Chapter 4
After eating a rather sumptuous dinner, at least the dishes were styles Li Shiyin had never seen before.
Qin Ran cleaned up the bowls and chopsticks, then went back to the living room to see Li Shiyin sitting on the sofa contemplating life.
This young girl had a cold face and profound eyes, looking quite crafty. As Qin Ran looked at her, his mind was in a mess.
It had been five years since his master passed away. He had lived alone on Dan Peak, not to say carefree and happy, but indeed free and comfortable. And now suddenly there was an extra person, who looked quite crafty...
He was not good at dealing with such unexpected changes. Fortunately she was a pretty girl, so he could tolerate her more.
Hmm? No, not a girl, a disciple, a female disciple.
A female disciple?
Qin Ran started to feel troubled again. A disciple meant he had to teach her cultivation, but he himself was only at the Foundation Establishment Stage, so how could he teach others cultivation?
Oh well...he could only take it one step at a time.
"It's getting late, go take a bath and rest!" He walked over and said to Li Shiyin, "We'll talk about cultivation tomorrow."
Li Shiyin looked over to him and nodded with a cold face.
Looking at her cold face, Qin Ran sighed in his heart again. With such a cold and crafty female disciple, how should he handle his life from now on?
"Come, upstairs." He beckoned Li Shiyin and walked towards the stairs, "The bedroom is upstairs."
The stairs leading upstairs were in front of the living room on the left, next to the door to the kitchen. The stairs turned twice, with a wooden shoe rack on the landing of the first flight, with various styles of shoes on it.
Qin Ran walked in front, when he reached the bottom of the stairs, the light in the stairwell automatically turned on. He saw the shoe rack and went to grab a pair of slippers.
Li Shiyin followed behind him. When she stepped into the stairwell, the lights in the living room suddenly went out, giving her a shock. She turned back alertly.
Qin Ran got up with the slippers, looked back and saw her reaction, and explained, "Don't be afraid, that's a motion sensor light."
"Motion sensor light?" Li Shiyin frowned, a strange term she had never heard before.
"Yes, a motion sensor light. It's actually a kind of motion detection magic array. When it detects someone, the light turns on," Qin Ran explained, "It's a magic array."
Magic array? This Li Shiyin could understand. Although she didn't know magic arrays, she knew cultivators had such magical abilities.
"In my opinion, circuit diagrams are very similar to magic array diagrams..." Qin Ran paused. He remembered there were no circuits in this world. The world with electricity was too far away. He smiled and said, "Never mind, forget what I just said."
At the top of the stairs was a narrow hallway. Directly facing the stairs was a transparent door. The room inside was opposite the living room. Through the door one could see it had a large space, furnished with all kinds of strange things.
Walking left along the hallway led to the upstairs stairs, to the rooftop it seemed, since the house had no third floor.
Walking right along the hallway led to Qin Ran's study and bathroom, opposite the downstairs kitchen. The study door was at the end of the hallway, and the bathroom door was on the right.
Qin Ran took Li Shiyin towards the bathroom. Lights automatically turned on along the way.
"You must have noticed the upstairs space is much larger than downstairs." Qin Ran had a hint of pride on his face as he smiled and spoke to Li Shiyin.
"Oh? Is it?" Li Shiyin asked in her mind, as she hadn't paid much attention, but didn't ask out loud.
"This is a Heaven and Earth magic array." Qin Ran explained on his own, "Actually there's also one downstairs, but that one I set up when I first learned, so the expanded space is very small and not obvious. The one upstairs is more noticeable."
The Heaven and Earth array involved space manipulation, very difficult to comprehend and set up, definitely not something a Foundation Establishment cultivator could do. That was why Qin Ran was proud.
Though... he was winking at a blind person here. Li Shiyin didn't understand any of this.
"This is the clothes dryer...a combination of heating and wind arrays... " The clothes dryer was on a waist-high platform outside the bathroom. All the way, Qin Ran had been explaining everything in detail to Li Shiyin. Entering the bathroom, he said, "Touch here with your hand for hot water, touch there for cold water. The boxes here contain shampoo, shower gel and laundry detergent. Just press to dispense."
"What arrays are these?" Li Shiyin asked.
"These aren't arrays, they are...some physics basics, atmospheric pressure and such..." Qin Ran said. "Try them yourself. I'll go get you a change of clothes."
He turned and left the bathroom, walked along the hallway, and entered the strangely furnished room.
Watching her master's departing back, Li Shiyin felt it was all so magical... Were all masters this amazing and incredible, or was it just hers?
Curiously she fiddled with the various designs in the bathroom, touching here, pressing there. The shower head alternated between hot and cold water. Her hands were soon covered in slippery gel.
When Qin Ran returned with the clothes, he happened to see the stony-faced Li Shiyin messing around wet and sticky in the bathroom like a naughty child.
Hmm...he suddenly felt perhaps her stony face was not cold, but blank, wooden, dumb...silly.
"There haven't been female disciples at Dan Peak for many years, no disciples at all. No women's clothes, so just make do with mine for now, we'll figure it out later." He shook his head and said as he walked over, "If you can sew, we can just buy some fabric. If not, we'll go to the Butler Hall to order custom-made clothes."
Hearing Qin Ran's voice, Li Shiyin hurriedly stopped and turned around. Seeing Qin Ran walk over with clothes, she quickly hid her hands behind her back, just like a little girl caught doing something wrong.
Qin Ran didn't scold her, but went straight to put the clothes in the laundry basket, then turned to leave. Halfway out, he added, "Wash up first... Oh, lock the door like this, you can lock it from the inside... After your bath, best to wash your clothes too, and put them in the dryer. They'll be dry by tomorrow morning."
After these instructions, he entered the study and closed the door.
Li Shiyin's face flushed ever so slightly in the bathroom. She quickly shut the bathroom door, fiddled around for a good while longer to satisfy her curiosity, before finally starting her bath.
She bathed, then as Qin Ran had told her, washed her clothes and put them in the dryer. Seeing the dryer automatically heating up and blowing air, she marveled again at how magical it was. She walked forward, turned and pushed open the study door, and saw her new incredible master hunched over the desk by the window, writing and drawing.