Chapter 5 Pranks.
Miaolian does not wear bracelets when she takes a bath.
Strangely enough, the bracelet looked light and delicate, and when he casually placed it on the table, it didn't even leave a shallow dent.
No matter how hard Jiang Huaisu tried to fly upwards, she couldn't budge the weight. The bracelet was like a stabilizing anchor, its position unmoved.
This time, Jiang Huaisu decided to try something new. Instead of brute force, she would use magic directly. She refused to believe that the chain was so sturdy that even high-temperature fire couldn't peel off a layer of its skin.
Locate the weakest connection point between the chain links next to the buckle, concentrate her mental energy, and use magic to direct the flame from the candlestick to that point.
Because of the meager spiritual energy, the flame was very small and could not burn continuously; it would quickly extinguish once it adhered to the chain.
She could only keep starting fires, her spiritual energy was almost completely depleted, but the chain links were completely undamaged, not even the gold paint was peeling off.
"This level of fire won't do," Miaolian's voice came from the doorway.
Jiang Huaisu was startled by the sudden sound and nearly stung her feathers in the flames. Looking up, she saw Miaolian leaning against the doorframe, watching her with a half-smile.
Damn it, Miaolian must have deliberately slowed her pace; she didn't notice him approaching at all!
A chill ran down her spine, but she forced herself to ask, "...When did you get standing there?"
“It’s been a while.” He walked over. “I shower very quickly. Anyway, I have a dust-removing technique. Soaking in water is just a formality.”
"...What technique?"
"Dust Removal Spell, Dust Removal Spell." He repeated it twice, making a face. "Such a simple little spell is easy to learn."
The anger of being deceived momentarily overwhelmed the guilt of being caught running away. Jiang Huaisu didn't even bother to make up an excuse for what had just happened. She stood on the table and questioned Miaolian:
"Didn't you say you couldn't practice immortal techniques?!"
“Yes, I can’t practice the methods of immortality and transformation.” He snapped his fingers, and his wet, long hair instantly dried. “The rest are very simple.”
Jiang Huaisu paced back and forth angrily: "Why didn't you say so sooner?"
She remembered her top student deskmate in high school, who would always say "I'm doomed, I'm definitely going to fail this time" after each exam, but when the results came out, he was always in the top three of the grade.
Damn it, why do top students always hide their talents?
“I’ll talk about my things if I want to, and I won’t if I don’t.” He seemed confused. “I didn’t say anything when you tried to escape using magic, but why are you getting angry when I use magic to take a bath?”
Jiang Huaisu immediately deflated, her eyes darting away, "I was just, uh."
"You just want to test how well you've mastered fire control, right?" Miao Lian said coldly. "I've even come up with a reason for you."
She raised her head defiantly, confronting him, "Fine, I want to burn the chains and escape, so what? You said you wouldn't stop me if I had the ability to escape."
"Yes, but unfortunately you're not skilled enough. I reinforced this chain with magic; it won't break so easily. If you want to escape, practice some more."
...What should we do?
Jiang Huaisu was deflated. Now that things had come to this, was all she could do was hope that he would stay up late, get sick more often, eat arsenic like it was food, and be taken away by heaven sooner?
But he seems to be in good health; he's still a long way from being buried.
As if sentenced to imprisonment, Jiang Huaisu was truly depressed for a while.
But she soon calmed herself down. In the end, it doesn't matter where you cultivate; for a long-lived demon, a few decades is just a blink of an eye.
Moreover, Miaolian's books saved her from many detours, so staying by his side wasn't entirely without its benefits.
While cultivating her mind and gathering her inner energy, she gazed at the horizon and couldn't help but think of Flower Fruit Mountain, which was also located in this sea. Would she one day see a monkey riding a bamboo raft, cutting through the waves?
With this thought in mind, she was almost never absent from her practice, observing the sea conditions during her spare time from cultivation, and almost turned into a monkey-gazing rock.
Miao Lian was happy to accompany him. For him, sitting on the rocks with Jiang Huaisu and enjoying the sea breeze was more comfortable than staying at home.
The servant sent by Master Zhen to keep an eye on him discovered that the Third Young Master no longer seemed as enthusiastic about hunting as before. He always carried the bird and ran back and forth between the Zhen residence and the coast.
Day after day, the servants grew tired of the job. Miaolian no longer needed to bother to get rid of them; they would find opportunities to slip away on their own.
Before she knew it, Jiang Huaisu had arrived at Zhen Mansion, and three years had passed in total.
Miao Lian was much taller than when they first met, but Jiang Huai Su's appearance and figure remained almost unchanged.
Three years is almost half a lifetime for an ordinary magpie. Yet Jiang Huaisu's feathers remained glossy, its beak was not dull, its iris was not cloudy, and its claws showed no signs of wear.
Only at times like these can one truly feel the difference between humans and demons.
If Miaolian is a thriving seedling, then she is a pebble in a stream, the marks of time on her are much fainter.
This also shows that the longevity technique she practiced was effective.
However, she is still far from taking human form and can only use some basic transformation techniques, such as increasing her wings to several times their original size or lengthening her claws without changing her species form.
With her current magical power, these changes can only last for a very short time, no longer than the time it takes for an incense stick to burn.
One night, Miaolian got up and took her to the courtyard, saying she wanted to see how well she had practiced her transformation techniques.
Her view was blocked by Miaolian, and she didn't notice that the candles were still lit in the study a few feet away, indicating that someone was still there.
