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"Your beloved apprentice has come to visit and seen you doing 'well'," Lingsha glances at the girl beside her with an exasperated yet amused smile, "so there's no need to act tough any longer. Now, can you please do me a favour and go rest in your patient room, Yunli?"
"But, I'm- sigh ...okay.” It’s always so fascinating, how this usually stubborn little sword master seems to never be able to say no to her Lingsha-jiejie. She does, though, drag her feet on the ground and mumble something about 'not being a baby from Luofu' and 'having naturally tough skin', all the way to the healers' camp.
The camp is unusually full of people today, as the fight with those wolf-like abominations truly made an impact on the Cloud Knights, even after they strictly followed the ever-clever hunting strategy of three Xianzhou's generals.
Although her people won the fight in the end, it is still a bit sad seeing that many people got injured by the sudden attack. It was supposed to be a fun reoccurring martial art event to showcase one's strength, which could also be a possible way for Yunli to “secure” the Wardance’s award, but things went messy so quickly! In the aftermath, almost a third of the Cloud Knights are laying on the patient's bed; including their youngest prodigy, who happened to also be her co-master of the wonderful apprentice March 7th slash sparring partner slash rival, Yanqing.
Perhaps calling him her “rival” is almost insulting now that she is well enough to walk around, while he's still lying in bed unconscious. Alright, fair, he's kind of stopped the Borisins' almost invincible Warhead all by himself with his -she hates to admit- extremely cool move, then halted General Feixiao's unexpected rage right after... But hey! It wasn't like she and March 7th did nothing and just watched him; she was literally thrown into walls multiple times while fighting! ...Which is also why Lingsha was once again right about her needing more appropriate rest to fully recuperate.
Yunli sighs and looks up at the board hanging in front of the cabin door with her name on it... right above that boy’s name. Apparently, due to a high quantity of new patients, the less severely injured ones had to share their rooms. And so here they are, bumped into each other, again, like The Elation themselves was the one personally playing a joke on them.
With another surrendered sigh, Yunli holds the door's handle and opens it. Inside, she finds two empty beds. Yep, two empty be- wait. There was supposed to be only one empty bed. Yanqing hasn’t even moved an inch when she left!
Did he wander off alone? No, no, with how strict the Alchemy Commission's healers are and without a certain Cauldron Master to accompany him, that guy wouldn't be able to get out so easily! Added to the fact that he doesn't even look like the type to sneak out... right?
Oh, no. It can't be. He didn't just- "Y-Yanqing!! Did you exhaust all your energy and shrink even smaller?! You're not choked under that, are you?!" Yunli shouts while frantically taking the blanket off Yanqing's bed in one clean swoop.
"What. Are. You. Doing!?" Punctuating every word, the allegedly shrinking boy showed up out of nowhere, standing by the door -looking normal sized- with one hand gripping on the frame and the other holding a box.
"Oh," Yunli deadpans. "What even- Why did you throw my blanket away and what did you mean by me getting smaller?! I-I'm not... am I??" a bit of panic could be seen on the young boy's face as he stared at the floor, trying to measure up his height.
"Tch, disappointing.” Disappointing?!
“But whatever," Yunli rolls her eyes, "more importantly, what's that?" she nods to the box on Yanqing's hand while leaning on the bed frame with her arms crossed.
At that question, Yanqing switches his expression into a more sceptical look, "I... don't know." He explains further, "I woke up around five minutes ago and found no one else in the room, so I went out to ask one of the healers about the most recent situation." Yunli tilts her head to the side, signalling him to continue. "But before I could find anyone available, the Healer Lady suddenly came to me, handed this, then sprinted away somewhere.”
Two pair of eyes stare intently at the mysterious box. “Oh, she also mentioned it could help with the recovery...?" Yanqing continues, adding one last detail to the story.
"Well,” Yunli starts, “are you going to open it or not? Oh dear, could it be? Is our little Yanqing too scared to do it?" She lifts one hand to cover her mouth as she exaggeratedly gasps. Yanqing is not one to be taunted so easily, yet his whole body is trembling slightly trying to suppress the urge to smack that overly smug grin on her face. "Heh, Miss Yunli's approach style is always so reckless. But, since this did come from the Healer Lady... one should be able to let their guard down for a bit," Yanqing hesitates for a while, then scans the surface of the box with his fingers and pulls open the lid slowly.
All of a sudden, a harmonious melody with lively beats comes out of the box, startling them both. "A... music box?" Yanqing raises one of his eyebrows, "How is this supposed to-"
"Pfft-" a subtle chuckle escaped Yunli's mouth.
"Huh?" Yanqing looks up from the box, confusion is written all over his face, but there’s also a hint of curiosity thanks to the girl's unexpected response.
"The song," Yunli starts to explain, "it's the melody of a Zhuming nursery rhyme, for children to dance when they get sick," she chuckles again, then approaches him and takes the box from his hands. "I don't know where that dragon kid got the information," she mentally guessed it was Lingsha, "It's silly, but the point is to make the kids move a bit while they're recovering, making their body temperature high enough, so they'll sweat a lot and their limbs won't be too strained."
"What."
"Oh, just shut up and come here," the young girl puts down the box on the side table and stretches out one of her hands, "Your Healer Lady gave you this, right? That means she still sees you as a kid and wants you to dance. And obviously, I'm here just to show you the ropes, as you're clearly unfamiliar with this tradition."
