23 Different From the Others

'Have I heard wrong?' Qinghai thought, 'Xingtian has just...' His entirely self was shaken. Xingtian was like himself; someone who would leave things to his subordinates unless the business was really important so why had he...

'Could that girl be... different from the others?' With that question in his head, he reassumed his steps, following Xingtian from behind and without bothering him anymore; he wanted to have a good panoramic view to give himself an overall idea about what was going in Xingtian's mind.

Huan Meirong and Zhi'er had already turned at the corner to their left by this time and they were a few steps from the herb shop.

"Eldest miss, it is in front, we are almost there," Zhi'er said as he unconsciously pointed to a little store ahead to his right.

"I hope eldest miss can buy all that eldest miss wants," he added when he saw how little the shop was and felt the little bag with silver coins in his chest.

'I hope that too,' she agreed with Zhi'er in her thoughts.

They reached the entrance of the little herb shop and not long before they crossed its doorway, the smell of tens of herbs assaulted her nose. They were just rank one and two herbs and weren't of high quality, some just barely reached the middle-quality threshold. Even so, she couldn't be picky and for what she wanted to use them it didn't matter at all.

Inside, a little ten-year-old kid was sweeping the floor and when he saw both of them, he quickly left what he was doing and approached them, saying warmly, "Welcome to this humble Green Herb Floor, dear customers. What can this little one do to help you?"

Hearing the sweet and polite kid's voice made her heart soften instantly, painting a gentle smile in her beautiful face. She nodded and said, "Heh, what a polite little friend. This big sister needs you to call an elder." When she said 'big sister' she felt weird as in the past she had lived over thirty years of age, meaning that the little kid could have passed like her son.

'But… it will have been more strange if I have called myself aunt, right?' just right after having questioned herself in her mind, she got goosebumps as she felt the unsaid 'aunt' word in her lips. She shook away that feeling before a thought suddenly popped out amid the flock of aunt words she had hovering in her head, 'Aunt… it doesn't sound that bad.

*Sigh* I hope big brother and sister Yueyu's things have gone well. Hmm…' Her big brother, who was born from the first wife of her father of her past life, was nine years older than her but hadn't gotten married during the time she had been alive. Even so, her big brother had an extraordinary talent in immortal cultivation and his appearance the last time she had seen him was that of a young man in his early twenties; the looks of her sister Yueyu, who she considered her sister-in-law, were also a match to her big brother's, though her sister-in-law was six years older than her. That wasn't a surprise as she was a genius and the sole daughter of Shangguang Jun, the Great Elder of the All Boundary School; the only cultivation school in the land, which was why it had a settling in all the empires as it wasn't a sect.

However, despite all their talent and the back-up of the Great Elder, things weren't that simple, making their relationship slow and informal. A month before her death, she remembered her big brother said to her that everything was getting in place and needed to go back to the All Boundary School main headquarters to take of some details but she died; she really hoped things had gone as he planned.

*Squeak*

Huan Meirong put aside her speculations and worries when she heard the squeaking sound of a door opening, the little kid hadn't given her a reply and had gone to the back of the store as her head was pondering on her past; she had been aware of it but she hadn't cared till he arrived before the door at the back and opened it.

"Grandpa, grandpa, a big sister is looking for you," the little kid called.

'A kid is a kid,' she laughed to herself at the effusive calling of the child before telling Zhi'er to lead the way to the counter.