Moving Forward

“Meng Xiāng!” Madam Meirong gasped. “Do not interrupt your mother while she is speaking! What is the meaning of this outburst!?”

Meng Mei didn’t shrink under the harsh glare coming from Madam Meirong. Her mind had already clouded with adrenaline. All she could focus on was making sure Madam Meirong agreed to the offer.

“A-niang. I want to meet my fiance before I go to the YuHu sect to take classes.” She declared. “I want to go on the hunting trip.”

“You can’t even wield a sword. What would the purpose be for you to go? If you want to meet Zhong Changming so badly we can make arrangements.” Madam Meirong dismissed her.

“But they’ll be gone on their trip for who knows how long! I’ll meet him sooner if we go.” Meng Mei pointed out. Madam Meirong’s faced scrunched up in displeasure at her words.

“Meng Xiang! Who taught you to speak so casually?” She demanded. Meng Mi ignored her words and continued pushing.

“A-niang I really want to meet him! Everyone knows him but me and I’m the one who is going to marry him!”

“Stop your arguing! I alread said—”

“Laopo.” Meng Guoyao interrupted her with a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Our daughter has a point.”

“You!” Madam Meirong grit out furiously. “I see where she learned that habit of interruptting people!”

“I think we should consider what Xiāng’er is saying.” He said calmly. “We introduced Meng Weiyuan and Zhong Qingling to each other when they were much younger than Xiāng’er is now. She’s been the sect heir for nearly two years now. I think it’s time we let her meet her future husband.”

Madam Meirong looked at him with barely concealed fury.

“Fine!” She spit. “We’ll go o the hunting trip. But only for a month. We cannot afford to spend as much time away as they like to.”

“That’s fine. I’ll send a letter first thing tomorrow morning.” Meng Guoyao agreed easily. “We can make it a trip for the entire family so our two young masters can show off their skills.”

“Do you hear that Weiyuan? Don’t take too long to resolve the issue in the east.” Madam Meirong grumbled. “We’ll leave at the first sign of fall in three weeks.”

“Yes a-niang.” Meng Weiyuan answered curtly with a glare directed at Meng Mei. The girl herself however was too relieved to care. She’d be able to complete the special event side quest now and she’d make contact with Lai Huang for the first time.

The rest of the feast passed in a blur for Meng Mei. Conversation was difficult to restart and they still had a lot of food to eat. So they focused on stuffing their faces rather than potentially sparking a new arguement.

When they finally started finishing up the atmosphere had improved greatly. Madam Meirong was conversing quietly with Meng Guoyao about vearious sect matters while Meng Yong had decided to annoy his little sister.

“Hey meimei. Do you wanna practice weiqi some more sometime this week? We can do it when you have a break from classes!” Meng Yong called across the table. His energy was slowly returning the closer they got to being finished eating. Clearly he was still very excited to hear about the night hunts.

“Sure. I don’t have anything else going on.” Meng Mei agreed airily.

“Great! Let’s practice so we can beat a-die!” Meng Yong grinned.

“At least have a more obtainable goal.” Meng Weiyuan scoffed as he rolled his eyes at his younger brother.

“Hey! What do you mean by that?” Meng Yong pouted, though it wasn’t as dramatic as usual. “Meimei and I are great weiqi players!”

“Yeah and sect leader is master cultivator. Of course he’ll be a better player than you can even dream to be.” Meng Weiyuan taunted.

Privately, Meng Mei thought that this was a pretty solid point. They’d only just learned how to play yesterday. There was no way they were going to beat a master cultivator like Meng Guoyao. He’d been playing for much longer than them.

“Just you wait and see! Meimei and I will prove you wrong!” Meng Yong announced. “We’ll be the best team you’ve ever seen.”

“Weiqi isn’t even a team game.”

“It is for us!”

Meng Mei couldn’t surpress her very inelegant snort at the two brothers antics. Meng Weiyuan was a fool to ever try and use logic and reasoning with someone like Meng Yong.

“Well children. It seems we’ve enjoyed this feast as much as we could. You’re all excused from any activities or classes you would usually have at this time of day, go ahead and start preparing for bed.” Madam Meirong announced.

Meng Yong practically sprung up from his cushion.

“Can I hear about the night hunts now?” He asked, shaking with excitement. Meng Guoyao let out a boisterous laugh and stood.

“Of course! Let’s go to my office and I’ll tell you everything!”

Madam Meirong stood slowly and started calling for servants to come clean everything up. Meng Mei watched as she assumed the postion of a conductor once more.

Meng Weiyuan vanished without a word to anyone. By now Meng Mei was used to this behavior.

Amah came in to collect Meng Mei and to guide her back up to her room. It’d take a while to completely unadorn her so Meng Mei had no choice but to go ahead and get ready for bed.

Meng Mei waited until she and Amah had made it far enough away before she opened her mouth.

“Amah.” She called, tugging on the woman’s sleeve. “Why does eldest brother call a-die sect leader?”

“...Because that’s what he is.” Amah reponded after a beat of silence.

“But Er-ge and I call him a-die.”

Amah didn’t say anything for a long moment. Meng Mei almos felt bad for putting her in this position but she had to know if it was customary or not. Seasons of Sorrow didn’t really showcase any other Meng’s outside of Meng Xiāng and Madam Meirong. She didn’t know if Meng Weiyuan’s form of adress was out of respect or if it was due to the mysterious incident.

“I’m sorry little miss. I don’t believe it’s my place to speak on such things.” Amah eventually replied. That confirmed the second theory then.

Meng Weiyuan seems to have not only lost his position as sect heir due to the mysterious incident. Subsequuently he’d lost his relationship with his father and his little sister.

Honstely, Meng Mei felt for the poor guy. Right now he was only a few years younger than she’d been when she died. When the incident occured he’d been even younger. There was no way he could’ve known that it’s have such massive repurcussions for him.

“Little miss should not ask anyone else this question.” Amah suddenly said, her tone deadly serious.

“Yes Amah.” Meng Mei agreed easily. She’d eventually figure out what happened, but right now she just had to focus on the two quests she had open.