When Qiao Ranran had treated Jiang Miaomiao, she had already collected her fee from Elder Jiang. But Elder Jiang's high-and-mighty manner had rubbed her the wrong way, so she had taken the payment and left without wasting another word on him. She wasn't about to storm off in a fit of temper without collecting her fee—that would only let Elder Jiang off cheap! Why quarrel with money?
As for the two gifts Xiang Rongxi had brought, Qiao Ranran had yet to say a word when Pei Ling reached out and took them. The jade-green and scarlet beaded bracelets rested against his pale fingers, strikingly beautiful in their contrast. Each had a small, clear, round stone at its center: a Heartbond Stone. That was the point of the bracelets. The rest were merely ordinary crystal stones and gemstones, simply refined.
In Pei Ling's eyes, the bracelets were crude work with nothing to recommend them. Yet in the Heartbond Stones, their sole point of interest, he did find one bright spot. As Xiang Rongxi had said, the bracelets had been taken to the Golden Zen Monastery and blessed by an eminent monk. They now held a trace of golden Zen Essence.
"An eminent monk?" Pei Ling was interested in this monk.
Heartbond Stones were rare, but they were hardly excellent Artifact Refining materials. They held their place only because ordinary people had given them a meaning of their own. As Pei Ling saw it, they were all show and no substance, utterly useless—props people used to convince themselves.
What sort of feelings needed a thing like this to symbolize them? How tedious.
Seeing Pei Ling's expression shift and the unmistakable look in his eyes, Qiao Ranran snatched the bracelets away. She slipped the red one onto his wrist and the green one