Lin Songmei felt dead. If someone looked up the word tired in the dictionary, her face would show up as the definition. Following the complete beating she, Yan Mingqing, Wang Taigang, and Zhao Liying took, their trip to the hospital was... not a fun one.
Following their own little... skirmish, then the little... friendly banter exchanged between Avarice and Wrath, Songmei and the others watched as three different elders appeared in a flash. With Taigang, Youhong, and her and Mingqing’s masters on the scene, it was just nice to watch Avarice get his teeth kicked in.
Literally.
It was, in all honesty, a little bit over the top. Songmei had to look away for some portions, but afterward Xueli had come up to them with a big smile and thumbs-up, reassuring everyone Avarice was doing fine and dandy.
Now, the next morning, Songmei was just cuddling with Mingqing against the couch as they looked out the window, watching the morning rush perform its daily ritual down below.
Bandaged up, Songmei was still almost tearing up with how nice the hospital the afternoon and night before had been to them. The nurses and doctors there—with understanding faces and fun humor—had patched them up while explaining their wounds weren’t out of the ordinary. All Songmei could do was cringe hearing story after story of duels going wrong when one side’s emotions got too inflamed.
The hospital, being the home to a team of healing-focused cultivators, had patched up their wounds and sent them on their way. For Mingqing, with her major wounds on both her legs, they had managed to heal her up almost to completion, a little less for Songmei, but still enough to let her leave.
With the hospital leaving the entire party on the brink between healthy and wounded, everyone in the party had asked why they didn’t just... heal them all the way. The explanation they had gotten was just something along the lines of “we don’t want to introduce too much foreign Qi into your body,” but Songmei was... pretty sure she had seen battle healers in the videos of people who documented their battles.
Those streaming people on live, yeah...
Brushing the thought aside, Songmei pulled the blanket covering her and Mingqing just a little further up. “How are you feeling?”
“Fine... how are you?” Mingqing yawned, leaning her head onto Songmei’s shoulder. “Also, Xueli dropped off a package earlier, we can open it in a bit if you’d like...”
“Mhm, sure, in a bit though...” Songmei murmured, furrowing her eyebrows as she watched a legion of washing machines fly by their window. “I’m doing alright as well, changing the bandage on my stomach was a pain though.”
“You could’ve had me help you,” Mingqing sighed, hugging Songmei under the blanket.
Returning the embrace, Songmei exhaled and closed her eyes as she sank into the warmth. “Well, you had to change your leg bandages, I didn’t want to bother you...”
“Mine are practically healed at this point, you could’ve asked if you wanted,” Mingqing pursed her lips, closing her eyes as well.
“Mnn... no, I want to be independent,” Songmei harrumphed with a laugh. “My midriff is for me to see and care for only.”
Snorting while laughing, Mingqing slipped her hands under Songmei’s shirt, hugging her once more. “We’re dating! I’ve seen you shirtless enough times, just think about all those times we changed in front of each other, even before we started dating. All joking aside though, it’s okay, I understand.”
“Thank you,” Songmei laughed with a grin before clutching her stomach. “How are the others doing though? Any words from them? I haven’t checked our group chat.”
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“They’re fine, Youhong’s mad because his dominant arm was the one that got practically shredded.” Mingqing opened her terminal, scrolling back through the conversation. “Not for any... deep reason though, he’s just sad because he can’t do his classic lychee jelly flick into the air where he catches it in his mouth. He actually has to bring the jellies directly there.”
“His muscle memory failing him? Oh the horror... he has to use his other hand to destroy his digestive system...” Songmei wondered out loud with a snort. She couldn’t help but grin when thinking back to Taigang and his improv punishment during their game night where he had to act like a doctor taking a look at Youhong’s daily diet. “Anyway, how about Taigang? He took a knife into the chest, yeah? I also saw he was like... covered in blood and cuts post-battle.”
“Taigang’s fine? He said most of the cuts were skin level. I swear I saw bone in several places, but he’s denying it. Pretty sure his chest is also fine though. His only response was ‘I’ll just have to work my pecs more in the future,’” Mingqing sighed, facepalming as she read out Taigang’s comment in her best Taigang impression.
“You gotta hit the weights bro, a day not spent in the gym is a day wasted!” Songmei replied in her own Taigang impression, fake flexing before worming back under the blankets and into Mingqing’s embrace. “And Liying? She got a few nasty gashes down her back, yeah? Is she doing alright?”
“Yeah, Liying’s fine,” Mingqing reassured, a faint happy murmur slipping into her voice, “We kinda dragged her into a lot of trouble, but I’m glad we’re closer now. She was a little surprised this morning with how much we messaged in the group chat. She mentioned she had never been part of a friend group like ours before. She shared that she was doing fine. She was even making jokes that her main concern was just how long before she could wear a backless dress or bikini again.”
“I... see...” Songmei smiled, glad their new friend was doing well. Songmei herself couldn’t quite relate to the urge to wear a backless dress or bikini in public, but she was... happy for Liying. With her curiosity sated, Songmei snuggled up to Mingqing, squeezing her tight before asking, “When do you think we should open the package though?”
“Ten more minutes?” Mingqing proposed, cuddling up as well as she stared off into the distance outside where the bustle was beginning to die down.
“Sounds good...”
A solid forty-five minutes of cuddling, chatting, and half-dozing later, Mingqing pulled the package out of her spatial storage ring. Ripping the package open, a few pills wrapped as candy rolled out, falling onto the blanket as Mingqing pulled out a hand-penned letter. Clearing her throat, Mingqing began reading in her most pompous, bourgeoisie voice.
[Dear lovely disciples, your cool older sister Xueli returns!
Included in this get-well package are many things I believe you two will appreciate! Because you two are dating, I just bought a few things I believe you two could enjoy together! The first thing is two sets of recovery pills!]
With Mingqing volunteering to read the letter, Songmei took the package, volunteering to take out each item as Mingqing read them out. For the recovery pills, with half of them already on the blankets, Songmei just looked into the package, pulling out the rest, setting them down with the rest.
[The recovery pills should help you two recover faster! I know, no need to thank me. They won’t instantly heal you, but they’ll help your foundation a little while also speeding up the healing! For the next item, I bought the two of you a box of chocolates! Because you two apparently host game night (which you never invite me to for some reason), I bought a few extra boxes for you to share with your friends!]
Taking out the four boxes of chocolates, Songmei raised her eyebrows as she saw the branding on the boxes. They were FANCY.
[And for the last thing, this is a little more close to my heart, I bought the two of you a book of sudoku! I quite enjoy doing the one in the newspaper everyday, so I thought I’d share the love!]
Pulling out the book of sudoku, Songmei made a mental note just to do a couple to humor Xueli. She, personally, wasn’t a sudoku person, but Xueli... Xueli was such a cute old lad- such a cute young woman for the gift. The intent was certainly there, even if the execution was... iffy.
[Now, for payment! Mwahahaha! I bet you thought this kind older sister would be giving this to the two of you for free! NO! HAHA! There’s payment! The price is... hand-written cards! The two of you must each hand-write a thank you card! You can mail them to me or wait until the next time we meet to hand them over!
With warm regards,
Xueli (your bestest, most-amazingest master)]
Sighing, Songmei pulled out another two pieces of blanket paper, pre-provided by Xueli, setting it down on top of the small mound of goodies. “Shall we start with the notes then? I do want to say thank you...”
“Yeah, sounds good... I have a few ‘thank you’s I want to say and a few jokes to jab with,” Mingqing shook her head with an embarrassed smile, propping the letter up against the gifts.