One boy said, “Shixiong, you’re so tricky. You make others get them every time. That’s shameless.”
Wei WuXian waved his hands, “I have no other choice either. Madam Yu doesn’t let me go outside. She’s at home right now. Maybe JinZhu and YinZhu are watching from some corner, ready to turn me whenever possible. If I went out, Madam Yu’s gonna whip a whole layer of skin off me.”
The shidi who performed the worst bantered, laughing as they set off to get the kites. Jiang Cheng was standing, while Wei WuXian sat on the ground. The two were chatting. Wei WuXian asked, “Uncle Jiang went out so early in the morning—why hasn’t he come back yet? Would he make it in time for dinner?”
In the morning, Jiang FengMian and Madam Yu had an argument again. To call it an argument didn’t seem quite right. Madam Yu alone lost her temper, while some of Jiang FengMian’s bearing remained throughout the entire exchange. Jiang Cheng answered, “He’s at the Wen Sect for our swords again, isn’t he? Whenever I think that my Sandu might be held in the hands of a Wen-dog right now, I…”
His face revealed disgust. Wei WuXian, “What a shame that our swords don’t have that much spiritual energy yet. If they could sheath themselves, then nobody would be able to use them.”
Jiang Cheng, “If you cultivate for another eighty years, then maybe it’d be possible.”
Suddenly, a few boys rushed into the training fields of Lotus Pier, shouting with urgency, “Something’s happened! Shixiong, Shixiong, something’s happened!!!”
These were the shidi who had gone to fetch the kites. Wei WuXian jumped up, “What’s wrong?”
Jiang Cheng, “Where’s the youngest one? Why is there one missing?”
It was true. The youngest shidi was the one running in front of everyone when they had left, and now he was nowhere to be seen. One of the boys panted, “Our shidi was taken away!”
“Taken away?!”
Wei WuXian picked up his bow as well. Weapon in hand, he asked, “Who took him? Why was he taken away?!”
The boy answered, “We don’t know! We don’t know why they took him!”
Jiang Cheng was anxious as well, “What do you mean you don’t know?”
Wei WuXian, “Nobody worry. Tell us clearly.”
The boy, “When, when we were getting the kites, the kite went over there, really far away. When we went over, we saw a few dozen people, all from the Wen Sect, wearing their uniform. There were disciples and servants. The one leading them was a young woman. She’s holding a kite in her hand and there was an arrow on the kite. She asked us whose kite it was when she saw us.”
Another boy continued, “The kite was our youngest shidi’s, so he said that it was his. Then the woman suddenly got angry and shouted ‘how dare you”, and then she told her people to take him away!”
Wei WuXian, “Just like that?”
The boys nodded, “We asked her why they were taking him away, and the woman kept on saying that he committed treason and had hidden motives, and she ordered her people to detain him. We couldn’t do anything about it so we ran back.”
Jiang Cheng cursed, “They don’t even have a reason for taking him away! Just what does the Wen Sect want to do?!”
“Yeah! There’s just no reason!”
Wei WuXian, “Nobody talk. The Wen Sect’s people could be knocking at our doors every second from now. Don’t let them hear anything we say that could be used to hold against us. Let me ask you, the woman, was she not wearing a sword? Does she look kind of pretty, with a mole above her lips?”
The shidi, “Yes! That’s her!”
Jiang Cheng spoke with hatred, “Wang LingJiao! That…”
Suddenly, the cold voice of a woman came, “Why the noise? Can’t I have just one day of peace and quiet?!”
Madam Yu strode over with her flowing violet robes. JinZhu and YinZhu were still armored, following behind her, one on the left and the other on the right. Jiang Cheng called, “Mom, the Wen Sect’s people are here. Our youngest shidi was taken by them!”
Madam Yu, “You all were shouting so loudly that I heard everything from inside. So what? He was taken away, not killed, and you’re already so worked up. Are you still what a future sect leader should be? Calm down!”
As she finished, she turned to face the gates before the training fields. About a dozen of the Wen Sect’s cultivators, dressed in the sun-patterned robes, entered one after another. Behind these cultivators, a woman in vibrant clothes walked inside with deliberate steps.
The woman’s figure was graceful. Her features were enchanting as well. With amorous eyes, fiery lips, and a small, black mole above her lips, she was quite an outstanding beauty. Yet, clad in rings and rings of jewelry, she seemed as if she wanted to clothe herself in the entire jewelry shop and all of the passion that her lover gave her; it really diminished her charm. This was Wang LingJiao, who had been stricken by Wei WuXian so hard that she retched up blood, back in Qishan.
Wang LingJiao smiled, “Madam Yu, I’m here again.”
Madam Yu displayed no expression, as though she felt that saying anything extra to her would dirty her mouth. Wang LingJiao walked down the stairs of the main gates. Only then did Madam Yu speak, “Why did you take a disciple of my YunmengJiang Sect?”
Wang LingJiao, “Take? You mean the one I took outside? That’d be a long story. Why don’t we take our time to talk about it after we sit down inside?”
A servant, without neither notification nor request, walked through the gates of another sect and demanded without any hesitation to go inside and ‘talk about it’ after they sat down inside. Madam Yu’s face grew colder. The finger on her right hand that wore the silver ring of Zidian twitched a few times. On the back of her hand, veins had slightly risen from her fair skin.
She questioned, “Talk about it after we sit down inside?”
Wang LingJiao, “Of course. I didn’t have the time to come have a seat inside the last time I came to give out orders. Please.”
Hearing the word ‘orders’, Jiang Cheng snorted coldly. JinZhu and YinZhu’s expressions also seemed angered. However, Wang LingJiao was still a favorite of Wen Chao’s side. At the moment, they couldn’t offend her. And so, although Madam Yu’s face was covered with ridicule, her tone dripping with sarcasm, she still replied, “Sure, then, why don’t you go inside?”
Wang LingJiao gave her a smile. She really did walk inside.
However, although she said she had wanted to sit, she didn’t sit at once. Instead, she sauntered with curiosity around Lotus Pier in a circle, putting her opinions everywhere:
“Lotus Pier really is quite nice. It’s so big. It’s just that all of the houses are a bit old.”
“All of the wood is black. The color is so ugly. It’s not bright enough.”
“Madam Yu, you aren’t a good mistress at all. Don’t you know to decorate the place a bit? Next time, hang up some more red curtains. It’d only be prettier that way.”
Walking along the path, she pointed around as if it was her own back garden. Madam Yu’s brows twitched so much that Wei WuXian and Jiang Cheng thought she could kill someone any moment from now.