Lin Songmei wanted to go back to sleep. Looking at the time, she had slept for less than three hours. 

Why... 

Songmei had taken naps longer than that!! The only explanation that Songmei could think of was that the world was against her... 

Despite her complaints, with her hair brushed and her clothes changed, Songmei stumbled along, following Yan Mingqing while gripping her hand as if her life depended on it. If she let go of Mingqing’s hand, Songmei was about... 99.98% sure that she’d either get lost or just lay on the ground and fall asleep right then and there. 

Unbeknownst to Songmei though, while sitting there half-asleep, waiting for Mingqing to brush her hair, had had some makeup put on by a careful Mingqing. 

After all, to Mingqing, it was such a shame! Songmei was already so pretty, (and also maybe Mingqing’s type) but she never wore makeup! Mingqing would wear some if she woke up early enough, but Songmei never did... 

Songmei, of course, was still trudging along behind Mingqing towards the breakfast hall without a hint in the world that she had sparkly eyelids, too tired to even feel the makeup  

“Did you read the message while I brushed your hair, Songmei?” Mingqing asked, guiding Songmei through the double doors of the breakfast hall. “It wasn’t too long, but the contents of it are important. Also, beyond that, I also messaged Xueli, asking about it. However, all I got was a picture of her trash can filled with bloody tissues captioned, ‘You got this! Overcome this challenge on your own! It’s a good growth experience!’” 

“H... huh?” Songmei gawked as she stared off into the space in front of herself, her brain taking a minute to process the wall of words that Mingqing had just thrown at her. 

Loading... 

“Oh... oh! Yeah, I read the thing...” Nodded Songmei, blinking herself a little more awake as she got into the soup line with Mingqing behind her. “Yeah... Oh... I hope Xueli is feeling okay...” 

Her brain working at maximum capacity, clear to anyone who looked, Songmei’s eyes glazed over as she her brain chugged along, trying its best to come up with cohesive thoughts that didn’t consist of “bed,” “want to go to bed,” or “sleeping more would be nice.” 

Letting Mingqing pilot her to the soup line, having not thought of a single soup that existed while giving a blank stare to the menu, Songmei stood there, copying the soup that Mingqing ordered before following Mingqing to a table. 

“Ohh yeah... thank you for taking care of me this morning,” Songmei expressed with a tired smile after having blinked herself half-awake. Though Songmei wouldn’t hesitate to admit, the soup’s aroma had also helped to wake her body up. 

“No worries,” Mingqing shrugged, taking a sip of the light soup that she had ordered. “We’re close so it's fine, and just think of it as repayment for the time I had a really bad headache.” 

“Yeah... but... but...” Songmei trailed off, her brain already almost at max capacity trying to keep her hair out of her soup while drinking it. “Even if it was a lot more than usual this morning... I feel like you do it every morning...” 

Sipping her soup with an amused expression, Mingqing held it together, resisting the urge to mention the makeup and how it made Songmei’s apologetic expression that much cuter. “It’s fine, don’t worry about it~ It’s not a big deal, and half-asleep you is always amusing to be around.” 

“I... see...” 

-----------

Awake and out of the apartment building that the Starlight Lake Sect owned, Songmei made her way across one of the bridges from the floating Central District to the Northside, hand in hand with Mingqing. 

“Do we want anyone to join us?” Songmei asked, reviewing the mission information the assignment hall had sent once more now that she was awake. “Are we allowed to have anyone join us? We should, right? It uh... it is kinda an emergency, after all.” 

“We’re allowed to have people join us,” Mingqing explained, pointing to a certain section in the mission information. “The problem is we don’t really have anyone to join up with. I asked Cai Yufei and Lu Qiang, but uhh... Well, they were out of the city on a different mission, when they got the emergency mission. Also, I got a strongly worded message from Cai Yufei about how this is a great time to temper ourselves, and that we shouldn’t be seeking help. Therefore, he and Lu Qiang will embark on the mission alone.” 

Giggling a bit before coughing and composing herself, Songmei couldn’t help but chuckle under her breath imagining Cai Yufei’s righteous fervor as he typed the message. 

Laughing along with Songmei, Mingqing, knowing what Songmei was laughing about added, “It was SO LONG too! The thing stretched on for four pages! By the end, I was pondering all my life choices, and whether or not I had spent the last ten years of my life correctly...” 

“Maybe Cai Yufei has some talent in terms of writing then,” Songmei pondered out loud as she passed through the tall gates that marked the edge of the city. “If cultivating doesn’t work out, maybe he could go into writing prose or something...” 

“For sure...” Mingqing agreed, letting out a sigh as she was greeted with the monotonous trail once more. 

Songmei, letting out a similar sigh under her breath, began the trek forward towards the area that they had found the plants in their previous mission. 

It was going to be long... 

Just thinking about it made Songmei lament her future. 

They could run, of course, but it was a journey that’d take a couple of days at walking speed, so running, although faster, would tire them out to a needless degree. Also, while running, with unchanging scenery in front and behind them, the mental fatigue was no joke... 

It was... so boring. 

Green trees that swayed in the wind, flanking a well-worn dirt trail that stretched on for what seemed like forever. Also, in Songmei’s mind, the casual description of a “well-worn” dirt trail felt... felt like such a trivialization. 

The trail was more than well-worn, it looked like people had been using it for the past two thousand years, and in all honesty, Songmei would believe it if someone said it really had been used for that long. 

From their last mission though, Songmei and Mingqing had found out that after walking for more than a day, the trail would split off every once and a while. Because this trail stretched on in an almost straight line towards the north of the plateau, there were other paths, shorter ones towards the west, and very... very long ones that traveled east. 

They still had a long way to walk though... 

Time to pull up some random verbal games that they could play to pass the time... 

For heaven’s sake though, the city of Westriver needed to make some shuttles! Were the funds being embezzled??

Songmei wanted to go and beat up whoever was in charge of transportation. They had such a nice transportation hub, yet they couldn’t afford even a single, dinky little shuttle for these paths??

Horrendous. 

Esiyx

I slept HALF my weekend awayyyy
I literally slept 12 hours both days...
i meann... it was fun tho so ig ig that's what matters
exhilarating experience

Thanks for reading though~!!
Take care of yourselves reader friends~!!
<3