Lan Jin follows Xiao Xian around the interior of the New Star Boutique with little idea of what he actually wants to purchase. So used to picking up clothing right off the shelves and trying them on in dressing rooms where he could look at himself in a mirror, being required to imagine the final outcome of a style of clothing he is not familiar with is not as simple as he might hope. Instead, he is largely left with no choice but to look at and feel the different fabrics and hope that whatever he ends up liking ends up looking good on him.
“Are all of these made by hand?” Lan Jin asks while rubbing his hand across a bolt of fabric.
“Of course!” Xiao Xian smiles. Then, she asks, “How else would it be made? Would we use our feet?”
Lan Jin smiles, taking it as the joke she obviously intended it to be, but he still can’t help but feel disappointed.
Though the fabrics he had seen so far are all of fairly high quality, none of them have met his standards. That’s not to say that they aren’t good, but while he was walking around the store with Xiao Xian he found out that, for him to order clothing, just the labor alone would cost several dozen copper coins.
Considering everything is made by hand, and that the clothes are meant to last quite a while and are of fairly good quality, it doesn’t surprise him at all that a boutique is charging relatively higher prices for their product than what he is used to seeing while shopping at department stores. But, considering that he is going to have to pay a lot, he at least wants to be comfortable in the clothes, so no rough fabrics are going to do it for him.
Consequently, Lan Jin can’t help but feel disappointed when he touches fabrics that look nice but don’t feel the way he wants them to.
Xiao Xian and Lan Jin continue looking at colorful fabrics for a while, and Xiao Xian even starts to get a little anxious as everything she brings him to is shot down time after time, a look of constant disappointment clear on Lan Jin’s face.
“Mister guest, is there nothing to your liking?”
Looking at her, Lan Jin sighs. “It’s not that I don’t like anything, it’s that I don’t really want to spend a bunch of money on something that I won’t be really happy with.”
“Mister guest, can you tell me a little bit about what you’re looking for? We have a lot of fabrics, and I’m familiar with many of them, so there’s a good chance that you can tell me what you want and I can take you to it.”
“Then, do you have denim for pants and microfiber fabrics for shirts?” He asks, his tone hopeful.
His hopes are immediately quashed when he sees that Xiao Xian has no idea what he’s talking about.
“Yeah, I figured as much. I thought it was a long shot in the first place.”
Lan Jin turns his head and starts looking at the fabrics again, but Xiao Xian speaks up.
“Mister guest, I might not know what those are, but maybe you could explain them to me. I don’t know everything yet, so if you could give me some advice, I am certain I can figure something out!”
Looking at her again, Lan Jin wonders how he should explain it. But, luckily for him, the answer comes easy as he is wearing jeans and a microfiber t-shirt under his hoodie right now.
His eyes brighten, and Lan Jin pulls off his hoodie before pulling the base of his t-shirt away from his skin and holding it toward Xiao Xian.
“My pants are denim, and this is a micro-fiber t-shirt,” he says, feeling a little excited. “If you feel it you’ll see how soft it is. I don’t know if you have anything exactly like them, but I want them to be as close as possible!”
Xiao Xian hesitates for a moment before gingerly reaching out and pinching Lan Jin’s shirt with her thumb and index finger. Then, rubbing softly, her eyebrows scrunch together and she starts nodding her head. After that, she starts looking conflicted.
“Mister guest, we don’t have your pants’ material here— it looks like cotton, but it is made in a way I have never seen before. And as for your shirt, it’s not that we don’t have any materials like this, but…” She stops talking, the conflicted expression on her face growing.
“What is it?” Lan Jin asks, a little anxious. He starts wondering if the materials she is speaking of are prohibitively expensive and a bad feeling starts budding in his chest.
Seeing his expression, Xiao Xian pauses for several long seconds. Eventually, she squeezes her hands together and says, “We do have some fabrics that are very close to this one. But I don’t think it’s proper to sell them to you.”
