The February wind carried the moisture of the Baisha River, brushed past the green willows of the Spring River, threaded through the crowd, and finally swept past the Paper Mache Shop, making the paper flowers on the funeral wreath at the door rustle.
In front of the coffin shop, the wandering wind ruffled the hair of the two people on the street, bringing a unique sense of tranquility.
A female Divination Master dressed in a robe with a cloud pattern was brimming with anticipation, waiting for the person in front of her to reply.
"You want to be my senior sister?"
Bai Qiuyu nodded eagerly.
Xu Qing smiled.
It took quite a lot of effort to keep a cat or a senior sister, not to mention if he had to take care of another one...
Even an iron-clad Zombie would be exhausted!
"I understand now."
Xu Qing kindly addressed Bai Qiuyu: "As long as you become my senior sister, then we are like family. In that case, I certainly wouldn't feel right charging Daoist Bai the funeral fees, and if Daoist Bai wants me to go to the ancestral grave to check the Feng Shui, I surely couldn't refuse, right?"
Bai Qiuyu nodded repeatedly, that's absolutely right!
"Does this mean you agree?"
"Who is your junior brother?" Xu Qing's smile instantly disappeared: "You want to be my senior sister to take advantage of me and still have me help you unconditionally, eat and take as you please, and you expect me to agree?"
If word got out, those who knew would think he gained a senior sister, those who didn't might think he was worshiping an ancestor!
He didn't owe Qingqiu any favors; there were no dealings, so how could he agree easily?
"Fine, don't agree if you don't want to, I'm not begging here, no need to talk so harshly."
Bai Qiuyu felt a bit frustrated, but then she uttered surprisingly: "If I can't be a senior sister, doing something else would be fine too! As long as you're willing to help me, I could even..."
"Even what?"
Xu Qing took a step back, cautiously watching the female Divination Master who seemed to have made some kind of decision.
"Even become Daoist Xu's junior sister, that's fine too!"
Great! Still trying to eat and take without return.
Xu Qing felt relieved while casting a sidelong glance at Bai Qiuyu with some annoyance and changed the topic: "Your divination robe, it should be made by the embroiderer, right?"
"Eh? How did you figure that out?"
"Heh, I wear clothes made by the embroiderer often, I can naturally tell with her craftsmanship. With this fabric and workmanship, there's nowhere better in the Jin Sect!"
Bai Qiuyu laughed: "I also think this divination robe looks nice."
"Nice, indeed. How much silver coins did you spend on it?"
"Didn't buy it!" Bai Qiuyu honestly said: "The embroiderer noticed my old robe was too worn, so she specially made this one for me without asking for silver!"
Xu Qing raised an eyebrow and said: "It's justified that the embroiderer volunteered to make you a robe for free, but I was the one funding for these top-notch fine silk fabrics."
"This outfit, judging by the style, seems made of Yunjin Guibu, the bagua pattern obviously fringed with gold thread satin, and those cloud-like shoes must be made of woven brocade, altogether this ensemble must have cost at least fifty taels of silver!"
Xu Qing roughly calculated and concluded: "Forty-five taels for funeral fees plus these fifty for fabric expenses, let me give you a discount, making it a round one hundred taels. As for your ten-year consumption in the coffin shop, consider it charity for fellow wanderers..."
"..."
Bai Qiuyu's eyes went blank, how did the debt suddenly add up to so much silver?
"Then I'll take off the clothes and return them to you!"
These days, without stealing or cheating, how many years would she have to tell fortunes at the bridge to pay back this money?
Seeing the female Divination Master about to undress in broad daylight, Xu Qing immediately stopped her:
"Who would want to wear clothes you've worn?"
She can't wear clothes, can't take them off either?
Bai Qiuyu was truly panicked; isn't this bullying an honest fox!
Xu Qing, appearing to have anticipated this, soothingly calculated aloud: "You charge ten coins for a divination, three times a day makes thirty coins, in a year you could save ten taels, so going by this, you can pay it off in ten years. Ten years, to a demon, is just a blink of an eye..."
Bai Qiuyu's eyes widened, her fox-like seductive eyes losing their captivating charm.
The worldly delicacies are so delicious, the small trinkets sold on the street so enticing, how could she resist buying?
After ten years, she has not accrued one hundred taels of silver, being debt-free would be a miracle!
The so-called 'lamb-debt' refers to usury going around these days.
Bai Qiuyu breathed heavily: "Our way of cultivation follows the path of karma; we read fortunes and divinations for a few coins not to earn money but rather to settle karma through transactions."
"I at most charge five coins for a divination, sometimes exchanging divinations for items, like reading fortune for a beggar for a mere steamed bun."
"How could I repay a debt of one hundred taels?"
Xu Qing glanced at Bai Qiuyu, who was nearly in tears.
Regardless if it's Qingqiu fox, Tushan fox, or ordinary Fox Demon, all foxes in the world need to rely on the intangible word 'karma' to attain their true form.
Moreover, constrained by heavenly laws, you are required to cultivate good karma. It's not that cultivating bad karma won't lead to the Way, but bad karma is ultimately unpresentable, not favored by the gods of the heavens.
For instance, the old vixen of Baiyun Cave cultivates bad karma!
Coming from Qingqiu or Tushan are not wild foxes after all, they are of respectable lineage and virtuous family, even in cultivating their main path, they are inclined towards altruism, forming good connections.
Now, between Xu Qing and Bai Qiuyu, unintentionally, karma has been tied, only this karma's good or evil remains undetermined, still in a chaotic stage.
Bai Qiuyu clearly realized this point; otherwise, she wouldn't have spoken of wanting to be his senior sister.
Xu Qing pondered momentarily, unable to turn a blind eye to the potential extinction of a Qingqiu Nine-tailed Fox legacy.