Suisui tilted its head, suddenly kneeling down in imitation of its master. Its skeletal claws carefully held the tea Xiao Yan had just brewed for it, creating a somewhat comical sight.
A bamboo leaf spiraled down, landing softly in the tea.
Xiao Yan suddenly dropped to one knee, bringing his eyes level with his kneeling disciple. This movement caused his robes to spread out across the bluestone floor like a suddenly blooming green lotus.
"I, Xiao Yan, take you as my disciple today." He accepted the tea cup, his fingertip tracing a strange rune along the rim. "With my honorific title, Qingming, as witness, I shall pass everything I know to you, and we shall not fail each other in life or death."
The moment he finished the tea, the jade cup transformed into a beam of light that sank into the space between Li Nanzhu's brows. Startled, she touched her forehead, only to feel a faint warmth.
"A sect mark." Xiao Yan finally regained some of his usual playfulness and flicked her forehead. "Now, if you try to sneak snacks in the middle of the night, your master will find out."
Suisui tugged urgently at Li Nanzhu's sleeve, its skeletal claw pointing at its own skull.
"You have one too." Xiao Yan conjured a miniature teacup and shoved it toward the skeleton; the previous cup had been too large for it. "Drink this cup of spiritual dew, and from now on, you'll be the gate-keeping skeleton of our Qingming Cave Dwelling."
The little skeleton’s frame rattled with excitement as it held the teacup like a peerless treasure.
Li Nanzhu was about to stand up when Xiao Yan suddenly pressed a hand onto her shoulder.
He pulled out a green jade comb from nowhere and skillfully began to tidy the strands of hair that had fallen loose when she bowed.
"Since we have performed the ancient rites, there must be a proper return gift." Tiny sparks of spiritual light followed the jade comb as it moved through her hair. "This Qingming Seal can block three fatal strikes."
Li Nanzhu was momentarily dazed, remembering how her eldest senior brother used to comb her hair when she first joined the sect. She wondered how he was doing now.
In that moment of distraction, her hair was already styled. Li Nanzhu felt something heavy at the back of her head—it was a green jade hairpin. The head of the pin was carved into a lifelike sparrow, its eyes made of two tiny rubies.
"By the grandmaster's rules, the first disciple must use a sparrow-head hairpin." Xiao Yan stepped back two paces to inspect his work, then had Li Nanzhu stand and turn in a circle. His fingertip brushed the end of the pin, and the three small characters for 'Li Nanzhu' quietly emerged. "Though there are only three of us in this lineage... cough, two and a half?"
Suisui shook its pelvis in protest. Catching the movement, Xiao Yan casually pinned a hairclip onto its skull. "The gate-keeping skeleton uses this."
The little skeleton began to spin in excitement again, the tiny green sparrow on its hairclip fluttering its wings.
Li Nanzhu blinked, looking at Xiao Yan's extremely satisfied expression. She suddenly spoke up, "Master, you didn't carve this yourself, did you?"
"You finally noticed!" Xiao Yan's eyes lit up, then he lowered his voice in mock mystery. "This hairpin is your master's proudest lifelong work."
Li Nanzhu touched the hairpin suspiciously. The green jade was warm to the touch, and the rubies flickered with subtle light inside.
She noticed a nearly invisible hairline fracture inside one of the gems. Just as she was about to speak, Xiao Yan snapped his fan open, hiding half his face.
"That crack..." His voice came out muffled from behind the fan. "It was intentional."
Suisui clapped its skeletal claws with a 'ka-ka' sound, its soul fire flickering as if to express doubt.
"Really!" Xiao Yan fanned himself rapidly. "It's called... it's called..."
"The mark left by Master's shaking hand?" Li Nanzhu couldn't help but finish the sentence.
A frustrated sigh came from behind the fan. Xiao Yan finally lowered his guard, the sunlight casting a panicked shadow under his eyelashes. "...It’s been over a thousand years and it’s still like this. If I’d known, I would have learned more from that person back then, instead of being like this now..."
Li Nanzhu's hand paused.
She had thought this was just a hairpin her master had made on a whim, but she hadn't expected it to hold so much time.
Suisui curiously poked the end of the hairpin with its claw, causing the green jade to emit a gentle glow.
Li Nanzhu looked closer and realized that what she thought were decorative patterns on the body of the pin were actually countless tiny carvings.
Every single stroke was excessively neat, clearly the work of someone who had repeatedly carved their way through a thousand years of time.
"Back when my soul was first split..." Xiao Yan turned away at some point, his voice so soft it was as if he were talking to his thousand-year-old self. "My craftsmanship was indeed a bit poor."
A bamboo leaf swirled down between them.
Looking at the hairpin, Li Nanzhu realized that the sparrow's eyes reflected two people—one was her current self, and the other looked like the Xiao Yan from a thousand years ago.
"Master," she said softly, "I will make this hairpin famous throughout the world."
