Chapter 17
A thin layer of snow had accumulated on the windowsill, the fragrance of frost mixed with the scent of cold plum blossoms. Yin Qiu reached out and touched some snow, and while the teacher turned his back, she secretly placed her fingertips on her aching eyelids.
The cool touch relieved some of the discomfort, but the snow melted quickly, and the unbearable soreness soon returned. Yin Qiu's eyelids were burning, and her head felt hot as well. She listened to the teacher's voice in a daze, and her hand holding the pen was a little strained.
The school had several classrooms. Yin Qiu's classroom was full of students who, like her, had started school late and didn't know many characters. Their ages varied, with some being seventeen or eighteen and many being six or seven. In the morning, the teacher tested Yin Qiu and Fu Xiang's knowledge and found that Fu Xiang had read some books, so he sent her to another classroom to study.
The classmates here had arrived earlier than Yin Qiu and had already gotten to know each other. After school, they would all go to the canteen in groups to eat. Yin Qiu was introverted and shy by nature and didn't know how to get to know them, so she ended up alone and walked at the back.
"Yin Qiu!" Fu Xiang stood in the corridor outside the dining hall and waved to Yin Qiu.
"Coming!" Yin Qiu replied as she ran over.
"It's so cold," Fu Xiang said, taking Yin Qiu's hand as they met. "How's your studying going?"
"It's alright," Yin Qiu said. "How about you?"
Fu Xiang smiled: "I've learned all of this before, so there shouldn't be any major problems. If you have any questions, remember to ask me, and I'll teach you!"
Yin Qiu smiled back at her, and the two lined up to get their food. They chose a table by the window and sat down. During the meal, people kept coming to greet Fu Xiang, and Fu Xiang took the opportunity to introduce Yin Qiu to them. Before long, their table became the liveliest in the entire canteen.
"You've made so many new friends," Yin Qiu said with a hint of envy.
"Since we're already here, we should naturally make friends with our classmates," Fu Xiang said, placing a few pieces of meat on Yin Qiu's plate. "Why are your eyes so swollen? Didn't you sleep well?"
Yin Qiu lowered her head and said, "Yeah, I didn't sleep well."
“Me too,” Fu Xiang said. “I’m really picky about beds. I used to sleep on soft couches at home, but the beds here are all rock hard and they hurt me to death.”
Although Fu Xiang was sent away to another place by Fu Cen when she was young, she has always been a pampered young lady. Her food, clothing and daily necessities are incomparable to those of poor families. Yin Qiu is used to a hard life, so having a bed to sleep in is already very good for her. Of course, she will not feel uncomfortable in terms of daily life.
"Don't you miss your family?" Yin Qiu asked.
"They're all dead, there's no point in thinking about it," Fu Xiang said casually.
"Where did you live before?" Yin Qiu asked again.
“It’s a county, very far away,” Fu Xiang said. “One night there was a flood that submerged the whole village overnight. I was lucky to be alive. I wasn’t in the village that night. I went to the county town with my wet nurse the day before. Later, the government stopped us from going back, and I got separated from my wet nurse. Then I remembered that I had a biological father in Jinhuai City, so I begged for food all the way back.”
She spoke calmly, as if recounting someone else's experience, but Yin Qiu felt a deep empathy and said, "You must have suffered a lot along the way."
Fu Xiang took a sip of soup and said indistinctly, "It's alright. I've never been spoiled. I got used to it in a few days. I only cried once when I got separated from my wet nurse, but I haven't cried since."
There is a one-hour rest period at noon. After lunch, most disciples will go back to their rooms for a short nap. Yin Qiu and Fu Xiang did not sleep well last night, so they also went back to their rooms to rest. When the time came, they were both woken up by the disciples in the courtyard and went to the training ground.
·
They may not be studying in the same place, but they are practicing martial arts together. Fu Xiang and Yin Qiu stood side by side in the crowd, learning to warm up and practice horse stance with their senior brothers and sisters in front of them.
They had no foundation at all, so the first step to entering the sect was to train their physique. The first lesson was to stand in a horse stance for a whole hour. Many disciples couldn't hold on for long and kept complaining that their legs were sore. The senior sisters who were instructing them would come over and whip each of them. Even if they couldn't bear it, they could only grit their teeth and continue to endure it.
Fortunately, the snow stopped today, and the wind wasn't too strong. But at a glance, all the new disciples in the training ground were covered in sweat, their backs soaked, looking as if they had just been pulled out of the water. Their faces were pale, their expressions pained, but they dared not move for fear of being whipped.
A moment later, the bell rang, and the disciples who had entered the inner hall first rushed out in a swarm, all staring at the new disciples with curiosity and laughing loudly.
"It's like watching a monkey, what's so funny?" Fu Xiang muttered through gritted teeth.
Yin Qiu's legs trembled, and he could see nothing but a blinding white light.
"Are you alright?" Fu Xiang glanced at Yin Qiu sideways and asked in a low voice.
"It's nothing..." Yin Qiu's voice was almost uttered through clenched teeth.
"Don't force yourself if it really doesn't work out," Fu Xiang said. "Should I talk to your senior sister for you?"
