Blood River

22. Group Hunt: Part Nine

We are back to the trio we left back in part three, do revisit group hunt part three if you do not recall the chapter.
...

Morning came quick in QingXi* town, the town neighbouring YouLín. The people in this city were hardworkers, already up and about at 4am.

The cultivators visiting on a mission couldn't sleep any longer as the day here began before even the sun rose. But then again, the sun in this part of Gusu only greeted the people at Chenshi*.

YiFeng was the first to get up, they had booked two separate rooms on the inn, so he'd sleep alone. But after yesterday's events, he was reluctant to leave YueXin fully to the 14-year-old's care, and slept with them on the same room.

Though on the floor as neither spared him a bed.

After waking up, he left the room quietly, not wanting to awaken neither of the girls, seeing how dark it still was outside.

The Nie went downstairs, his hair tied into a loose ponytail unlike his usual hairstyle. He made it to the reception desk, and was surprised to find a whole line of people waiting for attendence.

Standing in line, still a bit sleepy and confused, he couldnt help but think, how come so many people are here this early?

Despite the number and everyone having their own conversations, Nie YiFeng was astonished at how quiet people here were - He'd only ever seen a crowd this quiet here in Gusu, but he always thought it was a thing in the cloud recesses because of all the rules, how come all of Gusu seemed to be this way aswell?

Perhaps it's just the region.. he thought through his sleepiness.

Finally getting his turn after about 45 minutes, Yifeng ordered for bath water to be delivered to both rooms, two of the tubs for the girls and one for himself. And for breakfast to be delivered for all three in the girl's room aswell. After paying he made his way upstairs, still feeling tired and groggy from sleeping on the floor.

Back to the girls' room, Yifeng walked in without knocking - they had been sharing the same room for a while now anyways, so he grew used to it - Yifeng woke both of the girls up and waited for the inn workers to bring up the water for them, only leaving after making sure Ouyang Xinghua had gone to bathe.

Yifeng was the kind that didn't like change of plans, he bared with it yesterday because it was an emergency of sorts, but he needed to move with the mission today - he always liked finishing things early, even though they had the whole week, but the time also counted with writing the report. So, according to his policy, the earlier they were done, the better.

Once he was done with his own bath he got back to the girls' room, and they were already ready, sitting by the tea table conversing. Food happened to be brought at the same time he arrived.

He sat down as the girls began to eat, simply watching YueXin throughout the whole meal, without aying a thing.

The girl eventually grew uncomfortable and asked, "why do you keep staring at me?", Her voice was impatient and somewhat flustered, and her tone brought Xinghua, who'd been too focused on her own food to notice, to look up and then between the two older disciples in confusion.

"What happened yesterday?" Yifeng asked in a straight forward manner and both the girls were taken aback by his tone; he was never a serious kind of person, at least not with them, so this was new to the younger girls.

Yuexin's reaction was quickly shadowed by a sadness obvious to her friends though. Xinghua brought her hand up to the older girl's back and rubbed circles on it in an attempt to calm her down.

"Qing-Jie*, Rui-ge* is just worried about you. You don't need to speak if it makes you uncomfortable." The young girl spoke softly.

The two girls sat side to side opposite to Rui, who sat watching the scene with a heavy heart, yet had an indifferent expression as he picked a random dish and ate quietly as though nothing happened in front of him.