“Why not?” Lan Jin asks. Now that he knows the fabrics are here, he has already decided that he wants to see if they meet his standards. If not, he doesn’t think anything else would.
“Mister guest, it’s just that those fabrics are reserved for a certain type of people, and for a certain type of product. So using them to make regular clothing would be…” Xiao Xian stops talking, clearly uncomfortable about finishing her sentence.
“Can I at least take a look at them?” Lan Jin asks, feeling slightly agitated. “Are you specifically not allowed to sell them to other people?”
“This… There shouldn’t be a rule against it, but…” She stops talking again.
“Can I please see them? I’m used to wearing certain kinds of fabrics, and, no offense to your boutique, but your prices are expensive for what I’d be getting. If I buy something, I’m only going to buy something that I like.”
Xiao Xian still looks indecisive so Lan Jin shakes his head and says, “Look, you’ve been very accommodating to me so far and I appreciate you taking me around the store. But, if you’re not willing to let me decide what types of clothing I can purchase, then I will go somewhere else that will be more receptive to my needs.”
Xiao Xian’s eyes widen and she starts to panic, “No, no! Here is good! You can buy clothes here! I’ll take you to see the fabrics!”
“Thank you,” Lan Jin says and then lets out a little sigh while wondering if he was being reasonable or just acting like an asshole to her.
After that, he begins following Xiao Xian, who begins moving much more quickly, to the back of the boutique. When they stop again, he finds numerous bolts of fabric dyed in pale colors. Compared to the stuff up front, he finds that the colors are more appealing to look at, and when he touches one of the fabrics, his eyes widen in delight.
“It’s so soft!” He says happily. “How much is it?”
Xiao Xian’s eyes widen and she stares at Lan Jin with her mouth agape. “Um…”
Looking at the light-blue fabric under Lan Jin’s hand, she starts feeling conflicted again. But, looking at the resolute expression on Lan Jin’s face, she begins feeling defeated and her shoulders sag.
“This fabric costs twenty-five copper per bolt.”
“Gotcha. How many bolts of fabric would you need to make me an outfit like everyone else wears? A robe, pants, one of those big belts, and probably an undershirt, too.”
Xiao Xian pauses and then says, “I should be able to do that with ten bolts and some additional material, but… Mister guest, these fabrics really don’t… these are meant for pregnant women who have sensitive breasts! I…”
She turns her head to look at the fabrics, but Lan Jin shrugs his shoulders.
“And?” He asks, not really caring who the fabric was originally made for.
“But… this fabric is for pregnant women!” Xiao Xian repeats herself, stunned by Lan Jin’s lack of concern. “Pregnant women! Anything else would be fine, but… I… Do you really want me to make you something like…”
Xiao Xian grows more and more confused, and her words become scattered as she speaks.
“I don’t really care.” Lan Jin shrugs. “Once it’s made into men’s clothing, then it’s no longer clothing for a pregnant woman. It’s that simple. And it’s not like anyone else is going to be wearing them, so how will they know?”
***
Xiao Xian stares at Lan Jin, a thousand thoughts running through her head, but she doesn’t really have an argument to counter his words. Or at least, not one that she is willing to voice. The only way anybody would know this fabric was intended to be for a woman would be to look at its color, something he clearly did not know. But, if she gave that away, then she might as well admit that she was trying to get him to buy fabrics meant for women in the first place.
All of a sudden, Xiao Xian feels a bit of resentment toward herself. She had agreed to help Lulu out because she and Lulu were friends and even the City Lord’s daughter, Qiang Yu, was nice enough to her. She knew getting on Qiang Yu’s good side would be a boon for her and her family, and as for the young man, she had never seen or heard of him before.
Therefore, everything should have been a harmless prank. She was even intentionally showing her guest the cheaper fabrics because she didn’t want him to lose out too much. But, now, this young man was trying to buy women’s lingerie and asking to wear it as clothing. Even worse, she had told him as much and he simply didn’t care.
