Jiang Cheng stowed away the clouds on his face, “Don’t mind him. Look at how impolite he is. He’s used to such rude behavior at home.”
He then began to converse with Jin ZiXuan.
Watching the two, Wei WuXian let out a long sigh in silence. The good thing was that Nie MingJue wasn’t too interested in the things going on here. He quickly looked away, and Wei WuXian wasn’t able to see them anymore.
The QingheNie Sect’s residence, the Unclean Realm—
Nie MingJue was sitting on a mat seat. A guqin lay horizontally before Lan XiChen as he brushed his fingers over the strings. When the song finished, Jin GuangYao laughed, “Well, now that I’ve heard Brother’s guqin skills, I might as well smash my guqin the moment I get home.”
Lan XiChen, “Your skills are also considered quite fine outside of Gusu. Were they taught by your mother?”
Jin GuangYao, “No. I taught myself by watching others. She never taught me such things. She only taught me reading and writing, and bought a handful of expensive sword and cultivation guides for me to practice.”
Lan XiChen seemed surprised, “Sword and cultivation guides?”
Jin GuangYao, “Brother, you haven’t seen them before, have you? Those small booklets sold by the common folk. First jumbled sketches of human figures, then deliberately mystified captions.”
Lan XiChen shook his head, smiling. Jin GuangYao shook his head as well, “All of them are scams, especially to fool women like my mother and ignorant children. You won’t lose anything by practicing them, but you definitely won’t gain anything either.”
He sighed in a rueful way, “But how could my mother have known this? She bought them no matter how expensive they were, saying that if I returned to see my father in the future, I had to see him with as much competence as possible so that I don’t fall behind. All of the money was spent on this.”
Lan XiChen strummed the strings of the guqin, “You are very talented, having achieved so much from simply watching others. If a master could offer you advice, you would make rapid progress.”
Jin GuangYao grinned, “The master is right before my eyes, but I’d never dare to trouble him.”
Lan XiChen, “Why not? Young Master, sit, please.”
And Jin GuangYao sat down in front of him, his back straight and still. He pretended as though he was a student humbly listening to advice, “Teacher Lan, what will you be teaching?”
Lan XiChen, “How about Sound of Lucidity?”
Jin GuangYao’s eyes lit up, but before he could speak, Nie MingJue looked up, “Sound of Lucidity is one of the GusuLan Sect’s exclusive teachings. It shouldn’t be leaked.”
Lan XiChen, though, didn’t seem to mind. He smiled, “Sound of Lucidity is different from Sound of Vanquish in that its usage is to clear one’s mind. How selfish must I be to withhold such a therapeutic technique? Besides, why would teaching it to our third brother be considered as a leakage?”
Seeing that his heart was set, Nie MingJue didn’t say anything further.
One day, the moment he returned to the main hall of the Unclean Realm, he saw about a dozen folding fans, all lined in gold, flattened out one next to the other in front of Nie HuaiSang, who was touching them tenderly, mumbling as he compared the inscriptions written on each one. Immediately, veins protruded from Nie MingJue’s forehead, “Nie HuaiSang!”
Nie HuaiSang fell at once.
He really did fall to his knees from the terror. He only staggered up after he finished kneeling, “B-b-b-brother.”
Nie MingJue, “Where is your saber?”
Nie HuaiSang cowered, “In… in my room. No, in the school grounds. No, let me… think…”
Wei WuXian could feel that Nie MingJue almost wanted to hack him dead right there, “You bring a dozen fans with you wherever you go, yet you don’t even know where your own saber is?!”
Nie HuaiSang hurried, “I’ll go find it right now!”
Nie MingJue, “There’s no need! Even if you find it you won’t get anything out of it. Go burn all of these!”
All of the color drained out of Nie HuaiSang’s face. He rushed to pull all of the fans into his arms, pleading, “No, Brother! All of these were given to me!”
Nie MingJue slammed his palm onto a table, causing it to crack, “Who did? Tell them to scurry out here right now!”
Someone spoke, “I did.”
Jin GuangYao walked in from outside the hall. Nie HuaiSang looked as though he saw a knight in shining armor, beaming, “Brother, you’re here!”
In reality, it wasn’t that Jin GuangYao could calm Nie MingJue’s anger, but that since Jin GuangYao came, all of Nie MingJue’s anger would be directed at him alone, having no time to scold others. Thus, there was nothing wrong with saying that he was Nie HuaiSang’s knight in shining armor. Nie HuaiSang was absolutely delighted. He greeted Jin GuangYao again and again as he grabbed the fans in haste. Seeing how his younger brother reacted, Nie MingJue was so outraged that he almost found it amusing. He turned to Jin GuangYao, “Don’t send him those useless things!”
In a hurry, Nie HuaiSang dropped a few fans on the ground. Jin GuangYao picked them up for him and put them into his arms, “HuaiSang’s hobbies are quite elegant. He’s dedicated to art and calligraphy, and has no propensity for mischief. How can you say that they’re useless?”
Nie HuaiSang nodded as fast as he could, “Yes, Brother is right!”
Nie MingJue, “But sect leaders have no need for such things.”
Nie HuaiSang, “I’m not going to be a sect leader, though. You can be it, Brother. I’m not doing it!”
As his brother’s glance swept over, he shut his mouth at once. Nie MingJue turned to Jin GuangYao, “What did you come here for?”
Jin GuangYao, “Our second brother said that he gave you a guqin.”
The guqin was given when Lan XiChen was here to play Sound of Lucidity for Nie MingJue, in order to help him calm his temper. Jin GuangYao continued, “Brother, in the past few days, the GusuLan Sect is at a critical point in its reestablishment of the Cloud Recesses and you refuse to let him come, which was why he taught me Sound of Lucidity. I assume that even though I’m not as skilled as our second brother, I’d still be able to help calm you to a certain extent, Brother.”
Nie MingJue, “Just take care your own things.”
Nie HuaiSang, however, was rather interested, “Brother, what song? Can I listen? Let me tell you, the limited edition that you gave me last time…”
Nie MingJue shouted, “Go back to your room!”
Nie HuaiSang fled at once, not to his room, however, but to the living room for the presents that Jin GuangYao had brought him. With a few interruptions, Nie MingJue’s fury had mostly died. He turned around to look at Jin GuangYao, whose face seemed quite tired, robes of Sparks Amidst Snow covered in dust. He probably came here directly from Carp Tower. After a pause, Nie MingJue spoke, “Sit.”
Jin GuangYao nodded lightly and sat as he had been told, “Brother, if you’re concerned for HuaiSang, softer words would do no harm. Why this?”
Nie MingJue, “Even when a blade’s at his neck he’s still like this. Looks like he’ll always be a good-for-nothing.”