Shen Shushi caught a subtle change in that silence.
He had always cared only about cultivation and had never paid attention to the emotions of others. Now, however, he found himself in a bit of a quandary.
He asked, “Did you take the Detoxification Pill?”
Mei Man nodded.
Shen Shushi took her pulse. After a moment, he said, “Your pulse is steady, and the residual poison has been cleared. How is the wound?”
“It isn’t very serious. A little basic treatment was all it needed.”
Shen Shushi lowered his eyes and saw the handkerchief tied around her neck, covering the bite mark completely.
Mei Man noticed where he was looking and instinctively touched her neck. She assured him again, “Rest assured, Immortal Master. I won’t tell anyone else.”
The more she said this, the guiltier he felt. A truly upright heart could not withstand such torment, so he asked, “Are you lacking anything in terms of food, clothing, or daily necessities?”
When Mei Man noticed the guilt nearly spilling from his eyes, she realized the moment had come.
She felt no guilt at all about making things difficult for a kindhearted man. Her future depended on this.
After hesitating again and again, she said, “There is one thing. It may be rather presumptuous of me to ask.”
Shen Shushi signaled with his eyes for her to continue.
Mei Man looked at him, then at the floor. “Today, Senior Sister took me to the inner sect courtyard because she wanted to ask the Medicine Sovereign for guidance. I… I was very envious of her. Immortal Master, you asked me what I wanted. I’m not lacking food or clothing, and gold and silver are merely worldly possessions to me. But there is only one thing I desire. If Immortal Master is willing, could you take me as your disciple?”
The longer she spoke, the softer her voice became. By the end, the medicine hut was utterly silent.
Shen Shushi said nothing.
Mei Man stared fixedly at the floor, feeling as though the cracks between the bricks were floating and swaying.
After a long while, she heard a very soft sigh.
Her heart sank, then suddenly clenched tight.
Mei Man raised her eyes to him, only to find Shen Shushi gazing at her with an expression of perfect calm. There was none of his usual sternness in his face, which somehow made her even more uncomfortable.
“You are mortal.” He tried to speak in a gentle, patient tone, as though he were simply answering her questions. “Setting aside your aptitude for cultivation, a mortal’s life lasts only a few dozen years, perhaps a hundred at most. To a cultivator, researching a single spiritual art may take decades, while one retreat into seclusion could consume several centuries. Mei Man, everything you can learn in the outer sect courtyard is already enough to let you make a living and settle down for the rest of your life. Even if I took you as my disciple, there would not be much I could do for you.”
She knew.
She had known he would say no.
Even though Mei Man had expected his refusal, she could not help feeling agitated and miserable. She clenched her teeth, enduring with all her strength until she barely managed to suppress the anger and tears welling inside her.
“But I want to specialize in spiritual medicine. There is too much to learn in the outer sect courtyard. You just said that mortals have short lives—shouldn’t they spend them on something more worthwhile?” She restrained her emotions and tried to persuade him.
“There is no need to discuss this further,” Shen Shushi said. “I have always been extremely strict about accepting disciples. I cannot casually break my rules. If you encounter any difficulties, you may ask me at any time.”
The more Mei Man listened, the more irritated she became. She wanted nothing more than to threaten him with the truth about his demon form. If that failed, she could always force him to agree by bringing up the fact that he ran around everywhere without a stitch of clothing.
But that was an absolute last resort. One wrong move could completely ruin her future.
So she clenched her fists and said, “Immortal Master is right. I overstepped and put you in a difficult position.”
Shen Shushi said nothing more. He merely told her not to dwell on it, then examined her body once again. Only after confirming that the demonic poison had been completely purged did he feel somewhat reassured.
Before leaving, he reminded her to rest and recuperate properly and said he would come to see her again.
Mei Man nodded and agreed, then dragged her slightly lame leg after him as she saw him out.
His gaze lingered on her leg for a moment before he turned and left.
Shen Shushi cast a Step-Translocation Art and returned directly to his cave dwelling.
