Junior Brother Pays Respect to You: Chapter 12 - Meeting Again
Chapter 12: Meeting Again
“But… serving Qin Su for a whole month just to get a place to stay—doesn’t that seem like a huge loss? After all, as long as Qin Su isn’t around, I could sneak in and live there anyway.”
Qin Zheng hesitated, hugging the scroll as he turned over in bed.
But it was just too cold here—he couldn’t sleep at all. The thought of enduring this all night was unbearable.
Might as well go back and give it a try. If he handled things well, maybe he could even make a few more requests.
Besides, Qin Su wasn’t exactly someone hard to serve.
***
Qin Zheng quickly wrote down a third timestamp on the scroll.
In a blink, when he opened his eyes again, he was already back inside the Tianque Sect.
Glancing around, he was relieved to find he hadn’t landed in the ice cave used for confinement.
To avoid accidentally arriving during one of his punishment periods, Qin Zheng had purposely set the time a little further ahead—skipping over the three years he was most often put in confinement.
He should now be sixteen years old—three years after his last visit.
Judging from the room's setup, he was in one of the sect’s first-tier chambers, a place for disciples under the second cultivation tier to train.
Tianque Sect didn’t recruit new disciples every year, so it seemed he was the only one in the first-tier housing. That meant he’d remained at the first tier for three years, while the other disciples had all advanced.
But Qin Zheng didn’t care about any of that. As someone from the future, he knew exactly how mediocre he was.
When even his fortune-telling results weren’t consistently accurate, he didn’t think he should’ve taken spell training seriously back then either.
Besides, now that he had come back from the future, even if there was a one-in-ten-thousand chance he could attain his master’s level of cultivation, he wouldn’t want it.
He was only here to improve his relationship with the sect master’s junior brother.
Qin Zheng looked around sneakily and stood up from his meditation cushion.
He had to find Qin Su.
Disciples of different cultivation levels had varying schedules for training, so Qin Su might not be cultivating at the moment.
“Qin Su!”
Qin Zheng pushed open the door to Qin Su’s room but found it empty—and so neatly arranged it looked like no one had ever lived there.
Puzzled, he backed out of the room.
Tianque Sect was huge, and not knowing where Qin Su had gone, Qin Zheng began wandering aimlessly around the sect in hopes of bumping into him.
Even if he didn’t find Qin Su, running into Qin Shuang would do.
He would definitely know where Qin Su was.
However, things rarely go as one wishes.
The first person Qin Zheng ran into was Qin Ke.
Seeing someone suddenly appear in the once-empty corridor, Qin Zheng frowned in irritation and decided to ignore him and walk straight past.
But Qin Ke had clearly noticed him too, and a mocking smile crept onto his face.
“Junior Brother Qin Zheng, isn’t it training time for first-tier disciples right now?”
“Looks like even you have given up on yourself.”
Qin Zheng sighed and looked at him, saying, “Relax, I’m not competing with you for the sect master’s position.”
Qin Ke sneered. “Still no self-awareness, huh?” He leaned in and said coldly, “What makes you think you’re even qualified to compete with me?”
With that, Qin Ke brushed past him smugly.
Qin Zheng stared after him in confusion.
Wasn’t that grudge a bit much? All this fuss just over the position of sect master’s first disciple?
He shrugged innocently, then turned and walked in the opposite direction.
After rounding a corner, he spotted a five-year-old child walking toward him not far ahead.
Just one look, and he knew—it was Qin Su, only a bit more grown-up than the last time he’d seen him.
But when Qin Su saw him, he frowned and quickly turned into a side corridor without saying a word.
Qin Zheng stared in confusion at the boy disappearing around the corner.
Was that Qin Su? Why did he look at me like that?
“Senior Brother?”
A voice called from behind.
“Senior Brother, why are you wandering around instead of cultivating again?”
Only Qin Shuang would greet him so enthusiastically.
Qin Zheng turned around and sure enough—it was the familiar face of Qin Shuang. He had shed his childishness and now looked more composed and mature.
Qin Zheng smiled and said, “I’m looking for Qin Su.”
At the mention of the youngest disciple, Qin Shuang frowned in clear disapproval.
“Senior Brother, why are you bullying Qin Su again?”
Qin Zheng widened his eyes and snapped, “Which ear of yours heard me say I was going to bully him?”
Qin Shuang looked at his senior brother curiously. “Every time you see Qin Su, you bully him. If you’re looking for him now, what else could it be for?”
“Don’t tell me... you want to apologize?”
As he finished, Qin Shuang was amused by his own guess and chuckled.
Qin Zheng stared at him in shock, thinking he must’ve misheard.
But after a moment of reflection, he realized... it might actually be true.
Qin Zheng remembered that, in the past, he had liked to bully the youngest disciple in Tianque Sect—Qin Su.
Which meant that, aside from the periods when his future self traveled back, Qin Su had been continually bullied by his younger self?
Oh god!
Qin Zheng immediately grabbed a nearby column in the corridor and started banging his head against it.
No wonder Qin Su turned around and left the moment he saw him earlier—so he already hated him!
Suddenly, as if something struck him, Qin Zheng let go of the column and looked at Qin Shuang seriously.
“Where is Qin Su living now?”
Qin Shuang couldn’t help but laugh. “Senior Brother, are you still half-asleep? Qin Su moved to the little wooden house in the bamboo forest two years ago—said it was so he could focus on his cultivation.”
“But I think it’s more likely because he didn’t want to see you.”
Though he didn’t want to admit it, Qin Zheng silently nodded in agreement.
Yeah, I think so too.
Limply waving his hand, Qin Zheng said to Qin Shuang, “Carry on, I need some time alone.”
As Qin Zheng left, Qin Shuang watched his senior brother’s retreating figure with a puzzled look. Today, Senior Brother really seemed... different.
But as strange as it was, there was also something vaguely familiar about him.
Qin Zheng followed the corridor all the way into the bamboo forest.
Even if Qin Su hated him, he still had to do what needed to be done.
Besides, he believed this situation wasn’t beyond saving.
After all, even if he had only been kind to Qin Su for one month, Qin Su had still honored their agreement and delivered silver to him later—despite being bullied afterward.
Maybe the longer he was kind to Qin Su during this short window, the better things would be for him when he returned to the future.
From a distance, Qin Zheng saw the little wooden house where Qin Su lived.
It looked pretty nice—definitely better than the disciple housing.
The fact that the sect master had allowed such a special request showed just how much importance he placed on Qin Su.
Qin Zheng slowly and cautiously approached the house, guessing how close he could get before Qin Su would sense him.
If he remembered correctly, the threshold was about five meters.
“What are you doing here?”
The sudden voice startled Qin Zheng badly.
When he looked up, he saw Qin Su standing at the door. He didn’t know when he had gotten there, but now he stood there frowning, clearly on guard.
Qin Zheng had only come to scout things out and hadn’t expected to run into Qin Su so soon. He hadn’t even figured out what to say yet.
In the end, he forced out a stiff line: “I came to apologize.”
Qin Su remained unmoved, his face still guarded, and his tone distant.
“I’ll try my best to avoid appearing in front of you from now on.”
With that, Qin Su turned and retreated back into the house.
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