The sky returned to being dark. By the wall, outside the library of the East, Yang Ying hugged her knees and put her chin on them. Once in a while she raised up her face to look around then brought her chin back to rest on her knees.
From a distance but not too far, Bai Xiao Feng, Gao Xiao Fei and Lin Guo Ju stood looking at the girl with an expression of pity.
“It’s late. The wind is cold. Mother, let me go to tell her,” Gao Xiao Fei said.
Bai Xiao Feng shook her head. “It's useless. She won't listen,” she said.
“So, we leave her here, don't we?” Guo Ju said.
It was a question that Bai Xiao Feng didn't know how to answer.
“I know that my master did wrong to her,” Guo Ju said, “ but junior master, why does my master hate a woman from the brothel?”
“It is a long story,” Bai Xiao Feng said before she took a very long sigh. “We have to start when my master built this sect.”
The two youngsters paid their ears carefully.
Bai Xiao Feng began to narrate, “My master is master Dao. He has a junior, master Bu. They are the founders of the sect. There were six students. The first was Tao Tong, the second was Bai Bingwen, the third was Xu Jin Ling, the fourth was Gong Xun, the fifth was Gao Zhang Shan and the sixth was I. All of us were students of master Dao. At that time, we trained, we ate and we slept together. Though in the sect there were senior Jin Ling and I the women, we were not close. Senior Jin Ling was close to the second senior and Zhang Shan, while fourth senior was close with first senior. However, all of them took care of me very well, especially Zhang Shan.”
“That's why you married father,” Xiao Fei said.
Bai Xiao Feng smiled, “It's fate. I remembered the master was happy when Zhang Shan asked him to give permission to us to get married. He said yes without hesitation, he also selected the date of wedding for us. But then a matter happened causing our wedding to be delayed.” She took a pause for about a few seconds before she continued, “Master wanted our sect to be the biggest sect in the world so he prepared in advance especially he prepared the roads for all of us. He named the sect Purple Jade. He taught each of us different martial arts and he built seven palaces, one for each of us. There was a red palace, orange palace, yellow palace, green palace, blue sky palace, blue palace and purple palace. The purple palace is the main palace, it is for the sect leader. At that time, junior master managed red palace, first senior managed orange palace, second senior managed yellow palace, third senior managed green palace, fourth senior managed blue-sky palace, Zhang Shan and I managed blue palace. As for the purple palace, it was under master’s management. Master said that after he died, master Bu would be his successor and would move to purple palace, then first senior would move to red palace and all of us would move up. I remembered ten days before my wedding, master knew a story, it was master Bu and senior Jin Ling loved each other.”
Both Xiao Fei and Guo Ju unlocked their eyes since they were very surprised.
“Master was very angry. He refused their love because it was wrong to the sect's principles that prohibited relationships between master and student. However, master Bu argued with master that he had to love senior Jin Ling. Master became more angry, he then assigned senior Tao Tong to marry senior Jin Ling after Zhang Shan and I got married. Senior Tao Tong didn't want to because he already had a lover, she was a courtesan in the brothel. But he didn't dare to refuse the master's order because he respected the master so much. He thought he should agree with master then he would find a solution later. Unfortunately his lover heard the news that he would get married. She thought senior Tao Tong betrayed her so she committed suicide. When senior Tao Tong heard his lover was dead, he had a broken heart, and he killed himself. Seeing that master Bu blamed himself that he was reason of the death of his student and his lover, so he left the sect and we lost his information till today.”
“That’s why my master hates women in the brothel because she determined that it was them who made her lose her man,” Guo Ju said.
“Yes.” Bai Xiao Feng nodded.
“Then what happened next?” Xiao Fei said.
“Master delayed my wedding to organize the funeral for senior Tao Tong. Then he assigned senior Bai Bingwen to be his successor, and kept only three palaces, the purple palace changed to the middle palace, the palace of senior Jin Ling changed to the left palace and the palace of senior Gong Xun changed to right palace. As for Zhang Shan and I, we were moved to middle palace to help the second senior.”
“Mother, you said fourth senior master and first senior master were close. What was fourth master's reaction when the first master died?”
“He did not have any reaction. Fourth senior was a quiet person. He rarely spoke so we didn't know about him. But now, when I am reminded of what had happened, I think the death of first senior affected him so much. He should be angry with us strongly since he thought we didn't do anything to help the first senior. That can be a reason he betrayed the sect to join hands with the devil sect.”
“It can be. Because I heard fourth master didn't like to argue, but he argued with third master over Yang Ying especially when third master mentioned that Yang Ying was from the brothel.”
“Um.” Bai Xiao Feng nodded. “We are careless. If we pay attention a little bit to him, perhaps things today would not happen.”
Between his warm palms, Xiao Fei held mother’s hand to comfort her from remembering the unhappy memory.
Behind them Bai Bingwen was standing. He heard all the conversation between the three people. However he kept his lips locked till his female junior and the students left for their rooms.
Talking about Yang Ying, she still sat at the same place without taking a leave even a bit.
While she was pressing her chin on her knees and she was looking on the ground, two feet appeared before her eyes. She yelled, “Junior master!” Then she raised her face up with a big smile.
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