When Xing Yan returned to Thousand Birds Cliff, he found that Qiong Rong and Kou Xueyi had not yet come back. After all the commotion during his visit to the scripture repository, his excitement had subsided into weariness. He rested on a stone stool in the Cloud-Sleeve Pavilion, letting the cool mountain breeze sweeping across the cliff blow the fatigue from his body.
After resting a while longer, he was admiring the mountain scenery when he spotted the other two members of his Four Seas Hall approaching from afar along the stone path before the cliff. The lively figure skipping ahead was naturally Qiong Rong; the graceful, unhurried figure behind her was the dignified, modest Kou Xueyi.
When the two returned to the cliff, little Qiong Rong saw her brother Xing Yan sitting lost in thought in the Cloud-Sleeve Pavilion. She ran up to him and, as though presenting treasures, laid out the fresh fruit they had gathered in the mountains, one by one, on the stone table before him. Drops of water still glistened on the red and orange fruit. The girls must have washed them in a mountain stream before returning.
It seemed that little Qiong Rong truly had quite a talent for finding wild fruit. Xing Yan casually picked one up and took a gentle bite. At once, a sweet, rich juice burst through its skin and flooded his tongue. Beyond that delicious sweetness, a fresh, cooling sensation flowed through his whole body as he swallowed the juice. It was wonderfully refreshing!
Even as he savored this delicious treat, Xing Yan did not forget to mumble a few words of praise between mouthfuls.
Seeing how much her brother liked the fruit she had picked, little Qiong Rong, though at an age when she loved eating treats herself,