He pushed the thoughts aside. And that's when he noticed Chóng Fēi more properly. His robes were back to the gorgeous look—all black with silver patterns of snakes.
His hair was half-dried but still tied in a way so it would dry up while he looked presentable. His steps were careful, as if his head was spinning harder than Lìngxiāo's—but he still wasn't going to let things slip away that easily.
It made Lìngxiāo both guilty for pulling this guy to the Mèi Xùe restaurant, and now he seemed like there were really big arrangements left already to work on.
Their gaze met for just a few seconds, but thoughts ran a thousand miles within it.
'Is he not too sick to be prepared this much? Is something really important arranged right down?'
'Or is it something Féng Xiānsheng should have attended, but since he is not here so..'
On the other hand, Chóng Fēi didn't wait longer. He walked down silently, heading somewhere.
Lìngxiāo tilted his head away from the man's shoulder, focusing on his words.
The man was one of them who were having those questionable gazes on them both because of the sickness and the way they were..always together.
Though it was just for the sake of professionalism!
He couldn't believe he was getting tangled into a matter he didn't like, and all he could do was keep that smile like nothing happened and ignore!
The man bowed lightly and said politely, "Fēi Gōngzǐ has invited you for a tea break at drawn after attending a meeting with him. He wishes you to attend it within fifteen minutes."
"Thank you for letting me know." Lìngxiāo nodded once with a faint bow, his smile also polite and respectful. But questions still lingered in his mind.
The meeting wasn't clear enough. It was surely something more important, so for clarity, he asked.
"But may I know if the meeting is..personal or with clan members before the tea break?" He asked.
But the man's words were a punch to his gut again.
"The meeting is first with the clan members and some other clan leaders of the town. Because today—the under-aged prisoners who have now turned eighteen would be chosen with justification—if they would really be executed or not..or later." The man explained casually.
Lìngxiāo paused a bit. The words felt like he was trying to swallow rocks.
This was the same underground prison he was saved from....
He felt his mouth getting bitter again. All those memories—even without actually living in the prison, it was still horrifying.
He didn't know if those kids had also fallen into the same case he had fallen into before..but still, children were symbols of innocence.
The next portrait of this world.
And they don't even properly justify it—they just show off here and there and then leave them to kill? Who knows how many of them had already died by now.
'Why am I even invited to watch and listen to this while Fēi Gōngzǐ should be aware that..I might not take his side..?'
Mō Qīn, who was invisible right now to this common disciple—stared at the man with a cracked-like-nut expression and looked at Lìngxiāo. "The fuck is he seriously looking more emotionless with this thing like the Gusu cultivators??"
Lìngxiāo felt his hatred boiling over by it. His smile darkened. It wasn't like he would take any dangerous type of revenge.
But the quiet, fair one.
If he stepped in there, perhaps all of those children would be told as innocent by him, and then released to return to their parents or just helped to settle in.
And this might even be something the clan wouldn't accept.
Then why did they even require him there if Chóng Fēi was already working on it? To make some more scenes here?
Perhaps yes.
Or maybe Chóng Fēi just didn't even know he wouldn't like it since they had never met before today—not as who they were.
'I do not wish to attend, Mō Qīn..' He said to Mō Qīn in his mind. 'I am not easy with this topic. Nor do I want to experience this same thing in a different way in the present.'
Mō Qīn tilted his head as if straightening his boneless back and answered aloud, which only Lìngxiāo could hear. "I really think the heir is clueless about any discomfort of yours here. He barely knows you. I think he is just following his zhù fù's orders."
Lìngxiāo shut his eyes and raised his eyebrows slowly in silent distress, looking at the disciple again, his tone silently apologizing. "Ignore it. I am unwell, you can see."
The man nodded once too. "Do you have anything else to know, Gōngzǐ?"
Before he could plan the next move, Mō Qīn muttered while pulling up a first layer of his skin by his mouth and putting them into the patch Lìngxiāo gave him. "Ask now then. Avoid it if you can. I see trouble here even while that bluff man is not present."
Lìngxiāo did as told—and he also thought. "Am I really demanded to be present there? Do I have any role to play?"
The man shook his head. "Xiānsheng ordered that the meeting would not be followed without your presence. Our Gōngzǐ has mainly invited you for the tea break, but the rest is already arranged by Xiānsheng."
Lìngxiāo was just left standing politely. He couldn't swallow things, nor could he throw them away.
Mō Qīn facepalmed with his tail. "He has set the discomfort before even letting the air breathe."
Now Lìngxiāo had no other choice but to agree.
So he bowed a little deeper, not from the heart at all this time, without greeting.
The man bowed back and then he left, and two more disciples came—whom that first one signaled by a turn of his head as a dry: quick.
Lìngxiāo's gaze fell over them.
'What are they carrying?'
He saw them carrying a deep-colored wooden box and handing it to him.
"Xiānsheng had set it before leaving. He wished you to attend the event in it." One of them said.
"He told us to hand you this at this time. Nor before nor after." Another added.
Lìngxiāo blinked over the box. The box was much larger. Heavy too when he took it.
Perhaps a heavy robe inside?
"This guy is..something." Mō Qīn sighed as his tail rolled over the cover of the box.
Lìngxiāo stayed silent a little, lost in thoughts though he kept the smile—weak and silently sick yet appreciating while staring at the box.
'Why is he now..being kind to me? To make me confused? Interesting.. I would not be misled because when confusion catches up..I move to both ships. And then when one ship is drowning, I shift to the other one.'
"First he was suspiciously bluffing but suppressing. And now as if he was any lost baby of him handing those." Mō Qīn commented on Lìngxiāo's thoughts a little half.
Lìngxiāo couldn't help but ask again. "Did Chóng Fēi Gōngzǐ know about today's event?"
"Indeed. The date was fixed three days ago, when you were still unknown of the temple. But he also kept the arrangement flexible with your presence. He handed us your outfit since..you might not have come with any kind of preparation." Another answered.
'Yet he did not bothered to let me know.'
And also Lìngxiāo, Lìngxiāo didn't know why this triggered a little ego in him while he tried to keep it low—being in a normal lifestyle was a way to do it.
But no matter what, males cannot easily digest the matter of not being enough.
'Calling me poor or something? Or is it really a formality? I really..do not have more than five robes with me..and the one that belonged to zhù fù which I have found..makes it six..'
But he calmed himself down as well.
'I am sick..so I might be overreacting. Perhaps he really did give it for the event since I personally..do not bother to waste money on those.'
"Alright. Thank you for this much arrangement for me. I will meet you downstairs." Lìngxiāo smiled a little wider as he went back inside his chamber.
With thousands of thoughts and emotions—which was the only fuel he had right now to keep going, while everything else felt dull.
**
Later, Lìngxiāo came out wearing the robe set he had received—which he still found unbelievable.
He walked towards the meeting room while feeling unknown and different in his own body.
He was a little used to red, but this deep one was totally out of his list. Nor one he would buy. Nor one he would carry. He even wondered why this looked more gorgeous than even what Chóng Fēi was wearing.
The robe color was something too gorgeous but cold and royal—the kind mostly crown princes wear.
Off-white with maroon and soft golden.
Otherworldly..