[GL] I'm Just A Side Character... So Why Is The Heroine Chasing Me?!-Chapter 44: A day off

Once a month, the Academy gave students a free day.

No classes. No training. No lectures about meridian pathways or the seventeen types of spiritual herbs that could kill you if prepared incorrectly. Students were allowed to leave the mountain and visit the nearby town of Qinghe, a bustling market settlement that existed almost entirely to separate Academy students from their spirit stones.

Tang Xiaoli had been planning this trip for a week.

"I need fire crystals. Grade three, not that garbage grade two the Academy supplies. And moon lotus extract for my new pill formula. And there’s a shop that sells honey cakes the size of your face." She counted items on her fingers. "Also I need new robes because General Fluffbottom ate my spare set."

"How does a sparrow eat an entire set of robes?" Chen Mei asked.

"Aggressively."

They set out after breakfast. Zhao Lingxi, Lan Yue, Tang Xiaoli, Zhao Han, Liu Ruyan, and Chen Mei. The full group. Even General Fluffbottom came along, perched on Tang Xiaoli’s shoulder like a tiny, judgmental emperor surveying his kingdom.

The path down Spirit Crane Mountain was steep but beautiful. Pine trees lined the trail, and the morning air smelled like earth and wildflowers. Sunlight filtered through the canopy in golden patches.

Zhao Han ran ahead, his energy boundless now that his lungs had healed. He chased butterflies, pointed at interesting rocks, and asked approximately four hundred questions per minute.

"What’s that tree called? Why is the bark different? Can you eat those berries? What happens if you eat them?"

"You die," Tang Xiaoli said cheerfully. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

"Cool!"

"Not cool. Very much the opposite of cool."

Zhao Lingxi walked beside Lan Yue at the back of the group. She wore simple clothes today. A pale gray outer robe over white inner garments. Her hair was up in a loose knot, held in place by the pearl pin.

She looked relaxed. Actually, genuinely relaxed. The tension that usually lived in her shoulders was absent. Her stride was easy. Her face was calm without the sharp edge of vigilance that normally accompanied it.

Lan Yue kept stealing glances.

Professionally, of course.

"You’re doing it again," Zhao Lingxi said without looking at her.

"Doing what?"

"Looking at me when you think I can’t tell."

"I was looking at the trees."

"The trees are to your left. I’m to your right."

"I was comparing the scenery."

"And how does the comparison hold up?"

Lan Yue walked straight into a low hanging branch.

Tang Xiaoli howled with laughter from up ahead. Even Liu Ruyan cracked a smile.

---

Qinghe town was alive with noise and color.

Market stalls lined the main street, selling everything from spiritual tools to grilled meat skewers to hand painted fans. Musicians played on corners. Children chased each other between the stalls. The smell of fried dough and roasted chestnuts filled the air.

They split up by unspoken agreement. Liu Ruyan and Chen Mei went to buy household supplies. Tang Xiaoli dragged Zhao Han toward the alchemy supply district, promising him honey cakes afterward. General Fluffbottom went with them, riding on Zhao Han’s head and looking extremely pleased about it.

Which left Zhao Lingxi and Lan Yue alone.

"So," Lan Yue said.

"So," Zhao Lingxi said.

They stood in the middle of the busy street, surrounded by laughter and commerce and the general chaos of a market day. Two people who faced assassins and poison and scheming families without blinking, completely unsure what to do with a free afternoon.

"We could browse the stalls," Lan Yue offered.

"We could."

"Or get food."

"Also possible."

"Or stand here awkwardly until the others come back."

Zhao Lingxi’s lip twitched. "Let’s walk."

They walked.

The market had a rhythm to it. Loud and fast near the food stalls, quieter near the bookshops and tea houses, chaotic near the spiritual tool vendors where students haggled like their lives depended on it.

Zhao Lingxi paused at a bookstall, running her fingers over the spines of cultivation manuals. The vendor, an old man with reading glasses balanced on his nose, watched her nervously. Noble customers were either very generous or very demanding.

"Looking for anything specific, miss?"

"Historical records," Zhao Lingxi said. "Anything related to the Wuying Mountain event. Eight hundred years ago."

The old man’s eyebrows rose. "That’s a deep cut. I might have something in the back." He disappeared behind a curtain.

While they waited, Lan Yue browsed the adjacent stall, which sold trinkets and accessories. Her eyes caught on a small woven bracelet. Red thread, simple knot pattern, with a tiny jade bead woven into the center.

