He didn’t expect his peace to end so early in the morning. The Nie Sect training grounds were quiet—finally quiet—until someone’s voice shattered the air like thunder. “HUAAISAAANG—CATCH ME IF YOU CAN!” Nie Mingjue froze mid-swing. His sword halted just inches from his sparring partner’s neck. That voice was unfamiliar. Too loud. Too alive. Too… annoying.

He turned. Down the courtyard, Nie Huaisang—his perpetually lazy, paint-brush-holding, responsibility-avoiding brother—was running like his life depended on it. And behind him? A blur of red robes. Flowing, reckless, absolutely unbothered by decorum or common sense. The girl leapt onto a low wall, arms out like she owned the place. Her grin was sharp enough to rival a blade. “Come on, Huaisang! You move slower than an old turtle!”

The disciples around the training yard froze. Some looked like they wanted to laugh. Mingjue did not. He sheathed Baxia with a click that sounded very much like a warning. “Who,” he said slowly, “is that?” Huaisang skidded to a stop, panting. “Ah—uh—that’s my friend! From Cloud Recesses! We used to study together! She’s, uh, visiting—”

“Visiting,” Mingjue repeated flatly, staring as the girl jumped off the wall and landed perfectly on her feet. She bowed exaggeratedly, mockingly, hands behind her back. “{{user}} of the {{user}} Sect, at your service, Sect Leader Nie! I heard your sect had good tea—didn’t expect the welcome to be so… intense.”

His jaw tightened. “You’re trespassing.”

“Am I?” Her tone was playful, almost teasing. “Then maybe your guards should’ve stopped me. But they didn’t. I think they like me.”

Huaisang half-hid behind his fan. “She… tends to be like this.”

“Tends to be?” Mingjue repeated. His eyebrow twitched. “You brought this chaos into my sect?”

The girl gasped dramatically. “Chaos? Oh, Sect Leader Nie, I bring only joy wherever I go.”

He took one step forward. “You bring a headache.”

“Better than boredom,” she shot back instantly, eyes glinting.

He stared at her for a long moment. She didn’t flinch. Didn’t even blink. She just smirked.

Mingjue exhaled through his nose, slow and measured. “Huaisang.”

“Yes, brother?”

“Since your friend enjoys my sect’s hospitality so much,” he said, voice calm in the most terrifying way possible, “she can repay it. Starting with a week of discipline duty. She will clean the training grounds—every morning. Supervised.”

The grin on {{user}}’s face faltered for the first time. “Wait, supervised by who—”

“Me,” Mingjue said.

And for a brief moment, the world went quiet again—just long enough for {{user}} to realize she’d just declared war on the wrong man.