Duanqing Peak, inside Lu Li’s Jingshi.
The Jingshi was simply furnished: one table, one chair, one couch; two bookshelves sat in the corner of the room, and a single meditation cushion lay on the floor, the place neat to the point of being almost monotonous.
Yet even so, as Gong Shangyu entered Lu Li’s room, it was as if she’d stepped into some kind of treasure trove.
She took deep breaths, savoring the comforting scent in the air, her gaze greedily sweeping over every object in the room.
At last, her gaze fixed upon the plain and unadorned wooden couch inside the room.
That was where Master usually rested and meditated.
Looking at this familiar yet strangely distant couch, a faint and abnormal blush appeared on Gong Shangyu’s face.
As if under some bewitchment, she stepped toward the couch.
Then, she performed a shocking action that nearly made Gu Qingying, who was peeking through the window from outside, scream out loud.
She suddenly threw herself onto the couch, burying her whole face into the bedding Lu Li used, snuggling like a small beast seeking comfort into the plain thin quilt.
She took deep breaths of the lingering, clean and refreshing scent unique to Lu Li.
Her every movement was filled with an almost deranged obsession and satisfaction.
“Hiss… haa… hiss… haa… Master’s scent…”
With her face buried in the soft fabric, Gong Shangyu let out muffled, intoxicated sighs, as if this was the most precious fragrance in the world.
Outside, Gu Qingying stared in utter disbelief, only for a surge of intense jealousy and grievance to well up inside her heart.
“Ahhhh… Gong Shangyu! Come out here right now!”
“Damn it… damn it! I was here first!”
“The Jingshi is mine, Master’s bed is mine!”
“Don’t touch Master’s bed! Don’t touch Master’s blanket, Master’s bed belongs to me!”
“I want to throw myself on it and sniff too! Gong Shangyu, you bastard, how dare you get there before me!”
Clinging to the window, Gu Qingying glared at Gong Shangyu inside the room with a face full of resentment, constantly cursing her Second Senior Sister like some top-class cursed spirit.
Inside the Jingshi, however, Gong Shangyu seemed deaf to all of Gu Qingying’s curses and resentful mutterings from outside.
She remained immersed in the scent of her Master, as if all the chaos outside had nothing to do with her.
Next, she hugged Master’s quilt and rolled back and forth on it a few times, her face openly displaying happiness and possessiveness.
Then, as if she’d prepared in advance, she gathered up all of Lu Li’s bedding and stuffed it into her own storage pouch, planning to take it back and savor it thoroughly later.
After that, under Gu Qingying’s stunned gaze from outside, Gong Shangyu took out a set of bedding almost identical to Lu Li’s original and neatly placed it in the cupboard where Lu Li stored his quilts.
Once she finished all this, Gong Shangyu lay on Lu Li’s bed, rolling around and basking in the warmth for a long time.
Only when she was sure the bed was saturated with her own scent did she finally leave the room, thoroughly satisfied.
What she didn’t know, however, was that everything she’d done inside Lu Li’s room had been recorded by Gu Qingying outside using a Mechanical Wooden Owl from the Gu Family.
Clearly, this was meant to be held as leverage against Gong Shangyu in the future.
***
As the sun reached its peak, Gong Shangyu reluctantly slipped out of Lu Li’s Jingshi, her face still flushed with a trace of delighted success and contentment.
She carefully closed the door behind her, making sure the room’s restrictions reactivated, then turned around to face Gu Qingying, who was waiting at the door with puffed-up cheeks.
“Hey~ Come on~ Don’t make that sour face~”
Gong Shangyu was in an unusually good mood, generously forgiving her Junior Sister.
“Come on, let’s go back to our room. It’s time to get to the real business—copying the Sect Rules!”
She deliberately drew out the words “copy the Sect Rules,” then shot a meaningful glance at Gu Qingying, reminding her of their earlier agreement to write them out fifty times.
But Gu Qingying just folded her arms, leaning against the pillar by Lu Li’s door.
The grievance and anger in her purple eyes had long since faded, replaced by a cold, slightly mocking calm.
“Heh… copy the Sect Rules?”
Gu Qingying repeated softly, and then the corner of her mouth lifted in an extremely subtle, dangerous curve.
“Senior Sister, did you forget something?”
