A dozen days later.
While the Song Clan and the Twin Dragons' Army were launching a fierce attack from east and west against the leaderless Chu, an unexpected thing happened: the letter Shi Qingxuan had written, inviting Annie to spend a few days at her home in Bashu, the Secluded Forest Cottage, actually made its way into Annie's hands.
The reason was that a certain troublesome little girl grandmaster hadn't left the Song Clan's mountain stronghold as Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling had imagined. Instead, she'd shamelessly stayed right there, acting as if she were one of the family and happily gorging herself on food and drink on someone else's turf.
And that wasn't all. She was also enjoying the attentive, deliberate pampering of the Song sisters, Song Yuzhi and Song Yuhua. Anyone who didn't know better might have thought she was the true mistress of Lingnan!
To be honest, if it weren't for that letter, who knew how much longer she might have stayed in the mountain stronghold? The Song Clan had gone out of its way to please her, serving her all kinds of delicious food and drink, with people assigned to wait on her day and night.
But anyway, after receiving the letter, learning about that silly Shi Qingxuan's predicament, and remembering that she had once said she would visit the other girl's so-called Secluded Forest Cottage if she ever got the chance...
Annie had just about had her fill of staying in the Song Clan's mountain stronghold. She'd eaten and drunk to her heart's content, and she was worried that the silly Xu Ziling might not arrive in time—or might prove too useless and get himself killed. After thinking it over and over, she finally decided, with great reluctance, to leave Lingnan and head for Bashu.