July 20, 2017
An elegant tea party concluded with two young girls sporting bruised noses and swollen faces.
From the scene, it seed to be Shen Qingming’s victory. Even though her hair was disheveled, her clothes were in disarray, and there was a sar of blood on her lips, overall her delicate features still maintained their charm, giving her a unique allure after the bloody battle. In contrast, Li Chaolu looked terrible with a bruised eye, a swollen forehead, and a trace of nosebleed on her lips.
Of course, technically speaking, it was undoubtedly Li Chaolu’s victory. The Hundred Flowers Sword Qi struck Shen Qingming more than a hundred tis, while the latter gave it her all and only managed to punch Li Chaolu three to five tis. The score was overwhelmingly in Li Chaolu’s favor. Shen Qingming’s newly practiced Windchasing Sword was like a childish fist in front of the superior Inner Sect Swordsmanship, completely relying on Immovable Tyrant Body to massively enhance her physical strength, crushing Li Chaolu like a steel chariot.
After the battle, Shen Qingming endured the pain throughout her body, coolly and rcilessly mocking Li Chaolu: "Humph, fancy moves, weakling."
Li Chaolu was livid: "Pah, just relying on being short and dense, with thick skin and shalessness!"
Upon hearing "dense," Shen Qingming was instantly enraged too: "Jealous because I’m short? You can chop off your chunky legs!"
"Wh-what chunky legs!?" Li Chaolu was both enraged and embarrassed, glaring at Shen Qingming while nervously glancing at Wang Jiu, slightly bending to hide her plump legs, which exceeded the range of a thirteen-year-old girl under her long skirt, "You dwarf!"
"Pig trotter Lu!"
"You!?"
Seeing the second pavilion cup real jungle brawl about to start, Li Xinyu couldn’t help but jump out to interrupt: "Ladies, please listen to !"
"Scram!"
"Scram!"
The two simultaneous shouts sent the Inner Sect Chief, in Cloud Surge Realm, tumbling away. Shortly after Li Xinyu left, Li Chaolu and Shen Qingming started baring their teeth at each other, showing an attitude of fighting to the end.
Fortunately, just as the fierce battle was about to start, a paper-folded flying sword floated gently over, inscribed with three simple symbols: Object Control Talisman, Sound Transmission Talisman, Vajra Talisman—the last one was obviously added to protect from being hit.
"Ladies, please listen to !"
Li Xinyu’s voice awkwardly transmitted over.
Li Chaolu turned angrily: "Fatty, aren’t you done yet?"
Li Xinyu said aggrievedly: "...I-I just wanted to say, Wang Jiu has already left."
"What!?"
The two girls looked around hurriedly, and sure enough, Wang Jiu was nowhere to be seen!
Li Chaolu furiously questioned: "When did he leave? Why didn’t you remind !"
Li Xinyu explained: "Just as you two were glaring at each other, he said the braised pork at ho was about to be done and left. I tried to remind you, but you told to scram..."
Li Chaolu shouted angrily: "Told you to scram, so you really scramd? Then if I told you to die, why didn’t you!"
"..."
"Forget it, he’s gone, even if you die a hundred tis it won’t redeem anything... I’ll think of another way to make up for it." Li Chaolu said, turned around and left without looking at Shen Qingming, strolling away casually.
Shen Qingming watched Li Chaolu’s fading figure, stunned by her clean and neat retreat, unsure whether to chase after her to give her a beating or to utter so harsh words to maintain her family’s dignity, feeling nothing she could do wouldn’t be awkward.
Fortunately, Li Xinyu stepped in to diffuse the situation.
The fatty grinned flatteringly: "Sister Qingming, would you like to take you back?"
"Disgusting!" Shen Qingming rejected Li Xinyu unceremoniously, then left in a huff!
——
Elsewhere, Li Chaolu returned to her room, collapsing onto her bed, feeling utterly exhausted.
The injuries from the fierce brawl with that brute force dwarf were secondary, but the key was that she had diligently prepared for a tea party and barely managed to say a few words to Wang Jiu, which was the real blow.
"Really... it was all that dwarf’s fault! If not for her, I could’ve had a perfect afternoon with Mr. Wang Jiu, sipping tea, chatting, discussing the Way, and later perhaps keeping the teacups he used, especially the cups he sipped from!"
Thinking of this, Li Chaolu’s cheeks involuntarily flushed, but she quickly realized that all of it was just her pointless fantasies since everything had been ssed up.
"No, I refuse to give up so easily; things haven’t reached the point of abandonnt yet, as a true fan, I must have perseverance, no, the persistence to hold on! What I need now is to leave a sufficiently deep good impression in Mr. Wang Jiu’s heart. It’s a pity this tea party didn’t go as planned and even backfired, but I can still think of other ways, for instance..."
After tossing and turning on the bed a few tis, Li Chaolu’s mind suddenly sparked with an idea.
