After receiving his instructions from Hall Master Bian Xing, Wu Ling left the Twilight Pavilion to find Yao Meifeng and Su Yao. On his way, he stopped by the Onyx Treasure Tower to pick up a few supplies for himself and gifts for both Su Yao and Yao Meifeng. Both women had settled into a spacious suite at the Jade Lantana hall that offered each of them a private bedroom along with a comfortably furnished common area, kitchen, and a balcony overlooking one of the many gardens around the building.
"Jun, um, that is, Senior Sister Wu," Yao Meifeng greeted when he arrived. "Did everything go well with the Hall Master? You look a bit pale," she said, reaching out to gently touch his brow. Not only was he pale, but Wu Ling's entire aura felt muddled and unstable, as though he'd been through some kind of great shock. At the same time, his aura felt… stronger?
"I'm fine," Wu Ling insisted, brushing off the doll-like musician's concerns. Things between himself and the Hall Master weren't simple and he didn't want to give Yao Meifeng the wrong impression of the sect just when she was starting to settle in. Once things had calmed down, he resolved to explain things to her in more detail, but for now, he turned the focus back to her. "How did things go for you? Did you find a suitable cultivation manual?"
"I did," Yao Meifeng said with a wide smile. She was perceptive enough to understand that Wu Ling might not be fine but if he wasn't comfortable talking about it then she wouldn't force things. "I actually found two manuals. The first one is the Requiem of Frozen Heart. Once I become an Understudy and reawaken I'll be able to cultivate its companion, the Requiem of Frozen Soul."
"Those sound like manuals that could affect your temperament," Wu Ling observed, his brows creasing slightly. "Are they really suited for you?"
"I think they offer me something I need," Yao Meifeng confessed as she stepped close and captured one of Wu Ling's hands. "I haven't been in control of my own life for my entire life. I've tried to make myself the perfect potential bride because my parents wanted me to. Then, when I finally woke up from the nightmare of obeying their wishes, I threw myself into a world where every day I had to find ways to keep food in my bowl and a roof over my head."
"I've been scrambling around without direction for a long time and it's left me scattered," she explained. "The Frozen Requiems are tools to bring serenity and stillness to myself even while I unleash storms and floods around me. I want that control of myself and of my own power."
"If that's the case then you have my support," Wu Ling said, smiling and giving her hand a reassuring squeeze. "Just don't let it completely freeze your heart. Your smile is too beautiful for your face to become a frozen mask," he added, lifting one hand to gently caress her cheek.
"I promise," Yao Meifeng said quietly, stepping even closer to Wu Ling and pressing her body against his. "I'll keep a bit of warmth inside. Just for the people I care about. Like you," she said, looking up at him through long fluttering lashes.
"Meifeng," Wu Ling said, gazing deep into her shimmering eyes as he brushed a strand of hair from her porcelain face. "You…"
"Sister Meifeng, I'm done setting up my room," Su Yao called, walking into the common room. "Did you still want to… Oh," she said, stopping immediately and turning bright red. "I'm sorry, I'm interrupting, I should, um," she rambled, flustered at the intimate moment she'd walked in on.
"It's okay," Wu Ling said, stepping away from Yao Meifeng to give her a moment to recover as she blushed furiously. "We were just talking about cultivation manuals. Did you have any trouble getting yours?"
"No, it's fine," Su Yao said, uncomfortably looking around the room, trying to find an excuse to look anywhere but at the blushing Yao Meifeng. "Um, why did your mother want me to learn this one?" she asked, hoping to at least divert the conversation.
"Because while curses sound dark and wicked, they can actually be a less destructive method of overcoming an enemy than alternatives," Wu Ling explained. "As an Aesthete, it's not like you can write out a person's tragic demise, but you can curse a guard to need to relieve themselves every few minutes. If it makes them abandon their post so you can sneak by, isn't that better than having to cut their throat?"
"Oh, I didn't think of it that way," Su Yao said, flushing slightly in embarrassment at Wu Ling's crude example. "When I thumbed through the manual, I thought that the simple curses were the kind of things a cruel elder sister would do to her younger sister in a revenge drama," she confessed with a giggle.
"Don't underestimate distractions and the power of curses," Wu Ling said, easily adopting the demeanor of a wise elder sister even though he was just repeating a lesson he'd recently received from his own mother.
"Between you and Sister Meifeng, I think you'll make a potent team. In fact, Hall Master asked me to take you under my wing come summer once you've had a chance to settle into the sect," he told them with a broad smile.
"Really?" Yao Meifeng asked, finally dispelling the blush from her cheeks. "The Hall Master is interested in us?"
"The Hall Master said that she sees talent like yours once every decade or so and that I should take good care of you both so you can achieve your full potential," Wu Ling said simply. "But she also said that you both need to spend the rest of spring and the beginning of summer learning how to be a member of the Bamboo Silk House, so the faster you learn things, the sooner I can take you out on an adventure."
"I thought we had time to settle our affairs outside of the sect before we needed to live here for a year," Su Yao said, worried that she wouldn't be able to say her goodbyes until this summer.
"You still have that time," Wu Ling reassured her. "Why don't we go tell your parents the good news now? Meifeng?" Wu Ling asked, turning back to the young musician. "Do you want to come with us or should I have your things brought here? I understand if you'd prefer to avoid your family."
"I think I'd like to stay here," Yao Meifeng said. "I'm going to visit the Onyx Treasure Tower to see if there's anything that will help me prepare for a breakthrough," she told her companions. "Florist Dongtian believes that I'm close to becoming a middle-stage Aesthete and that if I just spend a few days practicing the methods in the manual it'll straighten out my foundation enough that I can advance."
"I," she hesitated for a moment before being honest with her feelings. "I feel safe here. I know that's odd with how nervous I was. It's just that, after meeting everyone here and seeing how much the sect does to keep people away from the back of the sect, I feel like, I don't need to be on guard against my family coming to capture me home. It's been a long time since I felt so safe and secure," she explained."
"I don't want to step back out of the sect again until I can wield at least enough power to escape if they find me," she said. "At the very least, I want to learn my manual well enough to draw on its power."
"I think that's very wise," Wu Ling said, gently stroking Yao Meifeng's porcelain cheek. "I'll come visit you often then. We can play zither together in the gardens here just as well as in the gardens outside the sect. I think it's time to write the next verse of our duet," he added softly.
"I'd like that," she said, turning her eyes away from the warmth she saw in the depths of his silver eyes. "And I promise," she added softly. "I'll get strong enough to visit you soon."
"I brought something that may help you," Wu Ling said, bringing Yao Meifeng over to a table and pulling a long instrument case from his cosmos bag. "Open it," he said, giving her a gentle push toward the waiting instrument.
With trembling fingers, Yao Meifeng ran her fingers along the soft, supple, purple leather zither case before releasing the clasps and revealing the instrument within.
"This, this is one of the zithers from the Onyx Treasure Tower!" she exclaimed, staring numbly at the fine instrument made of opulent Lunar Purpleheart and set with ivory from a Frozen Sea Walrus. "This is a thousand contribution points! We could pay our rent for almost two years for what you paid for this. I can't," she started to say only to cut off when Wu Ling placed a finger across her lips.
"Meifeng, I want you to have this," Wu Ling said gently. "It's not like I haven't struggled to get by for the past few years, and I know you've struggled too. Now, both of our circumstances have changed drastically. My good fortune comes, in part, from you, so sharing some of the rewards I received back with you shouldn't be that unreasonable should it?"