Xilin’s Notes

Deep within Rustwater Lane, inside a dim shack.

Xilin sat sullenly on a small, creaking wooden stool, her little face set, her emerald tail swatting the ground impatiently with soft “thwack, thwack” sounds.

Her mind was completely filled with the image of Mr. Xia Ya’s swift refusal and his retreating back in the academy’s alley that afternoon.

Tikona, having just finished her day of odd jobs, saw her sister’s “at-war-with-the-world” expression the moment she walked in.

Wiping the sweat from her cheeks and neck with a towel, she leaned in curiously. “Yo, what’s wrong with our little Xilin today? Did someone in the alley make you angry? Tell your big sister, I’ll go roast them to a crisp!”

She habitually brandished a fist.

Xilin looked up at her sister’s concerned face, and a mix of grievance and stubbornness welled up, bursting out of her.

“It was Mr. Xia Ya!”

“Who?!”

Tikona’s towel-wiping motion froze instantly.

“Xia Ya von Wolfgang?! He bullied you?! Where is he?! I’m going right now to…”

She started to reach for the ‘Heart Scorcher’ leaning against the wall.

“No! Sister!”

Xilin quickly jumped up and grabbed Tikona’s arm. “He didn’t bully me! He… he saved me!”

“Saved you?” Tikona’s anger was instantly replaced by confusion. She stopped, staring at her sister. “What happened? Explain it clearly!”

Xilin recounted the entire afternoon’s events, from being chased by Isabella in the library, to being rescued by Xia Ya’s miraculous spatial magic in her moment of desperation, and finally to her request to become his disciple being rejected.

“…Mr. Xia Ya is so amazing! I was in a different place in a flash! And when he covered my mouth, it didn’t hurt at all! He even called the person chasing me a ‘turkey’… Sister, he’s really not as bad as you said! He…”

“Stop, stop, stop!”

Tikona’s frown deepened the more she listened, especially when she heard her sister’s gushing admiration for that guy. She felt an inexplicable tightness in her chest, as if a precious treasure of hers was being coveted (even if that treasure was her own sister).

“Xilin! Don’t be fooled by him! That guy is the best at putting on an act! He was just like that in the association hall! A face full of hypocrisy! And what happened? In the blink of an eye, he used spatial magic to run away with Beilixiya! He’s incredibly cunning! He saved you? Who knows what kind of scheme he’s plotting now!”

“That’s not true!”

Xilin, for a rare moment, loudly retorted, her small face flushed with agitation. “Mr. Xia Ya is just amazing! His magic is just incredible! He… he’s just a good person! His refusal… he must have had his reasons! Maybe… maybe spatial magic really is dangerous?” She tried her best to defend Xia Ya.

“Dangerous? Hmph! I think he just looks down on us! Thinks we’re from the slums and not worthy of learning his noble magic!”

Tikona fumed, hands on her hips. “Xilin, listen to your sister, stay away from that young master! He’s not from our world! A noble young master like him is full of schemes! Sister Beilixiya is so nice, but he controls her so tightly, he wouldn’t even let me touch her tail! A person like that…”

“You don’t understand at all, sister!”

Xilin grew frantic, tears welling up in her emerald eyes. “Mr. Xia Ya isn’t like that! I… I don’t want to argue with you anymore!” She turned away abruptly, unwilling to hear any more of her sister’s slander against Xia Ya.

She needed to calm down, and more importantly, she needed to review the new knowledge she had “stolen” from the library today to soothe her mood.

She walked to her small sleeping corner and fumbled under the hidden pocket in her chest—her precious magic notebook was hidden there.

Fumbling… and fumbling again…

It was empty!

Xilin’s face turned deathly pale in an instant! She frantically lifted the entire straw mat beneath her and rummaged through the pile of junk beside it.

Nothing! It was nowhere!

Her notebook, the one that recorded all her self-taught insights, all her magical ideas, the one she treasured as her own life… was gone!

Losing the notebook was like losing a part of her soul.

“Sob… my notebook… my notebook is gone!”

Xilin couldn’t hold back any longer. She squatted on the ground, hugging her knees, and began to cry, her small body trembling violently with fear and despair.

Seeing her sister suddenly break down and cry, Tikona was startled, the argument completely forgotten. She quickly knelt down and hugged her sister. “Xilin? What’s wrong? What notebook? Don’t cry, don’t cry! Tell sister!”

Wolfgang Estate, Xia Ya’s living room.

Xia Ya lay lazily on his side on a chaise lounge covered with a thick velvet blanket, his head resting on a soft cushion.

Beilixiya knelt on the carpet beside him, her expression focused, holding an earpick with a clean cotton tip.

“Young Master, please don’t move.”

Beilixiya’s voice was as soft as a feather. “There seems to be a little something on the left side…”

Xia Ya squinted his eyes comfortably, enjoying the rare moment of tranquility and Beilixiya’s meticulous service.

The cotton swab entered his ear canal gently, bringing a subtle itch and a rustling sound that was incredibly relaxing.

“Beilixiya, do you remember when you first came to the manor?”

“You were so small and thin, like a malnourished kitten, timidly looking at everyone. If I gave you a piece of bread, you’d hide half of it, afraid you wouldn’t have anything for the next meal.”

Beilixiya’s movements paused for a moment, the corners of her mouth turning up slightly as her touch grew even gentler. “Mmm… I remember. I was… very scared back then. It was the Young Master… who gave me food, a place to live, and… and helped me chase away the bad kids who wanted to pull my tail.”

Those were a few young noble masters who wanted to tease her, but were driven off with mud balls by a young Xia Ya who was already showing his “hell-raiser” potential.

“Haha, those guys, they took a detour whenever they saw you after that.”

Xia Ya laughed too. “Back then, you wouldn’t even let me help you clean your scales, you’d hide in a corner and wipe them with cold water, shivering from the cold…”

Beilixiya’s cheeks flushed slightly as she mumbled, “…I didn’t… know any better back then.”

She certainly knew now that the Young Master cared for her, but the instinctive shyness and wariness of a new environment as a child had made her instinctively resist any moment of “exposure.”

The two chatted idly about past anecdotes, a warm atmosphere flowing through the room.

Beilixiya carefully finished cleaning Xia Ya’s left ear and was about to switch to the right.

“Ah, that’s right, Young Master.”

She stopped as if she had suddenly remembered something and reached into the pocket of her apron.

“I found this when I was handing out flyers at the academy this afternoon.” She took out the rough parchment notebook and handed it to Xia Ya. “I don’t know who dropped it, but it looks… like a notebook?”

Xia Ya took it casually, his gaze falling on the cover. A rough texture, simple binding… he nonchalantly opened the first page.

Xia Ya’s nonchalant expression froze instantly! He shot upright, the movement so sudden it nearly knocked over Beilixiya who was cleaning his ear!

He flipped through the notebook rapidly, his shock growing with every page! He had just seen this notebook in someone else’s hands today. Wasn’t this the thing Xilin treasured more than her own life?