My Green Tea Junior Sister Smells So Good - Chapter 17

Du Yuanluo finished the sugar cake while sobbing.

Watching her eyes brimming with tears yet her mouth never stopping. Shen Qingyi thought she looked like a small beast with a crystal-clear soul. In her past life, the elders had said she was “pure and true,” and it seemed they weren’t wrong.

“Senior Sister, come back early.”

“Don’t get into any fights before I return.”

Du Yuanluo nodded obediently, watching Shen Qingyi vanish into the thick night.

Time on Cloud Hidden Peak flowed differently than in the mortal world, unless an accident occurred, a cultivation trial usually concluded quickly.

However, Shen Qingyi did not return until the following day.

She had sustained some injuries at the foot of the mountain. A cultivator’s coming of age ceremony is essentially a trial that exceeds their own current capabilities. Those who endure it break through their limits and become true cultivators, those who fail are many. People like Jiang Linchuan and Shen Qingyi were already considered elite among their peers.

Shen Qingyi’s injuries weren’t life threatening, but she chose to recuperate in the human realm until they were no longer visible before returning to Cloud Hidden Peak.

During her recovery, she wandered about and learned much of human customs, realizing for the first time how difficult life was for women in the mortal world. In her past life, she was an aloof immortal, the human realm was nothing more than a testing ground for her cultivation. In this life, it was as if she had been pulled into the rolling red dust by Du Yuanluo, witnessing a “Dao” she had never studied before.

Upon returning to Cloud Hidden Peak, she expected to see Du Yuanluo waiting to receive her.

Instead, the person waiting outside the mountain gate was the Third Junior Sister. The Cloud Hidden Sect did not typically practice the human etiquette of greeting and sending off travelers. Seeing the Third Junior Sister so suddenly, Shen Qingyi thought something had happened.

The Third Junior Sister held a white jade cup and smiled affectionately upon seeing Shen Qingyi.

“Second Senior Sister, you’re back? This is ‘Celestial Dew’ I brewed myself. It’s cool and refreshing. You’ve had a long journey, please, moisten your throat.”

Though Du Yuanluo wasn’t there, this behavior was clearly an imitation of her. The disciples of the Cloud Hidden Sect usually considered indulgence in food and drink a matter of shame, and the Third Junior Sister had never acted this way before.

Shen Qingyi did not take the cup. Although she was a role model for the disciples, her personality was straight and rigid while her juniors respected her, they rarely dared to get close.

Only the Third Junior Sister had been truly close to her but that was in her past life.

Shen Qingyi still remembered when Jiang Linchuan led the demonic sects to attack, the Third Junior Sister had fought by her side, righteously rebuking him. Later, when Jiang Linchuan gained the upper hand and those who refused to surrender were slaughtered before their eyes, only a few disciples remained by Shen Qingyi’s side.

Among them was the Third Junior Sister she trusted most. Yet, it was she who had delivered the fatal blow to Shen Qingyi’s back as a “token of surrender” to Jiang Linchuan.

Having witnessed the ultimate betrayal at the brink of death, the reborn Shen Qingyi saw everyone through a different lens.

Naturally, she could no longer be close to the Third Junior Sister. Perhaps before Jiang Linchuan’s attack, she had never intended to betray her or the sect, but in the face of her own survival, she chose treachery. Though even an ant clings to life, the disciples of Cloud Hidden Peak were meant to cultivate the Great Dao, the Third Junior Sister’s heart had long since strayed. As they say, “those on different paths cannot make plans together.”

In this life, Shen Qingyi didn’t treat her like a pariah to be killed on sight like Jiang Linchuan, but she drew a firm line in her heart, vowing never to associate with her.

Consequently, her attitude over the past few days had been cold. The Third Junior Sister, oblivious to the truth, felt she had done nothing wrong, she had even stood firmly by the Second Senior Sister when the Eldest Senior Brother brought back a “soulmate.”