"Yes, yes! I’ve thought of it!"
At this mont, Li Chaolu was reminded of Lu Xin’s glorious past.
Everyone at the Li Family Mansion knew that Lu Xin was able to marry into the Li Family not just because the Lu Family and the Li Family were well-matched, and the strategic alliance benefited QingCyan Cloud City, but most importantly, because she was a woman brave in love and hate, and unafraid to express herself.
To put it simply, Lu Xin once crazily pursued Li Fengyun.
Everyone knew that Li Fengyun only loved Shen Yue’e in those days, completely indifferent to other won. This was well-known. Young Li Fengyun was Xiangzhou’s most famous talented young man, admired by nurous maidens. However, most of them, even if they hung themselves in front of him, couldn’t make him lift an eyelid, except Shen Yue’e, who captured the cold, aloof Ice Prince with extraordinary ans.
Lu Xin indeed didn’t have Shen Yue’e’s capabilities but forged her path, reaching a position just below Shen Yue’e. At that ti, apart from his family, the only won Li Fengyun recognized were Shen Yue’e and Lu Xin.
Lu Xin’s thod was simple: she imprinted herself into every detail of Li Fengyun’s life. She would send him thoughtful gifts daily, covering everything from clothing accessories and new furniture to Heavenly and Earthly Treasures needed for cultivation. Each item carried Lu Xin’s mark, either a signature, a Divine Sense mark, or even a portrait. Lu Xin successfully made her presence ubiquitous around Li Fengyun, and no matter how aloof, he couldn’t resist this constant exposure.
Of course, a key point during this process was that Shen Yue’e didn’t resist or intervene, allowing events to unfold. Hence, there was so talk when Lu Xin was accepted, but these matters did not concern Li Chaolu.
As long as she could leave a similar impression on Wang Jiu, it would be her great victory!
At this thought, the girl beca excited, her eyes scanning the room, eager to send sothing marked with her presence. Her gaze inadvertently landed on her undergarnts on the bedside...
"..." Li Chaolu remained silent for a while, feeling her face grow warr. She quickly shook her head to dispel all the indecent images from her mind, then took a long breath, "Think seriously, Li Chaolu, you can do it!"
——
Half a day later, a despondent Li Xinyu listlessly knocked on the Zao Hong Sect door of Shen Garden.
The door opened, Wang Jiu curiously asked, "What brings you here?"
Li Xinyu said, "I’m delivering goods for my sister. Here’s a package for you, enjoy."
Li Xinyu tossed over a package, then turned and left.
Wang Jiu opened the package; the first thing he saw was a letter from Li Chaolu, expressing deep apologies for the unpleasantness at the previous tea party and offering a small gift to make ands, including a set of azure silk robes, a box of premium Spiritual Mist Immortal Tea, and a Cloud Silk Handkerchief.
Although not priceless treasures, these gifts were quite suitable as apologies. Wang Jiu hadn’t been upset about the tea party incident, so he accepted the gifts and returned to his room.
Shen Qingming had just applied dicine on her arm — though there were no visible injuries from her earlier scuffle with Li Chaolu, deeper wounds were still painful. Seeing Wang Jiu co in with a package, she curiously asked, "What did you randomly order this ti?"
"It was sent by Li Chaolu..."
Before he could finish, Shen Qingming stood up, "Throw it out! Don’t let see that woman’s stuff!"
Wang Jiu thought for a mont and directly used the Master-Servant Contract to block Shen Qingming’s vision...
"Haha, I’m not at all surprised!"
——
Once Shen Qingming finally cald down, she saw the apology letter and gifts in the package and decided to let the matter go - after all, she wasn’t a child of eleven or twelve to be so petty.
But upon a closer inspection, she noticed sothing peculiar.
The azure robe’s size and style were perfectly apt, complenting Wang Jiu seamlessly, yet the neckline and hem were embroidered with a Hundred Flowers Dew pattern, and inside the collar was inscribed: "Gifted by Li Chaolu..."
The handkerchief also had Dew patterns embroidered in the corner.
As for the Spiritual Mist Immortal Tea... Shen Qingming brewed it directly in hot water, unsurprisingly unveiling an ascending mist forming an image of Li Chaolu.
The girl coldly chuckled, "She sure has a cunning plan! Trying to imitate Lu Xin’s tactics, how laughable!"
Wang Jiu asked, "What does imitating Lu Xin an?"
Shen Qingming narrated Lu Xin’s impressive history with a mocking tone, saying, "Now, Li Chaolu wants to follow the sa strategy."
Wang Jiu asked, "She wants to marry ?"
Shen Qingming paused, sowhat nervously asking, "Are you going to agree?"
"Hahaha, that’s a silly question. A proud Sword Spirit marrying a human—wouldn’t that make it... beastly?"
"..."
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