoners; they become so servile for a bit of money.” Ji Xue was utterly triumphant, completely oblivious to the fact that her nose was still crooked.

‘Thirty spirit stones!’

‘A massive sum!’

‘The starting capital for his escape plan!’

‘A true man knows when to yield and when to assert himself; what’s a little grievance?’

‘A man’s knees are worth gold. Now is precisely the time to take out that gold and exchange it for cash—ah, no, for spirit stones!’