The Wantong Commerce Guild really did live up to its name as the number-one guild, supremely efficient. After working out the specifics with Yun Xiu, they express-shipped both copies of the contract straight over via Didi-hailed sword. It arrived in under half an hour.
Yun Xiu hadn’t given a specific address, so the courier only delivered to the Lingyun Sect. She sent a message to You Yujing asking him to pick it up on his way back from shopping.
You Yujing: 【Got it, Junior Sister Yun, mission will be accomplished!】
That done, Yun Xiu went down the mountain, expertly crouched beside the stone stele at the foot of it, and waited for You Yujing to return while playing Match-3.
And then… she ran out of stamina.
Cursed. The game she’d made screwed over even herself.
Yun Xiu stuffed the glazed mirror away and was about to pick at the stele to pass the time when a red figure dropped down in front of her.
Xu Shaoqian smartly sheathed his sword and stood. “I bought the things you wanted.”
Yun Xiu blinked. Hm?
Before she could process it, the boy pulled out a storage pouch, formed a seal to unseal it, and a countless deluge of fuzzy yarn balls came gushing out, instantly burying Yun Xiu whole.
Yun Xiu: “Mmph… mmph!”
Help!
You Yujing, arriving a step late, caught the scene just in time and nearly fell off his sword. “Junior Sister Yun!”
You Yujing worked hard to dig Yun Xiu out of the fuzzy mountain.
He eyed the boy. “Kid, even if you want to butter someone up to take you as their master, there was no need to buy THIS much.”
Xu Shaoqian looked a little awkward. “Sorry.”
The little cloud-dumpling finally caught on to what had happened, spat out a fuzzball, and coughed a couple of times. “It’s, it’s fine.”
Yun Xiu retrieved the things she’d bought from You Yujing’s hands and ducked behind the stele. “Wait for me a moment.”
They didn’t know what she was up to, but the two of them waited obediently without peeking.
From this angle all they could see was the hem of the girl’s black robe fluttering.
Better part of an hour passed, then the girl let out a soft breath and stepped out from behind the stele.
She straightened up a little unnaturally, her gaze seeming to try hard to hold on Xu Shaoqian but never quite settling, though her expression was quite earnest.
“Um, about you taking me as your master, I’ve thought it over carefully. I can’t be your master, I haven’t even graduated my own apprenticeship. But, but if it’s as a friend teaching you combat techniques, that’s fine.”
Xu Shaoqian looked at the girl’s clear eyes and pressed his lips together.
“Also, about what happened three days ago…”
As the girl spoke, her body tensed a little, and the fuzz still stuck to her head stood up along with it. “I’m sorry. I’m very sorry.”
She bowed her head and thrust out both hands all at once, a small box cupped between them.
“…This is an apology gift.”
Xu Shaoqian was taken aback. He accepted the box and opened it.
Inside lay a grayish-white plush toy pendant, apparently a sword tassel, with fringe hanging from it.
Clearly, she’d just made it.
Apart from family, it was the first time a female cultivator had given Xu Shaoqian a gift.
His family had money, no artifact, however precious, caught his eye. Yet looking at this little trinket before him, an uncontainable delight welled up in his eyes.
On the surface, though, he kept his blank expression and asked indifferently, “…What spirit-beast is this?”
Yun Xiu: “An Alaskan.”
Never heard of it.
Xu Shaoqian gave the little pendant a shake. “Is it strong?”
Yun Xiu was silent a moment. “Yes.”
…In a certain sense it genuinely was strong, could rank in the top three.
Xu Shaoqian studied the pendant. “Only a strong spirit-beast is worthy of my sword. You chose well. I’ll accept it.”
Beside them came the sudden crunch of a pebble being crushed underfoot.
You Yujing stepped forward, drew his sword with a ring, teeth practically grinding to powder, and said word by word, “Let’s duel. Only the one who survives is worthy of the sword tassel.”
Xu Shaoqian shot him a sidelong look, unafraid of course, and drew his sword on the spot.
Just as the two were about to come to blows, Yun Xiu hurriedly tugged at You Yujing’s sleeve.
You Yujing turned to find the girl holding out a small box in front of him.
You Yujing froze.
The glazed mirror went ding.
You Yujing pulled it out and looked.
Junior Sister Little Yun: 【Senior Brother You, you’ve worked hard for me these past few days. This is a thank-you gift.】
The little flower atop his head, which had closed into battle mode, sprang open again with a whump.
You Yujing took the box. Inside was also a plush pendant sword tassel, differing from Xu Shaoqian’s in that his was pure white, the plush toy grinning wide.
You Yujing cheerfully hung the tassel on his sword, beaming. “Junior Sister Yun, what spirit-beast is this?”
Yun Xiu: “A Samoyed.”
You Yujing nodded along. “Sounds strong at first hearing, way stronger than that Alaskan whatever.”
Xu Shaoqian retorted, “One look at that dopey face and you know it’s a weak-chicken spirit-beast. Stop deceiving yourself.”
You Yujing: “You…”
Xu Shaoqian: “Heh…”
Yun Xiu: “……”
Do we really have to compete over this?
At any rate, the Xu Shaoqian business was finally sorted. She’d made her apology, and Xu Shaoqian himself seemed to have no intention of pursuing the matter further.
He seemed to want to say something more, but he was still recuperating and got ordered back to the infirmary by the healer senior uncle to keep lying flat.
Yun Xiu returned to the little courtyard by the spirit-lake and put away the contract.
The Wantong Commerce Guild’s contract came in duplicate, after signing, she had You Yujing help mail the other copy back.
