Chapter 107: A Touch of Vermilion (Part 2): A Bit of Education Part 1

To Shang Shan, that was an utterly unfamiliar term, and hearing it from her master made it seem even more profound and mysterious. She blinked her eyes and asked mysteriously, “What is that?”

Mu Qian Tan was not explaining periods to someone for the first time; the last time had been to her own little sister. The process was so troublesome, and the topic so sensitive, that even in front of family, it felt a bit awkward. She had thought that kind of experience would only happen once in a lifetime, so why had she run into it again now?

And who could tell her why the Dragon Clan also had periods?

‘Li Biyuan? Li Biyuan!’

The woman was nowhere to be found whenever it mattered most.

Mu Qian Tan felt quite shaken and fell silent for a moment. She saw a line of red trickling down the inside of the girl’s thigh, stark against her fair skin.

She flipped her palm, and a stack of square cloths appeared in her hand. She tossed one to her. “Wipe it first.”

“Oh, oh.” Shang Shan caught the cloth. She first looked at Mu Qian Tan with flattered surprise, then lowered her head to examine the cloth. When she unfolded it, it was pure white, with only a small epiphyllum flower embroidered in silver thread in the bottom right corner. She stared at it for a long time under the faint light. “This is so pretty…”

Mu Qian Tan scolded her. “Don’t dawdle.”

Not understanding why she was so serious, Shang Shan hurriedly nodded, stepped onto the steps in front of the hall, and wiped her thighs clean.

No sooner had the cloth left than another patch of red flowed out. She exclaimed as if she had seen something amazing. “Look, it flows again after I wipe. I can’t even block it.”

Mu Qian Tan said speechlessly, “You can’t just block it like that…”

Her hygiene habits were truly worrying. If she did not care about bathing or getting dirty elsewhere, that would be one thing, but this was different. If she actually got sick from it, it would be much harder to treat than a simple injury. Mu Qian Tan’s head began to ache. She first asked, “You didn’t stuff anything weird in there to… to… to block it, did you?”

As she spoke, a faint pink blush spread behind her ears like paint. She stumbled over her words unusually. But Shang Shan understood and widened her eyes. “How could I? I’m not stupid. I was just sitting on a rock.”

She was still pretty stupid, but at least she had not made things worse. Mu Qian Tan rubbed her brow, her thumb successively pinching her other four fingers as fierce inner turmoil raged in her heart.

To be honest, she really did not want to deal with it at all. Explaining this kind of thing clearly was quite hard to put into words. But physiological education was an even more essential lesson than cultivation, and no one else would teach it to her.

Moreover, Mu Qian Tan personally believed this matter was quite serious. Even when facing someone she hated the most, whether for revenge or whatever, she would never stoop to attacking from this angle.

She had once seen a classmate she despised stain her pants red after class. If Mu Qian Tan had pointed it out publicly back then, it would have embarrassed the girl greatly, but she had not done so. Instead, she wrote an anonymous note and slipped it into the girl’s desk. That did not stop her from beating the girl up the next time, though.

In short, this physiological pain that almost every woman had to endure should never be used as a weapon against one’s own kind in her subconscious. No matter how much she disliked this stupid dragon, she could not just let her muddle through in this clueless state.

However, Mu Qian Tan racked her brains over the original novel, but she could not recall any mention of periods.

Was it deliberately omitted? Or was it assumed that the Male Protagonist handled it for her?

It could not be that she had misunderstood and it was actually an injury somewhere.

“Come here.” Mu Qian Tan beckoned her into the courtyard. She moved the stone chair to face the moonlight for a clearer view and said curtly, “Sit.”

Shang Shan picked up the dawn robe that had slid to the ground, walked over, and padded the chair with it. After sitting, she instinctively spread her legs. “This way, it won’t dirty your chair.”

Mu Qian Tan did not appreciate the gesture. She lifted her skirt hem and squatted down, one hand on the armrest and the other patting her knee, signaling her to close her legs. Then, she placed her palm on the girl’s lower abdomen, and spiritual power seeped from her palm into her body.

The pale blue glow met a brilliant golden light like the sun, nearly dazzling her. Fortunately, Shang Shan’s spiritual power did not reject her at all; it was even extremely friendly and playful. So the examination went smoothly. No wounds in the organs, all healthy and active to the point of envy.

