Maybe My Soulmate! (GL)

The monster thought the town was noisy. In the middle, everyone else was miserable.

Mo Yuxin and Su Yubing handled it with a mixture of force and patience. They went down into the broken earth together, guided by trembling spiritual lamps and the worried directions of the mine workers, until they reached a wide hollow where the wyrm was curled around a mineral spring. The beast raised its head at them and let out a low roar that made dust fall from the ceiling. It was huge. It was powerful. It could have turned the entire underground chamber into rubble if it wanted to. Su Yubing stepped slightly in front of Mo Yuxin out of habit, and Mo Yuxin’s expression softened just a little because she noticed it. Then the two of them attacked together, not to kill, but to force the creature back from the water vein. Mo Yuxin sent a blade of force down one side of the chamber while Su Yubing sealed the other with freezing chains of blue light. The wyrm thrashed, the rock cracked, and for a little while the whole underground world shook like an earthquake. But the two women were too strong to be pushed around for long. After a few exchanges, they realized the beast was guarding a pocket of rare spirit ore that had been slowly poisoning the spring. Once they removed that ore and redirected the flow, the wyrm settled down enough to let them leave in peace. The town got its clean well back, and the local blacksmith gave them a pair of hand-forged travel bells in thanks. Su Yubing hung one from Mo Yuxin’s storage ring for fun, and every time it chimed, Mo Yuxin pretended to be annoyed while secretly letting it stay.

One of the nicest things about the journey was how often they got to show off their relationship in small, natural ways. They never made a big drama out of it. They did not have to. If people stared, they stared. If people asked, they answered plainly that they were married. If some old cultivator or nosy merchant looked uncomfortable, that was their problem, not hers. A lot of the time, the local reaction was surprisingly good. The world was hard enough already, and many ordinary people had no energy left for judging two beautiful, powerful women who clearly adored each other. At inns, Mo Yuxin would naturally carry the heavier luggage, but only because Su Yubing would steal her sleeves first and drag her toward the best seat by the window. At markets, Su Yubing would pick up little snacks she thought Mo Yuxin would like and then get caught because Mo Yuxin knew her habits too well to be fooled. On windy nights, Mo Yuxin always stood on the outer side when they walked together, and Su Yubing always noticed and kissed her for it later. Their affection became something almost casual to everyone around them, but it was not casual at all. It was steady, deep, and very, very warm.

They spent one evening in a lakeside village where a wedding was happening, and because the bride looked so nervous she could barely hold her cup straight, Su Yubing quietly went over to help arrange her hair while Mo Yuxin stood nearby making sure the groom’s drunk friends did not cause trouble. The villagers, after figuring out who they were, begged them to stay for the ceremony. Mo Yuxin and Su Yubing sat in the honored seats and watched the bride and groom bow, exchange rings, and then laugh through their own tears. Later, when the villagers started pulling out stringed instruments and the dancing began, Su Yubing looked at Mo Yuxin with that bright, playful glint she only got when she was feeling especially happy. ”We should dance too,” she said.

Mo Yuxin looked like she wanted to say that she was not good at dancing. Then Su Yubing pulled her up by the hand and that was the end of any resistance. They stepped into the lantern light together, not with perfect skill, but with enough grace that everyone nearby kept smiling at them. Mo Yuxin’s hands rested lightly at Su Yubing’s waist. Su Yubing’s fingers brushed along Mo Yuxin’s shoulder and neck. They circled once, then twice, and by the third turn Su Yubing was laughing too much to stay serious. Mo Yuxin, who rarely laughed this openly in public, actually did it because Su Yubing looked so delighted that she could not help herself. At the end of the dance, right under a canopy of paper lanterns, Su Yubing rose up on her toes and kissed Mo Yuxin in full view of half the village. A bunch of grandmothers who had been clapping actually cheered. One elderly man said, very loudly, that this was the kind of affection the world needed more of. Su Yubing nearly hid her face in Mo Yuxin’s neck after that, but Mo Yuxin just held her close and kissed her forehead.

By the fourth month, the route began to tilt westward toward the coast, and the air slowly changed. The dry heat weakened. The wind gained a salty edge. The roads grew busier because merchants from inland provinces were always moving toward the harbour city, carrying tea, cloth, iron, spices, lacquerware, spirit pills, sea salt, and all kinds of things that needed ships to send them farther out. The locals talked more and more about Harbour Port City, the great western city by the sea that never really slept. They said the docks were huge. They said the markets never closed. They said every kind of ship could be found there, from common grain barges to long spirit vessels with protective arrays and sailing masts carved from old dragon wood. They said the city was rich, loud, and full of life. They also said the sea beyond it was dangerous, because the western coast faced a stretch of water so wide that the nearest eastern continent felt like another world entirely.

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to be continued,