[GL] I'm Just A Side Character... So Why Is The Heroine Chasing Me?!-Chapter 27: The night before

Twelve days had passed since Qin Wen’s visit.

Two days remained until the examination.

Zhao Lingxi had reached the fourth level of Qi Condensation, a feat that should have taken months, compressed into weeks through sheer willpower and Lan Yue’s Spirit Gathering Pills.

But the pills were gone now. All five had been used. Whatever happened at the examination, Zhao Lingxi would face it with what she had.

"Fourth level." Liu Ruyan shook her head in disbelief as she watched Zhao Lingxi finish her morning practice. "Even in the main household, the fastest cultivators took half a year to reach that stage."

"The Young Miss isn’t like other cultivators," Chen Mei said proudly.

Lan Yue said nothing. She was watching Zhao Lingxi’s face.

There were dark circles under her eyes. Her cheekbones were sharper than before. She had been pushing herself to the absolute limit, eating little, sleeping less, pouring every ounce of energy into preparation.

She’s burning herself out.

"Young Miss," Lan Yue said, stepping forward. "You should rest today."

Zhao Lingxi didn’t stop. "I’ll rest after the examination."

"You’ll collapse before the examination if you keep this up."

Zhao Lingxi paused mid-form. Her dark eyes turned to Lan Yue, cold and stubborn.

"I’m fine."

"You’re not fine. You’ve lost weight. Your hands are shaking. And your spiritual energy feels unstable. You’re forcing too much through meridians that are still recovering." Lan Yue crossed her arms. "One day of rest won’t kill you. But pushing through exhaustion might."

A staring contest followed.

Zhao Lingxi was terrifying when she wanted to be, that frozen gaze had made nobles and servants alike cower before her. But Lan Yue had faced down hordes of zombies in her past life. A grumpy cultivation genius didn’t scare her.

"You’re very stubborn," Zhao Lingxi said finally.

"I learned from the best."

A beat of silence.

Then, impossibly, Zhao Lingxi’s lips twitched.

"Fine. One day."

---

They spent the morning doing nothing.

It felt strange. After weeks of relentless training, the quiet was almost uncomfortable. But slowly, the tension began to ease.

Zhao Han joined them in the courtyard, carrying a worn chessboard he had found in a storage room.

"Elder Sister, play with me!"

"I don’t have time for—"

"You said you’d rest today," Lan Yue reminded her.

Zhao Lingxi shot her a look. But she sat down across from her brother and began placing the pieces.

Lan Yue watched them play. Zhao Lingxi’s moves were ruthless, capturing pieces without mercy, cutting off her brother’s strategies before they could form. But she let the game last longer than it needed to, giving Zhao Han small victories to keep him smiling.

She’s gentle with him, Lan Yue thought. The only person in the world she’s gentle with.

"Lan Yue, do you want to play next?" Zhao Han asked brightly.

"I don’t know the rules."

"I’ll teach you!"

She ended up sitting cross-legged on the ground while Zhao Han explained each piece with wild enthusiasm. Liu Ruyan brought out dried fruits from their meager supplies. Chen Mei hummed a folk song while mending clothes.

For one afternoon, the Clear Frost Garden didn’t feel like a prison.

It felt like home.

---

Night fell.

Lan Yue was jolted awake by a sound.

Not a loud sound, the opposite. A careful, deliberate silence. The kind of silence that only came when someone was trying very hard not to be heard.

Her apocalypse instincts screamed.

Someone is in the courtyard.

She sat up slowly, barely breathing. Beside her, Liu Ruyan and Chen Mei slept soundly. They hadn’t heard anything.

Lan Yue crept to the window and peered through a crack in the wooden shutters.

Two figures moved through the darkness.

They were dressed entirely in black, faces covered with cloth masks. One carried a small pouch at his waist. The other held a thin blade that gleamed in the moonlight.

Assassins.

Lan Yue’s heart hammered. They were heading straight for Zhao Lingxi’s room.

She didn’t have time to think. She didn’t have time to wake anyone. She only had time to act.

Lan Yue grabbed the iron poker from beside the cold brazier and slipped outside.

The first assassin reached Zhao Lingxi’s door. He pressed his hand against the lock, sending a pulse of spiritual energy to dissolve the latch.

Click.

The door swung open silently.

He stepped inside.

Lan Yue moved.

She crossed the courtyard in three strides, years of apocalypse combat driving her body faster than conscious thought. The second assassin sensed her a heartbeat too late. He turned just as the iron poker connected with the side of his head.

CRACK.

He dropped like a sack of rice.

