Chapter 52: An Old Fatherly Senior Brother
After closing the door of the physiotherapy center and sending away Bai Yuexin, who was stubbornly insisting on staying for dinner, Ye Anping returned to his bedroom. He began calculating and checking the things he was going to give his junior sister.
Spirit stones, pills, talismans…
He had prepared some in the Storage Bag for his junior sister when she left the Hundred Lotus Sect with Feng Yu Die, but after two months, they should be almost gone.
His junior sister was the type who wouldn’t say anything unless asked directly.
Things like Spirit Gathering Pills, which were almost essential for cultivation at the Qi Refining Stage.
Every time he gave them to her, he’d tell her to let him know after she finished them.
But every time she finished, she’d rather go dig for herbs in the mountains and brew them herself than proactively mention it to him.
There was even an incident before where Ye Anping forgot she had run out of Fire Stones and Water Stones. To save spirit stones, she had to run to the lake in the mountain next to the Hundred Lotus Sect to bathe every day for a few days.
Ye Anping found this rather helpless, so he had to calculate everything clearly now, lest she do something embarrassing to save spirit stones.
After checking the items, Ye Anping made a simple record.
He moved a lounge chair to the backyard, sat on it cross-legged, and began meditating to cultivate Qi, absorbing the essence of the sun and moon as he waited for his junior sister to arrive.
He didn’t know how long had passed when suddenly, the sound of two footsteps reached his ears.
Ye Anping perked up his ears in alert. Hearing that the person’s feet were about seven inches long and weighed no more than eighty-seven jin, he felt slightly relieved.
The next moment, two small hands covered his eyes.
“Senior Brother, guess who I am?”
“Sigh—” Ye Anping grabbed her hands and sighed helplessly. “How do I have such a silly junior sister? You already called me Senior Brother, and you’re still asking me to guess.”
“Hehe…”
Pei Lianxue chuckled foolishly before sitting down on one side of the lounge chair. She leaned her body against his shoulder and asked, “How long have you been waiting for me, Senior Brother?”
“Waiting for you…”
Ye Anping blinked, then noticed the bright crescent moon overhead.
It turned out that his meditation had lasted for three Shi Chen.
It would be almost midnight soon.
After a pause, he replied, “Not long. I just closed up shop and was resting. Were you and Xiao Yunluo shopping in the marketplace until now?”
“No, we came back to the Xuan Xing Sect after dinner. I took a bath and changed my clothes before coming here.”
As she spoke, Pei Lianxue opened her arms and pounced on Ye Anping.
“Sniff? Does it smell good?”
“Sniff~” Ye Anping brought his nose close to her neck and lightly inhaled. “Rose dew?”
Pei Lianxue’s face turned red, but she didn’t dodge. She replied absentmindedly, “So that’s what it’s called? Senior Sister Xiao gave me a bottle and said to pour it into the bathtub, and I’d smell nice after washing, so I tried it.”
Ye Anping chuckled wryly. Rose dew was a luxury item, retailing for five to six hundred spirit stones a bottle in the marketplace.
From the concentration of the scent he detected, his junior sister must have used a bottle, or at least most of a bottle, making her smell almost like a blooming pear tree.
However, hearing Pei Lianxue say this, he suddenly felt a bit anxious.
Xiao Yunluo lived a life of excessive luxury. Now that she had befriended his junior sister, what if his junior sister was also influenced by Xiao Yunluo to become like that? How would he afford it?
It was easy to go from frugality to extravagance, but difficult to go from extravagance to frugality!
But seeing that his junior sister seemed quite happy, Ye Anping didn’t intend to dampen her spirits. He could only hope that his junior sister was sensible and wouldn’t turn into a money-devouring beast.
Afterward, Ye Anping stood up.
“You sit, I’ll give your feet a massage.”
“Ah…”
“It’s a good opportunity to see if you’ve been slacking off these past two months and have been practicing swordplay and meditating on time daily.”
“Of course.”
Ye Anping smiled, then went into the room to fetch a wooden basin. He poured hot water into it and knelt on one knee beside the lounge chair. He reached out, lifted his junior sister’s small feet, and helped her take off her embroidered shoes and socks.
Just like before, after soaking his junior sister’s small feet in the hot water for a while, Ye Anping cupped her small foot in his palm and channeled his spiritual power to his thumb’s tip. He gently massaged the Meridians located on the sole of her foot.
Unlike treating guests at the physiotherapy center, where the guests’ comfort was the top priority to earn spirit stones, Ye Anping used a more intense force and spiritual power on his junior sister.
