Zhuang Yue raised his head. At the bottom of the stairs, not far away, the direct disciple senior sister, who had just given them the lecture, was politely talking to a girl dressed in snow-white clothes.
It seemed that Dong Wan's voice had been a bit loud, and both the direct disciple senior sister and the girl in white turned to look over.
Zhuang Yue froze for a moment.
The girl had fair skin, her eyes dark like paint, hair as black as clouds, and lips like cinnabar. Her expression was indifferent, exuding a somewhat aloof aura.
Her hair was styled in a bun, held in place with a simple wooden hairpin, her long hair cascading down her back. She wore a white robe and a white cloak, holding a sword in her hand with a red tassel hanging from the hilt.
There were no ornaments anywhere on her, the pure white of her attire accented only by a touch of red, which only made her seem like a flower atop a high peak (高岭之花 (gao ling zhu hua) literally means "a flower on a high ridge" and metaphorically describes someone, often a woman, as beautiful but unreachable.
Zhuang Yue understood why Dong Wan called her a fairy. This was the first time he had seen such an extraordinary person.
"Who is she? Is she also one of our classmates?" Zhong Yunyi couldn't hide her envy and jealousy. Compared to this person, her own delicate appearance seemed rather vulgar.
Dong Wan shook her head and said, "I've never seen her before. She must not be from our year. Maybe she's a senior sister."
"Stop guessing. She should be in the same year as you." A senior sister, holding a stack of books and acting as a teaching assistant, passed by. "Besides the disciples selected by you, there are also disciples from other sects entering the inner sect. She should be one of those here for an exchange from another sect."
Zhuang Yue was surprised. He hadn't expected Mingguang Palace to be so open-minded.
Zhong Yunyi, feeling somewhat frustrated at being overshadowed, muttered, "Stop staring. Let's go."
Originally, he thought this new disciple from another sect would have nothing to do with them. However, when they returned to the dormitory building, they saw her again.
Zhong Yunyi exclaimed in surprise, "What are you doing here?"
The girl in white nodded to the three of them and said, "The teaching management senior sister assigned me to stay here. I look forward to learning from you. My name is Shen Qing, and I'm from Zhengxi(an immortal sect). I will be staying at Mingguang Palace for a few years."
"Zhengxi!" Zhong Yunyi exclaimed in surprise. "In terms of position and heritage, Zhengxi is on par with Mingguang. Are you sure you need to come here to study?"
Shen Qing slightly pursed her lips and said, "For someone like me who hasn't yet mastered the arts, Mingguang is a place to broaden my horizons, make friends, and further my studies. I have long admired it."
Zhuang Yue and the others, having just arrived, didn’t know that Mingguang Palace's inner sect not only nurtures its own disciples but is also a renowned place for other sects to send their female disciples for further education.
The female disciples of Mingguang Palace not only account for a large portion of the female cultivators but have also formed many marital ties with other immortal sects, which means that it is deeply intertwined with the entire cultivation world.
The descendants and disciples of these people are often willing to send their own students back to the sect for further training.
Aside from keeping their own unique techniques and secret arts private, the sect offers many publicly available courses, such as rumors about the world of immortal cultivation and an introduction to its current situation to broaden one's horizons, identifying herbs and demons, and the basics of alchemy and weapon refining.
These subjects are also taught by other sects, but their coverage might not be as comprehensive or as good as Mingguang Palace's.
Rather than spending time on self-study, only to find the results unsatisfactory, it’s better to send disciples to Mingguang Palace to receive systematic education for several years.
What’s more, coming here allows one to meet and make friends with other young female cultivators, which is important for expanding connections on the future path of cultivation. To exaggerate a bit, through Mingguang Palace, one can practically get in touch with more than half of the sects in the cultivation world.
The benefits were so numerous that it naturally attracted a rush of people, but the sect was not easily willing to accept disciples from other sects for further training.
Aside from those with personal connections, only well-known large sects had the standing to have such privileges.
And Shen Qing was precisely from this kind of background.
Zhong Yunyi couldn't help but feel even more depressed.Not only could she not compare in temperament, but her background was even worse. She didn't want to make friends with the other party, so she exchanged a few polite words and went upstairs.
