Chapter 51: Queuing to Serve
Second Elder’s mouth twitched multiple times. Everything that had happened today kept challenging his heart. If he happened to die of excessive heart palpitations one day, it’d definitely be because of Ling Chunxi! Since he was at it, was discussing the development of her abilities or these plates of half-eaten food more important right now?! Second Elder speechlessly watched Ling Chunxi coo over the overturned plates on their table.
“You want another surprise Second Elder? Qin Xiruo injured her arm because she deviated while she was cultivating, but she covered this up and threw dirty water on me instead. I think it’s about time I collected this debt.” Ling Chunxi laughed as she dropped another bombsh.e.l.l on Second Elder.
At this, Second Elder could no longer keep his cool. He slammed his palm upon the table and malice colored his face. ‘So that was what actually happened! Every time the Lings spoke to the Qins regarding business and other matters, they always threatened us with this incident. Saying the Ling family’s wastrel tarnished the future of the Qin family’s genius and destroyed their pillar of hope. The Lings always gave in to the Qins’ terms because of this. The Qins had also used Qin Xiruo’s injury as an excuse to bully Ling Chunxi a lot over the years. Who would’ve thought that the truth of the matter was in fact completely different!’
Second Elder’s focus descended back to reality after reflecting upon these revelations about the Qins and snapped, “We must get Qin Xiruo to…” Halfway through his sentence, Second Elder met and was silenced by Ling Chunxi’s furious glare.
The reason she was glaring at him was very simple. Second Elder had broken the table clean into two when he struck its surface with his palm again. Aside from two dishes held in either one of Ling Chunxi’s hands, the rest of the plates were broken with the food they contained split upon the floor. This made Ling Chunxi very unhappy. Very, very unhappy indeed.
“Chunxi, my dear. Let’s order some food and we’ll discuss strategies after we eat. How about that?” Second Elder smiled awkwardly in realization and attempted to placate Ling Chunxi.
“Order double the amount!” barked an extremely irritated Ling Chunxi.
…
This was the day Ling Chuxi metamorphosed. Talk of the stone monument used for a.s.sessments for generations being unable to sustain her Ocean Qi was spread around the whole of s.h.i.+ Qu Town in just half a day. If it was just the Ling family talking about it, perhaps other people would not quite have believed it. However, as even a few disciples of the Qin family had personally witnessed the incident, it was impossible to doubt the truth of the matter.
For many, these past few days following Ling Chunxi’s big day had been an exercise in flattening her doorway frame. It annoyed Aunt w.a.n.g. Who else could be the cause of all this extra work for her other than the Ling family’s disciples? They had seen Ling Chuxi’s peerless beauty and innate talent on the day of the a.s.sessment ceremony and were now constantly thinking about her, unable to let go of the emotions she’d stirred in them. Therefore, everyone acted upon their newfound pa.s.sion for Ling Chunxi with much vigor.
“Aunt w.a.n.g, these are chestnut cakes I bought for Chuxi. I queued up for a really long time to buy them. Could I trouble you to pa.s.s them to her?”
“Aunt w.a.n.g, this is a silk handkerchief I asked others to bring back from a faraway country. The workmans.h.i.+p is very detailed, and it’s skillfully and superbly crafted. It’s completely authentic. Could I trouble you to… Ouch! The h.e.l.l are you pus.h.i.+ng like that for? Go to the back and join the queue!”
“Aunt w.a.n.g, look here, look here. This is something I prepared specially for Chuxi…”
Aunt w.a.n.g’s smile was no longer a smile at this point. The grimace on her face was even more grotesque than the one made when she ugly cried. In the past, she was worried and anxious when she saw that her Miss and the rest of the Ling clan’s younger generation didn’t have good relations. However, now she was just annoyed at the overly pa.s.sionate displays of affection demonstrated by all these people towards her Miss.
Across the courtyard, Ling Chuxi could still hear much commotion coming from the front of her house despite waiting for quite a while. She frowned impatiently, turned to stalk off towards the back of the house then leapt over the rear wall and walked towards Qin Xiruo’s house.
It was time to collect her debt!