This method of unblocking Meridians was actually very dangerous, akin to using a small knife to clear out excess blockages in the Meridians and unblock blood vessels. Any slight misstep could result in damaged Meridians and disabled limbs.
But his junior sister had been with him since she was little, and he was intimately familiar with every blockage in her Meridians.
After massaging for a while, he saw Pei Lianxue tightly clenching the hem of her skirt and gritting her teeth, trying to endure the pain. He spoke to distract her.
“Does it hurt?”
“I’m used to it, it’s fine.”
“Bear with it a little longer, it’ll be over soon.”
…
After about fifteen minutes, Pei Lianxue’s forehead was covered in cold sweat. After Ye Anping released her feet, she let out a long sigh of relief.
She sat on the lounge chair with her knees bent, crossed her hands, hugged her legs, and buried her face in her knees, looking at her senior brother with a sweet smile.
“Senior Brother, how do you know that Senior Sister Bai?”
Ye Anping poured the foot-washing water under the willow tree in the backyard and replied, “She helped me review the shop’s application before.”
“And then?”
“And then?” Ye Anping sat back down beside Pei Lianxue. “Then, you and Feng Yu Die made her so depressed during the sword trial that I comforted her, and that’s how we met. She comes to help whenever she has time.”
“So… Senior Brother wants to marry her?”
?
Ye Anping glanced at her, knitted his brows, and asked in confusion, “Why is your mind so jumpy? How does this relate to marrying her?”
“Ah… it’s just…” Pei Lianxue looked away nervously for a moment, “When a man and a woman are together like this, doesn’t it mean he wants to marry her?”
Ye Anping raised an eyebrow and retorted, “Isn’t this also very normal? Weren’t we together every day before?”
“…”
What did that mean?!
Pei Lianxue buried her face a little deeper into her thighs, hooked her earlobes with her index finger, and her two small feet rubbed against each other.
She felt both at ease and uneasy…
At ease because Senior Brother’s words seemed to confirm he had no interest in Senior Sister Bai.
But if that was what Senior Brother meant, then didn’t it also mean he had no interest in her?
After hesitating for a while, Pei Lianxue mustered her courage and asked, “So… aren’t you going to marry?” — she was asking herself.
“Of course, I won’t marry.” — Ye Anping was answering Bai Yuexin.
“…”
Pei Lianxue lowered her head, her eyes full of disappointment.
At this moment, Ye Anping saw that it was getting dark and prepared to let Pei Lianxue go back.
He returned to his bedroom, packed the items he had counted earlier into a Storage Bag, and handed it to Pei Lianxue.
“This bag contains not only the pills you take daily but also two thousand spirit stones.”
“Two… two thousand?!” Pei Lianxue nervously accepted the Storage Bag and glanced inside.
“Yes, it’s your tuition. You’re entering the Xuan Xing Sect as a companion reader, so you have to pay tuition and miscellaneous fees. After the Sect Selection results are out, take the spirit stones to the Main Peak. Besides that, there are also meal expenses and so on. You don’t have to be too frugal in the Xuan Xing Sect. If you run out, come to me. Senior Brother can afford for you to cultivate in the Xuan Xing Sect.”
“…Then won’t I owe Senior Brother a large sum again?”
“Owe what? Senior Brother is willing to give.”
Ye Anping smiled helplessly, remembering his last joke with her. It seemed she took it seriously, so he quickly explained,
“When I told you last time that you were spending Senior Brother’s money, I was joking. Senior Brother isn’t that petty. Don’t think about paying me back. Just cultivating well is repayment enough for Senior Brother.”
“…Okay.”
“Alright, it’s getting late, you should head back to the Xuan Xing Sect. In the future, if Senior Brother wants to find you, he’ll ask Senior Sister Bai to summon you. Senior Brother can’t enter the Xuan Xing Sect’s mountain gate.”
Pei Lianxue pouted and grabbed Ye Anping’s clothes. “I want to spend more time with Senior Brother. I haven’t seen you for two months.”
“Alright, alright. You’re almost coming of age, why are you still so clingy?”
Ye Anping looked at her, shook his head, and sighed, tapping her forehead.
Pei Lianxue puffed out her cheeks. “I’m just being clingy, is that okay?”
“Yes, of course, it’s okay. When has a Senior Brother ever stopped his Junior Sister from being clingy? Come on, I’ll take you to stroll around the marketplace.”
…
