Chapter 110

World 3 [24]

Neither of them, both still a little fuzzy-headed, successfully understood the other’s meaning. After sitting and kneeling, staring at each other for a good while, Jing Ke finally reached out and pinched the bridge of her nose.

“I don’t need anyone to serve me. Get up, quickly. I’ll pretend tonight never happened,” Jing Ke spoke first.

Seeing her little disciple still stubbornly kneeling on the floor, Jing Ke stepped directly onto the floor barefoot and forcibly pulled her up.

“Alright, wash up and go to sleep. Stop saying such nonsense. I’m the one who drank, so why do you seem like the drunk one?” Jing Ke muttered, patting her little disciple’s head casually.

“Master, my words were not nonsense. Your disciple is not drunk either. Everything I said was serious.” Luo Yuezhu looked at her master with blazing eyes.

The first step was always the hardest. She had already laid bare her heart’s desire; how could she be content to let it all end so muddle-headedly?

“Master, you said it yourself. There is no rule in this world that a woman cannot love another woman. So, can your disciple also love you, Master?” Luo Yuezhu asked, reaching out to clasp her master’s wrist, preventing her from easily leaving.

“Hm?” Jing Ke’s mind was turning a little slower than usual, but she still managed, in fits and starts, to understand her little disciple’s words.

“Yes, a woman can love another woman, and a disciple can love her master. But you are still too young. It’s far too early to speak of romance and love.” Jing Ke let her little disciple hold her wrist, assuming the posture of an experienced person giving advice.

“Yuezhu, you are only fifteen. All these years, you’ve followed me in martial training. You’ve met too few people and experienced too little. You may not even know what love truly is yet,” Jing Ke said earnestly.

Fifteen was only the first year of senior high school. Talking about liking or love at that age was definitely puppy love.

Adolescent affections came quickly and went just as fast. It was fine if her little disciple couldn’t figure things out, but as her master, Jing Ke felt she had to be the clear-headed one.

“Master, fifteen is not young. Many people my age are already betrothed, sewing their wedding dresses at home, preparing to marry,” Luo Yuezhu said, her voice becoming a little more buoyant.

What had she just heard? Master said a disciple could also love her master? Wasn’t that basically admitting that she, too, could love her master?

“Others are irrelevant. In my eyes, you are still far too young. Wait until you understand what love is before you say such things to me again,” Jing Ke said, forcing her sluggish brain to analyze the situation.

Jing Ke thought she had done nothing to cause misunderstanding while maintaining their master-disciple relationship. She had raised her entirely like a child. Wasn’t it normal for an elder to dote on and be good to a junior?

So, theoretically, her little disciple’s so-called ‘love’ for her should just be attachment to family.

Her little disciple’s other relatives had all passed away. She was the one who pulled her out of that helpless abyss, the one who taught her martial arts and gave her the foundation to stand on her own. It was normal for her to depend on her master and not want to leave.

Jing Ke analyzed seriously. The more she thought, the more she felt she was right. Tonight’s kiss must have been a small accident. Her little disciple had confused her feelings for her.

“Alright, it’s late. Go to sleep.” Jing Ke pulled her wrist free and stepped back. “Today, we’ll just consider it as both of us being drunk.”

It was best to pretend tonight never happened. After a night’s sleep, her little disciple would still be her good disciple, and she would still be her little disciple’s master.

Luo Yuezhu was still basking in her earlier joy. Hearing her master mention being drunk, she finally realized her master was trying to play dumb.

“Master, you just said it yourself. A disciple can love her master. So why won’t Master accept my love?” With her greatest worry vanishing, Luo Yuezhu grew bolder.

Master wouldn’t despise her just because she loved her, and she certainly wouldn’t abandon her and leave alone.

Master just thought she was too young. But her age wasn’t unchanging; she was growing up every day! She wouldn’t be fifteen for long. She could be sixteen, seventeen, even in her twenties!

“Because you are too young and don’t know what love is,” Jing Ke patiently said. “Love is different from other feelings. You don’t understand yet.”

“Master, I am not young. I understand what love is.” Luo Yuezhu countered, stepping towards her master.

“Then tell me, what is love?” Jing Ke asked in return.

“Love is wanting to be with Master. Wanting to marry Master. Wanting Master to become my wife,” Luo Yuezhu stated firmly.

“You…” Jing Ke hadn’t expected such a resolute answer. “Did I do something to cause a misunderstanding?”

Jing Ke began to reflect and search for a reason. “Or was it because I took you to Phoenix Cry Tower that you misunderstood something?”

“No, it’s not that. Your disciple has wanted to be with Master for a very long time. I don’t want to be apart from Master,” Luo Yuezhu said.

“You are my disciple. We will not be separated. The bond between us as master and disciple cannot be changed by any external force,” Jing Ke said.

Jing Ke tried hard to explain, wanting her little disciple to understand that whether they were together or not, it wouldn’t affect their life together. They didn’t need to become partners to be together. Master and disciple could also live together for a lifetime; they could still be family.

Luo Yuezhu listened quietly, then asked, “So, Master thinks that your disciple said she loves you just to keep you by her side?”

“Isn’t that the case?” Jing Ke asked in return.

Luo Yuezhu didn’t speak. Instead, she took a step forward, and before her master could react, stood on tiptoe and kissed Jing Ke again.

“But your disciple also wants to do this to Master,” Luo Yuezhu said. Even in the dim moonlight, the light in her eyes remained exceptionally bright.

“Master, I am not a child anymore. I know what love is.” Luo Yuezhu had lost count of how many times she had repeated this sentence.

