Oops! My Inner Thoughts Are Ruining The Plot

Chapter 165: Chapter

The fire crackled softly in the quiet cave. Wenzhe and Xiao Chen sat on opposite sides of the flames, their eyes locked in a silent, bitter stare. Neither man dared to utter a word, both watching the green jade stone gripped tightly in Yueqing’s hand.

Yueqing closed her eyes, letting out a long, weary breath. Her chest still throbbed with a dull ache, but the absolute silence was a welcome relief.

[Finally,] she thought, her lips twitching slightly under her fur blanket. [A little peace and quiet. If these two keep staring at each other like that, their eyes are going to freeze over.]

Deep inside her mind, the system chimed softly.

[System 009: Warning... Target Wenzhe’s heart rate remains abnormally elevated. Target Xiao Chen’s stress levels are at maximum capacity. Host, this silence is extremely fragile.]

[Let it be fragile,] Yueqing replied in her thoughts. [As long as nobody is swinging a sword, I don’t care.]

Wenzhe shifted slightly on the dirt floor, his knuckles turning white as he gripped his knees. He looked from Xiao Chen over to Yueqing, his dark eyes filled with a mixture of burning possessiveness and sheer frustration. He wanted to tell her to lie down properly, to let him check her wounds, to order the prince out into the cold—but his gaze kept falling back to the heavy green stone in her hand.

Across the fire, Xiao Chen leaned back against the stone wall, his face a calm mask, though his fingers tapped a tense rhythm against his thigh. He kept his eyes fixed on Yueqing’s pale face, completely ignoring Wenzhe’s murderous glare.

Suddenly, a loud gust of wind slammed against the cave entrance, blowing a cloud of white snow inside. The fire flickered wildly, dropping the temperature in the tiny space within seconds.

Yueqing shivered, her teeth lightly chattering as she pulled the heavy furs closer around her neck.

Without thinking, both Wenzhe and Xiao Chen leaned forward at the exact same time, reaching out toward the fire to add more wood. Their hands collided over the pile of dry branches.

Wenzhe instantly slapped Xiao Chen’s hand away with a hard strike. Xiao Chen’s eyes flashed with anger, and he lunged forward, grabbing Wenzhe’s collar.

Yueqing opened her eyes and immediately held the heavy green stone up between their faces.

Both men froze in mid-air, their hands still tangled in each other’s clothes, staring directly at the green stone inching closer to their noses.

"Did either of you take the stone from my hand?" Yueqing asked, her raspy voice sharp as glass.

Slowly, reluctantly, Wenzhe let go of Xiao Chen’s collar. Xiao Chen backed away, smoothing down his robes with a tense breath.

Yueqing tossed a dry branch into the fire herself, the orange light reflecting in her cold eyes. "Put the wood on the fire, sit back down, and keep your hands to yourselves."

It didn’t take five minutes for the silence to shatter.

Wenzhe picked up a thick branch and threw it onto the fire, his movements rough and aggressive. Xiao Chen immediately reached out with a long stick, shoving Wenzhe’s branch to the side.

"You’re smothering the flames, General," Xiao Chen said, his voice dripping with condescension. "You handle a fire like you handle everything else...brutally and without thought."

Wenzhe’s head snapped toward him, his dark eyes ablaze. "I know how to keep my wife warm, Prince. Mind your own hands."

"Your wife?" Xiao Chen sneered, completely ignoring the green stone sitting on Yueqing’s knee. "You keep calling her that, yet every time she is near you, she ends up bleeding!"

"And what about you?!" Wenzhe growled, stepping over the ashes as his hand went straight back to his sword. "You stalk her movements, send your men to watch her, and whisper poison in her ear! You act like a saint, but you are nothing more than a snake!"

"At least I treat her like a human being, not a trophy to lock in your estate!" Xiao Chen shouted, standing up to meet him face-to-face.

"ENOUGH!"

Yueqing’s scream cut through the cave so sharply that her cracked ribs sent a violent surge of pain straight up her spine. She gasped, clutching her chest, but her anger completely outmatched the physical pain.

She picked up the heavy green stone and slammed it down onto the ground right between their boots with every ounce of strength she had left.

"What on earth has made you two like this?!" Yueqing snapped, her breathing ragged as she glared up at the two tall men who were currently acting like furious toddlers. "Look at yourselves! You are supposed to be a top general and an imperial prince! But right now, you are acting like absolute children!"

Both Wenzhe and Xiao Chen froze, startled by the raw frustration in her voice.

"We are trapped in a frozen cave in the middle of a killer blizzard!" Yueqing continued, her eyes darting fiercely between the two of them. "I am freezing, my ribs feel like they’re on fire, and all I hear is your endless, stupid barking! Why do you both hate each other so much?! What could possibly make two grown men act this utterly insane?!"

The cave fell dead silent. Only the howling wind outside filled the heavy gap.

Wenzhe’s jaw worked silently. He looked away from Yueqing, his dark eyes fixated on the flickering flames as his knuckles bled against his fists.

Across the fire, Xiao Chen’s posture stiffened. The arrogant smirk vanished completely from his face, replaced by a dark, heavy shadow that made him look suddenly very distant.

Yueqing looked between them, her eyebrows furrowed as she picked the green stone back up. [Wait... what is this reaction?] she thought, her internal system humming quietly in her mind. [Did I just hit a raw nerve...?]

Xiao Chen’s posture relaxed, the dark shadow vanishing from his face as quickly as it had appeared. He pulled a smooth, fake smile onto his lips, brushing off her sharp question with a casual wave of his hand.

He looked down at Yueqing, his eyes softening into an easy, gentle warmth. "Do not worry your head over old rivalries, Yueqing. But you should know one thing..."

He turned his gaze slowly toward Wenzhe, his fake smile turning thin and sharp as ice.

"I did not send those assassins to kill you," Xiao Chen said smoothly, his tone calm and steady. "I could never bring myself to hurt you. I came to protect you. Rest assured, once we return to the capital, I will personally investigate every shadow and find out who dared to order that attack on your carriage."

Wenzhe let out a loud, harsh breath, rolling his eyes so hard it was a miracle they didn’t get stuck.

"Save your fake speeches, Prince," Wenzhe barked, his voice thick with utter disgust. "I don’t need your help, and she doesn’t need your investigations. I will hunt down whoever touched my wife and drag their heads to the camp myself. Keep your nose out of my business."

Xiao Chen’s fake smile twitched slightly, but he didn’t drop his calm act. "Your business, General, has a habit of leaving her in danger. Perhaps a little outside help is exactly what she needs."

Wenzhe scoffed loudly, turning his back on Xiao Chen completely to check the leather bindings on Yueqing’s cloak. "The only danger to her right now is listening to your continuous nonsense."

Yueqing sat between them, holding the green stone tightly in her hand as she watched the two of them exchange sharp, fake polite insults.

[He didn’t answer my question at all,] Yueqing thought, her eyes narrowing as she studied Xiao Chen’s smooth, unbothered face, then shifted to Wenzhe’s tense, furious shoulders. [He completely brushed it off... and Wenzhe’s reaction says there’s something way deeper going on here than just an ambush.]

She leaned her head back against the stone wall with a long, exhausted sigh.

[Stupid men,] she added in her mind, her head throbbing. [If the snow doesn’t kill us tonight, their stubbornness definitely will.]

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