Mu Qian Tan withdrew her hand and looked into her eyes. “Period. In terms you can understand, it’s Kui Shui.”

Shang Shan said, “I don’t understand.”

Mu Qian Tan untied the storage pouch from her waist and rummaged inside with lowered eyes. “That Female Teacher of yours teaches you grand principles every day and fills your head with them, but she never told you the most basic physiological knowledge?”

Shang Shan swung her legs and instinctively defended her. “Maybe she did. I was too young to remember.”

“Bullshit.” Mu Qian Tan pulled out a menstrual cloth.

In her hand was a three-inch-long white cloth strip, with cotton, spices, and plant ash wrapped in the middle. One end was narrower with a loop, the other had two long thin strings to tie around the waist. That was the standard for periods. It was far less convenient than sanitary pads, and even the most expensive ones could hardly be called comfortable. She had figured out the principle herself and made some, but they were just barely usable.

She had once wondered if there were other ways to deal with it and asked the somewhat familiar Jiang Zhouyao, who handled it by taking pills to stop the bleeding. Mu Qian Tan had tried it too, but considering that even medicine had side effects, she worried about long-term harm and gave up.

She had made the menstrual cloths entirely for herself and never imagined she would one day use them on the Female Protagonist. She still felt some lingering shock about it, but her tone remained calm. “Stand up.”

Shang Shan stood as instructed and watched the woman deftly position the strange white cloth between her legs. She asked, “So I’m fine?”

“Healthy as can be.” Mu Qian Tan spoke irritably. “Watch closely. I’m only teaching you once. Pad this underneath, loop the strings around your waist, and fasten them to the buckle in the back…”

She demonstrated every step with exceptional detail, fastening and unfastening it several times. A trace of depression rose in her heart. As her master, she had not taught her a single proper lesson and even thought it was natural. Now, the most earnest instruction she was giving was on how to use menstrual cloths. Did this even fall under a master’s duties?

The four words Li Biyuan had once said inexplicably popped into her mind: A teacher is like a mother.

Screw that.

After fastening the buckle, Mu Qian Tan sighed. “Try it.”

When she moved her legs again, the blood no longer flowed out. Shang Shan found it amazing. “Wow! It’s gone. But this is the same as my method! Except mine was a rock and yours is cloth.”

Mu Qian Tan rolled her eyes. “Try running with a rock clamped there.”

Shang Shan burst out laughing. “No way. I want to use yours.”

“Then quit talking nonsense.”

Her gaze lifted slightly. The girl’s skin almost blended with the cold moonlight. Mu Qian Tan recalled the scenes from the past year or so of her streaking naked every day, and something felt off. It took her a moment to realize that this girl was still developing.

Of course, she had shot up in height and was only sixteen. She should indeed… but… this was a bit too…

Her eye twitched.

It had nothing to do with her anyway, so Mu Qian Tan said no more. But she could use this chance to correct some of the Female Protagonist’s bad habits. She warned her, “Now that you have Kui Shui, you need to wear your clothes properly from now on. No more stripping naked anytime, anywhere, or jumping into the sea at the drop of a hat. Pay more attention.”

Hearing she could not streak anymore hit Shang Shan hard. Her little face fell, her brows furrowing into an inverted eight shape. She looked more heartbroken than when she thought she was dying. “Why?”

Mu Qian Tan said, “If you have a wound elsewhere, you wouldn’t just leave it like that or let it touch water, right? Is that so hard to understand? If you don’t listen and get an infection that kills you, don’t blame me for not warning you.”

She exaggerated on purpose. The girl’s face scrunched up more and more, and she said reluctantly, “Fine.”

After a while, she sighed. “The price of growing up.”

She was lamenting the wrong thing. Mu Qian Tan was speechless for a moment and planned to leave before she asked anything else. Unfortunately, things did not go her way. Shang Shan tugged at the straps and asked curiously, “Do I have to wear this for the rest of my life?”

She really knew nothing. Mu Qian Tan said, “Roughly once a month, lasting about six or seven days. It varies by person.”

Speaking of which, she was extremely curious if her cheap godmother Panxiang Yin, as a “hundred-year-old elder,” still had periods. But she did not dare ask.

In the cultivation worldview, immortals could live very long lives. If it kept coming, that would be so painful. There had to be an end someday. Next time, she should find a chance to ask, or it would nag at her. But asking such a private question—what if she got scolded or punished?