After Xie Lingyu walked into the main courtyard, everything that happened seemed strange.
First, from far away beyond the crabapple flowers, he heard laughter coming from the room. When he drew closer, it changed to annoyed humming, frustrated, as if responding to something.
…What was she doing at midnight without sleeping?
At this hour, she should usually be asleep by now.
Standing at the door, the sounds stopped, quiet for a long while. He raised his hand to knock when suddenly a sound of things being thrown came from inside.
Xie Lingyu’s brow furrowed slightly. Without time to think more, he pushed the door open. Inside the room was the young girl bundled in a quilt, curled into a ball, sitting properly on the edge of the bed.
Except for her face being somewhat flushed, she looked otherwise fine.
“What are you doing?”
He lowered his eyes, about to pick up what had fallen, when he suddenly sensed the girl running toward him. The moment he raised his eyes, she had already launched herself at him.
Xie Lingyu was startled and instinctively caught her. As they fell to the ground, his palm steadied her slender waist.
The girl was uncommonly close to him, her delicate white fingers pressing on his shoulder, a faint medicinal scent intertwined with the fragrance of crabapples filling his arms.
She held the glass mirror she had snatched from his hands, clearly relieved. She raised her eyes and met his gaze.
Those clear amber eyes suddenly froze.
The next moment, she hastily let go and stood up, quickly backing away several steps until she was against a screen, as if she had accidentally touched something distasteful.
The room was dark, unable to see the girl’s expression clearly, only faintly seeing her fists clenched, her tone heavy.
“You, what are you doing here in the middle of the night?”
After two seconds of silence, Xie Lingyu lowered his eyelashes, stood up from the ground, and brushed his sleeve. His voice was calm: “The one who refined the pill in the jade box informed me that his disciple misplaced the jade slip recording the method of use. I’ve come to replace it.”
Sang Ying suddenly understood, no wonder there was such a glass mirror in the box.
“Wait a moment.”
With those words, Sang Ying turned around, opened the glass mirror, and quickly explained in the chaotic group chat that she wasn’t the owner, that she had found the mirror and was returning it to its rightful owner.
The group members finally calmed down.
Just as Sang Ying was about to close the mirror, Xiaxia Cave Master suddenly spoke: 【Meeting is fate. Why not add the group with your own account? When there’s nothing to do, we can chat together】
White Cat Swordsman quickly followed: 【Yes yes, the group members are very warm-hearted. If you have any difficulties, you can tell us all, and we’ll all work together to help you solve them】
Lake-Filling Hermit: 【That’s right】
Delivery Heavenly Worthy: 【+1】
Unobstructed Taoist: 【+2】
Stock Demon Emperor Buyer: 【+3】
Sang Ying: 【…Are you all trying to eat gossip?】
Xiaxia Cave Master: 【Hehe】
White Cat Swordsman: 【Hehe】
Lake-Filling Hermit: 【Hehe】
Although Sang Ying could tell these weird cultivators clearly wanted to pry and gossip, she still pulled out her own glass mirror.
She peeked at the doorway. The white-robed youth stood in the doorway, quiet and cool.
And she also wanted to know…what exactly did he mean?
Xiaxia Cave Master added her as a friend and pulled her into the group. Sang Ying had calmed down by now, walked to the youth’s side, and handed him the glass mirror.
Xie Lingyu spread his palm open, and a jade slip lay in it. Sang Ying picked it up, paused slightly, gripping the jade slip that had taken on warmth.
The matter was settled, yet the youth didn’t leave, still standing under the flowered corridor as clear moonlight fell along the eaves.
Sang Ying was confused: “Is there anything else?”
Xie Lingyu said flatly: “I will leave tomorrow morning. I should return in about seven days.”
Sang Ying: “Oh.”
Xie Lingyu had always told her before leaving. Sang Ying had long grown accustomed to it and didn’t pay much attention.
She lowered her head to look at the shadows on the ground. The twisted ankle had healed completely after sleeping. She slowly stepped on the crabapple flower shadows when she suddenly noticed two tufts sticking up on her shadow’s head, swaying in the wind.
?!
Sang Ying suddenly covered her own head.
Xie Lingyu was about to leave when he paused at this: “What’s wrong?”
Sang Ying hastily made up an excuse: “Nothing, just that my period came and I’m a bit uncomfortable. I’ll go back to my room first.”
After speaking, she turned and ran back to her room, closing the door.
Sang Ying ran to the mirror by the vanity and looked. Her hair had been slept into a messy bird’s nest, two strands sticking up like little cockroach antennae.
…No wonder Xie Lingyu, usually composed even in crisis, had looked so startled when he first saw her. From his perspective it must have looked like a female ghost pouncing on him. She’d be scared too.
She threw herself face-first back onto the bed with a soft pillow, and Sang Ying’s face was full of hopelessness.
But very quickly something even more hopeless happened. She’d spoken too soon and jinxed herself [1]words becoming a prophecy (yi yu cheng chen, 一語成讖) (Idiom), an offhand remark that unexpectedly turns out to be true jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3389867_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3389867_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });, her period actually arrived.
Sang Ying lay dejected in her quilt, hands and feet icy, her small face pale with pain.
She had always been frail, and every period was hard to endure. Today she had been chilled at Ten-Thousand-Ice Valley, and her period came early. Her stomach hurt worse than usual.
Her head was also muddled, the quilt wasn’t warm, especially the part below her legs felt like an ice pit.
Sang Ying curled up into the quilt, scrunching herself up like a shrimp.
In her haziness, her thoughts turned to Xie Lingyu again.
