The Banquet

"Master, I'm back~"

Zhu Zhuqing returned to Phantom Star Academy, and Chen An had not yet begun preparing the barbecue.

"Oh? Back so early? It seems things went quite smoothly."

Chen An stood up and teased with a smile.

At his words, Zhu Zhuqing's expression shifted, filled with obvious disdain.

"Don't even mention it, Master. I've truly seen it all now. You have no idea..."

Zhu Zhuqing opened the floodgates, recounting the events that had just transpired, while also describing the situation of the woman on the windowsill.

"That kid was indeed in the wrong, but why is he eating so well?"

Zhu Zhuqing didn't catch the second half of his sentence; she had no idea what Chen An was muttering about.

"Master, what did you say?"

"Ah, nothing."

Some things were better left unsaid; there was no need to corrupt this child.

"By the way, Master, I bought some ingredients. The ones you kept saying you needed—I picked them up on my way back."

Zhu Zhuqing told a small lie; it hadn't been on her way at all, and she had taken a massive detour to gather everything.

"I also saw this little trinket and thought it looked nice, very fitting for you, so I grabbed it while I was at it."

This was another small lie; it wasn't "while she was at it," nor was it an accidental find. She had gone out of her way to hunt for it, carefully selecting it before handing the storage ring of ingredients and the bracelet over to Chen An.

Accepting his disciple's kind intentions, Chen An naturally took them with pleasure. As for those little lies? Were they important? Not in the slightest.

"Go take a rest for a bit. We're about to have a barbecue. Oh, right, go call Little Stone later; he seems to still be cultivating."

As Chen An gave his instructions, Zhu Zhuqing felt a sudden sense of unease. Her junior brother was still working hard?

If he was going to be this competitive, didn't that make her look like a clown?

Her expression turned strange. She hadn't expected Dai Mubai to put pressure on her, but this little junior brother was putting the pressure on instead.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing, Master."

Zhu Zhuqing didn't say anything aloud, but in her heart, she was already plotting a way to make her junior brother eat plenty of heavy, filling starches later so he would feel bloated and sleepy, allowing her to get a head start on her own training tonight.

The most important thing right now was to stop her junior brother from cultivating.

"Then Master, I'll go call my junior brother now."

With that, Zhu Zhuqing took off as if she had greased her heels, moving with lightning speed.

Chen An watched her, stunned. What was wrong with this girl? He began to wonder if he had said something wrong.

Shaking it off, he put on the bracelet Zhu Zhuqing had given him, a silly, happy grin spreading across his face.

"Hehe, hehe."

If only he had some acquaintances or friends in this world.

He would have grabbed them by the collar and said, "Hey, how did you know my sweet disciple gave me a gift?"

"Sigh, it's a bit of a common design, looks a little plain when worn. You don't have one, do you? Hehe."

After giggling to himself for a while, he reined in his creepy expression and hurried to the cafeteria, bringing out the barbecue grill and the charcoal.

And the fire starter...

Looking at the fire starter in his hand, he calculated that he would need to take on a fire-attribute disciple in the future.

His Myriad Silk was attribute-less, which simply wasn't comprehensive enough.

"Master~"

Zhu Zhuqing dragged Little Stone into the cafeteria. Seeing the cowering look on Little Stone's face, it was clear that the method used to wake him up hadn't been very friendly.

"Since you're here, help wash the other ingredients."

It was still inconvenient, Chen An thought to himself. It seemed there was a Five Spirits Academy nearby, wasn't there?

Cough, cough. He was feeling a bit tempted by the students there.

"Understood."

Zhu Zhuqing and Little Stone busied themselves with the washing. Little Stone, who hadn't wanted to come, was now working even harder than Zhu Zhuqing. In his past, he never would have dared to dream of such a good life.

"Here you go, Master."

"Good lad."

As batch after batch of barbecue came off the grill, paired with a claypot porridge, it was truly delicious. Though conditions were limited and he couldn't quite replicate the flavors of his past life, it was still incredibly satisfying to eat.

At this point, Little Stone was completely won over by the food; no one could match his speed at devouring it.

As the saying goes, fifteen is the age of bottomless hunger.

"Junior brother, eat more."

Zhu Zhuqing kept feeding him, which made Chen An quite amused; he had roughly guessed the little girl's hidden agenda by now—she was truly a black-bellied child.

It seemed he would have to keep an eye on this kid for a while to prevent any mishaps.

"Mmph, Senior Sister, mmph, I can't eat that fast."

He had thought it was that he couldn't eat that much, but it turned out he just couldn't eat that fast.

Everyone was happy throughout the dinner party.

After eating and drinking their fill, they chatted for a while, with Chen An transforming into a little expert on emotions and a front-line gossip enthusiast. Especially regarding Zhu Zhuqing, who had once been in the Zhu Family; the gossip of the nobility tasted the sweetest.

For example, "The Zhu Family and the Dai Family had a marriage alliance, but someone married over there only to discover that her fiancé was acting like his own father-in-law."

Or, "An aunt came crying home, and the whole family went over to demand an explanation, only to find that the other party's legs had been broken by that aunt and he was still lying in bed. Originally, the Dai Family didn't want to pursue it, but the Zhu Family showed up at their door, so they had no choice but to pay compensation..."

After a night of consuming gossip, Chen An remarked that the nobility really knew how to play.

As they chatted, just when Chen An was enjoying the gossip, the two little ones naturally steered the conversation back to cultivation, leaving him feeling quite helpless.

If he had a social media feed, he would really want to post right now: "My students are too competitive and self-motivated, what should I do?"

"It's getting late. Finish cleaning up and go back to rest."

Needless to say, this kind of work was still done by his disciples, though he was indeed considering hiring a few people or opening a chore hall; after all, doing this every day wasn't a long-term solution.

As for whether he would implement it immediately, that was unlikely; he was still quite poor at the moment.

Perhaps once he got the medicinal garden up and running, he could sell some herbs to subsidize things, or look into the forging hall—after all, the strange arts contained within the cultivation manual library covered a great many things.

"Understood~"

With their master's orders, how could they dare not listen? They just had to hunker down and get to work.

Before leaving, Chen An looked at Zhu Zhuqing, then at Little Stone, and for some reason, he felt a sudden urge to be a bit mischievous. He cleared his throat, put on airs, and even pitched his voice up before speaking.

"Zhuqing, don't cultivate too late tonight, alright?"

He slipped away immediately after speaking, leaving the two children staring at each other in confusion.

"Senior Sister, I was wondering why things were so strange tonight, with you constantly piling food onto my plate."

After hearing Chen An's words, Zhu Zhuqing was stunned for a moment, and then she began cursing in her heart. Being exposed like this made her feel a bit embarrassed, but then again, face wasn't exactly an important thing to begin with—it was something she could discard whenever she pleased.

"Junior Brother, I suddenly remembered I have something to attend to. You finish cleaning up; I'm heading out first."

Zhu Zhuqing decided to show her hand; she wasn't going to act anymore.

She put the items down and took off in a flash. As a possessor of the Civet Spirit, her speed was already impressive, and she was even better at running away.

"..."

Little Stone looked at the unwashed tableware in his hands, then blankly at the direction where his master and senior sister had departed.

There was a phrase that suited his current situation perfectly: "Brothers, I think I've been set up."

It took him a good while to catch his breath. What else could he do? Just get to work. He had seen worse situations before, not to mention that his senior sister had given him her food.

He moved the things Zhu Zhuqing hadn't finished washing over to his spot and continued scrubbing, though the wind felt a bit cold...