Black Butterfly Knot

Chapter 6: Bamboo Forest

[Note - 'shidi' is what Ying Ru calls a younger male disciple (Xiao Wu) and 'shixiong' is for an older male disciple (Hao Yang). 'shijie' is female for 'shixiong' and if you still remember 'jie' means older sister that's why she is Xiao Wu's shijie because she's his senior. To Hao Yang , Ying Ru would be the 'shimei'. 'shifu' is the teacher, but I'm using 'Master' instead in this story but it might crop up sometime in the story. A hint: they all have 'shi' in them! Sorry if this makes your head hurt lol!]

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The snow on the bamboo leaves are getting heavy. Once they can't hold anymore, another heap lands on the fluffy carpet already covering the ground. Fall is buried somewhere underneath.

Everywhere Ying Ru looks, there is snow and more snow. Bamboo Forest is relatively high in elevation, nestled on a slope of a mountain, that's why the snow is especially heavy in winter. For Ying Ru, having been living in this bamboo patch all her life, this picture of green bamboo stalks against a stark white field isn't something that moves her heart much, but she can't deny that it's supposed to be very beautiful.

"Our idiotic Ying Ru, always daydreaming with that dumb expression on your face, no wonder your standing never improves!" 

There is only one person in Bamboo Forest who doesn't treat her like a little girl. She can leave it at that, but this, Ying Ru cannot swallow no matter how many times her ears encounter it. Look at that tone! This person is younger than her, five years younger for that matter.  Maybe that is the reason to her being unable to see the beauty of this place, because there's an annoying runt always out to ruin her good day! 

Ying Ru purses her lip. "Xiao Wu! You say that one more time!" She got up from her seat on the big rock and glared at the short boy. 

"I said you are always daydreaming with a dumb expression on your face, no wonder your standing never improves!" Xiao Wu makes a taunting face at her. His voice is even louder this time, making Ying Ru's fire burn even hotter. 

"I did not have a dumb expression on my face!" She will not allow someone so short and full of baby fat tease her! "I was thinking about something!"

Xiao Wu placed his palm against his right cheek and sighed like a girl, his lips puckering into an exaggerated pout. "What were you thinking about, idiotic Ying Ru?"

So disgusting! She did not look like that! Ying Ru calmed herself down, squared her shoulders and tried to put up an intimidating air. "How can you talk to your shijie with that kind of attitude?"

"You?" Xiao Wu let out a snort. "If you are good enough to be my shijie, then I can go take disciples right now."

"In what way am I not good enough to be your shijie?" Ying Ru challenged, purely because she was in the heat of humiliation. 

She hates it most when Xiao Wu sizes her up like this. The whole world knows she doesn't use heart in learning. 

What does she actually know? 

She can just barely make use of a talisman. Someone who truly wants to gain immortality and serious in wanting to pursue a xian path will be like the three of them: Master, Hao Yang, and Xiao Wu. 

Ying Ru is far too unwilling to part with the bustling lives of mortal humans. It seems like she's satisfied just being able to barely defend herself from jing, feeling no need to work hard to gain any higher standing. Maybe she is fine with just getting by.