"Qing Qing? What's wrong with you?" Shen Qing grew a bit anxious. She quickly sat down beside Qing Qing and took out a handkerchief to carefully wipe Qing Qing's face.
Before the tears were even wiped clean, Shen Qing's wrist was grabbed.
"Get up. Don't... get too close to her!" Jiang Zhiyun was a bit emotional. She didn't control the strength of her grip on Shen Qing's hand, and a red mark immediately appeared on Shen Qing's fair wrist.
But Shen Qing didn't care about this. She was only puzzled by Jiang Zhiyun's reaction.
"What on earth is going on? Why can't I get close to Qing Qing?"
Jiang Zhiyun's face turned red with anger. She only stammered a few "I... I... Oh" and then fell silent.
Qing Qing's eyes grew even redder, as if humiliated.
"Are you two little sisters having a fight? It's not a big deal. You've grown up together since childhood. You've been good sisters for so many years. You can't just abandon each other because of some trifles, right?" Shen Qing tried hard to ease the relationship between the two.
Hearing this, Jiang Zhiyun's expression wavered a bit. But the next moment, as if she had thought of something, her expression became awkward again. She pulled Shen Qing a few steps away.
Shen Qing was quite helpless and could only continue to inquire.
"What on earth is going on? Hurry up and tell me. Are you trying to drive me crazy?"
Seeing Shen Qing looking so confused, Qing Qing wanted to explain, "Actually, during this period I..."
"Shut up!"
"Don't talk to her like that!!"
Qing Qing had only said half of the sentence when she was interrupted by Jiang Zhiyun, who was quite emotional.
Seeing that Jiang Zhiyun's emotions seemed to be on the verge of collapse, a hint of surprise flashed in Shen Qing's eyes. After shaking her head at Qing Qing, she pulled Jiang Zhiyun out of the house.
"What's wrong with you? Why are you being so mean to Qing Qing?"
Shen Qing was completely at a loss. She had only been there for less than half an hour, and she had lost count of how many times she had repeated the question "What's going on?"
Jiang Zhiyun blushed, with a hint of hesitation in her eyes.
She circled around Shen Qing several times but always stammered.
Finally, when Shen Qing's patience was almost exhausted, she turned around and was about to go back into the house. "If you don't tell me, I'll go ask Qing Qing myself."
"Hey, don't go," Jiang Zhiyun quickly grabbed Shen Qing's hand to stop her from walking towards the house.
"Then tell me."
Shen Qing crossed her arms and looked at Jiang Zhiyun expectantly.
Jiang Zhiyun's little face was all scrunched up. Finally, she pulled Shen Qing a bit farther away from the cottage. Her eyes were full of a sense of secrecy, and she glanced into the house from time to time.
"Shen Qing, can I trust you?"
Shen Qing nodded seriously. Although they had only met once, they often corresponded with each other.
It could be said that they had already become close friends through their letters.
"Zhiyun, although we haven't known each other for long, I'm willing to swear an oath..."
"Oh, no need," Jiang Zhiyun quickly pressed Shen Qing's hand down. She leaned close to Shen Qing's ear and stammered, "I... I seem to have a bit of a crush on... Qing Qing..."
"What??"
Shen Qing was shocked, and her expression became rather complicated.
She never expected that the reason for their quarrel was not an argument but Jiang Zhiyun's budding feelings.
Afterwards, Shen Qing's gaze towards Jiang Zhiyun also became more profound.
Although the Dao follows nature, wasn't Jiang Zhiyun being a bit too natural? However... liking girls wasn't such a strange thing, and she could accept it.
After mentally preparing herself, Shen Qing patted Jiang Zhiyun on the shoulder.
"It's okay. You're so embarrassed because you're afraid the world won't accept two girls... But it doesn't matter. As cultivators, we don't care about such things. You should have a good talk with the elders in your sect. They'll agree."
Jiang Zhiyun's face immediately fell, and a bitter smile appeared on the corner of her mouth.
How could she tell Shen Qing that actually Qing Qing... wasn't a girl at all.
Originally, Jiang Zhiyun didn't know either. But recently, for some unknown reason, rumors had been spreading like wildfire in the Qingmu Sect.
The center of these rumors was that the young sect master, Qing Qing, was unworthy of her position, but they didn't explain how.
During this period, Qing Qing had been under a lot of pressure because of these rumors, and her mood had started to deteriorate.
As a good friend, Jiang Zhiyun naturally wanted to comfort her. But when she got outside Qing Qing's cave abode, she accidentally saw Qing Qing with her upper body bare, cleaning the wounds on her chest.
Originally, she wanted to tease Qing Qing, thinking that her bust was all padding.
But the more she looked, the more something seemed off.
There was a bulge in the area where Qing Qing was only wearing shorts.
As someone who practiced medicine, she also noticed that Qing Qing's body curves were completely different from a girl's.
It was only then that the rather oblivious Jiang Zhiyun realized that Qing Qing wasn't a girl!
She was completely stunned. Shocked, she didn't care about anything else and just fled straight back to her room. She didn't go out for several days.
When Qing Qing came to find her, Jiang Zhiyun really didn't know how to face her, so she just avoided her.
But Qing Qing thought that Jiang Zhiyun had believed the rumors, which was why her attitude towards him had changed.
So, he tried every means to talk to Jiang Zhiyun. Qing Qing still maintained his previous habits and had some physical contact with Jiang Zhiyun.
If it had been before, Jiang Zhiyun would have just thought it was normal interaction between little sisters and wouldn't have felt anything.
But now, after knowing that Qing Qing was a boy, these actions took on a different meaning.
After that, every move, every frown and smile of Qing Qing was fatally attractive to Jiang Zhiyun.
She slowly realized that their sisterly affection had quietly changed.
"Oh, you don't understand!!"
Jiang Zhiyun pushed Shen Qing away, covered her face, and quickly ran back into the house. She even locked the door.
Even more confused, Shen Qing could only come happily and leave in a daze.
Being interrupted like this, Shen Qing had no mood to go find He Xianyin and He Zhaoxue. She walked back to her own house blankly.
Li Xian saw her with a bitter face and thought that things hadn't gone smoothly. She quickly comforted her.
"What, things didn't go well? It doesn't matter. We can go again tomorrow..."
"No..."
Shen Qing was still immersed in the fact that Jiang Zhiyun liked girls. She didn't pay attention to what Li Xian was saying.
It wasn't until Li Xian asked "What happened" that Shen Qing subconsciously blurted out the fact that Jiang Zhiyun liked Qing Qing.
After she said it, Shen Qing realized what she had done.
She covered her mouth in懊恼, her eyes full of panic.
Just now, she had sworn to let Jiang Zhiyun trust her, but then she had blurted out this secret. She really deserved to be punished!
Shen Qing nervously grabbed Li Xian. "You're not allowed to tell anyone!"
"Jiang Zhiyun is already so troubled about liking a girl. Just forget about this!"
Li Xian raised an eyebrow and looked at Shen Qing, who looked so sad for her friend.
"Qing Qing is a boy."
"Don't be silly. What are you talking about?"
Shen Qing was a bit stunned. After instinctively refuting, she only then realized what Li Xian had said.
She covered her mouth, trying to hold back the exclamation that was about to come out.
"What did you say??!!"