Unaware of what was happening, it spread its wings, and the deformed, enormous bird's shadow was reflected in the window. A low scream immediately came from inside the room, followed by the sound of tables and chairs colliding and a body falling to the ground.
It was Master Zhen, who was working on official business by lamplight in his study, who was startled by the sudden appearance of the shadow. In his panic, he tripped and fell, causing all this commotion.
Rubbing his aching back, Master Zhen got up, picked up an inkstone as a weapon for self-defense, and with his heart almost stopping, he spent another fifteen minutes mentally preparing himself before cautiously pushing the door open a crack.
However, after scanning the area, he didn't see the monster, only an empty courtyard. The night sky was clear, and a gentle breeze caressed his face; everything that had just happened seemed like an illusion.
After thinking for a long time, he could only attribute the incident to his own overwork in handling official duties, which made him see things too clearly and mistake the swaying tree shadows for monsters.
In any case, Master Zhen dared not stay here any longer. He sprinted into the west wing, wrapped himself in a quilt, and drew the curtains. He decided to invite a Taoist priest to perform a ritual the next day so that he could finally feel at ease.
Little did he know that his dutiful son was clinging to the roof tiles, watching his disheveled figure disappear at the end of the veranda, and then laughed contentedly.
Jiang Huaisu had already withdrawn her magic and transformed into an ordinary magpie, pacing unhappily beside Miaolian.
"You did this on purpose?"
He had led her to the shaded area under the eaves earlier, precisely at the right angle, so that her shadow could be projected onto the window paper of the study.
The purpose was to play a trick on my father.
When Master Zhen was frightened, Jiang Huaisu was also scared half to death by the commotion in the study.
At this moment, she turned her accusing gaze to Miaolian, who readily admitted, "Yes."
"Why?"
"Because it's fun," Miaolian countered. "Don't you find it interesting?"
"I......"
Even though the relationship between the person and the bird was already quite familiar, Jiang Huaisu could not treat him like an ordinary friend. She was always wary and cautious, not wanting to cause any trouble or offend him.
Except when she's angry, she usually doesn't contradict him. In trivial matters, it's okay to go against her conscience, like now.
"I think it's alright," she mumbled.
She didn't actually find the fun in the matter, but she had no intention of standing up for Master Zhen, so she gave a perfunctory but correct answer.
Miaolian stared at her, seemingly seeing through her unspoken meaning.
After a while, he suppressed his smile and said, "Never mind, I'll go back to sleep. I have to get up early to cultivate tomorrow."
This matter seemed to have been put behind her, but on her way back to her bedroom, Miaolian suddenly took off her bracelet, casually placed it in the pavilion in the courtyard, and walked away without looking back.
Jiang Huaisu didn't stop him. It was obvious that he hadn't forgotten her; he had deliberately left her there.
The bracelet restricted her movement; unable to enter the room, she could only spend the night in the pavilion.
What's wrong with him?
Sleeping outside is fine with her, since she doesn't like staying in Miaolian's room anyway, because there's always a lingering lotus scent that makes her a little dizzy after smelling it for a while.
I don't know what brand of spices he used, but the effect was amazing; the whole room was permeated with the scent. I also smelled it on my body, though it wasn't as noticeable in well-ventilated outdoor areas.
Jiang Huaisu was standing in the well-ventilated pavilion at this moment. Miaolian and that strange floral fragrance had gone far away from her without any lingering feelings.
It's hard to understand why Miaolian suddenly got angry.
Could it be because when she was teasing Master Zhen earlier, she didn't actively and proactively express her stance and stand firmly on his side?
"So hard to please." Jiang Huaisu rolled her eyes at his back. If he wanted to sleep outside, he could sleep outside. She wasn't going to go and apologize to him for something so pointless.
The more you get to know him, the more you realize the nasty side of his personality.
Miaolian hoped that she could "help her relatives, not those who are right," since everyone else was "right" except for him, who was "relative."
After thinking about it deeply, Jiang Huaisu felt that Miaolian's mentality was similar to that of a pet. The pet should unconditionally stand on the side of its owner and bite whoever the owner points at, without allowing any middle ground.
But Miaolian didn't explicitly state her needs, making her act a beat behind. If he had just said, "You, praise me for doing a good job, then curse my father a couple of times so I can see," wouldn't she have done it?
Being given the cold shoulder for no reason, even Jiang Huaisu, with her good temper, got a little angry.
It was like playing some kind of interactive narrative game. Every time Miaolian asked her a question, several options (A, B, C, D) would pop up in front of her. But how could she know which option would be a mistake? She wasn't a mind reader!
She's never been good at gauging the appropriate level of ulterior motives in making overt gestures of goodwill; in the past, when playing interactive games, she would simply look up a walkthrough. Her emotional intelligence in real life is just barely adequate, and she occasionally does things that offend people without realizing it.
I still remember the year I first joined the company. My boss was celebrating my grandmother's birthday and asked everyone in her department to say a birthday greeting in front of the camera to make a video compilation. Her first words were to wish my grandmother a long and healthy life. My boss's face turned green immediately, and he said, "My grandmother is ninety-nine this year."
"Cooperation?"
The voice was extremely low, almost like a murmur. It seemed like an attempt to appear mysterious.
However, the unfamiliar voice immediately alerted her, and she quickly scanned her surroundings, but did not see anyone approaching.
"Little bird, shall we cooperate?" the voice asked again.
This time, with the addition of a name, the target is even more specific; it's clearly aimed at her.
A note from the author:
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