Miss Fairy, Please Hear Me Out

Zhou Chen’s story was a rare one. And the hardship those low-born martial apprentices faced just to cultivate was enough to make anyone sigh. But what Xu Yuan cared about more at that moment were the Calm Sky Martial Halls.

Because of people like Ying’er, one of those Blackscale Guards who operated like death-sworn soldiers, Xu Yuan had already realized that his old man had a private system for training troops of his own.

But the Blackscale Guards were cultivated in secret, much like the private servants and retainers raised by the great clans. Opening places like the Calm Sky Martial Halls were a different matter entirely. That was no longer something hidden in the shadows. It was put out in the open for all to see. It recruited disciples from across the land.

For ordinary people, it was a path into cultivation. But for the Chancellor’s Manor, it was also a public way to recruit soldiers.

At that thought, Xu Yuan reined in his mind and stopped digging deeper. There was no point thinking too much about it now. Better to wait until he was strong enough, then go ask that old man directly.

After leaving the martial training ground, Xu Yuan brought Zhou Chen straight to the library pavilion.

Without medicinal pills to support his training, both his meridians and his soul needed time to recover. But time itself could not be wasted.

Xu Yuan planned to use that downtime to look through some old records. This was not the Chancellor’s residence in the imperial capital, true, but it was still the ancestral residence of the current chancellor. The library here likewise held many extremely rare texts and secret records.

As for how he knew that? Well, the several tens of thousands of taels currently sitting in his Sumeru Ring had come from this very place. How could he not know?

The martial training ground sat in the southwestern corner of the servants’ quarters, while the library pavilion stood at the very northern end, the serene garden, where the master’s family lived.

When an estate got too large, that was not always a good thing. Fortunately, Zhou Chen was a first-rate chatterbox, so the walk was far from boring. Some of what he talked about were his own experiences. Some were gossip from the pleasure quarters. Some were internal tidbits from the Chancellor’s residence.

For example, a secret manual had surfaced somewhere, and a swarm of local martial apprentices had rushed to fight over it. After a whole pile of them died, it still ended up in the hands of some young master from a great clan.

For example, several famous courtesans in the imperial capital had even made it onto the court bulletin, and their prices were outrageously high. Just to enter a private room, listen to music, and exchange verses for one night cost several hundred taels of silver.

And for another, though the Calm Sky Martial Hall charged an eye-watering entrance fee, it actually ran at a loss every single year. The missing amount, an astronomical sum, had to be covered by the Calm Sky Merchant Association.

Because of Xu Yuan’s status, Zhou Chen spoke of these things without the slightest restraint.

The two chatted idly the whole way, and Xu Yuan came away knowing a little more than before. By the time they reached the courtyard gate of the library pavilion, the two estate guards on duty recognized the Third Young Master, saluted, and let him through at once.

The library pavilion was a four-story building, surrounded by little bridges, pavilions, and murmuring streams. The whole place had an elegant, old-world charm.

Xu Yuan pushed open the door and stepped inside. What greeted his eyes was a small room. Inside the room stood an old wooden desk, plain and timeworn. Behind it sat an elderly man with hair and beard white as snow, a book in his hands.

Back when the Third Young Master used to sneak books out of this place, this old fellow had definitely not been here.

Xu Yuan glanced sideways at Zhou Chen. Seeing that the man’s expression remained perfectly ordinary, he roughly guessed this was probably one of the retainers assigned to watch over the library pavilion.

Xu Yuan and Zhou Chen walked straight past him. The old man did not even lift his eyes, still reading as if the two of them did not exist.

Seeing that, Xu Yuan felt a small stir of respect. Once inside the library proper, they did not stop on the first floor. The two headed straight up the wooden stairs toward the top level.

As they walked, Xu Yuan asked with mild curiosity, “Hey, was that old man strong?”

Zhou Chen lifted his eyes a little and answered carelessly, “Just Soul Condensation. A fifth rank with one foot in the grave. Nothing worth talking about.”

Xu Yuan was a little disappointed by the answer. With the old man’s bearing, he had half thought he might be some hidden master in the mold of a monk with a broom. Turns out it was simply that the man could not sense Zhou Chen’s cultivation at all.

