The tea leaf floated lazily on the boiling hot water on Zhi Ruo's hand. Oddly enough, despite the hot liquid on her cup, the heat did not touch her palm. Instead, the cup felt heavy and cool to touch. Her eyes hidden by the veil over her face roamed the room that she was currently sitting at. The voices of her grandfather was outside the sliding door near her.
She could faintly hear him talking to someone.
It has been quite some time that they have arrived at the valley, the people serving under her grandfather— and now her. Took her belongings and went to put them somewhere. Inbetween admiring and speculating the weird architecture, and design of the Valley. She was pushed by her grandfather in this well furnished room.
She was then given a cup of tea she had not taken a sip with, and snacks which she did not even took a bite at. As her grandfather had uttered that he needed to make sure her stay would be welcomed.
Zhi Ruo felt her heart warm at the thoughtfulness that her grandfather had showed her, but the lack of phones in this world was concerning her. She has not been given books to read from, and no games to play on. She has been stuck on this room for five minutes without her Grandfather. Which was far to long in her liking.
But Zhi Ruo bit her lip and placed her hand gently around her cup, she needs to act daintly around these parts; her mind had supplied her.
Lest only gods know what would happen if she acted like a hooligan. It was something that Zhi Ruo wasn't used to, but nothing she could not handle. She was just an impatient woman that's all, after all— time is gold and hers is diamonds.
So she sat attentive to her surroundings, idly noting how the room was situated on a cliff, and how she can feel the breeze rattling the wooden frame. She looked at how the ornaments in the room felt a little off, until she could confidently say that those were exposed to the Qi too much that it absorbed it. She noted every crack of light that seeped through the sliding paper door. And how those created a serenity that only those who are attentive could notice.
A few minutes passed by and the tea had turned cold, and the cookies on the table laid forgotten.
It was then the door outside opened, and her grandfather stepped in. Behind him were two people, a male and a female. Zhi Ruo was instantly curious, her eyes that was lazily examining the room snapped in attention.
The man clearly have the upbringing of someone who has a high status, from the way his eyes leveled at Zhi Ruo's figure to how he stood evenly with his back rod straight. Even the way his eyes glinted in intelligence was a big tattle tale that she was being pried upon.
The man had his long hair, in a loose braid. His eyes was piercing as he was studying Zhi Ruo. The way his whole being came together as a domineering cultivator, alleviated that, he too, in fact, is handsome. In a way that you can tell he is the type of 'handsome' that people would deem as cool and refreshing.
The woman, whose hair was up in a pony tail also struck to Zhi Ruo as someone who was pretty. Having the similar aura of the man beside her, impenetrable, charming, elegant— it's the eyes she tells you.
The woman was also looking at her, Zhi Ruo wasn't an idiot not to realize the fact that they were judging her. And from the way how the woman raised her nose a little higher, and how the man had turned his gaze away. It was apparent that she did not fit the criteria of whatever they had on her.
Well, forgive her for transmigrating on a body that had just died. She's sorry for coming back up from the mouth of death.
Patriarch Ye chuckled at the terse silence around the room. "Zhi Ruo, this is your senior sister and brother. They will be showing you around the Sighted Valley." Patriarch Ye introduced. "This is Ye Qing Qing your senior sister," Zhi Ruo's grandfather motioned, and the woman stepped up and bowed.
"Greetings Junior Zhi Ruo." She was crisp with her greetings, as she was crisp with her bow.
"Greetings Senior Qing." Zhi Ruo also stood up and accepted the bow, and she herself also copied Ye Qing Qing's movements. Zhi Ruo did not bother addressing the woman informally.
"This is your senior brother Ye Kohaku." Patriarch Ye then motioned to the man beside him. Like Ye Qing Qing, Ye Kohaku also bowed and greeted Zhi Ruo.
Although Zhi Ruo was skeptical about his name, she, likewise greeted her senior. This time, Qing Qing and Kohaku finally met Zhi Ruo formally.
Their initial impression of Zhi Ruo was that she was frail and weak. Not in a sense of a maiden in her boudoir. But in a sense that she was about to topple over and die. Kohaku had long lost interest the moment Zhi Ruo let him scan over her visage. If not for the fact that he could faintly feel the foundation of cultivation within this new Xiaojie of theirs. Then he might've thought that their patriarch had brought home a beggar.
Qing Qing on the other hand, did not put Zhi Ruo in her eyes. To her, she was only her Xiaojie by name. She would treat her like one, but she would never go for another mile for her. The weak front that Zhi Ruo had showed did not stirr anything in her conscience.
"Regretful," was what Zhi Ruo uttered the moment her grandfather had left the room with her senior brother and sister.
She watched unamused at how both senior's attentions was swept up by the tea on their hands and the food in front of them, instead of her, their main purpose in this room. She watched as both heads turned to look at her finally when they heard the word she uttered.
"What?" It was Qing Qing that had asked. Her hands pausing midway from grabbing a cookie. Her eyes narrowed in slits at the mere word that Zhi Ruo had spoken.
"This is regretful," Zhi Ruo had raised her boney hand, and pushed the tea kettle on their way along with her untouched tea cup. She did not elaborate more. She did not need to elaborate more.
"As far as I am concerned, the Patriarch asked us to accompany Junior Zhi Ruo until the Junior's room is finished." Kohaku took a sip from his tea. "What is their to be regretful about?" He asked.
"Both of your presence." Zhi Ruo answered.
The silence in the room was deafening, the moment Zhi Ruo answered. Her tone was bland as her appearance.
