[Umm, A-Mei? Are you sure you should be doing this? (;ŏ﹏ŏ)]
"Stop worrying so much, I'm only going over to see my new brothers. I used to be an only child, let me have this." She whispered under her breath as she crept down the halls. It was so early that the sun still had yet to rise. All the hallways were dark with the occasional faint ray of pre-dawn light.
[But Meng Xiāng had no interest in the training grounds at this time!! It would be totally out of character!! Which is the opposite of your quest!!
(*ﾟﾛﾟ)]
"Yes but I was locked up for the majority of yesterday and the day before, wouldn't Meng Xiāng be excited to see her Er-ge?" She mumbled back at the systems panicked spamming.
Meng Xiāng had two older brothers. Meng Weiyuan and Meng Yong. For an undisclosed reason Meng Xiāng didn't get along with her Da-ge. But it was said that before she left for YuHu she and her Er-ge were as thick as thieves.
[Uh, that's....true? But you could also just see him at breakfast!!]
She shook her head. She wanted to know the way to the training grounds as soon as possible, and she'd rather interact with her new brothers without the scrutiny of their parents. And the only place ahead was guaranteed to find both of them this early was at the training grounds.
[If A-Mei insists (;-_-)]
The system finally stopped spamming her with messages. It was a relief because now she could completely focus on making her way downstairs without being caught.
Meng Xiāng's room was on the sixth floor of the massive Libaogong. The training grounds were on the bottom floor, and outside on top of that.
She'd made it all the way down to the second floor with no issue when she heard shuffling. With a jerk she ducked behind the nearest vase. It only worked because she was once again a small child, and it was very dark outside still.
"Be quieter!" Someone hissed from not too far away. "Do you want the Madam to catch us?"
Meng Mei quickly thought that it was rather funny that they were more scared of Madam Meirong rather than her husband.
"Of course not, but you try lugging this thing around!" Another someone responded in the same kind of hissed whisper.
"Well that's why you're here. Now shut up! It's almost dawn, Zhu Huiqing will be making his rounds soon."
Zhu Huiqing? Wasn't that Libaogong's head of guards? What could they possibly be doing that they were concerned about Zhu Huiqing?
"You're the one who spoke first" the second voice mumbled petulantly.
After that they went silent and Meng Mei heard that same shuffling as before. She could recognize now that it wasn't simply someone walking, no it was somebody struggling under the weight of their cargo.
She waited until she could no longer hear anything before she reemerged from behind the vase. Lying there on the previously empty carpet runway was a sword tassel.
"Okay that's too coincidental, even for me. System!" She made sure to keep her voice as quiet as she could as she bent down to pick up the tassel. It was yellow and had a jade hoop at the top. It was terribly tacky looking.
[╮(. ❛ ᴗ ❛.)╭]
[A-Mei cannot currently access the information she wants. Come back after the tutorial quest!!]
She huffed. Of course this was another planned quest by the system. With an exasperated shake of her head she continued on downstairs, the tacky sword tassel tucked safely into her breast pocket.
The sun had just started to peak over the horizon when she made it to the ground floor. Sneaking out of Libaogong was another whole ordeal because every single door was absolutely massive and it definitely creaked.
When she was outside though finding the training grounds wasn't hard. She just followed the faint sounds of swords crossing.
The training grounds themself was enough to make her pause. They were hidden by a wall of bushes for privacy but like everything else at Libaogong the training grounds were ginormous.
Rows upon rows of practice swords and other various equipment lined the farthest wall. Cloth dummies were piled up in a corner. There were low tables for food and mediation.
But in the center of it all was a giant circular stone slab. It was laid flat on the ground and had etchings around the rim of it. In the center stood two clashing swordsmen. Meng Weiyuan and Meng Yong.
They hadn't noticed her approach so she took a few steps back before stumbling forward loudly. She heard the sword noises stop before one of her brothers called out.
"Who is it?"
She peaked around the corner of the bushes just enough to be visible.
"Um. Good morning." She grinned sheepishly. The shorter one a fluffy ponytail broke into a grin. He looked to be about thirteen. The boy across from him was about a head taller and had perfectly straight hair. That one looked closer to seventeen.
"Meimei! Come over here!" He laughed, dropping his sword.
"That's Yong right?" She asked as she ducked her head and started making her way over.
[Correct!! Meng Weiyuan is the taller one with straight hair]
Knowing that she quickened her pace. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Meng Weiyuan's face contract and he quickly turned away from her.