Few people ever visited his cave dwelling. When Mei Man had been there earlier, she had stayed only a short while, but even so, her presence had filled the place with a little noise. Once she left, it became deathly quiet again.
Shen Shushi walked slowly along the bluestone path without looking to either side.
He had intended to dispose of the battered puppet, but his eyes happened to fall upon half of a broken arrow.
Blood had dried on the arrow, and its lower end was slightly bent—clear proof of how hard Mei Man had gripped it at the time.
The pain in his upper jaw grew sharper. Shen Shushi pressed his lips together.
This was the first time he had run into a mortal while in his demon form. He believed that he had committed a grave error, and so he had not done much to treat the wound, taking it as a form of punishment.
In his impression, Mei Man had always been quiet and reserved. He could not imagine how badly frightened she must have been to lose control like that.
It was no small feat that she had possessed the courage to fight a demon far stronger than herself.
Shen Shushi stared at the broken arrow for a long time. In the end, he changed direction and returned to the Medical Valley.
When he arrived, he happened to run into a medical cultivator.
The cultivator was gathering herbs that had finished drying. Upon seeing Shen Shushi, he hurriedly bowed in greeting.
“No need for formalities.” Shen Shushi asked him, “I have been in seclusion for many days and have not inquired about the affairs of the outer sect courtyard. During this time, have any disciples from the outer sect courtyard come to the Medical Valley?”
Since Shen Shushi often came to the Medical Valley to ask about such matters, the medical cultivator was not surprised. He reported everything in detail, though it amounted to little more than which disciple had caught a cold or suffered some minor illness or injury.
Shen Shushi listened to it all, yet the man never mentioned Mei Man.
At last, he asked, “I saw Mei Man in the Medical Valley as well. What sort of injury did she suffer?”
“This…” The medical cultivator looked troubled. After a moment, he said, “Immortal Master Shen, I wasn’t the one who treated Junior Sister Mei’s injuries, so I’m not entirely sure. I’m afraid I might tell you something wrong. All I know is that Chai Qun pushed her down the stairs, and she nearly died from the fall.”
“Chai Qun?” Shen Shushi’s brows drew together tightly. “Chai Qun from the outer sect courtyard?”
“Yes, him. He actually tried to harm someone in the Discipline Hall, only to suffer the consequences himself. His corpse has already been taken away.”
Shen Shushi’s expression darkened further. What exactly had happened during the days he had been in seclusion?
He asked no more questions. There were too many rumors among the disciples, and the information he received was likely to be a mixture of truth and falsehood. Instead, he went straight to the Discipline Hall, where he could get to the bottom of things.
Meanwhile, after Shen Shushi left, Mei Man could no longer hold back. She grabbed her pillow and slammed it hard against the bed. Then she snatched up the bottle Qiu Yingling had given her and was just about to hurl it away when she remembered how much it was worth. She angrily put it back instead.
This was what it meant to be poor. Even when venting her emotions, she could only bear to smash things that were cheap and worthless.
That feeling of unwillingness continued until nightfall. She sat blankly at the edge of the bed, clenching her fists until both hands ached and went numb.
Only when Xie Xu arrived as usual to deliver firewood did her eyes finally move.
He froze when he saw her and asked, “What happened?”
“What?”
“Why are you crying?” He set down the firewood and walked over to her.
Mei Man wiped at her face. Only then did she realize that at some point, it had become wet and cold with tears.
She pushed away the hand he reached toward her. The tears only flowed faster, nearly soaking the front of her clothes.
Xie Xu was stunned, and then he began to panic.
Mei Man stared straight at him and asked, “Am I destined to be rejected my entire life—from the moment I’m born until the moment I die?”
Xie Xu went still. A bewilderment she could not quite understand appeared in his eyes.
Mei Man lowered her head, as though speaking to herself. “Why is it that other people can obtain so easily the things they were born with, while no matter how much effort I put in, I still can’t have them?”
She nearly sank into that deep self-loathing, turning the same thought over and over: Why, after working so hard, was she still in this position?
