25 New Day, New Clothes, New Challenges

"Alright Jin Fang, just forget about that weird...thing from last night and just greet him like normal,"the attendant told herself as she stood in front of Zhen Liu's door. As she reached to open it however, she paused.

Last night was...weird, to say the least. Jin Fang had no idea whether or not the Zhen Liu she knew was now possessed by something sinister or that weird ghost puppet thing was just a result of his newly acquired formula foundation.

"Oh right...Zhen Liu is...no longer handicapped..."

Jin Fang's hand dropped as this thought passed through her head. She didn't think about it yesterday since so much had happened and she was just happy to see him alive again, but now that things had kinda calmed down, doubts began to creep into her heart.

"Would...would he still see me the same?"

Normally, relationships between masters and their servants were inherently imbalanced from a power perspective and frowned upon. Especially if one happened to be the young heir to a noble family, while the other an orphan from the streets.

However, such issues tend to disappear when power gets involved. A family could only protest so much about their heir dating a commoner when the heir or the commoner could kick in the teeth of the clan leader. Inversely, the lack of power could be freeing.

Zhen Liu wasn't able to cultivate.That meant his family would've eventually written him off despite his parentage and he would be slowly weeded out from the upper social circles.

Nobody would want to have their daughters engaged to someone with no future, even if they were part of a prestigious clan.

But since he was handicapped, that meant he was free to pursue any relationship he wished without scrutiny, and that included Jin Fang.

As dark as it sounded, Jin Fang was kinda happy that Zhen Liu was handicapped and a pariah. She didn't have to worry about him getting engaged to someone else, didn't have to worry about other women seducing him and since she was still able to cultivate, they'd be able to carve out a comfortable if quiet life.

"But now that Zhen Liu can cultivate, he's able to participate in that social circle...and probably forget about little ole-"

"Morning Jin Fang."

"Ah! Fourth Young Master! You're up!"

Before Jin Fang could further explore these dark and mildly depressing thoughts, Zhen Liu interrupted her by opening the door himself.

"You're...looking much better," Jin Fang said while putting up a more chipper front.

"Thank you," Zhen Liu said with a smile, "I woke up extra early this morning in order to clean up a bit. I smelled like death."

When Zhen Liu returned to the compound to crash his own funeral, he looked rather disheveled and a little nuts. At the time, his clothes were still blood-stained and tattered, his hair was a mess and he had developed a bit of a stubble that did not work with his facial structure whatsoever. Now he actually looked the part of being a young master and was finally presentable again. Amazing what a bit of self-care can do for one's appearance.

"Anyways, I was about to go to the training grounds and exercise a bit. Wanna come?"

"Oh! I was about to wake you to go get breakfast," Jin Fang began to say, "But if you'd like to wait until after-"

"Actually, breakfast sounds great," Zhen Liu interjected, "I probably shouldn't practice on an empty stomach anyways. Shall we?"

Zhen Liu was just about to turn and walk down the hall before he stopped himself.

"Ah, wait. I forgot something important," Zhen Liu said with a serious face.

"What'd you forget?," Jin Fang asked, caught off-guard at Zhen Liu's sudden change in demeanor.

"This."

In that small moment of confusion, Zhen Liu leaned in and kissed Jin Fang on the forehead.

*Squeaky confused girl noises*

Evidently, Jin Fang was not expecting Zhen Liu to be so bold in the morning. That was usually her job.

A smile was on Zhen Liu's face as he pulled back and took in Jin Fangs' surprisingly bashful look.

"Consider that an item crossed off your regrets list, former guy," Zhen Liu thought to himself, "Or am I still technically you?"

"Now then, shall we go get breakfast?," Zhen Liu asked the still stunned Jin Fang.

It took Jin Fang a few moments before she finally got back to the present, and the two of them walked towards the kitchens together.

As they walked, Jin Fang had a suppressed smile on her face and a small skip to her step.

"I guess...my fears weren't warranted?"

_________________________________________________

Like all well to-do clans and sects, the Zhen Clan maintained an immaculate training ground/fighting ring for their youth, soldiers and disciples to train and spar in.

Made of a durable stone known as Ever Marble, the Zhen Clan training ground could have a pair of Aether Grand Masters go all out and not leave a single scratch. Combined that with all of the training weapons, combat dummies and other esoteric exercise equipment, it was the perfect place for people to go absolutely wild or just train.

Which in this case involved Zhen Liu and Jin Fang practicing forms in corner with a couple of training dummies.

"Young master, shouldn't you be...'using' your 'aether puppet' to train? Why are you going through these forms?," she asked as she watched Zhen Liu do the same arm movements as he had for the past ten minutes.

Aether arts usually required practitioners to memorize and master a set of forms and movements in order to properly perform them. Zhen Liu being well, Zhen Liu, it didn't make much sense to Jin Fang.

"Simply put Jin Fang, I do this so-"

"Yeah, dear cousin, why are you going through all this effort? Shouldn't you be playing with your toy?," an arrogant, somewhat nasally voice called out.

"Of course this was going to happen," Zhen Liu thought to himself, "Wouldn't be the full reincarnated experience without having to deal with insufferable family members, now would it?"