After Death, I Became My Shijie’s Palm-Sized Birdie – Chapter 13
by Little PandaEvents of the Past, Part 12
Got Drunk Just From Smelling a Bit of the Wine
After presenting her gift, the Qingluan King was invited by several elders to stay a few days with her daughter. Princess Huaiqing made a point of strolling through the Beast Garden, and upon returning, begged her mother to find an opportunity to take those “poor” bald Fire Feather Birds away.
Watching her daughter’s lips pout so low you could hang an oil pot from them1, the Qingluan King couldn’t withstand several rounds of her daughter’s wheedling. So she reluctantly swallowed her pride and delicately raised the matter with Yun Heng, asking whether the Fire Feather Birds could be exchanged for other treasures.
Although the Fire Feather Birds were spirit beasts, their strength was mediocre and they were poor at combat. To humans, aside from their beautiful feathers and a trace of phoenix bloodline so faint as to be negligible, these birds were practically useless. If an exchange were truly made, the Qingluan King would be taking a loss.
But this trade still couldn’t be established. Recalling her shimei2‘s teasing remark from the other day, Yun Heng decided it was best to clear up certain misunderstandings first.
“The Fire Feather Birds gave their feathers to us of their own accord. I did not coerce them, and they are only staying here temporarily—they do not belong to Wenshen Sect. If the Qingluan King wishes to take them away, she need only negotiate with them directly.”
The Fire Feather Bird clan had eccentric temperaments and were extraordinarily stubborn, making them extremely difficult to raise. If their keeper displeased them in the slightest, they would rather die than compromise. As a result, very few people could keep these birds.
And the Fire Feather Birds in Wenshen Sect’s Beast Garden had come of their own initiative. Yun Heng remembered that her shimei had only been in her teens at the time; shortly after returning from a certain secret realm, these birds had come flying over in flocks.
The Qingluan King could understand every word Yun Heng said, but strung together, they left her utterly confused. The Immortal Venerable meant that the Fire Feather Birds had voluntarily given their feathers to her? That the birds had even taken the initiative to settle in Wenshen Sect?
Something was off. Very off. This didn’t seem like anything Fire Feather Birds would do.
The last time the Fire Feather Birds had done anything unusual was when they presented their feathers before Her Majesty and successfully overshadowed all the other avian clans. The Qingluan King still felt indignant whenever she recalled it. Now what were these birds scheming about?
If she weren’t certain that Her Majesty had perished with no possibility of nirvana rebirth, the Qingluan King would suspect these creatures had encountered Her Majesty…
“I will go speak with them myself. I won’t trouble the Immortal Venerable further.” The Qingluan King planned to go to the Beast Garden in person and ask those Fire Feather Birds.
Unfortunately, the Fire Feather Birds in the Beast Garden were all low-powered little things that had only just awakened their spiritual intelligence. They couldn’t answer any of the Qingluan King’s questions—they only tilted their heads and stared at her.
The Qingluan King could only sense simple emotions—fondness, a desire to be close. Did that mean these little ones liked Immortal Venerable Yun Heng so much that they gave her their feathers? Judging by the number of feathers, it wasn’t just one or two Fire Feather Birds that harbored goodwill toward the Immortal Venerable. Did the entire Fire Feather Bird clan like that ice-cube of a human?
Mistakenly believing that the Fire Feather Birds had given their feathers to Yun Heng, the Qingluan King pondered for a long time but couldn’t make sense of it.
Equally puzzled was Wen Qiwu. Over the past two days, whenever she visited the Beast Garden, she had the persistent feeling that a gaze was watching her from the shadows. Yet every time she went to investigate, she found nothing.
Once or twice could be dismissed as her imagination, but after so many occurrences, Wen Qiwu—unless she were a fool—could deduce that someone was secretly watching her.
The other party’s strength should be above hers—at least a full realm higher—and skilled at concealment.
