To sum up Han Youhong’s roundabout explanation, he ate a lot of jelly because it tasted good and because food was the love of his life.

Lin Songmei didn’t really have much to say to that.

Well, personally, Songmei wasn't much of a food person. She’d grown up eating... not a lot of varied and amazing tasting food, but she was used to just... eating light meals and drinking soup. So even now with the option to eat heavier she didn’t...

Now ... the awkward silence returned.

Only a half silence though... There was conversation, but it was light and not very substantial.

However, since the last time they had talked had been dominated by conversations involving food, it was only now that the two parties were getting to know each other. Because of that, Songmei listened in as Mingqing asked Han Youhong questions about himself.

While listening, Songmei’s eyebrows furrowed. Well, she was, of course, totally fine with letting Mingqing do the talking and asking, it was just that... All the questions were like interview questions.

“So what would you say motivates you, Han Youhong?” Mingqing asked, pressing her hands together with a pensive look. “What would you say are your strengths and weaknesses as a cultivator?”

Songmei d-d... didn’t even know the answers to the questions if they were directed towards herself!

Maybe it was better that Songmei had already gotten to know Mingqing from a random chance encounter...

Luck! As always! The best and most useful skill!

Tapping his chin while eating some jelly, Han Youhong’s red eyes remained bright and unfazed. It seemed like he actually knew the answers to those questions...

“I’d say that... uh... for my primary motivation... hmm,” Han Youhong pondered out loud as he tried to find a way to articulate his thoughts. “I have a younger sister. So one reason is because I want to set a good example for her. Another is that... I just like cultivating. I don’t have any hobbies really, I just find cultivating very enjoyable, so I spend all my free time doing it.”

Discarding his emptied lychee jelly cups back into his spatial storage rings, Han Youhong continued, his hands still in constant motion, opening lychee jelly after lychee jelly. “Of course, I have some... Just a little family pressure. However, it doesn’t affect me too much, I do pretty well, and cultivation isn’t something I might blank on in a specific moment like I can with school knowledge.”

Songmei raised her eyebrows, letting out an impressed chuckle under her breath while nodding her head.

Han Youhong had his shit together!!

Much more so than Songmei...

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Her motivation was just... return the favor that the sect gave her, keep up with Mingqing, don’t become poor again, and get a big house! But then here was Han “I cultivate for personal passion and to be a good role-model for my younger sister” Youhong.

“Anyway, onto the second question,” Han Youhong continued with a small smile, chuckling at Mingqing and Songmei’s impressed expressions. “My weaknesses are... I don’t have much of a burning drive, so I'm just... kinda chill about everything. I also find it hard to really talk much. Makes people think I hate them when I just don’t know what to say. My red eyes don’t help with that either. My strengths, though, are... I have a decent motivation, it doesn’t seem like it’ll suddenly disappear. I’m also pretty talented so that’s cool.”

Squish.

“Oh yeah, I also know where all the good restaurants are wherever I go.” Han Youhong nodded with a confident laugh. “Sixth sense I’ve trained over the years.”

Pausing for a second to eat another lychee jelly—squish—Han Youhong gestured towards Mingqing and Songmei. “So how about you two? I’ve talked long enough, let me eat my jelly while I listen to you guys.”

Gesture, gesture.

With a very, very “gentle” hand motion, Songmei, as someone filled with the utmost amount of grace and politeness, allowed Mingqing to go ahead and introduce herself first.

It was the least that Songmei could do, she, of course, as such a graceful, polite person, would always let others speak first. No personal motive at all!

“For me,” Mingqing shrugged, her hand touching the hilt of her well-worn sword, “There’s not much. My main motivation has always been to reach the top; half out of personal drive, half out of spite. As probably everyone in the whole world knows, my parents are spartan as hell. My brother is nice though. So I want to reach the top, preferably higher than them, just so I can tell them how they’re wrong. For example- this sword?” Mingqing presented, pulling the sword out of the scabbard and holding it in her hands to show Songmei and Han Youhong. “I’ve had this since I was four. My parents made me tie the blue ribbon at the end of the handle myself...”

Pausing for a second seeing Songmei and Han Youhong’s half-worried, half-shocked expressions, Mingqing waved her hands with a reassuring laugh. “Even if they are spartan in terms of cultivation, outside of it our relationship is... decent enough. So we kinda just dance around talking about cultivation at home.”

Squinting, Songmei poked Mingqing’s nose while making sure not to get stabbed by Mingqing’s sword. “Take care of yourself...”

A brief pause fell on the group after Songmei’s finger missed Mingqing’s nose and instead poked her cheek though. Watching Songmei lower her hand in embarrassment, Mingqing laughed, booping Songmei’s nose while sheathing her sword and increasing her walking pace back to normal once more.

“Anyhow, for the second question. I’m good at like... swordplay, and that’s about it. I’m weak at everything else, I don't know jack shit about alchemy, blacksmithing, cooking, or anything. I’m also a lazy ass who doesn’t want to learn any of that either... I’ll just cultivate a ton and like... contribute to the team by being strong.” Mingqing nodded with a satisfied smile, getting two dead fish stares in reply after mentioning how she was a lazy ass who didn’t want to learn anything else.

Songmei wanted to retort to the same thing twice...

For one thing! You can’t just call yourself a lazy ass! You have to do like... a better weakness in situations like these! You have to like... Humble brag... Though, the honesty was nice.

Second! Mingqing? Lazy ass?

Does not... does not compute.

If anyone was a lazy ass, Songmei didn’t think it was Mingqing...

Maybe it was her, maybe it was their master Liu Xueli, but it definitely wasn’t Mingqing!

...

It was probably Xueli...

Songmei felt like she didn’t do much but feed her koi...

Maybe that was her way of cultivating?

Who knows...