It was raining. An absolute barrage of water dumping down from the sky and onto the area around them. Because of this rainstorm though, something that was honestly a rarity in this area, Lin Songmei, Yan Mingqing, and Han Youhong were now taking shelter in a cave.

Caves were... easily found in this area.

For the most part they were just alcoves, small areas that had been worn into the ravine’s walls. But others were larger caves that stretched further into the ground either upwards or downwards.

As of now, Songmei was in a cave that stretched further upwards, as... it wouldn’t be very smart to go into one that stretched into the earth. Water... water flows downward if one didn’t know...

Sitting against the ground and hugging her knees, Songmei leaned against Mingqing who was sitting next to her as the two looked out of the opening of the cave.

Lines of white that came down from the sky, drop after drop, an unending shower as small impacts were made against the ground. As streams of water flowed between the rocks, small lizards and insects moved towards shelter as the plants were drowned under the deluge.

“How are you doing this fine... evening?” Songmei asked Mingqing while checking the weather. “By the way, it says that the rainstorm is going to last through the night so... I guess we should settle down here.”

“Seems like we’ll have to, yeah...” Mingqing murmured, leaning her head against Songmei’s while offering her hand to Songmei. “So we’ll have to pause for today... it is around dinner time... so... sleeping early tonight, I guess? We could chat with Xueli later if we wanted, just for a little while. We could also do our readings for school.”

Readings for school.

Th... That was something Songmei had disregarded for a while. Sure, she had done some, a couple here and there. Did a few while on the long walks to and from Westriver, did a few on their off days they spent resting at the city... but...

She was behind, that was for sure.

“Y-Yeah... probably the readings. I’ve definitely not done enough of them,” Songmei confessed, taking Mingqing’s hand and giving it a squeeze. “How many have you do-”

“How did you two intertwine yourselves so fast?” Han Youhong interrupted, his voice shattering the little world Songmei and Mingqing had built around themselves. “I only left for a few minutes to go check out the cave. There’s a level area up ahead where we can set up camp. But what would you two have done if I had run back screaming and crying with a horde of insects buzzing behind me?”

“Uhh... probably died.” Songmei nodded, with a self-assured smile as Mingqing murmured in agreement. “Or run out of the cave screaming and crying with you.”

“Probably the same for me,” Mingqing laughed, her face having the same annoying look on it that Songmei had, a look that just seemed to say ‘What’s your comeback now?’

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

...

A sigh.

“Anyway,” Han Youhong continued, pulling out some lychee jelly to assuage his newfound stress. “We can just... sit around and talk, I guess. Do you two have any plans?”

“Yeah...” Songmei lamented with a long sigh, one about as long as the one Han Youhong just did. “I have to catch up on readings from my sect’s Hall of Learning...”

“Oh damn, you have one of those too?” Han Youhong raised an eyebrow, chuckling to find out this was a shared hell between disciples of all sects. “I mean I should’ve known that but still. I just sleep through all my classes and don’t do the readings. If you two are planning on doing them though... maybe I’ll do them for once.”

“Alright! Join us, join us!” Mingqing cheered, moving a bit so they could all sit in a half circle on the inclined path that this section of the cave was. “There’s not much light coming in from outside anymore since the sun is setting so uhh... I can pull out a lamp if you two want?”

Getting a “yes please” and “that’d be great, thanks,” Mingqing pulled out a qi-powered lamp she had from her spatial ring, setting it against the ground. “See, the fancy thing about this lamp is that I can do this!”

Saying that, Mingqing demonstrated the various features of the lamp, which included different light settings, a small pike on the bottom of the lamp that could allow it to be put on uneven terrain, some hooks so it could be hung, among other features.

“Why do you just have a multi-terrain lamp lying around in your spatial storage ring, Mingqing?” Han Youhong asked with a... pondering... expression, as he ate a piece of lychee jelly.

“Because... why not?” Mingqing gestured as she sat down once more after piking the lamp into the ground. “It’s always good to be prepared, and since my family sent me a bunch of random ass Qi artifacts, I might as well bring them along. They could be useful! Like this one!”

“... Sure... I see.” Han Youhong nodded, shrugging before pulling out some of his reading. “Anyhow, I guess... we read? How about we read for a bit first, then set up our tents and have dinner. Then decide if we want to hang out or read more?”

“Sounds like a plan,” Mingqing agreed, looking over to Songmei who let out an “mhm.”

With that, the three of them sat there, falling into silence with the sounds of pouring rain filling their ears as they read their sect readings.

History, science, math, language? Songmei had it all! There were even theory articles about cultivation that their teacher Jiang Yonghang had sent them. They were super dense texts too! From the little blurbs that Jiang Yonghang had sent, Songmei had found out that, luckily, they didn’t need to take notes...

That was good.

Reading her messages on her terminal while checking which of the articles to read though, Songmei also saw a message from Liu Xueli, it seemed that the inner disciples had left for Westriver.

Though... the time... wasn’t to be trusted.

Xueli had mentioned that she had just found out about it through Jiang Yonghang while out on a daily walk. However... because of this, the inner disciples could’ve left anywhere between a few weeks ago, or a few minutes ago... or not at all yet.

On another note though, Xueli taking daily walks was the most old lady thing ever!

Songmei knew that “it was for recuperating” purposes, but it still seemed... like...

C’mon.

Someone had to let Xueli know that she was an old lady one day or another...

Sure, she could probably pass for Songmei or Mingqing’s older sister looks-wise, but even if a blind person took a look at Xueli’s daily life, they’d be able to see that she was an old lady...

Readings!

Can’t get distracted now...

Shelving her thoughts about her totally super young, full of youth, paragon of the new generation, master Xueli, Songmei pulled out some articles, diving down into reading about... math.

Exhilarating.