Day was just breaking, and the early spring weather still held a touch of chill. A thin layer of water mist floated in the air, landing on a little maid’s face and causing her to cover her mouth and sneeze.
The clever little servants and maids had climbed out of their cozy blankets not long ago. Showing not a trace of drowsiness on their faces, they nimbly moved their hands and feet to build fires, boil water, and cook meals.
“It seems a bit colder today,” a senior nanny mumbled, turning around to instruct, “Burn the fire a bit brighter. Tao’er, tell the kitchen to prepare two more brazier heaters. Place several of them in the study and bedroom in a bit, and do not let the young master freeze.”
At the hour of Mao, Uncle Wu carried neatly warmed clothes and pushed open the door. The servant girls following behind him poured in like a school of fish, lighting the candle stands on both sides.
Uncle Wu walked into the inner room. The young master was still asleep, and because the charcoal fire in the room was sufficient, his fair little face carried two faint flushes of red.
He looked much healthier than in the past.
Ever since the young master survived that life-threatening major illness, his body seemed to grow better and better. According to those old Taoists, the fatal calamity had passed, and things would surely improve more and more in the future.
If that was the case, it was naturally time to make plans for returning in the future.
Uncle Wu put down the clothes and softly called out, “Young master, wake up. Young master, wake up!”
In a haze of sleepiness, Cen Xianyun knitted his brows in annoyance and rolled over wrapped in his blanket, but the voice beside his ear continued relentlessly, giving off an air that it would never end if he did not get up.
Unable to endure it any longer, he finally opened his eyes, and an old butler with kind eyes and an amiable face entered his view.
Only today did Cen Xianyun learn that no matter how warm and friendly a face was, placing it in a morning wake-up atmosphere would make it turn utterly hideous.
“Young master, Master Yuan has already arrived and is waiting in the study. You ought to hurry up as well; it is not right to keep the teacher waiting too long.”
Teacher? What teacher?
Cen Xianyun revealed an expression of confusion. He shook his head, grabbed the soft, warm blanket, pulled it upward, and hid even his head inside.
Uncle Wu had not seen such a childish side of the young master for a long time. He could not help but feel a bit amused, yet he still had no choice but to forcibly pull open the blanket and scoop the young master out.
“Young master, it is time to go study.”
Ah.
Cen Xianyun half-drooped his eyes, letting the old butler handle him like a wooden puppet that had lost its soul.
He remembered now. Although the original body was weak and was sent to a remote town to recuperate, his family background was noble and prominent, so he naturally could not remain illiterate.
It was just that he fell gravely ill last month and almost passed away. Fearing his body could not take it, the butler and nannies had halted his daily lessons until now.
“Uncle Wu.”
Butler Wu was half-kneeling in front of the young master tying his waistband. When Cen Xianyun lowered his head, he saw the graying hair swirl on top of the old butler’s head.
“I feel like my body has not fully recovered yet.”
Could he please not go to class?
Butler Wu tied the red waistband embellished with gold threads, smoothed out a few wrinkles on the sleeve corners and long robe, and opened his mouth with a beam: “Yesterday, the young master avoided the servants in the manor, snuck out on the sly, and even picked up a child to bring back. Thinking about it, even if your body has not fully recovered, it has restored seven or eight out of ten. Attending class should pose no problem.”
Cen Xianyun took a deep breath. No wonder when he snuck out yesterday, Butler Wu merely nagged a few words; so he was waiting for him right here.
Seeing that the young master was still rather unwilling, Butler Wu smiled and added another sentence: “The young master had better hurry up; keeping the teacher waiting for long is not good.”
“Ye, Yeye?”
Just as Cen Xianyun was about to follow the old butler out the door, a trembling call came from behind him.
Cen Xianyun’s already unpleasant expression collapsed completely.
He took a look at Xie Lingyou crawling out from the blanket, and then looked at Butler Wu beside him, his straightforward gaze needing no words to express his question:
Why is he in my bed again?
