章 4: Newspaper
"Most of these clothes still have the price tag on!" Ye Qing was floored the moment he glimpsed into the wardrobe.
Rows of high-brand clothes illuminated by pale neon lights, and transparent compartments displaying high-end accessories from wristwatches, bracelets, rings, and necklaces of gold and silver. Despite his confusion while exploiting products of fashion he never knew existed, Ye Qing knew that wearing anything at all was better than standing there, naked.
A cursory glance highlighted the soft, white linen t-shirts, track pants, and sports shoes. Shuffling through the wardrobe, he decided to put on a fashionable set of Under-Armor boxers, pants, and shoes.
With a cotton tank top and a white linen t-shirt, and a few minutes spent on adjusting a hairstyle with unkempt black bangs obscuring his sky-blue eyes, Ye Qing felt like his charm was adequately offset.
If any random woman he met were to overreact like that little maid, his life would prove very difficult, especially with his not-so-remarkable social skills.
Knock! Knock!
Ye Qing had just finished underwhelming his appearance when a soft knocking interrupted his thoughts. In fact, Ye Qing was caught in the daze of his unanticipated transformation, a little skeptical about the whole ordeal.
"The door is open," Ye Qing replied lightly as he exited the wardrobe, though he left it open since he had no idea how to close it.
"What happened to Litte Ya?" The huge doors swung open as the gentle sunlight illuminated Madam Ye's body due to the skylight in the backdrop. Even now, she was wearing tight black jeans and a black windbreaker jacket, her ivory eyes somewhat dim in comparison with the halo of light all around her figure.
As her eyes rested on Ye Qing's body, she paused for a moment. "When did this happen?"
Confused, Madam Ye's hurried steps allowed her to skip from the door to Ye Qing's side with a hand resting on his left shoulder.
"I…" Ye Qing was about to try and explain, but a surge of indescribable warmth swept through his senses, causing him to blank out for a moment. Next thing he knew, Madam Ye was already walking outside and fading into the light, her words tingling next to his ears.
"I presume that the Gravekeeper Venerate imparted an internal energy sutra to you— that saves me the trouble of visiting that Old Nun; she's annoying. Let's go, don't waste the pure energy of the First Light."
Gravekeeper Venerate? Old Nun? First Light? Ye Qing stood there, dumbfounded. As for Madam Ye, the moment she perceived a sliver of internal energy inside Ye Qing, she forgot all about the odd behavior exhibited by Little Ya, the maid.
Confused as he was, Ye Qing knew he needed an instant of rest before playing Clash of Titans Online again, and so he silently followed Madam Ye outside the private villa.
…
"I know you're confused, but you might want to have a look at this first," Madam Ye stood elegantly by the side of a shallow pond. While looking into the water, she tossed a folded newspaper at Ye Qing who stepped out from the shade of a maple tree.
"What's this?"
Even as Ye Qing asked, he proceeded to unfold the newspaper— his body growing rigid upon reading the headline on the front page. Try as he might, his eyes inevitably reddened, sparkling tears like dew drops almost spilling from the rims of his eyes.
One deep breath later, Ye Qing closed his eyes tightly and proceeded to shred the newspaper apart without any hesitation.
"Alright then," Madam Ye didn't continue with the topic, pointing at a protruding rock by the side of the pond with her fair finger as she commanded. "Take a seat."
Ye Qing didn't mention the newspaper either, immediately clearing his head and resting in a lotus style by the edge of the pond, observing the movement of the fish inside.
Small fish ate the specks of bread, only to be eaten by larger fish. This pond depicted the cycle of life in modern society, the symbolism enthralling Ye Qing as he seamlessly lost himself in the process.
It's a wondrous sight that no matter how the fish moved underwater, the pond's surface had barely suffered any changes. Yet, a tiny piece of bread that landed in the pond, no matter how small, would send ripples of motion that wouldn't affect merely the surface.
It is that piece of bread that drew the little fish from their hiding— they surfaced despite the risks involved.
Some survived and some became the nutrients of yet a larger fish and the cycle continues. At the base of it all, it was the insignificant piece of bread that stirred the entire pond. And this pond, no matter how small, represented an entire world to those bound within.
In a moment of enlightenment, Ye Qing began to recite the unfamiliar sutra even as his eyelids felt as heavy as mountains. In moments, he sat there motionless, his breathing drawn out and erratic, slowly tapping into a stable rhythm.
"That was fast," Madam Ye muttered, shocked. Entering a state of focus to grasp a feel of internal energy meditation wasn't so simple… Even as she stimulated Ye Qing hypnotically with the pond as a medium for her energy, this was a remarkably smooth process.
"Phew…"
A stream of visible steam left Ye Qing's nostrils and mouth as he breathed out, his body immediately feeling light and invigorated, the brief headache from over-exerting his brain suddenly disappeared. He opened his eyes as they sparkled behind the curtain of his unfurled black hair.
"How do you feel?" Madam Ye asked, though her eyes were aimed at the sky. Ye Qing felt very good, but he was intrigued by her stare and followed it, only to be shocked.
"How long was I sleeping for?!"
The sun had somehow raced from the extreme east all the way past the midday point, almost scaling the sky from east to west, while Ye Qing foolishly thought he'd experienced a short nap of half an hour at best.
"Sleeping?" Madam Ye raised an eyebrow. "You weren't sleeping, child. Remember that sensation— keep it close to your heart; that's called cultivation. As you can tell, people who are cultivating can be pretty oblivious to the changes in the world all around them, so you better not go through with it unless you're being protected by someone."
Since Ye Qing's mind was still active due to the post-cultivation afteeffects, and with the purest energy of first light in his system, Madam Ye proceeded to explain a few key points to notice while cultivating.
Ye Qing didn't ask superfluous questions that would undermine the validity of these teachings, nor did he dare doubt the existence of martial artists— everything that transpired ever since he fell off that cliff screamed conviction into him.
If not for anything else, the sole fact of his survivability after the fearsome fall had already convinced him that this earth had more to offer.
"If you have any questions, you can tell me later," Madam Ye checked her wristwatch and sighed. "I planned to take you for registration in your new high school this morning, then we would have visited the South Side to get you familiar with how we do things— I didn't expect you'd meditate for ten hours."
Ye Qing was in a trance from eight in the morning all the way to six in the afternoon, bordering the evening.
"Does that mean I'm free for the rest of the day?" Ye Qing hurried to ask. "Wait! Did you just say South Side?!"
Madam Ye gave Ye Qing a calm look; she could guess what was on his mind.
What did the South Side stand for? It was a swarming nest of underground syndicates; kidnapping, sabotage, murder, illegal gambling… Whatever the law advocated, the South Side opposed it, and violently at that.
Ye Qing stared stupidly at this beautiful woman even as she graced him with a gentle smile and asked. "Have you ever killed anyone?"
Ye Qing's face went pale. Me? Murder? No way… Never!
"Haha," Madam Ye laughed at the expense of Ye Qing's nauseated expression, lightly tapping his cold cheek.
"You'll get used to it in no time… For now, you can go back to my younger brother's room to play— consider it your room from now on." Ye Qing's hair stood on end as he noted the promise of blood bubbling in Madam Ye's ivory eyes.
He knew deep down that she wasn't joking— she was a bonafide associate of a criminal organization, an organization he just stumbled into.
Ye Qing didn't even know how he made it back into the villa, the bedroom, and into the bathing chambers.
The next moment clarity came to mind, Ye Qing found himself standing by the porcelain sink, a reflection staring back into his eyes from a clear mirror.
"What have I gotten myself into?"
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