Dance with you

Chapter 3

Liu Xin was a little over a year old when she experienced the first big celebration in this world. She wasn't sure if the one month celebration of an heir was celebrated in as great a manner as this in all the great sects or if it was just a peculiarity of the Jin Sect to show off their riches whenever and however they could.

Servants were hurrying back and forth, preparing everything for the next day. Liu Xin toddled her way through the hallways, very impressed how the servants were swiftly dodging a toddler that didn't even come up to their hips. Ever since she had first mustered enough strength in her tiny legs to stand up, which was apparently earlier than most children, Liu Xin couldn't be stopped. If the adults around her weren't paying attention for even a moment, she was gone, always looking to train her body and muscles. She had had enough of just being carried around.

The first way she memorized and her favorite place to go to was the training ground. The disciples mostly didn't pay her any attention as long as she stayed on the sidelines and she spent whole afternoons just studying their movements and trying to copy them.

When her father realized how mesmerized his daughter was by the training, he lectured her on the importance of the correct execution and the inner balance of her energies. Liu Juan had just laughed at him, telling him their 'little flower' was way too young to understand anything of what he was saying. If only she had known.

Right now, Liu Xin was originally trying to go to the training grounds as usual, but all the hubbub and the long legs blocking her view, she ended up taking at least one wrong turn. The farther she went, the quieter her surroundings became and the less people she met.

She was lost.

Liu Xin felt fear settle somewhere in her chest. She contributed that to her toddler side and tried to suppress the feeling and shove it somewhere into the back of her head.

Liu Xin stopped when she heard a deep voice coming muffled through a door. Opening it, she found a classroom, with a teacher walking in the front, reciting from a scroll and a group of disciples sitting in rows taking notes. The disciples all looked on the older side and the lecture seemed to be about some kind of hunt.

Carefully Liu Xin crept through the door and plopped herself down next to the nearest table to look at the notes the disciple was taking while also continuing to listen to the man at the front. The student, who's table she was sitting at, widened his eyes in surprise as his eyes landed on a chubby little hand trying to grab at one of his brushes. Liu Xin quickly raised her tiny index finger to her lips and smiled at him.

At first no one noticed the toddler among them but when the teacher looked up from his scroll to observe his students, he did a double take. Then he cleared his throat.

"Hao Chen, it seems you have company. Care to elaborate why you didn't call attention to the intruder?" the teacher demanded with authority in his voice, although the corners of his lips were curved slightly upwards.

"In-...in-...in?" Liu Xin struggled with the word 'intruder' and just pointed at herself, pouting at the teacher.

She heard a few quiet coos from the students.

"This one apologizes to Lao shi," Hao Chen stood up and bowed to the elder. Liu Xin didn't want him to apologize for going along with her whims but she could only make some displeased sounds with some 'no's' mixed in. She righted herself with the help of the low table and attempted a bow of her own but her balance wasn't the greatest yet, being only one year old, and she would have tumbled forwards, if Hao Chen hadn't held onto her.

The teacher gave a quiet chuckle before bending closer to her level.

"What is your name, little one?"

"A-Xin!" the toddler beamed at him, her eyes squinting from smiling.

"Well A-Xin, you are way too young for this lecture. You haven't even got a golden core yet. If you want to learn so badly, you should start with developing your own energy," he explained.

"Co-...core?" her head tilted to the side like a puppy as she looked up at him with avid attention.

The teacher simply nodded, "A golden core. Every disciple has one. I heard from students and teachers alike that the little girl of Liu Lijun often watches the training of disciples. If you want to know more, A-Xin, you should ask your father."

Liu Xin jotted that suggestion down in her mind. She wondered how she was going to communicate such an abstract concept to her father with the few words she had already mastered. Maybe it would be enough if she remembered the word 'core'.

Deciding she had disturbed the class enough, she gratefully nodded to the teacher and exited the classroom. She was sure she would find a way back to her room eventually. She could always follow the noise. After listening to a part of the lecture, she felt like going on her own little adventure. She apologized to her parents in her mind, knowing they would worry if she wasn't in her usual area, even if Koi Tower wasn't really dangerous. Then she marched off with determination in her steps.

Author Note:

English is not my first language so I would appreciate it if you pointed any errors out to me. I'll try to correct it as soon as possible.

Just found an error with the name of the father of the OC. I forgot I had already named him. Oops. Well now it's correct