Hei Shisan and Jin Huang hurriedly dragged Xu Ye into the room and shut the door before Twinkle and the others could come investigating.
"They'll just think he was excited to see us," Hei Shisan said nonchalantly.
"Or that we were just naked in here," Jin Huang said reassuringly, although he failed to even reassure himself.
"Or that we were... engaging in..." Hei Shisan broke out into a sweat.
Jin Huang caught the gist and stared at him with widened eyes, "Heavens, no! Hopefully not that! I still have a reputation that I need to build and then valiantly uphold!"
They listened for a while, but could barely hear anything over Xu Ye's rather monotonous screaming. It lasted exactly three breaths. On the fourth, it gave way to a long, exhausted sigh.
On the fifth, he flopped sideways onto Hei Shisan's stone floor like a man mildly inconvenienced by drizzle rather than divine mint-induced ocular devastation.
"My eyes," he muttered weakly, rubbing them with the heel of his palm. "You two are unbelievable. Who greets someone like that? Is this how you treat guests?"
Jin Huang and Hei Shisan crouched beside him like two guilty raccoons.
"You okay, Xu Ye? No more screaming?" Jin Huang asked cautiously.
"No more," Xu Ye replied flatly, still covering his eyes. "So who's going to explain why someone would weaponize confectionery?"
Jin Huang swallowed the last of his peppermints and leaned closer. "Are… are you blind now?"
Xu Ye lowered his hands. His eyes were still red, but not irritated or swollen red, but a kind of red that hummed quietly. The kind that looked like they were disappointed in the universe.
"I'm not blind," Xu Ye said lazily. "Just mildly inconvenienced. Do you have any idea how annoying it is to recalibrate these eyes?"
"Recalibrate?" Hei Shisan echoed.
Xu Ye squinted at the ceiling as if debating whether the effort of explanation was worth the calories. "My ocular divinity was mid-activation," he said finally. "You froze it with mint."
The room went silent, then Jin Huang blinked. "Would this have anything to do with you having the eyes of a god?"
"Ocular divinity," Xu Ye repeated, like someone offering a lackluster explanation. "That is part of the godly inheritance that has blessed my pupils since childhood. The one that peers into karmic rivers and glimpses fractured destinies."
Jin Huang and Hei Shisan stared at him.
Xu Ye yawned. "Anyway, it's dormant again."
Hei Shisan slowly stood up. "You're telling me… your eyes are divine artifacts."
"Technically," Xu Ye said, rolling onto his back. "They're gateways to a Primordial Insight Engine bestowed upon me by my parent."
"The one that became a god, right?" Jin Huang asked, recalling what Qi Shuyue had said.
"Yes," Xu Ye replied. "The only person in my family to ascend to godhood. My mother, Xu Lan."
"You're saying," Hei Shisan continued carefully, "that we just blasted mint into the eyes of the son of a god..."
Xu Ye nodded, "Yeah."
Silence followed, then Jin Huang leaned toward Hei Shisan and whispered, "Should we apologize?"
Xu Ye raised one finger without opening his eyes. "I hate apologies, so there is no need."
Both of them froze.
After a moment, Hei Shisan grinned. "You just don't want to have to spare the effort that would go in to replying."
"Precisely," Xu Ye confirmed.
Jin Huang's expression shifted. "Wait," he said slowly. "If your eyes were already activated… what did you see when I blasted you?"
Xu Ye cracked one eyelid open and stared at him. "Mint."
"That's it?"
"A very aggressive shade of mint."
Hei Shisan burst into laughter and Xu Ye rubbed his temples.
"I was in the middle of observing something monumental," he continued in a tone usually reserved for commenting on stale porridge. "My pupils had aligned with the astral meridians surrounding this room, and allowed me to see something coming out of it. Something I recognized once before, when I saw you," he looked at Jin Huang.
He sighed, "Then you exhaled peppermint into my eyes."
Jin Huang covered his mouth. "In my defense, it was high-grade."
"It tasted expensive," Xu Ye admitted. "But that's not the point."
Hei Shisan crouched down again, studying him. "You're not… mad?"
The lifeless young man blinked slowly. "I don't have the energy to sustain anger."
"But Jin Huang ruined your alignment with the astral meridians or whatever- don't you wanna kick his ass?" Hei Shisan pressed further.
"Are you instigating?!" Jin Huang exclaimed.
Hei Shisan shrugged as Xu Ye sat up.
"It doesn't matter now," he said, rubbing his eyes again. "I can wait a few days."
