After Crossdressing and Provoking Long AoTian

Academy Head Mei didn’t take them back to the Qin School. Instead, she found an empty room in the Chess School, casually drew a circle, and formed an isolated barrier around it.

She set Senior Brother Gou down inside the formation and nodded at Yu Qingtang. “Play.”

Then she raised a hand.

“Oh, wait.”

“Hm?” Yu Qingtang looked at her in confusion.

Academy Head Mei took an incense burner from her storage ring, measured out the proper amount of incense, set it in front of Yu Qingtang, and lit it.

“I haven’t burned this in ages.” A trace of nostalgia appeared on her face. “Back then, whenever Linjiang Xian played the qin, he had to bathe and change his clothes first, then burn incense to settle his mind. Different pieces even called for different incense. I never got to hear his Heart-Questioning Melody back then, but I’d already asked around. The Heart-Questioning Melody is supposed to be paired with Green Lotus Incense.”

Yu Qingtang sniffed. “That smells really good.”

Academy Head Mei laughed. “If it were him, he’d definitely recite a couple lines of poetry right about now.”

Yu Qingtang blinked innocently. “Huh?”

“I’m not asking you to recite anything.” Academy Head Mei rested her chin on one hand. “I’m just saying he was ridiculously particular. Even playing the qin depended on the weather. There had to be a gentle breeze, clear skies stretching for miles...”

Yu Qingtang’s expression turned strange. “...No wonder Senior Linjiang Xian misunderstood.”

Academy Head Mei laughed helplessly. “But I was the one asking him for favors. Of course I indulged him in everything and put up with him at every turn.”

“Hmm...” Yu Qingtang looked conflicted. “That... actually does make sense.”

“Ah.” Academy Head Mei sighed. “Forget it. I’m here to listen to my music.”

Her eyes curved into crescents.

“Master Yu, please.”

This was the first time anyone had ever addressed Yu Qingtang like some great master. He immediately became nervous.

“O-Okay. I’m starting, then!”

He turned his gaze toward Senior Brother Gou, who looked somewhat uneasy in the middle of the formation.

“Senior Brother, please circulate your cultivation, focus your mind, and look inward.”

Senior Brother Gou opened his mouth, clearly intending to refuse. But under everyone else’s gaze, he obediently sat cross-legged and closed his eyes.

Yu Qingtang began to play.

Senior Sister Tianyu immediately pulled out paper and started transcribing the score, while Academy Head Mei closed her eyes and listened carefully.

When the piece ended, Yu Qingtang opened his eyes.

Maybe it was just his imagination, but the Dragon-Crane Zither seemed unusually cooperative today. His playing had turned out exceptionally well.

He stole a glance at Academy Head Mei and happened to meet her eyes.

She smiled and gave a small nod.

“Interesting.”

Yu Qingtang began muttering inwardly.

He knew perfectly well that his qin playing wasn’t particularly impressive. In front of a true master like Academy Head Mei, it was even less remarkable.

But he couldn’t tell whether “interesting” was supposed to be praise or criticism.

“An exceptional qin. An exquisite piece. Average technique.” Academy Head Mei smiled brightly, but her critique showed no mercy. “Still, the way you play is remarkably interesting. You seek neither elegance nor emotional expression. You care only about the effect, and you pay extraordinary attention to the person listening.”

“You don’t play like a qin musician at all. You play like a physician.”

“Very interesting indeed.”

She smiled and shook her head.

“Your qin is nothing like Linjiang Xian’s.”

“Looks like if I want to understand what his Heart-Questioning Melody meant, I’ll have to wait until I can hear him play it himself.”

Yu Qingtang scratched his head, then looked toward Senior Brother Gou.

“Feeling any better?”

One glance nearly scared him out of his skin.

Senior Brother Gou had his head tilted back, tears and snot streaming down his face, his entire body trembling faintly.

He sniffed hard, scrubbed his face with one hand, then clasped his fists toward Yu Qingtang in embarrassment.

“Many thanks, Junior Brother. I was rude to you earlier. Please forgive my offense!”

He opened his eyes, looking as though he had suddenly aged several years.

“My teacher once told me that heaven and earth can be found within a game of Go, and every line and intersection reflects the heart. I trapped myself within heaven and earth, within the Jeweled Chessboard Formation, within my own heart.”

“Ah...”

He fell silent for a moment, then pulled a bamboo tally from his pocket and handed it to Yu Qingtang.

