I –silently- cursed my lacking foresight when I tested the give of the Immortal Binding Cables, one eye on the crazy lady in front of me, that muttered and paced across the dilapidated shack I was held in.

Do you know what you need to access Qiankun-bags?
You need Qi.
Do you know what restricts Qi?
Immortal Binding Cables.
And who is tied up like a turkey for thanksgiving?
Yes, indeed, me.

I had been travelling with two Disciples to prepare them for Night-hunts, and just as we checked in at an Inn something big and heavy suddenly collided with my forehead, knocking me out.
I suspected the crazy women in front of me, who was so deeply in her delusions, that she hadn't even noticed my awakening.

She wore rich robes that had truly seen better days.
My sensing was cut off as well, but just judging from her flawless skin I'd say she was a Cultivator as well. Her hair was half falling out of her hair crown, giving her a deranged look.
It isn't helped by her muttering.
'Xiao Jiu, I will finally… revenge for my sweet, dear Brother… you will pay for what you did… should I burn Xiao Ming? No, that is not enough…'

From her mutterings, my Baba was somehow involved.

I didn't know how much time had passed.
What happened to Ding Meng and Bai Hu, the Disciples I took with me?
I hoped that the two got out unscathed and that they would think of alerting the Sect.
Baba would be worried regardless, since I didn't write in the Notebook to wish him a Good Night.

Could I depend on just waiting for Help to arrive?
It went against everything I believed in and I would never be this caught off guard again, but as long as I was well and alive at the end of it, did the Method of freeing me really matter?
I really didn't want to be reborn again.
There was a reason why I wanted to cultivate Immortality.

Thank god I had sealed my nails against wear and tear.
They wouldn't chip and they should be hard enough that I could slowly saw through the robes, one single one of them wasn't so thick.

However, the Crazy over there just got deeper and deeper in my possible mutilation, so I should probably distract her before she ripped out my eyes so I could, just like her brother, never see the future again (she was very explicit).
I liked my eyes just as they were, thank you.
I don't think I would make a very inspiring disabled person.
I'd have to decline.

My best bet was to stall.
And to ignore the way I was dressed down to my Underrobes and my aching skull.

'Eh… honoured Maiden, may this one enquire about his whereabouts?'
I interrupted her creepy mutterings.
She spun around, a crazy look in her wide eyes when she looked at me.

'Oh, you are just as much of a sweet talker like your father, aren't you?'
She patted my cheek, then suddenly gripped it and pulled it painfully, bending down so that I got a good smell of her bad Halitosis.
Nice.

'I will not again be fooled by you Shens!'
'This one never met you before, lady!' I said... though I doubted how clear it came across, one of my cheeks still clutched by the sharp nails of Crazy.

'Your father managed to fool me once, never again! He played at being a good, obedient slave, then burned down my House with my family inside! Then Lao Gongzhu promised me a trial, but no, before it can happen you locked him away! This time, you will not fool me!'

I only listened with half an ear.
I was too relieved that my cheek was released, as well as concentrated on sawing through the rope that bound me.
Still, I had to keep her talking.

'Baba was your slave?'
'Oh yes, you wouldn't have thought it of the high Shen Qingqiu, the immortal Scholar, would you? But yes, he was a Slave of the Qiu- Household. He was even chosen as my fiancé, we treated him that well! And how did he thank us?'

I doubted it.
No slave would be betrothed to the Young Miss of the House.
There was something more sinister behind the facade.
If I read things right, Miss Qiu in front of me had been pretty young back then, and as the Young Miss probably protected and spoiled.
There could have been Torture in the Room next to her and she wouldn't have noticed.

'So you are trying to get revenge for your family?' I asked.

'Yes! I will kill you, Shen Ming, in such a horrifying way so that Xiao Jiu feels what it is like to lose your family!'

I was nearly through the Immortal Cable.
Just a bit more time…
Many things happened at once.
The Qiu-Lady drew her Sword and advanced on me with an unsettling glint in her eyes.
The Immortal Cable Ropes gave away and in my hurry to get away, the Chair I was bound to tipped over, making the first slash of the Sword fail.
And one of the Walls busted into Debris from where Binghe entered forcefully like some sort of Action-Hero.

Both Binghe and the crazy Qiu (I still didn't get her whole name, rude much?) seemed surprised at the situation, which gave me the time to free myself from the Caple.

'Why did you take Shixiong away?!' Binghe demanded to know.
I… I was out of fucks to give.
I had Rope Rash on my hands and my Neck, I was tired, my head still pounded and all I wanted was to make sure that Ding-Shidi and Bai-Shimei were alright.
Too much of the Cable was still wound around me, but the part that I got free…

One quick lasso later I had immobilized Miss Qiu.

'Thanks for the Diversion, Shidi.'
I nodded to Binghe while freeing myself from the last of the Cable and winding it across my Captive.
One of my first targets were her Mouth: While it didn't stop her from cursing me and my father out, it did muffle it and stop me from understanding what she said.

