As she fussed about, Qiu Yunru learned that the old woman's name was Qin Shan. She sat him down in a chair in one of the upper rooms of the inn and forced him to put on some clean grey robes with blue embroidery.
"They belonged to my dear son! He passed away just a few years ago--you two were just alike, so messy and always causing a scene. Wear them well!"
"Ah...Doesn't Miss Qin have something else I can wear...?"
She slapped the back of his head. "When kindness is offered to you, don't reject it! Idiot boy! No wonder you're a street kid!"
What was that supposed to mean? Wasn't he being reasonable? Qiu Yunru couldn't help but feel like he was pulling on coffin clothes! How had he somehow been relegated to son-like status after one underhanded favor? Maybe the game was trying to make up for the shit sword reward by giving him easy connections...
If so, he really didn't want this kind of thing!
Qiu Yunru had always been the solitary type. Though he enjoyed having friends, due to his illness, his life was fraught with fainting landmines and surprise headaches. It had always been safest and most peaceful to just hole up in his room and rest. At least then he could crawl into his bed whenever a migraine hit--what were you supposed to do if you were in the middle of Nanjing road and fell over? He never wanted to cause a scene. Because of these limitations, he'd grown to prefer being alone.
Now that he was in a body that didn't have the same problems, he was set on living a peaceful, solitary life. No need to make connections along the way--he'd cultivate to immortality and then wander happily for the rest of his days. He'd much rather run off with torn clothes and a shitty sword than be burdened by this lady's hope that he'd take the place of her son!
But in addition to having a strong attraction to a solitary lifestyle, Qiu Yunru had never had much energy to argue. Thus, he shut his mouth, swallowed his sighs, and pulled on the robes.
Qin Shan imprisoned him in the room for over an hour, bringing a basin to wash his hair, scrubbing his face, brushing out tangles. All the while, she gossiped about some happenings nearby to the market. Qiu Yunru recognized that this was exposition right away--now that there was no current quest, this NPC had been tasked with giving him a brief lay of the land.
"Cultivators always think they're so lofty. Who do they think they are?! Just because they have a sword and a title, they think they can walk all over us common folk!" Qin Shan's brushing became more forceful as she ranted, and Qiu Yunru winced. She went on: "In Jin He city, that stuck-up sect something-or-other...White Clouds Sect? Jade Heaven Sect? Bah, who cares! They've started a recruitment process to gather young men and women as disciples for the next generation. Degenerates! Trying to steal our children away with promises of lofty dreams. I can't stand them!" She pulled aggressively on his head, and tears sprung to Qiu Yunru's eyes. He held them in, biting his cheek. If this woman joined a battle sect, surely everyone would fear her violence!
Her vagueness around the name of the sect wasn't surprising. Since every sect in each play through was newly generated, they always had names of this nature--Blue River Sect, Green Mountain Sect, Red Lotus Sect, blah, blah, blah...Infinite combinations of a color + an object of nature, and you had a perfectly good Spring Blossoms, Autumn Fruits sect name.
At last, Qin Shan was done with him. Beaming with pride, she pulled out a bronze mirror and set it on the desk so that he could take a look at himself. "My hand never fails to reveal a good face! Look! Though, your face is rather feminine..."
Qiu Yunru turned his face this way and that. For once, his heart didn't wilt. In fact, he was quite satisfied.
Though he wasn't particularly stunning, he had to say that he had a good face. It was slim, with smooth skin pale like jade. His dark eyebrows arched gracefully, and his nose had an elegant slope. It was true that his looks were rather feminine for a man--less handsome, more pretty. But he was still masculine enough. His hair, which had been tied back by Qin Shan, was long and black, shining in the afternoon light from the window. Judging by the softness of his face, he had to be sixteen or seventeen at the oldest, but his eyes were cool and knowledgeable. In all, he had a pleasant appearance.
Qin Shan buzzed around him, looking at him from this angle and that. "I suppose young girls these days do like the pretty type...Though it didn't used to be like that. Anyways, you'll do just fine, boy! You'll be able to marry a beautiful girl in the future." She patted him on the shoulder like a mother patting her son and praising his handsomeness. Qiu Yunru sighed internally.
I'm a stranger, not your son...
In the end, Qin Shan eagerly offered him a room to stay the night in, insisting he stay off the street. Specifically, her son's old room. Qiu Yunru finally put his foot down and made an excuse about having a friend to meet in the next city over. He hastily left after making sure to pay respects at the shrine in her son's old room.
This humble one is sorry for taking your robes! I really tried to get different ones from your mother...Please don't haunt me...!
With some buns wrapped in a cloth and his new shitty sword in hand, Qiu Yunru set off towards this Jin He City. If he wanted to live a peaceful life here, he would need to grow strong. Spring Blossoms, Autumn Fruits was fraught with ghosts, demons, and bosses of all types. If you didn't balance your stats and work hard to grow your cultivation and martial aspects, you would surely die. Who knew what would happen to him then?
This White-Cloud-Jade-Heaven Sect would be a place where he could learn to fight. Then, one day, he could finally live his peaceful life!