"Master, I was just speaking out of anger yesterday. You don't need to take it to heart." Jiang Yantian smiled.
Luo Xingcai shook her head. "Perhaps you really were speaking out of anger, but angry words can also reveal the truest side of things."
"I really shouldn't have favored some over others!"
Jiang Yantian shook his head helplessly as well.
He really had deliberately tried to anger Luo Xingcai yesterday.
In truth, this sort of thing was very common within sects. Where was there ever absolute fairness?
Having high hopes for talented disciples, focusing on nurturing them, and even favoring them were all perfectly normal.
So normal that every sect and faction acted this way.
There was nothing wrong with Luo Xingcai's actions!
His words had simply pierced a tender spot in her heart.
"Master, I'm serious. Just keep following those same principles."
"There's no such thing as absolute fairness. Besides, focusing your efforts allows prodigies to grow faster, doesn't it?"
"No, I truly haven't done well enough. I'm very grateful that you opened my eyes and kept me from making the same mistake over and over!"
Every word Luo Xingcai spoke came from the heart.
She had truly recognized her mistake.
As she spoke, she looked at Jiang Yantian. "Since you say I should keep doing what I did before and focus on nurturing certain disciples..."
"Then why does your Law Enforcement Lineage treat everyone equally? Clearly, you say one thing and mean another!"
Luo Xingcai had looked into it. Jiang Yantian gave no one special treatment; everyone was treated the same.
Jiang Yantian burst out laughing. "Master, that's where you're wrong. I do that because, in my eyes, they're all noobs. I can't be bothered to nurture a single one of them."
"I usually let them roam free and take missions themselves. When I'm in a good mood, I hand out resources to everyone, and that's that. Easy as can be!"
"Besides, the Law Enforcement Lineage handles punishments. The cultivation methods and martial skills they practice are rather sinister too. Really, as long as they're ruthless enough at heart and strike hard enough, that's pretty much all they need!"
"They don't have as many intricacies to worry about as the Dao of the Sword, the Dao of Alchemy, the Dao of Formations, or the Dao of Talismans."
"If any of them ever wants to leave the sect, they can casually get a job as an auxiliary cop outside-no, go oversee punishments for just about any faction-and receive very good compensation."
Luo Xingcai said nothing more.
Indeed, the Law Enforcement Lineage was rather special. To put it realistically, there were rich pickings to be had there.
There were ten thousand paths to cultivating immortality and attaining the Dao, but resources were the foundation.
"All right, Master, let's stop talking about that. Just do what your heart tells you."
"Of course, don't think you're doing a bad job. You have to learn to make comparisons. Take Elder Gu from the Formation Dao Branch next door. He's the one who's no good, actually peeping on female disciples bathing!"
"That old turtle! Isn't he afraid he'll get corns on his eyes?"
Luo Xingcai froze. "Where did you hear that? How do you know?"
Jiang Yantian crossed one leg over the other, grinning. "Of course I know. He and I... uh... I ran into him and caught him red-handed!"
"I was so angry that I gave him a good talking-to. Luckily, no female disciples were bathing, or wouldn't their innocence have been lost?"
Luo Xingcai was dubious, and she gave Jiang Yantian a rather strange look.
But seeing his air of righteous integrity, she didn't think any further about it.
A little while later, Jiang Yantian, who had been eating pastries, suddenly patted himself down.
Then, as though startled, he abruptly stood up and began feeling all over his body.
Puzzled, Luo Xingcai couldn't help asking, "What's wrong?"
"Huh? Nothing. I just lost something..."
Jiang Yantian seemed a little anxious as he searched through his robes.
Luo Xingcai had never seen Jiang Yantian this anxious before, and she couldn't help asking again, "What is it? Is it important?"
Jiang Yantian seemed to glance at Luo Xingcai instinctively, then hurriedly looked away and said slowly, "To other people, perhaps it isn't very important."
"But it means something different to me..."
Luo Xingcai stood up too, as though she intended to help him search.
Jiang Yantian murmured, "That's impossible. I take it out to look at it every day, and I often put things inside it. How could I have lost it?"
Luo Xingcai grew increasingly curious. "What are you talking about?"
Jiang Yantian paused, then sighed. "It's... a piece of silk cloth with red beans wrapped inside."
At Jiang Yantian's words, Luo Xingcai visibly froze.
Wasn't that the silk cloth she had picked up at the scene after her fight with Jiang Yantian? There had been plenty of red beans wrapped inside it.
There had even been lines of poetry written on it, addressed to... her.
At the thought, Luo Xingcai felt a little awkward.
Because that item was on her right now. She hadn't thrown it away after reading it, but had put it away safely, planning to return it to Jiang Yantian's place without anyone being the wiser.
But now that Jiang Yantian had discovered it was missing, it was even harder for her to take it out.
Otherwise, wouldn't that be the same as admitting she knew how Jiang Yantian felt?
How would she conduct herself then?
"It sounds quite ordinary, as though..." Luo Xingcai didn't even know what to say.
Jiang Yantian really seemed unable to find it, and a hint of dejection showed on his face.
"Actually... actually, it's something I entrusted my feelings to. I... I like someone, but because of our positions, I can't tell her."
"Whenever I can't hold back my feelings, I make a trip to a village a thousand li to the south. There's a patch of red bean bushes there!"
"Every time I go, I pick a red bean to express what's in my heart. It also serves as a reminder not to dream impossible dreams."
"Well..." Luo Xingcai was a little moved, and she felt an inexplicable tightness in her heart.
She truly hadn't imagined that this was where those wrapped-up red beans had come from.
A trace of sadness appeared on Jiang Yantian's face as well. "I was thinking that once I collected two hundred, I would pluck up my courage and tell her how I felt..."
"Now that it's lost, it seems this is heaven's will. It can't be forced..."
Jiang Yantian sat down, looking utterly lost, and sighed.
Inside, however, he was cackling. Master, the countdown to making a move on my master starts now. Hehehe!
Luo Xingcai truly didn't know what to say.
She couldn't very well say that she had it on her, that she had already read it and knew how he felt, could she?
Rather than make things awkward, it was better to pretend she knew nothing.
"Ah... heaven's decree cannot be defied. Perhaps it's time to wake from the dream." Jiang Yantian lowered his head.
Luo Xingcai felt inexplicably uneasy.
But since she was pretending to know nothing, she naturally still had to do what was expected of her as his master.
"Do... do you like her that much?" Luo Xingcai cast herself as a bystander and asked.
Jiang Yantian knew that she knew, but now he was pretending she didn't. Wasn't that an open invitation to say whatever he wanted?
Jiang Yantian nodded emphatically. "Yes. 'Like' might not be quite accurate. I love her deeply."
"She's an exceptionally outstanding person, just as outstanding as you, Master, and she's very beautiful too. She's a goddess standing far above countless people's hearts."
"I-is that so?" Luo Xingcai hardly dared to look at Jiang Yantian anymore.
"Yes. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say, 'One backward glance and smile gave birth to a hundred charms; the powdered beauties of the six palaces lost all their color.' In truth, I no longer know how to describe her beauty."
"When I first met her, one smile of hers etched itself into my memory to this day. Unfortunately, our positions were different. Back then, I was still just an unknown little disciple under you, Master."
"I didn't dare entertain wild hopes, but simply being able to watch her from afar felt good enough."
Jiang Yantian laid on the sentiment thick. In truth, all that sentiment could be summed up in a single sentence: Master, I want to fuck you!
But of course he couldn't say that now. He could only keep tugging at her heartstrings.