Not only was it an incomprehensible decision on his part, but it was also incredibly expensive. A single bolt of fabric would cost twenty-five copper coins. Ten of them are more than two silver. Add on the additional fabrics she will need and the cost of her labor, and she will be selling something worth more than three silver to this man.
Though she was allowed to help out around the boutique, it was limited to simple transactions. This was a decision that was far, far above her! Even if their boutique was currently doing well, three silver coins for a single outfit would be a huge loss for her personally if she screwed up and her mother would definitely find out about it. But if she turned him down, she would let down Lulu and Qiang Yu, and even worse, he would find out she was tricking him. Yet if she accepted it, then she would be held responsible if, and inevitably when, something went wrong.
Finally, Xiao Xian grits her teeth. She had gotten on the tiger, now she has no choice but to ride it all the way.
“Mister guest, I can make your outfit, but, I am telling you one last time that this fabric is meant for women. I will do everything I can to make it look nice as proper clothing, but I am not responsible if people look at you askance for wearing it!”
“That’s fine by me. I don’t really care what other people think, anyways. So even if they do realize it, it’s no sweat off my back.”
The young man shrugs and Xiao Xian can’t help but feel a little light-headed with how nonchalant he is being.
But even still, she grabs several bolts of the light-blue fabric as well as some of the nicer white fabrics to go along with it. Then, she takes her guest into a fitting and cutting room in the back of the boutique and has him take several poses so she can use a slate and a piece of chalk to record all of his measurements.
Once that’s done, she sits her guest down in a chair and asks him to wait while she gathers the rest of the things she will need to make his outfit. He complies readily, and Xiao Xian feels more frustrated because she wishes he could have been this reasonable when they were searching for the fabrics he would buy, but all she can do now is grit her teeth.
However, she decides to suffer in silence and throw her all into making his clothes so that, at the very least, the only thing he can complain about later is his face hurting. As for the clothing, she intends to make them as perfectly as she is able.
***
With Xiao Xian working on making his clothes, Lan Jin decides he might as well use the time to do something he had intended to do since he woke up this morning— look into body cultivation. If not for his hunger pangs earlier, he would have already done it. But now, with his stomach full and a couple of hours to waste, he decides now was probably the best opportunity he’d get until later in the evening.
“I’m going to close my eyes,” Lan Jin says. “I’ll be awake, but let me know if you need to take more measurements.”
“Mmm,” Xiao Xian replies, and with that, Lan Jin closes his eyes and enters the Omega Browser’s Space.
Before he begins, he wonders whether he should look for something big or small. Ideally, he wants to find the basics plus some additional knowledge that will allow him to make informed decisions about body cultivation. The only problem is that, with things like the ancient brown scroll, he got a lot of information that was informative but useless to him. Whereas with the skeleton, he received one arguably useful piece of information among miles upon miles of what he believes to be biographical information. That isn’t to say that the information is useless, but, right now, he didn’t have the time to read through more information than even multiple libraries combined would contain.
He thinks to himself that he should probably try to find something similar to the Heaven and Earth Refining Spirit Flame jade, the Three Realms Fate-Guiding Verse, or even the stone monument.
Though, merely out of preference, he would like to find something more akin to the jade because the stone monument took a power source and the Three Realms Fate-Guiding Verse nearly got him captured and killed. Of the three, the jade is the only thing that was simple to use and had largely predictable results.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
With an idea of what he wants to search for, Lan Jin begins manipulating the purple star to write out ‘Body Cultivation Techniques’. With the star’s morning infusion of purple mist, there was more than enough energy for him to write it all out and then some, so he begins his search with a lot of hope and his only expectation being that he would have to luck into something useful once more.
As before, the Space begins to churn and Lan Jin waits patiently for the inevitable appearance of countless images. And, to his relief, he finds that though there are some bones among the results, he is left lacking a literal graveyard within the Space for him to search through.
