Mei Man hurriedly gave Xie Xu a shove.
He had also recognized Qiu Heyang's voice. His brows furrowed slightly, and he pursed his slightly swollen lips, putting on a show of not knowing the person outside before turning to the woodpile, picking up a piece of firewood and setting it neatly on the top of the stack.
Mei Man pulled the door open, and her senior female apprentice and Qiu Heyang were standing outside.
The senior female apprentice was still clutching the ledger that recorded the purchases of spiritual herbs. She said, "Junior Sister Mei, Junior Brother Qiu said he wanted to come see you. He didn't know the way, and happened to run into me just now, so I brought him over."
She had seen Qiu Yingling come to visit Mei Man quite a few times lately, so she did not find it strange that Qiu Heyang would show up here. Her mind was still preoccupied with the spiritual herb purchase matters, so she left right after finishing her sentence.
Qiu Heyang had a smile on his face, his voice so soft it was almost like a whisper, "My elder brother is out these two days, that's why I dared to come see you. If he comes back, don't ever mention this to him."
Mei Man nodded in agreement, but secretly scoffed in her heart: As if this was some big secret, she would never even bring up this nobody in the first place!
When Qiu Heyang stepped through the door, he spotted Xie Xu who was stacking firewood. He glanced at the door that had been tightly shut just a moment ago, then turned his gaze back to Xie Xu.
"Hey there, which junior apprentice brother are you? I've never seen you around before, what are you doing here? Are you Little Mei's friend, or are you here for something else?" He was very good at putting on an easy-to-get-along act, his bold, lively eyes crinkling with a smile, looking completely harmless.
Compared to him, Xie Xu was as silent as a wooden carving.
Xie Xu had not wanted to bother with him at first, but he still replied, "I'm from the Handyman Courtyard. I've come here to deliver firewood today."
"Oh, that explains why I haven't seen you. The lingering cold of late spring hasn't worn off yet, and the Medicine Valley always needs stoves going, so firewood does get used up pretty quickly," Qiu Heyang's expression did not change at all, he smiled and continued, "Then could I trouble you to step out for a little while? I have a few things I need to talk to her about privately."
A flicker of displeasure crossed Xie Xu's features, but it faded after a moment. He responded with a quiet "mm", set down the firewood he was holding, and walked out the door. He did not go far, though, and stood quietly right outside the entrance.
Mei Man had heard every word of the exchange clearly, and she could not help rolling her eyes where Qiu Heyang could not see her.
Here he went again, acting like he was being all polite and asking nicely, but if the other person had refused, he would have definitely just kicked them straight out.
The second Xie Xu left, Qiu Heyang shut the door behind him.
He looked over at Mei Man, who had already smoothed out her expression right away. She still looked a little sullen, but at least nothing she did would cause trouble.
Qiu Heyang glanced around the small room, and when he dropped the smile on his face, he looked rather cold.
"Little Mei," he asked, "how did you end up coming to this Medicine Valley?"
Mei Man did not feel like going into details, so she vaguely replied, "I was feeling a bit unwell, so I came here to get checked out."
They say even a dog has a little bit of human kindness in it, and Qiu Heyang did have a few rare, decent traits. One of them was that he never pestered people for answers when they did not want to talk. Since she did not want to elaborate, he would not press the matter.
"If anything comes up, you can tell me about it," he paused for a short moment, then asked her, "why did you run off in the middle of the day earlier?"
Mei Man hung her head and said, "I waited for you for ages and you never came back, so I left first."
"But I was gone for less than half a quarter of an hour."
"..."
For a moment, dead silence hung in the room.
After a long while, Mei Man finally forced out a line, "Maybe it's because I had nothing to do, so time just dragged on and felt extra slow to me."
Qiu Heyang burst out laughing.
He suddenly stepped forward, raising his right hand curled into a fist and swinging it toward her.
Mei Man jumped in surprise.
But back in the Qiu Manor, he had always liked pulling this sudden little trick, so the next instant, she blocked the move with her left palm, then swept her right arm sharply upward to knock his arm away.
