One other thing i think is worth looking at in the update is that while, yes, Ling Qi successfully made her position on romance clear, she hasn't shoved the issue completely out of mind. She's talking to friends about it, which is interesting. Not in the sense that she's toying with changing her mind on any level, she isn't, but that she seems as though she will be moving forwards while at least attempting to have an awareness of Xuan Shi's feelings, while also not running away screaming for the hills. It's nice progress.
And then there's this line she admitted to Xuan Shi. It's easy for us to forget the whole of Ling Qi's experiences, because she doesn't dwell on most of them. We need to extrapolate from what we know to understand the full meaning of this line.
There was the creep client of Qingge's the night before Ling Qi ran away, yes, but then she proceeded to live on the streets on her own from the age of 10 to 14. It's basically certain she had to run from cat-calls, threats, advances, offers, and even being chased more than once. She did dress as a boy to try to escape that kind of attention, but, well, frankly that isn't as effective a shield as she probably thinks it is. There's a decent chance she thought her disguise was seen through on several occasions where it wasn't; her would-be assailants just weren't picky.
