Estrangement

Lu Yan was in a good mood. He had received his salary. Fu Feng personally delivered his stipend in a blue-grey storage bag, neatly stacked with spirit stones. He weighed it in his hand when he took it; it was heavier than he expected.

He sat for a while in the classroom on the bottom floor of the formation chamber, tied the mouth of the bag, then stood up, exited the chamber, and walked up the spiral staircase leading to the surface. The twilight of Everspring City poured in from the exit at the top of the stairs, bringing an orange-red, slightly warm light.

The teaching difficulty wasn't too great. Although the students below had poor foundations, most were willing to learn. The only problem was that the teaching progress was indeed a bit slow.

The entire month, he had only finished the first chapter—the basic concepts of formations, the composition of formation lines, and the paths for tracing spiritual energy. He picked up the textbook he had compiled himself, flipped through it, and sighed. It was a long road ahead.

The students' foundations weren't completely nonexistent, but they were practically nothing. He told them to draw formation lines, and one after another, they picked up calligraphy brushes and started painting. He watched them from the podium for a good while, so frustrated he almost made them snap their brushes.

Of course, he didn't actually make them snap them. Calligraphy brushes were quite expensive. His later approach was to have them put down their brushes and then use their fingers, dipped in spiritual energy, to draw on the desktop.

They could only use spiritual energy to directly touch the desktop. He told them that if they drew it wrong, they should erase it and start over; if they couldn't erase it, they should cover it with spiritual energy.

He began leading them, teaching them little by little how to use spiritual energy to outline a lasting mark, then how to transform marks and form formation lines, and finally how to connect the formation lines into a complete formation.

He crouched by the disciples' desks, checking each one's drawing. Light filtered down from the pipes in the ceiling of the formation chamber, spreading a faint golden halo at his feet.

When the student with the best grasp in the class finally managed to scrawl out a crooked Spirit-Gathering Formation, Lu Yan looked at the crooked formation and almost cried.

It was too difficult. He hadn't thought it was this hard when the old man taught him. He stood on the podium, watching the disciples look up, waiting for him to speak. He said, “Class is dismissed for today. We’ll continue practicing tomorrow.”

During the teaching, there were still a few troublemakers. Some questioned his Foundation Establishment cultivation, while others said formations were inferior to artifact refining. He smiled, wrote down their names, and sent them off to Fu Feng.

From then on, those few people never appeared in his classroom again.

Seriously, he was thirty years old. While still young in the cultivation world, back on Earth, he was old enough to be a father. Why would he bother showing off or face-slapping a few juniors?

What fun was there in bullying a few Foundation Establishment kids? Instead of getting angry with them, he might as well do something more interesting.

He knocked on Jiang Ci's door.

Jiang Ci opened her door, saw him standing there, and blinked. “Oh, you’re back?” Her voice carried a slight slowness, as if she had just been pulled from deep thought, not yet fully present before he knocked.

Lu Yan smiled. “Yes, I’m back.” He took out a bag of chestnuts. “Try some, see if Everspring Green City’s chestnuts are tastier than Black Mountain Fort’s.” Jiang Ci stepped aside halfway, letting Lu Yan in.

Lu Yan sat down at the tea table, tore open the chestnut bag, and took one out. Everspring Green City’s roasted chestnuts were a bit more expensive than Black Mountain Fort’s, but they were generous with sugar. The dark brown shells were coated in glistening syrup, reflecting faintly under the light.

The inside of the paper bag still showed damp marks from oil, and its edges were slightly soft because the chestnuts had been wrapped in the bag shortly after being taken out of the pot.

He peeled one, the shell cracking with a crisp sound. He thought, “Good thing I came back early; the freshly roasted chestnuts still have a crisp shell.” He looked down at the peeled chestnut kernel in his hand, not eating it immediately, but placing it on a small plate beside the paper bag.

Jiang Ci sat across from him, looking at the chestnuts on the table. She didn't reach out, nor did she look at the peeled kernel. She simply looked into Lu Yan's eyes and asked, “Is something wrong?”

Lu Yan's movement of tearing the paper bag stiffened. He put the bag down and said in as relaxed a tone as possible, “Nothing, I got my stipend. I saw someone selling chestnuts on the way back, so I bought some for you.”

