Qin Yu was woken up by a chorus of weeping and wailing. Opening her eyes, she was greeted by Su Qing’s enlarged face, stained with tear tracks, while Yu Qingya sat off to the side with an expression of utter helplessness.
“Wuwuwu, Senior Sister Qin Yu, you are finally awake.”
Seeing Qin Yu open her eyes, Su Qing sobbed even harder.
Her head throbbing from the noise, Qin Yu cast a helpless, pleading look toward Yu Qingya.
Yu Qingya sighed softly. “Su Qing insisted that you were injured on her account, and she stubbornly demanded to stay here and take care of you.”
This news came as quite a shock to Qin Yu. After all, this was the very woman in the original book who loved locking horns with her the most, yet here she was, actively volunteering to play the nursemaid. No matter how she looked at it, it felt utterly bizarre.
However, none of those hostile events from the original plot had come to pass, and true to Yu Qingya’s assessment, Su Qing was simply a person who loved and hated with absolute fervor.
From Su Qing’s perspective, Qin Yu had saved her life twice, which naturally explained why she was acting this way now.
She could only conclude that everything in this world was capable of shifting and changing, and it felt straight out of a dream.
Yet, seeing Su Qing cry so relentlessly that her heart softened, Qin Yu finally spoke up. “Stop crying. Look, am I not completely fine now?”
Only then did Su Qing check her sobbing, staring at Qin Yu with wide, tear-filled eyes. “Then, Senior Sister, let me feed you your medicine.”
Looking at the pitch-black, bitter-smelling concoction, Qin Yu shrank back in aversion, once more tossing a silent, helpless SOS look at Yu Qingya.
Stepping forward at last, Yu Qingya took the medicine bowl from Su Qing’s hands. “You have not attended the disciple duty assessment yet today. Hurry off and take care of it.”
Su Qing blinked in surprise, only just remembering her official duties. Desperate as she was to linger by the bedside, the quiet authority radiating from Yu Qingya compelled her to yield, promising Qin Yu she would return the moment she finished her tasks.
Only after Su Qing finally departed did Qin Yu exhale a long breath of relief, feeling thoroughly exhausted.
She had to admit that Su Qing’s fiery brand of enthusiasm was something she struggled to handle.
“What? Reluctant to see her go?”
Noticing Qin Yu’s gaze lingering on the doorway, Yu Qingya remarked, a faint edge of displeasure coloring her tone.
For reasons unknown, Su Qing had always kept a polite distance from everyone else in the sect, yet ever since Qin Yu rescued her that day, she had paid an abnormal amount of attention to Qin Yu.
It was only because Su Qing lacked the courage to question Yu Qingya directly that her partiality hadn’t been quite this glaring until now.
“Of course not. It is just that her attitude toward me used to be completely different, and the change is simply too dramatic to process,” Qin Yu explained.
“She has been like this ever since you saved her, but her temperament has always been a bit headstrong and reckless, and she probably just frightened you,” Yu Qingya conceded, offering a rare defense on Su Qing’s behalf.
A quiet surprise flickered in Qin Yu’s heart. Yu Qingya rarely ever spoke up for anyone else, so the fact that she was defending Su Qing like this showed that she held a fairly favorable view of the girl.
She really needed to stop looking at people through old, biased lenses. After all, everyone in this world was a living, breathing individual in their own right.
Since Yu Qingya had a mountain of administrative affairs to handle for the Lotus Pavilion, Qin Yu spent her time sequestered in Yu Qingya’s quarters to practice her cultivation.
Normally, Qingxu would have been the one looking after her, but the younger girl had left behind a brief note claiming she had urgent matters to attend to, leaving Su Qing to frequently pop up in front of Qin Yu during this period.
After a few days of interaction, Qin Yu realized that Su Qing was simply straightforward to a fault, her inner thoughts as transparent as glass.
On this particular day, Qin Yu was summoned by Su Qing to the back courtyard.
“What did you need me for?”
Qin Yu asked lazily, her body having loosened up considerably over the past few days of rest.
Su Qing’s cheeks flushed pink as she kept shooting furtive glances at Qin Yu, wearing the unmistakable expression of someone swallowing their words.
