They had been walking for close to half an hour since leaving the storeroom.
Senior Sister had not said a word and had not looked back once.
Lin Jin looked himself over.
Soaked to the skin.
Still a blade of grass in his hair from somewhere.
Though the injuries had been dealt with by Senior Sister's salve.
His face was clean now, the skin showing the pale pink of something freshly healed.
That's it.
She's definitely angry.
Back in the storeroom he had called Senior Sister Qingxue sick in the head.
Even if he had said it half asleep.
And even if he had gone on to slap himself backhanded on both cheeks.
Senior Sister did seem to have smiled at the end of it.
But after the smile she had not opened her mouth again.
Silence.
Silence is when a girl is at her most terrifying.
Especially one as cold and beautiful as Senior Sister.
Lin Jin closed his fists.
A man owns his mistakes. There's no shame in apologizing first.
He gave himself the pep talk three times over.
Worked up every scrap of courage he had.
And finally spoke.
"Senior Sister."
Chu Qingxue did not stop.
"Senior Sister Qingxue?"
Still did not stop.
Lin Jin drew a deep breath and pitched his voice higher.
"Senior Sister Qingxue, are you angry?"
Chu Qingxue's step finally faltered.
She had been thinking about something else.
Taking Lin Jin to have his spirit root tested next.
Giving him the cultivation resources.
Getting him into Qi Refining today.
Then going to register it with the Sect Master.
What to say when she saw the Sect Master.
Whether Yue Qingshuang would put an oar in partway through.
The further she thought, the deeper it went, and the further she walked.
She had entirely lost track of how long she had been walking.
And she had noticed even less that Lin Jin behind her had gone so tense he was moving his arms and legs on the same side.
And then that are you angry hauled her back.
Angry?
She paused for a beat.
Ah. The boy thinks she is angry.
Truthfully she was not.
But hearing him say it, a wicked idea came to her.
Yes, today's oversight had been hers.
But she was not going to let that stop her.
This idiot had made her wait all that time.
Had put her to all that effort.
Had made her walk into the outer sect under the eyes of that entire crowd to go and find him.
And had called her sick in the head—
Heh. Now I've got my opening.
So why not pretend to be angry and give him a scare.
Then Chu Qingxue turned around abruptly.
Set her face.
Lowered those cool brows.
"Do you know your offense?"
Hearing those four words, the great stone in Lin Jin's chest finally came down with a thud.
She is angry after all.
But if Senior Sister was willing to open her mouth and name the charge, there was still hope.
The attitude has to be right, the posture has to be low, the reasons have to be thorough.
That was the precious experience four years of dressings-down from his university counsellor had beaten into him.
Lin Jin straightened his back.
Put up a first finger.
"One. I should not have gone to the lodge alone yesterday and made Senior Sister worry."
Chu Qingxue looked at him without expression.
Second finger.
"Two. I should not have let outer sect disciples tie me up, which was embarrassing for Senior Sister."
The corner of Chu Qingxue's mouth moved slightly and was suppressed at speed.
Third finger.
"Three. I should not have been late. I was tied up in a storeroom, but that is still a question of my attitude."
Chu Qingxue's eyelid twitched.
Fourth finger.
"Four. I should not, when Senior Sister threw the water, have sworn...!"
"Sworn those particular words."
"I did not know it was Senior Sister at the time, but swearing is wrong regardless."
He paused, then added:
"And that basin of water was very well thrown. I happened to be thirsty."
Chu Qingxue raised a hand to cut him off.
"Enough."
Let him keep counting and he would get down to how many grains of rice he ate last night.
Seeing Senior Sister call a halt, Lin Jin's heart sank.
Was the apology not forceful enough?
Was the attitude still not sincere enough?
He set his teeth and brought out the move he kept at the bottom of the trunk.
"Senior Sister, if that is not enough to settle it..."
"I have a kidney."
Chu Qingxue stopped entirely.
"What?"
"A kidney."
Lin Jin's face was that of a man going to his execution.
"I have a kidney I can give you in compensation."
"I don't actually know whether kidneys are worth anything in a cultivation world, but it is the most valuable thing I have on me."
He patted his own flank.
"Senior Sister, if you need it, I'll just..."
