The Pink-Haired Second Senior Sister
Kexi staggered out.
His four senior and junior sisters stood in a row, eight eyes trained on him like searchlights.
Jinhsi was the first to rush over, her twin ponytails flying as she looked up and asked eagerly, "Brother Xi! Did Master hit you? Did she punish you? Did she-"
"I'm fine, I'm fine," Kexi said, hastily waving his hands and trying to make his expression look relaxed and natural. "Master just gave me a talking-to, three months of confinement, and two extra hours of sword practice every day. She didn't hit me or scold me, and she even gave me a bottle of medicine."
He pulled out the little white porcelain bottle and gave it a shake, deliberately leaving out what was to happen at the hour of the Pig that night.
"That's good, that's good!" Jinhsi patted her chest and let out a long breath.
Chisa hugged her saber and nodded with her usual icy expression, her tone as stern as ever in her colonel's accent. "Master, she do care about you after all. You no do that again."
"Yes, yes, you're right, Eldest Senior Sister." Kexi could now listen to a whole sentence in that colonel's accent without so much as changing expression or laughing out loud. He felt that his mental fortitude had made a qualitative leap in this short hour.
Suisui waved her little fan and narrowed her eyes at him, that ever-present mischievous smile on her lips. "That's all? Master didn't say anything else to you?"
Kexi's heart skipped a beat, but he put on a confused expression. "Anything else? No. What else could there be?"
Suisui stared at him for two seconds, then snapped her fan shut and gave a meaningful "Oh," without pressing further.
But she drew the word out for so long that Kexi's back began to sweat again.
Yangyang stepped forward and gently straightened the collar of his robe, which had been mussed in the hall. The gesture was natural and intimate.
Kexi was just about to be touched when her fingers accidentally brushed his neck. Her face turned red again, and she hopped half a step back like a startled rabbit.
Suisui clicked her tongue meaningfully beside them. Jinhsi tilted her head in confusion and asked, "Sister Yangyang, why is your face red?" Chisa added impassively, "She, she always like that."
Kexi was speechless, but he unexpectedly felt a subtle sense of reassurance.
The accents were outrageous and the character settings were a mess, but being surrounded by his senior and junior sisters as they chattered away felt a little like his everyday life in the real world, with Carlotta chasing him around trying to beat him up and Zani gossiping about him.
He could even say that, if he ignored the colonel's accent and the Zhuang-flavored Mandarin, this was the xianxia harem script he had always dreamed of.
Just as he was lost in the illusion that this actually isn't so bad, a whisper of footsteps came from the other end of the covered corridor.
Everyone stopped what they were doing at once.
Even Jinhsi, who had been chattering nonstop, fell silent and obediently stepped back beside Chisa, folding her hands neatly in front of her.
The air in the corridor seemed to grow a little lighter, as though afraid of disturbing something.
Someone came walking from the far end of the corridor.
Her long pink hair was tied in a high ponytail that fell to her waist, its ends glowing faintly pearlescent in the morning light.
A long white dress edged in pink wrapped around her slender figure, making her a captivating sight.
Kexi turned to look, and a single glance left him dumbstruck.
Pink hair, long hair, a high ponytail-could that be Aemeath?
Seeing him standing there in a daze, Yangyang introduced her softly. "Junior Brother, this is Second Senior Sister Changli."
All right, then.
Changli walked up to Kexi and tilted her head slightly to look at him.
"Junior Brother," she said. Her voice was warm and smooth as jade, her tone composed yet friendly. Every word was perfectly enunciated, without Chisa's colonel's accent, Jinhsi's Zhuang-flavored Mandarin, Suisui's barbed remarks, or Yangyang's tendency to cry.
She was exactly what a normal, mature, levelheaded senior sister should be.
Kexi nearly burst into tears on the spot.
Finally! Finally, a normal person! He was so excited that he almost wanted to rush over, take Changli's hand, and give a speech of thanks: thank her for remaining rational and dignified in Christopher's deranged script, thank her for not turning into something bizarre, and thank her that there was still a little warmth and hope in this world.
"Hello, Second Senior Sister!" He stood ramrod straight, his voice loud and vigorous, his expression as solemn as an elementary schooler attending his first flag-raising ceremony.
Changli looked at him, a faint trace of amusement flashing in her eyes.
She said nothing more, only nodding slightly, her tone gentle and composed. "I'm glad you're all right. Don't be so impulsive in the future. If you run into any difficulties, you can come discuss them with me."
"I understand. Thank you, Second Senior Sister. I will."
Kexi nodded vigorously, weeping inwardly.
What a normal conversation, what a normal tone, what normal concern!
This is what a senior sister should be like!
Then Changli spoke again.
"'Kay."
Kexi abruptly covered his face with one hand, as though he couldn't bear to look.
I knew it. I knew it.
From Chisa's colonel's accent to Jinhsi's Zhuang-flavored Mandarin, how could that bastard Christopher possibly have spared Changli?
How could he have let her be a perfectly ordinary, normal senior sister? I was too naive. I had far too many expectations of Ke Dog that I never should have had.
"Junior Brother?" Changli tilted her head slightly. Seeing him suddenly cover his face, she frowned in mild confusion. "Are you feeling unwell?"
"No, no, no, I'm fine. Really fine." Kexi peered through his fingers and squeezed out a smile uglier than if he were crying. "Second Senior Sister, you're also very... very distinctive."
Changli nodded, still looking as gentle and composed as ever, as though that "'kay" had been the most ordinary word in the world.
She turned to Yangyang and said gently, "Yangyang, go tidy up a room for Junior Brother. He's had a fright from jumping off the cliff, so make him a bowl of calming medicinal soup this evening. I have a few medicinal herbs at my place; I'll have Jinhsi bring them over in a little while."
Her words were clear and orderly, thorough and considerate, thoughtful in every respect and perfectly suited to her position as Second Senior Sister.
Kexi lowered the hand covering his face, a faint glimmer of hope rekindling in his heart.
Maybe that "'kay" really was just a slip of the tongue?
Then Changli turned to Chisa. "Eldest Senior Sister, I'm going to the back mountain to gather herbs this evening. Sorry for the trouble, but could you look after the sect's affairs in my place?"
Hugging her saber, Chisa gave a brisk nod. "Leave it to me. You go work without worry."
Changli nodded too and replied just as briskly-
"'Kay."
Kexi covered his eyes and tilted his face forty-five degrees toward the sky, wanting only to say one thing.
I don't dare open my eyes. I hope I'm imagining this.