Chapter 139: Tang Clan's Paper Flower (18)

“...I’m hungry. Gramps, is there anything to eat?”

That was the first thing Qing said as she opened her eyes.

Then she looked around.

It was already daylight, and she was on a bed where sunlight was streaming in.

Beds in the Central Plains were scientifically designed to let sunlight fall on one’s face from mid-morning to noon, after all.

And outside, there were busy sounds.

Sawing, hammering, walking, dragging...

Qing roughly put on her clothes and tied her hair as she stepped out of the bedroom.

Choi Leeong, who was sitting on the porch looking outside, naturally followed behind, so Qing gave a morning greeting.

“Gramps? Is there anything to eat? I’m hungry. Aang.”

It was a morning greeting as if she had entrusted him with finding food, but something immediately entered her mouth, causing Qing’s eyes to widen before narrowing into pretty lines.

Sticky, crunchy, savory, and sweet.

It seemed to be a type of pastry with nuts.

Qing stuffed the snack into her empty stomach while watching the busy construction work at the Tang Clan.

Choi Leeong watched her contentedly.

“Did something happen last night?”

“Nothing much. The government troops withdrew.”

“What? How anticlimactic. They acted like they were going to attack.”

In truth, it wasn’t anticlimactic at all.

The Imperial Guard was annihilated, the Imperial Censor and the Eastern Depot Eunuch were captured, and the Embroidered Uniform Guard was about halfway between annihilation and capture.

“Ah! Young Miss! Aren’t you Young Miss Ximen!”

“Oing? Who are you? Do you know me?”

“This humble one is called Changnan Gumho. You can just call me Fox. Hehe, though late, I’ll pay my respects.”

And with that, he prostrated himself on the ground.

“Are, uh... are you okay?”

Qing asked, looking at Fox’s face.

She didn’t know what his original face looked like, but it seemed to be swollen two to three times its normal size.

It looked like he had disturbed a beehive, with dark bruises and bumps all over.

“Oh my, to even worry about this beast. How can your heart be so kind? But please lower your speech. You do not need to use honorifics. Hehe, this lowly one is dazzled in front of Young Miss, if you raise your speech too, my pea-sized gall can’t handle it.”

“Uh. Um, okay...”

Qing obediently listened.

She thought he must be a servant of someone in the Tang Clan.

Qing didn’t know how to refuse.

“Hey, you fox bastard. Where are you going so early in the mor- Ah, that person is! Young Miss, is it Young Miss? Oh my goodness, how beautiful! Oh my, I shall pay my respects.”

Another servant came and immediately knelt down.

“What’s going on, why are you all- Ooh!”

“So it’s that person!”

“I can feel an amazing aura!”

And then, like minions greeting their boss, servants appeared one after another to pay their respects, kneeling and bowing their heads, their numbers gradually increasing.

“Truly a noble person. Looking with this Daoist’s Spirit Eyes, I can see that the rank of your soul is so high that a refined spiritual pressure flows from you.”

“Hey, Fake Daoist, is that right? How can someone who can’t even find one water vein talk about Spirit Eyes? In Sichuan where water springs up no matter where you dig, you failed seven times in a row. What kind of Daoist are you?”

And so a group of people gathered, politely taking their places in the front yard, bickering and squabbling as they held a competition to see who could flatter better.

“In last night’s dream, as I was walking and about to pick up a piece of jade I saw on the road, suddenly the brilliant Vermilion Bird rose up with five-colored radiance. Isn’t this a dream of meeting the noblest person in the world? Indeed, I can see at a glance that Young Miss is such a person!”

“This bastard, always going on about Vermilion Birds. What happened to the Azure Dragon, Black Tortoise, and White Tiger? Did you sell them off somewhere?”

“Excuse me. It’s a small thing, but...”

A servant with his face completely hidden by hair quietly approached and held out a small box.

When opened, lo and behold, a jade bracelet thicker than a finger hole revealed itself.

Qing’s expression soured as she quietly pushed it back, thinking that some gifts were a bit much.

“It seems very expensive.”

It did look pitiful.

So even though she was being particularly clingy, Qing let her be, thinking she must feel quite down since people she knew had died.

“Hey.”

Tang Nanah immediately pressed both knees, the tops of her feet, her forehead, and the underside of her forearms to the ground.

It was a grand bow with discipline and force, no matter how one went about it.

Qing’s eyes narrowed as she looked down at the back of her head.

“Hey, why are you fondling someone else’s chest?”

It is only right that if a tail is long, it would get caught.

Tang Nanah, caught red-handed, bowed her head in a grand apology bow in the middle of the night.

“No, I just, it just felt nice and soft. At this age, it’s awkward to do this to my mother. And my mother’s aren’t that big anyway...”

Tang Nanah didn’t particularly have any other intention.

At first, she had just wondered how something this big could stay attached without sagging and feeling how incredibly soft it was, but somehow that texture wouldn’t leave her mind day and night.

“Shit, you have your own. Why are you messing with mine instead of your own?”

“But the feeling is completely different. It’s like, there’s none of this sinking feeling. And it’s not like it’s going to wear out. Don’t be so stingy. Friends can touch each other a bit.”

Tang Nanah rather boldly stepped forward.

Qing had seen things in the Divine Maiden Sect too.

In fact, she knew that women liked large breasts just as much as men did.

Disciples with suspicious sexual preferences tended to be more reserved, while normal disciples were much more persistent in coveting others’ chests.

It was to the point where she would invariably see disciples with large chests complaining and telling others to stop at least once a day.

There were even about four disciples who fearlessly asked if they could touch a great elder’s chest just once.

(Of course, Qing didn’t receive much treatment as a great elder besides for her title and status, being an outer disciple and a comfortable peer)

Qing’s eyes narrowed.

“That doesn’t mean you can secretly grope.”

“Ugh. But if I ask, you’ll say no.”

“Of course you can’t. Do you know how ticklish it is?”

“Hmph.”

“What do you mean ‘hmph’? You’re in big trouble now. Kneel down and raise your hands.”

Anyway, Tang Nanah, feeling guilty, obediently followed those words.

It was also because she knew from numerous experiences that it was beneficial to quietly listen at times like this.

Forgiveness is easier than permission!

It was Tang Nanah’s vicious mindset, learned through the many misdeeds she had committed over a long time and the apologies that followed.

*

And so, Qing’s days of playing around under the pretext of fixing her split chest continued for about a month.

And then there was a woman who came to see Qing.

It wasn’t Senior Sister Wannabe, whom Qing wasn’t particularly waiting for or even thinking about!

She was still in the middle of crossing the continent.

The Demonic Cult was too far away.

Moreover, it was a journey with no need to hurry.

So she was leisurely enjoying her first trip to the Central Plains, spending the generous travel expenses given by the Divine Cult freely, with Seol Ganom as a guide by her side.

The one who came to see Qing was another woman.

The woman’s eyes were somewhat unfriendly as she looked at the large memorial stone erected next to the Tang Clan’s huge main gate.

And then she naturally spoke down to the Tang Clan warrior guarding the main gate.

“I heard my disciple is staying at the Tang Clan. Is there not a girl named Qing with the surname Ximen here?”

At this, the Tang Clan warrior froze.

“Young Lady Ximen is staying here, but if you say you are her master, could you perhaps be...”

“Yes. Who is the current Tang Clan Lord now? Was it that smooth-talking child Tang Touzhong? Go and tell him that Senior Ximen Surin has come to find her disciple.”

The Zenith Among Women had personally come to find her naughty disciple who had left home and not returned.