Mm, express, cash on delivery.
Wantong Commerce Guild: 【Received.】
Wantong Commerce Guild: 【The guild will begin releasing the product on the contract date.】
Yun Xiu replied a few lines and closed the glazed mirror.
So sleepy, so hungry.
And she’d eaten so much at lunch, too.
Yun Xiu felt utterly listless. Overcome with drowsiness, she pushed aside the vine canopy, flopped into the little bed, and fell straight asleep.
She slept in a heavy haze, her whole body growing feverish, her head as if plastered with paste.
The red spots on her back started to itch too. In her dreams she reached back to scratch, but through a layer of clothing she couldn’t reach them no matter what.
Suddenly, cool knuckles circled her wrist.
The coolness cleared her mind. Yun Xiu slowly opened her eyes and saw the white-robed young man standing before her couch.
The faint, pleasant scent of white sandalwood drifted over with him, and the soothing fragrance calmed her restless blood a little.
Yun Xiu propped herself up to sit, her voice a bit hoarse. “…Master.”
Xie Wuwang lowered his eyes to the girl, her little face flushed an abnormal red, her eyes brimming with hazy mist, her gaze dull for a long moment before it found him.
Xie Wuwang reached out to feel her forehead. Hotter than normal.
The coolness at her forehead made Yun Xiu want to nuzzle into it, greedy for that bit of comfortable coolness.
As the young man let go and drew away, Yun Xiu wanted to follow and press up against it, then caught herself and hurriedly held back, hugging her pillow instead.
She blinked her blurry eyes. The itch on her back came again, and she seemed to understand why she felt so miserable.
She couldn’t reach her back each day, so she just smeared the ointment on any old way.
When you go through the motions with your body, your body goes through the motions with you.
But she didn’t dare say the reason aloud. Eyes darting, head down, she mumbled, “…I don’t know.”
Seeing her hedging like this, and recalling the unconscious back-scratching in her sleep just now, Xie Wuwang understood at once what was going on.
He let out a soft sigh. “You couldn’t put the ointment on yourself, why didn’t you say?”
…How was she supposed to bring that up?
Yun Xiu buried her head in the pillow she was hugging, mist swimming in her eyes.
Her voice was very low. “I, I didn’t want to trouble you anymore. I’m always the one causing you trouble.”
The air went still.
Only the moonlight came dimly through the vines, its light and shadow resting quietly on the two of them, the little white flowers on the tendrils swaying in the breeze.
“Yun Xiu.”
At the sound Yun Xiu slowly lifted her head, and in the half-light abruptly met his eyes.
Blurry, a little distant, not quite in focus.
That pair of pitch-black eyes seemed veiled behind a thin layer of mist, cold and remote, just like the man himself, always keeping a distance from her.
She couldn’t reach him, she could only look up at him.
Then.
The couch dipped slightly as the young man sat down beside her.
Those glazed black eyes, without warning, met hers at eye level, gazing at her calmly.
Belatedly, Yun Xiu realized that layer of mist was the hazy moisture in her own eyes.
The surroundings suddenly went quiet, the late-spring, early-summer breeze soundless.
“I don’t find it troublesome.”
Yun Xiu could hear only his voice.
In the leaping rhythm of the moon it wasn’t, in truth, entirely clear.
“I’ve never taken a master, and before you I never took a disciple, so I don’t know how master and disciple across the world are meant to get along. I suppose it’s because I don’t speak much, which makes you timid, that a misunderstanding like this arose.”
His voice was as calm as ever, his black eyes gazing at her gently as he repeated it slowly and clearly.
“You are my disciple. None of this is any trouble to me.”
Yun Xiu stared at him blankly, her mind a tangled mush, her body very hot, and with his nearness, the cold white-sandalwood scent enveloping her, hotter still.
She thought.
What’s he blabbering on about?
His mouth looks so kissable…
“Do you understand?”
Only then did Yun Xiu snap back as if from a daze and hurriedly nod.
She buried her little face in the pillow, her long, exhaled breath washing warm over her eyes, steaming the mist in them thicker.
“I asked Fang Cheng about it, an allergy is no small matter, in severe cases it can endanger your life. This is urgent, so I’ll apply the ointment for you first. There’s no need to worry about impropriety, I’ve already cast a spell to seal off my sense of sight…”
Little face buried, Yun Xiu didn’t catch a word of what he was saying, and only nodded woodenly.
“Where’s the ointment?”
Mechanically, Yun Xiu took the little glazed medicine box from the bedside and handed it to him.
“Turn around a bit. Take off your outer robe and expose the wounds on your back.”
Hugging her pillow, Yun Xiu turned around, lifted a hand to untie her sash, and obediently slid the robe down off her shoulders, then pushed it lower to her waist. The itching red spots on her back were bared to the faintly cold air.
The cold breeze cleared Yun Xiu’s mind a little.
Wait. Something’s off.
Hold on, this is very wrong, what is she doing!
Yun Xiu’s pupils shrank slightly. Snapping to, she hurriedly grabbed at her clothes to pull them back up, but the next second, cool fingertips had already come to rest on her back.
The warm fingerpads, dabbed with ointment, were cool and moist.
Almost instantly Yun Xiu’s breath hitched, her body tensed, and she shivered as if jolted by electricity.
And then…
As if obeying its owner’s intense, prohibitive will—
Under the cold moonlight, a fuzzy white fox tail suddenly darted out and wound tightly around the young man’s wrist.
The young man’s fingertips paused.