Chapter 52: Old Father and Senior Brother
After shutting the door of the physical therapy centre and persuading Bai Yuexin, who insisted on staying for dinner, to leave, Ye Anping returned to his bedroom. He sat down with his abacus, counting the items he would give to his junior sister later.
Spiritual stones, elixirs, talismans, and the like…
When his junior sister and Feng Yudie left the Hundred Lotus Sect, he had prepared some for her in the storage bag, but two months had passed, and it should be sufficient by now. His junior sister was the type who wouldn’t say anything unless asked. Items like the Spirit Gathering Pill were essential for Qi refining, and each time he gave it to her, she would insist on making her own medicine from herbs in the mountains.
Even once, he forgot that her fire stones and water stones were depleted, and she chose to bathe in the lake near the sect to save spiritual stones.
Ye Anping was somewhat helpless about this, so he had to calculate everything to prevent her from resorting to such desperate measures to save spiritual stones.
After tallying the items, Ye Anping made a simple record. He moved a reclining chair to the backyard, crossed his legs, meditated, absorbed the essence of the sun and moon, and waited for his junior sister to arrive.
After an indeterminate amount of time, the sound of two footsteps suddenly reached his ears. Ye Anping perked up, listening to the footprints, estimating the weight and size of the person, and then relaxed a bit.
Next, two small hands covered his eyes.
“Senior brother, guess who I am?”
“Ah,” Ye Anping caught her hands, sighed in a somewhat helpless manner, and said, “Why do I have such a naive junior sister? You call me senior brother and still want me to guess.”
“Hehe…”
Pei Lianxue laughed innocently, then sat directly on the recliner, leaning on his shoulder, and asked, “Senior brother, how long have you been waiting for me?”
“Wait for you…”
Ye Anping hesitated, only now noticing the bright half-moon overhead. It turned out that he had been meditating for three hours. In a little while, it would be dawn.
After a pause, he replied, “Not long. I just closed the door to rest. Have you and Xiao Yunluo been wandering in the market until now?”
“No, we went back to Xuanxing Sect after dinner. I took a shower and changed clothes before coming back.”
With that, Pei Lianxue opened her hands and pounced on Ye Anping.
“Smell it? Does it smell good?”
“Sniff, sniff~” Ye Anping put his nose to the side of her neck and nodded, “Rose dew?”
Pei Lianxue blushed but didn’t hide. Absent-mindedly, she replied, “So it’s called rose dew? Senior Sister Xiao gave me a bottle and said to pour it into the bathtub. It smells good after washing, so I tried it.”
Ye Anping smiled wryly. Rose Dew was priced at five to six hundred spirit stones per bottle, considered a luxury item.
From the concentration of the fragrance he smelled, it seemed his junior sister had poured out at least half a bottle, making the room fragrant like a blooming pear tree. However, hearing Pei Lianxue’s words, he suddenly felt a bit nervous again.
This Xiao Yunluo lived a lavish lifestyle. Now that she had become friends with his junior sister, Ye Anping worried about the possibility of his junior sister being influenced by Xiao Yunluo’s extravagant ways in the future. How would he support her?
Transitioning from frugality to luxury was easy, but going from luxury to frugality was challenging!
However, seeing that his junior sister seemed happy, Ye Anping didn’t want to dampen her spirits. He hoped that she would be sensible and not turn into a spendthrift.
Later, Ye Anping stood up and said, “Sit down, let me check your feet.”
“Ah…”
“Coincidentally, let me see if you’ve been diligent in the past two months. Have you been practising swordsmanship and meditation regularly?”
“Of course.”
Ye Anping smiled and brought a wooden basin from the house, filled it with hot water, knelt beside the recliner, and lifted his junior sister’s feet, helping her remove her shoes and socks.
Just like in the past, after soaking her feet in hot water for a while, Ye Anping held up her feet with his palms and used his spiritual power to manipulate the meridians at the soles of her feet gently.