"What would I want your kidney for."
A crack appeared in Chu Qingxue's cool voice.
It came from a confusion and a helplessness that reached the depths of her soul.
It isn't as though I could stir-fry it.
No — that is not the point.
Chu Qingxue drew a deep breath and hauled the subject bodily back on course.
"Lin Jin."
"Here!"
"My terms have not changed."
"Within three days, learn the First Form of the basic sword art."
"Then teach it to me in full — the insight behind the method, how to begin the stance, how the spiritual power circulates."
"When the time comes I will pretend to be a beginner and seal away my knowledge of the sword dao."
"If you can teach me, you have succeeded."
"And once you have succeeded, you may stay here."
Lin Jin fell silent.
Not out of fear.
But because it struck him suddenly that this was a wonderfully novel way to be tested.
He had sat through no end of examinations at university.
Closed book, open book, essays, group projects, slide presentations, orals, resits, repeat modules.
But not one of those tests had ever been this.
"Learn it yourself, then teach me."
What was that supposed to be? Teaching practicum edition?
"Senior Sister, do you mean..."
Lin Jin confirmed it cautiously.
"I learn it myself first, and then I teach you."
"And if you have learned it, I pass?"
"Correct."
"And if I understand it myself but fail to teach you?"
"Failure."
"Being able to teach it until I understand — that is what having learned it means."
Lin Jin opened his mouth and stared blankly at Senior Sister Qingxue.
That did make sense.
He could not say where the strangeness in it lay, but the logic genuinely held together.
He thought about it a little more.
And a picture rose in his mind, unbidden.
On the Transmission Grounds.
He stands behind Senior Sister, reaches out and takes her wrist lightly.
Guides her arm through the arc of the sword form.
Senior Sister tilts her head slightly.
An expression of dawning comprehension crosses that cool face.
She says softly, "So that is how it is. Lin Jin, you teach very well."
His hand brushes the place of her dantian by accident.
Senior Sister's cheeks color faintly and she says, low, "Do be careful..."
But she does not push him away.
And in the end Senior Sister practices the sword all day.
Tires herself out and leans against his shoulder.
Her breathing even, her lashes trembling faintly.
He lowers his head.
And catches the scent of that clear frost-cold spiritual energy in her hair.
Lin Jin gave a violent start.
His whole face went up in flames.
Can't think about that any more.
From his neck to the roots of his ears.
From his ears to his forehead.
To the tip of his nose.
To just beneath his eyelids.
And then—
A drop of something warm slid out of his right nostril.
Lin Jin blanked for half a second.
Put up a hand and touched it.
A nosebleed.
He had, in fact, thought himself into a nosebleed.
Chu Qingxue's pupils contracted.
And then, very briefly and very rapidly, one thought went through her mind—
What is this man thinking about?
"Blood."
"Your nose is bleeding."
"Huh?"
Lin Jin looked down at his hand.
What in the world is going on in my head, honestly — that is the third time I have humiliated myself in front of Senior Sister Qingxue!!
"It's the heat."
Lin Jin lifted his head without a flicker of change in his expression and wiped the remaining blood away quickly with his sleeve.
"It's definitely just the heat."
"The spiritual energy in the cultivation world is far too rich, it doesn't agree with me, Senior Sister. And I may be running a bit hot besides. Something light for dinner will sort it out."
His voice grew smaller and smaller.
Because he could see the look of pure distaste on Senior Sister's face.
Lin Jin turned his face aside, abashed.
He fished out the bottle of salve Senior Sister had given him yesterday.
Scooped out a small lump and applied it around his nostril to stop the bleeding.
Chu Qingxue did not call him out on it.
Because there were times she could not help getting a nosebleed over herself either.
"Change into this."
She pulled a neatly folded set of practice robes out of her storage ring.
The ordinary disciple's cut.
Moon-white cloth.
Silver-grey cloud-pattern piping sewn along the collar and the cuffs.
There was even a faint circulation of spiritual energy through the fabric.
"Put it on."
"When you are changed we set out, to the Transmission Pavilion."
She turned her back.
Lin Jin felt like a man granted amnesty.
He scrambled into the moon-white practice robes in a great flurry.
"R-right away, Senior Sister!"