Misunderstanding (Please Bookmark, Recommendation Tickets!)

Misunderstanding (Please Bookmark, Recommendation Tickets!)

Though Xia Fan had not slept all night, he did not feel particularly exhausted. Compared to the burden on his body, the mental pressure had been the greater weight. Now that the other party was asleep and that pressure had lifted, he instead felt much lighter all over.

This was probably the capital of youth. Xia Fan could not help sighing. Back in university, he could treat staying up late like eating meals. After starting work, though, he would be unbearably sleepy once midnight passed, and pulling an all-nighter took several days to recover from. He had not expected that he would one day return to his peak.

Looking at the empty bowl that had held porridge, his stomach began to growl as well.

After tidying up the room a little, Xia Fan headed straight to the inn's main hall and ordered twice his usual amount of food in one go.

"Please enjoy at your leisure, sir." Xiao Er quickly served up the breakfast.

Compared to yesterday's atmosphere of mutual suspicion and vigilance, the main hall was much quieter today. Xia Fan did not know whether it was because he had risen early, but he was the only person in the entire room, giving him the pleasant feeling of having booked the place out.

It seemed rising early was not without its benefits.

Yet by the time Xia Fan reached his second steamed bun, that sense of ease had gradually turned into puzzlement.

How long had he been sitting here?

A quarter of an hour? Or longer...

Throughout that time, no one had entered the main hall—neither people coming downstairs nor people entering from outside. Spirit Fire could only be seen at night, so there should have been quite a few people who had stayed up observing it, and now was exactly when they ought to be returning. Daytime, meanwhile, was convenient for gathering it. The great families might also need to claim spots, so naturally they would go as early as possible. At the moment when the two groups should have been changing shifts, how could no one have passed through the hall for so long?

Xia Fan slowly set down the steamed bun in his hand and picked up his wooden sword.

Just as he was preparing to return to his room first, two Luo Family disciples appeared at the stairway.

They stood side by side, blocking the passage behind them.

Then more people briskly entered the main hall and occupied the exit—these examinees were likewise dressed in the Luo Family's blue robes, and every gaze fell upon him.

The perfectly coordinated rhythm of the two groups made Xia Fan realize in an instant that this had likely all been planned in advance.

It was not that he had risen too early. The Luo Family had controlled the inn's flow of people beforehand.

What they had been waiting for was the moment he entered the main hall!

"Not bad. Your powers of observation are keener than I expected." Accompanied by a pleasant voice, Luo Qingqing appeared at the entrance to the hall. "Unfortunately, you used them where you should not have."

Though her tone was calm and unruffled, Xia Fan could still hear the suppressed indignation and anger within it.

No way, had they found out so quickly that it was him?

And either they did nothing, or they moved with thunderous force. The Luo Family clearly had enormous confidence in this. Denying it outright now would only make him look ridiculous.

With that in mind, Xia Fan simply admitted it. "I'm very curious. How did you determine it was me?"

"Luo You'er!"

"Here, Senior Sister!" A little girl with short curly hair hurriedly stepped forward. "It was the smell! I smelled your scent."

Those familiar words left Xia Fan briefly dazed. "What?"

She rubbed her nose. "The Sorcery Art I specialize in lets me trace the flow of scents within ten li. The thief entered the room through the window and stayed by Senior Sister's bed—"

"Get to the point!" Luo Qingqing cut her off through gritted teeth.

"Oh." Luo You'er stuck out her tongue sheepishly. "Anyway, I followed the scent and found its source at Room One Twenty-Nine. The innkeeper said only one person was staying there, and that was you!"

Hah, so she had not used licking to find him.

Xia Fan spread his hands. "The examination never said we could not use Jianghu methods. Besides, this is the inn's main hall. Aren't you afraid of violating the Scholar Examination rules by fighting here? Is it really necessary to mobilize such a force over one bottle of Spirit Fire?"

"Over... Spirit Fire?" Luo Qingqing drew her wooden sword. "Shameless! And you still have the nerve to say that... I thought you were a decent person. Who would have thought you could be this despicable!"

"Wait, is it really that serious?"

