We walk along a gravel path that takes us to a building sitting upon a smaller mountain next to a roaring waterfall. I gulp looking at the long staircase leading up to it and know it's better not be stubborn about wanting to climb it in my condition. One wrong step, and I'd crack my skull open on the steps. Which is why I decided to swallow my pride and let Wei Wuxian scoop me into his arms and carry me upstairs. I know better to just let people offer to help me until my injuries get better, even at the cost of my ego.
"Xian-gege, what is this place?" I ask him as he puts me back on the floor.
"This here is the library," He says with a smile as he slides the doors open "There's someone inside I want you to meet."
The scent of old books and paper fills my nose as we walk inside. The interior of the library gives off a quiet yet serene air to it. Wooden desks line the floor in a circular pattern with shelves that are stocked from floor to ceiling in wooden scrolls, paperback books, and manuscripts. I see Gusu sect members scurrying back and forth with books and scrolls in hand, but never running despite how much of a rush they're in. I make a mental note to start using this place for research in the near future. A young man that looks like he's in his twenties notices us and rushes over to us.
"Oh Senior Wei! I see you're back from your night hunt!" he says cheerfully. "What can I do for you? Are you looking for more research materials to use in making a new invention?"
"I'm not looking for research material," he says cheerfully. "I'm actually here to look for Suyin-jie today!"
The young man nods before scurrying off to the back of the library. Moments later, a dark haired woman with glasses and her hair up in a half braided bun comes out to greet us. Something I've noticed with almost all the disciples here in Gusu is that most of them (that weren't elderly at least) are extraordinarily beautiful, and this woman in front of us was no different. She had sharp, almond shaped golden eyes, an elegant and long face, and soft plump lips that curled into a smile upon greeting us.
"ACCESSING DATABASE. CHARACTER PROFILE FOUND. NAME: LAN FEN. COURTESY NAME: LAN SUYIN. AGE: CLASSIFIED. OCCUPATION: PART TIME LIBRARIAN AND PRIVATE TUTOR AT THE CLOUD RECESSES"
"Ahh Suyin-jie! Just the person I was looking for!" Wei Wuxian pipes up cheerfully. "I am in need of your services today!"
Suyin raises an eyebrow at him and crosses her arms in front of her chest.
"Oh?" she asks. "To what do I owe you my services for today?"
I feel Wei Wuxian gently pushing me forward by my shoulders. I watch as Suyin crouches down to meet my eyes, her gaze boring into me.
"Lan Zhan and I brought her home yesterday as our direct disciple. It'll be a while before she can join the other kids for formal lessons, so I need you to get her used to speaking Mandarin."
"Hmm… looks like you brought home quite the interesting looking kid here. What's your name little one?"
"L-Lihua ma'am."
"Lihua huh? That's a pretty name you've got there. Come with me to the back and we can test for how good your language skills are."
I follow her to the back of the library and we sit for a while. I try to remember all the things I was taught back at the inn. By the time I'm done, she sits there with a bemused smile on her face.
"Well, it's not perfect but, we'll work on it. There's always room for improvement."
We spend the rest of the morning working on my enunciation of words. I have a very noticeable and thick Cantonese accent when I speak, and it makes me cringe inwardly. And being from Canada too, it's tinged with a slight English accent. But as with learning any other language, you always have to start somewhere.
"Well, that's it for today; I'll see you tomorrow for another lesson then."
We leave the library and head to the dining hall where my stomach is growling noticeably. Something I've noticed with the food in the dining hall is that while it's decent and edible, it tastes very bland and medicinal. It's nothing like Lan Wangji's cooking at all. It's missing a certain something from it. I choke it all down politely so as not to offend anyone. I think there was a rule here about not being picky and wasting food. Though Wei Wuxian was trying to set a good example for me, he also didn't seem to like the food very much. Maybe this was why the Jingshi has a kitchenette installed into the side. After lunch, we make our way to a courtyard. There are dozens of novice Lan Clan disciples outside practicing how to ride swords. Though I've seen cultivators doing this the night I was rescued, I'm still in awe of how effortlessly they can ride these swords like it's nothing.
"Will I be able to do something as cool as this one day?" I ask Wei Wuxian with awe in my eyes.
"With a bit of practice you will," he says with a smile. "But first, let's wait until your injuries are healed before you attempt to ride a sword."
"SEE HOW THEY'RE RIDING THEIR SWORDS?" says Meng Yao. "I WANT YOU TO TAKE NOTE OF HOW THEY'RE DOING SO AND HOW NOT TO MAKE SOME OF THE SAME MISTAKES THEY'RE DOING."