Without her presence, Dong Wan was a little intimidated by someone with such a strong aura, and she also went back to her room.
Zhuang Yue, with his own huge secrets, was even more unwilling to form close connections with anyone. He politely said, "Miss Shen, since you’re new, I won’t disturb you settling down."
With everyone gone and Shen Qing alone, it almost seemed as though she was being isolated and rejected.
But contrary to that, Shen Qing's expression didn’t look disappointed. As her tense shoulders relaxed, she felt that this situation was not bad.
She had come with another purpose, and for that purpose, she didn’t have time for socializing.
Zhuang Yue spent the whole evening with his door closed, annotating the new characters he'd learned that day using Chinese characters. When most people first start learning a language, they often use homophones to remember words. It might not be the most accurate method, but it’s the fastest way to memorize the pronunciation.
The teaching senior sister hadn’t assigned any writing homework, but Zhuang Yue, on his own, dipped his finger in water and wrote each character more than twenty times on the desk.
"Tomorrow I need to ask where to get paper and pens, and also look around to see if there’s a place to borrow books here." Zhuang Yue frowned. He was a little concerned that Mingguang Palace didn’t seem to have a library.
After turning off the lights and getting into bed, Zhuang Yue noticed that there was a faint light coming from the room opposite. He realized that Shen Qing had not yet gone to bed.
Living across from such a big shot, he couldn’t tell whether it was a blessing or a curse.
He sighed and closed his eyes. Since coming here, his sleep quality has been surprisingly good. He used to stay up late and had a bit of an insomnia problem, but now, without medication, it had miraculously improved. Within five minutes, he had fallen asleep.
The next day, Zhuang Yue was woken up by Zhong Yunyi's voice. It seemed like she had adjusted her mindset and was finally able to face Shen Qing normally. He overheard her inviting Shen Qing to go to Cloud Garment Hall to make clothes.
Shen Qing said she had something to do and refused.
Zhuang Yue had been listening in silence, and sure enough, Zhong Yunyi's next move was to knock on his door.
Zhuang Yue didn’t open the door. “I’m not up yet, you all go ahead.” He wanted to act alone today, as he knew that nothing would get done if he was always with Zhong Yunyi.
“...”
Zhong Yunyi originally wanted to say something, but then, thinking of Shen Qing behind her, she gave up. “Then we’ll leave.”
After Zhuang Yue finished washing up, the dormitory building was already empty, and Shen Qing had gone out at some point. He carefully closed the dormitory doors and directly went straight to the dining hall for breakfast
Mingguang Palace has a special hall called Cloud Dining Hall (食云殿 Shiyun Hall) which serves as the dining hall. It caters to all kinds of tastes, offering a variety of dishes from all around the world, completing the set of sweet, sour, salty, and spicy flavors. In other words, it had diverse flavors with many different cuisines to suit most people's preferences.
The main hall operated like a communal meal setup, where one could eat whatever was provided and as much as they wanted for free. The side halls, however, had small stoves where you could customize your menu to your liking, but you had to pay extra, and it was a bit expensive.
Although penniless, Zhang Yue had learned after entering the inner sect that they would receive a monthly allowance. It wasn’t much, just a small living stipend, meant for internal transactions.
But he wouldn’t receive his monthly allowance for another month, so Zhuang Yue had no choice but to head to the main hall.
Without any companions around him, Zhuang Yue used sweet words to coax the elder sister who was distributing the food into a happy mood. Not only did she give him more food, but she also told him a lot of necessary information.
There really was a library inside Mingguang Palace! And not only could books be borrowed, but copies could also be purchased. At the same time, they provided the paper and pens that Zhuang Yue urgently needed.
Zhuang Yue rushed there directly after filling his stomach.
The library was located on the outskirts of the palace complex. Its architectural structure and style were different from the other palaces; it was a large, square, sturdy building, occupying quite a bit of space.
Zhuang Yue guessed that this library was probably a later addition. The person who designed it and gave it its name must not have been the same person responsible for the other buildings. Otherwise, why would it have such an out-of-place name like "Shangshan Ruoshui"(上善若水 means the greatest good is like water which is a cultural reference that comes from the Dao De Jing—a foundational text in Daoism) and expresses the idea of an ideal state of goodness being fluid and adaptable, like water. It is often used to describe someone or something that is humble, flexible, and and has the ability to adapt to various circumstances while having a positive impact.), with nothing to do with the character cloud?
