In the middle of winter, Bai Qingxue meditated in her quiet room as was her custom.
The Cold Iron Stone lay by her knee, its ghostly blue patterns glowing faintly in the dim light. The stone truly had a calming effect; as her spiritual power flowed slowly through her meridians, it felt steadier than usual, without a trace of restlessness.
Bai Qingxue closed her eyes, her breathing long and even. In the quiet room, there was only herself and the pale blue orb spinning slowly within her dantian.
Suddenly, there was a knock at the courtyard gate.
'Why has someone come again?' Bai Qingxue thought silently.
Stepping out of the quiet room, she found Lu Xueqing standing outside the gate.
Lu Xueqing was dressed in a frost-white Daoist robe with a sword hanging at her waist. Her hair was loosely pinned up with a wooden hairpin, and a few stray strands hung by her ears.
She was currently carrying a small bamboo basket. The basket was exquisitely woven and covered with a plain-colored cloth, hiding its contents.
“I was passing by your courtyard and decided to drop in,” Lu Xueqing said casually, though her gaze swept over the courtyard. “Is your injury healed?”
“Almost.” Bai Qingxue stepped aside to let her in.
Lu Xueqing walked into the courtyard and stood still, looking around. The blossoms of the old plum tree had all fallen, leaving the branches bare save for a few withered leaves swaying in the wind. The ground was covered with a layer of silver-white petal remains, now dry and curled, which crunched softly underfoot.
The door to the quiet room was half-open, revealing neatly folded bedding on the stone cot and an unlit lamp on the table.
“Your place is even more desolate than mine,” Lu Xueqing remarked.
Bai Qingxue did not respond.
Lu Xueqing didn't seem to mind. She placed the bamboo basket on the stone table under the old plum tree and pulled back the cloth. Inside were several bright red spirit fruits, their skins covered in a thin layer of mist as if they had just been picked from the orchard.
Beside the spirit fruits was a white porcelain bottle, its mouth sealed with red silk and labeled “Recovery Pill.”
“The spirit fruits were picked from the sect's orchard; they're good for recovery.” Lu Xueqing pointed at the porcelain bottle. “This bottle contains Recovery Pills. They're stronger than Qi Gathering Pills. Use them for your cultivation. Don't be stingy; I have more if you run out.”
Bai Qingxue looked at the bamboo basket, then at Lu Xueqing.
“Thank you, Senior Sister.”
Lu Xueqing waved her hand. “There's no need for such politeness between sect sisters.” She sat down on a stone stool and patted the one next to her. “Sit for a while? I’m not interrupting your cultivation, am I?”
Bai Qingxue sat down opposite her.
Lu Xueqing’s gaze lingered on her for a moment. Bai Qingxue’s complexion looked much better than it had during their last mission together. Although she was still pale, it wasn't the sickly pallor of injury, but the clear, translucent white characteristic of an ice spiritual root cultivator.
“How has your cultivation been these past few days?” Lu Xueqing asked.
“Very good.”
“That’s good. What are your plans for the near future?”
“Cultivate,” Bai Qingxue said.
Lu Xueqing waited for a couple of heartbeats, but seeing that the other girl had no intention of continuing, she asked again, “And besides cultivating?”
Bai Qingxue thought for a moment and answered seriously, “Cultivate.”
Lu Xueqing was stunned for a moment.
She looked at Bai Qingxue’s dead serious face and realized the girl wasn't joking.
This junior sister truly felt that “cultivation” was everything and that there was no need to think about anything else.
“Can’t you think about anything else?” Lu Xueqing couldn't help but laugh. She shook her head with a helpless tone.
Bai Qingxue glanced at her without speaking, but her expression clearly said, “What else is there to think about?”
Lu Xueqing sighed, but she wasn't annoyed.
She knew that Bai Qingxue was simply that kind of person.
“Fine, cultivate then,” Lu Xueqing said. “Just make sure to look after your health while you’re at it. Don't push yourself too hard. You’ve only just recovered from your last injury; don't go getting yourself hurt again.”
“Mm.”
The two sat together for a while longer.
Lu Xueqing asked about her progress at the cold pond, and Bai Qingxue answered casually. The conversation wasn't long, but Lu Xueqing showed no sign of wanting to leave, and Bai Qingxue didn't chase her away.
The wind in the courtyard was chilly, blowing down from the peak and carrying the scent of snow.
Lu Xueqing’s hair was tossed slightly by the wind. She reached out to tuck it back, her gaze falling on Bai Qingxue’s profile.
Bai Qingxue was looking into the distance, her thoughts unknown.
The winter sunlight fell upon her brow, making her cool eyes appear almost transparent. Bai Qingxue’s pupils were slightly lighter than a normal person's, looking like a frozen lake in winter under the light.
They were so clear they seemed to reflect one's very soul...
Looking at the girl before her, Lu Xueqing suddenly felt her throat go dry.
She immediately retracted her gaze and looked down at the tiny cracks on the stone table.
She thought of nothing.
She didn't dare let herself think anything.
After a moment of silence, Lu Xueqing stood up.
“I’ll be going now. Keep those things safe, and don't leave the spirit fruits for too long. It’s best to finish them in the next day or two.”
Bai Qingxue nodded and walked her to the courtyard gate.
After taking a few steps, Lu Xueqing suddenly turned back. “By the way, don't take what those people from Cangsong Peak said at the Affairs Hall to heart. People like that are everywhere. The mouths are on their bodies; let them say whatever they want.”
“I didn't take it to heart,” Bai Qingxue said.
Lu Xueqing looked at her. That face was as cool as ever, and she truly didn't look like she cared. Lu Xueqing smiled. “That’s good then.”
With that, she turned and left.
