[Scum Villain Fanfic] The Writing Adventures Of Liu Su Mian Hua

#3: Discoveries (3)

It wasn't like the question of whether two men or two women could be in love with each other had never crossed her mind. Mingyan had observed the interactions between the male disciples of the other sects and some female disciples of her own sect. Some of them were so inseparable, caring and protective of each other that it made her wonder if they had romantic feelings for each other. Obviously, she couldn't directly ask this question to anyone due to fear of coming off as rude or weird. Finding a book that depicted such a pairing made her feel validated – her questions were answered.

She read through a significant chunk of the book before her eyes became heavy with sleep. The next morning, Chuntao came skipping and hopping to Mingyan, followed by Qiaohui. "Shijie! Shijie! Did you read the book?" Chuntao stopped before Mingyan with a light skip. "Careful Little Miss. You will fall if you do that." Qiaohui said with a hint of concern. Mingyan hurriedly indicated the two of them to keep it down. "I don't think it will be good for us if someone found out such things were circulated among the disciples." she whispered. Qiaohui smiled. "Disciple Liu Mingyan may not know about this, but there is a group of people on Xian Shu peak who buy, read and discuss these stories." she said. Mingyan was surprised. Clearly this bunch of enthusiastic readers were meticulous in their secrecy skills: they had managed to smuggle and hide these books under Shizun's eyes! "Mingyan Shijie can join us too!" Chuntao said. She looked at Qiaohui for support. "That's a great idea." Qiaohui said. "Shijie can join our weekly meeting tonight." "It will be so much fun! Mingyan Shijie will join us to discuss fun stories!" Chuntao was already at the meeting in her head. "But before that you need to practice your sword skills." Qiaohui said firmly. Chuntao was not happy but she nevertheless followed Qiaohui towards the practice grounds.

Mingyan was excited and distracted the entire day. She almost messed up quite a number of times. "You don't seem well Mingyan. Is everything okay?" Qi Qingqi asked her at some point. "This disciple is in good health. Shizun does not need to worry." Mingyan replied. "If you are having cramps, Shizun understands. You can go and take rest." Qingqi was still not convinced. "That's not the case! Shizun has misunderstood." Mingyan responded hurriedly. "This disciple is fine and will perform her duties with more care and attention. Shizun does not need to worry."

At night around bedtime, Xiuying and Qiaohui tiptoed to Mingyan's room and brought her to Xiuying's room. Chuntao and six other girls were already sprawled on the floor giggling. The moment they saw Mingyan, everyone straightened up and looked like they had been caught red-handed. Chuntao calmed them, "Mingyan Shijie is here to have fun with us today. No need to look like criminals!" Mingyan also felt awkward and sat next to Chuntao since she pulled her arm and forced her to sit. Xiuying sat on her other side while Qiaohui sat beside Chuntao.

Xiuying tried to reduce the awkwardness. She asked, "So, Mingyan Shijie, how do you like 'Love Across Borders'?" "Er... it's actually a pretty good story." Mingyan forced her awkwardness down. "I have not read the whole story, but so far it is quite interesting." Qiaohui chipped in, "Who is your favourite character?" "The Crown Prince" Mingyan replied. "So Shijie is on our team!" one of the girls cheered. Soon the ones who also liked the Crown Prince character shuffled to Mingyan's side and they all began discussing details of the story. "Who do you like Qiaohui?" Mingyan asked at some point realizing that she was the only one who hadn't replied. "Right! Shijie never told us her favourite from this story." one of the girls added. Qiaohiu was a little hesitant but eventually said, "I like the Crown Prince's little sister." "Why her?" Chuntao scrunched her face. All the girls had picked either the Prince or the General – the other male character. "Because she reminds me of you." Qiaohui replied and her face immediately turned pink. Chuntao blinked twice at the unexpected explanation. "You're right." said Mingyan after a pause. "She is very much like Chuntao with regards to personality. Now that you mentioned it, I can see the similarities."

The girls discussed a lot of similar stories and lent Mingyan the books. The discussion slowly moved to other topics. The initial awkwardness was long gone and Mingyan enjoyed herself. The others welcomed her into the group. This was the first time she had talked to these disciples without feeling like an invisible wall was present between her and them. She felt at ease. They had thoughts and questions similar to hers; she felt like she was not alone. The weekly bedtime meetings got incorporated into Mingyan's routine seamlessly.

A few weeks went by. One day while the disciples were practicing their sword on the open grounds, they saw smoke coming from one of the peaks. "Isn't that...Qiong Ding Peak?" Mingyan immediately rushed to inform her Shizun. But then she remembered: her Shizun was accompanying Sect Master Yue for some work down the mountain. Which meant it was up to the disciples to get to site of disaster to help.