[Vol. 1] Chapter 22 - Scream and Whispers
"When did I give the order?"
The guard hesitated. A flicker of confusion crossed his otherwise blank face. "Three days ago, Young Master. You were... very specific about it."
The realization settled over him like frost. Slow. Cold. Inevitable.
"Leave me."
The guard bowed and withdrew.
He stood upright, straight and proud, his back to the guard as he gazed down at Xiaolan. From this height, she looked tiny as a dot, but that was no problem to him. He was a cultivator. He stood under the eaves, by the fence of a terrace.
And so, Xiaolan, unaware, ate with relish. The cake was appealing. She had always wanted to gobble up those delicious foods you see on screens, and it was delicious!
Plus, cake provides additional stats once eaten whole, though the bonus is random. But she knew the value it would provide, +10 to a random stat.
Once she ate everything up, even licking it clean till it sparkled... she felt a warm current surge from her dantian to her legs.
They felt firm, numb and strong. She felt she could even coordinate her legs to do a split. She knew what stat it was now, +10 agility.
Xiaolan was happy. Lonely or not, she was thankful to that Shadow Guard and his master. Plus, she decided to worry more about growing strong herself before worrying about anything else.
What was the use of such thoughts if she died?
She remained blissfully unaware of two eyes on her. One pair belonged to Young Master Lin, and the other to Bai Yu. He had watched Xiaolan eat with such relish, even licking the plate till it sparkled. Was she starved?
Then he saw Xiaolan suck each of her fingers... for no reason at all, except that she feared her hands would get sticky.
No. This must not go on.
Bai Yu was pained. He made his presence known by appearing behind Xiaolan. "Young miss."
"AAAHHHHH!!"
Xiaolan shrieked, her body tensing. Her scream was so loud it hit the highest note in opera. Nearby maidservants heard it. Lin Feiyu heard it. All of them flinched.
It was abnormal, for it was well known that the Azure Mountains with their three peaks had protection arrays to prevent beasts, insects, demons, and so on from crossing.
And since it was very late afternoon, with the sun's rays barely reaching, the scream was eerie.
From then on, rumors of a shrieking ghost passed through the mouths of servants. None dared work until late after that, but that is a story for later.
Bai Yu stared with wide eyes at this young miss he attended to.
It had only been three hours since he left to report. But due to being summoned by the higher-ups, he hadn't attended to that window of time where someone could have slipped in.
Once Xiaolan had calmed down and realized it was really just Bai Yu, she said,
"Can you please always alert me? Make a sound. You just—" she gestured vaguely with her hands "—just appeared. It scared me."
"This one will remember," Bai Yu noted, his gaze settling on the box and the plate. He asked, "Young miss, that cake just now... where did you get it?"
He did not typically pry into personal situations, especially those concerning the young heir he attended to. But having observed Xiaolan's overall personality and such... this young miss was unreliable.
"This cake was shoved into me by some guard wearing the same uniform as you."
At that response, Bai Yu's expression did not change, but he seemed to have an idea. Before acting on it, however, he warned,
"Please don't eat whatever is given to you. This one will cook for the young miss. Wait in your room."
Bai Yu went ahead and whooshed away. After all, Xiaolan's place didn't have a kitchen. Xiaolan already knew the way to her own courtyard, so she walked the path herself.
On the way, though, she saw Lin Feiyu again, that irritating Alpha woman. But instead of a proud, overbearing silhouette, all Xiaolan saw was Lin Feiyu trembling as she walked back to her own courtyard.
Lin Feiyu felt the gaze, though, and shot a look at Xiaolan before scurrying off.
Xiaolan was stunned. What's with her? she thought. She didn't know what had happened to Lin Feiyu. Curious as she was, unfortunately, she would never have the chance to find out.
Click.
The door shut closed, and Lin Feiyu's forehead was still damp with sweat. Unsure whether it was from training or from being scared silly.
That scream just now... it was loud. A real scream. She didn't dare check what had caused it—ghost or human, it wasn't her business!
She had even stopped her training early, though training had only been a guise to vent everything after being dumped.
Meanwhile, in Xiaolan's own yard, she sat in her personal dining area with her back to the door.
She had spent the past while exploring. This body's courtyard was larger than she expected. The front yard opened first, enclosed by walls on all four sides. It gave her a small patch of sky to herself, a square of privacy cut out from the rest of the mountain.
Beyond that came the main building. A wooden panel inside divided the space, separating the sleeping area from the living area. They shared one room, but the partition at least gave the illusion of separate spaces.
