[Vol. 1] Chapter 33 - Probably Just the Wind
Tao Shui, the guard responsible for making sure no one entered Xiaolan's courtyard, had long since noticed the movement inside.
He looked at the guard beside him. The two of them saw the understanding in each other's eyes and let the young miss be.
In truth, they no longer had to guard this young heir—it was more about saving face, an act, a facade.
So even if they heard some rustling of trees...
"Must be windy tonight," the guard beside Tao Shui, named Tang Lin, said. She was actually a woman with short hair.
"Sure is." Tao Shui responded with a numb look on his face.
Even if they heard a branch crack and a loud thump on some roof tiles...
"Seems like the bird is heavy," Tao Shui commented.
"Yes." Tang Lin nodded seriously.
And a loud thud on the ground just at the corner of the courtyard wall, the two of them each found their own reasons.
With the sound of tiptoeing growing distant, Tang Lin whispered, "She's gone, right?"
The two had the same thought: why was the young miss so loud when trying to slip away?
With a shaky sigh, the two looked at each other in the eyes—which came with instant regret. They shouldn't have.
Pfft...
"Ahahahahahaha!"
It was a good thing the young miss was away. If she had heard the two going weak and their bodies trembling from it all, she'd have coughed up old blood.
Slipping away from the eastern courtyard, Xiaolan sneaked toward the sole pagoda on the Lin clan.
If there was one thing undeniable about the Crimson Dynasty, it was the supremacy of cultivation. Even in an otome romance game, strength mattered.
And... something was definitely wrong with her dantian.
Determination flushed her cheeks. She was desperate for a way to get stronger. Her father, Lin Tianyi, had promised to talk to her about her studies after she healed, but that was two days ago.
Now, she saw guards patrolling the pagoda's perimeter, their watch strict and unyielding. Hiding in the shadows, Xiaolan watched discreetly, trying to find a way inside.
Next to the pagoda was a small storage shed. Peeking inside, Xiaolan found a large, empty rain barrel on a wheeled cart. A ridiculous idea sparked in her mind.
She tipped the barrel onto its side, climbed inside, and with a mighty push against the wall, sent it rolling directly toward the pagoda's entrance.
Thump-thump-thump-thump—CLANG!
The barrel ricocheted off the doorframe and came to a stop inside the pagoda's center hall. The guards outside stared, too stunned to react to the sudden, rolling intrusion.
After a moment, one look at the figure and they all shrugged. "Probably just the wind."
Inside the barrel, a dizzy but triumphant Xiaolan carefully crawled out.
"Some stupid servant didn't load the barrel properly," another guard grumbled, finding all sorts of excuses. They were just paid to stand guard, nothing more.
A shadowy figure desperately scrawled intelligence onto a piece of paper.
Suddenly, a loud CLANG echoed through the room.
The spy shuddered and immediately hid in a corner, praying to whatever gods existed that whatever had entered hadn't seen them.
A familiar figure with luscious black hair, a slender build, and average height peered from the corner of the spy's vision, sneaking as if she were trying to steal food in the middle of the night.
It's that brat again! the spy cursed internally. Ever since Xiaolan had ransacked the kitchen and emptied the place, they hadn't been able to safely send any intelligence without fear of being caught.
Unaware of the presence, Lin Xiaolan rummaged through the pavilion. It was impossible to read scrolls without light, especially at night.
Thankfully, the flickering light of a candle from behind allowed her to see the words clearly. Eh? A candle?
"A surprise to see you here, young miss." A voice cut through the silence, and Xiaolan's whole body jumped.
Turning around, she saw a woman wearing an ordinary maidservant's attire that hugged her curves quite beautifully. Her deep brown-black hair was smoothly combed back into a low bun, secured with a simple jade hairpin.
"Ah." Xiaolan's mouth hung open, her mind racing for a jaw-dropping excuse.
"What are you doing here, young miss?" the maidservant asked, looking at the girl in front of her.
Xiaolan was sitting in the lotus position, her wiggling toes betraying her anxiety.
"...To study?" Xiaolan answered after a minute of silence. She immediately redirected the question back. "Who are you, and what are you doing here?"
"I'm Su Meng, and I handle the curfew, young miss. I just came to check what was going on..." Su Meng's gaze swept from the broken barrel to the perpetrator, Xiaolan.
Su Meng's impression of her was that Xiaolan was under pressure, especially with the young Alpha Lin Feiyu's progress in cultivation.
She stared her down and said, "Young miss, I suggest you not cause too much trouble..."
"Trouble? I haven't caused any," Xiaolan answered resolutely. Yes! She had been freshly reborn into this world.
She hadn't caused much trouble, but trouble always found its way to her.
"Recently, I've heard the kitchen was a mess," Su Meng stated, staring at Xiaolan. Even without saying it, it was clear she already knew it was Xiaolan's doing.
