Love & Redemption
Chapter 45 - 5 New Year (2)

Chapter 45: Chapter 5 New Year (2)

The first installment.

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"I often think of you guys," Xuanji said with a yawn, speaking softly. "The disciples’ rooms on Little Yang Peak are all so big and empty, sleeping alone in a large room, so quiet, without a sound. That’s when I always thought of you, wondering what you were doing."

In the darkness, Linglong quietly listened to her voice, and that feeling from the past vaguely returned. The girl opposite was still so soft and gentle, needing her protection, looking up to her for everything.

She gently grabbed Xuanji’s hand, pressed her forehead against hers like when they were children, closed her eyes, and whispered, "I also... often think of you. I was afraid you wouldn’t get used to it there, that someone might bully you... and I wasn’t by your side."

"Linglong..." Xuanji called her name. Suddenly, both of them laughed out loud, and the estrangement of four years seemed to be shattered in an instant.

"But now you clearly don’t need me to protect you anymore," Linglong said wistfully, "I haven’t seen you for four years, and it seems like you’ve learned everything, while I’m still the same as always, my Immortal Law half-baked, never making it past the first stage of the Yang Que Technique, even Xiao Liuzi has left me far behind."

Xuanji opened her eyes, staring at her for a while. Linglong felt uneasy under her gaze and pushed her, saying with pretend annoyance, "What are you looking at!"

She laughed heartily, turned over like a lazy big cat, limbs languidly stretching out, fair fingers rubbing her face twice, and said in a slow drawl, "Whether I’ve learned anything, I’m not sure, but I can see with my own eyes that you’ve turned into a great beauty."

Linglong’s face flushed, but she felt secretly pleased, coughed twice, and asked with feigned seriousness, "Me... become a great beauty? Have I changed a lot?"

"You’ve changed a lot," Xuanji suddenly sat up straight, reached out to touch her chin, and said roughly, "Babe, give me a smile for the boss!"

"Get lost!" Linglong rolled her eyes at her.

Leaning against each other, they felt only warmth and joy, as if returning to those carefree childhood days. One would make a mistake, the other would protect her, hiding quietly in the dark, holding hands tightly, neither wanting to leave the other.

Time flew, and before they knew it, New Year was upon them. The Shaoyang Sect, from disciples to masters, put aside their usual arduous cultivation and made celebrating the New Year the top priority. Different halls had their tasks, buying things, cleaning, making new clothes, everyone was bustling about joyfully.

The disciples of the Min Generation were no longer children and naturally could not slack off and play as before. Early in the morning, Zhong Minyan and the others were assigned to clean the mountain peak, Xuanji and Linglong were not idle either, their task was to go to the wine cellar, move out the Pear Blossom Wine that had been stored for a year, and prepare it for the kitchen.

Xuanji had always been prone to oversleep, something she never dared show blatantly on Shaoyang Peak, but on Little Yang Peak with no one to oversee her, she happily slept until the day turned dark. Now, back on Shaoyang Peak, where everyone rose with the rooster, she had no choice but to be dragged out of bed by Linglong and walk to the wine cellar, half asleep.

"Stop rubbing your eyes! They’re as red as a rabbit’s," Linglong said, pulling her hand away, "How come you still haven’t kicked this lazy habit after all these years! Wake up!"

Xuanji walked on groggily, her head dipping so low it almost hit the ground, nearly colliding with a wall.

"Look at you! No composure at all!"

Linglong straightened up again with the air of a big sister, preparing to scold her, but before she could speak, someone called from behind: "Senior Sister Linglong!"

Both turned around, only to see two or three 11 or 12-year-old kids running over. The one leading was a pretty girl with big eyes, full of vivacity, bearing a likeness to the younger Linglong.

"Oh, it’s Wen Ying! What’s up?"

Turns out these kids were the newly accepted Wen Generation disciples, all innocent and lovely. Because Linglong was the most vivacious and beautiful, and liked to act like the big sister, many little girls enjoyed playing with her, and they often came looking for her when they had free time.

The girl named Wen Ying was about to speak when she suddenly saw Xuanji next to her with a bewildered expression, and paused. Xuanji had been on Little Yang Peak for the past four years, so the new disciples of Shaoyang Peak didn’t recognize her.

Linglong hurriedly introduced her, "This is Senior Sister Xuanji, my younger sister. She’s been cultivating with Junior Master Chu on Little Yang Peak, and she’s back for the New Year."

