My Senior Sister Says She Will Marry No One But Me - Chapter 46

After the person delivering the medicine from outside brought in a full box of fragrant medicinal powder, Du Yunge already had a large bump swelling at the back of her head. Qin Shanshan, feeling heartbroken as she applied the medicine, dared not press too hard, afraid of causing her pain: “Tell me if it hurts.”

Du Yunge silently compared the pain of the bump to the agony of having her insides torn apart after taking the “Hairpin Flower” poison and the piercing pain of being stabbed through the heart. Instantly, this minor injury felt like a mere drizzle. However, to avoid arousing suspicion from the enigmatic Wuzaka tribe’s saintess, she continued to act out her usual overly delicate persona:

“It hurts,it really hurts. It’s unbearable.”

Qin Shanshan’s hand applying the medicine paused subtly, and when she resumed, her touch became even gentler, though her voice sounded a bit hoarse:

“How about now? Can you bear it?”

Du Yunge nodded instinctively before belatedly realizing that she had just been teased. If it were merely a question about the pressure of applying the medicine, there was no need for such an ambiguous tone and phrasing.

In her fluster, she stood up angrily, only to feel dizzy and unsteady. Leaning against the wall to steady herself, she spoke haltingly, her pain still evident, making it clear to anyone that she was furious:

“Saintess, could you please show some restraint? Since you speak our official language so well and can even sing our songs, I assume you have some understanding of our Central Plains culture. In that case, have you ever heard the saying, ‘A scholar prefers death to humiliation’?”

“If your intention is to humiliate me, I’d rather die here!”

As it turned out, Qin Shanshan had indeed heard this saying. However, the Hu people never bothered with such abstract notions. The ethical principles and moral codes revered by the Central Plains people were nothing but a joke to them.

Back when the renowned beauty Mingfei, “who traversed countless mountains and valleys to reach Jingmen,” married into the Hu tribe, after her husband died, she was forced to marry her husband’s eldest son from a previous marriage. Such a shocking act of marrying one’s stepson would have been universally condemned in the Central Plains. Yet, even when Mingfei wrote to the emperor in grief and indignation, the emperor could only instruct her to follow Hu customs.

This clearly showed that principles like “A scholar prefers death to humiliation,” which are entirely dependent on ethical codes and moral boundaries, could never be understood by the Hu people. They had always adhered to a savage rule: if you desire something, seize it once it’s in your possession, it’s yours. Mutual affection was irrelevant; once children were born, wouldn’t they have to settle down and live together anyway?

Thus, Qin Shanshan had never regarded Xue Shuyan as any sort of obstacle. In her view, whatever she fancied belonged to her if not now, then eventually. Du Yunge, in her eyes, was already her destined companion, and until this moment, she had firmly believed so.

However, when such words were spoken by a delicate girl like Du Yunge, who couldn’t endure even the slightest pain, and were uttered with a genuine determination to die, it forced one to reconsider.

After Qin Shanshan realized that everything Du Yunge said was true, without a hint of affectation or posturing, she was so startled that she immediately took three large steps back. Thinking that if she didn’t want to return to the frontier with only a handful of ashes, it wouldn’t hurt to yield a little here, she promptly raised both hands and took another step back, nearly retreating to the doorway, just to prove she had no intention of pressuring her:

“Little Sect Leader, please calm down. I meant no harm.”

“But I must beg the Little Sect Leader to understand, we Hu people have never had this concept since childhood. It was never my intention to insult you. I adore you too much for that!”

Seeing Du Yunge still standing there, unsteady but stubbornly leaning against the wall to face her from afar, Qin Shanshan simply placed the box of medicine on the table and retreated to the door, her heart still pounding with fear:

“I’ll leave the medicine here. You can apply it yourself, alright?”

After Qin Shanshan left the room, Du Yunge endured her headache and pressed her ear against the wall. Only when she heard Qin Shanshan’s unusually light, martial artist’s footsteps descend the stairs did she quickly dab a tiny amount from the medicine box, rub it between her fingertips, and bring it close for a gentle sniff. She immediately recognized what it was:

This was Nine-Turn Snow Lotus Powder, made from rare ingredients through an intricate refining process. Even among the major martial sects of the vast Central Plains, fewer than ten sects possessed such a miraculous healing medicine. However, due to the treacherous terrain of the frontier where the Hu people lived filled with towering mountains, poisonous marshes, and long rivers natural treasures like this were actually abundant there, though few knew how to use them.

If Qin Shanshan truly was the Saintess of the Wuzaka tribe as she claimed, then being able to produce this medicine did lend credibility to her identity.

Still, Du Yunge understood the principle that accepting favors makes one compliant. She had originally intended to search for any of her own sect’s healing medicine, but when she felt inside her sleeve and discovered a sachet still intact, her heart leaped with joy. She thought to herself: As long as this item remained with her, Xue Shuyan would surely find her one day.

This sachet was the product of her first embroidery lesson. She had made six in total: one each for the Four Guardians of Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter, one for herself, and one for Xue Shuyan.

As it was her handiwork from when she had just started learning, these sachets were truly unattractive. Although Du Yunge had applied rare ingenuity, embroidering different motifs corresponding to the seasons of the Four Guardians and the origin of Xue Shuyan’s name, her clever ideas could hardly make up for the excessive clumsiness of her technique.