He looks through the results calmly, his senses drifting over tomes, stones, walls, jades, bones, and countless other things. Though he has a clear time limit, he does not feel as rushed as when he first started using the Omega Browser. In addition, he wants to be able to choose something that wasn’t created by a murderous madman hell-bent on revenge.
He pays the closest attention to the jades because he believes they will share the same function as the one that gave him the Auspicious Tri-Colored Flame. There are many of them with names like ‘Invincible Golden Body’, ‘God-Shattering Star Fist’, ‘Dragon-Devouring Elephant Body’ ‘Guanyin’s Earth Refining Cauldron’, and many, many more. The only issue is, with just an image or a few characters to define them, he realizes that choosing one would be like opening a gift box in a game. He could end up with something great… or he could end up with a happy little message telling him to try again. If he had infinite time and energy, Lan Jin would download all of them and decide which one suited him best from there.
Unfortunately, he doesn’t have infinite time or infinite energy. And despite believing that most of the jades are actually incredible just by reading their names, without a general description of the information within them, Lan Jin doesn’t know that they’d actually be worth downloading.
“This isn’t good,” he mutters quietly under his breath. “I need something that can actually give me a little bit of information about what it does. Just hoping that something will suit me isn’t going to cut it.”
Lan Jin restructures his thoughts and turns away from the jades entirely. In their place, he starts looking at the many stone monuments instead. Needless to say, they are myriad in number and, even though Lan Jin is inexperienced, he can tell that some of the smaller ones are pretty much useless to him as they just show people practicing a few punches and kicks while holding different stances— they have nothing written on them at all.
Unfortunately, for whatever reason, there seems to be a lack of a middle ground when it comes to the information on stone monuments. There is either not enough information— to the point where they only show people in different stances— or they are so jam-packed with information that Lan Jin can’t see what’s useful. He assumes it’s because whoever took the time carving some of what he perceives as being the ‘larger’ monuments did so in order to pass along more important information, but he’d be damned if he could understand why they didn’t do it in a way that was more obvious.
But, because of the lack of a middle ground, and because the ‘smaller’ monuments are basically useless to him, he can only look at some of the larger monuments. Though, calling them monuments might be an insult, because, with the giant skeleton he has within the Space, he now has a, albeit vague, reliable way of comparing the sizes of different things. All he has to do is hold up the snake like a ruler and see if something is bigger or smaller than it. After all, it has realistic depictions of humans carved into it, and part of the message to the man’s daughter revealed that she could live in peace for thousands of years beneath its shade, so Lan Jin already knew that it was incredibly large even if he was lacking its exact dimensions.
And though he doesn’t figure out exactly how large the skeleton is, he knows that, in general, it is larger than several mountains stacked on top of one another because he directly compared it to a mountain full of carvings and found that mountain to be extremely lacking in comparison.
That alone left Lan Jin stunned. But when he compares the snake to a staff he finds floating about, his mind stops entirely.
At first glance, the staff seems fairly nondescript to Lan Jin. It’s made out of a dark, nearly black metal, and it has a spiky ornament on top of it, but that’s about as interesting as it gets. However, because Lan Jin knows that a staff is supposed to be a little bit taller than the person wielding it, he assumes that it should be six feet or maybe a little taller, and it should give him a more reliable estimate of how large the skeleton is. Unfortunately, Lan Jin was very, very, VERY wrong with this assumption.
And that’s because the staff that was supposed to be six, maybe seven feet tall, ends up dwarfing the skeleton entirely. In fact, it is by such an immense degree that the serpent can’t even wrap around the base of the staff— it doesn’t even come close. Even further, as Lan Jin pays more attention to it, he finds that the staff has multiple platforms carved into its side, and each platform is separated by numerous staircases.
On the lower platforms, the staircases aren’t that long, and the platforms don’t have too much space between them. As a matter of fact, the skeleton is taller than the first five staircases by itself, as it reaches somewhere around the middle of the fifth platform just laying on its side. But the space between the fifth and sixth platforms is more than double the length between the first and fifth platforms, and things only get more exaggerated from there.
