The silver sword carried Ji Zhixing and Lu Qing’an through the air.
Lu Qing’an squatted near the back of the sword, looking down from above at the city below, which appeared as tiny as grains of rice.
Exhaling a long breath of turbid air, she organized the cluttered thoughts she had carried since leaving home. “Senior Sister, thank you.”
Ji Zhixing offered her a soft smile and sat cross-legged beside her. “You are most welcome.”
Seeing this, Lu Qing’an propped one hand against the sword surface and mimicked her, sitting cross-legged as well.
Small towns passed beneath them one after another, and Lu Qing’an silently counted how many towns they had crossed in her heart.
“Are you and Qingyi friends?”
Hearing Ji Zhixing ask this, Lu Qing’an recalled the memory in her mind.
“I suppose we are.”
Ji Zhixing lowered her eyelids, covering her light brown pupils, and asked gently, “Is that so? How did you two meet?”
“Speaking of that, when we first met, I suppose you could say I saved her.”
As she brought up this matter, Lu Qing’an’s tone naturally took on a bit of indignation.
“At that time, she fell out of a tree, right when I happened to be hiding under it to escape the sun.”
She spoke with a hint of resentment. “She landed right on top of me, and I was knocked straight to the ground by her weight.”
“Because of that, I even flattened a sapling the master had just planted, and I was punished with standing outside for a whole day.”
Seeing that Ji Zhixing was willing to listen, Lu Qing’an shared a bit more.
“Afterward, I took her out of the city to play. Outside the city was a temple, quite large, and there were often little cats and dogs inside.”
“Fluffy and soft, so much fun.”
At this point, she let out a sigh.
“Who would have thought that a gang of mountain bandits suddenly appeared that day and kidnapped us.”
“Even though Xia Qingyi and I were rescued in the end, she was frightened out of her wits. I felt sorry for her, so I often went to her house afterward to visit her.”
“Over time, we naturally became familiar with each other.”
Lu Qing’an chuckled. “Senior Sister, you have no idea how quiet and gentle she seemed back then.”
She extended her palm to measure a height around her shoulder. “Half a head shorter than me, with two little braids, she would follow behind me every time, tugging at my clothes.”
“Not like how she is now at all.”
Resting her chin on her hand, she thought back to Xia Qingyi’s behavior of forced buying earlier today.
Remembering this, Lu Qing’an suddenly recalled the tassel in her arms. She retrieved it and placed it in her palm.
“Senior Sister, I originally intended to give this to you.”
She looked down at the green strands of the tassel, swaying along with the traces of the wind. “Do you still want it now?”
Ji Zhixing smiled warmly. “This is the first gift you have ever given me. How could I not accept it?”
She tied the tassel onto the hilt of the sword.
The refined elegance of the green combined with the subtle understatement of the plain silver just right.
Lu Qing’an’s gaze fell upon it, feeling that it suited the sword perfectly.
She raised her eyes to gaze at her senior sister’s side profile.
Strands of hair fell near the corner of her eyes, while longer ones rested beside her cheek, obscuring a portion of her fair complexion, yet highlighting her pink lips and dainty chin even more.
Her gaze was not on Lu Qing’an, but rested on the city below.
Her light-colored pupils faintly reflected subtle glimmers of light in the dusk between day and night, harboring a gentle warmth that seemed to embrace the world.
“Senior Sister.”
Lu Qing’an was mesmerized, unconsciously murmuring aloud.
Ji Zhixing turned her head, her gaze meeting Lu Qing’an’s, her light-colored eyes now reflecting the person before her. “What is it?”
Lu Qing’an did not know why she had called out to Ji Zhixing either.
Her body had simply acted on its own.
Lu Qing’an’s mind spun rapidly. Tugging at the fabric of her outer robe, she pulled a memory out from her head.
“Sect disciples are not allowed to leave the sect without requesting permission from their master. If they have not formally taken a master, they must register at the Hall of Affairs.”