"Words are useless!" With a sharp cry, she flashed toward Xia Fan. The shadow of her sword was like a startled swan sweeping across the sky, stabbing straight at his throat.

Xia Fan had no choice but to swing his sword up in defense, intending to overwhelm her with strength.

But the two swords did not collide. Luo Qingqing's sword tip merely tapped the blade lightly before sliding away as though borrowing the force, stabbing toward the opening he had offered.

His expression changed at once. He released the hilt and dodged the strike, then grabbed the blade with his other hand and swung the wooden sword like a hammer at her.

Yet this unexpected move caused her no trouble at all. With a simple sway, she slipped aside and evaded his counterattack.

After just one exchange, Xia Fan had already fallen into a disadvantage.

After all, if they had been using real swords, he could not have switched hands to grip the blade. His weapon would have been knocked away in a single move, and the outcome needed no imagining.

Was this the strength of the Luo Family's genius?

The next few exchanges confirmed something for him—this woman was different from all those he had beaten before. With a sword, she had nearly reached the point of wielding it as naturally as opening and closing her hand. Her mastery of technique made up for her lack of strength. She was a true expert who had received systematic training.

Meanwhile, merely dealing with her unceasing attacks had already left him stretched thin.

"Hiss—"

Another feint, followed by a slanted thrust. Luo Qingqing charged forward with her sword raised and stabbed toward Xia Fan's chest before he could properly defend.

Though he desperately twisted aside, the wooden sword scraped across his skin and tore a huge rip in his clothes. The medicine packets and odds and ends in his inner pocket immediately spilled out.

He inwardly cursed. Though she held a wooden sword, the consequences would not be pleasant if he were struck. If he was unlucky, breaking one or two bones would be perfectly normal.

If this continued, defeat would come sooner or later!

The question was, how could he counterattack?

Though he had learned much of the tricks of the Jianghu through his master's constant influence, that did not mean those were all he knew. As one of the few who could sense qi, Sorcery Arts were his true trump card.

It was just that that art... belonged to the "Zhen" method, and its power was difficult to control. After he had improved it, even casting it at the second level could prove fatal. Unless he had no other choice, Xia Fan did not want to use it against fellow examinees.

Risking one's life over a bottle of Spirit Fire was far too absurd.

And this girl too—had he not merely taken one bottle of her Source of Spirit Fire? She had already branded him shameless and despicable. She was truly unreasonable—

Wait... Xia Fan suddenly froze. He realized he seemed to have overlooked several crucial points.

"Your powers of observation are keener than I expected. Unfortunately, you used them where you should not have."

"The thief entered the room through the window and stayed by Senior Sister's bed—"

Their earlier words surfaced in his mind.

Could that bedroom have been meant for Luo Qingqing?

Hey, hey, no way... did that mean that after knocking everyone unconscious, he had slipped alone into an unmarried woman's private chamber?

"Stop, stop for a moment!" Xia Fan shouted after barely evading her attack. "Don't tell me you think I did something improper to you?"

Luo Qingqing stumbled sharply, and her fierce sequence of attacks immediately fell into disarray.

"What else could it be?" Luo You'er cried. "When Senior Sister woke up this morning, even her blanket had fallen to the floor. And the scent showed that you stayed in front of her bed the longest—"

"Shut your mouth!" Luo Qingqing shot her a look fierce enough to kill.

The latter hurriedly covered her mouth.

Xia Fan was stunned. So that was the reason!

"Could you two please stop ruining my innocence?" he defended himself while dodging her sword. "When I entered, I did not notice anyone lying in the bed at all. How could I possibly have done that sort of thing? Besides, the bottle was hidden beneath the bed. Wasn't it only natural that I spent the longest by the bedside? As for the blanket falling off... couldn't it be that your sleeping posture was terrible and you kicked it off yourself?"

"Wow... Senior Sister, his skin is really thick," Luo You'er remarked.

"Of course you won't admit it. I never expected you to." Luo Qingqing gritted her teeth and raised her sword again. "The Scholar Examination rules forbid harming examinees, but I can still beat you half to death!"

"What if I can provide evidence?"

Those words made her halt.