She had been frail and sickly since childhood, carefully raised on Minghua Mountain. Her father didn’t let her go out or contact people. Besides her father, the only close people around her were three senior brothers.
Without females nearby, this meant she didn’t understand matters of female physiology, and no one told her.
The first time she had her period, her stomach hurt terribly, and seeing blood, she thought she was dying. She curled up and secretly wiped her tears.
It was Xie Lingyu who noticed she had woken late and came to knock on her door. Hearing the hidden sobbing in her voice, he sensed something was wrong.
He was only fifteen or sixteen years old then, though stable in temperament and steady in his actions, this was his first time encountering such matters of young women.
Seeing a young girl on her first period hugging a blood-stained quilt, hiccupping as she said her last words, the youth was momentarily at a loss.
“…Don’t cry, junior sister. You won’t die.”
He said this quietly, pulled Sang Ying out of the quilt, found her clean clothes, and put her in the inner chamber.
Through the screen, his voice halting, he explained that this was a woman’s period, not a terminal illness.
Understanding she had made a fuss over nothing, Sang Ying calmed down, though she had cried hard, her nose tip red, occasionally hiccupping.
By the time she came out in clean clothes, the youth had already changed the sheets and quilt on the bed to a fresh set and was sitting at the table sewing something.
Seeing her come out, the youth slightly averted his eyes and handed her a stack of white cloth strips.
Sang Ying numbly held the soft white cloth strips, so soft, with cotton stuffed inside.
“What’s this? Why are you giving me this?”
The youth trembled his eyelashes, silent for a long time before struggling to speak: “junior sister… place this against, at…”
Sang Ying’s crying-addled brain suddenly clicked, realizing he meant for her to place the cloth strips where the blood was flowing. Her ears burned red, and without waiting for him to finish, she clutched the strips and ran back behind the screen.
When she came out again after dallying for a while, the youth was standing by the table holding his sword. On the table was a bowl of steaming ginger-sugar water with red dates and longan.
“I have asked Teacher-uncle to excuse you from lessons today. Have some ginger-sugar water and rest.”
“…Don’t speak of today’s matter to anyone.”
“Okay.”
Only then did Sang Ying feel at ease. Being seen by Xie Lingyu in that state was already so embarrassing. If it spread, what would become of her reputation as the eldest of Minghua Mountain?
Sitting back on the bed, Sang Ying sipped slowly from the small bowl. Ginger brought warmth, and after drinking, her body was much warmer, but still lethargic, she fell back into the quilt.
Suddenly a sharp pain, her body curled up, her small face pale, biting her lip.
There were lessons today, and the youth, about to leave, paused. “Does it hurt a lot?”
“Mm…of course not! I’m, I’m just a bit cold. This quilt’s too thin.”
How could Sang Ying, priding herself as the eldest of Minghua Mountain’s Green Lamp Peak, admit she was laid low by such a small thing as her period? Despite her small face being white with pain, her mouth was still hard.
The youth was silent for a breath, walked over, lifted the quilt edge, drew out one of her hands, and placed his fingers on her delicate white wrist.
Sang Ying blinked, suddenly seeming to understand something, a sorrowful expression on her face: “Xie Lingyu, you liar!”
The youth raised his eyes: ?
He was confused: “What did I lie about?”
Sang Ying hugged her small pillow and looked up sadly: “It’s clearly a terminal illness, but you lied to me it’s not. That’s why it hurts so much. Say, did you remember everything I told you before? Remember to bury me somewhere pretty, if it’s ugly I can’t sleep.”
The youth: “…I didn’t lie. It really isn’t.”
Sang Ying: “Then why are you feeling my pulse? Isn’t it only when you’re sick that—”
The youth sighed, shifted his fingers, and changed from transmitting spiritual power to grasping her hand.
Palm to palm, warm spiritual power flowed through her meridians. The warmth reached through her limbs and bones, her icy hands and feet warmed, and the pain diminished greatly.
Sang Ying paused slightly, raised her face to see his cold white profile, clear and serene. The edge of the quilt was pulled up by the youth, his fingers curling slightly.
He set his sword aside, leaning lightly on the edge of the bed. His voice was clear and low and slow.
“Sleep, junior sister.”
Perhaps the colder it was, the more one recalls the warmest moments, and the more one feels that present warmth as if one were there.
Her consciousness growing hazy, Sang Ying gradually felt her body not so cold. A warm feeling like a soft quilt wrapped around her, the aching small belly was covered with warmth, and it hurt less.
So warm…
Sang Ying hugged her warm pillow, holding it tightly in her arms, pressing her small face against it, soft and squishy as she nestled.
For some reason, the usually soft pillow was hard, and grew harder the more she held it, not comfortable. Sang Ying’s brow furrowed in her sleep, somewhat disdainful. But considering it was warm and toasty, she still held it without letting go.
Hmm…tomorrow I need to get a new pillow.
The next day, Sang Ying, who had slept well, emerged from her quilt with messy hair, stayed in bed a bit longer wrapped in the quilt, and then got up to wash.
Jingxi came to fix her hair. Sang Ying rested her chin, fiddling with pearls and flowers in the box, and discovered a faint red mark on the inner side of her wrist. She glanced at it without paying much attention and looked away.
Her skin was delicate and pale, and even minor scrapes showed easily. It was probably where she’d scraped herself last night rolling around in bed. It would fade naturally in a few days.
After breakfast, Jingxi brought a bowl of hot ginger medicinal soup: “With a period and a body cold by nature, it’s truly suffering. This is an old prescription from a physician for conditioning. It took two hours to make. Young Miss, drink some to warm up.”
Sang Ying was startled, then asked confusedly: “How did you know I got my period?”
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