Chapter 12: 12: Freeloading Sure Is Nice…

Songmei disembarked the shuttle with Liu Xueli after Liu Xueli had bade farewell to the elder she was talking to. Out of the shuttle, Songmei stood there like an awkward penguin as she looked around, marveling at the wooden station that had walls and ceiling that seemed to be woven out of wood. A thin layer of snow covered the ground, but at the same time, sunlight shone through the roof, providing light but no heat. 

She had read about why the sun didn’t provide as much heat farther north, but in her head, Songmei always just chalked it up to the sun being lazy... 

Songmei plodded along behind Liu Xueli. Songmei thought that her back really wasn’t cut out for this type of movement, she had just wrecked it a few days prior!

‘It’s fine Songmei, you got this. If Liu Xueli is ‘young’ and ‘hip’, you’re a baby that hasn’t even been born yet!’ 

“So a series of bridges connects these floating islands,” Liu Xueli explained, pointing to a sign that gave directions while also nodding her chin towards a distant bridge. “There’s some temporary housing over across that bridge so that’s where we’re going. You’ll live there until you move in with an elder.” 

Picking up her pace behind Liu Xueli while making sure to not drop her bags, Songmei asked while looking around at the islands. “Do all the elders live on these islands? I feel like there isn’t enough space...” 

“There isn’t, not even close, we have a lot of elders. A lotttt~ I don’t know the exact number so I’ll just say a lot.” Answered Liu Xueli as she crossed the bridge, making a right turn towards a small complex of buildings, “So, to give a little more context, the most important elders live on some floating islands, people like me who are the head of a place. Other elders live on the peak or near the peak of those mountains that surround us.” 

Songmei nodded along, Liu Xueli dropped a lot of random useful information at the weirdest times. Pushing open a door, Songmei gave a murmur of acknowledgement to show she was listening as Liu Xueli walked in, looking for an open room that Songmei could use while continuing her little spiel. 

“Then, direct disciples, like what you’ll be, will live with their assigned elder. Inner disciples live on the mountains and nearer to the peaks while outer disciples live at the bases of the mountains.” 

Opening the door to a room that was marked unused, Liu Xueli let Songmei in while finishing up her little explanation with a flourish. 

“All the places people live in are quite good, obviously, they’d have to be since we’re the number one sect, but there’s still a lot of traffic to the middle islands with people coming to use the facilities here. There are many things like training fields, practice rooms, and meditation rooms over there, but, for example, there’s only one divine repository, and it’s over there.” 

Chuckling, Liu Xueli pointed to a tall building a little ways away outside the window, “That place! It’s really nice, trust me. Now, though, I’ll help you get unpacked real quick, but I can’t stay for long, I have some business to attend to.” 

Songmei dropped her bags to the ground. Around her was a nice room. Really nice. It was probably around 4 times the size of her last room, if not bigger. The room was empty except for a cabinet, bed, and door to a connected bathroom. 

To start with, the cabinet was... alright, Songmei didn’t know how cabinet’s worked but it seemed well-made. The bed though... It was so big! It looked so soft! It was worth salivating over... Songmei had never seen a bed so big in her life, not even on Live, the video streaming service that everyone used. 

Lastly... a connected bathroom!!

Songmei had used a shared bathroom her whole life, and in this temporary living space she got her own! Temporarily!! What luxury... she could go use the restroom as late as she wanted now... 

Resisting the urge to tear up, Songmei set her packed bags down right next to the cabinet, handing one to Liu Xueli’s offered hand to unpack into the cabinet while she unpacked another. 

“You’re here first, by the way,” Liu Xueli informed, unpacking the bag at a speed that was... unbelievable, her hands were literally leaving afterimages! How unfair was this?! Songmei was already down to 1.5 wrists! “You’ll be staying here for about half a week I’d say? Your interview process won’t take too long. Throughout this time though, you might see some other faces of direct disciples, so you should get to know them~ it’ll be a worthwhile endeavor, I promise you!” 

“Alr-” Songmei began, only to be cut off by an alarm coming from Liu Xueli’s terminal. 

“Oh sh-... shoot,” Liu Xueli apologized, urgency appearing in her voice as she ran to the window, pulling it open. “Sorry I couldn’t stay longer! I have an important meeting in 15 seconds!” 

Jump. 

Songmei ran over to the window that Liu Xueli had jumped out of, only to be greeted by a small cloud of snow. 

‘... she’s gone?’

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Sticking her head out the window while looking around, Songmei was impressed as... Liu Xueli had disappeared. ‘How the hell did she do that... Will I be able to? Eventually?’ 

Click. 

Window now closed, Songmei continued to unpack her bags without a fuss, staring out the large windows that gave a good view of the outside. 

‘It’s really pretty...’ 

With that, Songmei settled down and the interviews were over in the blink of an eye. 

----------------

Throughout the half week, a lot had happened... 

Songmei had spent a lot of time walking around, exploring the floating islands. She was too afraid of getting on the shuttle alone for now, she didn’t want to get lost out there. 

The morning of the next day after she had arrived, Songmei had found a bundle full of clothing, each tailored to her exact size. Songmei didn’t know who it was from, how much it had cost, or how they knew her exact measurements, but she wasn’t going to complain... It was stylish, and high-quality, she’d take the free hand out that was better than anything she had before. 

Exploring after having donned some of the clothing and a pin saying that she was a direct disciple, Songmei had learnt about and memorized where a ton of different important things were. There was the Assignment Hall, the Divine Repository, the Hall of Learning, the Disciplinary Bureau, the Treasury, the Martial Pavillion, and the Public Relations Department. 

The Public Relations Department seemed out of place... After all, most of the others Songmei had read about in random cultivation novels, but a PR department was right out of a corporate business. 

Ignoring how out of place the Public Relations Department was, Songmei spent a lot of time in the Divine Repository, it was practically a library after all, getting to know the friendly, old, chubby elder who managed the place. He was really nice but Songmei never could muster up the courage to ask for his name again after she forgot it the first time... 

She also, following Liu Xueli’s advice, did a fair bit of running on the track in the martial pavilion. Running was torture. 

Other than exploring though, she talked to a few other disciples that she ran across, trying her best to get to know them and make a good first impression. 

Socializing was hard. 

Beyond talking to other disciples, Songmei also went through the interview process, talking with the sect leader along with the heads of all the elders in charge of each branch in the sect. Each talk wasn’t too bad, it was just a small talk that’d take place in their office or at the main canteen that was run on one of the floating islands. It was only through this process that she had seen the Sect Leader and Liu Xueli again, although it seemed they were both... really busy. 

Maybe she had been treating them too lightly... 

In the end, after a lot of talking and not enough time to herself, Songmei had collapsed onto her bed every night, sleeping like a dead person until she woke up in the embrace of heaven every morning... or in other words her bed. 

At the end of the hectic half-week, Songmei went to bed one last time in her temporary room, pulling fluffy blankets over herself as she clicked off the lamp beside her bed, closing her book and setting it on her nightstand. 

‘Tomorrow... tomorrow I’ll find out which elder I’m with...’ 

‘I hope they’re nice...’