Nevertheless, Xue Shuyan had been quite pleased when she first received it, a happiness visible even to outsiders. She wore the sachet, which looked like either a wild goose or a roasted duck, at her waist every day, almost flaunting it as she passed through the streets. It was only after she noticed that Feng Chengchun also had one that she calmed down a bit and asked Du Yunge:

“I thought this was something only I had?”

Du Yunge was momentarily at a loss for how to respond. Just then, Xia Yeshuang, who had returned from the medicine hall with a book, overheard and chimed in naturally:

“I have one too. What’s the matter?”

Only then did Xue Shuyan completely calm down, casting a deep glance at Du Yunge. “I thought, it was meant only for me.”

“How could I possibly make one just for you?” Xia Yecheng was so exasperated she nearly laughed. “You tribesfolk from beyond the Great Wall don’t have such customs, do you? In the Central Plains, if a girl makes a sachet for only one person and not for relatives or close friends, it can only mean it’s for someone she fancies!”

Xue Shuyan froze for a moment, then finally caught the implication. Her usually expressionless face instantly flushed a deep crimson, as if a whole dish of vermilion pigment had been poured over her head. Xia Yecheng clicked her tongue in amazement, and the lingering reservations she had held toward this mixed-blood tribeswoman faded considerably.

“Give those to me,” she said. “I’ll put something special inside.”

“That way, if you ever have to leave the mountain and accidentally get separated, just release one of our Miaoyin Sect’s butterflies. By following its flight path, you’ll be able to find each other quickly.”

Fortunately, although this Uzaka tribe saintess was exceptionally skilled in the use of incense, her ability relied mostly on the quality of the ingredients. Had she possessed even half of Xia Yecheng’s expertise in poisons or medicine, she would surely have noticed there was more to these sachets than met the eye.

Discovering that the sachet hadn’t been lost was like a calming pill for Du Yunge. By the time Qin Shanshan knocked on her door again, she was composed enough to answer calmly.

But when she opened the door, she didn’t see Qin Shanshan herself, only a towering pile of items stacked in her arms, so high that it nearly blocked the entrance. If the room had been any smaller, the heap would have likely scraped the ceiling.

Before Du Yunge could process what was happening, Qin Shanshan seized the opportunity to slip inside, set the pile down on the table, and beckoned Du Yunge over.

“Little Sect Leader, come look! I bought you some nice things!”

Du Yunge stared in astonishment at the assortment spread across the table. On one end were extremely valuable gold and silver hairpins, while on the other were cheap clay figurines, pastries, and candied hawthorns that could be bought for just a few coins on the street. The starkly contrasting items lay scattered haphazardly, confirming her suspicion that this person truly was the Uzaka tribe saintess the same little tribesgirl Qiu Yueman had once helped.

Judging by the sheer extravagance of these purchases, her family’s wealth had to be immense if not on par with the Miaoyin Sect, then certainly comparable to any wealthy, influential household.

An ordinary tribesperson could never afford such luxury, even after ten lifetimes of saving. But if Qiu Yueman had been the one to assist the Uzaka tribe given her knack for squeezing water from stone and dredging gold from riverbeds, it wasn’t surprising at all.

Qin Shanshan pushed the entire pile toward Du Yunge and looked at her with pleading eyes.

“I’m giving all of this to you. Please don’t be angry anymore, alright?”

Du Yunge’s anger had already subsided after that initial burst, and she had come to terms with the situation. The Hu people and the Han people had fundamentally different perspectives on many matters. Qin Shanshan hadn’t meant to offend though her attempt to woo Du Yunge away was certainly intentional. After Du Yunge firmly rejected her advances, Qin Shanshan, worried that she might still be upset, had gone out of her way to buy these gifts for her. This gesture alone proved that the earlier unpleasantness stemmed merely from the differing values instilled in Hu and Han people since childhood. The holy maiden of the Wuzhaka tribe was not a malicious schemer like He Zhenzhen.

But these items…

Du Yunge hesitated for a moment but ultimately decided to be honest.

“Holy Maiden!”

“Just call me Shanshan, Little Sect Leader. No need to be so formal.” Qin Shanshan glanced at her with a smile. “What’s wrong? Don’t you like them? If not, I can take you out to buy something else.”

“Miss Qin.” Du Yunge had never been comfortable with overly intimate forms of address. For years, she had respectfully referred to Feng Chengchun who was like both a teacher and a mother to her by the formal title “Guardian Chun.” In the end, she compromised slightly, opting for a more neutral form of address:

“These things in the Central Plains, they’re toys for children. I haven’t played with such things in a long time.”

Qin Shanshan froze, a dazed, suddenly enlightened expression appearing on her face.

“When I was at your Mount Wangyou before, I never saw things like these. Later, when I followed your sect’s guardian to reclaim power, we were constantly on the move, rushing from place to place naturally, there was no time for play.”

“After I took charge of the Wuzhaka tribe, I spent my days buried in paperwork, dealing with all sorts of messy affairs. There was simply no leisure time for fun. On top of that, I had to squeeze in time to learn your official language and study some poetry and literature, so that when I came to see you, I’d have something to talk about and could win your favor. I wished I could split myself in two. I never even got to see these children’s toys. I’ve embarrassed myself in front of you, Little Sect Leader.”

She hadn’t just bought whatever she saw. She had only purchased things she had never seen before, assuming they were the finest treasures, and brought them all back for Du Yunge.

Du Yunge opened her mouth but found herself at a loss for words. Suddenly, she recalled the phrase Xia Yecheng often said:

It’s all because the world is unjust.

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