Sensing Wen Qiwu’s wariness, the avian beasts in the Beast Garden all subtly assumed combative, vigilant stances. The bird perched on her shoulder puffed up its feathers outright.
The one following her probably wasn’t from the sect. Wen Qiwu furrowed her brow. Since a traitor had recently been uncovered, she dared not be careless. She first pretended she hadn’t noticed anything, then quietly told her shijie3 about the situation.
Just as Wen Qiwu was about to set a trap, a piercing chill swept through the entire Beast Garden in an instant. Aside from the patch of ground where Wen Qiwu stood, everything was covered in a thin layer of ice.
Princess Huaiqing, who had been secretly watching Wen Qiwu for days, instinctively tried to flee—only to find her feet stuck to the ground. The power within her body felt as though it had been frozen solid, completely unable to circulate.
Even more terrifying, a sword intent laden with killing aura descended from the sky. Though the sword intent didn’t touch her directly, the space it cleaved through caught a few strands of her hair, severing them.
“The princess of the Qingluan?” A rare trace of surprise slipped into Yun Heng’s voice.
“Princess Huaiqing?” By the time Wen Qiwu hurried over, she saw the Qingluan Clan’s princess trembling beneath her shijie’s sword intent. The one who had been secretly watching her these past few days was her?
Wen Qiwu recalled that Princess Huaiqing had been quite cold to her when they first met. If that was the case, why would she… secretly follow her for days?
Huaiqing’s face alternated between flushing red and turning pale. She wanted to know why even more! Her mother had already explained the misunderstanding to her, and she knew she had wronged her.
Huaiqing cringed when she remembered the cold shoulder she had given the other woman at their first meeting. She had originally planned to avoid Wen Qiwu, but two days ago, she spotted Immortal Venerable Yun Heng’s shimei again in the Beast Garden. Huaiqing should have quietly slipped away, but that strange, instinctive urge to be close made her stop in her tracks. By the time she came to her senses, she had already hidden herself in the nearby bushes—alongside a few birds crouching in the exact same posture as her!
Huaiqing couldn’t understand what about this human attracted both her and these birds. She decided to observe for a couple more days, but before she could figure out the answer, she was caught first.
Huaiqing felt there was no longer any place for her in Wenshen Sect. No—more precisely, she never wanted to set foot in Dongzhao Domain again. If possible, please let her leave the Cangwang Realm entirely.
“Princess Huaiqing, is there something you need from me?” Wen Qiwu tactfully avoided the word “following.”
“I—I, the other day I had some misunderstandings about you and the Immortal Venerable, so I came to apologize. I’m sorry… If there’s nothing else, I’ll be going!” Huaiqing didn’t dare look up at either of them. She grabbed at a random excuse, then turned and fled.
“Misunderstanding?” Wen Qiwu didn’t even have time to ask what the misunderstanding was about. The Qingluan, having returned to her true form, was exceedingly fast—in the blink of an eye, she was gone.
If it weren’t for the fact that she still needed to wait for her newly made friend to arrive, Huaiqing would probably have charged straight out of Wenshen Sect’s gates right then.
“What a strange princess.” Wen Qiwu said in puzzlement, “She seems to really dislike me?”
Dislike her, though…
Yun Heng looked at the receding Qingluan. After the princess had flown some distance away, she secretly glanced back. Yun Heng was certain the other woman was looking at her shimei. That careful, slightly reluctant gaze was decidedly not dislike.
Yun Heng’s expression unconsciously darkened. In the past, she wouldn’t have thought much of it, but ever since learning that her shimei had grown close to the Yuxi Sect’s Holy Maiden, she kept finding her thoughts drifting in that direction…
She was probably overthinking it. How could that kind of feeling be common.
“Qiwu, were you two acquainted before?”
“Not really. Today is only our second meeting. The first time, we didn’t even exchange a word.” That Qingluan princess had just inexplicably snorted at her—could the misunderstanding she mentioned refer to that?
Only their second meeting, and the Qingluan princess was already secretly following her shimei?