Two doors branched off from there. The one on the left led to the dining room where she now sat. The other led to the bathing area, tucked behind a standing screen. It was a small, narrow alcove. Just enough space for one person to stand and change.
Oddly enough, there was no kitchen. She hadn't found one anywhere in the yard. Probably the same for other heirs. Cooking, it seemed, wasn't something they were expected to do themselves.
Her robes were plain and lightweight, slightly damp from exertion. The sleeves were cinched at the wrists.
Sure enough, after waiting a good while, a shadow cast over her. It was Bai Yu. How did he get here without making a sound?
Sniff. Sniff.
She stared fixatedly at the food Bai Yu had brought. Beef stew with delicious looking rice millet.
Unfortunately, it wasn't a rare food that increased stats just by eating it. This was common grade. The kind that gave collection bonuses only after eating ten different dishes.
She remembered how the system worked. Uncommon grade food, like the congee she'd had before, gave at least one stat point when eaten whole.
But common grades didn't work that way. They only contributed to the collection, and stats only came once the collection was complete.
Whether you ate quickly or slowly, the number collected stayed the same. But you had to eat every last bite of a given dish for it to count. So rather than savoring the taste slowly, it was better to eat as quickly as possible and save time.
"You eat very hurriedly."
She paused mid chew. "...Don't look at me like that. I just naturally eat quickly."
"You can eat slowly. No one here will steal your food."
"Really?"
She wasn't convinced. It was troublesome even if someone said they'd only take one bite. If someone else ate even a bite of her food, the collection judgment would fail.
Bai Yu stared as Xiaolan ate with gusto.
Gobble, gobble, clink.
A shadow guard clearing away empty dishes with a face as if indulging a kitten. Pity, perhaps. If anyone were to see him like this, they'd laugh.
Before he left, he added, "Young miss, tomorrow there won't be any practice session."
Xiaolan stared at the empty dining area for a moment, then stood. With a soft click, she entered her room and closed the door.
It was already evening. She sighed, then looked at her system screen. Still locked. A message hovered there:
[4 day locked: days remaining 3.]
[Pay off debt: 4000]
[Current charge points: 101]
She couldn't sleep. She wasn't used to this at all. All she heard was ambience, wind, and crickets. Nothing like the sounds she knew. AC whirring. Cars. Noisy neighbors.
She walked toward the big window in her room. The ridge was thick enough for one person to sit. She stared up at the two huge moons in the sky.
Rustle.
She sat on the ridge and thought to herself that the original body must have always sat here.
The view was amazing. In front of her lay her personal yard. Beyond the wall stretched the mountainside with tiered platforms of training grounds and courtyards, stairs that led upward and beyond, probably to the misty peak trials.
But the thing was, this window was at the back. Close to her bed. And from here, the view offered only up. Not the foothills below.
Always looking up.
Tok-tok—
The dilapidated door creaked with each knock. The room was dim, and the walls had cracks. Unlike the personal living area where Xiaolan lived, this place was shared by three people, all maidservants.
One of those servants was Lin Ling, wearing coarse, rough linen clothes that she treated as her pajamas.
The common maidservant uniform, with its plain muted colors and simple long sleeves, was treated like a precious dress and hidden away.
Tok-tok—
"A-Ling, open the door."
Rustle.
A-Ling winced silently. She had clearly taken a rough beating. The room meant for three maidservants had been divided with long cloth hung as makeshift walls; wooden panels were a luxury.
Her own area was nearest to the door, basically facing it. So she easily opened it to see another maidservant, one she was very familiar with.
"Meixiu..."
A-Ling whispered the name, visibly stiffening. Meixiu stood before her, stern looking and very reliable. Her body was built clearly for labor, with hands that were scarred and calloused.
Meixiu stared at the figure in front of her. Oval-shaped face. Slender in figure. Clearly meant for scrubbing floors.
A-Ling's left eye was swollen, the skin around it mottled purple and black. Her lower lip was split, a thin trail of dried blood tracing down her chin.
"You look like shit." Meixiu's lips twitched as she scorned. Then she warned, "Tomorrow, don't go anywhere near the heir's area. Don't do your work. Otherwise..."
A-Ling shuddered. She couldn't even get a word in with the oppressive aura around Meixiu.
Before turning around and walking away, Meixiu muttered, "That's what you get for serving her. If only you just served the young master..."
A-Ling was very familiar with that maidservant. Meixiu had always contradicted her, the type who wanted to be in control of everything.
Plus, she was a follower of the young master with the highest rate among other Lin heirs of succeeding to the clan leader's mantle.