The Second Senior Sister was usually cold, the Third Junior Sister had always said the things she wouldn’t say and did the things she wouldn’t do on her behalf. Why had she suddenly turned a cold shoulder? Seeing Du Yuanluo’s methods, she decided to try showing some hospitality herself.

“Where is Yuanluo?” Shen Qingyi asked, coldly pushing the jade cup away.

“Don’t even mention her. A mortal girl who has been lowly for too long, once she gets a bit of favor from you, she doesn’t know her place. She’s currently kneeling in the Hall of Discipline.”

Shen Qingyi didn’t get angry. She intended to let Du Yuanluo overstep her bounds a few more times; only then, when she taught her later, would the girl truly understand where the boundaries lay.

“Understood.”

Shen Qingyi strode through the mountain gate barrier without looking back.

The Third Junior Sister, left out in the cold, hurriedly followed, still trying to please her: “Second Senior Sister, I’ve also prepared a feast for you. It’s made from spirit beasts and herbs from the celestial mountain, cooked with my own true qi. It will greatly benefit your cultivation. After you report to the Sect Leader, come to my room to eat and rest.”

Shen Qingyi looked her up and down, her voice tinged with displeasure: “Instead of meditating on the Dao or practicing your sword, you waste your time on cooking. You really are becoming more ‘promising’ as you get older.”

This wasn’t just Shen Qingyi taking her anger out, a disciple’s primary duty was cultivation. Anyone would have received a lecture for this.

The Third Junior Sister was used to Shen Qingyi’s bluntness. She wasn’t angry, still smiling as she said, “I did it because you like it, Senior Sister. I’m willing to delay my training for a moment for you.”

“I don’t like it. Stop doing these useless things.”

“But Second Senior Sister, you eat the food that mortal girl makes every day. Do you really not like it?” The Third Junior Sister’s voice sounded aggrieved.

“She is the Junior Sister of the Cloud Hidden Sect. Don’t keep calling her a ‘mortal girl,'” Shen Qingyi warned, adding, “Are you the same as her?”

“Sister, how am I inferior to her? We have cultivated together for a hundred years, does that not compare to a few days of affection with that mortal? She can wash your clothes, cook for you, and make your bed, but so can I! Give me a chance, Sister, I can do it better than her, and I can cultivate and advance alongside you.”

Shen Qingyi sensed a different meaning in her words and frowned. “What nonsense are you talking about?”

“What nonsense? Everyone saw it on the Wishing Wall. There’s no need to hide it, Second Senior Sister.”

The Wishing Wall was a large screen in front of the main hall of the Cloud Hidden Sect. When mortals made wishes, those for the Sect Leader went straight to his desk, but wishes for other immortals appeared on this wall. Once fulfilled, they vanished and were recorded in that immortal’s book of merit.

Shen Qingyi, who was on her way to report to the Sect Leader, stopped in front of the wall.

Mortals usually sought the most powerful immortals. Aside from the Lantern Festival or the Qixi Festival, Shen Qingyi rarely received wishes. Furthermore, since she had been down the mountain looking for Du Yuanluo, she hadn’t noticed any new messages.

It made sense why mortals mostly prayed to the Sect Leader, minor immortals could handle fewer matters, and their “efficacy” was naturally lower.

The wall was covered in dense, unfulfilled wishes. Among the crowd of text, Shen Qingyi found the wishes filed under her name.

“This believer, Du Yuanluo, confesses her sins. I pray that Immortal Shen does not blame me for leaving without saying goodbye. I am truly a bringer of calamity. I will only bring you disaster.”

“Immortal Shen, is your injury better? I bought wound medicine from the pharmacy and offered it at your altar. I don’t know if it’s of any use. I truly hope the heavens would take twenty years of my life in exchange for your recovery.”

“Immortal Shen, I miss you so much. No one in this world has ever been better to me than you. I want to stay by your side for all my lives, but I am cursed with a thin fate and dare not dream of staying with you forever…”

By the calendar, Du Yuanluo had only been back in the mortal world for a couple of weeks, yet there were dozens of wishes. They weren’t so much prayers as they were whispered thoughts.