These days in the medicine cottage felt like a dream—a dream that would soon end. Would she have to go back again, once more living in fear of the next Chai Qun?
Had she not worked hard enough?
Before Qiu Yanxue brought her to the Immortal Estate, she had told Mei Man how demanding cultivation at the outer sect academy would be. Yet Mei Man had persevered until now. Apart from the lessons that required spiritual power, she had excelled at everything else—swordsmanship, spiritual medicine, physical training, and more. More than one senior disciple had privately lamented her situation.
“What a pity that you can’t use spiritual power.”
“If you had a spirit root too, you might be able to enter the inner sect in another two years.”
“Junior Sister Mei, what a pity.”
“…”
But why was it still like this?
Simply because she had no spiritual power, no one regarded her as a rival.
Why had her life not changed in the slightest?
Xie Xu opened his mouth, about to speak, when Mei Man suddenly stood.
She wiped away her tears in one sweep, her eyes filled with a vicious, desperate resolve.
“No. This isn’t my fault.” She gritted her teeth. “No one is going to stand in my way. No one.”
Xie Xu asked, “Who came to see you?”
“No one.” Mei Man was unwilling to mention being rejected. The memory filled her with humiliation.
“Manman.”
He called her suddenly.
Her wandering gaze shifted toward him.
“You left the Mei family, and then you left the Qiu family. Now, this is nothing more than taking one more step forward.”
Yes. That was precisely what it was. Apart from taking another step forward, she had no other choice.
Resentment had been building inside Mei Man, desperate for an outlet. So when Xie Xu bent down to pick up the pillow she had thrown to the foot of the bed, she grabbed him and bit down on his lips.
At the soft hiss of pain he let out, the vexation clogging her heart seemed to find a means of escape, slowly leaking away in thin streams.
Mei Man was just about to let go when he cupped the back of her head, his fingers slipping into her hair and tightening ever so slightly.
The pads of his fingers brushed against her hair with a faint, rustling sound. Her eyelids flickered, and Xie Xu gently took her lips between his.
For a moment, it was as though they had returned to the Qiu residence, hiding together in this little medicine cottage, as if even this brief intimacy was something they were forbidden to let the world see.
This time, neither of them tried to overpower the other. His kiss fell upon her lips as roughly and directly as it had in the past, then turned tender, lingering, and almost languid.
Back at the Qiu residence, they would usually choose somewhere well hidden—the room where she slept, an empty storeroom, or, if they were feeling bolder, a pavilion in some grove that hardly anyone ever visited.
Xie Xu would kiss her like this as well, slowly licking and sucking at her lips. His hands would not remain idle either; he would have her sit on one of them.
He was no longer the pampered young master he had been as a child. His hands had been tempered by hardship, developing a thin layer of calluses and becoming slightly rough. When he rubbed one particular spot, the pressure brought on a dull, tingling itch.
Whenever she became trapped in that neither-here-nor-there state, Mei Man disliked kissing him. She would bury her face in his shoulder, suppressing even her breathing.
Xie Xu would then press a hand to her back, slowly stroking along her spine in an attempt to soothe each tiny tremor.
But now they were in the medicine cottage at the Immortal Estate. Mei Man had been roused by his touch, yet she knew the circumstances were unsuitable. Before long, she turned her face away, both to catch her breath and to bring things to an end.
Xie Xu understood as well, and gradually steadied his slightly hurried breathing.
Knock—
Knock—
Someone was at the door.
Mei Man’s brows twitched, and she looked toward the sound.
The next moment, her senior sister’s voice came from outside. “Junior Sister Mei, someone is here to see you.”
Someone had come for her?
Who could possibly be looking for her this late at night? It couldn’t be Qiu Yingling. When the puppet immortal servant had delivered dinner that afternoon, it had said that he still had several days before he would return.
But the voice that followed made Mei Man feel that she would have been better off if it had been Qiu Yingling—
“Little Mei, hurry up and open the door.”
The voice was bright and hearty.
It was Qiu Heyang.
