New Determination

Despite Meng Mei’s best efforts, she barely made any progress on the main quest over the next week.

She examined the sword tassel with a fine tooth comb, determined to not miss a single detail that may help her. But she found absolutely nothing. There was absolutely nothing personal about the tassel. No family name, no sword name, nothing.

The only thing that had been engraved on the jade loop was a simple design with an outline of a coin in the center.

To make up for being unable to find anything on the sword tassel, Meng Mei approached her lessons with a renewed vigor.

She answered every question her teachers asked and spent her precious few free hours studying and practicing her lessons with Guang-laoshi. If she could only just improve enough to start her cultivation lessons she may be able to find the owner of the tassel.

When she wasn’t in lessons she was either in the library or in the garden, practicing weiqi and basic sword forms with Meng Yong.

Her determination didn’t go unnoticed.

Madam Meirong was becoming less strict with her the more time she spent studying. Gradually, the woman was becoming less imposing with every interaction. It probably helped that Meng Mei hadn’t continued Meng Xiāng’s habit of sneaking off.

Meng Yong was ecstatic that Meng Meiwas showing interest in swordsmanship. He was still hoping that she would be able to join his classes in the near future. So every time she asked him for help with one of the basic forms he dropped everything to patiently instruct her. He turned out to be a half decent teacher.

Even Meng Guoyao made a few positive remarks on Meng Mei’s new behavior.

From the outside it seemed like Meng Mei was making leaps and bounds towards her goal. But frustratingly she was barely improving.

The elegance of Guang-laoshi’s lessons still evaded her even with her new efforts.

Her extra lessons barely did anything to reduce the number of times Meng Mei tripped over her own feet.

It was starting to get on her nerves.

One night, she found herself under the cherry blossom tree in the garden she learned weiqi in. She’d stolen a practice sword from Guang-laoshi and snuck out here to get a few more hours of extra practice. Practicing with Guang-laoshi and Meng Yong wasn’t enough. There wasn’t enough noticeable improvement to satisfy Meng Mei.

After finding herself on the ground after four failed attempts at one of the basic forms Meng Mei threw the practice sword to the ground in frustration.

“I don’t get it!” She growled. “Isn’t this supposed to be easy!? What kind of transmigrator can’t even wield a sword!?”

[A-Mei please take a deep breath!! ｡ﾟ(ﾟ´Д｀ﾟ)ﾟ｡]

“No! I’ve been trying to learn this stupid move for three days now. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Why can’t I master something this simple?” She huffed, dragging her hands down her face in frustration.

If she couldn’t learn even the basics she had no hope of ever joining the cultivation classes.

By the time Han Xiaolian joined the YuHu sect, Meng Xiāng was already an accomplished cultivator. She was the top of her classes and was on her way to mastering Madam Meirong’s elegant swordsmanship.

So why couldn’t Meng Mei learn even the basics? Wasn’t this still Meng Xiāng’s body? Why didn’t it come easily to her?

[A-Mei is not from this world. These practices are foreign to her mind and body. She must remember to take it slow.]

“But I can’t take it slow. I have less than two years to catch up to where Meng Xiāng was in her cultivation journey. I have to get into the swordsmanship classes so I can find the owner of the tassel.”

[It has not been long since A-Mei entered this world. This system asks her to have a little more patience]

“Easy for you to say.” Meng Mei huffed as she sat down near the base of the tree. “I’ve already wasted so much time because of the tutorial quest. I can’t afford to continue falling behind. If I want to save Lai Huang, I can’t just be as good as Meng Xiāng. I have to be better than her.”

[...this system understands]

Meng Mei sighed as the system went quiet.

It was at times like these she wished she could talk to someone else who understood her. If only she could get in contact with the other transmigrator. Were they having the same struggles? Was this inability to learn solely Meng Mei’s or were they experiencing the same thing? But the last time she’d brought up talking to the other transmigrator the system had stopped talking to her for days. Even now it wasn’t using as many emoticons as before.

For better or worse, Meng Mei could only rely on herself.

If she wanted to accomplish her goal and actually save Lai Huang, she couldn't slack off. They were leaving for the hunting trip in little over a week. After that it was unlikely she’d come into contact with Lai Huang again before she went to the YuHu sect. She had to figure out how to resolve the main quest before then so Libaogong wouldn’t suffer.

With a sigh Meng Mei leaned back on the trunk of the cherry blossom tree.

She didn’t have to look to know that the ghost of her old friend was sitting next to her.

“I don’t know what to do.” She admitted to the girl who wasn’t really there.

‘Oh come on A-Mei, of course you do.’ The wind laughed. ‘This is your favorite story, you know it like the back of your hand.’

“But I want to change the story.”

‘And you will. You just have to make it past what’s holding you back.’

“I don’t know what’s holding me back.” She sighed, her face scrunched in frustration. “If I did I wouldn’t be doing all of this for nothing.”

The wind had no answer for her.

When she finally turned her head to look at her old friend head on, the ghost was gone.