“These are all the points I have left. Take them, Junior Brother.”

“Huh?” Yu Qingtang paled in alarm. “Wait, what did you hear in there? Don’t start handing out your inheritance like you’re giving us your last words!”

Senior Brother Gou shook his head slightly. “Don’t worry. I simply want to go out and see the world for a while.”

“Come to think of it, Junior Brother Wen was always extraordinarily gifted. At first, I thought losing to him was nothing. It wasn’t as though I’d never lost before.”

“But that game... I was crushed so thoroughly that I lost my usual composure.”

He shook his head with a self-deprecating laugh.

“But I didn’t enter the Chess School because I was good at chess in the first place. I joined because I loved it obsessively. I wanted nothing more than to spend every day of my life with a board in front of me.”

Scholar Xiao asked curiously, “Senior Brother Gou, what exactly did Junior Brother Wen say to you?”

Senior Brother Gou was silent for a moment.

“He said I had no particular talent for the Dao of chess.”

He laughed at himself.

“Strange. Now that I say it aloud, it suddenly doesn’t seem like much of anything.”

Academy Head Mei looked thoughtful. “That brat does have a vicious tongue, but even so...”

“It wasn’t his fault.” Senior Brother Gou gave a bitter smile. “I really did lose horribly.”

“After enduring something like this, Senior Brother Gou’s state of mind will surely surpass most people’s in the future. You could call it a blessing born of misfortune.” Scholar Xiao clasped his fists with a smile. “I’ll have a word with Junior Brother Wen when I get back.”

Senior Brother Gou waved him off, said goodbye to everyone, and left the room.

Then he stopped beside the unfinished game he had been playing with Senior Sister Tianyu.

He stared steadily at the board for a moment, raised his hand, placed a stone—

and walked away without looking back.

Senior Sister Tianyu hurried over to inspect the board.

Then she laughed.

“Now that is a brilliant move.”

Yu Qingtang stood there holding Senior Brother Gou’s sixteen-point “inheritance,” feeling rather awkward about accepting it.

“He really gave all of this to me?”

“If he gave it to you, take it.” Academy Head Mei also produced a bamboo tally from her robes. Hers was unusual, edged in gold and clearly more distinguished than the ordinary kind. “These are my ten points.”

“You’re here to see Wen Tianxia, aren’t you? He’s waiting for you too. Unfortunately, he’s gotten himself trapped by his own rules, so there’s nothing he can do about it.”

Academy Head Mei smiled and patted Yu Qingtang’s shoulder.

“If you can’t scrape together enough points—or if you lose them all in the Chess School—come find me at the Qin School.”

With that, she turned and strode away.

Yu Qingtang stared blankly at the bamboo tallies in his hands.

“I haven’t even started gambling yet, and I’m almost done collecting points. Looks like I won’t need to borrow any from you after all.”

“Aww.” Scholar Xiao sounded genuinely disappointed. “I thought you’d need a few days too. At this rate, you might finish in a single day.”

“I still need to study for a few days, though.” Yu Qingtang rubbed his nose. “If I can’t even score twenty points on my own, that would be embarrassing.”

“Come on!”

He stood and stretched his arms.

“Time to hit the tables!”

Scholar Xiao laughed. “What do you want to play?”

“Nothing complicated.” Yu Qingtang knew his own abilities very well. “I want something simple, straightforward, and mostly dependent on luck—dice!”

Several tables were already playing dice.

Yu Qingtang swept his gaze over them and quietly activated his Nascent Soul to examine everyone’s luck.

Since they’d already said cheating was allowed here, there was nothing wrong with him taking a tiny peek at everyone’s fortune, right?

“That table!” Yu Qingtang made his choice and lowered his voice. “Everyone over there looks pretty unlucky.”

Scholar Xiao slapped a hand over his mouth.

“Shhh—”

“In the Chess School, you need to be careful saying things like that.”

“I know, I know.” Yu Qingtang nodded cautiously. “Gamblers are superstitious.”

“First, go exchange your bamboo tally for smaller denominations.” Scholar Xiao patted his shoulder and led him toward the entrance.

“Large tallies into small, small into large. One point per exchange.”

The Senior Sister sitting behind the desk looked up, then paused.

“Hm? You two? Wait, you...”

Yu Qingtang recognized the familiar Senior Sister too.

