Chapter 9: Laughter echoes in the halls

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CHAPTER: LAUGHTER ECHOES IN THE HALLS

[Scene: Heavenly Realm – Afternoon. A shaded courtyard surrounded by towering bamboo. Protectors and Elders sit eating lunch, the air warm with calm… until chaos walks in.]

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> “Now, time has a funny way of moving when you’re not watching it,” Grandpa began, seated comfortably on the storyteller’s platform. His voice flowed like wind over old stones. “One day, they were handing her rice with both hands, and the next… she was shoving live creatures into it.”

>

> He paused.

>

> “And smiling.”

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It had been a peaceful lunch. Bowls of sticky rice, preserved plum slices, boiled greens. The elders were halfway through their meal when a sharp, wet plop hit Elder Ling's bowl

Everyone looked down.

There, sitting smack in the middle of her rice, was a very much alive, slightly muddy snail.

Elder Ling stared.

The snail blinked (probably).

Across the courtyard, Zixuan stood with both hands behind her back, absolutely beaming.

“You looked like you needed meat,” she said, proud.

Dead silence.

Then Elder Shu made the mistake of laughing — and that was it. The Protectors roared. Someone choked on their tea. One fell off their stool. Even Zhou, a young Protector who was a best friend to Zixuan turned his face away to stop himself from snorting.

“Is it… still moving?” one of the newer disciples whispered, poking Ling's rice with chopsticks.

“It’s… waving hello,” another said.

“I didn’t want to kill it,” Zixuan clarified, still completely serious. “It looked peaceful.”

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> “She had grown,” Grandpa intoned, now standing with arms folded behind his back, eyes squinting up at the sun.

>

> “A few years had passed since snail rice so she had grown, not into a woman, thank the stars — not yet. But into something mortals would call a youngling and she had a mouth too fast to be left unsupervised.”

>

> “She wasn’t there when the firewood was dropped off,” he added dramatically. “She was where chaos gathered. She was exactly like her father used to be.”

>

> “Absent. And suspiciously smiling.”

>

> Yao smiled at her grandpa, loving how this story was going. Sixuan and Yingyuan’s death had hurt her deeply but she was feeling better.

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“Where’s Zixuan’s bamboo?” Elder Shu asked finally, stacking the bamboo sticks slowly.

A few Protectors glanced around.

“She was with us earlier,” one said.

“She tied my bundle better than I did,” another added.

“But when we returned—”

“She was gone.”

“I thought she was behind me.”

“Maybe she wandered off again…”

“Like someone else we used to know,” a few muttered, glancing at Ling who chuckled, remembering how much Sixuan stressed over Yingyuan’s carefree nature.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

“She must’ve gone gallivanting again,” a young Protector mumbled.

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At the far end of the courtyard,

A single bamboo stick slid across the ground with a crack.

Everyone turned.

Zixuan stood frozen mid-sneak, one leg hovering, one hand full of stones and the realm's most awkward “uh oh” smile stretching across her face.

“…Hi.”

“Where have you been?” Elder Shu asked, tone like a judge who already knew the answer.

“I was emotionally supporting the trees.”

Silence.

“They looked stressed.”

Deadpan stares.

Elder Shu raised a brow. “And your bamboo?”

Zixuan lifted one stick like it was the holy answer. “Ta-da!”

“Where’s the rest?”

“…the trees kept most of them.”

“Zixuan.”

“I tripped.”

“Zixuan.”

“I saw a squirrel with cheeks this big—and I thought he might be hiding cake!”

Half the elders groaned. One laughed and smacked his knee. Shou clapped under the table.

Without invitation, Zixuan skipped over and plopped down next to Elder Zong, ignoring the thundercloud brewing above Elder Shu’s head. She grabbed a rice ball and chewed like it was a reward.

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> “She wasn’t the child they remembered,” Grandpa said, now pacing slowly along the porch. “Her cheeks were still round, yes, but her legs had stretched, her voice had sharpened, and her eyes…”

>

> He smiled.

>

> “Her eyes were blazing mischief. Stars and wildfire. A mix of Sixuan’s steel and Yingyuan’s nonsense.”

>

> “And like both her parents, she refused to be invisible.”

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“Zixuan,” Elder Shu said, standing now, her tone dangerously calm. “Since you theatrically forgot to bring your bamboo with the rest…”

Zixuan stopped mid-bite.

“You’ll now lift every single stick we gathered…”

She blinked.

“…while on your knees.”

The silence that followed was louder than thunder.

Zixuan’s mouth dropped. “You mean… like… lifting-lifting? Like punishment-lifting? Like human child punishment?!”

No answer.

She turned to Shou “You’re just gonna let them do this to me?!”

He sipped his tea, shrugged, and gave her the look of a man completely unbothered by her emotional breakdown."

Her jaw dropped. Oh, so now he was mute? Convenient.

Elder Shu gestured to the massive pile.

Zixuan got down, knees to the stone, face scrunched like a child who’d just been handed math homework and betrayal in equal parts.

“Fine,” she muttered.

She grabbed the first stick.

“One bamboo for the people,” she announced dramatically.

Second stick.

“Two bamboos for the elders.”

Third.

“Three bamboos for the lies I didn’t tell!”

“Quiet, Zixuan,” Elder Shu said, biting down a smile.

“Four bamboos for Shou who betrayed me—”

“I said quiet!”

“Five bamboos for the squirrel!!"

A Protector burst out laughing and nearly dropped his bowl.

Zixuan kept going, theatrically hoisting sticks like they weighed the heavens. The courtyard was now echoing with half-concealed giggles. Even Elder Shu’s eye twitched from holding back a laugh.

She never cried. Never begged. Never even tried to weasel out of it.

She made the punishment a performance.

She made the elders laugh during their own scolding.

And in that moment, all of them knew:

She wasn’t just Sixuan and Yingyuan’s daughter. She was the Heavenly Realm’s problem.

And they loved her for it.

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Zixuan stood stiff as a sword, arms trembling as she held the bamboo sticks above her head. The punishment courtyard was silent except for the distant whistle of wind and the occasional groan from her sore muscles.

Elder Mo strolled up with his usual judgmental squint.

"Do you ever think before acting, girl?"

Zixuan panted. "Yes. I just think... fast."

"Fast? You think recklessness is a virtue?"

Before she could reply, a sharp splat landed squarely on her right shoulder.

She froze.

Everyone froze.

She slowly turned her head to see it—a thick glob of bird poop sliding down her pristine robe.

A beat of silence.

Then—

"OH! OH NO! HEAVENS ABOVE!! AM I A TOILET TO YOU?!" she wailed, shaking with horror. "WHY ME? WHY NOT HIM?!" She pointed to a random sect boy sitting nearby who looked personally offended.

Shou, seated at the back, burst into uncontrollable laughter, practically falling off the bench.

Zixuan flung her head dramatically. "I HAVE BEEN TARGETED! THIS IS A SPIRITUAL ATTACK—SOMEONE CURSED ME IN THE WOMB—!"

"ENOUGH!"

"QUIET, ZIXUAN!"

"SHUT YOUR MOUTH THIS INSTANT!"

Three elders in sync like a holy trinity of annoyance barked at her at once, their voices echoing through the courtyard like thunder.

She gasped. "DID Y’ALL JUST HARMONIZE???"

Shou was now wheezing.

Elder Mo pinched the bridge of his nose. "Someone get this girl a cloth before she starts summoning demons out of spite."

Zixuan sniffled dramatically. "I deserve gold. Not whatever rained from a bird's ass"

"LANGUAGE!!!" Some Protectors yelled at her