My Junior Sister Can't Possibly Be a Silly Sweetheart

Yu Sui enjoyed listening to Mei Liangyu tell stories about his childhood. Everything sounded interesting and helped her learn more.

Without realizing it, Mei Liangyu had shared a great deal with her. These matters weren't exactly secrets, yet no one else could share them. Seeing Yu Sui listening attentively and occasionally being amused, he naturally told her even more.

Unable to find Yu Sui, Sheng Hao and Gu Qian sent her messages every day asking about her injuries. Both tactfully avoided mentioning their fight.

Yu Sui hadn't replied to either of them during her recovery.

Sheng Hao and Gu Qian searched everywhere for Mei Liangyu, wanting to ask him where Yu Sui was, but Mei Liangyu dodged them every time, giving neither of them a chance.

After Zhongli Shan and Nian Qiuyan learned about Mei Liangyu's ordeal this time, one or two friends followed Mei Liangyu wherever he went, never letting him be alone, fearing he might be suddenly ambushed by members of the Wenyang family.

With Nian Qiuyan helping him with divination, Mei Liangyu dodged with perfect accuracy. Sheng Hao and Gu Qian had no hope of catching him.

Yu Sui hadn't forgotten about Gu Qian needing to go to Inverted Moon Cave to retrieve the Floating Pagoda fragments, but now that he had lost Wen Yanghui's help and exposed his Divine Mechanism Arts, she wondered what he would do.

She used her alternate account to reply to Gu Qian, asking him to send over the underwater cipher text.

Just as it got dark, Gu Qian finally replied: "Done playing dead?"

Having been ignored by this collaborator who suddenly appeared for so long, he was also somewhat angry.

Yu Sui casually made up some information to mislead him: "Just came out of Dragon Slaying Cave."

"Only remembered half of it. I'll send you what I have first." Gu Qian replied: "Tomorrow I'll send you the rest."

Then he asked: "When can you decode it?"

Yu Sui: "Haven't even seen what the cipher text looks like, and you're already asking me for a timeline?"

If Gu Qian were still inside Dragon Slaying Cave, he wouldn't be in a hurry, as he could enter Inverted Moon Cave directly from within Dragon Slaying Cave without needing to take a roundabout way to break any cipher text.

From the outside, he couldn't enter Inverted Moon Cave directly through the Legalist School, so he had to take other secret passages, which increased the difficulty accordingly.

"The fifteenth has already passed. Only the end of the month remains." Gu Qian replied: "I hope to get the Inverted Moon Cave fragment this month."

Yu Sui didn't say much more, only: "Show me the cipher text first."

Previously, when Yu Sui hadn't responded to Gu Qian's request, he had already arranged with Wen Yanghui to rely on the Wenyang family's mechanism arts to decode the cipher text on the secret passage.

Unfortunately, plans couldn't keep up with changes.

Wen Yanghui's sudden death meant the mechanism for decoding the cipher text never reached Gu Qian.

Now that Yu Sui contacted Gu Qian offering to help decode the cipher text, it was actually a silver lining for him.

After sending part of the cipher text to Yu Sui, Gu Qian went to the School of Names' Xiaoyao Pool that night, preparing to explore the underwater secret passage again and send all the cipher text in the passage to Yu Sui for decoding.

Accompanying Gu Qian underwater today was still Xun Zhiya.

In the waterway before the secret passage stone door, there were many protruding large rocks that could serve as footholds. The water was shallow here, only reaching people's ankles, but the current flowed all the way to the stone door. To avoid getting wet, one had to step on the rocks.

Xun Zhiya stood on a rock, looking up at the stone door. The densely packed curse runes and symbols on it were changing and rotating. After watching for a while, she turned her gaze to Gu Qian standing beside her.

Gu Qian was seriously recording the cipher text on the door. Underground, it was so quiet that only the sound of flowing water could be heard. Xun Zhiya watched with fascination when she suddenly heard Gu Qian say: "Am I handsome?"

Xun Zhiya looked away: "What nonsense are you talking about?"

Only then did Gu Qian look up at her, his eyes carrying a hint of amusement: "You've been looking at me for so long. What did you figure out?"

Xun Zhiya pressed her lips together, then turned back to look, feigning composure: "That you're thick-skinned."

After hearing this, Gu Qian smiled and shook his head lightly, tapping the fill-character grid as he continued sending the cipher text, while saying: "Being too thin-skinned means many things can't be accomplished."

Xun Zhiya seemed angry: "Are you talking about me?"

