『Qi Bingwen returned to the sect just now! He happened to pass by the entrance and saw the two of you. He caught your conversation from when Qiao Qiao told you about lunch, he was about to leave but stayed when he heard Qiao Qiao complain about him. He's watching you from a hidden corner to your left.』
Lin Qiuyue acknowledged her system's words and quickly adjusted her expression.
It seemed her luck was still pretty good! The chance of encountering Qi Bingwen on weekdays with her identity as an outer servant was close to zero. Qi Bingwen was either out of the sect on business or locked up in his courtyard, practicing his martial arts. He rarely showed his face in the sect and instead delegated most of the management of the sect to his higher-ranking subordinates. Some major things would still have to go through him but Qi Bingwen truly wasn't interested in building an organization or gaining power, he was an authentic lowkey martial master.
She expected if it wasn't for the fact that he still had lingering grievances such as taking revenge on the Su Family, he would have disappeared from the jianghu long ago, wandering from place to place without a home. With such an untroubled personality, he was no villain, he had no grudge against the world. He didn't bring about strife and didn't harm the people, he was even willing to save small fries like Qiao Qiao. It only goes to show how good his attitude was. He shouldn't have high negative emotions for anyone in this world, but who asked her to be a daughter of the Su Family?
The one family that he had bone-deep hatred against, his hate was so ingrained that he still had an affection of -25 towards Su Liling, a nobody in his memories, who rarely met him and did no harm towards him, just because of her surname.
It was already generous enough that he didn't cut her down in one swing but now she still had to seduce him and successfully make him fall in love with the enemy. Wouldn't this make him feel so disgusted that he would end up chopping her either way?
Lin Qiuyue sighed in her heart, none of this was even Qi Bingwen's fault but she could only relieve the stuffiness in her heart by complaining from time to time. She felt a bit guilty, cursing him so often when it was her own task that forced them into this stalemate but it was only a few words, it wasn't as though lighting would strike him down just because she asked it to.
Either way, she still made a note in her heart to curse the main system more often instead. There was no way, in the whole of this world there were no other bodies available, no other body that the main system could have made a deal with.
She could only speculate in her heart since she had no proof but the main system was labeled with another title, "small-minded". She haggled with it a little bit and it was petty enough to retaliate against her with this task, she was going to show it. Nothing was impossible as long it was in her hands.
"Qiao Qiao, you're really brave!" Su Liling burst into charming laughter, her usual composed features were dyed with amusement and it was as though the whole person brighten completely. "You even dare insult the sect master, aren't you concerned he'll hear you?"
"Let him hear! I don't mind at all, if a martial artist does wrong, he should be able to admit it," Chun Qiaoqiao replied with no fear at all, instead she lifted her chest heroically.
"Qiao Qiao, you're my hero." Su Liling slowly calmed down but there were still hints of laughter in her voice. "But Qi Bingwen hasn't wronged me, this is my debt towards him as a person of the Su Fu. Back then, I should have done more to help him."
"Jiejie, how old were you back then? You are two years younger than our sect master, the most you could do was rush to reenact a scene of two children huddling together for warmth."
"I was still a young miss—"
"A young miss with no mother and a jianghu-engrossed older brother."
"Qiao Qiao, I didn't tell you my life story to have you pity me." Su Liling frowned slightly, her tone was full of reprimand that couldn't be maintained, in the end her tone became lighter and she let out a soft sigh.
Chun Qiaoqiao could see the brief melancholy in her jiejie's eyes, it lasted just as long as her faint sigh but since they were close to one another, she could see her every expression clearly. She knew talking about the Su Family must have made her jiejie sad. Her jiejie had told her a lot about her life in the Su Fu, many of the stories were lighthearted and warm but she knew that wasn't the complete reality. It was only a day ago that she had pressured Liling jiejie into telling her about the debt between the Su Family and their sect master.
Even though she was only an outer servant now, the sect was small and harmonious, such a big event where their usually lowkey sect master attacked an orthodox martial arts family was known by everyone. Only the finer details weren't told to nobodies like her.
Chun Qiaoqiao suspected that their sect master had some sort of grudge against the Su Family enough for him to want to wipe them out in a single night. So that night when they were waiting for their fellow sect members to return, she stayed up with the other outer servants in her dorm and came up with corresponding melodramatic theories; their sect master's family was killed by the Su Family so he came back for revenge, their sect master was the illegitimate child of the head and wanted to wash grievances after being throw out, their sect master was a mistreated member of the branch family who grew a force outside to usurp, the main family and so on.
The most unrealistic theory they could come up with was an ill-fated romance between their sect master and a Su young lady, he fell in love with a young miss of the family but because of their alliances orthodox and unorthodox, she rejected him coldly. However, this was all an act, she also loved their young sect master and wanted to be with him but couldn't give up her family, so she could only let him misunderstand her and end their relationship.
Their sect master was too heartbroken to realize such a fact and decided to attack her family, destroying the flower that he couldn't have but when he saw her again, how could he bear to kill his sweetheart? The young miss wanted to explain herself but now that he had become her enemy, she could no longer love him. Afterwards, their love-hate romance would span over several novels and end in one of them dying in the other's arms, only then could they admit their love.
From lovers to enemies to lovers again, such a dramatic story, she was only a listener but she could already feel her heart churning. Chun Qiaoqiao almost believed it but she knew better since the theory came from her friend, Luo Xiu whose brain was filled to the brim with little drama books. The other servants also knew better and quickly dismissed such a theory.