"No!" Yin Qiu forced herself to stay alert. "You'll get beaten up."
Fu Xiang stopped talking; she wasn't much better off, and talking more would only be a waste of her energy.
At the entrance at the back, Man Jiangxue and Xie Yijun stood quietly, both looking at Yin Qiu.
"Their concentration seems quite good," Xie Yijun said, fiddling with her prayer beads. "For their first practice session, they were the best performers among the new disciples."
“Yin Qiu is physically weak,” Man Jiangxue said, “Fu Xiang is in better health.”
"Diligence can make up for lack of talent; knowing how to work hard is truly a good thing," Xie Yijun said.
The two stood there for a while, then Xie Yijun left first, while Man Jiangxue chose a secluded spot and continued to watch from the shadows.
"The worst thing for a martial artist is to be weak and powerless," the instructor said, walking ahead with a whip in hand. "Stop right there, or I'll whip anyone who dares to sway!"
As soon as she finished speaking, a "thud" was heard, and a female disciple collapsed to the ground, unconscious.
"Drag him away, and when he wakes up, drag him back to continue training!"
Yin Qiu never imagined that practicing martial arts would be such a difficult thing. She used to admire and envy the stories of martial arts heroes. Later, she also longed to learn Man Jiangxue's skills. However, she never thought about how hard and painful it was behind the superb martial arts skills.
At this moment, Yin Qiu suddenly realized that learning martial arts was so difficult. But if you don't know how hard it is to start, how can you expect to reap the rewards later? Yin Qiu glanced at the unconscious female disciple and became even more vigilant. He focused intently on his horse stance, his whole body tense.
After an hour, the instructor waved her whip and, like herding donkeys, made everyone run around on the field.
Having just finished practicing the horse stance, there was no time to rest. It was already difficult enough for their legs to stand, let alone run. In an instant, the sound of whips rose and fell, and most of the disciples were whipped several times. The places where they were whipped were burning with pain, and they were not allowed to cry out.
"Inhale through your nose and exhale through your mouth. Your breathing must be even and measured. Focus your energy in your lower abdomen, look straight ahead, and straighten your back!"
Hearing the cracking of whips all around, Yin Qiu was afraid of being beaten as well. However, she had just recovered from a serious illness and her strength had not yet returned. After all this, she was already exhausted and could only rely on a strong will to keep going. Yin Qiu ran a few laps with faltering steps, panting heavily. Her throat felt like it was on fire. In her dizziness, her ankle twisted and she fell to the ground.
"Get up quickly!" Fu Xiang hurriedly pulled Yin Qiu up.
Caught off guard by her senior sister wielding the whip, Yin Qiu groaned and scrambled to her feet, running as fast as she could. But she hadn’t gone more than a few steps when she heard Fu Xiang scream behind her.
Yin Qiu turned around in surprise and saw that her senior sister had lashed Fu Xiang with the whip again, saying sternly, "You have the strength to pull her up, but you can't get up yourself. Don't be lazy!"
Despite being hit, Fu Xiang smiled and said loudly, "I'm running! Those two lashes have given me a good boost. Thank you, Senior Sister!"
After she finished speaking, she sped up to catch up with Yin Qiu, flashed a smile at her, and the two exchanged a glance before starting to run again.
After an unknown amount of time, the senior sister finally spoke, telling everyone to stop. The disciples, as if granted a pardon, all lay down on the ground, groaning and groaning.
The female disciple who had been unconscious earlier had woken up and was brought back. She had fallen behind in her running, so her senior sister instructed her to catch up. While the other disciples rested, she would run around the training ground alone, half-dead.
"This is too much suffering," Fu Xiang said, lying sprawled on the snow, panting heavily. "I thought passing out would be the end of it, but I didn't expect to have to come back even after waking up. Kung Fu is really hard to learn."
Yin Qiu and Fu Xiang lay down together, head to head. Looking at the lone female disciple running, she couldn't help but recall the scene of Man Jiangxue practicing swordsmanship in the courtyard of the dilapidated temple where she had stayed after leaving Yao Dingcheng.
Yin Qiu remembered Man Jiangxue's soaring figure, her intricate and beautiful moves, her jet-black hair and snow-white skirt tracing graceful arcs in the air, and her sword, long and straight, gleaming with a dazzling cold light, like a brilliant star in the night, subtly yet powerfully illuminating the entire world.
Did my martial uncle train in the same way? Yin Qiu wondered to himself, how many years would it take to become like my martial uncle?
The gray sky was no longer snowing, but as far as the eye could see, there were still patches of dazzling white snow. Yin Qiu unconsciously shifted her gaze and suddenly caught sight of what looked like a piece of snow-like skirt fluttering in an inconspicuous corner.
Yin Qiu was stunned for a moment, and when she looked closely, she could no longer see the shadow of the hem of the skirt.
All afternoon, the new disciples repeated running and horse stance exercises. Many of the younger girls couldn't withstand the training and cried out in pain. Classes ended at 5:30 pm, and the group returned to their rooms in tears, too exhausted to even eat before falling asleep.
