An Average Genius

Morning soon came but Huan Meirong and Zhi'er didn't wake up till hours later.

Zhi'er was the first to wake up and that was because he slightly heard a call coming from outside; he opened his dreamy eyes and saw the radiant sunlight, making his eyes widen. He sprang to his feet when he recalled the call, 'The morning breakfast! Is it already that late!?' He wiped away his drooling before patting his soft cheeks, halting abruptly after a couple of them, 'The eldest miss!' he thought with a shiver as he turned around.

*Sigh*

"I didn't disrupt her sleep," he whispered in relief.

He went out of the division screen to pat the dust on his robes before going out for the breakfast to eat to later do his daily chores.

…

Huan Meirong woke up minutes before the afternoon meal was sent. This time, she got out of bed and stretched her body, stopping when she heard the call of the meal. She turned around and went to the table to eat properly her meal; eating once while on the bed was all right but doing it regularly will be bad.

When Zhi'er came back with the food, his eyes shined when he saw his miss seated before the wooden table but not long after that, he entered into panic, "Eldest miss, you have awoken. Zhi'er wasn't here to…"

"Don't panic; I have just awoken," she promptly said with a wave of her hand.

Her words calmed the rushing Zhi'er a bit.

Zhi'er served the food and both ate slowly; the initial rush Huan Meirong had had before when it came to refining had subsided and eating fast wasn't good either.

After eating Huan Meirong went out to her backyard to take fresh air and walk in circles for a while. Then, she went back and told Zhi'er to not disturb her even for dinner; though she wasn't in a rush anymore, she knew she will get immersed deeply in the recipes' contents once she started studying them.

"Oh, right." She stopped when she was crossing the division screen, saying, "Zhi'er, if I don't tell you to come in at nine just enter and sleep on the bed. Whatever I will be doing, you won't disrupt me so don't worry." She remembered she had forgotten the little kid yesterday night; she didn't know where the little guy had slept, making her feel guilty.

Zhi'ers eyes wavered before nodding, "Aye."

Huan Meirong gave a slight nod and then, reassumed her steps. She sat on her bed and went over the recipes again until she fell asleep around three in the morning.

The same routine repeated that day and the next day, at noon, with her soul force being totally recovered, she entered the marquis-shaped black stone again to make the powder.

This time, she perfectly landed inside the pavilion; she couldn't believe it, it had gone just right.

To her surprise, it wasn't the only thing that had gone right. The warming of the pill furnace and the whole refining process of the Three Warm Suns Powder had gone well too. She even thought she could be a one in a ten thousand years' genius but before her head went completely airy, she checked the powder and it was just a passable one; it hadn't a top-notch quality.

"All right, I'm not an evildoer. I'm just an average genius." She shrugged her shoulders. Putting the quality of the powder aside, just by the fact that she was feeling sluggish and could barely cope with the quality test, she felt she couldn't be more than that.

*Sigh* She let her tired body rest on the floor, 'I need to let my soul force recover again to make the Shrouded Shame Liquid but for tomorrow night I think my soul force will be enough for me to venture into the other concubines' backyards or… should I to have both and make just one travel?' she pondered her next steps with heavy eyelids.

"Umh," she shook her head when she felt like falling asleep.

"Let's answer that after having a good rest," she said as she rose to her feet; she couldn't sleep here, she needed to go out. Hence, after patting her robes, she went back to her room.