Xiao Yan's ears turned slightly red. He unconsciously stroked a mark on the frame of his fan—a scar left by his first attempt at carving. His voice was a bit muffled. "Just don't lose it."
Li Nanzhu looked at Xiao Yan, only to find him staring at the sky, his neck tensed in a stubborn line. The sunlight filtering through the bamboo cast mottled patterns across his face.
"Actually..." Xiao Yan spoke suddenly, his fingers still fiddling with his fan. "I originally wanted to carve a phoenix-head hairpin."
Before he could finish, Suisui gave a few 'ka-ka' cries and pulled a stained jade slip from behind the medicine gourd.
Xiao Yan suddenly realized something and shouted, "Wait! That's—"
Li Nanzhu had already taken the jade slip. On its weathered surface, a few lines of faded handwriting were still legible: ...Phoenix shape is too difficult to achieve, changed to a qingluan instead... wasted seven more materials... finally made it into a sparrow...
A tiny crying face was drawn at the edge of the slip. The ink had blurred, but the frustration felt at the time was still palpable.
"Master..." Li Nanzhu looked up, meeting Xiao Yan’s panicked, dodging gaze. He fanned himself so furiously that his bangs were blown upward.
"An accident! It was all an accident!" Xiao Yan snatched the jade slip and stuffed it back into his sleeve. "I must have put it in the wrong box back then..."
Suisui tilted its head and pulled a scrap of green jade from behind the gourd—it was covered in a dozen crudely carved bird heads, ranging from phoenixes to mountain chickens, none of them complete.
"Little bone!" A tiny crack appeared on one of the ribs of Xiao Yan's fan. "Why do you only pick those..."
Li Nanzhu took the scrap. Her fingertips brushed over the carvings of varying depths; the oldest marks were blurred, but she could still feel the trembling pressure of the carving knife.
She suddenly discovered a line of tiny characters at the very bottom: For my future disciple.
Sunlight filtered through the bamboo leaves, casting mottled light on the hairpin. The round little sparrow suddenly looked exceptionally vivid, and the crack in the ruby actually seemed like a deliberate pattern in the glow.
"The sparrow is good." She gently stroked the bird on the pin, her finger brushing over the crack. "It's much cuter than a phoenix."
Xiao Yan's expression instantly brightened. "Right? Your master thought so too!"
"The ruby is just a little crooked," Li Nanzhu added.
"How is it crooked!" Xiao Yan leaned in immediately. "Your master measured it three hundred and sixty-five times..." He stopped mid-sentence. Seeing Li Nanzhu holding back her laughter, he realized he had been baited and felt a surge of annoyance.
Suisui was already rattling with laughter, its soul fire jumping happily.
"Well then, you dare to tease your master now?"
Saying this, Xiao Yan produced a booklet from nowhere and shoved it at Li Nanzhu. "A very important rule of the sect regulations: Master's aesthetic sense is beyond question!"
Li Nanzhu looked down at the booklet, then at Xiao Yan, before opening it.
The first lines she saw were:
Rule 1: Master is always right.
Rule 2: If Master is wrong, refer to Rule 1.
Rule 3: Praise Master at least three times a day.
...
Suisui flipped to the last page and pointed at a line that was clearly a recent addition: Supplementary Clause—Disciples who say the sparrow-head hairpin is beautiful are exempt from copying the sect regulations.
Li Nanzhu gently closed the booklet, a smile playing on her lips. "Master, about this third rule..."
"What about it?" Xiao Yan looked at her warily, sensing she had nothing good to say.
"Praising Master three times a day..." She purposefully dragged out her words. "Why don't I praise you right now?"
Suisui immediately raised its skeletal claw in support.
Xiao Yan's ears turned red in an instant. He fanned himself rapidly. "N-nonsense! The sect regulations are not to be bargained with!" But he couldn't hide the upward curve of his lips.
Seeing this, Li Nanzhu laughed. "Master is the most handsome, elegant, and unrestrained genius in the world!"
"Say it a couple more times... wait!" Xiao Yan suddenly froze. Why did that sentence sound so familiar? That was the master-dismissal curse he had mentioned before!
"You little ungrateful brat!" Xiao Yan made a gesture as if to flick her forehead, but halfway through, he produced a stick of candied haws instead. "Watch how your master... scares you!"
Li Nanzhu was suddenly stunned.
For the first time since transmigrating, she felt a sense of pure joy—no urgency regarding the plot, no confusion about fate, just a boisterous master and a gluttonous little skeleton.
Sunlight spilled through the bamboo leaves onto the three of them. Even that slightly crooked sparrow-head hairpin felt exceptionally warm.
"Master." She took the candied haws, her eyes bright. "Can I keep praising you tomorrow?"
Xiao Yan's fan clattered to the ground. His ears were so red they looked like they might drip blood. "Isn't it written in the sect regulations!"
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