After walking through the sea of stalls, Mei couldn't help but feel disgruntled.

Sure, she got that this was to celebrate the sect master's departure, but seriously? Did practically everything need to have an image of the sect master on it?

The paper bags, the cups, even food items... a good portion of them had the sect master drawn on them. That or they were in the shape of his head, like several creepy lollipops she saw on sale.

Stupid old man festival. Mei didn't have anything against him, but she couldn't help but feel like the festival mood was being ruined. At least there were still some normal stalls here and there.

Mei would have returned to the refining room, but it felt rather stuffy after holing up in there for so long. Not even mountains of books could alleviate that.

After walking around aimlessly for a while, a store caught her eye. It wasn't a stall that had been set up for the festival, but one that had long been there, an aged two-storied brick building. A sign was hung over it, the words "Old Lu's Winery" carved on it.

As for the reason, perhaps it could be said to be curiosity.

Ever since she was little, she would see her parents and their friends drink on special occasions. But when she asked them, they always told her it wasn't good for children to drink, even talking about scary things like how it would damage the brains of children.

But now she was a cultivator, with a healing body art at that! Surely that wouldn't apply to her anymore, would it?

She pushed the door open slowly with a creek, peeping in. Inside, older disciples, some even middle-aged or old were laughing merrily, some with red faces. The bar was filled to the brim, except for a corner, where a single man sat in the midst of several empty tables.

He was planted face-first on the table before him, which was covered in random sect master merchandise, along with 3 bottles of wine with varying fullness, one toppled over and spilling out its contents. A rather despondent aura was practically oozing out of him. Mei could see why people didn't want to sit next to him.

An oddly familiar snake was spazzing out all over the table, half of its body stuck in a wine bottle. Mei squinted. Wasn't that Yang Ning's pet snake? Wait, that guy was indeed Yang Ning!

Mei was a bit curious about what was going on but didn't really want to approach him. Instead, she went to the old man at the counter, who was... moulding sand into glass cups?!

Old Lu raised an eyebrow at her as she approached, placing down his work on the table, a half-formed cup.

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"Little miss, aren't you a bit young to be here?" he asked.

Eh...

"I'm a cultivator, so it should be fine?"

The old man shrugged.

"Don't start at your age. You don't want to pick up bad habits, do you?"

Should the owner of a winery really be saying that?

Mei didn't really want to push it, so she decided to ask what was on her mind.

"Um, by the way, do you know what's going on with him?" she pointed to Yang Ning.

"No clue. You know him?"

"Not really. He's like the friend of a friend or something, I guess."

Back at the table, the small snake finally stopped spazzing about, collapsing over Yang Ning's head like a limp noodle. Did it just... die? Probably just unconscious.

"Drinking away sorrows at such a young age, youths these days..." the old man sighed. "Since he's a friend's friend, I think you should tell your friend to tell him to seek counselling. It looks to me like he has some serious inner demons."

"Does he come here often?"

"Hmm... I guess he's been a long time customer. Though, it's been quite a while since I've seen him like that. Back when he first joined the sect, nearly 10 years ago, I used to see him acting like that all the time!" old Lu stroked his beard as he reminisced.

"Back then, I told him to get counselling, and since then he's improved. I've not seen him like this again until just a few day ago! I tried to ask him about it, but he screamed at me to shut up. What a rude boy..."

Boy? Yang Ning looked around 25...

Mei found it a bit odd. Him acting like that, did it have anything to do with what happened at the graveyard? From the looks of it, that girl... what was her name? Ying... Ying Yu... right, Ying Yue. From the looks of it, she died quite a while ago. To her, it didn't really make sense for him to be still depressed about it.

She remembered back when she was 8, her grandma passed away. The kindly old lady always spoilt her, sometimes even buying expensive snacks and toys for her despite their poverty. When her father tried to get her to help out on the fields initially, grandma argued with him constantly.

Come to think of it, only after grandma's passing did she end up doing a good portion of the farming.

Mei cried hard back then, but in about a month, she had accepted it for the most part. She even wondered if she was heartless.

Thinking about her grandmother, all she felt at this point was slight sadness.

A pouring sound came from a side, snapping her out of her thoughts.

Old Lu had moulded a rather tiny glass and was pouring wine from a bottle into it.

Mei was slightly annoyed at the fact that a stylised picture of the sect master winking and doing double thumbs-up was on the label, along with "Sect Master's Favourite!".

"Here. If you want to try it."

Mei picked up the glass hesitantly.

"Really?"

"Go ahead." he smirked.

Gingerly, she took a sip. The first thing she tasted was a faint fruity but astringent taste, followed by the sensation of pure fire! Mei began to cough violently and spat it out. Old Lu burst out in hearty laughter, clutching his chest.

"It's not funny!" Mei said defensively.

What the heck? That was nasty!

The old man continued to laugh, not replying. From the side, little spirits floated over, cleaning up the mess in an instant.

Mei pouted and marched out of the establishment.

...

As she headed towards the body elder's residence, weaving through the many stores, she suddenly heard a shout.

"Hey! Mei Xiu!"

From a food store, she saw to her surprise Junwei and Guang Ai were manning it.

"Where did you go the last time! Didn't we have a herb gathering match? Did you chicken out?"

Ah. She completely forgot. Well, not that she really cared anymore.

"Later."

"Hey! Where are you going?"