Realizing her master hadn’t scolded her for her transgressive action, only frowning slightly as if unable to comprehend it, Luo Yuezhu grew bolder still.

She opened her arms and hugged her master, like a young beast marking its territory, striving to leave her own scent on the other.

“Master, rather than seeking pleasure at Phoenix Cry Tower, why not let your disciple serve you?” Luo Yuezhu said. “Whatever they can do, your disciple can also do.”

After speaking, without waiting for her master’s reaction, Luo Yuezhu directly kissed her master’s neck. Recalling an erotic scroll she had unintentionally glimpsed, she also reached out and added movements.

“Wait, wait…” Jing Ke finally realized something was amiss. “Today was only my second time going to Phoenix Cry Tower. I only went to listen to music! I’ve never done that sort of thing!”

Jing Ke finally understood. No wonder her little disciple’s behavior was so unusual today. It turned out she had misunderstood and thought she was truly seeking carnal pleasure at Phoenix Cry Tower.

So that line, “The ladies of Phoenix Cry Tower can do it, so can your disciple,” meant that!

Jing Ke had no objections to a disciple and master being together in principle. But the problem was, Jing Ke had raised Luo Yuezhu as a junior, like a child.

And her little disciple, whom she had raised, was only fifteen! How could she teach her to do such things!

“Master hasn’t done… those things with the ladies at Phoenix Cry Tower?” Luo Yuezhu blinked, the joy in her eyes becoming even more apparent. “That’s wonderful! In the future, Master won’t need to go to Phoenix Cry Tower. Your disciple can handle everything on your behalf!”

“No, stop it. You’re still young, don’t…” Jing Ke still clung to her initial thought. She had to bring her little disciple back to the right path.

At the very least, romance should wait until she was at least eighteen!

Unfortunately, Jing Ke’s little disciple didn’t think she was young. In an era where girls commonly married around fifteen or sixteen, Luo Yuezhu felt she was already an adult.

Emboldened by her current surge of courage, Luo Yuezhu clung tightly to her master, diligently trying to leave marks on her master’s neck.

Without using her inner strength, Jing Ke simply couldn’t pry her little disciple off.

The zero-distance contact allowed Jing Ke to smell the faint scent of alcohol on her little disciple. It was definitely not the smell of fruit wine, but of hard liquor.

After pondering with her somewhat dizzy head, Jing Ke arrived at a somewhat absurd, yet also the most likely, conclusion.

Her little disciple had an extremely poor alcohol tolerance. Simply smelling the strong liquor from beside her was enough to befuddle her mind.

The only good thing was that her little disciple’s drunken behavior was incredibly strange. Other than becoming bolder and exceptionally stubborn, there were no other symptoms.

As if! Becoming bolder and stubborn was already troublesome enough!

Left with no choice, Jing Ke had to use her inner strength to temporarily seal her little disciple’s acupoints, causing her to go limp and collapse into her arms.

What a mess this all was. Hopefully, her little disciple would have a blackout. Then, after sleeping and waking up, they could just pretend nothing had happened.

Actually, Luo Yuezhu’s alcohol tolerance wasn’t that terribly bad. It was purely because the alcohol she drank was somewhat special. The so-called fruit wine provided by Phoenix Cry Tower wasn’t easy to get drunk on, but its aftereffects were extremely long-lasting.

Add to that the cup of clear sake Luo Yuezhu had drunk out of curiosity, which layered another level onto those already long-lasting aftereffects.

As for the hard liquor she inhaled, that was probably just a tiny additional factor, further intensifying the so-called aftereffects.

In short, it was an exceptionally chaotic night. Not only was Jing Ke’s room in chaos, but Yin Honglian and Ye Wenxin, who had stayed overnight at Phoenix Cry Tower, also descended into chaos the next morning.

On the other side, after waking up smoothly in her master’s bed, Luo Yuezhu’s face was filled with pure bewilderment.

Discovering her master wasn’t in the room, Luo Yuezhu sat cross-legged on the bed. The chaotic and absurd memories of the previous night slowly flooded her mind.

She had actually helped her master bathe? And knelt down, saying she wanted to serve her master like the ladies of Phoenix Cry Tower?

She had secretly kissed her master? And held onto her master, refusing to let go, wanting to experiment with the actions from the erotic scroll?

Luo Yuezhu’s complexion was like a palette, flushing red one moment, green the next, then black—rich and colorful.

Just as Luo Yuezhu was grimacing, unsure how to face her master, the door was pushed open. Jing Ke, who had been practicing swordplay for half a shichen, walked in from outside.

“Awake?” Jing Ke asked. A calm and composed expression had returned to her face.

“Yes, Master. Your disciple is awake,” Luo Yuezhu replied stiffly.

Wine emboldens the timid. Luo Yuezhu felt that the current her probably couldn’t pounce onto her master and cling to her tightly.

“How much of last night’s events do you remember?” Jing Ke asked, a hint of hope in her voice.

If her little disciple had blacked out, then many things could be easily resolved. She wouldn’t need to do anything, wouldn’t need to explain anything, just maintain their previous interaction pattern.

But Jing Ke’s hope was destined to be dashed. Luo Yuezhu lowered her head in great embarrassment. “Master, your disciple remembers everything from last night.”

“It was your disciple who offended Master. But my feelings for Master are genuine. Is Master… willing… to let this disciple serve you?” Luo Yuezhu stammered slightly.

Now that her courage had shrunk, she didn’t dare pounce over. But the courage to express her feelings, Luo Yuezhu still possessed.