Crush's Cold Senior Sister is Actually Childhood Sweetheart - Chapter 11

Chapter 11: “Why Didn’t You Tell Her?”

Ling Qi was silent for a few seconds, pretending not to hear the mention of a ‘beloved’ in Ying Huaiyu’s words. “True God Tian Mo is the Emperor’s Senior Sister. They have no grudges, and you won’t find anything more by investigating.” She had met True God Tian Mo a few times when she was on Wuyou Island; she didn’t have a deep impression, only remembering that the other party always came for official business, said what was needed, and left without lingering. The atmosphere between her and the Emperor was typical of familiar but not intimate senior sisters—their relationship wasn’t particularly close, but there was absolutely nothing to find fault with.

Ying Huaiyu, however, avoided the topic and asked an irrelevant question: “Why didn’t you tell her?” Although she didn’t explicitly say the name, both knew who “she” referred to.

Ling Qi: “…” Are you even listening to me seriously?

Ling Qi sighed. “I’ll find a suitable time—”

“You don’t want her to know.” Before Ling Qi could finish, Ying Huaiyu delivered a final judgment. Seeing the person in front of her stiffen, she asked with genuine confusion, “Why?” After a few seconds of thought, she suddenly realized: “I know. You have an avoidant attachment style.”

Seeing that Ling Qi didn’t seem to understand, Ying Huaiyu kindly explained: “Avoidant attachment style refers to a fear of intimacy, a desire for love yet an avoidance of it. Although they may initially appear very enthusiastic, once the other person reciprocates, they immediately become cold, maintaining a skeptical attitude towards relationships—” She summarized simply: “So, you don’t tell An Jin because you don’t want her to reciprocate your feelings, and at the same time, you don’t want to build an intimate relationship with her.”

Ling Qi: “…” What a vivid imagination. Since you’ve said everything, what else can I say?

Ling Qi rubbed her forehead. “Can you spend less time in the mortal realm and less time online… An Jin has no feelings for me beyond what’s appropriate, and it’s impossible for us to establish any intimate relationship.” Yet, she said nothing about her own feelings.

Ying Huaiyu’s eyebrows subtly rose, and the corners of her lips curved, then began to tremble slightly, before she let out a “pffft” and burst into laughter as if she couldn’t hold it in.

Ling Qi: “?”

“It’s nothing, nothing, I think you’re absolutely right.” Ying Huaiyu waved her hands repeatedly, laughing almost uncontrollably. Afraid that Ling Qi would continue to ask what she was laughing about, she turned to leave. As she stepped onto the floating clouds, about to get into the chariot, she suddenly remembered something else. “Could you send me some more of today’s tea? Just send it directly to Tian Mo Palace.”

Ling Qi continued to look puzzled: “?” When Ying Huaiyu was drinking cup after cup in the main hall, Ling Qi was in her sleeping quarters retrieving the divine bone, so she naturally couldn’t have known about the other party’s achievement of ignoring everyone and single-mindedly drinking six cups of tea. The person involved was also quite innocent: she just thought the atmosphere was awkward, and that tea was genuinely good.

After seeing Ying Huaiyu off, Ling Qi turned and walked back into Chongguang Palace. Seeing no one around, she pulled out the slip of paper Ying Huaiyu had slipped into her sleeve earlier in the main hall. After smoothing out the crumpled note, some crooked words appeared before her eyes. Ling Qi read it repeatedly, then her brows furrowed slightly, and a hint of confusion appeared on her face.

“Senior Sister Ling!” A clear call drifted from afar. Ling Qi calmly tucked the note back into her sleeve. The person seemed somewhat unfamiliar, but their attire indicated they were a regular disciple of Chongguang Palace. There were too many disciples in Chongguang Palace, perhaps several hundred counting both inner and regular disciples; Ling Qi truly couldn’t remember many of them.

“Senior Sister Ling, Master asked you to come to the main hall. She’s waiting for you.” The other party ran, panting, sweat on their forehead, and quickly relayed the message before even standing still. She’d rather have a disciple who hadn’t even learned to fly with a sword run a long distance to deliver a message than use a communicator or a thousand-mile voice transmission. Ling Qi most of the time couldn’t understand Chongguang True God’s extreme adherence to “True God authority.” She sighed softly, nodded, and said, “Go back to what you were doing. I understand.”

…

The main hall was dimly lit, permeated with a suffocating atmosphere. The air pressure was low, and silence enveloped the entire room. Chongguang True God closed her eyes, not saying a word. Yang Anping secretly glanced at her a few times. Seeing that she was in a bad mood, she dared not speak casually. Cen Xiyao frowned, intending to explain a few things for Ling Qi, but seeing Chongguang True God’s expression, she swallowed her words.

Creak. The hall door was pushed open. Yang Anping and Cen Xiyao looked over in unison, but Chongguang True God still didn’t open her eyes. Ling Qi didn’t care. She casually pulled out a chair and sat down. “What do you want me for?”

Everyone knew this was a rhetorical question. Ling Qi knew it too. At a time like this, it was typically two things: the side plot was to complete the previously agreed-upon transaction, and the main plot was a judgment session, criticizing Ling Qi for obtaining the divine bone but failing to report it. Logically, Yang Anping would usually make a sarcastic remark at this point, but perhaps because Chongguang True God’s expression was exceptionally bad today, or because she was worried Ling Qi might get angry and not give her the Heavenly Whisk Grass, Yang Anping was unusually quiet, sitting to the side with her head bowed, saying nothing.

Hearing Ling Qi’s voice, Chongguang True God finally opened her eyes. “Where’s the Heavenly Whisk Grass?” Ling Qi raised a burlap sack and dropped it onto the table. “Here.”