Inside the room, a crash.

Lan Yue burst through the door to find the first assassin stumbling backward, a thin cut across his cheek. Zhao Lingxi stood in the center of the room, wide awake, a hairpin clutched in her hand like a dagger.

She was already awake. She sensed them too.

"Two of them," Lan Yue said quickly. "The other one’s down."

The remaining assassin glanced between them. Then he reached for the pouch at his waist and hurled something at the floor.

A glass vial shattered.

Thick green smoke erupted, filling the room instantly. Lan Yue’s eyes burned and her lungs seized.

Poison gas!

"Don’t breathe!" Zhao Lingxi shouted.

But the smoke was already everywhere. Lan Yue stumbled, her vision blurring. She could feel the poison seeping into her skin, numbing her limbs.

No. Not like this.

She reached for her power, not the spatial manipulation, but the other one. The ability she had sworn never to use again.

Spirit Devouring.

In her old world, this power had made her feared by allies and enemies alike. The ability to absorb and consume any form of energy, spiritual, physical, elemental. To drain the life force from anything she touched.

She had never used it in this world. She was afraid of what it might do here, where spiritual energy was the foundation of everything.

But she was more afraid of dying.

Lan Yue slammed her palm against the floor.

Devour.

The poison gas shuddered. Then, like water spiraling down a drain, the green smoke was pulled toward her hand. It condensed, twisted, and was absorbed into her body, not as poison, but as raw energy, converted and purified by her ability.

In three seconds, the room was clear.

Zhao Lingxi stared at her, eyes wide.

The assassin stared too, but his shock lasted a heartbeat too long. Zhao Lingxi moved like lightning, striking two precise points on his chest. His body went rigid, and he crumpled to the ground, paralyzed.

The courtyard was alive now. Liu Ruyan burst out screaming. Chen Mei stumbled after her, terrified. Zhao Han’s voice called out from his room.

"What happened?! Elder Sister?!"

"Stay inside, Xiao Han!" Zhao Lingxi ordered.

---

The two assassins were bound and gagged in the courtyard.

Liu Ruyan stood guard with a kitchen knife, her face pale but determined. Chen Mei had gone to Zhao Han’s room to keep him calm.

Zhao Lingxi knelt beside the conscious assassin and yanked the mask from his face. He was young, barely older than Zhao Lingxi herself. His expression was defiant.

"Who sent you?" Zhao Lingxi asked calmly.

The assassin spat at her feet.

Zhao Lingxi didn’t flinch. She pressed her thumb into a pressure point on his neck. He gasped in agony.

"I’ll ask once more. Who sent you?"

Through gritted teeth, the assassin hissed, "Kill me if you want. I won’t talk."

"You will." Zhao Lingxi’s voice was soft and terrifying. "Everyone does."

She pressed harder. The man screamed.

"The—the Shen family!" he choked out. "Shen Yiming! He paid us, said to make it look like an accident, poison in the room while she slept."

"Just Shen Yiming? No one else?"

The assassin hesitated.

Zhao Lingxi’s thumb shifted to another pressure point.

"A woman!" he gasped. "A woman from the Zhao household arranged the entry. She gave us the layout, told us the guard schedule. I don’t know her name, she wore a veil."

Zhao Lingxi released him. He slumped forward, sobbing.

She stood and looked at Lan Yue.

"Zhao Ruoqing," they said at the same time.

---

They didn’t sleep for the rest of the night.

Zhao Lingxi sent Liu Ruyan to report the attack to the household guards, not because she expected justice, but because she wanted witnesses. A record of the attempt. More evidence for the pile she was building.

As dawn broke, painting the sky in shades of gold and red, Zhao Lingxi stood in the courtyard, her face calm and resolute.

"Tomorrow is the examination," she said.

Lan Yue nodded. "Are you ready?"

Zhao Lingxi looked at her, really looked at her. Her gaze lingered on Lan Yue’s hand, the same hand that had absorbed an entire room of poison gas in seconds.

"We’ll talk about what you did tonight," she said quietly. "After the examination."

Lan Yue swallowed. "I know."

"But for now..." Zhao Lingxi turned toward the rising sun, her silhouette sharp against the burning sky. "Thank you. Again."

Lan Yue smiled despite everything. "You really need to stop almost dying. I’m running out of ways to save you."

Zhao Lingxi let out a quiet breath, not quite a laugh, but close.

"Then stay close. It seems I need you more than I thought."

It was the closest thing to warmth Zhao Lingxi had ever shown her.

Lan Yue’s chest tightened.

I’m not going anywhere.