26 Burning passion

"Lan Helian is a spiritual guardian? Why was she in the elf continent, anyway?"

...

"Do you not realise that where you've gone is not the elf continent but the inner world that Lan Helian is guarding, right?"

"No way. Why are there people, though?"

"It was a sort of defence, illusions. The shopkeeper was actually a guardian of hers too. A great way to earn money, as long as you can contact your guardians."

"So, guardians can materialise?"

"You just realised that now?"

Xuanmei groaned, opening her eyes to see that today was the fourteenth. Having woken up at one in the morning, she walked along towards the kitchen to get a mantou* to eat.

"May I know what Third miss is doing, roaming around at one at night?" Xue Fengxuan teased.

"Ah, this hungry miss was going to get a mantou from the kitchen. What about this gentlemanly sir?" For now, Xuanmei felt that a one minute banter wouldn't kill her.

Suddenly, the conversation took a serious turn, with Fengxuan asking, "You're leaving the Xue household tomorrow, right?"

Remembering what she was going to do tomorrow, Xuanmei lightly advised, giving Fengxuan a hint of what's to come. "I wouldn't stay here for long. Who knows, maybe after they ward off this disaster, flames of hatred from the heavens above would descend at midnight."

Fengxuan wasn't stupid. He knew what she meant by that.

"Well, I sure hope the heavens know that almost a tonne of gunpowder is needed to raze this place to the ground. Who would know that one wrong mistake would kill the Xue family's main branch when they were asleep? This brother is still young, and would still like to live for another few years..."

"It seems that blackened dust has gathered around the house. I hope that there's not that much that's been secretly swept into the drains and under the houses..."

Xuanmei smiled as Fengxuan laughed mysteriously.

"Ah, well I have to get going. The mantou won't magically come to me. Xuanmei thanks brother for the chat."

"Likewise. I hope that little sister pursues her dreams with a fiery, burning passion even after she leaves."

With that, the siblings part ways, and Fengxuan packed up, getting ready to head out to meet his friends in the afternoon, saying that they wanted to start their own medicinal business, and needed to plan for the night. Having studied medicine from Grandmaster Muolu, nobody distrusted that sentence.

"We'll be staying in an inn near our medicine shop," He said.

It was an impromptu decision, and nobody really knew why he left so suddenly. All except Xuanmei.

Before leaving, though, Fengxuan laughed and turned back to face Xuanmei, his parting phrase being;

"Ah, also, good luck, Xuanmei."

*馒头(Mantou): Mantou, often referred to as Chinese steamed bun, is a type of cloud-like steamed bread or bun popular in Northern China. Made from wheat flour, water, leavening agents, it is a staple food in northern China, where wheat instead of rice was grown.