He turned his head and eyed Jin Huang. "I don't have access to my ocular divinity right now, but I can tell that there's something different about you now."
Jin Huang stiffened.
"There definitely it," Hei Shisan said with a slap to Jin Huang's back.
"So you went to that place." Xu Ye added lazily.
Their eyes widened.
"You knew I was going to go to that place?" Jin Huang asked sharply.
Xu Ye lost his motivation to remain upright. He lay down again, then he rolled onto his side, propping his head up with one arm.
"I saw fragments when we first met." he murmured. "Cold obsidian. Rain. A dead cultivator. Then a grey haze."
"So you didn't see anything more?" Jin Huang shot Hei Shisan a look.
"I didn't."
"Are you sure?"
Xu Ye exhaled. "I'm sure of nothing. I lack the stamina for certainty."
Hei Shisan slowly began to smile. "You're weird," he said.
"Yes," Xu Ye yawned. "As are you two."
Hei Shisan chuckled; Jin Huang proudly pounded his chest. "Also overpowered."
"Sure, buddy," Xu Ye wiped his eyes and stretched lazily.
Jin Huang squinted at him with a frown. "Why are you even here?"
"Apparently," Xu Ye rolled onto his back and got comfortable, "accidentally forgetting to do all of my assignments and take notes... and attend classes... is an offense."
"What the hell have you been doing all this time?" Hei Shisan brought a chair over and sat.
Xu Ye sighed faintly. "Trying to nap."
There was silence once again, then Hei Shisan started laughing in delight. Jin Huang joined in seconds later.
Xu Ye watched them both with half-lidded eyes. "What are you two laughing about?"
Hei Shisan dragged his chair forward and struck the pose of a cheery salesman. "Have you ever heard of the Eternal Recalcitrance Club?"
Xu Ye blinked. "Not at all."
"Well you're in luck" Jin Huang slid up beside Hei Shisan with a chair of his own.
Xu Ye looked between them.
"What is this?" he started. "Are you two trying to recruit me or something?"
They both grinned, "Nothing so formal!" Jin Huang protested.
Hei Shisan chimed in, "Think of this as an aligning of paths, something that requires no effort on either part."
Xu Ye sighed. "Why do you think I'd be interested in this recalcitrance club?"
Hei Shisan wiped a tear from his eye, "Because you'd fit in disturbingly well."
"I won't," Xu Ye corrected. "I simply lack the will to resist chaos, thus I'd be freely blown around by the storm."
Jin Huang crossed his arms. " So you're telling me you possess a godly inheritance but you don't even use it for anything fun? You just choose to nap all the time?"
Xu Ye looked genuinely confused. "Yeah... ?"
Jin Huang slowly grinned. "He's cool."
Hei Shisan nodded solemnly. "Really cool."
Xu Ye stared at the ceiling, feeling the flow of destiny slipping away. "I'm not cool. I'm tired. I promise... Please."
"Hush up! It's decided!" Hei Shisan declared.
Jin Huang got off his chair and leaned over Xu Ye's face, eyes gleaming.
"If you can see the future… then do you see my rise to glory, power and fame?"
Xu Ye turned his head lazily and met Jin Huang's excited gaze.
"Do I receive untold riches? Endless mountains of food? A nation of followers who worship me?"
For a brief moment- just a flicker- the red in Xu Ye's pupils deepened. "You... are going to cause a lot of trouble," he murmured.
Jin Huang beamed. "Trouble? Like legendary trouble?"
Xu Ye closed his eyes again. "Exhausting trouble."
Hei Shisan slapped Jin Huang's shoulder with an obnoxious and pompous guffaw. "Well, Number Fourteen, it seems we've acquired a divinely empowered, chronically unmotivated member."
"I didn't agree to join anything," Xu Ye reminded him.
"You walked into our room," Hei Shisan countered.
"Yeah, and then you exhaled frost into my soul," Xu Ye rebutted.
"That's practically a blood oath," Jin Huang said, oozing confidence and the aura of forced acceptance.
Xu Ye sighed deeply and exhaustedly. "Fine. But only because I'm already seeing glimpses of myself in the future you will create."
Jin Huang and Hei Shisan high-fived eagerly.
"So," Xu Ye rolled onto his side again, allowing the faintest smirk to touch his lips, "tell me about this Eternal Recalcitrance Club."
For the first time since arriving, his red eyes didn't look irritated. They looked… amused.
Hei Shisan leaned back, satisfied; Jin Huang studied Xu Ye carefully.
They both nodded slowly.
This one would do just fine.