Xiaolan's eyes widened. "The kitchen? A mess?" She pressed a hand to her chest. "That's terrible. I heard the same!"
She leaned in, her voice dropping to a whisper. "It was ransacked. I think..." A dramatic pause. "...it was a ghost."
Su Meng's expression remained flat and unimpressed. "A ghost? And that is?"
Crap, crap, crap! This is ancient China! Xiaolan's expression was grave. She wanted to cry, but no tears came. "Uuh... A yokai?" Wait, no, that's Japanese.
"A gui!" she immediately corrected herself.
"A gui?" Su Meng commented. "You certainly know strange words, young miss." From her perspective, this was normal.
Xiaolan was known to be strange and eccentric, but the word she had just spoken... that was definitely not from any well-known text or folklore.
"A very... eccentric one," Xiaolan nodded gravely. "It only made a mess where we keep our things."
She gestured to the scrolls around her. "I'm investigating. These are ancient texts on spiritual purification. I can't just stand by while dark spirits are in our kitchen."
She looked up, her eyes shining with what she hoped was determination, not panic. "As an heir, it's my duty to see this through. No matter how... unorthodox my methods." She gestured at the broken barrel.
"But young miss," Su Meng pointed out, her voice dry as dust, "the Lin clan follows the sword dao, not superstition."
The words hit their mark, severing the thin thread of an excuse Xiaolan was desperately clinging to.
"...Ah," she murmured, her mind scrambling for another absurd justification.
"Young Miss Lin Xiaolan." Su Meng's voice cut through the silence. She stared at the scrolls sprawled across the floor, their texts illuminated by the candle in her hand.
'...seek a partner for the art of Dual Cultivation... the key is a profound union...'
'...caress the inner channels with your spiritual sense, awakening the core until you feel a surge of essence...'
A third line, near the bottom, sealed Xiaolan's horror:
'...this will lead to a powerful release and a state of epiphany.'
"...I understand," Su Meng murmured, though her eyes said otherwise. She straightened up, her gaze shifting from the scrolls to Xiaolan's panicked face. "That will be all, young miss. I've heard enough."
Understand? Understand what?! Xiaolan's heart hammered against her ribs.
"Hold on, hold on!" Xiaolan sputtered. "Don't tell anyone about this!"
Su Meng nodded, placed the candle on the table, and left without a word. Any chance for Xiaolan to reason or defend herself vanished immediately.
Don't tell anyone about this? Xiaolan cried internally, disappointed with herself.
Dumb, dumb, stupid! She had wanted to explain herself, but all she had said was for Su Meng not to tell anyone, which made her seem even more suspicious.
When Su Meng walked out of the pavilion, her once-neutral expression shifted to a frown.
That brat, Xiaolan, is annoying.
Her eyes fixed on the intel in her hands, she thought about how hard she had worked to maintain her position and hide her secret as a spy in the Lin family household for four grueling years.
It had been difficult enough, and now she had Xiaolan to deal with.
Su Meng focused, devising a plan to safely send the intel.
Xiaolan had an expression like it was the end of the world. She gritted her teeth and called out, "Su Meng!"
She ran out of the pagoda with the dual cultivation scrolls. She needed to explain herself! She couldn't let her reputation get any lower than it already was!
The two of them were, of course, seen by the guards who guarded the pagoda—the same ones who had made excuses about the barrel roll.
What is this? One chases and the other runs?
They also knew who the woman chasing after the maidservant was. It was none other than the infamous Xiaolan, whose "good deeds" were already known among maidservants and guards.
With the inconspicuous scroll of dual cultivation fluttering clearly in the wind, and through the keen eyes of the guards, who were cultivators, they immediately understood: Alpha heirs played wild these days.
Daring to run after an older Omega with clear intentions! Bold!
Su Meng, a trained spy, stiffened when she heard a familiar voice in the distance. She couldn't afford any more mishaps!
Immediately, her mind worked in milliseconds. She decided. She led Xiaolan to a place far from the Alpha heir residence and the pagoda.
Under the light of two moons, two figures moved through the dark. Su Meng kept a quick pace, fast enough for Xiaolan to see, but slow enough not to be questioned.
Xiaolan could only give chase, growing more concerned with every step. Where are we going? She doubted whether she should keep chasing or not.
But her feet kept moving. Something tugged at her. Keep going. Almost there.
The path twisted. The moons' light seemed to thicken, pooling in strange shapes between the trees. Su Meng's figure flickered ahead. She was there one moment, gone the next.
Xiaolan blinked. Rubbed her eyes.
Still there. Still running.
Just a little further.
Her legs felt heavy. Her mind felt foggy. But the figure ahead kept moving, kept leading, kept her feet following.
Su Meng's silhouette rounded a corner. Xiaolan stumbled after her.