The Collective Trauma of the Children in the Upper Elite

Lin Songmei, herself, was actually also a little exasperated that both Wang Taigang and Yan Mingqing had decided to use the restroom right before their duel. But... she couldn't blame them too much. Before a duel, one had to do what they needed to do, not only that, that meant she could hear about Han Youhong's story a little more.

"So..." Youhong mused, tapping his chin and scarfing down a lychee jelly. "I don't really know what to say, actually. Just that Mingqing really lived up to my expectations when I got to speak to her one on one for the first time. Even at the events hosted by her parents that most upper echelon cultivation families were invited to, Mingqing was this cold ice princess type. I remember her wearing this lace navy blue dress."

Just imagining Mingqing wearing a navy blue dress, Songmei couldn't help but feel a little awkwardness creep up into the back of her throat as a touch of bashfulness appeared onto her face.

"I can tell you're thinking of something wholesome or cute," Youhong sighed, giving Songmei an unamused stare that seemed to say 'damn love birds.' It was weird because Songmei was sure that Youhong didn't know about the... new development per se.

"Anyway," Youhong continued, shelving his thoughts about the love birds. "Some poor kid went up to her to talk to Mingqing, trying to become her friend maybe? Keep in mind this is around age 13-14. Mingqing didn't do her usual cold turn of the head and ignore it though, instead, in full view of literally everyone, she gave the most... disgusted look ever. It was pretty rough..."

Popping a lychee jelly into his mouth, Youhong shrugged. "Well, I expected sorta similar treatment when we first met, but Mingqing was actually... kinda warm. Then she opened up and... damn, I was so impressed, she turned out to be pretty funny, pretty nice, and really caring."

"Yeah! She is, she really is," Songmei agreed, taking the one moment where she could interject to add in her thoughts. "I mean... to be perfectly honest, I never really saw this side of Mingqing... but... uhm... yeah. Cool beans."

Having trailed off to an awkward cough, Songmei gave up, making a small hand motion to let Youhong keep talking.

Raising another eyebrow, Youhong decided once more to shelve his thoughts, noting how full his mental bookshelf was becoming. "Anyway, I don't have much else to say. It's just because of her reputation, that one time at the party, and my first impressions of Mingqing that I'm not surprised that she started trash talking the moment Taigang formally challenged her to that duel."

"I... see..." Songmei murmured, pausing for a second before deciding to just say, "You know, yesterday, she and I dueled and like... she didn't trash talk me at all... she was actually pretty encouraging and was uhmm... Really nice to me after I lost too."

Of course, Songmei wasn't going to give any details on why the duel's aftermath was really nice, that was something that nobody else needed to know.

Getting a dead-fish stare from Youhong, Songmei coughed a few times before picking up her cup of tea and taking a long sip. "Just... just ignore what I said, I don't think it's that important actually."

"... Sure." Youhong remarked, the skepticism splattered clear across his face. "... I just want you and Mingqing to know that you two are a real enigma. A real paradox of friendship if I say so myself."

Averting her eyes, Songmei opened and closed her mouth a few times before just shutting up. It was probably a better idea to just not elaborate.

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A few moments of awkward silence later, the door to the training area opened once more as Mingqing and Taigang walked back in, already back to their trash talking.

"You know... I feel like we could get very famous if we recorded this..." Songmei whispered, breaking the silence that she and Youhong had fallen under.

"You definitely could," Youhong nodded before giving a shrug, "If you want to record it just ask them. The thing is, though, you really don't need to record stuff like this to become famous, you know? People are curious enough already about your daily life as a direct disciple, you don't need to do anything special and you could be famous."

"Oh..." Songmei trailed off, "Well, I'll just not film this... I don't feel like troubling them by asking anyway."

Waving Youhong off who offered to ask for her, Songmei and Youhong sat back as both Mingqing and Taigang did some final stretches, with Taigang calling out, "Ready?"

Getting an "always" in reply, Taigang pulled out a coin from his spatial storage ring. "I have this to use if you want to start the duel. How do you want to start this duel?"

"Why don't you give the coin to Songmei and Youhong or something? Let one of them throw it," Mingqing pondered, stroking her chin with one hand and doing some final arm warm ups with the other. "Once it hits the ground, we can get going, how does that sound?"

"Sounds good, I'm not picky," Taigang shrugged without a fuss, tossing the coin over to Youhong, "You chuck it, make it favor me or something, I don't know. I'll need it."

Catching the coin with two hands, Youhong pushed himself up with a long sigh, muttering "I'm not paid enough for this" before raising the coin up to get ready to toss it. "Ready? Also, Taigang, I'll make sure to toss it to favor Mingqing, because that's definitely how coins work."

"Just toss the coin," Taigang retorted, bending at the knees, ready to react at a moment's notice to Mingqing's inevitable storm of blistering attacks.

With a flick of the wrist, Youhong tossed the coin up and forward, turning to plop himself back into his seat as a light "tink" marked the beginning of the duel.

In a great position to watch the unfolding battle, Songmei's eyes widened as both Mingqing and Taigang almost disappeared from view.

Having both activated their respective techniques, all Songmei could really see was the clash of colors in the middle of the room.

A silvery-blue and a blinding gold.

It wasn't hard to figure out which was which, of course. Taigang, the "Extreme-Yang" Cultivator—or as Songmei called him "Sun Boy"—was obviously gold. On the other hand, Mingqing was obviously the silvery-blue.

Their bodies were still clear to see, but because of the bright, almost blinding clash of colors, it was just easier to watch them trade blows by looking at the ensuing light show.

Unleashing a storm of attacks, Mingqing seemed to hold the clear advantage. Taigang could barely inch in an attack as Mingqing continued to just pound down on Taigang. As of now, it was at a stalemate, Taigang couldn't get an attack in, but Mingqing's attacks were either all blocked, tanked, or just dodged.

Crazy stuff.

Songmei was quite glad that during their duel she had adopted the "run away, as fast as possible, strategy" that Youhong seemed to also be thinking of.

"Yeah, I don't think I'm going to win against Mingqing, ever..." Youhong murmured, his lips pressed together as he gave some sagely nods. "Not my thing... yeahh..."

Murmuring her agreement, Songmei practiced condensing some of her Qi into small crystals while watching Mingqing and Taigang disengage and begin to pace around each other in circles. Sharp stares, bent knees, readied weapons, readied fists, and tensed bodies—this duel really was leagues above the long-distance running practice that Songmei participated in the day before...