He moved his left hand at lightning speed, five fingers held together, fingertips stabbing straight for her chest in a rather vicious, underhanded move.
She hopped back two steps, barely dodging it.
His fingertips brushed past her clothes, leaving a faint scratch. The next instant, he curled his fingers into a fist and punched forward sharply.
Mei Man shifted her body to avoid the blow, seized his arm in one smooth motion, and lifted her leg to kick at his abdomen.
Qiu Heyang raised his palm to block her knee, his fingers curling slightly to clamp down tight on it.
Mei Man suddenly looked behind him and called out, "Eldest Young Master."
He was just enjoying the spar, and at the sound of that voice, his smile faded a little as he turned his head around on instinct.
The door was shut tight, there was no one there at all.
He realized he had been tricked by her, and snapped his head back immediately.
But it was too late. She took the chance to swing her palm across, slamming it against the side of his neck.
A sharp pain shot through his side of the neck, and Qiu Heyang let out a soft hiss. "Little Mei, why do you have to use a cheap trick?"
"Using your brain in a fight is still fighting," Mei Man retorted. "How is that a cheap trick?"
The words were no sooner out of her mouth than she regretted it.
Every time they messed around like this, she got carried away. It was no different from the time she was practicing archery with her master, and ended up setting the target fruit right on his head.
But surely he wouldn't beat her to death over something so trivial, right?
Mei Man shut her mouth and lowered her eyes, her whole demeanor radiating a dejected, cowed aura.
To her surprise, Qiu Heyang did not take it to heart at all. Instead, he said, "Little Mei, that's the spirit. You need to keep putting your heart into practicing, so that you can build a solid foundation for cultivating immortality later."
His words might have been well-intentioned, but they pricked at her heart. Mei Man couldn't hold back the wave of irritation that rose up, and she said, "I'm a mortal. I can't cultivate immortality. I could drop dead at any moment, for all I know."
"That's never going to happen, Manman." Qiu Heyang cupped Mei Man's face, urging her to lift her head. He looked at her with a warm grin, speaking plainly and naturally. "We're friends, aren't we? I'd never let you die all alone like that."
Mei Man's tongue slipped before she could think, and she blurted out, "Are you going to rip out your spiritual root and become a mortal too?"
Qiu Heyang burst into hearty laughter. "You really are a character, Little Mei. Of course I'm going to find a way to let you cultivate immortality too."
He spoke with such unshakable certainty, as if he could pull out a precious artifact the very next second to reshape her mortal flesh and bones.
But she didn't believe him.
It wasn't that she didn't believe such a treasure existed in the world. It was that she didn't believe in him. There was no way she would stake something so important on a flimsy promise that felt too light to be true.
Mei Man lowered her eyelids, avoiding his gaze.
He didn't seem to mind at all, and went on to ask, "Have you made any other friends while you've been staying in the outer sect compound lately?"
"No." Mei Man thought of Chai Qun at once, and her expression darkened. "I didn't come here to make friends."
"But you should have someone to talk to," he said. "Otherwise, you'd be all alone and bored out of your mind."
"I'm fine," she replied.
"That servant you ran into just now, you don't know him?"
"No." Mei Man paused for a beat, then added, "I didn't even get a good look at him."
"He's just some worthless drudge, no need to bother looking closely," Qiu Heyang said dismissively. "But Little Mei, if there's ever anyone you want to get to know, just tell me. As your friend, I can help vet them for you, so you don't end up tangled up with some lowlife scumbag."
Friends, always friends!
Mei Man was sick of him going on and on about "friends". If she really treated him as a friend, the first thing she would do was drain his entire fortune dry, then go around causing all sorts of trouble using his name, and finish every mess with a line like "if you've got a problem, go talk to my friend Qiu Heyang".
Thinking of this, her brows smoothed out and she couldn't help but grin, as if she had really managed to pull that trick on him.
Qiu Heyang didn't stay here for long. He said, "The old man has left seclusion. He's a strict one, doesn't like us wandering around outside for too long. I have to go now."