“Senior Sister, taking me out this time, you will probably be punished, right?”
Ji Zhixing felt a moment of surprise in her heart. “Why do you know this?”
Lu Qing’an shrugged, not surprised by Ji Zhixing’s question.
“The sect rules are in the Library Pavilion. Whenever I am bored, I flip through them.”
A smile rippled in her eyes, and the corners of her mouth curled up as she said deliberately and slowly, “Senior Sister, you didn’t think I was the kind of person who was completely unlearned and useless, did you?”
Ji Zhixing rarely felt a moment of awkwardness and gave a light cough. “We only went out of the mountain for an afternoon, so we should only be placed in confinement for half a day at most.”
In the rear mountain of the sect, Lu Qing’an looked at Ji Zhixing, who stood beside her with an expressionless face, inwardly admiring how calm her senior sister was.
Sure enough, after returning to the sect, they were punished.
However, it was not the half-day confinement Ji Zhixing had predicted.
Instead, they were punished with staying in the rear mountain for a full two months.
At least for Lu Qing’an, after learning of this punishment, she was astonished for a moment.
She had not expected the punishment to last so long.
This was also the first time Lu Qing’an had come to the rear mountain, and she was filled with curiosity about everything.
“Senior Sister, are there any fun places in the rear mountain?”
Lu Qing’an looked at the lush, green trees around them, varying in height, with sunlight filtering through the leaves.
She looked at Ji Zhixing with eyes full of excitement, completely devoid of the feeling of being currently confined.
After receiving no answer from Ji Zhixing, she dropped her head.
Dejectedly, Lu Qing’an squeezed two words from her throat. “Alright then.”
Ji Zhixing walked ahead, and Lu Qing’an followed behind.
The paths on the mountain all seemed to look the same. Lu Qing’an felt as though they had been walking for a long time, and she raised her head to look at Ji Zhixing.
“Senior Sister, where on earth are we going?”
Beads of sweat had already formed on Lu Qing’an’s forehead, which she wiped away casually with her sleeve.
Ji Zhixing’s gentle voice sounded. “We have arrived.”
Lu Qing’an looked closely and discovered a small wooden cabin before her.
“We will be living here for the next two months.”
Ji Zhixing used her sword to clear away the weeds, forging a path through.
Stepping inside the small wooden cabin to look around, there was only a single table and a single bed.
Placed desolate and solitary inside, it gave off a miserable and impoverished impression.
As the wind blew past, Lu Qing’an shivered all over, instantly feeling that her future was grim.
“Senior Sister, in your room I could at least sleep on a rug, but coming here, I estimate I can only sleep on the floor.”
Lu Qing’an’s face crumpled into a bitter expression like a bitter gourd. She closed her eyes and shouted, “This definitely isn’t real, this definitely isn’t real.”
She put on a rogue-like attitude, as if as long as she did not open her eyes, she would not have to face reality.
Ji Zhixing found it amusing, letting out a soft laugh from between her teeth. Her gaze fell upon Lu Qing’an’s lips, which were currently speaking.
Her little mouth kept babbling away, quite capable of talking.
Her tender pink lips opened and closed, occasionally revealing a few pearly white teeth, making her lips look even redder and her teeth whiter.
Like cherries hanging from tree branches on a spring morning, glistening with drops of morning dew.
Awaiting someone to pick them.
Lu Qing’an opened her eyes with a sense of resignation, only to find her senior sister staring at her.
“Senior Sister?”
Slightly bewildered, she touched her cheek. Could it be that she had gotten dust on her face while clearing the table and chairs earlier?
Ji Zhixing had not expected her to open her eyes suddenly, and for a moment, she failed to withdraw her gaze in time.
In a pair of eyes that were perpetually gentle, something more seemed to linger at this moment.
“Your hair is messy.”
