Jing Yi might have been ten years already but he hadn’t heard even a single time from his mother that he was too old to cry. Thus he didn’t feel that anything was wrong about his reaction. If he felt devastated, then crying should be normal, no?

Behind the tree, Qiu Ling gripped his chest in a panic. Oh no! His poor beloved’s trial was so hard that he had to cry this heart-wrenchingly. Somebody should really go and save him from his plight!

He already wanted to move out when he remembered his mother-in-law’s stern expression. Right, however much she wanted to he wasn’t allowed to interfere. Qiu Ling squatted down on the ground and poked at the tree. So mean! He actually had to sit here and listen to his beloved cry while he would be entirely capable to go over and soothe his agitated emotions until he calmed down and could smile again.

Qiu Ling wasn’t the only one who had noticed the crying child. One of the senior martial brothers that had given the boy one of his tasks was just walking by. It wasn’t completely unheard of that some of the younger children that had been recruited would cry in the first weeks because they missed home but it certainly wasn’t something that happened often. Thus he couldn’t help but look over. Seeing that the person in question was the little boy all of them had dumped their tasks on, his guilty conscience welled up. Could it be that they had gone too far and made the child cry this pitifully?

He gulped and went over to check what had happened. Crouching down next to the child, he awkwardly smiled. "Uh … What happened?" Right now, he couldn’t even remember the child’s name. Shit, he really shouldn’t have listened to that damned Qiguan Cheng Da. Then he wouldn’t need to feel like an asshole now.

Jing Yi still continued to sob. He tried to wipe his tears away though. After all, this friendly big brother wanted to talk to him. He should try to answer his question as good as he could. He sniffled and then pointed at the ground. "It’s dirty."

The disciple looked down and saw the basket with the robes. "Fuck!" Those guys really were too vicious! Even when Qiguan Cheng Da had incited him to dump some task on this boy before he had the chance to find out that the child was actually quite nice, he had only asked him to sweep the main hall of the building. It was a taxing task but something doable, even for a child this age. But what was with letting him wash all these dirty clothes? Of course, he would cry this pitifully! These guys had really gone too far this time. He should go and tell the Elder. Otherwise, this would never stop. And whatever this child had done for Qiguan Cheng Da to dislike him, he should have already paid for that.

Thinking like that he patted Jing Yi’s shoulder to console him and gave him another smile. "Don’t worry about it. You don’t have to do this. I’ll go and talk to the Elder."

Just when he got up and wanted to leave, there was a tug on his robe. He turned back and raised his brows at the boy.

Jing Yi wiped his eyes again and shook his head. "No, I want to. I really want to. It’s just that … the ground is dirty and I’ll get dirty too if I sit down. So what should I do?"

The disciple looked at him in a daze. Wait. So the boy didn’t mind washing the robes, he just didn’t know where to sit down without getting dirty? This … He didn’t even know what to say to this. Well, if the boy didn’t mind doing the task, then it would probably be overboard to go and talk to the Elder. Especially since he would also implicate himself. After all, he had been one of the people who assigned a task to the boy. Just because he was the one that came clean didn’t mind that he would escape punishment.

The disciple cleared his throat and nodded at the building. "Then why don’t you bring everything inside? You can do it in your own room or maybe in the main hall. Aren’t there chairs around?"

Jing Yi blinked his eyes. So he didn’t have to do it here? He could go and do it inside where he could sit in the main hall that he had tidied up two weeks ago? On one of the pretty chairs? In that case, he would be able to do his task and become a hero without getting dirty! Thinking of that, Jing Yi beamed at the disciple, showing two dimples. "Thank you, big brother!" He picked up the basket and tried to lift the bucket as well but it was too heavy to carry with one hand. He could only put the bucket back down and make do with only taking the basket for now.

Before Jing Yi could hurry away, the disciple pulled him back. "You …" He awkwardly cleared his throat. "Uh, you’re a disciple of the Yun Zou Sect now. So if you see somebody who was already in the sect before you, you should call them senior martial brother or senior martial sister. Big brother and big sister are things only those outside of the sects call others."

Jing Yi thought it over and nodded. "Thank you, senior martial brother!" He smiled brightly and finally hurried away with the basket.

The disciple scratched his head with a sigh. He could be said to have repaid him a little now, couldn’t he? With that thought, he left, not noticing the person that was glaring at him from behind a tree.