Mei Man absentmindedly hummed a sound of acknowledgement.
The "old man" he referred to was his master. She had no idea how old his master really was, or what he was like, but Qiu Heyang always called him that behind his back.
In front of others, he would never fail to address him as "Master" every other sentence, or "Senior" the next.
Putting on such a proper, impressive facade.
When Qiu Heyang walked out, he caught sight of Xie Xu standing guard outside the medicine hut out of the corner of his eye.
He stared at Xie Xu for a long moment, then suddenly smiled and said, "When did you enter the Handyman Courtyard?"
Xie Xu had no patience to deal with him, and forced out a few words stiffly, "Not long ago."
"Oh, that makes you my junior fellow apprentice then," Qiu Heyang looked at him. His eyes were bright and vivid, easily giving people the illusion that he was utterly sincere. "You've got a nice face, and you're so diligent too. It's a real surprise they'd let someone like you be assigned to the Handyman Courtyard. Thanks for earlier, for standing out in the cold wind waiting all that time. Go on, get back to your work."
He finished speaking and left, while Xie Xu watched his back silently without a word.
The next day, Xie Xu came to deliver firewood as usual.
But as soon as he arrived at the Medical Valley, the medical cultivator in charge of cleaning said, "Hey, little junior fellow apprentice, just put the firewood here. You don't need to carry it inside anymore."
Xie Xu glanced into the Medical Valley, "I used to deliver the firewood to the firewood room, and to all the medicine huts as well."
The medical cultivator said, "You don't have to do that anymore. A batch of puppets was sent to our Medical Valley, and they are specially tasked with transporting supplies. Just looking at their fine quality, you can tell they are worth a great number of spirit stones. You, from now on, don't have to go through the trouble of pushing the firewood all the way here either. The puppets will come to the Handyman Courtyard to pick them up."
Xie Xu was about to say something more, when the spiritual energy all around them suddenly twisted and surged, turning utterly chaotic. The feeling was extremely oppressive, as if a heavy, solid force was pressing down on him, making him unable to utter a word.
That medical cultivator noticed it too, and paused his sweeping motions.
The next instant, a "crack" split open in mid-air.
It seemed someone was stepping out from within that crack, but no one could clearly see how exactly that person emerged, let alone catch a glimpse of what he looked like.
In just a brief moment, the crack closed abruptly, and the spiritual energy settled back to its normal, steady state.
The newcomer had silver hair and pale eyes, his expression stern, with a faint layer of spiritual energy draped over his entire body, looking as if he was clad in moonlight.
It was Shen Shushi.
That medical cultivator recognized him, but because the pressure emanating from the other party was far too overwhelming, he could barely lift his head. He kept it bowed and hurriedly greeted, "Immortal Lord."
Xie Xu did not say a single word.
Shen Shushi did not glance at the two of them, nor did he respond. He walked straight inside.
He found Mei Man.
There were no pleasantries, no words of concern. He went straight to the point: "I have already looked into the Chai Qun incident clearly. Mei Man, you must not keep anything hidden from me."
He was so serious, his expression so cold, that she nearly thought he had come to call her out for wrongdoing.
But she was not scared. She looked back at him calmly, "What is it that Immortal Master wants to ask me?"
Strangely though, he had arrived so determined and collected, as if he had already prepared every word he needed to say. But now that he was about to speak, he hesitated. He pondered quietly, observing her at the same time.
After a moment, he said, "I know you had some disagreements with him, but I never expected things to have escalated this far. That was my failure to fulfill my duties. But there is one thing I do not understand."
"What is it?"
He lowered his eyes and suddenly softened his voice to ask her, "The disciples of the Discipline Hall said that when they arrived to rescue the two of you, you were badly injured yourself, yet you insisted that they save Chai Qun first."
Mei Man scoffed inwardly, Nonsense. If I hadn't put on that fake, goody-goody act back then, how could I have dispelled their suspicions?