She reached Meng Yong and let out a squeak of surprise as he wrapped his arms around her and picked her up.
"Er-ge!" She squealed, placing her palms on his collar bone to balance herself.
"Ahh, sorry meimei." he grinned, "I was just excited to see you. I can't believe A-niang kept you in the library for a full day! Four meals without you sitting across from me trying to look all proper. It was terrible." He lamented, dramatically throwing his head back.
She had to hide a wince at that. She had indeed finished her transcriptions a little around lunch time but she'd made no effort to leave the library until Amah brought her dinner. She'd spent her afternoon reading as many cultivation manuals as she could. She had no grasp of even the core basics since she wasn't from this world.
And her impending time at YuHu loomed over her.
"Sorry Er-ge, I should've listened to A-niang and not gone out to play like that. Then I wouldn't have been put in the library." Meng Mei tried to sound remorseful. Without much of an idea of how Meng Xiāng was at this age she just acted how she thought an eight year old would. An eight year old with everything on their shoulders that is.
"No! You should be allowed to play. If I hadn't been in town I would've covered for you." His passion quickly turned into a grumble.
Meng Mei decided that he was now her favorite person. If he didn't believe an eight year old trying to go out and have fun was a bad thing then he was the best person she'd met so far (well, excluding Amah. That woman deserved everything)
"What? Did she catch you in the reeds again?" Meng Weiyuan snorted from behind them.
Meng Mei felt her spine stiffen. Along she had no problem with him Meng Xiāng did. And she had to respect that.
With a huff she turned away from him and just didn't respond. There was a derisive laugh from behind her.
"Of course. What did I expect." he mumbled before audibly turning on his heels "Well that marks the end of this morning's practice. I'm going to get ready for breakfast."
And with that he stomped off.
Meng Mei snuck a peak at Meng Yong and found him looking after their older brother with a conflicted look on his face. He caught her looking and gave her a weak smile.
"He means well meimei. It hurts his feelings that you won't talk to him anymore but neither of us can make you. And I understand why you don't."
She quickly latched onto the opportunity to get more information.
"Do you?" She asked skeptically.
"Of course. It must've been hard to suddenly become engaged and the Libaogong heir after what happened. While Yuan-ge regrets forcing it on you but we can't change it."
That...that explained so much. So something happened that made Meng Weiyuan's position of sect heir be renounced and passed onto his little sister. But why her?
The answer came to her in a flash.
Because they wanted to keep the deal with the YuHu sect. Zhong Changming had an older sister, Zhong Qingling, who was definitely around Meng Weiyuan's age. They were engaged and then something happened and Meng Yong wasn't eligible to marry Zhong Qingling.
But with Zhong Changming he didn't have to be. They just passed on all of Meng Weiyuan's obligations to his child sister. And all of Zhong Qingling's obligations to Zhong Changming.
'Man I wouldn't talk to Weiyuan after that either' Meng Mei thought. Sect heir was a tough job and it'd been passed onto a child without warning.
All of that also answers why she hasn't met Zhong Changming yet. If this was a new engagement then there would've been no time for the two of them to meet.
The entire time Meng Mei was connecting these dots Meng Yong was carrying her back to her room. They were on the third floor before she even realized that they had moved.
"Er-ge, put me down! I can walk!" She finally protested.
"Nope! Because soon you'll be too tall for me to do this." He just tightened his grip on her to stop her from wriggling out.
"Regardless it'll be quicker if I carry you. You still need to get ready for breakfast."
She made a noise of acknowledgement and just settled down in his arms.
It was a good thing that their father was out of town on a political meeting with the YuHu sect lord. She really didn't want to meet any new people today after her mess of a morning. Their father wasn't estimated to be back before the tutorial quest was over with either so that means she wouldn't have to put all of her effort into convincing him.
At this point she just wanted to throw out all her plans and run away with Lai Huang. They'd live in the mountains or something and just avoid the plot of Seasons of Sorrow all together.
...she wouldn't though. That'd be extremely dumb.
God these remaining days couldn't go any quicker could they?
[New Tutorial Quest: Take Over The Role
• Description: Meng Mei must successfully convince Meng Xiāng's family that nothing has changed.
• Duration: 5 day(s) 1 hour(s) 14 minute(s)
• Upon completion Meng Mei will be able to find out the whereabouts of Lai Huang
• Failure to convince Meng Xiāng's family will result in Meng Mei's death and the passing on of her role.]