[Young Master Xian]—❈—69:: Family Dinner [III]

Xian Zexi

“Enmities are pointless, Zexi. They’re stressful and they’re stupid, especially between members of the same family… We all need friends.”

Those were the words that Zexi’s brother, Xian Qigang, seventh born and second son of the Great Xian family had told her after he’d knocked her down in their spar not so many days ago. When he’d healed her and then offered her a hand after defeating her so easily and thoroughly.

“Enmities are pointless…” So said her brother who’d undergone enlightenment at a level that no one in known history had. “…We all need friends.”

It was… not terrible advice. Though certainly naïve in many ways and sounding a bit like the sort of principle that a sycophant with little personal pride might adopt.

You couldn’t always avoid enmities. Sometimes, people did certain things to you and the only way to answer was to repay in kind twentyfold.

Pride mattered. Face mattered. Qigang might tell himself that they didn’t, or shouldn’t, but they did. Even to him, they did.

It was why he’d won their spar.

He could have thrown the fight. He could have let her win. Not that she wanted that, but he could have done it.

Instead he’d fed her the embarrassment of being knocked down rather than face it himself.

Consequently, when he’d looked her in the eye and said “Enmities are pointless… We all need friends,” Zexi hadn’t taken the words particularly seriously. Perhaps not as seriously as she should have.

Or maybe it was him she hadn’t taken as seriously as she should have. Because since the spar she’d done her best to not think about him, done her best to ignore, and even as more news of his uniqueness and ability ran across The Capital like wildfire, she did her best to drown it all out.

After all, obsessing over it, over him, wouldn’t change anything for her. She was at the bottom of the ladder now and that wasn't going to change. Not until she made Qi Realm anyway. Until her breakthrough, she would be considered by all to be the new Xian failure, not because she was, but because that enlightened bastard had created such a position in the first place, and it now had to be filled.

So who else would it be but her?

She hated it, but she’d felt his strength, his power. She’d seen the gap between them. It wasn't just a chasm, it was something else. A gap that would take a miracle to cross.

Qigang was beyond her now, and she could stew in hate and misery over it, or she could focus and push for her own breakthrough.

She was close enough it should be achievable within a year.

She would make Qi Realm. And as soon as she did she would find a job or post that would take her as far away from The Capital and her family as she could get.

Qigang could go make all the friends he wants, she would be advancing her cultivation.

Except, Qigang didn’t seem too keen on following his own advice to make friends anymore. He couldn’t possibly be with how he handled what she was sure was his first meeting with their most powerful sibling, Xian Mei, second born and second daughter of the family.

The worst part was, Qigang mouthing off to a Domain Realm cultivator wasn’t the strange thing. It was hardly even out of character for him.

He clearly had a lot of pride and confidence based on his interactions with Mother, and that confidence must be at an all-time high since he threw off The Empress’ subjugation. Also, like Father had said, he must have known that Mother wouldn’t let any harm come to her new golden boy.

Looked at that way, his mouthing off to Mei made complete sense.

What didn’t make sense was his doing it to defend her.

It rankled to admit it, but by any metric Mei was a better ‘friend’ to make than Zexi.

True, Mei was a crippled weakling that was an embarrassment to Domain Realms everywhere, but she was still a Domain Realm cultivator, and that was worth a lot in this world.

Certainly more than Zexi would be worth for a very long time… and probably ever, if she was being honest with herself.

So why had he helped her?

When Father had made the comment about his penchant for making stupid decisions, Qigang had said that there was nothing stupid about standing up to an abuser. So was that it? He didn’t like how Mei was treating her and so he did something about it?

Zexi wasn't sure she liked that. And she wasn't sure why.

Before the event with Mei, she’d been determined to ignore him (and everyone) to the best of her ability, but after it that was impossible, especially when they all sat at the dinner table and his first words threw her once again into the spotlight and made a mockery of all the most important people at the table.

“… this is a triangle, and people normally don’t think of triangles as sitting on their pointy ends. So, looked at a certain way, Zexi is actually sitting alone at the head of the table, while the rest of us are jostling for space at the bottom.”

What the hell was he thinking saying something like that? Did he think he was helping her? Because she neither asked for it nor did she want it.

“You know, Qigang,” Ru, fourth born and first son, said, “this is the second time tonight you’ve stood up for Zexi. Seems like you two are closer than reports would suggest.”

Zexi felt a chill run down her back at hearing her name from her older brother’s mouth.

She’d met Ru a total of three times in her life, and after each meeting she’d been left feeling like there were eyes watching her from every wall.

“I like how you’re just putting it out there that you get reports about your siblings,” Qigang said. “Like that isn’t some high-level creepy stalker behaviour.”

“I simply want to know if my beloved siblings are doing well,” Ru said, blinking innocently. “Surely someone as enlightened as you are, brother, knows how powerful a driving force love can be.”

