Disappeared.
The Moon Rabbit shrank its small head, blinking twice, unsure if it had understood its master’s threat.
Lu Qiancha no longer hesitated and quickly shoved this troublemaker back into Taoyuan Village.
She then took out a small bottle of Shouhuyao from her storage pouch, emitting a refreshing coolness.
Carefully pinching Gantang’s injured finger, she evenly sprinkled the pale green powder over the bleeding bite mark.
In no time, the bleeding wound slowly began to heal. Eventually, only a faint pink scar remained, which would fully fade soon enough.
However, the pain still lingered on Gantang’s hand. Her teary eyes looked up at her senior brother, her small mouth pouty and utterly pitiful.
“Ahem…” Lu Qiancha was the most helpless against Gantang’s act, especially since this time, it was truly her fault for not disciplining the Moon Rabbit well enough.
“Don’t… don’t look at me like that…”
She tried to keep a stern face, but her voice softened: “It’s my fault. I didn’t watch the rabbit properly…”
“Senior Brother~”
Gantang hugged Lu Qiancha’s arm, gently shaking it, her words filled with grievance.
“Alright, alright, I’ll make it up to you. Tomorrow when I go down the mountain, I’ll buy you some sweet pastries.”
Lu Qiancha stretched out her paw and tiptoed. With Gantang’s cooperation, she rubbed her head: “I’ll buy three portions! Plenty! Is that okay?”
“Hehe, Senior Brother is the best!”
Gantang’s momentary gloom was instantly wiped away. She returned to her room satisfied, not forgetting to call back, “Good night, Senior Brother! Good night, Auntie!”
“Remember to sleep early, no staying up late reading storybooks!” Lu Qiancha called after that joyful figure.
“Got it, Senior Brother!”
Gantang’s voice faded along with the door closing.
Xun Xue watched her daughter’s helpless yet doting expression and smiled even more deeply.
She stepped forward, gently ruffling Lu Qiancha’s hair, her voice tender: “You should rest early too… don’t overwork yourself.”
Then Xun Xue turned and blended into her own room.
“Mm~”
Lu Qiancha scratched her itchy ear, then suppressed the urge to lick her paw and went back to sleep.
***
The next morning, Lu Qiancha paced to Gantang’s door. Her small paw just touched the door panel—
“Squeak.”
The door was suddenly yanked open from the inside.
“Senior Brother, you’re looking for me?” Gantang’s pink eyes lit up like stars, her face brimming with unhidden delight. “Come in quickly!”
Before the words even finished,
Lu Qiancha felt her wrist tighten as Gantang pulled her inside.
Then, “Click!” A crisp and somewhat abrupt sound of the door locking echoed.
“?”
Lu Qiancha instinctively stepped back, confused. She looked at Gantang and asked, “Junior Sister, why are you locking the door?”
“Of course, it’s for you, Senior Brother.”
Gantang answered with absolute confidence and matter-of-factness.
Lu Qiancha was silent. A glint flashed in her paw as she held a slightly murky bottle of potion in her grasp.
If Gantang dared to move, Lu Qiancha could make her swing from the beam for three days and nights.
“Eh, eh, eh? Senior Brother, what are you doing?”
Gantang’s gaze caught sight of the familiar potion. Her face instantly turned pale. She instinctively crossed her hands in front of her chest, retreating fearfully, her voice shifting: “Please have mercy!”
“Tell me first, why did you lock the door?”
Lu Qiancha’s eyes darkened, full of menace.
“I-I just saw you didn’t disguise yourself!”
“What if Master suddenly pushes the door open…”
Gantang’s voice trembled with grievance as she blurted out.
Her explanation was hurried, tinged with a “good intentions gone unappreciated” kind of hurt: “If I get caught, what would I do?! I only wanted to cover for you!”
Well then.
Lu Qiancha’s grip stilled, the icy chill ebbing away like a tide. Her tense body relaxed.
She reluctantly accepted her junior sister’s excuse and tucked the potion back into her storage ring.
Gantang exhaled deeply, patting her not-so-small chest with lingering fear.
“So… Senior Brother, what exactly did you come to find me for so early?”
Lu Qiancha’s eyes gleamed slightly as she lowered her voice with a hint of seriousness: “I want to ask you… to accompany me in a little experiment.”
“?!”
Gantang immediately became alert. She instinctively crossed her arms over her chest, pressing her lips tightly together. Her pink eyes were full of a mixture of fear and astonishment: “Se… Senior Brother?!”
Her voice trembled: “What weird and strange potion are you trying to test on me this time?!”
“Junior Sister, don’t be afraid. It’s not a dangerous potion…”
Lu Qiancha instinctively reassured her.
Gantang’s mouth visibly drooped, shaking her head like a rattle drum: “Senior Brother, you say that every time! And what happened?!”
“Ahem, ahem, ahem. Don’t be afraid. This time it’s not a potion test.”
Hearing this, Lu Qiancha cleared her throat guiltily before saying, “I want to play a game with you.”
“A game?”
Gantang’s vigilance eased slightly. “What game?”
Lu Qiancha said no more and opened her paws, revealing two dice carved from beast bone.
“Highest roll wins. The prize is spirit stones,” Lu Qiancha announced the rules.
Gantang’s interest was clearly lacking as she dragged the tone out, her shoulders slumping.
Their master spoiled her, so spirit stones were always abundant.
But since this was her senior brother’s request, Gantang still rallied her spirits and forced out a somewhat half-hearted smile: “Alright… I’ll play with Senior Brother then~”
“Clack!”
“Clack!”
The dice landed in a shallow white jade plate with a crisp clatter.
In the first ten rounds, the wins and losses were unpredictable.
Lu Qiancha won four rounds, lost six, ending up paying Gantang three lower-grade spirit stones.
At the start of the eleventh round, a faint blue light flickered in Lu Qiancha’s eyes.
Within her dantian, the silvery-white Taiyin Fortune incense swirling around her nascent spirit was suddenly activated.
An extremely faint, cool and moonlight-like aura silently seeped from her fingertips, blending imperceptibly into her surrounding fortune energy.
“Clack!”
The dice landed in the shallow plate once again!
The next ten rounds’ results were bizarre.
No matter how Lu Qiancha threw, the dice always stopped with two glaring red sixes facing up.
Gantang didn’t win a single round!
More than a dozen lower-grade spirit stones had already clinked into Lu Qiancha’s storage pouch.
“Stop—!!!”
Gantang finally erupted.
She “poof” stood up, her pink eyes wide as saucers, pale fingers pointing at the pair of sixes on the plate in front of Lu Qiancha: “Senior Brother! You’re cheating.”
Her voice was full of grievance and accusation: “How could you always roll the highest number? Did you curse the dice?!”
Lu Qiancha opened her mouth.
The words “I’m not cheating” were stuck in her throat, burning like fire.
Using the Taiyin Fortune incense was technically external interference.
The only difference from cheating in essence seemed to be that it sounded a bit more refined…
“Ahem…” She decisively gave up the pale excuse and switched tactics: “Junior Sister, don’t be mad…”
Lu Qiancha forced out the most sincere smile: “When we go down the mountain later, I’ll buy you the best crispy Xuehua Gao from Fengji Puzi, plus a skewer of candied hawthorn.”
“No.”
Gantang pouted angrily and twisted her head away.
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