Meng Yao spends a very long time critiquing and criticising each of the disciples riding skills, telling me about the proper ways to ride a sword, how to find your center of gravity, etc. I might not be able to remember some of these things later but for now, I try to gather as much information as I can. Some of the disciples have noticed us and have begun rushing over to where we are all yelling things like "Wei-Xianshang!" "Senior Wei!" or even "Wei-gege!". Wei Wuxian greets them all with enthusiasm, and some of the other disciples have begun pelting me with a myriad of questions that I can't seem to answer at once.
"Eh? Where are you from?" one girl asks
"Why is your hair so short? Did you do something bad?" a boy asks
"What's all those little dots you have on your face? You have so many of them!"
"Are you a boy or a girl?"
"How did you get hurt so badly? Can I touch your cane?"
I've forgotten how blunt and direct children could be. They all make me feel so nervous and self conscious that I want to run and hide right now. I'm not good with social interactions like this. They're like predators that have cornered a very delicious and vulnerable piece of prey.
"Guys! Would you stop crowding her? You're scaring her!"
I look up to see a girl with snow white hair tied into a thick braided ponytail step in front of me protectively, arms outstretched. Something about this seems all too familiar to me. The other disciples are backing away from me slowly, uttering apologies. She turns around to face me with a smile, and my blood runs cold.
She's a girl who looks around the same age as my current self, with a round face framed by short wavy chin length locks of hair. Her long and delicate silvery eyelashes make her startlingly beautiful and large deep blue eyes stand out against her pale and smooth skin. She almost looks more like a doll than a human being, and that scares me more than anything because she reminds me of someone I used to know back in my own world. The colour drains from my face and I feel myself shaking.
"No…" I murmur, wanting to put a hand over my mouth. "I-it can't be…"
"LIHUA, ARE YOU OKAY?" Asks Meng Yao.
It has been 5 long years since I've seen someone that beautiful again. To be able to hear her sweet and gentle laughter whenever someone told a joke, it seemed like a dream from so very long ago. I remember hot and humid summers where we'd catch frogs together in the creek or go window shopping in the streets of downtown Toronto, admiring the wares nosey shopkeepers would try to push onto us. I took her kindness and warmth for granted, and it led to me having one of the worst arguments of my life with her. The very last time I saw her, she was cold as ice, lying in a coffin surrounded by lilies, never to feel the sun on her face again or to feel a love that should have been. It made my heart ache so much that it was unbearable.
"Hey, what's wrong?" the silver haired girl asks as she reaches a hand out towards me. "Do you want me to get the teacher?"
I don't know when I had started crying, but all I knew was that all I could do whimper out was "No" over and over again as 5 years of loneliness and grief flowed out of me in the form of broken sobs and apologies for something I should have done years ago. My body shook as the memories began to flow out of me. It had taken me so long to repress all those sad and painful memories, and now like a Pandora's Box, all it took was one look for it to all come pouring back out. I remember feeling someone's strong yet gentle arms enveloping me into a warm embrace, as if to shield me from the sadness of this world.
"Shh…It's okay," Wei Wuxian says as he pulls me in tighter and begins to stroke my head. "They're not going to hurt you, they're your friends."
"Wei-Xianshang, did I do something bad?" the silver haired girl asks, looking like she's going to start crying as well. "D-did I scare her?"
Wei Wuxian turns around and gives her an apologetic smile as he gently pats her head.
"No Meiying, you did nothing wrong," He says as gently as he can. "She might just be feeling overwhelmed by everyone crowding her."
I see who I presume is this class's teacher rushing out to see what's going on. She has a panicked look on her face when she sees me crying and looks like she's about to start yelling at her little gathering of students.
"No stop!" Wei Wuxian yells as he places a hand on her shoulder. "They did nothing wrong! They just wanted to see how cute their newest classmate is going to be. Isn't that right Xiao-hua?"
I feel him quickly picking me up and bouncing me in his arms in an attempt to get me to stop crying. The movement makes my sobs slow down to a few hiccups and my breathing begins to go back to normal. I wipe the tears that are still running down my face with the back of my hand. I must look like a hot mess right now.
"Everyone, this is Lihua." He says addressing all the kids standing before him. "We found her two days while I was out with your shixiongs night hunting. She's a bit shy around people who she doesn't know very well, so please don't scare her too much."
He places me back on the ground as the disciples begin to apologize to me gently and introduce themselves to me one by one.
"LIHUA, YOU SEEM TO HAVE HAD A VERY STRONG REACTION TO THAT SILVER HAIRED GIRL EARLIER. WAS THERE ANYTHING WRONG WITH HER IN PARTICULAR?" Asks Meng Yao
"She…reminded me of a friend of mine that had passed away five years ago." I tell him telepathically. "Her name was Dana. She was one of my first friends I've ever had, and I still miss her every day."