Yun Heng said nothing more. With her eyes lowered, she looked cold and indifferent, seemingly unconcerned about the matter. But those who knew her well could more or less detect that the Immortal Venerable seemed to have a certain… awkwardness about her.
This emotion had come inexplicably. Even Yun Heng herself couldn’t articulate the cause, let alone expect Wen Qiwu to guess.
“Shijie, have you been very busy these past two days? I went to Yunwu Mountain and Wendao Mountain but didn’t see you.” Unable to directly guess her shijie’s thoughts, Wen Qiwu could only approach it indirectly, starting with what had happened over the past few days.
“I’ve been preparing a gift for you, so I went elsewhere.” Only then did Yun Heng suddenly remember the gift the Qingluan King had given her shimei. She retrieved the jar of wine from her storage bag.
Wen Qiwu’s eyes lit up. “Is this my birthday gift?”
“Mm, it’s from the Qingluan King,” Yun Heng said.
The moment Wen Qiwu heard it was from the Qingluan King, the interest in her eyes vanished instantly.
So it was from the Qingluan King. She had thought her shijie had prepared it for her. Wen Qiwu’s disappointed little expression hung plainly on her face, entirely undisguised.
“My gift still needs a little more time. It will definitely be ready by your birthday.” Looking at her expression, Yun Heng couldn’t resist reaching up to ruffle her head.
“Is Shijie going to personally forge a divine artifact?” Wen Qiwu couldn’t think of anything else that would take her shijie so long to prepare.
“Not a divine artifact.”
Yun Heng’s features softened slightly. Though it wasn’t a divine artifact, that gift was something even more taboo than a divine artifact. She hoped it would resolve the hidden affliction in her shimei.
If not a divine artifact, then what? Wen Qiwu counted on her fingers how many days were left until her birthday. Soon enough, she would know what the gift was~
“Is what the Qingluan King gave me wine?” Suppressing her curiosity, Wen Qiwu turned her attention to the jar in her hands.
She unsealed the wine jar, and a rich, fruity wine fragrance wafted over her.
“This is the Qingluan Clan’s fine brew. It doesn’t intoxicate, so you can have a taste.” Precisely because the Qingluan King had said it was non-intoxicating, Yun Heng felt safe giving the entire jar to Wen Qiwu, who had a low tolerance for alcohol.
“It is very fragrant.” She could save it for her birthday and taste it with her shijie. Wen Qiwu placed the wine jar into her storage bag.
But gradually, Wen Qiwu felt the wine’s scent constantly lingering around her, tempting her to take the jar back out for just a sip.
At this point, Yun Heng hadn’t noticed that her shimei, walking half a step behind her, had a faint flush gradually creeping across her face.
It wasn’t until they returned to Wanyao Mountain that Yun Heng turned around and finally noticed her shimei in a rather strange state.
Wen Qiwu stood obediently to the side. Her face was rarely so flushed, and those beautiful eyes held a trace of allure, staring straight at her.
“Qiwu?” Yun Heng walked over to her, only to have her shimei wrap her arms around her waist.
“Shijie~” Her voice was unusually sweet, and her breath fell against Yun Heng’s neck.
That breath shouldn’t have been warm, yet it made Yun Heng’s fair skin flush red.
It wasn’t as though her shimei had never hugged her when they were young, but the feeling now was different.
Ever since the night of the medicinal bath, something about herself had seemed… off.
Yun Heng’s mind wandered to something, and a flash of awkwardness crossed her cold, clear eyes. She didn’t even know where to put her hands.
Wen Qiwu slightly narrowed her eyes. As the wine scent gradually faded, a dazed bewilderment crept into her expression.
Footnotes
- A Chinese colloquialism for extreme pouting; the image likens downturned lips to a hook from which an oil pot could dangle, conveying exaggerated displeasure or wheedling.
- A respectful term for a junior female martial sister in Chinese cultivation sects.
- A respectful term for a senior female martial sister in Chinese cultivation sects.
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