“It’s our cultivation manual,” Li Mei spoke bravely. “Sun Ying-shidi, you’ve seen everything now. We went down the mountain to cultivate that day. Of course we can’t tell anyone about it, seeing how we’re cultivating this path. Now can you let us go? We really didn’t take your chickens.”

“This and chickens have nothing to do with each other,” Sun Ying frowned. “This is this and chickens are chickens. You could have gone down the mountain to cultivate and still stolen my chickens. Anyway, why is it me and da-shixiong pictured in this book? You’ve gotten it all wrong. Even if I had feelings for da-shixiong, he’ll never have eyes for me.”

Li Mei and the other girls paused.

“Could it be that Sun Quan-shixiong likes someone?” one girl ventured to ask, her eyes shining.

“No,” Sun Ying shook his head. “Da-shixiong only loves money.”

Then he stroked his chin thoughtfully.

“He also loves to nag,” he added. “Da-shixiong only likes money and nagging. He’s scary. If he marries anyone, he’ll henpeck them to death. Even if he’s not married to anyone, he’ll still henpeck them to death. You don’t know what I go through every day.”

The girls stared at each other. So that was what the beautiful Sun Quan-shixiong was like in reality…

“I’m confused,” said Li Mei suddenly. “Sun Ying-shidi, you’re so strong. Why is it that even you can’t do anything against Sun Quan-shixiong when he nags at you? After all, most people are frightened that you’ll beat them to death.”

“You don’t strike the hand that makes top-class salted herbal chicken,” replied Sun Ying swiftly and a-matter-of-factly. “It’s common sense.”

The girls stared at him. So Sun Quan controlled his younger disciple brother through his stomach…

Li Mei coughed softly. “Anyway, Sun Ying-shidi, we really, really didn’t take your chickens. We had only gone down the mountain to cultivate. I hope you can keep this our secret and not tell anyone else what you’ve seen today.”

Sun Ying folded his arms. But just as he was about to speak, a set of footsteps echoed outside the chamber. Min Yi appeared with Sun Quan beside her.

“Aiyah, Sun Ying, did you cause trouble here?” Sun Quan glared at his younger disciple brother when he saw the mess in the room. “I sold your chickens to buy you a new belt. Didn’t I tell you already? Why did you come here?”

Sun Ying faltered as if he had just been betrayed. “You… you sold them!?”

“You needed a new belt for the upcoming tournament, didn’t you?” Sun Quan was exasperated. “Master said he was going to win you a new one, but he ended up losing everything playing mah-jong, so I had to sell them to buy you a good one. Were you even listening? Hey!”

“You sold them!” Sun Ying was aggrieved.

“Look, howling about it now won’t get them back,” said Sun Quan with a sigh as he patted his disciple brother’s back soothingly. “Sun Ying, let’s go back. We won’t have herbal chicken for dinner today, but I’ve made you something special to cheer you up. Come along! I’ll heat it back up for you. I was waiting for you the whole day, you know, but you never came back for your evening snack…”

Hearing that there was a special snack waiting for him at home, Sun Ying perked up at once. Like a lost dog, he tailed his elder disciple brother out of the chamber.

Just as they were about to leave the mouth of the room, Sun Quan’s foot struck a book on a floor.

“Hmm?” he raised a brow, picking the book up. To the girls’ horror, it was the very same book Sun Ying was holding before!

Sun Quan leafed through the pages in silence. After a while, he lowered it.

“What’s this?” he asked.

“This is… err,” began Min Yi, at a loss for words.

“It’s their cultivation manual,” stated Sun Ying, shrugging nonchalantly. “I’ve seen this path before. Back in my old master’s sword school, one or two of my brothers cultivated something like that on the side. So long as it didn’t interfere with their swordsmanship, nobody really cared what they did. They did build their cultivation quickly through it too, so it was bonus points. Due to their cultivation, they were able to leave the school early and start a life in the Jianghu on their own.”

“What happened to them after they left?” asked Li Mei curiously.

“Hmm,” Sun Ying rubbed his chin thoughtfully, “I don’t know about the other one, but one of them managed to get a job in the palace. His cultivation’s extremely high. Although he doesn’t show it off very often, his realm’s probably much higher than our master’s. Anyway, it was many years ago and I was just a brat then. I tried to cultivate using the same method after asking him about it, but I never managed to do so.”

“I see,” Min Yi nodded. “So this cultivation method’s not bad after all. I was worried about spiritual backlash for a while.”

“There’s no backlash if you cultivate it properly,” remarked Sun Ying. “It’s like every cultivation path out there.”

Again, for the umpteenth time, the girls looked at each other. Somehow everyone understood now why Sun Ying was so popular. He saw things objectively, in his own way, and just accepted them as they were. As for Sun Quan, however…

The girls turned their heads to look at Sun Quan, who was quiet all this while.

“Sun Quan-shixiong?”

Sun Quan slowly looked up, his eyes gleaming with an unknown light.

“How much money do you make from selling cultivation manuals like these?”