The children promptly greeted her with respect, "Senior Sister Xuanji, we are pleased to meet you!"

Xuanji nodded absentmindedly, continuing to rub her eyes as she left. She was still not fully awake.

"What did you come to see me for? Did someone bully you?"

Linglong asked with an air of authority, thinking that once again some reckless boy must be bullying her junior sisters.

Wen Ying hastily shook her head, "No! Sister Linglong, isn’t the New Year fast approaching? We wanted to liven things up, and just so happens, Sister Wenyu mentioned that she had learned singing and dancing before, so we discussed putting on some singing and dancing performances for the New Year for everyone to enjoy."

Linglong’s eyes sparkled with excitement as she laughed, "What a great idea you girls have come up with! Nice! It does sound like a lot of fun!"

Wen Ying giggled, "So that’s why we need Sister’s help to convince Master... We’re afraid Master might not like it... he’s usually quite... what’s the word, stern and serious."

Linglong immediately patted her chest, "No problem, just leave it to me! You all go ahead and start practicing!"

Wen Ying, hearing this, joyfully said, "Thank you, Sister! It’s really just us kids fooling around; it wouldn’t be meaningful. It would be much more fun if the elder sisters and brothers prepared some entertainment too!"

Since Linglong loved the excitement, there was no way she wouldn’t join in. She agreed enthusiastically, "Absolutely, absolutely! I’ll ask Brother Zhong and the others later on, we’ll certainly not let you little ghosts outdo us!"

Those little ghosts chuckled a few times, chattering with her for a while before finally taking their leave.

Turning around to find Xuanji, Linglong was about to suggest they prepare some fun stuff for the New Year, but she found her leaning against a tree—fast asleep!

"You little ghost! Still the same as always!"

So Linglong spent the whole day going on about this.

After finally moving the wine and getting back to the courtyard, Xuanji complained of a sore back and a headache and said she was going to bed. The two of them bickered noisily as they pushed open the door, only to see He Danping sitting inside, her head bent over her stitching. On their arrival, she smiled and waved them over, "Come here quickly, both of you try on the new clothes."

She spread out the things she had been sewing; they turned out to be two new pieces of clothing, one water-green and the other pink.

Linglong hurried over, taking them into her hands and examining them from all angles, unable to put them down, she exclaimed, "These are the new style pomegranate skirts! Mom, did you make them?"

He Danping laughed, "I only know how to wield a sword, how could I make clothes? I bought the cloth and had the tailor from down the mountain make them. Seeing that the skirts were plain without any patterns, I decided to embroider some designs on them. Try them on and see if they fit."

Linglong immediately grabbed the pink one, saying, "My little sister never liked these dainty colors since she was young, give her the green one."

He Danping looked at her reproachfully, "Your sister hasn’t made her choice yet, how do you know she doesn’t like red?"

Xuanji quickly made her position clear, "I do like green, I’ll take the green one."

They both changed into their new clothes, and the fit was good indeed. However, the green one had a peony flower that was only half embroidered.

"Xuanji, you better take it off for now, I’ll finish embroidering the flower and give it to you tomorrow," Danping offered.

Seeing her daughter looking so elegant and beautiful in the new clothes made He Danping very happy.

Xuanji looked at her own attire and shook her head, "It’s not necessary, I can do the embroidery myself. The talisman isn’t drawn on yet either."

She then took off the garment and, taking up a needle and thread, began to embroider with great proficiency, nearly causing Linglong’s eyes to fall out in shock.

"Xuanji? Since when did you learn to embroider?" she asked incredulously. In her mind, her little sister was always a bit of a scatterbrain, even clumsy at walking!

"Oh, because Master said I was lazy and would definitely forget to paint talismans, he instructed me to make it a priority to embroider the talisman patterns on any new clothing I got. All these years, I’ve gotten used to it, and even Master praised my skills!"

Xuanji, proud to finally have something to boast about, quickly finished embroidering the peony flower, with remarkable delicacy.

Then she took out some dark silver thread, measured it up, and began to rapidly embroider the talisman from top to bottom.

Normally, they had only seen the exceptional swordplay, with flashes of the sword’s gleam, never such swift stitching. Xuanji’s hands seemed almost bewitched by an Immortal, astoundingly quick. Her slender fingers, like a pair of white butterflies, swiftly completed the whole talisman in less than the time it takes to burn two sticks of incense.

Xuanji heaved a sigh of relief, spread out the garment, and said with a smile, "Now it’s perfect."

Both of them were astonished.