The Green Tea Junior Sister - Chapter 1

Shen Yingying stared warily at the sword tassel held out before her.

Today was the day Eldest Senior Brother Qi Yan and I returned from the mountain after slaying demons.

Shen Yingying had only seen that my sword tassel was prettier than the gift Qi Yan had brought her, so she wanted to make trouble for me as usual.

But she hadn’t expected that I, who had never bothered to acknowledge her, would hand it over so readily today.

“You’re really giving it to me?”

My gaze burned with intensity.

“I’m really giving it to you.”

A sly look flashed through Shen Yingying’s eyes. Afraid I might regret it, she quickly took the sword tassel.

Looking at her, so vivid and alive, my eyes were already stinging.

“Whatever my junior sister wants, Senior Sister will give it to you.”

Shen Yingying looked me up and down in confusion. Her pretty brows drew together slightly, and she started speaking in that sarcastic, cutting tone of hers again.

“You haven’t been possessed by some demon, have you? Where’s the real Mu Ling? Dead?”

She didn’t know that I truly had died once.

And not just me. Our entire sect had died at Qi Yan’s hands.

The one who died the most wretched death of all was her, Shen Yingying.
Shen Yingying was someone Master had picked up from a pile of corpses.

That year, the Demon Race massacred an entire city. Master led everyone there to rescue the survivors, but the only person he managed to bring back was Shen Yingying.

She was thirteen then. Master accepted her as a disciple and treated her like his own daughter.

But Shen Yingying had no desire to improve. She never allowed herself to get tired.

Whenever we cultivated, she was always the last to arrive and the first to leave.

Master let her be. For one, her natural talent wasn’t enough. For another, with Qi Yan and me in the sect, it wasn’t yet her turn to shoulder any great responsibility.

If she had been sweet and obedient, then as her Senior Sister, I naturally would have protected her.

But from the day Shen Yingying joined the sect, she couldn’t stand me.

She couldn’t stand that I trained hard. She couldn’t stand that Master placed high hopes on me. Most of all, she couldn’t stand that Qi Yan treated me differently.

So every few days, she would pick a fight with me.

If she wasn’t badmouthing me to Master, she was putting toads in my bed.

Whenever Qi Yan was present, she went even further, using all sorts of underhanded little tricks.

Once, we were practicing swordsmanship at Stillheart Lake. Shen Yingying and the lower-ranked disciples were standing on one foot atop the wooden stakes while I corrected their movements one by one.

As luck would have it, Qi Yan happened to pass by. Shen Yingying suddenly fell into the lake.

After Qi Yan pulled her out, she curled pitifully in his arms and said, “I must have done something wrong. That’s why Senior Sister got angry and pushed me in.”

Qi Yan comforted her with a few words. When he helped her away to rest, Shen Yingying even deliberately tugged the corner of her mouth at me.

As if declaring victory.

I said nothing.

In my eyes, her little schemes were no different from children playing house. They were even a little funny.

Shen Yingying liked Qi Yan. For Qi Yan’s sake, she spent decades being jealous of me and competing with me for his attention.

But no one could have imagined that this Eldest Senior Brother, who seemed as pure and noble as a clear breeze under a bright moon, had long since colluded with the Demon Race.

He waited until Master and I went down the mountain, then led the Demon Race in an attack on our sect.

No one would ever have guarded against him. And because of that, our sect was slaughtered.

The last one left was Shen Yingying.

Her cultivation was far too poor. She hadn’t even learned the Transformation Technique.

In order to hold out until we returned, she, who loved beauty so much, actually took a sword and carved up her own face.

She imitated my appearance, stood with her sword at the mountain gate, and falsely claimed that reinforcements were on the way.

That night, Shen Yingying used every spell she had learned so unwillingly.

But even by the time she died, she still hadn’t managed to wound Qi Yan in the slightest.

When I arrived, Shen Yingying’s face was covered in bloody gashes. She was kneeling on one knee before the mountain gate, with only one breath left in her.

I leaned closer and heard her say,

“You’re so annoying… Why did you have to be so strong…? I learned it… but I didn’t look like you at all.”