Shen Shushi continued, "You are just an ordinary mortal, while Chai Qun, even though he was poisoned by a scorpion, still had a modicum of cultivation to protect his body."
Mei Man had been about to trot out the old set of excuses, something along the lines of how even though they had quarreled they were still good friends, or that she was still conscious at the time while he had lost all awareness. But the moment she met his gaze, she froze.
Those light brown eyes of his were showing a gentleness completely unlike his usual self.
Her mind was still a little foggy, muddled, not entirely clear. She could not understand what had moved him in that moment to soften his features, making him look nothing like the sharp, stern man he had been before.
But her intuition told her that she had to keep the truth hidden.
So Mei Man abandoned the plan of pretending to be a caring, distressed friend, and said instead, "Even though we had our differences, this was a matter of life and death. I couldn't bear to watch... and besides, I was scared."
"Scared?"
Mei Man nodded, lowering her eyes, clutching the hem of her robe tightly, and murmured, "He kept telling me that the Chai family holds great power, and their status is on par with that of any other peer in the outer sect courtyard. If... if by any chance he died, what would I do if the Chai family came after me for revenge?"
Shen Shushi said nothing, as if silently encouraging her to go on.
Mei Man took a deep breath and continued, "When he was taken to the Discipline Hall, he swore that once he got out, he would make sure to destroy me. He even called me over on purpose, just to show me that even locked in the punishment chamber, he could still live a life of luxury and ease. I... I really didn't dare to take that risk."
She wasn't even lying. That Chai Qun bastard had indeed threatened her exactly like that. She had just added a little extra act of trembling, fearful timidity for the occasion.
"Immortal Lord knows you entered this sect relying on the Qiu family's support. You have never relied on the Qiu family's influence, and have always been diligent in your practice. But on such a life-threatening matter, why did you not turn to the Qiu family for help?"
"The Qiu family was already so gracious as to sponsor my entry into the sect. I dared not ask for any more favors. Besides, if I caused trouble by being incompetent, I would only be bringing unnecessary hassle to the Qiu family."
After saying that, Mei Man fell completely silent.
A long time passed — until the back of her neck grew stiff from holding the position — before she heard Shen Shushi let out a soft sigh.
He said, "You are a good, kind child."
Mei Man barely managed to keep a straight face.
If she didn't still have to keep up the act, she would have loved to see what kind of expression he was wearing when he said those words.
Shen Shushi went on, "Earlier, I did not think things through properly. When it comes to daily necessities and sustenance, no amount of gold or silver would be of any use. If I offered you gold and silver as an apology, that would only be insulting to you."
That vague, hazy suspicion in Mei Man's mind finally clicked into place.
So he was a cold-on-the-outside, soft-on-the-inside, saintly sort of man.
Shen Shushi said, "Earlier, I said that as a mortal of flesh and blood, the outer sect courtyard would be more than enough for your cultivation. But now I see that you have a fine, good nature. If you are willing, you may come under my guidance and practice cultivation with me for ten years. For one thing, this is my apology for injuring you earlier. For another, you will never have to live in constant fear day after day. Ten years from now, when you go down the mountain, you will have more than enough skill to settle down and build a life for yourself."
It turned out that more than a simple, straightforward compensation, he was more than happy to take a poor, kind, weak yet resilient soul under his protection.
Mei Man's expression was on the verge of twisting out of control.
That lofty, gentle kindness felt to her exactly like the scorching midday summer sun, as if it was shining a harsh, unflinching light on every last one of her sordid, unworthy flaws. The heat seared her, making every inch of her skin prickle, and a tight, twisted discomfort coiled deep in her chest.
But she had not forgotten her purpose. So she suddenly lifted her head, putting on an expression that was equal parts elated and apprehensive. "Immortal Master, are you truly going to take me as your disciple? Please, do not jest with me with such words."
"I would never lie about that." Shen Shushi conjured a token out of thin air using his spiritual power, and held it out to her. "Once we leave the Medical Valley, you may use this token to travel to my immortal abode."
