Longing
Dawdling through the street, Zhu Xiao Wan looked out of her hood at the second restaurant that had opened. Seeing that her business was doing well, she turned and left for the ingredients. On her way to the store, Zhu Xiao Wan found the Ning siblings and Zhuang Yang.
...Zhuang Yang was sent to follow her but somehow he had become the siblings' caretaker. Zhu Xiao Wan found it to be quite funny. They didn't notice her when she passed by them, but, Zhu Xiao Wan unintentionally heard Ning Rou Li said: "I want to buy a cache earing for Xiao Wan again since...
She didn't make effort to listen to the rest, but since she was going to receive a cache earing, she didn't need to go and buy one.
Now that she had more money than before, Zhu Xiao Wan entered a better quality store for alchemists and physicians. It really didn't disappoint her, the place had various herbs and plants, and they were fresher; not that all were fresh nor super new, but they were better than the ones on the street.
Examined the herbs, she found that the costs were all quite pricey. Then, she heard that some of the other customers were arguing about the prices. Lifting her head, she saw one of the herbs that she needed.
"This is 500 coppers, not 125."
"It clearly said 125 coppers on the sign, how did it become 500 coppers?"
"145 per stack. Customer, you are buying four stacks."
"But it didn't say 145 coppers per stack on the sign!"
Zhu Xiao Wan walked pass the arguments between a buyer and the seller, picking up a few stacks of the herbs and all the others elements and brought it to the seller. Since the seller was busy with the buyer, she waited while standing right in front of them. A beat later, she discreetly took out a steamed bun from 'who knew when it was made' from her mouthpiece.
Making sure that it was still edible, Zhu Xiao Wan started chewing on her bun, loudly. Because the bun was hard, the munching sound was quite noisy. Catching their attention, she continued to chew like nobody was staring at her weirdly and irritatedly. However, the arguing stopped there as they calm down and came to a satisfying result about the purchase.
The seller then turned to Zhu Xiao Wan and found that the strange hooded girl had already placed the herb stacks and plants in front of him. "30 silvers."
'Making it sound so little.' Zhu Xiao Wan smiled and paid him thirty silver coins.
Returning to the manor, she went to seek Guang Ling for the lesson. Guang Ling began to teach her how to concoct those elixirs.
"Master, isn't this one of those sleeping poisons?" Looking at the liquid, she asked.
He nodded, "Mm-hmm. Hallucination elixirs are created by mixing poison with some other herbs. There are rare chances where you need to fuse different poisons together with each other."
"Oh, then what type of hallucination elixir are we making?"
"The first one will be the Longing Mist elixir."
"Longing Mist?"
"The person that consumed the elixir would see the one they are longing for but cannot touch that person. That is why it's called 'mist.'" Guang Ling explained whilst looking like he was in a trance.
Gazing at him with her somewhat hawklike eyes, Zhu Xiao Wan parted her mouth, "Did master test it?"
Subconsciously, Guang Ling muttered, "...I do...still."
Her brows rose faintly as she watched her master snapped out of his trance, forgetting what he just said and carried on with his teaching.
'Everyone has their own past...It's none of her business.' Zhu Xiao Wan's focus returned to the lesson.
-----
"How did it go?"
Yin Yi bowed his head towards Song Hui Yao. "With Master's help a few months ago, the Lord was able to get the fane out of the crisis. But..."
Song Hui Yao inhaled and opened his eyes to look at the sky, waiting for Yin Yi to continue.
"But the Clime Quintessence Shrine has turned to another group to target on." Yin Yi said.
"Ah...Pulling others into their conflict, how tiresome." Song Hui Yao sighed after taking in a deep breath. "Anything else?"
Yin Yi stood still for a bit before he said, "The Dongfang Family is rising above the Sima."