Butler Wu was also very surprised. He blinked and explained, “Listening to the young master’s words yesterday, I specially let him sleep in the same room as Nanny.”
Nanny’s room was quite a distance from the young master’s bedroom; how did this child run over by himself? Could it be that none of the seven or eight night-watch maids and servants in the young master’s courtyard noticed at all?
Xie Lingyou did not know what “Yeye” was thinking, but he remembered that he had to stay by “Yeye’s” side. He immediately climbed down from the bed and ran over barefooted.
Cen Xianyun’s face darkened even further. He did not miss the black soles of Xie Lingyou’s feet exposed in mid-air as he rolled off the bed.
Clearly, he had not worn shoes when he snuck over last night either.
“Young master, that child Lingyou”
Nanny ran over in a rush, and as luck would have it, she bumped right into Xie Lingyou throwing himself into the young master’s arms, tightly hugging the young master’s waist. She was greatly startled and weakly finished the rest of her words, “Is missing?”
Cen Xianyun pinched the back of Xie Lingyou’s neck. This spot was a cat’s vital gate, and since Xie Lingyou possessed half a cat demon bloodline, this spot naturally had a similar effect on him.
He peeled Xie Lingyou off his body, handed him over to Nanny, and gritted his teeth: “Wash him, and my bed, clean!”
Cen Xianyun arrived at the study just as Master Yuan happened to finish his breakfast.
The great scholars of these times favored beautiful beards the most, and this Master Yuan was no exception. His beard was meticulously maintained, unlike the dry white hair of ordinary old men; instead, it was flowy and smooth, looking quite like an immortal spirit.
Charcoal braziers were placed in the four corners of the study, making the room warm and cozy. Cen Xianyun walked to the side of the desk, bowed, and saluted: “Greetings to Master.”
“Mm,” Master Yuan held a sage book in one hand and lightly stroked his beard with the other, speaking slowly, “I heard you were ill a few days ago. Are you well now?”
Cen Xianyun, Cen Xianyun felt very unwell.
Even though he had arrived in a Xianxia cultivation background as a malicious master this time, how could he still not escape the tragic fate of waking up early for class?
Thinking so in his heart, he did not dare speak it aloud: “Thank you for Master’s concern; it is no longer a problem.”
“Having rested for over a month, I wonder if you have forgotten the things taught in the past.” Master Yuan stroked his long beard and put down the book scroll. “First, write an argumentative essay for me to see. Take ‘Do not despise others due to one’s own noble status’ as the topic.”
After hearing this, Cen Xianyun saluted and sat down, grinding ink while pondering this topic, occasionally zoning out.
Yesterday, he was indeed out of his mind, right?
Wasn’t it good to sleep for three to five years without being disturbed on the immortal mountain? Why did he have to write an argumentative essay here?
Sensory of the changes in the consciousness realm, the system immediately delivered cold and unfeeling ridicule: [Hahaha, so pitiful, Host~]
Cen Xianyun lifted his writing brush. Seemingly with single-minded focus, but actually with his mind wandering in outer space, he dropped one character after another onto the Xuan paper, bearing a ten-out-of-ten resemblance to the original body’s handwriting.
He was currently the most senior quick-transmigration mission taskforce worker under the Lord God. The worlds he had visited and the tasks he had completed were countless; imitating another person’s handwriting and writing a reasonable argumentative essay was naturally effortless.
What’s more, perhaps because the small world had rebooted too many times, making the timeline and plotline unstable, residual memories from different reincarnations remained in the body, causing him to experience an inexplicable sense of déjà vu from time to time.
Just like right now, almost without using his brain, this argumentative essay sprung forth like flowing water, as if he had deliberated over every word and phrase in it hundreds and thousands of times, ultimately remembering them by heart.
[Host!]
The system suddenly opened its mouth. Cen Xianyun was startled, his right hand trembling slightly as a drop of ink fell, staining the clean paper surface.