Finished, I looked up and Binghe sharply looked away from us, red in the face.
Ah, I was in my Underrobes, right?
I easily pulled different robes from the seal on my arm.
I had had enough experience with Qiankun-bags to know how to ink the whole thing on my arm and I did it sometime during my last Seclusion, I think.
This way nothing catastrophic would happen when I lost my Qiankun-bags.

'You can turn around again. Do you have any Idea where my things are? And how did you even managed to find me, Binghe?'
'I… I don't know…?' He stammered.
I lifted an unimpressed Eyebrow.

'You don't know. Really? How did you find me then?'

He couldn't look at me. '… I… Ifedyoualittleofmyblood.'
He murmured the last part, studying his feet, but I heard him anyway.

'You… you fed me your blood. Of course you did.'
My fingers ran through my hair, still unbound and while I calmed down I summoned a hairband and bound it up again.

'After we interrogated Miss Qiu here us two will have a long discussion about consent and when it is alright to give someone your blood and when not.'

'But… you put the Monitoring- Talisman on me!' He exclaimed, his voice a little high.

'Yes, I did. And I asked for your consent beforehand and changed it when I got too much information of it.'

Luo Binghe blushed heavily at that, probably at what I caught him doing.
I also felt my Face heat up and was glad that I had already put on my veil again.

'Well, anyway.' I blustered to cut through the awkward atmosphere. 'How about interrogating this little Missus here?'
It was disgustingly easy to find out the truth from her with the Lie-Detector seal… or at least what she thought the truth was.

I silenced her and decided against knocking her out.
She needed to hear the following as well.
I turned towards Luo Binghe, who had had a disgusted look on his face before he saw me looking and wiped it blank.

I sighed.
Binghe had never been the best with the subtler Arts, preferring to be broad and loud and in your face.
And a girl crying she had been wronged?
He would rush to defend her even against imaginary enemies.
It could be a great strength, but more often than not it was a glaring weakness of his.
Just look at Bing-di and his Harem.

'You were a Servant for a while, another time on the streets. Have you ever heard of the Head of a rich house betrothing a lowly Slave with the Missus of the House?' I lifted an eyebrow, willing him to use his brain and think for once in his life.
I knew that he and Shizun weren't on the best of terms, but really?
Suspecting him of killing a whole family out of arrogance?

He grew appropriately shamefaced. 'No, that would never happen.'
I nodded.

'The truth is that Qiu Jianluo was a very, very sick Man. Qiu Haitang was coddled as a child, but the Servants noticed what went on behind the façade. Both the older and the younger Qiu had loved Qiu Haitang's departed Mother and when she matured into a similar beauty, they coveted her.'
I nodded at the sound of disgust of Binghe.
Qiu Haitang just shook her head, as if she didn't want to listen to lies.

I kneeled down, inside the truth-array.
'Qiu Jianluo tortured all of his servants. Have you never noticed the high turnover rate? That so many Servants were sent away? The Injuries? Did you not notice just how similar to you your Handmaidens and female Servants looked? Did you not notice how often they limped or couldn't quite sit?'
Her eyes widened when the Array stayed inactive.

'They dealt with Evil Cultivators. One of them, Wu Yanzi, burnt down Qiu Manor. Baba had carried you out of danger while you were passed out from Smoke-inhalation when Qiu Jianluo came across the two of you. Baba killed him out of Self-defence and Wu Yanzi, who saw it, kidnapped him as an apprentice.'

Silent tears flew down her cheeks but I could see her resignation, her anger, her grief.
She had accepted that I told the truth.
I gently took the Silence-Seal from her again.

'Are you okay, Qiu-Shijie?' I asked in a comforting tone.
I softly loosened the Cables and she threw herself on me, crying into my shoulder.
I looked, wide-eyed, at Binghe, who made a face.
I shrugged and held the distraught women until her sobs subsided.

I let Qiu Haitang go at the inn, when I found out that both of my Shidis are out of their minds in worry, but unharmed.
No need to hold a grudge.

'You have a mean swing, Qiu-Jiejie. I hope someone else is on the end of it next time, yeah?' I smiled at her, pat her on her back and then go up to sink into my bed.
I still had to go through the Night-hunt of my Shidis, had to lecture Luo Binghe on consent being important, especially once it got to blood and what Illnesses it could carry.

But first, I went the fuck to sleep, knowing that my headache should be healed by the time I woke again, now that I could assess my Cultivation again.

SM already knew the whole story from SQQ, but stalled QHT by pretending not to. But a lot of it is still logic!
This is another loose end tidied up.
Another Chapter! Did any of you notice the Modern Family Reference ;)
I am on the road of recovery, thanks to all the Well-Wishers!
However, I am still only updating when I have time and the energy, so probably no Chapter every day!