"I'M… SORRY TO HEAR THAT." He says, his voice carrying a twinge of sadness in it.
"It's okay Meng Yao, I wasn't expecting to feel this way again after so long. I'd thought that I had locked away those feelings a long time ago, but even now I need to be reminded that I'm still a human being on the inside."
"Xiao-Hua, are you okay now?" Wei Wuxian asks me as he places a comforting hand on my shoulder.
"En! I'm fine now Xian-gege!" I say with a smile on my face, trying not to worry him again.
There's too many names for me to remember, but I do make a note to remember the name of that silver haired girl. Her name was Meiying huh? It was a nice name… We wave goodbye to that class of novice disciples and move onto our next location. Following the gravel path, we now found ourselves now in yet another courtyard. This time however, it was filled with junior and senior disciples sparring with each other. The sounds of combat and metal striking against metal rang through the air as we drew closer. Some of them were wearing the standard Gusu Lan robes, but others wore white robes with different crests embroidered onto the shoulders and back in different colours. They must be the cultivators from other sects that were studying abroad here.
"You're too stiff. Try to imagine yourself moving like water instead of just being a single solid mass."
I watch with curiosity as Lan Wangji is showing a nervous looking disciple the most efficient ways to weld a sword. The way he moved carried a certain fluid and powerful grace to it that was both captivating to watch and terrifying to be on the receiving end of. It was like watching someone doing a very deadly and dangerous dance, only this dance was what decided whether you were going to live another day, or die on the battlefield.
"A sword isn't just a weapon or a tool that you use to defend yourself; it's also an extension of your body. It's how and why we can channel spiritual energy through it."
"But Hanguang-jun! Isn't it just enough to use magic? Why should it matter how we use a sword?"
"Because you're going to eventually run out of spiritual energy during a night hunt or on the battlefield. And when you do run out of spiritual energy, you're good as dead. You only have one instant to make the first move in battle, so make every movement and strike count! A sword is only as good as the master welding it."
I sat on a nearby stone bench to watch these sparring matches while Meng Yao was critiquing each and every one of their forms. According to him, I wouldn't be able to weld a real sword even if my injuries healed until my current body was around the age of 11 or 12 years old. Until then, I would still be using wooden swords to practice. I cursed the fact that I might not even make it to the age of 11 or 12 with this current body of mine to be able to use an actual sword.
"Look Lihua!" Wei Wuxian says gesturing to them. "These are going to be your shixiongs and shijies! Aren't they cool?"
"Xian-gege, what are shixiongs and shijies?" I ask him.
"Think of them as being like your older brothers and sisters! They might not all be related to you by blood but, they're still your family regardless of that. Since they will be your older brothers and sisters, you'll be their shimei, or their little sister."
We continue to watch them spar well into the middle of the afternoon. Usually male and female disciples had separate sparring and combat training sessions, but sometimes there were days that scheduled co-ed sparring sessions to give the disciples a variety of different scenarios and opponents to fight. I guess today was just one of those days where I got to witness something good.
"Alright! That's it for combat training today! You are all dismissed!"
The disciples all saluted him before they dispersed in different directions. Wei Wuxian got up from where we were sitting and ran over to him excitedly. Some of the stragglers made some small talk with them before going off on their merry way.
"Well, look who it is." An amused familiar voice says. "I hear that our shy little flower managed to become a direct disciple of Hanguang-jun and Senior Wei! Looks like you'll be getting yourself a little sister after all Sizhui!"
I looked up to see Jingyi and Sizhui making their ways towards me with grins on their faces and baskets strapped to their backs. I hopped off the bench I was on and hobbled over to them.
"Jingyi-gege! Sizhui-gege!" I shouted happily.
They both responded by picking me up carefully and twirling me around in their arms a few times.
"Ahh, Xiao-hua! Nice to see you again!" says Sizhui as he put me back down on the ground. "Have you been behaving yourself for Hanguang-jun and Senior Wei?"
"Aiyah Sizhui, it's only been one day since she arrived here! She can't have caused that much trouble in that short of a time!" Jingyi jokingly groaned
"Well, you never know right?" Sizhui says with a chuckle.
"Sizhui-gege, do you doubt me?" I ask with mock hurt on my face. "I am CLEARLY a good girl."
"ARE YOU SURE ABOUT THAT?" Meng Yao asks sarcastically.
"Yes I'm sure of that." I quip back telepathically. "This is the face of a good girl."
"I know you are." Sizhui says fondly while ruffling my hair "Will this good girl then accompany us to go feed the rabbits today?"
"Do you even need to ask?" I say as we hobble over to where Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji are.
We leave the courtyard together and make our way to our next location. What it had in store for us, I didn't know, but whatever it did had, I hoped that I would be able to see something worthwhile.