"...Sometimes, your logic just left me speechless, Yunli," the boy finally closes the door of their room and walks towards his poor thrown away blanket on the floor, completely ignoring the stretched out hand, "I appreciate your generous offer, but no thank you, I don't dance."
"Hah! Says the guy who keeps 'dancing' around on the battlefield, hopping his feet everywhere like a tiny helpless sparrow-"
"It's called precise footwork, unlike your brass-" as Yanqing turns around to face Yunli one more time, she swiftly grabs his hand and pulls him closer, then puts both of her hands on his shoulders. "Ready?" She was smiling ear to ear; a bright glint can be seen on her eyes.
"Wait, Yun-" before Yanqing could utter another word, she spins his whole body around and grabs both of his hands from the back. If one is none the wiser, they'd think Yanqing has given up and didn't resist at all, but in truth he did try- emphasize on the ‘try’ here, because it's honestly crazy just how such a small body can be packed with an enormous pure brute strength.
"Yunli, please don't break my arms. They're still recovering, and I need them soon for the Wardance," Yanqing pleads genuinely. "Oh, please, don't be a drama queen," she then lifts Yanqing's left hand and lowers his right. "Uh-huh, okay, now jump on the next beat!" Before he realized it, he did jump, exactly right on time- which surprised even himself.
"Yeah, like that! See, you're a natural!" Yunli lets out a satisfied huff. "Alright, double jump! Then spin and clap!" Yanqing does exactly as Yunli said, resulting in them standing face to face once more.
Yunli claps excitedly, "Good, good! Now, to the other side!" This time, she joins him in the dance, while smiling so brightly, she's practically beaming.
She moves her arms in a flowy manner, embodying the melody, while her feet are doing small rhythmical jumps. She looks so... childish, so free. Not to mention the way she's able to make her movements appear so effortless is apparent evidence that she's done this many times before.
"Hey, who told you to stop moving? Come on, follow me!" Yunli's remark snapped Yanqing out of his frozen state. Oh, he was staring. "A-ah, yes," he immediately shifts his gaze and tries his best to follow her steps.
They dance and dance, giggling the whole time, either out of joy or embarrassment, occasionally clapping their hands together and teasing each other, just like two common children.
They keep on dancing until finally, the music stops. Replacing it, a comfortable silence hangs in the air.
"That was actually… a pretty good exercise," breathes Yanqing as he wipes some sweat off his forehead. "Of course, it was! Dancing is both healthy and fun, that's why I keep doing it!" Yunli's voice is full of mirth, her smile is so wide, her eyes are practically closed.
"Oh? So, Miss Yunli still likes to dance after she gets sick, just like the children mentioned before?" As good-natured as Yanqing is, he somehow always knows how to poke fun at his rival best. "You- I just like dancing as it is, okay? And besides, the point of this tradition is to tire the children and look who's sweating more now, huh? So, that means-"
"Both of you are children, for goodness' sake," a sudden voice came out from the door’s direction. "To think the missing music box is here all this time… And it is by some means capable of making the two of you get along so well," A hand pushes the door completely open, revealing the Vidyadharan Cauldron Master leaning on the side wall, an amazed expression on her face. “Huh, how miraculous.”
"Lingsha-jiejie?!" "Miss Lingsha?!"
"How- How long have you been standing there, Miss Lingsha?" Yanqing presses on, trying to distract himself from the fact that a flush of warmth is creeping up his cheeks. "Hm? Long enough to see you two acting like actually good friends for once... before going back to square one at the end," Lingsha lifts her hand up to massage her temple.
"Ah, but it doesn't matter, I'm actually here for the music box. As for the explanation, I'm sure the Healer Lady herself could provide it to our overly active patients here, right?" She turns her head to the back and a smaller Vidyadharan with visible horns on her head slides out from behind the door frame. "Hehe, sorry you two. I was so busy back then, I kinda mixed up your medicine kit with that music box," explains Bailu sheepishly as she scratches her head. "But presently, the actual owner of that music box is crying and throwing a tantrum, so we'd appreciate it very much if we could switch the box with your real medications," adds Lingsha.
Yunli and Yanqing both stare at each other for a while, no words are spoken. The air gradually feels a bit heavier by the second.
Yunli was the first to break the impromptu staring contest, she then fetches the music box and gives it to Lingsha, who in turn thanks them and immediately leaves to return the box to its rightful owner. On the other hand, Yanqing goes to Bailu to retrieve their medicine kit and her personal memos.
"Oh yeah, I almost forgot. That 'recovery dance' is only effective for conditions like low fever or common flu, where sweating is advantageous. But both of you right now are suffering from muscle fatigue, so I recommend you to appropriately rest and stop putting even more tension on your muscles," Bailu notes before she disappears to attend to other patients.
....
....
....
Crash!
Yanqing's head snapped to where the sound is coming from, only to find Yunli crouching down with her arms completely covering her face. Both then stay still as they were for a seemingly very long minute. Yanqing physically winches at how embarrassingly awkward the situation has become.
"Ah... ha haha haHAHAHA."
A full-blown laugh erupts from Yunli's curled up form. The laugh came out without warning, but it is so unexpectedly contagious that Yanqing finds himself laughing as well.
"Let's just- let's just… sleep," Yunli stammers a bit after the sudden fits of laughter. "Mmh, but we need to take the real medicine first before that," Yanqing opens the kit, which this time contains actual medicinal recovery pills.
After both have taken the pills, they go to their respective beds. Comfortable silence fills up the room once again, allowing them to doze off with a sense of satisfaction from today, as well as anticipation of a next time.