Bai Qingxue closed the gate, returned to the stone table, and tucked the spirit fruits and pills from the bamboo basket into her storage bag.
The spirit fruits were a vibrant red and carried a faint fragrance. Bai Qingxue picked one up and took a bite; the juice was clear and sweet.
After finishing the fruit, she wiped her hands. She didn't return to the quiet room immediately but sat under the old plum tree, staring blankly at the bare branches for a while.
Memories of her past life were already very faint, but she still remembered that back then, no one had ever given her anything, nor had she felt the need for it.
Since coming to this world, first it was Ye Qingyao, and then Lu Xueqing—someone was always pressing things into her hands. Snacks, spirit fruits, pills... although they weren't particularly precious, these people asked for nothing in return.
Bai Qingxue didn't quite understand this behavior, but she had no intention of looking into it deeply.
Ultimately, she attributed it to this face. She had looked at this original owner's face in the bronze mirror many times; with its painted features and pale eyes, it was indeed beautiful.
Beautiful people easily received kindness; this was likely just human nature.
Accepting this explanation, Bai Qingxue thought no more of it.
She rose and entered the quiet room, sitting cross-legged on the stone cot. The Cold Iron Stone was placed by her knee, its ghostly blue light flickering slightly in the dim room.
...
Lu Xueqing walked down the stone steps at a moderate pace.
Only after she was well away from Bai Qingxue’s courtyard did she slow down and look back. The gate was tightly shut, and the bare branches of the old plum tree reached over the wall, swaying gently in the wind.
“Cultivate,” she whispered, repeating Bai Qingxue’s words. She shook her head with a trace of a helpless smile.
This junior sister truly had nothing but cultivation in her eyes.
Lu Xueqing continued downward. Lingering snow hung on the withered branches flanking the stone steps; as the mountain wind blew past, fine ice crystals rustled down.
Her boots clicked softly against the stone steps, echoing through the empty mountain path. There was no one around, only the sound of the wind and her own heartbeat.
When she reached the gate of her own courtyard, her footsteps faltered.
The way Bai Qingxue had looked when she said “Thank you, Senior Sister” suddenly surfaced in her mind. Her tone had been flat and her expression unchanged, but the words “Senior Sister” coming from her mouth had been cool and clear, like a winter breeze brushing past the ear.
She remembered Bai Qingxue standing at the courtyard gate to see her off, dressed in white with the sunlight falling on her shoulders, making those few strands of white hair look almost transparent.
Lu Xueqing stood at her own gate, dazed for a moment.
Then she pushed the door open and entered her courtyard.
She unbuckled the sword from her waist and hung it on the wall. She took off her outer robe and draped it over the back of a chair. Then she sat on her cot, but she didn't lie down immediately. Instead, she sat with her hands propped on her knees, staring at the floor.
The image of Bai Qingxue sitting opposite her replayed over and over in her mind.
The sunlight falling on Bai Qingxue’s face, her long eyelashes slightly lowered, casting a small shadow beneath her eyes.
When Bai Qingxue said “Cultivate,” her lips had moved slightly. Her voice hadn't been loud, but she had been so earnest, as if she truly believed it was the only important thing in the world.
Lu Xueqing suddenly felt her heart beating a little fast.
She pressed her hand to her chest to feel it; it was indeed faster than usual. It wasn't a violent pounding, but a faint, persistent tapping, as if something were gently knocking inside her chest.
She lay down and stared at the ceiling beams. The wood was old, with several tiny cracks running through it.
She had never noticed those cracks before.
“What are you thinking about?” Lu Xueqing whispered as if asking herself.
It wasn't as if she had never seen beautiful women before.
There were plenty of outstandingly beautiful female disciples in the Xuantian Sect. In the three years since she joined, she had seen at least eighty to a hundred senior and junior sisters.
Some were flamboyantly beautiful, some were gentle, and some were enchanting. But she had never felt anything special; at most, she would take an extra look or two and then forget them.
But Bai Qingxue was different.
She couldn't quite put her finger on what made her different.
If she had to say, Bai Qingxue was like an iceberg, standing far off in the distance, covered in ice and snow, radiating a biting chill.
No one could get close. But it was precisely because no one could get close that it made one want to try.
She wanted to see what lay beneath the iceberg.
Lu Xueqing rolled over and buried her face in her pillow.
“I just think Junior Sister is quite pretty,” she muttered to herself, her voice muffled by the pillow. “There’s nothing wrong with that, right?”
No one answered her. The room held only the sound of her own breathing and the occasional whistle of the wind outside the window.
She rolled back and stared at the ceiling. She suddenly remembered those pale eyes looking at her when Bai Qingxue saw her to the gate. There had been no particular expression, just that gaze, looking at her like she would anyone else.
But Lu Xueqing just felt that in that instant, something had changed.
She couldn't say what it was.
It wasn't a racing heart or a flushed face, but a very light sensation, like a feather landing on the surface of water.
It was as if the surface of the water had rippled once and then settled, yet that single ripple remained, slowly expanding outward in concentric circles.
Lu Xueqing stared at the cracks in the ceiling for a long time, then reached out and pulled the blanket up, covering half her face.
The blanket hadn't been used in a while; it had been folded in the corner and carried a faint scent of camphor.
Breathing in that scent, she closed her eyes.
Outside the window, the moonlight was cold. The night wind of Xueji Peak poured down from the summit, making the withered branches rustle. The sound was distant, like someone speaking from far away—unintelligible, yet continuous.
Lu Xueqing pulled the blanket a little higher, covering her ears.
The sound was still audible.
She didn't turn over again, nor did she think of anything else. She simply lay there, listening to the wind, and fell into a long-awaited sleep...
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