After Wang Taigang’s arrival, things were peaceful, and not much happened for the next few days. Sure, there were some notable things, such as the arrival of Han Youhong’s other disciple mate, Liu Liping, and her group along with everyone relocating their campsite, but otherwise? Peaceful.
Lin Songmei found the days to be quite nice. After a productive group discussion where everyone was like “we probably should move before we die,” they decided to move!
For context, this happened before Liu Liping and her group arrived, so it was just her, Yan Mingqing, Han Youhong, Wang Taigang, and the rest of Wang Taigang’s little posse. They all made the decision, then packed up, and moved to the actual top of the slope plus a little further. This area once more was also flat, but also had a nearby lift station. Of course, because they were in the literal middle of nowhere, it was unmanned, but in an emergency, they could figure out the buttons and get into the ravine to begin running away.
Prettyyyy cool to say the least.
At least Songmei felt it was pretty cool. She liked not being within the instant killzone of a weird plant thing.
Other than moving, because again, there was nothing to do in the middle of nowhere, Songmei spent most of her days just doing some light working out or general skill training. Bow practice? Butterfly footwork practice? Crystalline arrow practice? Body strengthening practice? If you could name it, Songmei had done it.
Mingqing joined her too, they trained together in a bit of a practice field that everyone had agreed upon. Though... unlike usual, Mingqing these past few days had been Miss Ice Queen all day long. Well, maybe this was the usual, but Songmei wasn’t used to seeing it. Songmei was used to the animated, talkative Mingqing.
All of this only caused Songmei to think ‘I hope Mingqing is doing okay’ a lot more than usual...
The only time that Mingqing had really opened up or melted was at night... The times when Songmei herself was the only other person around. During those times they could still talk for hours on end like usual, leaning against each other while staring off at the stars through the little see-through sections of their tent.
Other than that though, Songmei had also begun to spend a lot of time just laying down. Her eyes bugged her most of the time, and laying down was a nice respite from that. So, because there wasn’t anything to do, when she wasn’t doing some training, most time was either spent laying down with her eyes closed, or laying down while ‘reading’ the materials she had to read for the sect’s classes.
As of now though, with the sun hanging in the sky doing its thing as always, it was morning. Songmei and Mingqing, having just finished running up the slope for a workout, were now just standing at the top of the slope doing some... observing.
“Doesn’t look good.”
“Totally looks absolutely horrid.”
Standing beside each other, Songmei and Mingqing agreed with each other as they stared at the plant that was just vibing in the middle of the crater.
It was not good for them though, the plant just vibing kinda meant the endangerment of their lives.
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“What did Xueli say last night about the strikeforce-whatever team after I fell asleep?” Songmei asked, crossing her arms and squinting at the plant, as if hoping that her disapproval of the plant would slow down its maturing process.
Copying Songmei, Mingqing also struck a disapproving pose, shaking her head while letting out an exasperated sigh. “Well, Xueli said that the bureaucrats in charge decided that the strikeforce should meet up in a different city before all coming to Westriver together.”
“That sounds about as smart as a piece of lychee jelly asking to take refuge in Youhong’s spatial storage ring.” Songmei mused, raising an eyebrow in confusion. “That means the soonest they’ll be able to arrive is tomorrow, right?”
“Xueli said it’s more likely that they’ll arrive tomorrow afternoon or the morning the day after. She then cussed out the bureaucrats because they planned a PR conference and some team building exercises...” Mingqing shook her head, raising a hand above her eyes to shade her eyes to get a better look at the plant. “Definitely doesn’t look like the plant will last until then, though.”
“It looks like it could blossom, like, in a few hours.” Songmei sighed, rubbing her eyes and turning away. “I’m just gonna go stretch and then lay down for a bit until lunch. You want to come stretch with me?”
“Sure...” Mingqing murmured, turning and walking back towards the area they had set up camp with a slight crease in her eyebrows and a light of worry surfacing in her eyes.
Walking for about ten minutes back to camp, what greeted the two was a pretty barebones sight. There wasn’t even a communal area set up. Beside everyone’s tents were opened bags, ready to be stuffed with collapsed tents at any time before being sent into storage rings.
Even the training area, which usually would be marked out with small poles in a larger campsite like this, was only marked out with a crude little trench that had been created by a few people using their feet as a shovel.
Nodding towards Wang Taigang and Youhong as they made their way back to the tent, Songmei and Mingqing entered their tent, clearing out a little bit of space before beginning to stretch.
Stretching was important. Songmei had begun to live by that fact. These days, she could drop into the splits anytime, front splits, side splits, whatever.
Still though, after working out, stretching was always an adventure of just pulling apart one’s muscles. Songmei swore too, whoever came up with Downward Dog was a sadistic little-
It was HELL!
Doing Downward Dog was a workout in itself! Shoulders, biceps, core, everything! Wholebody experience!
Even afterward, her wrists would be screaming out in pain afterward, complaining that Songmei had overused them and voided the warranty she had.
Ugh.
Songmei wished she could always just do the stretch that consisted of laying on the ground like a starfish that had lost its home.
“How do you tolerate stretching Mingqing?” Songmei couldn’t help but ask for the probably millionth time. “How are you able to subject yourself to stretching five times a day”
“I don’t know? Habit pounded into me since I was young, I guess,” Mingqing confessed, falling into a graceful transition between forms.
Sexy-
HACK- COUGH-
Graceful... that was the word Songmei was looking for... for sure, for sure. Didn’t know where that other one had come from.
Making some more light conversation though, the two stretched and made some jokes before Songmei laid down and Mingqing went to... Well Songmei didn’t know... Mingqing for sure wasn’t gonna socialize with other people.
Songmei just asked Mingqing to wake her up for lunch and then let her go, there wasn’t any point in prying into every action Mingqing filled her life with after all.
It seemed, honestly, this day would be alright. Of course, there was the looming danger, but there was the strike team that would arrive... eventually.
Everything would be okay.
But then, at half past two in the afternoon, the plant bloomed.