Not bothering to count the number of platforms, Lan Jin quickly returns his attention to the ‘ornament’ he had seen on top of the ‘staff’ and finds that, rather than being an ornament, it is a massive palace. He has no clue how large it actually is, but when he throws the skeleton next to it, he finds that the skeleton can freely pass through all of the palace’s doorways with plenty of room to spare.
When he sees this, Lan Jin can’t help but swallow and he looks around more closely for any useful information. He finds it immediately, as both within the palace and at the base of the ‘staff’ he finds several words engraved into the metal.
‘Heaven Supporting Pillar Body Strengthening Technique’
Lan Jin hesitates for a moment. This is, without a doubt, the largest thing he had ever seen before. But as he glances over the base of the pillar, he finds that there are smaller monuments embedded into it that show people practicing different forms as well as text going along to explain everything in intricate detail.
And, looking at the numerous platforms on the pillar and the staircases separating them, he finds himself thinking that people are meant to master the information on the lower levels before proceeding upward.
“This is probably the best that I’m going to get unless I get lucky, and judging by how large it is, it was made by countless powerful people, so it has a proven track record. And since everything is separated by levels, it will allow me to learn the basics before I get myself in over my head.”
His mind made up, Lan Jin chooses to download the pillar and feels excited as it forms in the Space.
He then immediately turns his attention to reading the information available on one of the stone monuments on the lowest level, and he is slightly confused when the first words he sees at the top of the monument are ‘Human Body'.
His first thought is that it should obviously be for humans, but given how the words are used as a title, he decides to look at the other monuments as well. On the first platform, every monument begins the same way with ‘Human Body’ carved into them. But, when he looks at the second level, he finds the words are changed to ‘Bronze Body’. On the third level, it is ‘Silver Body’ and the fourth is ‘Gold Body’.
Above that, the monuments begin talking about pillars, but, having looked things over, Lan Jin realizes that he’s looking at the names of the different stages, and not anything about species.
“So I am going to be working on the ‘Human Body’ stage first?” Lan Jin mutters.
It makes sense to him now that he believes the names are the stages he will have to go through, and he quickly returns to reading the information on the lowest platform. For now, he largely ignores everything about how to do all of the stances shown as he isn’t about to try them with Xiao Xian working on his clothes nearby. But what little he does read explains the process of consuming vicious beast meat to impart energy to the body. As for the purpose of the stances, they are meant to urge the body into action and provide the catalyst that the body needs to absorb the energy of the vicious beasts' meat and begin the process of infusing the user’s blood with that energy.
He had already known that people rely on vicious beast meat to cultivate their bodies, but the exact process had escaped him. He also now realizes why many of the stone monuments were so lacking in information before because there really wasn’t too much to be said about body cultivation. In essence, it is a workout routine and the stances are the exercises. Even before he knew about body cultivation, Lan Jin knew that people need protein to build muscles. This was the same thing— it’s just that the protein sources were more terrifying than Old Bessy.
Lan Jin continues reading for a while as reading what is most probably an ancient workout routine is both incredibly interesting and, also, a little hilarious. Most of the information is just reinforcing the basics, things he already knew from taking a weightlifting class back in high school, but he takes advantage of his free time to make sure that he at least knows what he is and isn’t supposed to be doing. But the more he reads, the more he feels as though he’s just looking into a holistic workout routine with flexibility training, strength training, power training, dietary information, recovery periods, and so on.
Really, outside of a few baths that use natural treasures rather than Epsom salts and the fact that the routines rely on someone absorbing the energy in vicious beast meat in order to do them properly, there is no real difference between what he is reading now and what his weight lifting class teacher told him back in high school.
He doesn’t know how he should feel about it, but he is so flabbergasted by the similarities that he can’t stop reading.
