[GL] I'm Just A Side Character... So Why Is The Heroine Chasing Me?!-Chapter 40: The Morning After

Lan Yue woke up warm.

Too warm.

She opened her eyes slowly, still half asleep, and found herself curled against something solid and soft. Her arm was draped over a waist. Her nose was pressed into dark hair that smelled like herbal tea. Her legs were tangled with someone else’s under the blanket.

Her brain caught up in three stages.

Stage one. This is nice.

Stage two. Wait.

Stage three. Oh no.

She had somehow migrated across the entire bed during the night and wrapped herself around Zhao Lingxi like a human blanket. Her face was buried in the back of her mistress’s neck. Her arm was around her waist. Their bodies were pressed together so closely that she could feel Zhao Lingxi’s heartbeat against her chest.

Lan Yue stopped breathing.

Okay. Don’t panic. Just untangle yourself slowly and pretend this never happened.

She began to pull her arm back with surgical precision. Millimeter by millimeter. Like defusing a bomb.

"You’re awake," Zhao Lingxi said.

Lan Yue’s soul left her body.

"I can explain," she said instantly.

"You were cold."

"Yes! Exactly! I was cold! The room has poor insulation and my body naturally sought warmth and it was a completely unconscious survival instinct that has nothing to do with anything!"

"I wasn’t asking for an explanation."

"Well you’re getting one anyway!"

Lan Yue yanked her arm back and scrambled to the far edge of the bed so fast she nearly fell off. She sat there, clutching the blanket to her chest, face burning so hot she could probably cook an egg on her cheeks.

Zhao Lingxi rolled over to face her. Her dark hair was messy from sleep, fanning across the pillow. Her eyes were soft, still carrying that gentle haze of early morning. One strap of her sleeping garment had slipped off her shoulder, revealing the elegant line of her collarbone.

She looked effortlessly, devastatingly beautiful.

And she was smiling. That tiny, barely there curve that Lan Yue was learning to recognize as genuine amusement.

"You talk in your sleep," Zhao Lingxi said.

Lan Yue’s stomach dropped. "I do not."

"You do. Something about zombies and dumplings."

"That could mean anything."

"You also said my name. Twice."

Lan Yue considered the possibility of the floor opening up and swallowing her whole. The floor did not cooperate.

"I was having a nightmare," she said desperately. "You were in danger. In the nightmare. From the zombies. Who were stealing dumplings."

"From the dumplings."

"Yes."

"And you were saving me."

"Naturally."

"How heroic."

"I’m going to wash my face now."

She fled to the small basin in the corner and splashed cold water on her face until the burning faded. Behind her, she heard Zhao Lingxi get out of bed with the quiet grace of someone who had never been embarrassed a single day in her life.

Completely unfair.

---

They met Liu Ruyan and Chen Mei downstairs for breakfast.

The innkeeper served them plain congee with pickled vegetables and steamed mantou buns. Nothing fancy, but after last night’s escape, it tasted like the best meal Lan Yue had ever had. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Liu Ruyan looked between Lan Yue and Zhao Lingxi with sharp eyes. "Did you sleep well?"

"Fine," they both said at the same time.

Liu Ruyan’s eyebrows rose about half an inch. She said nothing further, but the look she exchanged with Chen Mei spoke volumes.

After breakfast, they made their way to the Academy’s city office to arrange transport back to Spirit Crane Mountain. The clerk, a bored looking young man with ink stains on his fingers, checked their identification scrolls and booked them onto a supply cart heading up the mountain that afternoon.

"Not exactly a luxury carriage," he said apologetically.

"We’ll manage," Zhao Lingxi said.

The supply cart turned out to be a wooden wagon loaded with crates of herbs, textbooks, and what appeared to be an entire barrel of pickled radishes. They sat on top of the crates, bouncing along the mountain road as the ox pulling the cart moved at a speed that could generously be described as reluctant.

"This is not dignified," Liu Ruyan said, gripping a crate as the cart jolted over a stone.

"Dignity is for people who aren’t running away from home," Lan Yue said.

"We didn’t run away. We made a strategic retreat."

"We climbed out a gate at midnight and slept at an inn that charged two spirit stones for a room smaller than a closet."

"A strategic and economical retreat."

Even Zhao Lingxi’s lips twitched at that one.

---

They arrived at the Academy as the sun was setting.

Tang Xiaoli was waiting at the gates. She spotted them before the cart had even stopped and came sprinting down the path with Zhao Han right behind her, General Fluffbottom riding on her shoulder like a tiny, feathered general surveying his troops.