Gu Qian said: "You haven't reached that level of thinness yet."

But Xun Zhiya fell silent at this. After a long while, she looked back at the rotating cipher text on the door and said softly: "Sometimes I wish I could be thicker-skinned too. That way I could accomplish many things. But I always fall just short. Perhaps that's exactly why Father sent me to Taiyi instead of having me stay in Nanjing."

Gu Qian's gaze followed Xun Zhiya, his eyes reflecting her somewhat melancholy profile, her slender neck still bearing traces of water.

The usually cold beauty, with coldness in her brows and eyes and a distant aloofness that kept people at arm's length, was especially heart-softening when she showed such vulnerability.

"You have your own opportunities at Taiyi." Gu Qian softened his tone: "When you return to Nanjing, what belongs to you, no one can take away."

Listening to his encouragement, Xun Zhiya always felt warm inside. She also looked back at Gu Qian and asked softly: "What about you?"

"Me?" Gu Qian raised an eyebrow.

Xun Zhiya nodded lightly: "After you get the fragment and return to Qingyang, what do you plan to do?"

"I have many things to do. In Qingyang, I can only complete part of them." Gu Qian answered with a smile.

Xun Zhiya said: "It sounds like it will be very dangerous."

Gu Qian glanced at her and smiled with a bit of roguishness: "Worried about me?"

Xun Zhiya pressed her lips together and couldn't say a word for a long while. But Gu Qian stepped through the water toward her, closing the distance between them. The oppressive presence of the man's large frame hit her immediately, making Xun Zhiya unconsciously straighten her back.

Yu Sui, watching this scene through the Five Elements Light Cores, slowly turned her gaze away to look at the cipher text on the stone door, ignoring the two people whose atmosphere had suddenly become intimate.

She had thought she might hear Gu Qian say something about Qingyang, revealing his background or his cooperation with Nangong Ming, but who knew this person would change the subject to flirt with the beauty. Obviously, he was unwilling to discuss such matters.

Though the cipher text's rotation speed wasn't very fast, there were countless variations. One had to find the pattern of change and select the correct runes to open the stone door.

Yu Sui looked down at her Wind-Listening Ruler. It wasn't just for sending and receiving messages. When necessary, it could also function as a map using coordinates inputted into the Wind-Listening Ruler.

The coordinates were all marked with heavenly stems, earthly branches, and numbers. Yu Sui opened the blank map on her Wind-Listening Ruler and, according to the cipher text's rotation speed on the stone door, wrote runes and numbers on a similarly blank dial.

Yu Sui was focused and absorbed in her own world, not even glancing at the intimate Gu Qian and Xun Zhiya nearby. When they left, the Five Elements Light Cores remained in place for her continued observation.

Only after sensing someone approaching did Yu Sui put away her Wind-Listening Ruler and turn her head toward the door.

Mei Liangyu had come to bring her today's portion of nourishing soup.

Yu Sui moved further inside the bed, letting Mei Liangyu place the food box on the edge of the bed. She took the soup bowl he handed her and blew on it. Mei Liangyu said: "It's not hot."

She believed him and held the bowl, drinking with gurgling sounds.

After only a few sips, she furrowed her brow and looked at Mei Liangyu.

Seeing her frowning with a somewhat aggrieved expression, Mei Liangyu's heart softened. He reached out to touch the soup bowl and said again: "It really isn't hot."

Yu Sui stopped drinking: "Let it cool for a while."

Mei Liangyu didn't withdraw his hand from the soup bowl. Ice energy seeped from his fingertips and circled the soup bowl. He said: "It's ready now."

Only then did Yu Sui lower her head to sip lightly.

This time Mei Liangyu didn't play with his Wind-Listening Ruler but watched Yu Sui instead. Her lost vitality had finally been restored. The girl before him had a rosy, lustrous complexion, her eyes bright and clear, no longer the pale, weak, near-death appearance she'd had when lying in his arms.

"Senior Brother, does the Mechanism School have mechanisms specifically for breaking cipher locks?" Yu Sui asked while drinking soup, her eyes half-open as she looked at him.

"Yes." Mei Liangyu raised an eyebrow slightly: "Do you need one?"

Yu Sui didn't answer but asked: "Can it decode any kind of cipher lock?"

"It depends on the technique's level. The 'key' you're talking about, the high-level one is called Six Harmonies, the low-level one is called Three Stars." Mei Liangyu explained: "The difficulty of cipher locks depends on how many combination variations they have. For changes exceeding 1,000, you use Six Harmonies. For under 1,000, you use Three Stars."

