Chapter Sixteen.

Lei Qiang leaves White Pavilion and instructs Hong Yi to guard against Duan Xinyue.Duan Xinyue sits on the floor with his legs crossed. He's seriously immersed into reading the rules. He keeps stroking his hair at times and yawns once in a while.

"Young Master Duan if you're tired why don't you go back to your Qingfeng Pavilion?" Hong Yi tries to send him away indirectly.

"Yo,Hong Yi say if your master falls in love with a disciple he would have broken one of the rules. I thought he is above the rules."

"My Lord will never fall in love with a disciple," Hong Yi declares confidently.

After he finishes reading through the rules,Duan Xinyue looks over to the table where a pile of books have been neatly arranged. A certain book catches his attention and he gets up from the floor and walks towards the table. He runs his fingers along the books and finally reaches the one that caught his attention.

Hong Yi attacks him without hesitating as he tries to pull out the book from the rest of the books.Hong Yi slashes his sword while aiming at Xinyue and Duan Xinyue tries to dodge the attacks. They leap across the room disrupting things in the process. The pile of books drop unexpectedly from the table and scatter on the floor. Hong Yi trips over and stumbles but he ends up being saved before falling down. He opens his eyes and looks into Duan Xinyue's eyes. Xu Han and Lei Qiang coincidentally walk in on them and witness the romantic scene before them. Hong Yi quickly gets up on his feet as Duan Xinyue looks away and chuckles nervously.

"I ended up saving a hero again instead of a beauty,"Duan Xinyue sighs.

Lei Qiang's gaze is on the mess of books on the floor. Duan Xinyue follows Lei Qiang's gaze and quickly stoops to pick up the books. Hong Yi helps him and together they arrange everything in the room. Lei Qiang hasn't spoken a single word ever since he entered.

"Duan-ge,why were you guys fighting?"

Duan Xinyue puts his arm around Xu Han's shoulder before responding,"Brother Xu, why are you wearing less clothes with this kind of season?"Duan Xinyue changes the subject. He removes his fur cloak and gives it to Xu Han. He stretches his arm playfully and bids them goodbye. As he's about to walk out, Lei Qiang stops him.

"Where do you think you are going? I haven't punished you two for messing with my things."

"Yo,Lei-xiong can't you let it slide..."Before he completes his statement Hong Yi is already down on his knees accepting his mistake and waiting for the punishment.

Lei Qiang instructs them to repair some torn books and manuals in the library. They stay at the library till nine at night. Hong Yi seems tired so Duan Xinyue allows him to leave earlier while he remains behind to complete the rest of the work.

Since Lei Qiang doesn't trust Duan Xinyue,he goes to the library to check what he is doing. To his surprise,Duan Xinyue is diligently repairing the manuals. After finishing Lei Qiang closes the library and they head back to White Pavilion.

"It's too late for me to go back. And there have been cases of people being killed and their corpses being thrown on the streets. Can you offer me a place to sleep?"Duan Xinyue pleads.

"So what if your corpse is thrown on the street?"

"Even if I get killed it would be embarrassing for my corpse to be thrown on the street ."

"Why would it be embarrassing? You're not a noble after all."

Duan Xinyue spends the next ten minutes trying to convince Lei Qiang to let him stay.

He even offers to massage Lei Qiang in exchange for a place to sleep. After a while of being massaged Lei Qiang ends up falling asleep while seated.

'You're always cautious around me how come you've decided to lower your guard now?'Duan Xinyue smirks at his thought.

Duan Xinyue carries him in bridal style to his room and comes back to the living room to read the book be had earlier laid his eyes on. Duan Xinyue uses a special kind of perfume whose scent acts as a sleeping pill when it encounters a burning flame that's why Lei Qiang ended sleeping unaware. The book Duan Xinyue is reading is a normal martial arts manual but some of the pages have been plucked and this arouses his curiosity.

He later puts the book back to where it was and sleeps on the floor. The next morning he wakes up earlier than Hong Yi and Lei Qiang. Later,Lei Qiang wakes up and comes to the main room. He finds Duan Xinyue seated reading the document containing the rules again.

"Lei-xiong you're awake,"he says as he stands up.

"I have to go back to Qingfeng Pavilion to finish my sleep. Lei-xiong you have such a bad sleeping habit. Have you never slept with someone before?" Duan Xinyue asks teasingly.

Lei Qiang's cheeks turn red due to embarrassment. Did they really sleep together?

"See you,"Duan Xinyue walks out care freely. If he had left before the others wake up it would arouse any suspicion towards him so he chose to stay to prove his transparency.