Eight Broken Strings

Chapter 2

Jin Ling was conflicted. On one hand he was staying in the Cloud Recesses for the next year.. on the other...... He wasn't allowed to bring Fairy with him.. wasn't there several dozen bunnies and a donkey in the cloud recesses?

It's not like he could decline the invitation either. Uncle Jiang went through a lot of effort to get him the invitation he didn't ask for. Uncle Wei has been writing to him nonstop about accepting the invitation. And Sizhui and Jingyi have been sending him letters of excitement for their year together. And who was he was ignore all those people.

"Young Mistress Jin Ling is here!"

"Jin Ling's here??"

"Finally! I was sure Sizhui and Jingyi's letters got delivered to the wrong person!"

Jin Ling seemed to have forgotten exactly how many Lan disciples he usually night hunted with. Now that he thought about it.. it's always him, Lan Sizhui, Lan Jingyi, Ouyang Zizhen and about a dozen Lan disciples he never bothered to learn the names of. That would certainly explain the crowd around him.

"Ah! A-Yuan! Wait up!" Jin Ling called out seeing the older boy, moving to chase after him.

"A-Yuan? Why is Young Master Jin calling Da Shixiong with such familiarity?"

"Tsk tsk Shidi Shidi, didn't you know? Da Shixiong and Young Master Jin are lovers. Have been for quite a while."

"They're cut-sleeves??" The disciple covered his mouth at the accidental raise in volume. Slowly he lowered his hands. "They're cut-sleeves.....?" He asked again.

"I had the same reaction as you. But Zewu-Jun said 'Love has no bounds'."

"If Zewu says so.."

-

"Rule 4126, Do not get near Wei Ying. That concludes the rules. Now onto today's lesson."

Jin Ling didn't see the point of being there. He already knew the fundamentals, was ahead of his peers and had a absurd amount of uncles to help if he needed it.

"Jin Rulan. Since you obviously believe you have better things to do than learn how about you tell the class what the Sun and Moon Flower Dew Seed is."

"What—" This is why you pay attention in class.

"Sizhui would you please help Young Master Jin." The head disciple stood up, his posture and mannerism mirroring his adoptive father almost exactly.

"The Sun and Moon Dew Flower Seed, otherwise known as the flesh seed, although not used commonly in cultivation if grown in a location with high spiritual energy and tended to meticulously it will grown a soulless human body." Sizhui answered.

"Very good, Young Master Jin I hope you wrote all that in your notes and didn't decide to slack off." Lan Qiren shot a glance at the rest of the class. "That goes for the rest of you all as well."

Immediately multiple of the teenagers rushed to write down what Sizhui had said, Jingyi and Jin Ling included. It's not commonly used in cultivation anyways, what was this going to be on a test—

"This will be the test at the end of this week. There has been one record of a case where a cultivator faked his death only to show up five years later in a body created by a Sun and Moon Dew Flower Seed.." Of course it was on a test—

-

"A-Yuan?" Jin Ling knocked on the door frame for the third time. "A-Yuan open up." Knock knock knock "A Yuan—"

"Jin Ling can you not knock and call so loud? I could hear it from my room five doors down." Jingyi walked over to Jin Ling clearly was in the process of getting ready for bed. His hair was down, his outer robes were sloppily tied and his forehead ribbon was nowhere to be seen,most likely on his nightstand.

"Well Lan Yuan isn't answering the door."

"Of course he isn't answering, Sizhui's not in his room. He went to the cold spring a few minutes ago— Hey! Where are you going?! Do you know what the cold spring is—?!"

And he was already gone.

-

The cold spring was.. well.. cold. Freezing even. But it was a medicinal and that's the important part. Sizhui had been on his way to Lanling when he ran into one of the assassins. Upon learning who he was to Jin Ling the two engaged in combat. The assassin was ultimately apprehended but Sizhui got a rather nasty gash from it.

Now for the past week he had been coming to the cold spring before bed. The injury was mostly healed up, aside from a light red line running down his left arm. Sizhui let out a sigh knowing his left arm will never be as strong as it was before. He turned his head at the sound of bushes moving. Someone was coming.

Summoning his sword to his hand Sizhui glared towards the source of the rustling. "Who's there?"

"A-Yuan? Jingyi said you were here— W-WHY ARE YOU ONLY WEARING PANTS—" His lips shut tight, like they've been glued together.

Sizhui sheathed his sword, getting out of the spring. "I was bathing, it's not like you haven't seen me in less." He put on his inner robes followed by outer. Only then did he take off the silencing charm. "No raising your voice in the Cloud Recesses."

"You bathe somewhere as open as this?? What if someone else walked in on you??"

"I don't usually bathe here. I've just bathed here for the past week for medicinal purposes."

"Medicinal purposes? You're hurt?! Let me see."

"It's not a big injury."

"Let. Me. See." With a defeated sigh Sizhui pulled up his sleeve. The scar was decently long, running from his wrist to the middle of his upper arm. It was likely to never truly fade and become a white line on his arm. Xian Gege has once said 'What's a man without a few scars' so he supposed he should take it like a badge of honor. "This is a sword wound! Who cut you?! I'll turn them into a human stick!"

"The offender has already been apprehended. It's not anything to dwell over." Sizhui attempted to wave off but Jin Ling wasn't having it.

"Who is it? They better be dead for having the guts to lay a hand on you."

"The assassin I apprehended about a week prior. They attacked me when they found out I'm someone important to you." A-Yuan got injured... because of him..

"I won't let you get injured because of me again. So you better not put yourself in the path of danger because of me either!"

"Mn I won't."

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And I opp, accidentally finished this chapter and the latest one shot in the same day(minutes apart). This is fine.