Yu Sui: "What's the upper limit for the 'Six Harmonies' key?"

"3,000." Mei Liangyu said: "For cipher texts with more than 3,000 variations, mechanism keys are useless."

Yu Sui asked curiously: "Is it that no one dares to create more powerful mechanism keys, or that they can't make them?"

"You know about the Communication Array Number Mountains, right?" Mei Liangyu organized the food box while speaking at a measured pace: "The character and curse rune combinations of a small Number Mountain have at least 30,000 variations. If someone could decode these 30,000 combinations, they could access all information sent and received by that Number Mountain, including Wind-Listening Ruler inscriptions, positioning, timing, message content, or voice transmission."

Yu Sui nodded, indicating she was listening carefully.

Regarding how many variations the Number Mountains had, she understood better than Mei Liangyu.

"If someone kept researching mechanism keys, the upper limit of Six Harmonies would change from 3,000 to 30,000, from breaking one small Number Mountain to breaking three large Number Mountains." Mei Liangyu took out two plates of pastries and handed them to her: "The three families in the Communication Courtyard won't let this happen, so mechanism keys for decoding cipher text can't develop and aren't allowed to progress."

Yu Sui finished the nourishing soup and lightly licked the corner of her lips: "So the Mechanism School has the ability to do it, but doesn't dare?"

"Not necessarily." After pondering briefly, Mei Liangyu said: "I heard that thousands of years ago, the Mechanism School reached its peak. 'Master Gongshu carved bamboo and wood into a magpie. When completed, it flew for three days without landing.' This describes the grand times when the Mechanism School's founder was still alive. The wooden bird he made could fly in the sky for three days without falling. Even today's carriages were originally his work. Taiyi's Cloud Carriage Flying Dragon was also made based on drafts left by the Mechanism School founder, in cooperation with several other schools."

"Judging by that golden age, the Mechanism School was omnipotent and could create anything. If they could build Cloud Carriage Flying Dragons back then, they would span all six kingdoms, ignoring national borders. Though this is possible now too, at that time, the threat the Mechanism School posed to the six kingdoms was greater than the benefits. The massive weapons people couldn't imagine, the Mechanism School could create them all."

"1,000 years ago, a certain ruler of Yan Kingdom demanded that Yan's mechanism artisans create weapons that could attack the other five kingdoms without costing Yan a single soldier."

Yu Sui held her empty bowl and listened intently: "Did they succeed in building it?"

"This news was discovered by spies hidden in Yan and transmitted back to the other five kingdoms. So when the Yan king wanted to attack the five kingdoms, the other five kingdoms united against Yan. At that time, Yan's mechanism artisans were indeed more skilled than those of the other five kingdoms."

Mei Liangyu motioned for her to hand over the empty bowl and refilled it for her: "Because most of the Mechanism School saints were in Yan, with many followers. Hearing they were going to build weapons that could attack the other five kingdoms without costing a single soldier, ambitious mechanism artisans all rushed to Yan to join them."

"So the other five kingdoms killed all the mechanism artisans heading to Yan and announced the Yan ruler's ambitions to the world, condemning him for disregarding the Six Kingdoms Non-War Pact and wanting to plunge the people into the fires of war. They also spread rumors within Yan, making the people believe the world would fall into chaos and the Yan king would abandon them for more territory."

Mei Liangyu handed the bowl to Yu Sui, his eyes indicating she should continue drinking, while saying: "Yan fell into internal chaos, the Yan king could barely protect himself, and the Mechanism School was seen as the faction wanting to provoke war, expelled by the six kingdoms and massacred extensively before the expulsion."

"The once-glorious Mechanism School declined because of this. Other schools progressed while the Mechanism School regressed. Maintaining their current level is already remarkable. The more skilled Mechanism School practitioners are only these four families at Taiyi. If they get involved in conflicts between the six kingdoms again, even these four families won't survive."

Yu Sui rolled her eyes and smiled: "Senior Brother, you've never left Taiyi, but you know more about the six kingdoms than I do, and I've lived outside."

Mei Liangyu said lazily: "Someone told me."

Yu Sui asked casually: "Someone from the Mechanism School?"

"No." Mei Liangyu raised an eyebrow: "It was Instructor Mu."

Yu Sui paused. It was a name she hadn't heard before. Seeing Yu Sui's confusion, Mei Liangyu added: "Yan Xiaochuan's master."