Xue Qilin felt lucky for a while.
Originally, she thought that Qi Qiqi would beat her up without a word. But in the end, she just gave her a lecture, that’s all. Maybe Qi Qiqi is in a good mood today.
This is probably a blessing in disguise — Xue Qilin thought so.
However, she soon realized that she — is wrong.
It’s too verbose.
After Qi Qiqi started to admonish, she went on without end. From the Book of Songs [1], the Songs of Chu, and the Han Poetry, to the Tang Poetry, the Song Poetry, and the Songs of Yuan, she compiled them all into a sermon that she dumped on Xue Qilin.
Gradually, Xue Qilin felt fed up. Not only did she put away the humble expression, which she worked so hard to plaster on her face, but she also assumed an expression of boredom, and even yawned occasionally.
However, Qi Qiqi, who seems like she is reciting a text, who is pacing back and forth while shaking her head, didn’t even notice that Xue Qilin is drowsy, nodding her head like a chicken pecking rice.
Xue Qilin isn’t listen to Qi Qiqi’s lecture at all, she’s just thinking about when it will end.
A quarter of an hour has passed, yet Qi Qiqi still has no intention of shutting up.
During this period, Shui Yun’er has even woken up and started tidying up the room. By the way, after she heard what Xue Qilin did, she occasionally throws Xue Qilin a strange look.
Only — although I don’t want to admit it, but Little Yun must regard me as a pervert… Xue Qilin wants to complain about injustice, but there is no evidence. Xia Xue won’t admit that she instigated her.
After who knows how much time has passed, Xue Qilin’s savior finally arrived.
Creak — the door suddenly opened.
“Hey, someone came!”
Xue Qilin jumped up happily and turned to look at the door. Helpless, Qi Qiqi had no choice but to stop talking.
The sound of a bell rang.
From between the half-open door, a cute little round face half pocked inside and big, round, mahogany-red eyes looked inside.
It is Gong Tianqing.
“Little Qing! Why are you here? Are you looking for me?”
“Hello, Big Sister Temple Master, Big Sister Shui.”
Gong Tianqing first nodded towards Qi Qiqi and Shui Yun’er, and then set her eyes on Xue Qilin.
“Young Ancestor…”
Gong Tianqing glanced back and forth at the three people in the room and asked hesitantly, “Are you free now?”
“I’m free! Of course I’m free! Right, Little Seven?”
Xue Qilin glanced at Qi Qiqi with a smile on her face, but got a glare in return.
Clearly, Qi Qiqi has seen through Xue Qilin’s scheme. To put it bluntly, Xue Qilin only needs to prick up her tail, and Qi Qiqi will know whether she is going to eat or to shit. Nevertheless, she didn’t say much at the moment.
“Oh, fine then.”
Gong Tianqing breathed a sigh of relief and withdrew her head, and then opened the door and walked in.
Today, she wears a gaoyao ruqun [2] with beige and green as the main colors and white and red as the secondary colors, with the skirt part reaching only a few cun [3] below the knee, covering only half of the lower leg. As for the feet, they are dressed in short white socks that Xue Qilin designed.
The lass’s long hair is tied into two bundles, whose ends are connected back to the root to form two large loops hanging behind the head. A bell is tied to each loop. The bells ring with every step the owner takes.
The attire coupled with the cute childish face make Gong Tianqing look like a doll, very likable.
As Gong Tianqing approached Xue Qilin with small yet rapid footsteps, she looked at the still messy room in surprise.
“Young Ancestor… what happened? Why, why is it so messy here?”
“Hey, it’s nothing, it’s nothing.”
Xue Qilin wrinkled her nose in embarrassment and circumvented the topic.
“Little Qing, what can I do for you?”
“Ah!” Gong Tianqing exclaimed, “I, I almost forgot…”
Then, she reached into her sleeve and fished out a letter.
“Young Ancestor, this letter is for you.”
“A letter for me?”
Who would write to me? Xue Qilin is quite surprised. She doesn’t know many people. Besides, most of the people she knows are from the Merak Temple. She can’t think of anyone who would write her.
“Yes, it is indeed written to you, Young Ancestor.”
“Oh oh… but why did you come to deliver the letter, Little Qing? Isn’t this the responsibility of the Internal Affairs Department?”
“Uh, er… Elder Xia has just become the Attendant Elder. The Internal Affairs Department needs some time to adjust… There, therefore, there is no one dealing with the letters for the time being. I found this letter when I happened to go to the Internal Affairs Department to handle some affairs. Seeing, seeing that the letter seems to have been there for a long time, I was afraid that it might be something important, so I brought it to you at once, Young Ancestor.”
Ever since Qi Qiqi dismissed Liu Chengzong from his position, the position of Attendant Elder has been vacant. However, just like a nation cannot not be governed for a single day, so the position of the Internal Affairs Department’s master cannot be vacant for too long.
After Qi Qiqi and Ye Zhen discussed it, they bumped the Fifth Elder Xia Xue up and had her assume the position of the Attendant Elder.
Xia Xue has always been idle. Although she has the ability, but it’ll take time to adapt to her new position. She has been serving as the Attendant Elder for only five days. As such, it is not surprising that she has not been able to handle the Internal Affairs Department’s affairs well. After all, the Internal Affairs Department, which is in charge of all of the Merak Temple’s internal affairs, has a heavy workload. It’ll take some time before the department starts working like a well-oiled machine.
“I see… but who wrote me the letter?”
“I… I don’t know.”
Gong Tianqing replied with a dim expression, as if she feels discouraged for not being able to answer Xue Qilin’s question.
“That’s weird…”
Xue Qilin blinked suspiciously. Qi Qiqi noticed her appearance and said, vexed.
“Really, won’t you know who the sender is once you take a look at the sender’s signature? Besides, you don’t need to know the person for them to send you a letter!”
“Hey, what do you mean? Why would someone I’ve never met write me? Do they want to become pan pals?”
“Huh, pen pals…?”
Qi Qiqi touched her chin and contemplated for a while, and then showed a rather surprised expression.
“This term is quite suitable.”
“So, what, do, you, mean?”
Xue Qilin, with a poker face, spoke with deliberate pauses in between each word. Qi Qiqi sighed.
“You are the Merak Temple’s Young Ancestor, a mighty Heaven Realm martial practitioner, do you know what this means?”
“What does it mean?”
Xue Qilin, without thinking, blurted out the question.
*
[1] – Book of Songs
[2] – gaoyao ruquan
[3] – cun