"What evidence?"

"Scents." Xia Fan pointed at her junior sister. "You use a sachet, right? If I had done anything to you, I would have had to get very close to you. In that case, some similar scent would definitely have lingered on me. Why not let your junior sister smell me carefully and find out?"

"But the innkeeper also said you asked for a basin of hot water last night." Luo You'er pouted. "Who knows whether you washed yourself clean?"

Damn it, why did that inn attendant spill everything as long as he was paid... Couldn't guests have even a little privacy?

"Do I look like someone who has washed?"

"..." After a moment of silence, Luo Qingqing said, "Whether he washed or not, you'll know once you smell him."

"Um, but Senior Sister—"

"Go. I want the most detailed answer," she said, narrowing her eyes slightly. "Junior. Sister."

Perhaps sensing the killing intent in those words, Luo You'er shuddered and could only walk helplessly toward Xia Fan.

After approaching him, she took out a mint leaf and held it before her. Then she softly said, "Xun Technique returns to Xu, Wind Search!"

The leaf instantly turned into a wisp of green smoke.

Luo You'er inhaled the smoke, then sniffed around Xia Fan for quite some time, her expression gradually becoming complicated.

"Well?" Luo Qingqing's voice also grew colder and colder, as though she would immediately strike the moment her junior sister nodded.

"Um... Senior Sister, he doesn't have your scent on him."

"What?" The foot she had already stepped forward with withdrew. "Are you sure?"

"At this close a distance, I can't be wrong." Luo You'er waved a hand in distaste. "And not only has he not bathed, I'm afraid he did not settle down for even a moment during the latter half of the night."

"What do you mean?" Luo Qingqing pressed.

"There's the rotten stench, the smell of mud and grass, and... the smell of blood." She ran back to her senior sister's side. "Where did you go afterward?"

"I just accidentally fell while returning the way I came. Fortunately, I wasn't far off the ground then." Xia Fan deliberately spoke lightly. "Can you believe me now? Honestly, I put all my attention into finding the bottle. I did not even know whether the person lying in bed was male or female."

"But you still went in," Luo Qingqing said quietly.

"Yes, without knowing anything. I deeply apologize for that." Xia Fan could now fully understand her embarrassment and anger. In this era, an unmarried girl's reputation was no joke. One mishandling could become a tragedy for life. "I will never speak of this matter. As long as your fellow disciples—" Only then did he notice that all the arrivals were female Luo Family disciples. "—do not speak of it, no one else will know in the future."

After a long silence, Luo Qingqing nodded.

It was clear that she had also breathed a sigh of relief.

"That bottle of Source of Spirit Fire..."

"It was the negligence of the disciples on night watch. Their allocation quotas will also be deducted accordingly." Luo Qingqing returned to her earlier demeanor. "As for whether they will come looking to cause you trouble, I will not interfere personally."

"And the things in this tavern..." Xia Fan glanced at the hall, which was a complete mess—the other party had clearly fought in earnest just now, so naturally she had not spared any thought for the tables and chairs around them.

"As long as compensation is paid at the proper price, it does not count as breaking the rules. The Luo Family will handle it properly."

As expected... she had noticed this loophole, or rather, the "trap" within the rules.

"Also, your clothes. I'll have the innkeeper deliver a new set." Luo Qingqing coughed twice. "This matter... I also..." Halfway through, her voice had become so low it was nearly inaudible.

"You mean you were also too excessive?" Luo You'er tilted her head. "If you speak too quietly, other people can't hear you."

Naturally, the junior sister received another heavy chop of the hand.

"Then I'll take my leave first." Luo Qingqing put away her wooden sword.

"Take care."

Xia Fan could not be as crisp and decisive as she was. He still had to pick up the medicinal herbs he had spilled.

Just then, Luo Qingqing, who had already taken half a step toward the stairway, stopped again. She stared at Xia Fan in surprise. "Wait!"

"What is it now?"

He only saw a blur before his eyes. She had already crouched before him and picked a piece of metal from among the scattered odds and ends.

"This thing... where did you get it?"

Luo Qingqing's expression seemed even more grave than when she had been confronting him earlier.