On the large door hung a plaque with four large characters inscribed. Zhuang Yue had not yet learned these characters, so he looked at them several times and committed them to memory.
Inside the library, the central hall was spacious and high. Zhuang Yue found a senior sister who was organizing books and asked, "Excuse me, where can I borrow a dictionary?"
The senior sister looked at him in confusion: "What’s a dictionary? Is it a book title?"
"No, it’s a book that explains the meanings of words and terms. It’s probably quite thick, and every character we see in books is explained in it," Zhuang Yue explained in detail.
Zhuang Yue gave a detailed description.
The senior sister tilted her head and said, "We don't have the kind of book you mentioned."
Zhuang Yue wasn’t too disappointed. Using reference books was a shortcut, and the learning methods in this world didn't look advanced, so it wasn’t surprising that they didn’t have them.
"Alright then, do you have any books that teach people to recognize characters?" he asked, settling for a second choice.
This time, the Senior Sister’s instructions were much clearer, and she directly told him which bookshelf to go to.
Zhuang Yue went to the bookshelf, took down several books on it and checked each one. Unfortunately, none of them were the type for recognizing characters with pictures. And they still required a teacher to learn it.
Finding that self-learning seemed not possible, Zhuang Yue gave up. He casually picked a book with fewer characters, which might be a satirical poem or a song.
After he left the bookshelf, he went to register with the senior sister, and she told him that there were several copies of books on the first floor, and if one was lost, it needed to be compensated. As for the books on the second floor, it was much stricter as they could not be borrowed and could only be read inside the building.
Zhuang Yue asked about paper and pens again. Although the price wasn't expensive, he still couldn't afford them now. He could only wait until he got his next month's allowance before he could buy them.
Zhuang Yue held the book and turned around, just in time to see Shen Qing’s figure going upstairs to the second floor.
He was somewhat surprised. He came here because of an urgent need to study, but Shen Qing, who had just arrived at Mingguang, ran to the library on the second day. Was she such a book lover?
As they weren’t familiar with each other, Zhuang Yue didn’t rashly approach her. After leaving "Shangshan Ruoshui", he didn’t go anywhere else and directly returned to Graceful Moon Residence.
It was a long time before Zhong Yunyi and Dong Wan came back. As soon as they returned, Zhuang Yue heard Dong Wan’s excited voice.
"Zhuang Yue, are you here?" What she had witnessed this morning had greatly opened her eyes, and she now had a strong desire to talk about it. Zhong Yunyi wasn’t interested in this topic, so she came to find Zhuang Yue in his room.
Zhuang Yue also wanted to know what happened at Cloud Garment Hall. After the physical examination, the old lady gave him a cloth, and because he couldn't make the clothes himself, he'd have to visit the hall later.
"Yes, come in and talk." Zhuang Yue had just boiled some water, and the temperature was just right, so he poured some for Dong Wan to drink.
Dong Wan didn't stand on ceremony and drank it straight down, letting out a comfortable sigh. "I'm so thirsty."
Zhuang Yue found it funny. This girl’s every move exuded simplicity. With her innocent and plain appearance, it was hard to feel any animosity toward her.
He poured her another cup. "Why are you so thirsty? Didn’t you drink water outside?"
Dong Wan waved her hand. "I can’t drink any more for now. Hey, you missed out! Cloud Garment Hall has so many beautiful fabric samples. Also, there were materials I’ve never even heard of before, not to mention seen."
Although he didn’t go, Zhuang Yue could imagine. The attraction of fabric here was probably comparable to how modern fashion appealed to young girls.
Before he died, Zhuang Yue was in his third year of college. He had served as the vice president and president of the external relations department for a year each. He was naturally outgoing, and after some training, he became skilled in dealing with people. Whenever he took the lead in organizing a social event, it was always a success.
And with him leading , Dong Wan completely got into the conversation. She even mentioned that when she was a child, she fought with her brother just to get her mother to make her a new piece of clothing.
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