How could their peerless sect master get scorned by a woman? Their sect master was talented and handsome, which beauty of the unorthodox faction didn't want him? The house was so rowdy, did he need to go outside and get hooked by those hypocritical orthodox beauties? That was absurd—
So absurd that it turned out to be true?!
The next day, the sect woke up to their sect master carrying home a beauty—who was none other than a young lady of the Su Family!
Chun Qiaoqiao was speechless, her drama-diseased friend, Luo Xiu was even more speechless.
What happened afterward only further confirmed their suspicion, the young lady from the Su Family was made an outer servant which fit into the mold of a love-hate drama along the lines of, "if their sect master couldn't receive her love, he would let her suffer so she could see how good he was".
They truly felt as though their theory was true since it was unclear who started it but someone also relayed an extra order from their sect master to let the young lady suffer.
So everyone in their dorm readied themselves to play out the drama exactly how their sect master wanted, they bullied and mistreated the young lady while trying to hint at her to take their sect master back.
Chun Qiaoqiao wanted to go along with the fun since their sect was usually so quiet with rarely any excitement but when she met her Liling jiejie, she fell in love at first sight. Such a beautiful person possessing such a serene temperament, it made her relax her guard immediately and she couldn't bear to bully her at all!
She used to imagine what kind of big and small beauties she would rescue once she became a well-known martial artist but now all those beauties were replaced with her Liling jiejie, none of them were worth rescuing in her mind if they couldn't match her Liling jiejie. She only wanted to spare efforts for Liling jiejie but she didn't tell such embarrassing thoughts to her jiejie.
She tried telling the others in the dorm to go easier on her jiejie but they only looked at her with critical eyes, saying how she was too soft-hearted, how she was unreliable, how she was too easily influenced by beauty, how she had betrayed their grand plan, how they couldn't wait to see her compete with their sect master. After they said that last part, they didn't keep their contemptuous expression hidden.
Chun Qiaoqiao was made speechless, she wanted to beat up all these brain-diseased girls in her dorm! She wasn't seriously going to compete with their sect master for his lover, she might be ambitious but she didn't want to court death. They wanted to tie her up with the crime of taking the sect master's people, she wouldn't accept it!
And either way! She wanted to slap their face with the actual truth! This elaborate drama was all constructed in their minds!
What love-hate romance! What heart-rending entanglement!
Her jiejie wasn't in love with the sect master at all and their sect master wasn't interested in her either!
Instead, theirs was a story of a scum family harming the younger generation.
Her jiejie was a righteous beauty who sacrificed herself for her family because of her kindness, her story was heartfelt and profound, it wasn't as cheap as what their mouths were saying.
Chun Qiaoqiao couldn't stand the idiots in her dorms, they didn't even try looking outside, which other servants or higher-ranking subordinates believed in the same overdramatic play that they did. They all bullied Liling jiejie wholeheartedly and looked down on her without a single hint of helping their sect master rekindle love.
They were the only ones foolish enough to cling onto such a theory, their Liling jiejie must have been so confused the first few nights hearing them wax on and on about their sect master's good qualities. At least it didn't end up so bad, she was glad her jiejie ended up living in their dorm since they were one of the few servants that didn't have any prejudice against her.
The others were born in the unorthodox faction and had their own biases against anyone from the orthodox faction, they either thought she was hypocritical or spoiled, and none of them was willing to treat her well but in their dorm, they were all picked up from outside the jianghu so they didn't have any of those biases. Luo Xiu was from a small merchant family and the other two in their dorm were from small villages like her.
They had similar stories of entering the jianghu, accidentally meeting someone from the sect and being picked up. Chun Qiaoqiao was the luckiest one out of all of them since she had actually met the sect master back then.
They became friends quickly and when Liling jiejie joined their dorm, they didn't think she was bad at all and after messing around for a few days, they all grew to like her. Now they were her biggest defender, they tried to convince the other outer servants but it hadn't been very successful so far.
So they could only fall back on sneakily helping their jiejie whenever they can, Chun Qiaoqiao was the leader of their informal fan group. She was almost inescapable from her jiejie outside of servant duties and was always ready to defend her. She especially felt for her jiejie when she finally learned about her past in the Su Fu.
She couldn't help herself, just thinking about it made her upset.
"I can't help but feel indignant for you, Liling jiejie, how could your entire family be such scum! They're so quick to throw you to the wolves just to survive, they don't have a single bit of care toward their own kin!"
"Qiao Qiao, I chose this myself..." Su Liling said lightly, it was a little weak against Chun Qiaoqiao's passion.
"But they didn't even stop you from going to your ruin!"
"It's my—"
"Liling jiejie! If our sect master wasn't an upstanding martial artist with no desire for worldly pleasures, with your appearance and temperament, you would have been disgraced! Don't you hope to marry for love in this life? What do you think will happen once you return, will you get any respect for your sacrifice? No! They'll discard you as a used woman and ridicule you behind your back!" Chun Qiaoqiao's voice wasn't quiet, she soon attracted the attention of some passing servants but she ignored them all.
She had to get through to her jiejie, she couldn't let her get taken advantage of all her life. She kept her tone serious and her brows were furrowed as she clenched her fist upwards, "When someone steps into the martial arts world, they should always be ready for death, that is what it means to be a martial artist. If they were so afraid of death, they shouldn't have chosen this path. A true martial artist would have fought to the bitter end, standing for their ideals and protecting their own, no matter how powerful the enemy is. Especially in this case where everything was their fault!"
Lin Qiuyue was speechless, she almost broke character as she watched a spotlight shine over Qiao Qiao's head, her words were so heroic...so inspiring. Was this the true path of a martial artist, the start of a feminist idol?