"Ah... Wende is still awake. Miss Tingyun, you should go now..."
Stelle rubbed her bleary, sleepy eyes, her voice heavy with fatigue.
"Mm, thank you for letting me know, Benefactor Stelle. I shall go at once." Tingyun offered a poised smile, nodding her head in thanks.
"Mhm... I'm going to bed then..."
Stelle's head drooped, her words coming out listlessly.
"Indeed. Until tomorrow, Benefactor."
Watching Stelle descend the stairs to her own room, the smile on "Tingyun's" face instantly vanished. Her eyes, once the color of beautiful jade, shifted into a deeper, more sinister shade of purple.
Just as Stelle reached the bottom of the stairs, a strange figure walked past her.
Stelle's nose twitched. She caught a pleasant aroma, mixed with a faint scent of medicinal herbs... It felt familiar. Where had she smelled it before? And who was that? The innkeeper certainly didn't look like that...
Stelle's mind was a fog of drowsy thoughts. She opened her door, slipped inside, and closed it behind her. Cuddling up to the already sound-asleep March 7th, she slowly drifted into dreamland...
The "Bad Person's" brow furrowed. That girl from a moment ago... why was her entire being saturated with the aura of her disciple?
Could it be that her renegade disciple had grown up?
No, that wasn't the feeling she got. It was likely just a sign of a close bond...
The "Bad Person" cut off her line of thought. While she could control her Mara-Struck state, her mind would fall back into its grasp if her thoughts became too agitated or her obsessions grew too strong...
She walked to the third-floor landing and watched for a long while, but ultimately, she did not set foot upon the staircase that would lead to a reunion.
Now... was not the time.
So be it. It would be better to meet him when the moment was right. So many years had passed. The little doll she used to press into the bathtub and scrub down... surely he had grown up by now?
It seemed... she should stop thinking about it.
The "Bad Person" took a deep breath, forcibly halting the cascade of her thoughts. She couldn't dwell on it any longer. It was not yet time for her to make an appearance.
And so, she turned and walked back towards Luocha's bedroom.
The "Bad Person" suddenly snapped her head up as if she had sensed something. She darted into the third-floor corridor, a longsword that had materialized in her hand glowing with a soul-stirring silver light. Throughout this entire sequence of fluid movements, she did not make a single sound.
Staring down the empty corridor, the "Bad Person's" brows knitted together tightly. She was certain she had felt that presence... and moreover... Thɪs chapter is updatᴇd by 𝓷𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓵✶𝕗𝕚𝕣𝕖✶𝓷𝓮𝓽
Her gaze fell upon the door to Wende's room. She sheathed her sword and stood there, momentarily stunned.
Then, as if a thought struck her, she once again reined in the chaotic thoughts in her mind, controlled her steps, and slowly returned to Luocha's room, sealing herself within the coffin once more.
Wende emerged from his room. He thought he'd heard the voices of Tingyun and Stelle, along with some odd noises.
Nevermind, it's not important.
He quietly closed the door and made his way down to the inn's kitchen on the first floor. He kneaded the dough he had prepared earlier and placed it in the fridge; he still had to make breakfast for everyone in the morning...
"Mm... I feel a bit drained..."
Shaking his slightly dizzy head, he concluded that pulling an all-nighter to grind games with Stelle was a bad idea.
Dragging his weary body back to his room, Wende collapsed onto his bed and quickly fell into a deep sleep.
A golden radiance slowly rose from beneath Wende's bed, gradually condensing into a humanoid shape.
"Hooo... Sleep tight now~"
"Tingyun" gently blew a breath towards Wende. The golden radiance flowed into his body, invisibly weaving itself into the Yin and Yang energies within him.
"Tingyun" let out a soft, eerie laugh.
Wende clutched his lower back and sucked in a sharp breath. The Yin and Yang within him immediately began to circulate, repairing his slightly damaged body.
"Tsk, it seems I really can't stay up all night playing games. It's just too taxing on the body."
Feeling his body return to normal, Wende said with a great sigh. He couldn't be bothered with "Karma" at a time . What kind of karmic debt could he possibly incur from healing his own body?
Looking at his energetic reflection in the mirror, Wende nodded to himself. Very good, not a trace of an all-nighter!
After quickly washing up, he prepared breakfast for the group. He learned from the innkeeper that the itinerant merchant, Luocha, had checked out at the crack of dawn and had already departed.
During breakfast, Wende relayed this information. Aside from a slightly disappointed Sushang, everyone else seemed to have expected it.
"Aww... I wanted to hear more of his strange stories. If I listened to enough of them, do you think I could become a storyteller too?"
Sushang's attention wasn't on Luocha's unannounced departure at all, but rather on her reluctance to part with his tales of the bizarre.
"Ooh, were his stories really that interesting?" March asked, looking at Sushang with curiosity.
"March, curb your unnecessary curiosity," Dan Heng advised as he punctured the skin of a soup dumpling with his straw.
"Hmph! I'm just curious!" March made a face at Dan Heng. If she could suppress her own curiosity, would she still be the universe's number one Little March?!
"Uhm... actually, they weren't that good, I guess? They just sounded really sophisticated," Sushang said, carefully recalling Luocha's stories. Apart from not understanding them, everything else about them felt incredibly impressive!
"Mm. It's for the best that he's gone," Welt said, shaking his head as he drank the broth from his soup dumpling.
"Indeed..." Dan Heng nodded in agreement.
"It feels like a weight has been lifted from my chest."
"What are you guys talking about?" Sushang stared at the three men, completely baffled. Why couldn't she understand what they were saying?
"Er... here, try this soup dumpling! It's Wende's secret recipe Xiao Long Bao! Super delicious!" March immediately intervened, placing a dumpling in Sushang's bowl to distract her.
"Oooh! Wow! It looks amazing!" Poking the springy, bouncy soup dumpling with her chopsticks, Sushang's eyes were filled with pure innocence.
"Eheh, haha... As long as you like it," little March said, a bit awkwardly, while shooting a glare at the three unhelpful men.
"Mm, our March has become so sensible."
"She's really grown up."
"Hey! Is it really okay for you three to be like that?"
Stelle came down from the second floor, rubbing her eyes. Overcome with sleepiness, she slumped into a chair at the breakfast table.
"Just how late were you up last night? I tried calling you for five minutes straight this morning and couldn't get you to wake up!" March complained.
"Mmm... sorry..." Stelle mumbled deliriously. Ignoring the heat, she grabbed a soup dumpling and shoved it into her mouth.
"Om nom... chew chew chew..."
Wende stared in amazement as Stelle chewed on the freshly steamed Xiao Long Bao without any reaction. Could it be... that she had secretly trained up her resistance to the Fire element behind their backs?