Ji Zhixing shifted her gaze upward, pointing across the air at Lu Qing’an’s temple.
Lu Qing’an felt it with her hand, and indeed, a strand of hair had broken free from the hairband, hanging down beside her cheek.
There was not even a mirror in this room, so she could only rely on her feeling to tie the fallen hair back into the hairband.
After touching her hair and feeling that it was roughly fine, she lowered her hands. “Senior Sister, look, how is it?”
Lu Qing’an had tied a high ponytail today, parting a portion of the lower hair to cover her neck, letting it fall naturally along the curve of her back.
As she spoke, she took two steps closer to Ji Zhixing, her outer robe fluttering with her movement.
Ji Zhixing looked over as well. Perhaps because Lu Qing’an could not see her own hair, it was tied extremely messily.
It resembled a hedgehog, looking even worse than before.
Ji Zhixing summoned a comb from her storage ring.
“Come here, I will comb it for you.”
Black hair flowed between fingertips, intertwining together. White knuckles moved up and down, carefully stroking across every inch.
Lu Qing’an could even feel Ji Zhixing’s breath falling behind her.
Warm, long, and delicate, making her heart suddenly itch.
For a moment, the quiet air was filled with the sound of comb teeth rubbing against strands of hair.
Ji Zhixing summoned a water mirror in front of Lu Qing’an. “Done.”
Reflected in the mirror were Ji Zhixing and Lu Qing’an.
Ji Zhixing stood behind Lu Qing’an, holding the wooden comb in her hand, currently lowering her head to check if any spot had not been combed properly.
With her head lowered, her usually gentle expression now possessed a touch more of domestic tenderness.
The white jade earring on her ear swayed gently with her movements, swinging back and forth.
A silver hairpin was fastened in her hair, the left end inlaid with a round jade of the same quality as her earring.
It complemented her appearance wonderfully.
Lu Qing’an witnessed this scene in the water mirror.
A lotus emerging from clear water, naturally unadorned.
Realizing she had zoned out, Lu Qing’an dropped her eyelids as if she had been burned.
What was wrong with her?
She secretly stole another glance at Ji Zhixing in the water mirror. Seeing that her attention was still on her hair, she inwardly let out a sigh of relief.
Seeing that nothing was amiss, Ji Zhixing nodded.
However, seeing Lu Qing’an keeping her head down, unaware of what she was thinking, Ji Zhixing asked, “Qing’an, are you unsatisfied?”
Lu Qing’an was feeling guilty at this moment. Hearing these words, she bounced straight up from her chair.
“Of course I am satisfied! Senior Sister’s skill is so good, how could I not be satisfied?”
She spoke incoherently, her movement so fast that the little stool flipped over onto the floor with a clatter.
Listening to the sound of wood colliding with the floor, Lu Qing’an also felt that her reaction was a bit overly dramatic.
Ji Zhixing looked at her with a hint of perplexity.
Lu Qing’an’s hand hanging by her leg scratched nervously and awkwardly at the fabric of her robe.
The atmosphere in the air was truly a bit strange.
“Senior Sister, since we are confined here, how do we handle food?”
Lu Qing’an awkwardly raised a topic, originally intending to divert Ji Zhixing’s attention.
Yet she also realized that this was indeed a real problem.
Ji Zhixing set the stool she had knocked over back upright and sat upon it.
“There are many wild rabbits on this mountain.”
Although Ji Zhixing only spoke a single sentence, Lu Qing’an already understood.
Taking three steps in two, she grabbed the half-person-tall wooden stick resting in the corner and sprinted into the mountain with lightning speed.
The trailing sound of her voice still lingered in the air. “Senior Sister, I will go catch a rabbit for you right now!”
Seeing how fast she ran, Ji Zhixing looked at her departing figure with leisurely composure. At any rate, she would return immediately.
“Ah!”
The very next moment, Lu Qing’an’s shocked and terrified scream resounded, immensely penetrating through the air.