He knew.

He saw right through the act.

Ji’an didn’t let her recover. She leaned in a fraction of an inch closer, her lips brushing the shell of Su Wan’s ear.

"Listen closely, little flower," Ji’an whispered, so quietly that the recording runes couldn’t possibly pick it up.

The flirtatious tone vanished, replaced by a cold, surgical precision.

"I know exactly what kind of game you’re playing. You can manipulate the Princess all you want, but keep your sticky hands off my Class 9 people. If I find out you’ve been whispering poison in her ear to point her at my friends or me..."

Ji’an pulled back slightly, letting the warm, flirtatious smile return to her face for the cameras.

She gently tapped the spatula handle against Su Wan’s cheek, a gesture that looked playful to an outsider, but felt like a physical threat to the girl.

"...I’ll make sure the whole sect knows exactly how helpful you really are. Understand?"

Su Wan stood frozen, and her delicate hands trembled. The aura of the "gentle little white flower" was completely shattered internally.

She felt like a rabbit that had tried to trick a wolf, only to realize the wolf was just playing with its food.

"Y-yes, Senior Brother," Su Wan squeaked, breaking eye contact and staring at the dirt.

"Excellent," Ji’an stepped back, clapping her hands together cheerfully. The intense, predatory aura vanished instantly, replaced by her usual laid-back cook persona. "Well! It’s been a lovely reunion, but I must bid goodbye since I have other matters to attend to. Be careful out there, ladies!"

She gave them a cheeky two-finger salute, turned on her heel, and walked back toward her shivering classmates.

Princess Ling’er, too humiliated to speak, grabbed Su Wan’s arm and practically dragged the trembling White Lotus away, the Class 6 guys scurrying after them into the trees.

As soon as the red dress disappeared into the foliage, Tang Bo threw himself at Ji’an’s feet, wrapping his arms around her boots.

"Boss! You’re a god! You didn’t even swing your spatula, and they ran away!" Tang Bo sobbed, wiping his snot on her gray hem. "And what was that rizz?! You made the pretty girl turn red! Teach me your ways!"

"Get off my boots, Tang Bo, you’re getting snot on the leather," Ji’an sighed, prying him off with her foot. She turned to Liu Liu, tossing her a piece of premium spirit-jerky. "You guys okay? No broken bones or missing tokens, right?"

"We’re fine," Liu Liu sniffled, taking a bite of the jerky and immediately looking comforted. "But Boss... is it true? Are you really the Emperor’s brother?"

"It’s a long story involving adoption, politics, and a lot of paperwork I don’t want to do," Ji’an waved it off. "Don’t focus on that. Focus on the fact that we have seventy hours left and a grocery list to complete."

She pulled out her token.

She looked at the small, pulsing red recording rune in the corner of the screen.

She knew they had seen the whole thing.

’Ah,’ Ji’an thought, a sudden spike of dread hitting her. ’I just used the "flirtatious bad boy" routine on a girl on national television. Wangchen is going to blow a gasket.’

She wasn’t wrong.

Thousands of miles away, on the floating jade terrace overlooking the Assembly Plaza, the atmosphere was incredibly tense.

The massive illusion screens floating in the sky were projecting various feeds from the Lower Realm. One of the largest screens was currently focused squarely on Candidate #459, Lin Ji’an.

The entire Inner Sect had watched the confrontation, as well as the revelation of Lin Ji’an’s "Royal Uncle" status, causing a massive wave of shocked murmurs through the crowd.

But it was the interaction with Su Wan that had caused the real reaction.

Gu Zhiwei was staring at the screen, his mouth slightly open, a complicated flush creeping up his neck. "Brother Lin is... so smooth. The way he stepped in... it was very commanding."

Lu Jianheng crossed his arms, huffing loudly, though his ears were undeniably red. "Shameless. Absolutely shameless! Flirting in the middle of a survival trial! He has no discipline!"

Wen Shiru chuckled, snapping his fan, not making any comment, but his thoughts were already in the scene before his eyes.

But standing at the edge of the terrace, Xie Wangchen was radiating a cold so intense that the jade railing beneath his hands was literally cracking and splintering from the frost. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

His dark eyes were fixed on the screen, locked onto the image of Ji’an leaning into Su Wan’s personal space.

’It’s too close...’ He saw the way Ji’an had lifted the girl’s chin.

He didn’t care that Ji’an was threatening her. He only cared that she was touching her.

The white tassel on Winter’s Sigh whipped wildly in the sudden, localized blizzard forming around him.

The temperature on the terrace dropped to sub-zero, causing the other disciples to shiver and back away in terror.

"Master," Wangchen muttered, his voice a low, vibrating growl of pure, unadulterated jealousy that echoed across the silent terrace. "I request permission to enter the Lower Realm early."

Elder Qin, sitting comfortably in a floating armchair nearby, sipped his hot tea. He looked at his murderous disciple, then at the screen projecting the smiling, completely oblivious Lin Ji’an.

"Denied," Elder Qin said simply, highly amused. "Let the boy forage, Wangchen. Drink some tea. It will cool your blood."

Wangchen didn’t drink the tea.

He continued to stare at the screen, his mind calculating exactly how many hours he had left until he could get his hands on the boy who was currently driving him insane from across dimensions.

’Seventy hours,’ Wangchen thought, his grip tightening until the jade railing finally snapped with a sharp crack. ’Should I just freeze time itself to make it pass faster?’

It was clear that he was annoyed at something, but no one could prove exactly what he was annoyed at, so the other disciples didn’t dare to drop their comments carelessly.