It turned out Du Yuanluo knew exactly what she wanted, she just didn’t dare say it aloud.

Before Shen Qingyi could finish reading, the Third Junior Sister interrupted: “See, Second Senior Sister? That mortal girl lusts after you. At first, everyone took it as a joke, the difference between clouds and mud is so vast, yet she dared to dream such a dream. But no one expected you to actually fall for her tricks. We all feel it isn’t worth it for you.”

Shen Qingyi carefully processed Du Yuanluo’s outpouring of heart. There was no mention of romance, yet every word was filled with yearning, and every wish was for “staying together.”

She performed a hand seal, moving the wishes on the wall so that Du Yuanluo’s messages were buried deep beneath others until they were no longer visible.

“She does not ‘lust’ after me, she simply treats me as her only lifeline. And I haven’t ‘fallen for her tricks’. I am simply willing to save her from her misery. You, on the other hand, how dare you harbor such delusions?”

During her time in the mortal world, Shen Qingyi had heard a saying: “Marry a man to wear clothes and eat food,” and “A woman’s husband is her heaven.”

Though she disagreed with the sentiment, it was the survival logic for most mortal women. Looking at Du Yuanluo’s blunt, passionate confessions, Shen Qingyi could see the connection. In a sense, she had solved Du Yuanluo’s problems of “clothing and food,” so Du Yuanluo viewed her as her “heaven,” regardless of whether she was a “husband.”

“Second Senior Sister, you aren’t one to shrink from your actions. You say you haven’t fallen for her, but anyone with eyes can see how you favor her. You clearly don’t care for food, so why do you eat her cooking? You don’t let people get close, so why can she enter your room? You are the most just and upright, so why do you protect her when she makes a mistake?”

“Because I am not yet an immortal. I am only human, and humans make mistakes.”

As Shen Qingyi spoke these rogue like words, a sliver of vengeful pleasure rose in her heart. In her past life, after the Third Junior Sister’s fatal strike, Shen Qingyi had asked her why she betrayed their righteousness for the demonic sect. The Third Junior Sister had given her that exact answer.

The current Third Junior Sister was clearly provoked by these words. Her pristine, high and mighty Second Senior Sister was breaking so many rules for a mortal girl, it was as if a handful of mountain peak snow had been tossed into the filth.

In her annoyance, she spoke without thinking: “If that mortal girl dares to think of you that way, why is it a ‘delusion’ when it comes to me? No wonder people say mortal women are all vixens. First, the Eldest Senior Brother was completely entranced. We all felt bad for you, how could a celestial beauty like you be compared to a piece of mortal dross? We thought the Eldest Senior Brother was just blinded by a pretty face. It seems we misjudged him, the fault lies with that girl using her fox like face to bewitch hearts.”

“Third Junior Sister, watch your tongue. If I hear you insult someone like that again, do not blame me for being heartless with the sect rules,” Shen Qingyi said, pressing her index finger against the other girl’s lips.

In the mortal world, commoners judged Du Yuanluo this way. She never expected that on Cloud Hidden Peak, Du Yuanluo would still be judged the same.

Actually, she should have expected it. In her past life, Shen Qingyi had judged her that way too.

Shen Qingyi couldn’t help but reflect on herself and the Cloud Hidden Sect. The peaks were too high, they couldn’t see human suffering, let alone the complexities of a small person’s life.

After reporting the details of her trial to the Sect Leader, she headed straight for the Hall of Discipline to see what trouble her “unruly” Junior Sister had gotten into now.

Walking toward the east wing with practiced ease, she found Du Yuanluo indeed kneeling on a prayer mat.

However, Jiang Linchuan was standing beside her. Shen Qingyi raised her palm to push open the door, but the soft, fragmented sounds from inside made her retract her hand at the last moment.

The truth of the matter should be heard clearly first.