"YOU’RE BACK!" Tang Xiaoli crashed into Lan Yue with a hug so forceful it knocked the wind out of her. "I was so worried! I heard about the banquet! Everyone heard about the banquet! Is it true you told your father off in front of the entire household?!"

"How do you already know about that?" Lan Yue wheezed.

"News travels fast when a First Miss publicly refuses an engagement to a man who assaulted her while citing imperial law to her own father’s face." Tang Xiaoli’s eyes were shining. "It’s the most talked about thing in the entire capital. Someone wrote a poem about it."

"Another poem?" Lan Yue groaned.

"A different poem. This one’s about defiance and orchids in winter. It’s actually quite good."

Zhao Han had bypassed everyone else and gone straight to his sister. He hugged her tightly, burying his face in her stomach.

"I heard what Father did," he said, his voice muffled. "He’s horrible."

Zhao Lingxi stroked his hair gently. "He’s our father."

"He’s still horrible."

"Yes. He is."

The honesty in her voice made Lan Yue’s chest ache.

---

That evening, they gathered in Zhao Lingxi’s room for tea. Tang Xiaoli had brought an entire bag of snacks, claiming it was a "welcome home emergency supply kit." Zhao Han sat on the floor, feeding bits of cracker to General Fluffbottom, who accepted them with the gravity of a king receiving tribute.

"So," Tang Xiaoli said, settling cross legged on the bed with a cup of tea. "Tell me everything. From the beginning. Don’t skip the part where Zhao Ruoqing’s face froze."

Lan Yue told the story. The banquet. The ambush engagement. Zhao Lingxi’s speech. The midnight escape. The guard and the fake meridian collapse. The inn.

She did not mention the shared bed.

She absolutely did not mention waking up wrapped around Zhao Lingxi like a koala on a tree branch.

"And then we took a supply cart back," she finished. "The end."

"That’s incredible," Tang Xiaoli breathed. "Zhao Lingxi, you’re my hero. Can I be you when I grow up?"

"You’re older than me," Zhao Lingxi pointed out.

"Details."

A knock at the door interrupted them.

Lan Yue opened it to find a Academy messenger, young and slightly out of breath.

"Message for Miss Zhao Lingxi," he said, handing over a sealed letter. "From the Crown Prince’s office."

He bowed and left.

The room went quiet.

Zhao Lingxi opened the letter and read it. Her expression remained neutral, but Lan Yue caught the slight widening of her eyes before she controlled it.

"What does it say?" Lan Yue asked.

Zhao Lingxi set the letter down.

"The Crown Prince has been informed of what happened at the banquet. He’s filed a formal objection with the Imperial Court against the forced engagement on the grounds that it violates the Academy Protection Act." She paused. "The engagement is officially void. My father cannot legally force it."

Tang Xiaoli let out a whoop so loud that General Fluffbottom fell off Zhao Han’s shoulder in alarm.

"He protected you!" Tang Xiaoli said. "The Crown Prince actually stepped in!"

"He protected his investment," Zhao Lingxi corrected. "The Empress Dowager recommended me to the Academy. A forced engagement would undermine her authority. Mo Tian isn’t being kind. He’s being strategic."

"Does it matter?" Lan Yue asked. "The result is the same. You’re safe."

Zhao Lingxi looked at her. "For now."

"For now is enough." Lan Yue took the letter and folded it neatly, placing it on the desk beside the cultivation notes and the ancient scroll translations. "We deal with now. Tomorrow can wait."

Zhao Lingxi studied her for a moment. Then something in her expression eased. Not a smile exactly, but the absence of tension. The letting go of something heavy.

"You’re right," she said quietly.

"I usually am."

"Don’t push it."

Tang Xiaoli raised her teacup. "I propose a toast. To surviving terrible families, dramatic escapes, and friends who show up at gates with snacks."

"Here, here!" Zhao Han raised his cracker.

General Fluffbottom squawked.

They clinked cups in the small, warm room at the top of Spirit Crane Mountain, and for a moment, everything felt okay.

Lan Yue sipped her tea and looked around at the little group they had built. Tang Xiaoli, loud and generous and fiercely loyal. Zhao Han, brave beyond his years. Liu Ruyan and Chen Mei, steady and dependable. And Zhao Lingxi, sitting by the window with moonlight on her hair and that pearl pin glowing softly above her ear.

This mismatched, unlikely bunch of people.

This was the closest thing to family Lan Yue had felt in either of her lives.

She wasn’t going to let anyone take it away.