Compared to the others, Fu Xiang was indeed the most outstanding among the new disciples. She was in better spirits than the others. Not only did she drag Yin Qiu to dinner, but after the meal, she also insisted on taking Yin Qiu to the hot spring to bathe. She even planned to wash the clothes she had worn that day.
Yin Qiu really didn't have the energy to do the laundry, so she went back to her room to sleep. She didn't have time to think about Man Jiangxue anymore, and slept soundly until dawn without having any nightmares.
·
For many days afterward, Yin Qiu lived a repetitive and monotonous life, studying and practicing martial arts, eating and sleeping on time. She was so tired that she fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow, and had no mind to think about anything else. During this time, Man Jiangxue never came to see her.
At first, Yin Qiu would still think about Man Jiangxue whenever she had a spare moment, hoping that Man Jiangxue would come to see her someday. But Yin Qiu also understood that this was Yunhua Palace, not outside. Man Jiangxue was a high-ranking peak master and a beloved senior uncle among the disciples. She must have many things to do, so it was understandable that she couldn't take care of Yin Qiu.
Compared to martial arts training, learning to read and write is much easier. Although Yin Qiu started learning late, she studied very hard, her teacher was very patient, and Fu Xiang also gave her extra lessons. After a few days, she had already learned to recognize many characters. Even her teacher praised Yin Qiu for her ambition and said she was a promising student.
After school that day, Yin Qiu and Fu Xiang went to the canteen for lunch as usual. Since the two of them went back to their room to wash their faces first, there was already a long queue when they arrived at the canteen. Fu Xiang didn't want to stand there, so she suggested that they sit down and rest for a while, and then go get their food when the queue thinned out.
After several days of training, the new disciples all looked weathered and worn, each needing to support their backs as they walked, moving slowly step by step, as if they had been suffering from diarrhea for several days. Their gait resembled that of a seventy-year-old, which caused many of the older disciples to burst into laughter upon seeing them.
However, Yin Qiu keenly noticed that the atmosphere in the dining hall was somewhat different today. The senior disciples no longer mocked the new disciples, but instead cast various glances at Yin Qiu with different expressions, accompanied by many inaudible whispers.
Fu Xiang clearly noticed it too, and said to Yin Qiu in a low voice without showing any emotion, "Why are they all staring at you?"
Yin Qiu also found it strange and shook her head, saying, "I don't know."
Fu Xiang raised an eyebrow: "Did you offend them?"
Yin Qiu scanned the group of people and said, "I don't recognize any of them..."
Fu Xiang sat with her legs crossed, a posture that is actually quite ungraceful for a young woman, but she exuded a youthful unruliness and dashingness. Looking back at the senior disciples, she said, "Then why are they staring at you?" She paused and then added, "Because you're pretty?"
Yin Qiu shook her head again.
"Never mind, let them watch," Fu Xiang jumped up from the stool. "You stay here and don't move. I'll go get the food."
Aside from the first day, Fu Xiang had been getting meals for Yin Qiu almost every day for the past few days. Yin Qiu couldn't argue with her, so she quietly waited at the table. Unexpectedly, as soon as Fu Xiang left, several disciples came over, looked at Yin Qiu, and said, "You're the Yin Qiu that Uncle Man brought back, right? Uncle Shen's daughter?"
The hall was filled with the sounds of disciples talking, making it somewhat noisy. Yin Qiu glanced at Fu Xiang's back before replying, "That's me."
The disciple who asked the question looked doubtful, and then said, "That's not right. I heard you're sick and about to die, but I can't see anything wrong with you."
Yin Qiu was completely confused and asked blankly, "What kind of illness is it that's about to kill me...?"
The disciples exchanged glances, all looking somewhat puzzled. Finally, the disciple who had asked the question said, "The news has spread that you are on the verge of death, and many famous doctors from outside the palace have come to treat you. How could you not know?"
Yin Qiu was even more puzzled than them, and after a moment of silence, she said, "I don't know..."
"What happened?"
"Could there be a mistake?"
"But if the sect leader issues it personally, how could there be a mistake?"
As the disciples were talking, many other disciples came to watch. They didn't know what was going on, but they all crowded over to join in the fun. In no time, Yin Qiu's table was surrounded by people, and the scene became more and more chaotic.
A moment later, Fu Xiang's voice rang out from outside the crowd: "Hey! Fellow senior brothers and sisters, make way!"
The disciples quickly stepped aside, and Fu Xiang, carrying two portions of food, squeezed next to Yin Qiu, saying with a smile, "There are plenty of empty seats over there. Our table is a bit small, only big enough for two people. Would you please find another place, senior brothers and sisters? Or you can have it!"
Fu Xiang had already become a familiar face in the disciples' courtyard, and most of them recognized her. The disciples smiled and exchanged a few words with Fu Xiang before dispersing. The few disciples who had spoken earlier also left the dining hall.
"What did they say?" Fu Xiang asked hurriedly after they left. "I turned around and saw you surrounded by them. I thought you were going to be bullied!"
Yin Qiu looked at her with a bewildered expression and said, "They said... I'm going to die..."
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