The consequences of soaking in cold water and being buffeted by winter winds were inevitable—I, who hadn’t been sick in decades, finally fell ill.
My face was flushed, and my limbs felt weak, but I hadn’t yet washed the clothes I promised Mu Xuan I’d clean. After living with him for a month, I knew he was a man who took promises seriously—meticulously so. Groaning, I rolled out of bed, fetched water in the courtyard, and began scrubbing.
Mu Xuan was nowhere to be found that morning. As I worked on the laundry, I suddenly heard voices outside the gate.
“Word has it that you’ve taken on a female disciple, Senior Brother. I didn’t believe it, but it turns out to be true!”
I turned to see Mu Xuan walking into the courtyard alongside another man. They were both dressed in the same robes, but this “junior brother” had a far more cheerful expression than Mu Xuan. “So that makes me her Uncle Master now,” he added with a grin, stepping closer to me. When he got within three paces, his expression changed.
“Senior Brother, is something wrong with your disciple?”
Mu Xuan, who had just walked up behind him, glanced at me. His brow furrowed. “You’re sick?”
I nodded. “It seems that way.”
The junior brother immediately became agitated. “Then why on earth are you washing clothes?!”
I lowered my head. “I promised Master yesterday that I’d wash his clothes.”
“Senior Brother! How could you mistreat your own disciple like this? I’m going to report this to the Master!”
“Mu Jue, shut up.”
The moment Mu Xuan said this, Mu Jue snapped his mouth shut and dared not speak another word. It seemed Mu Xuan treated his fellow disciples with the same taciturn authority he showed me.
“Leave the clothes and go lie down,” Mu Xuan instructed.
I nodded, rinsed my hands, wiped them on my clothes, and turned to head back to my room. As I passed Mu Xuan, I stumbled, intentionally twisting my ankle, and fell directly into him.
Yes, I did it on purpose.
Grabbing the front of his robe, I groaned weakly—a combination of genuine discomfort and skillful acting.
Mu Xuan instinctively caught me, though his entire body stiffened, clearly unused to such close contact. His junior brother, on the other hand, spun around in panic. “Oh no, she fainted! What do we do? What illness is this? Can she still live?”
Mu Xuan stood rigid for a moment, then turned his head to answer Mu Jue’s frantic questions. “Just a common cold. There’s medicine in the village.”
“I’ll get it! I’ll get it!” Mu Jue took off, sword flying, and shouted back mid-air, “Don’t let her die before she calls me Uncle Master!”
Uncle Master, farewell! Uncle Master, you truly have a sense of timing!
I leaned into Mu Xuan a bit more. Seeing no reaction from him, I slid toward the ground entirely. Sure enough, he caught me again, one arm around my waist and the other gripping my hand to keep me from hitting the ground.
Whether this was due to lingering guilt from yesterday or genuine concern, I didn’t care—I had achieved my goal. Gleefully, I thought, Hold me, hold me closer. Soon you won’t even think twice about me being near.
Mu Xuan helped me back to the house. When he opened the door to the woodshed and saw the drafty walls and sunlit cracks in the roof, his expression grew even darker.
I pointed to the straw bed. “Master, I sleep there. Just toss me onto it.”
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