"That’s a lovers’ knot," the shopkeeper said helpfully.

Lan Yue yanked her hand back like the bracelet had bitten her. "I wasn’t looking at that."

"Of course not, miss." The shopkeeper smiled knowingly.

Lan Yue moved three stalls away and pretended to be deeply interested in a display of wooden combs.

---

They ended up at a tea house overlooking the river.

It was a quiet place. Wooden balcony, hanging lanterns, a view of the water that sparkled in the afternoon sun. They ordered jasmine tea and a plate of sweet rice cakes that Zhao Lingxi picked at with elegant precision.

For a while, they just sat.

It was nice. The kind of nice that Lan Yue hadn’t experienced in either of her lives. In the apocalypse, every quiet moment was stolen time between disasters. In the Zhao household, peace always came with a price.

But here, in this unremarkable tea house in an unremarkable town, with sunlight on the water and jasmine steam curling between them, there was nothing to fear. Nothing to plan for. Nothing to survive.

Just two people sharing tea.

"You look different today," Zhao Lingxi said.

"Different how?"

"Less tense. You’re usually watching everything. Scanning exits. Counting threats." She tilted her head. "Today you’re just... here."

Lan Yue realized she was right. She hadn’t checked the exits once since sitting down. Her shoulders weren’t locked. Her jaw wasn’t clenched.

"I guess I feel safe," she said, surprised by her own honesty.

"Here? In a random tea house?"

"With you." The words came out before she could filter them. Her ears immediately started burning. "I mean, because you’re strong. And alert. So I don’t have to be. It’s a tactical advantage. Shared vigilance distribution. Very strategic."

Zhao Lingxi looked at her. Long and steady. That gaze that saw through every excuse and every deflection.

"Tactical," she repeated.

"Extremely tactical."

"And the blushing? Is that also tactical?"

"It’s a circulation issue."

"You have a lot of circulation issues."

"I should see a physician."

"You should."

They held each other’s gaze across the table. The tea steamed between them. Sunlight caught the pearl in Zhao Lingxi’s hair.

And then Zhao Lingxi did something she had never done before.

She reached across the table and brushed a strand of hair from Lan Yue’s face.

Her fingers were light. Barely there. They traced the line of Lan Yue’s temple, tucked the loose strand behind her ear, and lingered for just a moment on the curve of her jaw.

Lan Yue forgot how to speak. And breathe. And possibly how to exist.

"There," Zhao Lingxi said, pulling her hand back. "It was in your face."

"Thank you," Lan Yue managed in a voice approximately two octaves higher than normal.

"You’re welcome."

Zhao Lingxi picked up her tea and sipped it. Perfectly composed. As if she hadn’t just short circuited every nerve in Lan Yue’s body with a single touch.

Meanwhile, Lan Yue’s brain was producing nothing but static.

---

They rejoined the group in the late afternoon.

Tang Xiaoli had bought three bags of alchemy supplies and an entire box of honey cakes. Zhao Han had somehow acquired a wooden toy sword that he was swinging at invisible enemies with great enthusiasm. General Fluffbottom had a new ribbon around his neck, bright red, which made him look like a tiny, feathered gift.

"Good day?" Tang Xiaoli asked, falling into step beside Lan Yue as they walked back up the mountain.

"Fine."

"Just fine? You spent the whole day alone with Zhao Lingxi."

"We had tea."

"Romantic."

"It was not romantic. It was tea."

"Was there a nice view?"

"The river was pleasant."

"Did she do anything cute?"

Lan Yue’s hand drifted unconsciously to her jaw, where the ghost of Zhao Lingxi’s fingers still lingered.

"No," she said too quickly.

Tang Xiaoli’s grin could have powered every lantern on the mountain.

"You’re hopeless," she said.

"I have no idea what you mean."

"Sure you don’t."

Up ahead, Zhao Lingxi walked with Zhao Han, listening to the boy’s excited retelling of his afternoon adventures. She looked back once, over her shoulder, and found Lan Yue’s eyes in the crowd.

She didn’t smile.

But something in her gaze was warm. Intentional. A look meant for one person and one person only.

Lan Yue’s heart did a full somersault.

She looked away and walked faster, muttering under her breath about circulation issues and high altitude and the unfair way sunlight reflected off pearl hair pins.

Tang Xiaoli kept pace beside her, wisely saying nothing.

But she was smiling so hard her cheeks must have hurt.