At that, Zhou Chen chuckled softly. “Third Young Master, there is nothing especially rare in the library of the Stillwater estate. Leaving a fifth rank cultivator here is already a bit excessive. The library in the Imperial Capital, though, does have a real expert living in it. You may even have met her.”

Hearing that, Xu Yuan searched his memory a little. “The maid who dusts the shelves?”

Back when he used to sneak books from the Imperial Capital’s library, he would almost always run into a maid there, climbing ladders and brushing the dust from the shelves.

She was a fairly young woman, completely out of place amid the heavy, ancient air of the library. And every time they met, she looked at him with the gentle eyes of an elder watching a junior, so he had remembered her clearly.

“So you really have met her.” Zhou Chen nodded and said softly, “She may look young, but she’s actually only a few years younger than I am. Back then, she was always Madam’s personal maid.”

At that, Zhou Chen realized he had misspoken and immediately fell silent.

The library pavilion sank into sudden stillness.

The silence lasted several seconds before Zhou Chen finally resumed in a slow, gentle voice. “Well... anyway, after that, she went to the estate library.”

Xu Yuan said nothing more. He knew why Zhou Chen had cut himself off. In his memories, there was almost nothing about that mother of his. And what little there was had mostly stayed frozen in the earliest haze of childhood. A father, but no mother. That too was one of the reasons the Third Young Master had grown inward, shut off from the world, and little by little twisted mean.

But from what Zhou Chen had said about when the Calm Sky Martial Halls were founded, Xu Yuan could vaguely guess that his mother’s death was likely connected to their establishment.

The two of them climbed the rest of the way in silence to the fourth floor.

Once there, Zhou Chen climbed straight out the window and went up to sit on the roof by himself, brooding over a drink, while Xu Yuan quietly stayed behind, leafing through the books on the top floor in silence.

ᯓ➤

Time passed slowly. Before long, it was close to noon.

“Third Young Master.”

In the deathly stillness of the library’s top floor, a somewhat hoarse female voice suddenly rang out.

The voice came without the slightest warning, and Xu Yuan, who had been completely absorbed in his reading, gave a faint start, his hand trembling slightly on the book.

He looked up. It was Ying’er, dressed in her usual tight black outfit.

Xu Yuan frowned. “What is it?”

“Mhm.”

“Speak.”

“The Chancellor wants to see you.”

Brief and brutal as ever, but it was enough to make Xu Yuan’s heart jolt.

After a moment’s thought, he realized that old man of his was not likely to have traveled all the way to Stillwater in person. So that probably meant a transmitted message.

“Let’s go.” Xu Yuan wasted no words. Sliding the book back onto the shelf, he turned and headed downstairs.

Ying’er followed behind him.

On the way down, Xu Yuan seemed to remember something and suddenly asked, “Right, did that woman Su Jinxuan talk?”

He had already handed Su Jinxuan over to Ying’er for ten days. By his estimate, the woman ought to have spilled just about everything worth saying by now.

Ying’er answered, “She said some things. Not much.”

“She only said some things?” Xu Yuan’s eyes flickered with surprise. He was genuinely caught off guard.

That fox spirit of a woman was usually quite careful and clever, but the moment real pressure landed on her, she tended to stop looking quite so smart. That was to say, she was still very intelligent, just in the sheltered-young-lady sort of way. And yet she had managed to last more than a full ten days in Ying’er’s hands and had still given up only part of the truth. Her bones were harder than he had expected.

Ying’er nodded. “Yes. Only some things. Ten days ago, when I left the estate to handle some matters, I questioned her once. She said a little. I only returned to the estate today, and I was planning to go ask again.”

“You used the methods I told you?”

“Mhm.”

A brief silence fell.

Ten days... Xu Yuan let his imagination drift, just a little, toward the current state of that fox-spirit’s mind. He shivered. After a light cough, he decided not to ask anything more about Su Jinxuan. Instead, he changed the subject. “You just said you left the estate. Why?”

“To investigate Qin Weijiu,” Ying’er replied.

Xu Yuan stopped in his tracks and turned back to look at her. “So Qin Weijiu is that Mister Qin? Any progress?”

Ying’er lowered her eyes and stared at her own toes without saying a word.

Xu Yuan was silent for a moment, then let out a quiet snort and resumed walking. If it had been Zhou Chen, he probably would have answered directly. This meant... Ying’er still needed some training.