He peeled another, revealing the tender yellow flesh inside, and pushed it onto the plate. “Try it, is it sweet?” Jiang Ci took the kernel and said, “Thank you.”

She put the chestnut flesh into her mouth, chewed twice, then swallowed. It was very sweet, but the sweetness seemed a bit cloying. It was the sweetness of sugar, artificially added, not the natural sweetness of the fruit itself. She remembered the chestnuts from Black Mountain Fort.

Those chestnuts had thicker shells and less syrup; after peeling, the flesh was drier, firm to the bite, and had a slightly toasted aroma.

This chestnut was softer, shinier, and sweeter, but she didn't think it tasted as good as the ones from Black Mountain Fort.

The two of them peeled chestnuts in silence. Lu Yan sat beside her.

He wasn't used to such a desolate atmosphere. Both of them were there, yet neither spoke. This feeling was more uncomfortable than being alone.

He tried to find a topic. “Um, I remember the first time I bought chestnuts; you didn’t know how to eat them back then and ate them with the shell, hehe…”

After he finished speaking, he realized this topic didn't improve the atmosphere either. And it hadn't even been that long, only a few months. After he spoke, the silence lasted even longer than before.

Jiang Ci swallowed the chestnut in her mouth and lowered her gaze. Her voice was very soft. “I’m sorry for troubling you…”

After that sentence fell, Lu Yan's hand, peeling a chestnut, froze in mid-air. He didn't mean it that way, but he couldn't bring himself to say anything.

Then, Jiang Ci took a folded piece of paper from her sleeve, unfolded it, placed it on the table, and pushed it towards Lu Yan.

Lu Yan looked down. It read: “Jiang Ci owes Lu Yan three thousand spirit stones, to be repaid in monthly installments of one hundred, based on her Dao Heart. Repayment shall commence immediately upon Jiang Ci finding employment outside.”

At the bottom, it was signed “Debtor: Jiang Ci,” with the creditor column left blank, awaiting someone's signature.

Jiang Ci’s voice was steadier than before. “In a few days, I’ll go look for work, to see if there’s anything I can do.”

Seeing Lu Yan’s silence, she added, “A Dao Heart Contract is already the highest level of contract apart from a Soul Contract.”

As for a higher-level Soul Contract, she wasn't ready for it. Nor did she intend to offer up her soul.

Lu Yan took the contract and looked at it for a long time. He looked at the words, at her signed name, and at the blank creditor column.

Then he stood up, walked to the candle holder, and brought a corner of the contract close to the flame.

The flame slowly crept up the edge of the paper, the charred marks gradually covering the words she had just written, starting from “Jiang Ci” and climbing upwards along the paper, a clear and irreversible path.

Jiang Ci was uncharacteristically anxious. “What are you doing?” She snatched the half-burnt contract back from Lu Yan’s hand and extinguished the flame. The paper’s edge was still smoking faintly, a corner already burnt away.

“Why burn it? Do you think it’s too little? I’ll add more…” Her voice suddenly trailed off halfway through her sentence; she noticed Lu Yan’s expression was growing increasingly grim.

Lu Yan interrupted her. “You don’t owe me anything. All of this was my choice, it has nothing to do with you.”

“No!” Jiang Ci shook her head. “I definitely have to pay you back. Wait, I’ll rewrite a new one…”

Lu Yan stood up. The stool beneath him made a soft clack. His voice was a bit lower than before. “As you wish.”

He took out the Blood-Vitality Pills and medicinal bath herbs he had bought from the elixir shop, placing them on the cabinet by the entrance. “Consider them found.” He pushed the door open and left.

Jiang Ci, holding the medicine, chased to the doorway. “Wait!” Lu Yan was already downstairs. She only saw his back.

That figure heard her voice and paused slightly. Then he continued walking down. No stopping, no lingering.

Jiang Ci stood at the doorway, clutching the half-burnt contract. Her name was still there, but the creditor column remained blank.

She looked down at the medicine packet in her hand, then up at the empty stairwell. She rubbed her slightly aching eyes. “Did I do something wrong…?”