Qigang smiled in a way that was obviously fake. “Oh, I do. I suppose it’s why they say only two things can reliably drive a noble to rebellion; love and taxes.”

Ru let out a polite laugh. “Oh, I like that. Who said it?”

“Me,” Qigang said. “I just made it up.”

Ru nodded, looking impressed. “Well, in that case, I ask your permission to steal it.”

Qigang blinked, momentarily surprised by the request. “Steal away,” he said.

“Thank you, brother,” Ru said, smiling in that unsettling way of his. “We’re friends now.”

“How so?” Qigang asked slowly.

“You did me a favour,” Ru said. “That is the basis for every friendship.”

“That’s certainly one way to look at it,” Qigang said.

“How do you look at it?” Ru asked.

“Well, a friendship can’t exactly be transactional, can it?” Qigang said. “It cheapens the relationship.”

“Does it?” Ru asked. “After all, all relationships are transactional, are they not? A friend is simply the person who gives you the best deals.”

Qigang frowned, though in contemplation more than anger.

“And what about companionship?” he asked. “That’s the primary thing that most people desire in a friendship. Do you deal for that too?”

“Certainly,” Ru said. “Companionship is a commodity. And a precious one too, for some. Providing it requires a significant investment of your time and attention into someone else's person. A perfect example being whores.”

Zexi noted Mei’s lips curl distastefully at the word.

Qigang though was shaking his head.

“Yes, prostitutes do provide companionship as a service; they... commodify it, but that’s not always the case. Many times, maybe even most of the time twisted as this world is, companionship is provided as an act of love,” Qigang said, but then after a moment, he added: “But then I’m guessing you’ll say that, in such cases, companionship has become a service you’re providing yourself as much as the one you love, since being with them makes you happy.

“Which still makes the nature of it transactional and companionship itself a commodity being traded.”

Ru smiled wide. It looked genuine, and the sight of it almost made Zexi shudder.

“Say, brother, have you always been this intelligent or is this also a result of enlightenment?” Ru asked.

“Definitely enlightenment,” Qigang said. “Former me was a moron.”

Ru laughed, clapping his hands in amusement, an unsettling intensity in his stare as he watched Qigang.

“Keep the noise down,” Mei said grouchily.

Ru stilled, his entire demeanour changing in the span of a heartbeat.

He looked to his sister sitting a few feet to his right.

“You really shouldn’t let that sad breakthrough of yours go to your head, dear sister,” he said.

Mei’s temper flared instantly, as any mention of her crippled cultivation unfailingly causes.

“Perhaps you should watch your words, junior brother,” she said.

“And yet I have a higher position at the bottom of the triangle than you do,” Ru said, mockery dripping from his every word.

The seating arrangement of the table had Mother at the head, and on her right were Father, Ru, Mei, and Weiju. On her left sat Qigang, firstborn Xuegang, third born Ling, and Zexi herself.

Because the seating was counted right to left down from the head of the table, this meant that Qigang was two places away from Mother, Ru three places away, and Mei five places away.

Clearly, Mei did not appreciate this reminder, because she snarled and her Qi began to pour from her—

The Thunder Dragon Goddess stirred. Just the tiniest bit. Like a leviathan breathing a little deeply.

Mei stilled, her Qi rushing back into her body like a scared cat rushing indoors at the crack of thunder.

Ru sniggered and Mei burned with embarrassment.

Zexi felt the world get a little brighter.

“So, Qigang,” Ru said, “I understand Mother has asked for a divine Ironwood Berry as your reward tomorrow.”

Zexi, as did most of her siblings, looked up in surprise, both that Ru had such information and also because, as Ling pointed out next—

“An Ironwood Berry? I’d assumed you would get a divine rank method as your reward.”

Mother spoke then. “Qigang is already part congruent with his method. Changing it now will only do harm.”

Expressions changed at that announcement.

It stung Zexi for a moment, but then she remembered that it changed nothing for her. Qigang had already surpassed her. It didn’t matter whether it was by a million li or by a thousand, she knew she would never catch up.

As much as that hurt, all she could do was run her own race now...

You know, it damn near killed her to admit it, but maybe Qigang was on to something about enmities being pointless and stressful.

Qigang looked at Mother. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that you picked that up from one trip into my soul,” he said. “Though it’s a tad premature to be announcing that, to be honest. I don’t even know if I want it yet.”

Reactions rolled across the table again.

“You don’t want congruence?” Mei asked, looking like Qigang had spoken the greatest abomination in the world.

Which, in many ways, he had, because what sort of cultivator didn’t want congruence?

Could you even call yourself a cultivator if you didn’t want that?

“I didn’t say I don’t want it,” Qigang said. “I said I don’t know if I want it yet.”

‘What’s the fucking difference!?’ Zexi almost screamed at him, just barely managing to swallow the words at the final moment.

Mei began to speak again, but Mother said, “Clear the room.”

Everyone exchanged glances, then slowly, they rose and exited, even Father.

The only person who stayed was Qigang.