And he keeps reading until Xiao Xian gets his attention a couple of hours later.
“Mister guest! I’ve finished!” Xiao Xian whispers to him.
When Lan Jin’s eyes flash open, the first thing he sees is Xiao Xian flinching away from him, seemingly surprised.
“M-mister guest, weren’t you asleep? Do you normally wake up this easily?” Xiao Xian asks him.
Lan Jin shakes his head.
“No, I wasn’t sleeping. I told you I was just closing my eyes.”
Xiao Xian narrows her eyes at him. “My grandpa says the same thing when he ‘is not sleeping’.”
Lan Jin shrugs his shoulders and stands up from his chair. “I really wasn’t sleeping, I don’t know what else to say.”
Xiao Xian continues to look at him doubtfully, but Lan Jin pulls her attention away from the topic by asking, “So, did you finish the clothes?”
She quickly nods yes head. “Yes! Here, here! Try them on!”
Then, she excitedly hands him a pair of pants, an undershirt, a robe, some long socks, and a sash. After that, she runs out of the room while saying, “Call for me when you are finished and I’ll make whatever adjustments you need!”
Lan Jin nods his head and waits for the door to close behind Xiao Xian before he begins stripping himself. But as he does so, he realizes that he didn’t think to ask her to make him any underwear before. So, before he can start pulling on his clothes, he is left with a very difficult decision.
“Freedom or security?” He asks himself, tilting his head back and forth as he tries to make up his mind. As he looks at his hand-washed underwear, the decision comes to him easily.
“Fuck it, freedom it is.”
With that, he drops his underpants and tosses them into the pile with his remaining clothes before pulling on his new pants and everything else quickly follows.
When he’s finished dressing, he calls out, “Xiao Xian, I’m done.”
She enters almost immediately, and, to Lan Jin’s pleasant surprise, she is carrying with her a round, bronze mirror.
But before Lan Jin can ask to see himself in it, Xiao Xian’s eyes widen and she says, “It actually looks good!”
Lan Jin can’t help but look at her funny.
Xiao Xian blushes. “This… I’ve never worked with this fabric before! Of course, I’m surprised it looks good. But anybody would be surprised when something new turns out well!”
“Awesome. Can I see?”
Xiao Xian nods her head and holds up the mirror in front of her chest so Lan Jin can see his reflection.
In his opinion, he looks very nice. His robes fit him perfectly as a result of Xiao Xian’s hard work, and though most of the fabric is a light blue that matches his eyes closely, his robes and pants are lined in a creamy white fabric around their edges that break up the solid color nicely. In fact, were it not for one tiny detail, he would think he looks incredibly handsome.
It’s just that…
“How the fuck do I tie this thing?” Lan Jin grumbles while trying to straighten out his sash. Rather than being blue, it is pure white. Judging by how nice the rest of the white looks on his outfit, the sash should look amazing as well, but instead, it is making him look stupid as he struggles to tie, untie, and retie the sash over and over as he tries to make the sash lie flat against his stomach without the knot looking like complete shit.
It takes him several minutes to get it right, and even then, it is only with Xiao Xian explaining the process to him with her mouth hidden behind her hands that he is eventually able to succeed. But, when he does, he thinks he looks very nice.
“This looks great!” He exclaims happily once he finishes properly dressing himself. “Do you think I can order more of these?”
Xiao Xian looks at him, a horrified expression on her face, and she quickly says, “Mister guest, I— I can— if you like it, you can order more. But, right now, I have other responsibilities. Why don’t you pay for this one and you can come back tomorrow to place an order for more?”
Lan Jin nods his head. Though he’s confused about why he has to wait until tomorrow to place an order, he figures having a day to see if there is anything wrong with the outfit will allow him to address any issues he has with Xiao Xian when he comes back.
“Alright,” Lan Jin grins. “That works for me. How much is it?”