The other three in the hall: “…” When did Heavenly Whisk Grass become so common?! Ling Qi leaned back in her chair, watching them without speaking. She had her own logic. Things from the Demon Realm belonged to Xuanwu, and Xuanwu’s things belonged to Wuyou Island, which was An Jin’s, and by extension, hers. Ling Qi was never polite about taking her own things, so she and An Jin thoroughly uprooted the Heavenly Whisk Grass around the Demon Realm.

Seeing Chongguang True God finally pull out the Time-Flowering Lotus, Ling Qi picked out a stalk of grass from the sack: “Thank you for your patronage. Do come again.” Ling Qi had to admit that sometimes, after spending too much time with that person from the Demon Realm, anyone couldn’t help but pick up some of their sarcastic tendencies.

Chongguang True God was uncharacteristically silent for two seconds. Although the agreement during the transaction was indeed a one-for-one exchange, looking at the other party’s sackful of Heavenly Whisk Grass, and then thinking about the single Time-Flowering Lotus she had left, she inexplicably felt a sense of loss. But it was clearly impossible to go back on the deal now. Chongguang True God lightly coughed and began the main mission: “Why did you get the divine bone but not say anything? Anping and I asked you several times, but you showed no intention of explaining from beginning to end. Don’t you know, if it weren’t for the Vermilion Bird Lord being so agreeable today, our Chongguang Palace would have—”

“Just say it directly. What do you want me to do?” Ling Qi interrupted her expressionlessly. The other party’s attitude clearly indicated she had a request and was using this as an excuse, fearing Ling Qi wouldn’t agree. Ling Qi was too lazy to waste any more time arguing with her.

Chongguang True God hadn’t expected her to be so direct. She was stunned for several seconds, and it wasn’t until Ling Qi impatiently started to get up and leave that she finally spoke: “The Wuxu Secret Realm. I want you to take Anping into the Wuxu Secret Realm with you.”

The Wuxu Secret Realm was one of the few timed-open secret realms in the Celestial Realm, opening once every three hundred years. An uncertain number of tickets would descend from the heavens, scattered throughout the Celestial Realm. For immortal sect disciples or rogue immortals who had just entered the Upper Realm, the Wuxu Secret Realm was a highly coveted opportunity. Not only did they have a chance to visit the Sword Mound, but they could also obtain rare spiritual artifacts and herbs, and even gain an opportunity for ascension.

However, for those who had stayed in the Upper Realm for too long, there was nothing extraordinary left in the Wuxu Secret Realm. Ling Qi was intimately familiar with everything inside. So, when Chongguang True God first suggested that she lead the team for this Wuxu Secret Realm expedition, she directly refused. Ever since she joined Chongguang Palace, Cen Xiyao had always led the Wuxu expeditions. Perhaps because this was Yang Anping’s first time entering Wuxu, Chongguang True God was genuinely worried and couldn’t lower herself as a True God to lead the team personally, which was why she came to Ling Qi.

For Ling Qi, the Wuxu Secret Realm had always been boring and troublesome. She wouldn’t gain anything new, and it was full of traps. Ling Qi alone could naturally move unhindered, but if there were a bunch of tails dragging behind, constantly causing delays and needing to be watched to prevent them from getting into trouble, it would truly be thankless and exhausting. Therefore, Ling Qi had refused three times before this. If the other party had brought this up before she saw Ying Huaiyu’s note, she would have directly refused, but—

Ling Qi smiled slightly and said, “Alright, no problem.” The three people present were all surprised. No one expected Ling Qi to suddenly relent this time. Just as they were wondering why, she changed the subject. “But there’s one condition: I want to bring someone else along.”

“Who?”

“An Jin.”

…

Meanwhile, An Jin, whom Ling Qi had just mentioned, was with most of the Chongguang Palace disciples, gathered around a high platform, listening to an inner disciple speaking from atop the platform.

“For this Wuxu Secret Realm expedition, there are a total of three tickets, to be awarded to the three strongest winners after several rounds of martial arts contests. The contest will be divided into two rounds: the first round is the promotion round, open to all disciples who wish to sign up—”

Just as he was halfway through speaking, the disciple’s communicator suddenly rang. He ignored the protests of the others below, pulled out his communicator, and answered it right there on the high platform. The disciples around the platform could only use this interim to discuss among themselves.

Liao Huan also elbowed An Jin. “I’m definitely signing up. Are you going?” An Jin shook her head, uninterested. “Having to fight on stage is too much trouble.”

At this point, the disciple on the platform finished reading the message and continued: “The second round will be the elimination round. The top one hundred disciples who perform best in the promotion round will successfully advance to the elimination round.”

“Furthermore, this Wuxu expedition will be led by Senior Sister Ling Qi.”

An Jin’s ears twitched slightly. The other disciples also erupted in an uproar. No one had expected Senior Sister Ling, who usually disliked bothering with such matters, to personally lead the team to Wuxu this time.

“Didn’t Senior Sister Ling refuse before?” “I don’t know, did she suddenly change her mind? Or is there really something very special in this Wuxu this time?” “Then I’ll try too,” said a disciple who had already been to Wuxu once before. “What if I really encounter some incredible opportunity in these four or five days?”

Hearing “four or five days,” An Jin’s ears twitched again.

So, when it came time to count the sign-ups, Liao Huan looked at An Jin, who was also raising her hand beside her, with a look of utter surprise. “Didn’t you say you weren’t going?”

An Jin, however, spoke with conviction: “I believe that as disciples of Chongguang True God, and immortal cultivators of the Celestial Realm, we must not be too lazy. We must be diligent and seize every hard-won opportunity to strive for early ascension to True Godhood.”

Liao Huan: “???” When did you develop such a profound understanding?