This method of clearing meridians was risky, similar to using a small knife to remove unnecessary blockages from the meridians. One slight mistake could lead to meridian damage.
But his junior sister had grown up under his care, and he knew the meridians in her feet well. After a while, he noticed that Pei Lianxue was tightly gripping her skirt and enduring the discomfort. To distract her, he asked, “Does it hurt?”
“I’m used to it. It’s okay.”
“Hold on a bit longer. It’ll be better soon.”
After about fifteen minutes of this treatment, Pei Lianxue’s forehead was covered in cold sweat. After Ye Anping released her feet, she let out a sigh of relief.
She sat on the recliner, crossed her hands, hugged her legs, and looked at her senior brother with a sweet smile. “Senior brother, how did you meet Senior Sister Bai before?”
Ye Anping poured the foot-soaking water under the willow tree in the backyard and replied, “She helped me review the shop’s application before.”
“Then what?”
“Then?” Ye Anping sat back next to Pei Lianxue. “After that, you and Feng Yudie beat her to the point of autism in the sword test. I comforted her, and we got to know each other. She comes over to help when she’s free.”
“So… You want to marry her?”
Ye Anping glanced at her, raised his eyebrows, and asked, “Why are you thinking so outside the box? How does this relate to marrying someone else?”
“Ah… that’s it…” Pei Lianxue looked away nervously. “A man and a widower stay together like this, isn’t it because they want to marry her?”
Ye Anping raised his eyebrows and asked, “Isn’t this quite normal? We didn’t get together every day before.”
“…”
What did this mean?
Pei Lianxue buried her face a little deeper into her thigh, hooked her index finger into her ear hair, and rubbed her two little feet together. She felt both reassured and uneasy…
She was relieved because it seemed that her senior brother wasn’t interested in Senior Sister Bai. But if his words meant that, did it also mean he wasn’t interested in her anymore?
After a brief moment of hesitation, Pei Lianxue gathered her courage and inquired, “So… you’re not interested in marriage?” — referring to herself.
“Of course, marriage is not on my agenda,” replied Ye Anping, speaking for Bai Yuexin.
“…”
Pei Lianxue was disheartened and lowered her gaze. As the sky darkened, Ye Anping decided it was time for Pei Lianxue to return. He returned to his room, packed the items he had previously arranged into a storage bag, and handed it to Pei Lianxue.
“Besides the daily pills you consume, there are also two thousand spirit stones in this bag.”
“Two… two thousand!” Pei Lianxue exclaimed, taking a peek inside the bag with astonishment.
“Yes, that’s your tuition. As an accompanying student in the Xuanxing Sect, you need to pay miscellaneous fees. After the sect selection results are out, submit the spirit stones to the main peak. Additionally, there are food expenses. Don’t worry too much, if you run out, come to me. Senior brother can support your cultivation in Xuanxing Sect.”
“So, won’t I end up owing senior brother a substantial amount again?”
“Don’t worry about owing anything. Senior brother is willing to provide.”
Ye Anping smiled helplessly, recalling the previous joke and realising she took it seriously. He quickly clarified, “When senior brother said you were spending his money, it was just a joke. I’m not petty. Just focus on your cultivation. That’s repayment enough.”
“Um.”
“Alright, it’s getting late. Head back to Xuanxing Sect. If the senior brother needs you, Senior Sister Bai will call you. I can’t enter the sect’s main gate.”
Pei Lianxue pouted, grabbed Ye Anping’s clothes, and said, “I want to spend more time with my senior brother. It’s been two months since I last saw you.”
“Fine, even though you’re almost an adult, why do you still enjoy acting cute?”
Ye Anping shook his head, sighed, and playfully tapped her head.
Pei Lianxue raised her cheeks, “Isn’t it allowed to be cute?”
“Sure, it’s allowed. Why would a senior brother stop his junior sister from being cute? Come on, I’ll take you to explore the market.”
…