Xiao Xian holds up three shaky fingers and says, “The cost of the materials and the cost of my labor adds up to three silver plus some copper. But, I really didn’t do as much work as I thought I might, so I will only charge you three silver."
Internally, Lan Jin immediately disagrees with her. She had clearly put a lot of time and effort into this outfit and, with how it turned out, he thinks she should be happy with it.
Shaking his head, he lets out a huff of air and grabs his pouch of coins from his discarded pants. Pulling out four small silver coins, he hands them to a stunned Xiao Xian and says, “Look, you did an amazing job and I’m sorry for being snappy with you earlier. This outfit turned out better than I could have hoped for, so I hope you take however much you think you deserve from that to treat yourself to some dinner; both as an apology and as a thanks from me.”
With one smile at the stunned girl, Lan Jin grabs his remaining clothes, puts on his shoes, and walks out of the fitting room to carry on with his day.
Though, what he doesn’t see is the guilty look on Xiao Xian’s face as he turns his back to her.
***
Walking out of the New Star Boutique with his new robes on, Lan Jin looks at the sky and realizes it is already close to noon. After reading part of the Heaven Supporting Pillar Body Strengthening Technique, he has a general idea of what he needs to do in order to strengthen his body. The only issue now is that he doesn’t actually know where he is going to get vicious beast meat. He knows it is available because of what the City Lord said to Hu Gongniu after he saw that Hu Gongniu had used his boning knife to cut through vegetation, but where it’s available is up in the air.
Making a guess, he thinks that the Central District and possibly the Inner City are the best bets, and he would even place money on Hu Gongniu working at a restaurant in the Central District because he can’t see someone spending a silver coin just to enter the Inner City for work.
“I wonder if I’ll be able to find the restaurant Hu Gongniu works at. It shouldn’t be too hard, right?” Lan Jin wonders aloud as he begins walking toward the Central District of the city.
He doesn’t get far, though, as he comes across two people who he is vaguely familiar with and stops dead in his tracks.
Lulu and Qiang Yu.
Surprised to run into them here, Lan Jin doesn’t know whether he should try to greet them or make an attempt to avoid them before they notice him. He also has no idea why they are here, but he imagines that they must have come with Qiang Yu’s mom earlier in the day.
In the end, the choice is taken from him when, with two bright smiles on their faces, the girls look at him and open their mouths. However, that is all they do for a while as the happiness slowly fades from their faces and they look more astonished than anything.
Lan Jin doesn’t know what to make of it, but he assumes they are as surprised to see him as he is to see them.
Several seconds pass in awkward silence. Lan Jin doesn’t want to involve himself with them, especially after Sun Meirong told him that Qiang Yu would be the one to deal with him for embarrassing her, but now that he’s been noticed, he finds it difficult to just walk away.
In the end, Qiang Yu is the one who breaks the silence as her hand floats up and presses against her chest.
“It— it’s the same…” She says, her voice trembling slightly and her eyes disturbed.
Lan Jin doesn’t know what she means, but when he looks at her hand and the blue dress under it, he considers the fact that he is now wearing blue robes. Her dress and his robes are different shades of blue, but when he recalls the young master of the Feng Clan going out of his way to wear the same color as Qiang Yu the night prior, and how detestable he was being with his advances, Lan Jin feels as though she might think he is doing the same thing. He still doesn’t know how Qiang Yu managed to get the young master of the Feng Clan to wear green without him realizing what it meant, or how the young master of the Feng Clan knew she was going to be wearing green in the first place so he could match her, but he starts feeling incredibly uncomfortable now that he might be viewed in the same light.
He also remembers how Qiang Yu had been so disgusted with the young master of the Feng Clan that she actually pulled her sword on him and nearly cut him several times.
“I swear,” Lan Jin says quickly, “I had no idea I would run into you, or that you’d be wearing blue. I only just got these clothes made. I’m not trying to match you and I’m not trying to make you uncomfortable either, so if it’s alright, can we just walk around one another and treat this like an accident?”