Players Who Don't Like Washing Clothes

"Lu Hou'er!"

Hearing Linghu Chong call to him, Lu Dayou's eyes immediately lit up. "Senior Brother, you're back from the mountain?"

"Yeah, it's been a month already, hasn't it?" Linghu Chong said with a smile as he walked over. Then he asked, "Where's that little monkey of yours? Didn't you take it everywhere with you?"

Lu Dayou said casually, "I lent it to Junior Disciple Brother to play with."

Hearing Lu Dayou mention Junior Disciple Brother, Linghu Chong followed up, "I heard the other disciples mention him before. When he joined the sect, I was still up on Siguo Cliff. Come on, take me to meet this Junior Disciple Brother."

Lu Dayou walked ahead to lead the way. "Junior Disciple Brother was practicing swordsmanship by the pool just now, but going by his habits, he should've returned to the courtyard by the bamboo grove by now."

Linghu Chong was surprised. "He lives in a separate courtyard?"

The Mount Hua Sect had once been quite wealthy. Back then, it had countless disciples, and visiting heroes had streamed through like fish crossing a river. Naturally, the Mount Hua Sect had separate courtyards for guests to stay in.

Later, its numbers had dwindled. Logically, there was more than enough room for all the disciples to live in those courtyards. But Yue Buqun placed great importance on rules, so even though there was no shortage of housing on the mountain, he still had the disciples crowd together in the disciples' quarters.

Although Mistress had already warned him beforehand, Linghu Chong was still taken aback to hear that this Junior Disciple Brother lived alone in a separate courtyard. It only made him more curious about him.

As they walked, Linghu Chong asked Lu Dayou about Wang Jingyuan.

As they walked, Lu Dayou said, "This Junior Disciple Brother is no ordinary person. A few days ago, Master and Mistress informed us early in the morning that there was another Junior Disciple Brother on the mountain. No one saw his apprenticeship ceremony. We even suspect that he never actually..."

"But Junior Disciple Brother has a pretty good temperament. You can tell he comes from an extraordinary background, but he isn't one of those pampered young masters."

"He puts on no airs with anyone, and he trains extremely diligently. He just says strange things all the time that leave people completely baffled. Though Junior Sister... she often gets so mad at him she can barely stand it."

Lu Dayou hesitated, but in the end, he did not mention Yue Lingshan falling for someone else.

While chatting and laughing, the two arrived beside Wang Jingyuan's courtyard. Before they even reached the gate, they could hear the sound of sword practice inside. Linghu Chong nodded. It seemed Lu Hou'er had been right—this Junior Disciple Brother truly was diligent.

Linghu Chong immediately pushed the gate open and entered. But the moment he stepped inside, he and Lu Hou'er were horrified, their scalps tingling. A pale figure was practicing swordsmanship naked in the courtyard.

He was truly wearing nothing at all. Even the great white dragon between his legs swung freely from side to side along with his sword dance.

Wang Jingyuan noticed someone entering the courtyard. He sheathed his sword and stood upright, greeting them, "Why are you back again? What do you need me for?"

As Wang Jingyuan spoke, he started walking over to exchange pleasantries. Seeing the great white elephant drawing closer, the two hastily backed away. Lu Dayou was the first to speak. "Don't come over! J-Junior Disciple Brother, why aren't you wearing clothes?!"

Wang Jingyuan casually scratched his butt and explained, "Hardcore. This is way too hardcore. If you wear clothes for too long, especially after exercising in them, their cleanliness actually drops. Low cleanliness affects training efficiency. Who the hell could've predicted that?!"

"And washing clothes isn't just filling up a progress bar, either. You actually have to do it yourself and scrub them by hand. Then after scrubbing them, you have to hang them out to dry before they're usable. I've never seen anything more hardcore than this."

Lu Dayou got the gist of it. "Clothes naturally get dirty if you wear them too long. Junior Disciple Brother, don't you have spare clothes to change into?"

"Oh, logistics... Mistress prepared everything for me. But I figured, even if I changed into clean clothes, they'd just get dirty again, so I might as well not wear any. Besides, those clothes don't add stats or provide armor."

"Oh, right. Is it time to eat? Come on, let's go."

Lu Dayou hurriedly shoved Wang Jingyuan back inside, then turned and locked the courtyard gate. Only then did Linghu Chong come back to his senses. "Junior Disciple Brother, you weren't actually planning to go out and meet people naked like that, were you?!"