She was Dot Star Formation, the Eldest Senior Sister of the Chess School who had once come to his rescue during the Golden Core Competition—and a close friend of Senior Sister Tianxin from Starwatch Pavilion.

“Senior Sister! I’ve been looking for you!” Scholar Xiao’s eyes curved with delight. He hurriedly brought out a Go board with both hands and presented it to her. “I finally found a board to replace yours. Take a look. Do you like it?”

Dot Star Formation finally recovered from her surprise.

“You actually found one? I thought you fled the academy because you couldn’t afford to replace mine and decided to spend the rest of your life on the run.”

“Of course not.” Scholar Xiao smiled brightly. “I simply didn’t dare come back and offend your eyes until I’d found a suitable replacement.”

“Not bad.” Dot Star Formation laughed. “If you replace my board with a brand-new one again next time, feel free to come to me whenever you’re in trouble.”

“And you...”

She turned toward Yu Qingtang, her expression odd.

“Aren’t you that qin cultivator from back then? Were you a man disguised as a woman?”

Yu Qingtang: “...”

He laughed awkwardly.

“There were... special circumstances.”

“Relax. I’ve been at this academy for years. There’s nothing I haven’t seen.” Dot Star Formation nodded with the worldly composure of someone who truly believed she had seen everything. “Forget wearing a skirt. I’ve seen people study themselves insane and run naked through the streets.”

“You want to exchange points?”

Yu Qingtang obediently nodded and handed over Senior Brother Gou’s sixteen-point “estate.”

Dot Star Formation gave him fifteen one-point bamboo tallies, then glanced behind him and warned, “First time here? Don’t go to that table. Every one of them is an expert cheat. If you can’t catch them in the act, no one’s going to give you justice just because you know they cheated.”

“That section over there is more honest. Newcomers should practice there first.”

Yu Qingtang glanced back.

The table Dot Star Formation had specifically warned him away from...

was the exact table he had painstakingly selected.

Scholar Xiao laughed. “Senior Sister, as they say, newcomers don’t know enough to be afraid. Brother Yu has his own talents.”

Dot Star Formation eyed him suspiciously. “What are you plotting, brat? You’re grinning like your stomach is full of schemes. Don’t tell me you deliberately lured him here to fleece him. Who are you setting up?”

“Oh...” Scholar Xiao flicked his folding fan and shook his head with a smile. “No, no. Brother Yu isn’t the one I’m plotting against.”

He pointed toward the table.

“It’s my poor fellow disciples.”

Dot Star Formation looked thoughtful.

Then she casually grabbed a Junior Brother to watch the exchange desk for her and followed them.

“Now I really want to see what trick you two have up your sleeves.”

Yu Qingtang was already standing at the table.

Several Chess School disciples discreetly sized him up, their smiles exceptionally friendly—as though they were a pack of wolves watching a plump little lamb wander willingly into their midst.

“Little fat lamb—cough, I mean, Junior Brother.” The Senior Brother acting as dealer smiled with unmistakably bad intentions. “First time here? How many points did you bring?”

Yu Qingtang showed them the tallies in his hand.

“Sixteen points. That’s not bad.”

A sharp gleam flashed through the eyes of the man beside him.

Then he turned, noticed Dot Star Formation standing behind Yu Qingtang, and immediately forced an awkward smile.

Dot Star Formation glanced at him. “Relax. He chose this table himself. I’m not interfering.”

Only then did everyone breathe a sigh of relief.

The dealer shook the dice, slammed the cup down over them, and enthusiastically gestured to Yu Qingtang.

“Junior Brother, what are you betting on? You choose first!”

Yu Qingtang scratched his head and tentatively placed down one point.

“Um... small?”

“Good, good!” The dealer’s smile deepened. “He says small!”

“Big! I bet big!”

Everyone around the table rushed to pile their bets onto big.

The dealer was just about to reach for the cup when he seemed to get a little too excited.

His foot slipped.

“Ow!”

He kicked the table.

The dice rattled, the cover went flying, and everyone watched helplessly as the dice rolled to a stop—

one, one, two, two, one, one.

The dealer was still grimacing and rubbing his foot when he turned his head.

His eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.

“Huh?”

Yu Qingtang’s eyes widened in equal shock.

“Huh?”

He slowly turned toward Dot Star Formation.

“Does... that count?”

Dot Star Formation: “...”

She slowly nodded.

The way she looked at Yu Qingtang changed.

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