49 Bad Timing

The box of candied hawthorns lasted us only a few days, and I wasn't going to tell anyone how we ate them. All I'd say is I wished madly that there was more.

No more news came from Zhong Yilan in the meantime. No challenges, no gossips. The calmness disturbed me at first—with the tournament only half a month away, everything seemed too quiet and peaceful for her style—but as the days went by, I started to wonder if she had simply chosen to wait for me to make the first move.

It wouldn't have made the situation much better for me, though the thought of it lessened my worries and allowed me to focus better on my training. At the end of the week, I was feeling confident enough about the challenges that I decided to visit Xie Lun for a trial before the tournament.

Qi Lian was the first to greet me as always. "Yun Qing-er! You seem to look different today," he commented as he led me inside.