Glass Sight

Chapter Three 三

The next morning, Ying Yun woke up from the sound of knocking on her room's door. She heard the voice of Li Jianyu asking if he could come in, which she muttered that he could. Her voice was husky as she had just woken up, particularly since she could sense that she was very early. She usually woke up in the morning at the earliest of chen shi, but according to her Li Jianyu, it was currently mao shi. He had woken her up very early because the village was a couple of hours away if they were to walk.

As much as he wanted them to take horses, they couldn't because Ying Yun didn't know how to ride one. And, Li Jianyu told her that the walking would help her build endurance. He told her that she should meet them outside when she was done and left.

Them? She wondered who else was going with them.

She dressed quickly and hurried outside. She couldn't feel the warmth of the sun, really indicating that it was super early.

"Ying Yun, over here." Li Jianyu called out to her. She walked in the direction of his voice and heard someone quietly complaining about going on this trip. She recognized the voice as Zixin, the one who had blatantly denied her as a fellow student yesterday. "Ying Yun, I planned to go with you today, but it appears that I have something important to do for a friend. Zixin will take you."

She felt a tinge of disappointment creeping in her heart, but she ignored it and nodded. If she could see, she would see Zixin nearly rolling his eyes at the excuse of his teacher. He knew that his teacher had already planned this since yesterday, but had created an excuse for the girl so she wouldn't know.

"Grab onto Zixin and walk there with him. I already gave him the list of things that I need. I'll give you two silver taels to buy everything." Although Ying Yun was astonished at the absurdly large amount, she didn't say anything and nodded. She didn't know that this was a test. Li Jianyu had given her this amount to test her. He wanted to see if she was greedy and was going to purchase anything for herself with the remaining amount after purchasing his things. He was wealthy enough that two silver taels, nonetheless thousands, didn't affect him at all.

She was guided to Zixin and meekly grabbed on his sleeve. Her small and pitifully malnourished appearance softened Zixin's heart a small bit but he didn't show it on his face. They both bowed to their teacher and began to walk to Jin Village.

Thirty minutes later, after walking in complete silence, Zixin couldn't take the quietness and spoke, "You..." her bowed head lifted and she confusedly glanced around until her brain had discerned the direction of his voice. "Why are you trying to leech on my shifu?"

"I..." she swallowed nervously, "My Lord was just being too generous. I don't think he was serious about the matter." When he heard her response, Zixin grew angry.

Not serious? Then who was the man that was willing to send away his one and only student in exchange to keep a new one? Who was the stubborn man who kept insisting on keeping her?

"You!" She was so stupid! Zixin stopped and pushed her away, releasing them grip on his sleeve and falling to the ground. "You're so dense! You aren't even appreciative of what Shifu has offered you! You, a girl who is completely blind and useless!" His anger had lead him to blurt out the last portion and he immediately regretted it when he saw her face fall. Her small fists clenched and she averted her eyes in embarrassment. Although she tried to conceal it, her eyes were filled with unshed tears.

"I know...I know I'm a burden to his kindness," Ying Yun mumbled. "But I won't let anyone but him tell me that I'm burdensome!" Her last sentence carried a bit of the backbone she had when she confronted Old Man Li. Even Zixin was stunned when he heard her say it. To hear such a thing from her small frame...his impression of her increased a small bit. He still didn't think that she was worthy to be the second disciple of Li Jianyu, but at least she wasn't completely hopeless.