"Are you saying that you dislike our presence?" Qing Qing sipped her tea in her conclusion. "If so, Junior Zhi Ruo does not need to fret. We don't like yours either." her eyes shifted to Zhi Ruo's face in a passive agressive movement. She doesn't look like that she was angry, but it sure as hell doesn't look like she likes Zhi Ruo.
Qing Qing harrumphed inside her heart, not at all impressed at Zhi Ruo. But she doesn't take her words at heart, in fact, she doesn't take Zhi Ruo at all. Both her and Kohaku raised their uninterested eyes the moment Zhi Ruo waved her hand dismissively.
"Don't mistaken." Zhi Ruo rolled her eyes under her veil as she amended. "You both look like you don't even want to be here, so I felt that your presence around me is regretful." Zhi Ruo watched as Qing Qing and Kohaku look at her in hesitant consideration. "And I guess I stand correct, you don't like my presence either." Qing Qing stiffened at this remark.
Qing Qing originally said that she doesn't like Zhi Ruo's presence because she thought that Zhi Ruo was insulting her and Kohaku. She was never the one who backs off when she gets insulted. Hearing Zhi Ruo's remark, she really felt like she was the one insulting Zhi Ruo first and picking a fight.
"What do you mean by 'either'?" Kohaku spoke up, he glanced at Zhi Ruo with a gaze full of distrust.
"It means that you guys aren't the first one to dislike my presence." 'I also don't like your overbearing egos you know.' Zhi Ruo snorted as she hid that statement in her mind. "You guys won't be the last too, so I gave up caring." She shrugged offhandedly.
Seeing that Qing Qing was being silent, Kohaku drank his tea and spoke. "Well it doesn't matter if you like our presence or not, or if we have a dissatisfied opinion of you." He puts his cup on the table with an elegance akin to a bird landing. "But since you are Patriarch Ye's direct descendant, it would make you his heir, and thus the Xiaojie that we are tasked to serve under."
Zhi Ruo clicked her tongue at his pretenses, although she knew his words held true it doesn't mean she likes it either way. "Not under, but upon." She briefly corrected. She paused before continuing. "Then since you are tasked in taking care of me, may I know what the Ye clan is good at?" Zhi Ruo asked, if she was embarrassed on asking the question, then she didn't show it.
Qing Qing looked at Zhi Ruo dubiously, "As the Xiaojie of the Ye clan and Liu family, you should know what your family is good at and how formidable the Ye clan is. Why are you asking such a question?" Qing Qing could not stop her mouth on asking.
Zhi Ruo rapt on the table in a quick succession as she hummed. "I spent 9 months in my mother's womb, 7 years being isolated and 8 years being reduced like some lowlife. Forget even reading, I could not even get out or ask around the Liu Fu without being mocked and beaten to death." Zhi Ruo scoffed silently, letting her dainty words carry the heavy burden that she shouldered.
"If I did not die by them poisoning me, then I would've died in hunger." Zhi Ruo made sure to make her words sink in. 'its too late, because I already died anyways.' she sighed in her heart. "If not by hunger than by scheming." She continues, "And if not by scheming then by cold blood murder."
Zhi Ruo opened her hands towards the two people in front of her who were struck silent. "As you can see, I'm an illiterate girl who's only a Xiaojie by name." She lets her hands settle back to the sides of her cup. "The Xiaojie that is taken by her parents, because they were too— stupid, to take care of me." Zhi Ruo did not want to curse aloud.
"Does the Patriarch know about this?" Kohaku asked after a minute of silence. His eyes staring at Zhi Ruo's hidden face.
"I doubt that grandfather doesn't know..." Came in Zhi Ruo's reply. She did not try to trick herself that her Grandfather had remained unwholly ignorant towards her life at the Liu Fu. Her grandfather knows, not much, but he knows her situation.
Zhi Ruo stared unblinkingly at the people in front of her, as their expressions revealed a mixture of shock and disbelief. Before it morphed again to surprise then pity, to weary then awkwardness. And it stayed at awkwardness.
Zhi Ruo knows what she did, what she's doing, guilt tripping wasn't her forte. But her story in this life was just too much not to take advantage of. If it can make these two lofty seniors in front of her bend to her will then so be it.
"We apologize..." Qing Qing caughed lightly behind her fist. "If we have offended you somehow..." She continued. She did not try to make eye contact with Zhi Ruo this time around. Zhi Ruo felt that this senior sister of hers was quite adorable with how awkward she's taking the summary of her story.
Kohaku on the other hand only nodded resolutely at Qing Qing's words. Too lofty to apologize for his rudeness and weary actions towards Zhi Ruo. Though his expression had eased up a bit. But only a bit.
"The great Ye clan is enormous." Kohaku began, awkwardly explaining and feeling guilty at the same time. " This Valley is the nearest land that the Ye clan has that is near the Liu Fu. This Valley is but a branch of the true Ye clan's territory." He stood up before he opened his hands, and the ring on his finger glowed and three books appeared in his hands. The book puffed comically as it appeared and a layer of dust was blown off.
The dust settled far away from where Zhi Ruo was sitting since Kohaku stood up when he summoned the books. He sat down again and he slid the three books in front of Zhi Ruo. "These are mostly all of the public territories that the Ye clan has, and what they are known for." Kohaku watched as Zhi Ruo took the books from him, his handsome face suddenly scrunched in pain as Qing Qing elbowed him harshly.
A look of realization dawned upon him remembering that Zhi Ruo had said (lied) that she cannot read. But it was too late since Zhi Ruo already took the three books curiously. Upon noticing their reaction, Zhi Ruo smiled in her heart.
"Please do not worry, I'll keep these until I know how to read." She softly said.
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