Wang Jingyuan lowered his head and fiddled with his elephant trunk twice. "You're as annoying as the guards in Fengkuigu Valley. Wait here. I'll put on a pair of underpants before going out."

"One pair of underpants is nowhere near enough! No, wait! Is this even a matter of one pair of underpants?!"

Wang Jingyuan asked in confusion, "Are you planning to make me wear a dudou too? I remember those things being only for little boys, aren't they?"

"Y-you... Sigh! I don't even know how to explain this to you!"

"An improper appearance damages the reputation of Mount Hua." It was something Master often lectured him about, and Linghu Chong blurted it out at Wang Jingyuan without thinking.

Wang Jingyuan glanced at the words above Linghu Chong's head. "You're Senior Brother?"

Linghu Chong said in surprise, "Junior Disciple Brother recognized me at a glance?"

"Those three huge words are obvious to anyone who isn't blind. Also, if I add another inner robe, that should be enough, right?"

Lu Dayou shook his head helplessly. "You should still dress more properly. Senior Brother is right. An improper appearance really does disgrace the sect."

"Tsk. Just as I thought—hardcore, with appearance requirements too." Wang Jingyuan swayed his pale bare butt as he turned and headed into the room. Afraid that he might do something else shocking, the two could only grit their teeth and follow him inside.

After following Wang Jingyuan into the room, the first thing they saw was Lu Dayou's monkey. At that moment, it sat beside a large basin of water, vigorously scrubbing Wang Jingyuan's dirty clothes with its little paws.

"Little monkey, you?!" Lu Dayou stared in utter disbelief.

When the little monkey saw its owner, it bared its teeth and squeaked once in greeting, but its paws never stopped working.

As Wang Jingyuan put on his clothes, he said, "Don't look at me like that. I'm not exploiting it. I paid it dried fruit to wash my clothes."

The two looked closely, and sure enough, a fruit tray sat beside the little monkey, piled high with dried fruit. Lu Dayou's heart immediately stirred. Now that he knew the little monkey could do this, perhaps he could also... Wait!

Halfway through the thought, Lu Dayou suddenly noticed something strange. Even if the Mount Hua Sect was fairly well-off, dried fruit was still a rare treat. At first, Lu Dayou had assumed these dried fruits had been brought from Junior Disciple Brother's home.

But the more he looked at the tray holding the dried fruit, the more familiar it seemed. He had the feeling he had seen such a tray, paired with such dried fruit, somewhere before.

Seeing Lu Dayou staring so intensely at the tray of dried fruit, Linghu Chong also realized something was wrong. "Junior Disciple Brother, this tray of dried fruit..."

"Oh, I took it from the ancestral hall."

"What?!" Linghu Chong had thought himself one of the most absurd disciples on Huashan, but compared to this Junior Disciple Brother, he was nothing more than a minor witch before a great wizard.

Still, he was a loyal sort. He immediately crossed the distance in two strides, bent down, and scooped the fruit tray into his arms. He lightly weighed it in his hands. "We can find some wild fruit pits and spread them underneath. It should look the same. We need to return it quickly, or if Master finds out, you'll definitely get a beating."

Wang Jingyuan was unhappy. Pointing at the pitiful little monkey, he said, "That's the salary I promised it. Why are you taking it away?"

Linghu Chong pressed a hand to his forehead and sighed. "If nothing else works, give it some wild fruit afterward."

Wang Jingyuan took the fruit tray from Linghu Chong's hands. "If I promised dried fruit, then it gets dried fruit. I'm the one with the problem—what does that have to do with some working beast of burden? I used to be a beast of burden too. Beasts of burden shouldn't make things hard for other beasts of burden."

Wang Jingyuan returned the tray to the little monkey. Its eyes immediately welled with tears. If it could speak human language, it would probably have begun with, "Half my life has been spent drifting..."

Linghu Chong froze for a moment, then suddenly burst into laughter. "Junior Disciple Brother, you really are an interesting fellow—a man of his word. I'll shoulder this with you. Besides, I suppose I'm already in too much debt to worry about more."

Wang Jingyuan looked at him as though he were an idiot. "Your intelligence is still a little weak. If I do this, nothing will happen. But if you take the blame onto yourself, I figure old... Master will beat you into a pile of loose Lego."

Although he had no idea what Lego was, that did not stop Linghu Chong from losing his smile.