Song of Plum Blossom Mountain (梅花山之歌)

Chapter 2

Mu RongXue sat calmly at her table, looking out of the window with an air of indifference as the pair of disciples entered.

Ye Zhen dragged Yu TianMin into the small house and threw the youth down haphazardly into a kneel in front of Mu RongXue. Yu TianMin, unable to offer resistance, lowered her head and tightened her fists.

"Dashijie, I caught this brat slacking off from her training and resting in the shed," Ye Zhen reported.

Mu RongXue avoided looking at the pair that had entered and instead focused on a branch outside the window, "Ah—! Don't treat the protagonist that way, are you not afraid of death?!" she thought panicked as she tried to steel her nerves.

"En. You can leave now." Mu RongXue said calmly if not a bit curtly, not letting her eyes drift from the branch as if it were more interesting than the two disciples. Ye Zhen looked at Yu TianMin and thought worriedly, "What did this kid do to anger dashijie so much she had to personally punish her?"
Ye Zhen kept quiet and left with a bow, closing the wooden doors behind him.

Mu RongXue finally turned her gaze to the protagonist. She was eleven at this point. Her lively, pointed eyes, and sharp features promised that she would grow up to be a heartbreaker. Her slightly tanned skin, a result of habitual training under the blazing sun, complemented her messy black hair which was carelessly gathered into a ponytail and held in place by a simple silver clip and pin. While a bit rough around the edges, Yu TianMin's bright eyes and boyish style of dressing gave her a spirited and hardworking aura.

Mu RongXue wanted to shout, "Please get up, this little one (1) can't receive your kneeling! Just please don't kill me in the future!" Instead she kept a straight face and looked calmly at Yu TianMin. It was clear that this child was just beat up, her clothes were dirty and there were bruises forming on her arms and face. The child kept her head down but it was clear she was in pain, probably more from the poison than anything else.

"You..." Mu RongXue started, looking away from the eleven year old, her eyes narrowing in distain for the abuse this child suffered under the other disciples. Yu TianMin flinched and grit her teeth; she's heard stories of how cold her dashijie could be. She couldn't think of how she angered her but with her unreasonably ruthless temperament, it would be a miracle if she came out of Winter Pavilion alive.

"Tch... Unsightly. I have no desire to look at such an embarrassment. Leave." she spat taking a small stone bottle filled with a high grade medical salve out from her spatial bag and tossing it to Yu TianMin. Honestly, Mu RongXue would've wanted to personally help the protagonist apply the salve but her sudden change in personality might make people think she went insane.

Yu TianMin caught the bottle in her hands and turned the label confusion, "This is a high grade salve! Was it really worth so little to her that she could give it as if tossing it away?" the child thought, slightly lifting her head to sneak a glance at her dashijie.

No matter what is thought of her, it was an undeniable fact that Mu RongXue was a beauty. Her clear white skin was contrasted by her ink black hair. Her bangs parted at the sides, delicately framing her face while the rest of her hair was styled elegantly with silver and jade pins and accessories and left flowing freely in the behind her.
The light blue tinted, gauze sleeves of her otherwise completely white robes drew attention to her every movement, and emphasized the royal and lofty aura from her posture.
Mu RongXue's infamously cold eyes were not prone to flitting around her surroundings, as if uninterested in the events of the mortal realm. The light blue fan she favored always held close to her face, covering her mouth, and making onlookers feel as if it were placed there to hide a mocking sneer on a pair of delicate lips.

Only the gentle movements of her hair and sleeves flowing in the wind reminded Yu TianMin that she wasn't looking at a painting of some celestial maiden.