Aside from this, there was another very interesting matter: the number of chance encounters between Su Jiu and Ming Yun.
They ran into each other remarkably often, and on most of these occasions, Senior Brother Xia Jue was by Su Jiu's side.
Like now.
Ming Yun held herself high and mighty, her face calm and largely expressionless, as though she had been born that way. "Fellow Daoist Su," she greeted in a cool, detached voice.
Su Jiu gave her a puzzled glance, nodded, and prepared to walk past her. After all, they could hardly be considered acquainted.
Even during their previous chance encounters, this was how they had greeted each other.
But this time, Ming Yun clearly wanted more than a greeting. Her gaze turned toward Xia Jue. "I hear you are skilled at Go, Fellow Daoist Xia. Might we play a game?"
An enigmatic smile curved Su Jiu's lips.
Xia Jue glanced at Su Jiu with smiling eyes, then turned his gaze back to Ming Yun.
"Fellow Daoist Ming, I am not particularly skilled at Go. Besides, I have other matters to attend to. If you truly wish to play, Lan Fang Ziyi and Yun Huanling of the Heavenly Secret Sect are both better players than I am." Xia Jue felt those two really had far too much time on their hands. He could almost always find them hovering around his junior sister.
Now this Ming Yun seemed equally idle. To his mind, nothing could be better than putting idle people together to play Go.
As clever as Xia Jue was, how could he fail to see that Ming Yun's interest lay not in the wine, but elsewhere? Still, he reasoned that since she insisted on maintaining her lofty airs, she was bound to leave her true intentions unspoken.