This was a highly inefficient study method.

The task at hand would have been completed by now in proper workshop conditions, with full access to tools and reference documents. Yet, Bao Qingling had found that efficiency had found its place on her internal priorities list usurped in recent days.

Under specific circumstances only, naturally.

Said circumstance spoke. “Hm, what do you think? I had thought this design acceptable, but as we saw, the results were not as desired.”

The movement of Bai Meizhen’s hands caused a shift in the weight on Bao Qingling’s lap, and sent a tingle up her spine. They hung together above the workshop, in a hammock of thick webbing. She was not yet wholly certain how she had been convinced of this. She might have suspected some hypnotic Bai art, however she had already thoroughly tested herself for external mental influences. It had been expensive.

This madness was internal.

Bai Meizhen glanced back at her, the dim glow of her eye’s standing out from the blurred colors of the dim workshop and her own pale silhouette. Her weight was light on Bao Qingling’s legs, and her gown was soft and smooth. The typical heat of contact between human bodies was muted. It seemed that Bai ran several degrees cooler than baseline.

Bao Qingling glanced at Bai Meizhen’s hands, and the web of glimmering qi spread between them. In the physical realm, it was a shimmering sheet of pale pink toxin. This mixture was drawn from the Dreamspinner Spider, the Skull Lotus, and Bai Meizhen’s internal venom reserve. The purpose of the venom was interrogation, disrupting a captured enemies senses and thoughts such that useful information extraction was possible.

The test subject spirit beasts had suffered severe aneurysms and spiritual hemorrhaging, then death.

“Well?” Bai Meizhen asked.

“It is not a matter of potency or dosage,” Bao Qingling replied. For one irritating second, she hesitated before reaching over Bai Meizhen’s shoulder to trace the shimmering web of qi that made up the effect in the liquid. “My measurements were correct.”

“So it was my error?” Bai Meizhen asked archly. She shifted in her seating, and Bao Qingling had to make an effort for her breath not to hitch.

“Yes,” she replied bluntly, jabbing a finger into a glowing crimson strand of toxicity. The pulse of qi sent ripples through the rest of the structure. “The intersection between the Skull Lotus’ narcotic effect and the Dreamspinner’s spiritual projection effect converged to damage the binding between the subjects spirit and flesh. Total identity degradation was inevitable.”

“I had not considered that a point of failure,” Bai Meizhen admitted. Bao Qingling held back a twitch as Bai Meizhen leaned back, resting against her chest.

“It isn’t necessarily,” Bao Qingling grunted, lowering her hand. She paused for a second, and instead of bringing it back to her side, she let her palm rest on Bai Meizhen’s leg. “The effect is merely too quick.”

Much like what had been happening over the course of the last few weeks.

Bao Qingling had been aware of her own proclivities. She had simply deemed them irrelevant. She was no backwater idiot or hand wringing conservative who imagined that same sex relations were a thing of story and myth. One had to live under a particularly large rock to do so under the court of Duchess Cai.

Which explained some of her kin certainly.

The issue was the girl in her lap. Bao Qingling had never prepared to actually act on her interests. Indeed, she had assumed that she would remove the troublesome things during the course of her cultivation. Bao Qingling regarded her eventual marital relations as a thing to be avoided at best, and tolerated at worst. Maintaining an additional relationship should have been an intolerable interference in her time.

At first, she had tried to convince herself that it was her… companions’ status, that rejecting her advance would be dangerous.

However, such a lie could not hold.

For the first time since she had reached the third realm, Bao Qingling wondered what in the world she was doing.

***

Not for the first time, Bai Meizhen wondered what in the world she was doing.

Somehow, the heat of Bao Qingling’s hand on her thigh felt like a brand. Why were outsiders so very overheated!

She knew that her choices were deeply improper. While there was no shortage of stories in which extramarital affairs were alluded to or outright depicted, the fact remained that she was risking significant status, for both herself and her lo-paramour. She was no Cai Shenhua or Bai Guzhen, too mighty by far to be affected by a faux paus such as this.

She shifted again, trying to get comfortable. Bai Meizhen had no idea what had possessed her to make such an embarrassing suggestion. She could only blame the silly storybook scenarios that persisted in the back of her mind. As usual, reality fell short. Bao Qingling’s legs were not the most comfortable seat. She had rather bony knees, it turned out.

Although, the softness on which she rested her head was pleasant. Bao Qingling hid a significant endowment beneath her shapeless smocks. Bai Meizhen felt heat rise in her cheeks as she wondered, briefly if she could convince her to wear something more fitting.

Only in private, naturally.

“Yes, the breakdown is far too swift,” Bai Meizhen said, valiantly turning her thoughts back to the sheet of venom suspended between her hands. “Interrogation requires time. I am uncertain how to weaken the degrading effect without reducing the actual efficacy of the venom.”

“I would suggest testing different ratios of Dreamspinner venom,” Bao Qingling said gruffly. It was a consolation that Bao Qingling seemed uncertain as well. It would not do otherwise.

“Ah, it is partially a digestive, isn’t it,” Bai Meizhen mused. “I desired for their sense of self to be damaged, so that my venom could act as a medium for influence, but if the information sought is damaged as well, it’s rather useless.”

Bao Qingling gave a grunt of agreement. Bai Meizhen began to draw the water suspended between her fingers back into the container in her sleeve.

“...Why did you suggest this?” Bao Qingling said gruffly, and Bai Meizhen stiffened. “You didn’t need my advice for something so simple.”

Bai Meizhen was silent, and she felt her cheeks heating further, of course Bao Qingling would not be wholly fooled by such a charade.

“I had thought you would be more amenable if we were to do something productive,” Bai Meizhen said softly.

To be able to touch someone for an extended length of time was the height of trust and intimacy. It was something shared only between parents and children and between lovers. She… Bai Meizhen could only remember a bare handful of such instances, after Mother had died.

The kindness of the old servant who had informed her of mothers death, allowing her to weep into his robe.

Aunt Suzhen’s hand, ruffling her hair in pride after she had spoken to Cui for the first time.

Grandfather allowing her to hug him after her first kill.

In her heart, she had always wanted more.

“My apologies for the deception,” Bai Meizhen said.

There was silence for a moment, and Bai Meizhen squeezed her eyes shut. She was always making mistakes. She began to get up.

She almost started as she felt Bao Qingling arms encircle her waist, halting her movement.

“It’s fine, this is fine,” Bao Qingling said gruffly. “I don’t dislike this.”

Bai Meizhen huffed, hiding her smile behind her sleeve. “Truly great praise.”

She settled herself. Bony knees weren’t really so terrible.