Gong Shangyu frowned, a bad feeling rising in her chest.
“Hmm? Forget what? Junior Sister, don’t tell me you’re planning to go back on your word?”
“You agreed at the mountain gate, in your own words, to help me copy the Sect Rules fifty times! Are you itching for trouble and want me to help you remember with a little lesson?”
As she spoke, Gong Shangyu flexed her fingers, her tone full of threat.
“Go back on my word? Not quite.”
Gu Qingying shook her head, her tone still flat.
Then she took out a Mechanical Wooden Owl from her robe and began to play back the footage of everything Gong Shangyu had just done in Lu Li’s room.
“Hiss… haa… hiss… haa… Master’s scent…”
“Ah… Master! I miss you so much!”
“Sniff~ sniff~ Master’s blanket~ what a wonderful smell…”
As Gong Shangyu’s original voice played from the owl in Gu Qingying’s hand,
Gong Shangyu first showed surprise, then shock, then went completely petrified—only to suddenly erupt in furious rage at Gu Qingying.
“Gu Qingying! You little brat! I’ll kill you! Hand over that owl right now!”
But as if expecting this, Gu Qingying deftly floated back, easily dodging Gong Shangyu’s lunge.
She raised the owl high and put on an annoyingly smug and innocent smile.
“Hehe… Senior Sister~ tell me, if our beloved Master saw this series of ‘heroic deeds’ you performed in his room just now, how do you think he’d react?”
Gu Qingying’s voice was unusually soft, but it was as cold as a poisoned needle piercing bone.
The smile on Gong Shangyu’s face froze, her pupils shrank, and she stared deathly at the owl in Gu Qingying’s hand.
“Gu Qingying! You’ve got guts, daring to threaten your Senior Sister!”
Gu Qingying laughed, “Heh… Senior Sister, how can you call this a threat?”
“Just now, your performance was so… bold. Wouldn’t it be a shame if I didn’t record it for posterity?”
She gently stroked the owl’s head with her fingertip, her tone playful and predatory like a cat toying with a mouse.
“Heh… Especially that part where you rolled on the bed hugging Master’s quilt and kept sniffing and panting. That heartfelt display—truly moved me…”
“Gu! Qing! Ying!”
Gong Shangyu all but spat out her Junior Sister’s name through gritted teeth, pink eyes blazing with a fire that could incinerate Gu Qingying on the spot.
She lunged forward, reaching to snatch the accursed owl!
“Hand it over! Don’t make me hit you!”
“Oh? Resorting to violence when you lose the argument? Second Senior Sister, did you really think I’d come unprepared?”
Gu Qingying dodged Gong Shangyu’s attack, lightly swinging the owl in her hand.
“To be honest, the moment I activated it, the footage was already transmitted in real time back to our main house in Chengyang through the Gu Family’s special Transmission Array.”
“So even if you smash or burn this owl, or grind it to dust, it’s useless.”
Lu Li tilted his head, silently savoring the look on Gong Shangyu’s face as it turned deathly pale, then leisurely stuffed the owl into her arms.
“Hehehe… Gong Shangyu, I just wanted to see that look on your face—wanting to kill me, but totally helpless~ Since you want it so badly, go ahead and take the owl home to play with~ My family has plenty of backups. If Senior Sister really likes, I can even have several more copies of the footage made…”
“In fact, sending an anonymous copy straight to Master’s desk wouldn’t be impossible~”
Gong Shangyu’s outstretched hand froze midair.
It was as if she’d been doused in ice water, chilled to the bone.
Looking at Gu Qingying’s utterly unafraid expression, she finally realized she’d been completely defeated this time!
Not only had her Junior Sister gotten leverage on her, but Gu Qingying had also cut off any chance to destroy the evidence!
The thought of that footage being seen by Master, of the shock, disappointment, or even disgust in his eyes…
Gong Shangyu felt her heart clench in terror.
At this moment, the smile on Gu Qingying’s face was more terrifying than being punished to copy the Sect Rules a thousand or ten thousand times!
“You… what do you want?”
Gong Shangyu’s voice was hoarse, with a trace of barely detectable tremor.
She withdrew her hand, forcing herself to stay calm, but her tightly clenched pink fists and whitening knuckles betrayed the storm surging in her heart.
Today’s contest was a complete defeat for Gong Shangyu!