Out of Sight

[Umm, A-Mei? Are you sure you should be doing this? (⁠;⁠ŏ⁠﹏⁠ŏ⁠)]

"Stop worrying so much, I'm only going over to see my new brothers. I used to be an only child, let me have this." She whispered under her breath as she crept down the halls. It was so early that the sun still had yet to rise. All the hallways were dark with the occasional faint ray of pre-dawn light.

[But Meng Xiāng has no interest in the training grounds at this time!! It would be totally out of character!! Which is the opposite of your quest!! (*ﾟﾛﾟ)]

"Yes but I was locked up for the majority of yesterday and the day before, wouldn't Meng Xiāng be excited to see her Er-ge?" She mumbled back at the system's panicked spamming.

Meng Xiāng has two older brothers, Meng Weiyuan and Meng Yong. For an undisclosed reason Meng Xiāng doesn't get along with her Da-ge. In fact the two of them have an almost hostile relationship. On the flip side it was said that before she left for YuHu she and her Er-ge were as thick as thieves.

[Uh, that's....true? But you could also just see him at breakfast!!]

She shook her head. She wanted to know the way to the training grounds as soon as possible, and she'd rather interact with her new brothers without the scrutiny of their parents. And the only place ahead was guaranteed to find both of them this early was at the training grounds.

[A-Mei please!!!! This system is begging you to reconsider!!!!!! (つд⊂)]

Meng Mei continued ignoring the system.

[. . . .]

[If A-Mei insists (;-_-)]

The system finally stopped spamming her with messages. It was a relief because now she could completely focus on making her way downstairs without being caught.

Meng Xiāng's room was on the sixth floor of the massive Libaogong. Since she was a part of the main family, her room was much harder to access. Between the guards and the winding hallways Meng Mei can see why Libaogong doesn't worry about intruders.

She happened to catch a glance of the training grounds when she was being led to the library. They were concealed in a courtyard on the ground floor. So even if Meng Mei managed to get down there it was going to take a while.

The guards were truly only vigilant around certain areas. Like Meng Mei's room, or her parents' rooms. As long as she passed those areas without issue it wasn't too hard to move through the hallways. The system reluctantly helped her with directions.

She'd made it all the way down to the second floor with no issue when she suddenly heard shuffling footsteps approaching her. With a jerk she ducked into the nearest alcove. She squeezed her body between the wall and the large vase on display in the alcove. The pottery towered above her crouched form and effectively hid her in the shadows.

“Quiet you idiot!" Someone hissed. Meng Mei tensed at just how close the voice was. "Do you want the Madam to catch us?"

"Of course not, but you try lugging this thing around!" Another person responded in the same kind of hissed whisper.

"Well that's why you're here. Now shut up! It's almost dawn, Zhu Huiqing will be making his rounds soon."

Meng Mei frowned. Zhu Huiqing? As in Zhong Changming’s future jade swordsman? What in the world was he doing patrolling Libaogong?

She racked her brain for a possible explanation. If only she could remember Zhu Huiqing’s origins, then that might explain what he was doing here.

"You're the one who spoke first" the second voice mumbled petulantly.

They fell silent and Meng Mei heard those same shuffling footsteps as before. She could recognize now that it wasn't simply someone walking, no it was somebody struggling under the weight of their cargo.

She waited until she could no longer hear anything before she reemerged from behind the vase. Lying there on the previously empty carpet runway was a sword tassel.

"Okay that's too coincidental, even for me. System!" She made sure to keep her voice quiet as she bent down to pick up the tassel. It was yellow and had a jade hoop at the top. It was terribly tacky looking. But after tossing it a few times she realized that despite its cheap appearance, the jade hoop was heavy enough to be real.

Even in the modern world it was highly unusual to attach something as precious as real jade to something so cheap looking. Either the owner had lucked out and didn't know the real value or they had some reason to keep it hidden. Either explanation was suspicious since Libaogong was dripping in wealth. Even a servant would be able to distinguish something cheap from something real after the prolonged exposure of working within Libaogong. 

[╮⁠(⁠.⁠ ⁠❛⁠ ⁠ᴗ⁠ ⁠❛⁠.⁠)⁠╭]

[The information A-Mei wants is quest locked. Please wait to proceed. Once the Tutorial Quest is completed this system will answer A-Mei’s questions. （ ＾ν＾）]

With a scoff Meng Mei shoved the tassel into her sleeve for safekeeping. So the system was setting up another incentive for her. As long as she managed to complete the tutorial she would learn what just happened. 

“I don't need any more incentives. Not dying again is enough.” Meng Mei shrugged.

[This system is only trying to keep it interesting for A-Mei (´°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥ω°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥｀)]

"Don't worry too much about that. Being here is already interesting enough." Meng Mei reassured the system. She was slightly unsettled by the implication that the system had manufactured the suspicious scene for her but she brushed the worries away. It probably was referencing it's decision to stay quiet, not that it controlled the people to set up that scene. 

[As A-Mei wishes!!!]