IVYSCP - Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Ling Qingyue's brow furrowed deeply. She was beginning to feel that Pei Si's constitution was far too frail. Earlier in the study she had fainted, and upon waking had vomited a large mouthful of blood, her face so pale it was frightening.

"Dr. He, how is she?"

Dr. He glanced at Pei Si, who sat cold-faced against the headboard, then glanced again at Ling Qingyue. She drew the girl outside the door and lowered her voice. "Your wife was overcome by a sudden surge of anger, which caused her to spit blood. Ah Xi, you and Miss Pei have only just married. She's new here, a stranger to these parts, and you mustn't bully her, do you understand? You must treat your wife with more tenderness and care."

Ling Qingyue's face flushed red. She had no idea how to explain, so she could only nod repeatedly. "Yes, I will."

Dr. He sighed, left the prescription, and prepared to leave. The town was desolate these days; everyone knew there was an evil spirit about. Dr. He had only been willing to come because her house was close to Ah Xi's, and besides, she had watched Ah Xi grow up.

Ling Qingyue saw the doctor to the door before returning to her own courtyard. When she entered the bedchamber, Pei Si was still sitting in the same posture, eyes cast low as if lost in thought.

Ling Qingyue's heart flooded with bitterness. She had never imagined that Pei Si loathed her to such a degree, enough to actually vomit blood and faint.

"You don't like her. We won't speak of her anymore."

Pei Si said nothing. She lifted the quilt, lay down, and turned her back to the outside of the bed. Her mind was filled entirely with those two lines.

"Pei Yin, huh."

"Ling Qingyue doesn't like her."

She knew Ling Qingyue didn't like her, but she had never imagined that even Ah Xi would know. When she'd asked Ah Xi, she had considered the possibility that Ah Xi might have no real impression of a person named "Pei Yin," that Ling Qingyue might never have mentioned her at all, never considered her a friend. She had never, in her wildest thoughts, expected an answer so bluntly clear.

So Ling Qingyue had mentioned her. Only it wasn't that she liked her. It was that she disliked her. Detested her. Just how deep did that loathing run, that she had to pour it out to someone else?

Within her sea of consciousness, a violent storm raged. Pei Si clenched her palms tightly and forced back the metallic sweetness rising again in her throat.

Ling Qingyue looked at her turned back, and her nose stung. "Rest for a while. I'll go to the pharmacy to get your medicine."

Once outside, the wind hit her, and the tears fell. Ling Qingyue raised her hand to wipe them away, but for a time she couldn't get them quite dry. She doesn't like you at all. Stop clinging and refusing to leave. Just go. If she finds out you're not Ah Xi, she'll dislike you even more.

A heart that had wavered for so long was now quietly steadying. She went to the pharmacy, retrieved the medicine according to the prescription, and on her way stopped at the wood-carving shop. Ling Qingyue absorbed all the spiritual qi remaining in those spirit stones, and her cultivation level successfully recovered to the ninth layer of Qi Condensation.

On the way back, she picked up two jars of wine. She first decocted Pei Si's medicine, and after watching her drink it and fall asleep, she took the wine to the woodshed. With no one beside her to talk to, Ling Qingyue drank mouthful after mouthful, her cheeks quickly flushing deep red.

Shangtianqiong Sect had strict proscriptions and forbade its cultivators to drink. Ling Qingyue had never really touched the stuff before, because her tolerance was abysmally low and she was a terrible drunk, prone to babbling nonsense once intoxicated. It turned out that Ah Xi's body had no tolerance either. She hadn't even finished half a jar before her head began to swim.

Ling Qingyue reasoned with her. "Ah Xi, I'll be leaving soon. I've been occupying your body these days. I will, in the future, I'll repay you. When I get back, I'll bring some good things for you and Pei Si. Tell me, what would you like?"

"I'm sorry, Ah Xi. I didn't mean to fall for her. You can curse me, you can give me a beating. It was me who broke the rules first. I never did anything too improper with her. Don't blame her. She doesn't know any of this. She likes you very much. She doesn't like me."

The corners of Ling Qingyue's eyes burned red. She tilted her head up, lashes wet, and murmured, "I'm leaving soon."

"Soon. I'll be gone."

She hadn't spoken a few sentences before quiet, choking sobs rose from the woodshed. After crying for a while, Ling Qingyue lifted her hand and wiped her face haphazardly. "I'm sorry. I'll go. I will definitely go."

She put down the wine jar, strode out the door, and ran all the way to the bedchamber. Standing before the door, her raised hand suddenly hesitated, rising and falling repeatedly, until finally she pushed it open. On the bed, the figure lay quietly. Her pale face looked almost fragile. Ling Qingyue walked to the bedside, her gaze lingering with longing and reluctance upon the woman's face. Whether from the wine fumes or the night wind, her eyes burned and swelled again.

"Pei Si…"

In the silent room, even a whisper was exceptionally clear. The woman's lashes stirred faintly, as if she had heard the soft call and was about to wake. Ling Qingyue immediately crouched down and covered her eyes, feeling the faint tickle of lashes brushing against her palm.

Pei Si was awake.

"Ah Xi?" Pei Si's nose twitched slightly. "Have you been drinking?"

Ling Qingyue made a nasal sound of assent. A cool hand grasped her wrist and tugged downward. Ling Qingyue used a little strength to keep that hand from pulling hers away.

"Crying?"

"Can I ask you a few questions?"

They both spoke at once. After a brief silence, Pei Si said gently, "Ask."

"Why do you dislike Ling Qingyue so much?" Dislike her to the point of vomiting blood and fainting over someone you've never even met, just from reading a few records. "Didn't we say we wouldn't speak of her anymore?"

Ling Qingyue lowered her eyes, the depths flooded with dejection. She stubbornly wanted an answer. "I want to know." This was the first time she had ever liked someone this much. Now that she was about to leave, she wanted to know why Pei Si disliked Ling Qingyue so intensely. The next time she came, she would be Ling Qingyue.

"What is she to you? Why do you know her so well, and why do you want so badly to know why I dislike her?" Pei Si wanted an answer too.

Ling Qingyue was dizzy from the wine, her emotions surging. The grief of parting, the unwillingness to leave her beloved, tangled and intertwined, kept her from noticing that Pei Si was also behaving far differently from usual.

"I'm sorry."

Ling Qingyue spoke the words quietly, then raised her hand and tapped a point on the side of Pei Si's neck, sending spiritual energy in to make her fall into a deep sleep.

Before she left, Ling Qingyue placed the spirit jade marrow at the head of the bed. This was something Pei Si had given to Ah Xi. She couldn't selfishly take it with her.

The door closed. On the bed, the figure opened her eyes.

Back in the woodshed, Ling Qingyue poured another two mouthfuls of wine down her throat, then brought out the wooden-carved body she had prepared. She sat cross-legged, stilled her heart and calmed her qi, circulating the spiritual energy within her body along her meridians, past the Seven Gates and Three Acupoints, finally gathering at the dantian three inches below her navel.

Her spiritual sense slowly detached. Ling Qingyue perceived the soul within her spiritual platform. When she saw clearly what the soul inside her spiritual platform looked like, her brow furrowed. Why had her soul changed? A cultivator's soul was usually a pure and flawless white. Only the souls of certain deviant cultivators and demonic cultivators were mottled and murky-gray. But now, her soul was a sinister, dark red.

Before Ling Qingyue could figure out the change in her soul, another matter appeared before her that left her even more shocked and bewildered. Within her spiritual platform, there was only her own soul. There was no longer the soul of anyone else.

Where is Ah Xi?

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