Xiao Yun pointed toward the sink in the kitchen corner. "Wash your hands first."
Ling'er pouted and reluctantly turned toward the sink. She turned on the faucet, washed her hands, and dried them with the cloth beside it before hurrying back to the table and sitting down properly.
Xiao Yun sat across from her. Seeing that she kept her hands on her knees instead of immediately reaching for her chopsticks, he said, "Go ahead."
Only then did Ling'er pick up her chopsticks and start eating in small bites. As the meal went on, her chopsticks moved faster and faster. She had two more bowls of rice and picked every last morsel from the belly of each fish.
Once they had both finished, she leaned back in her chair, clasped her slightly rounded belly with both hands, and let out a satisfied sigh.
By the time Xiao Yun finished clearing the dishes and returned to the living room, Ling'er had moved from her chair to the sofa. She lay on her back with her limbs spread, as though she were too stuffed to move.
Xiao Yun sat across from her and asked, "What race do you actually belong to?"
Ling'er slowly rolled over, seemingly considering where to begin. After a moment's thought, she said, "I inherited my mother's bloodline. Her people are called the Weapon Tribe. The women of the tribe can all manifest weapons from their bodies—sabers, spears, swords, halberds, all sorts. What they manifest depends on their natural constitution and how they're trained afterward. My father was a Weapon Wielder, someone who can wield the weapons manifested by the Weapon Tribe. They worked really well together and once did pretty well for themselves in the City of Slaughter."
She paused here. "Then someone set them up. They were separated,