Simply Trading

"The Snow Swallow Palace is a place which only accepts female pract.i.tioners as disciples. And they will need to be virgins when they join the same. So you should be safe enough once you get in there. And the old lecher wouldn"t be able to touch you. Not unless he wishes to have the powerful families of six different Kingdoms and two Empires setting a price on his head."

Xuan Mei"s perplexed scowl made it clear that she didn"t understand what her elderly father was talking about. Which led to Elder Yuan waving a hand at the floor in front of him, sweeping away all the fragments of wood and pottery, not to mention the cosmetic powders and rouge. Then he beckoned at his daughter.

He did not step up to the bed, when she sat down in it. Without the bed-covers to cushion her b.u.t.tocks, it was still much better than having to stand through his explanation. And she was already rather tired, Xuan Weizhong thought, after her little episode thrashing the furniture in the room.

There was, however, one set that escaped her tantrum. And Xuan Weizhong would have probably stopped her, if she had gone for the same. The dressing table and its accompanying stool were all that remained of her late mother, and he wasn"t about to let her destroy that.

But since it did survive her heartless onslaught, he did not hesitate to pull out the surviving stool and sit himself down on it. The girl, on the other hand, busied herself wiping off the tracks of her tears from her face with her sleeves.

And it was only after they were both seated comfortably that he began to explain:

"You might not have heard about this, but the Snow Swallow Palace is an organisation that is more than a hundred times more powerful than this pitiful Heaven Sword School. But it lies thousands of leagues to the Northeast, and does not usually interfere with the workings of other Schools and Sects. As such, you would probably not have heard of it. Or its reclusive Elders.

"As it happens, I have ... an acquaintance who had trained in the Snow Swallow Palace when she was younger, and she has already promised to help to ease your way into that place. Once you are tied to the Palace, you should be safe."

"But what about Big Brother Lin? He ..."

Elder Xuan Weizhong sighed and waved her interruption aside wearing what could be described as a mildly frustrated expression. "He should be more than happy for you, to have escaped the old lecher. If he so much as dares to complain about my methods, I shall break both of his legs for him!" he growled.

"It is all his fault in the first place! If he had not brought you out to visit his wastrel friends, you would not have been spotted by the old scoundrel. Then we wouldn"t have to go through all this trouble. If he dares to make any noise about my plans to keep you safe ..."

"How can you say that? He was just showing me around the ..."

Elder Xuan grunted at his daughter then, and his stern glare made her voice taper off without need for words. And he remained silent a little while longer, as though giving her a chance to reflect on what she had done.

Or what her "Big Brother Lin" had done. Or failed to do.

And it was rather obvious that he was laying the fault at the feet of this same "Big Brother" of hers. And the fire in his gaze also made it clear just what he was intending to do this "Big Brother Lin" if he should get his hands on the man.

Then the Elder seemed to recover somewhat, and his remonstrance came out as a sigh, devoid of any blame. Clearly, Xuan Weizhong was not willing to put his daughter through any further emotional distress:

"He should not have brought you out there, in any case. If he had simply showed you his home and introduced you to his parents and uncle, all of this would not have happened. Just be thankful that I have some friends there, who were quick enough to alert me when the fatuous scoundrel started to ask about you.

"Otherwise, we may not have had the time to arrange for all of this. Then where would you be? You should put away any thoughts of meeting Lin Liushui again until he is ready to pick you up and marry you! That is all that I am willing to say about your little escapade!"

The young woman pouted at that, but did not give voice to any protests. Xuan Weizhong peered at her out of the corner of his eye when he realized that she wasn"t making any noise at all. And his features took on a slightly uneasy appearance. As though he had just realized that he had been fooled by his daughter yet again.

But he refused to give voice to the questions that had just appeared in his head, and stoically looked over the ruins of his daughter"s bedchamber. He soon understood that his act was, however, fundamentally flawed, when Xuan Mei brought his attention to one of his chess pieces:

"What about Qin Feng? How am I supposed to face him now?"

Elder Xuan sighed again. That was clearly something that he had been worrying about for a while as well. "He is the only pa.s.sable young man that we can rely on to help us fool the b.a.s.t.a.r.d. And the best way to do it would be to fool everyone else. From what I have heard from Ming Guanhe, he is rather quick, and he has a rather good relationship with some of the girls from the Rear Gardens. So it would not be a surprise for you to mention him to me by name.

"And you have already met with him previously, so that should make it more believable."

"But he isn"t really ... I mean, he doesn"t know anything about all of this. What if he ... believes that my infatuation with him is true and ... What do I do then?"

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