Watching Su Qing’s nervous demeanor made Qin Yu feel slightly unsettled, a strange, creeping chill prickling along the back of her neck for no apparent reason.
“Senior Sister Xiaoyou, may I address you like that?”
If one listened closely, Su Qing’s voice carried a distinct tremor, and she scarcely dared to meet Qin Yu’s eyes.
The question caught Qin Yu off guard. “Why ever not?”
After all, all the junior disciples back at the Ancient Tree Sect addressed her the exact same way, and Qin Yu could not fathom what could possibly be improper about it.
“Senior Sister Xiaoyou, I like you.”
With her eyes tightly shut, Su Qing blurted out her true feelings at the top of her lungs.
Qin Yu froze in sheer astonishment. What? She likes me? This was completely, utterly mind-boggling.
“Do you even realize what you are saying?”
Qin Yu stammered, her words tripping over themselves as the atmosphere curdled into something intensely awkward.
Looking back at Qin Yu, Su Qing seemed to shed a fraction of her nervousness this time. “I know very well what I am saying. I said I…”
Before Su Qing could finish, Qin Yu rushed forward and clapped a hand over her mouth, cutting her off before she could say another word.
Although she no longer held any animosity toward Su Qing, saving her life twice had never been part of some calculated design, and she felt profoundly undeserving of such intense devotion, especially since she already had someone else in her heart.
“Su Qing, if this stems entirely from the fact that I rescued you on two occasions, I can assure you right now that both times, I was simply helping your Senior Sister save you.”
Qin Yu hated to phrase it so bluntly, fearing that if Su Qing thought her gratitude lay with Yu Qingya, she might accidentally cultivate a new romantic rival for herself.
Yet she had no choice but to lay the truth bare, both because it was the reality and because she wanted to decisively nip Su Qing’s feelings in the bud.
She refused to give Yu Qingya any reason to misunderstand. Right now, she could only manage to stay by Yu Qingya’s side under the guise of friendship; call her cowardly if she liked, but it was the path she had chosen.
Su Qing blinked, startled. “Senior Sister Xiaoyou, you are not even afraid of crushing my self-esteem, are you? Actually, I only wanted to express my own feelings to you, and I never intended to pressure you into accepting me.”
Su Qing knew she was facing rejection, yet Qin Yu was still handling her with such gentle tact.
Qin Yu let out a soft sigh. “Those two instances only happened because you happened to be in danger while I was there to pull you out. It is just like the heroes saving beauties in storybooks, except the person who happened to show up was me. If someone else had been in my place, your feelings would be identical.”
Su Qing shook her head. “No. That incident was merely the catalyst that made me notice you. I only took notice of you because of that, but my feelings for you developed afterward.”
Listening to Su Qing’s earnest declaration, Qin Yu sighed again. “Su Qing, I know how cruel this sounds, but I am sorry. I already have someone I like.”
Su Qing managed a bitter, self-deprecating laugh. “Is it the Sect Leader?”
Qin Yu felt a jolt of surprise, though she ultimately nodded. At the same time, a sour ache twisted in her chest.
Virtually everyone around her had deduced her feelings for Yu Qingya, leaving only the oblivious object of her affection entirely in the dark.
“Actually, I had my suspicions for a while. If I am going to lose, losing to the Sect Leader is nothing to be ashamed of. Can we still be friends after this?”
True to her straightforward, no-nonsense nature, Su Qing spoke with characteristic frankness.
Only then did Qin Yu relax her shoulders, breaking into a smile as she nodded.
Su Qing’s face lit up in a matching grin as she reached out to hook her arm through Qin Yu’s. “How about this: let me help you pursue the Sect Leader?”
“Oh?”
Qin Yu’s interest was instantly piqued, though it quickly deflated into disappointment. “But Senior Sister Qingya practices the Ruthless Path.”
“So what if she practices the Ruthless Path? As long as you avoid intimate physical contact and breaking her vows, what does it matter?” Su Qing asked, looking genuinely perplexed.
Su Qing’s words sent a sudden, electric shiver straight through Qin Yu’s heart. As long as there is no intimate physical contact, would that really be enough?