Looking at the glaring ink blob, Cen Xianyun felt inexplicably irritable: “Are you sick?”
The fierce voice made the system shake uncontrollably, and even a few glitched symbols popped up in its program.
Waaa, even though it was snapped at, why did it feel so good? It couldn’t have been infected by a virus, right?
The system held its little handkerchief and let its thoughts run wild. Wrong, it made a mistake! It must have accidentally plugged the anger and excitement emotion pumps into the wrong slots when booting up today!
It was not a pervert, and it definitely would not feel extremely empty just because it hadn’t been snapped at by the host for a long time, nor would it feel excited from being scolded by the host!
Although its mental preparation was very strong, the words it spoke sounded quite lacking in confidence: [Host, do you really not want to know why the small world is on the verge of collapsing?]
Waaa, if this were in the past, the host, who was praised as a “desperate worker” and “as long as he still had a breath left, he would crawl into the mission world”, would surely have noticed something wrong on the very first day of arriving at the small world and deduced the reason at the fastest speed.
How could it be like now?
With great difficulty he had remembered this matter and asked about it, only to turn around and say he didn’t want to know. Could it be that the system had to beg him before he would be willing to understand?
The system clenched its small fists, revealing a humiliated expression.
Cen Xianyun pulled away the soiled Xuan paper and began writing anew on a fresh sheet. If an attentive person were by his side, they would discover that the content written down this time was almost completely different from the previous piece.
An emotion without rhyme or reason came fast and went just as fast. Cen Xianyun restored his tranquility of caring about nothing again, asking back indifferently in his heart: “Is this important?”
The system got anxious: [Of course this is important!]
Cen Xianyun remained unmoved.
[If you don’t know why the world is on the verge of collapsing, you won’t know what major turning point violating the plot development occurred in this world in the past. If you don’t know the major turning point, you cannot trigger the world’s hidden plotline. If you cannot trigger the hidden plotline, you can’t learn the truth of the story!]
The system poured out witty remarks, contributing the fastest speech rate of its life to this.
[If you don’t learn the truth of the story, you won’t be able to get extra…] The system suddenly jammed, and guilt caused its high pitch to drop abruptly, its voice as quiet as a mosquito, […bonus points.]
Its host was no longer the desperate worker of the past who wanted points over his own life! He was now single-mindedly wanting to retire and then leave the Quick Transmigration Bureau, so what use were points to him?
The system gripped the little handkerchief in its hand tightly, the force so strong it almost ripped the handkerchief in two, and spoke in a hasty tone: [Even if it’s not for the points, this is still very important!]
“System.” Cen Xianyun’s hand holding the brush paused slightly. He lowered his head and blew on the paper covered with characters, setting it aside to dry before starting to write the latter portion.
“Since when did you become so well-behaved that when I didn’t let you speak, you really didn’t say anything?”
His tone was so calm that it lacked any waves, yet it made the system’s back go cold, feeling an unprecedented sense of pressure.
[Th-this…] The system spoke awkwardly, its mechanical brain running rapidly, giving a seemingly reasonable explanation within just a few seconds, [When I queried information yesterday afternoon, the Lord God placed restrictions on my authorization. I cannot directly give the host information unrelated to the main plotline right now.]
[The host needs to take the initiative to ask questions before I can answer related questions.]
The system nervously crumpled the small handkerchief into a ball in its palm. Fortunately, a mechanical body had no such thing as sweat, otherwise it would surely be dripping with sweat right now.
“Mm.”
Unexpectedly, Cen Xianyun did not raise any doubts.
He stopped his brush, blew dry the ink on the paper, and handed the two densely written sheets of Xuan paper over to Master Yuan’s desk.
The system could not help but ask: [Host, you believed it?]
Cen Xianyun stood before the desk, waiting for Master Yuan’s commentary after reading it through. He did not answer whether he believed it or not, but asked back: “Otherwise?”