Chapter 557 - Something happened
They went back and stayed there for a night and updated Sima You Lin and the others about their lives in the sect. They came back on the morning of the second day. Bei Gong Tang and the others headed to class directly while she went to ask how to get to the library. After a few twists and turns, she finally reached after walking for half an hour.
When she saw that rather worn down building, she really wanted to curse. The sect was so rich, so why couldn’t they maintain the library a little better?
She entered the library and initially thought that the outside was worn down but the inside would be much better maintained. At the very least, it should be different from the collection of books she had in the general’s residence.
Who would have thought that it would be exactly the same upon entering. It was worn down and yellowed with tattered books. Only the books on the higher shelves were a little better off.
Sima You Yue saw the aged marks on the books, and was rather curious about how long this library had been around for.
It could be due to the fact that everyone had gone to class, that the library was rather empty. There were only a few handfuls of students here and there.
When she entered the door, there was an old desk in the corner. There was also a worn out rocking chair behind the table. An old man rested upon that rocking char.
This should be the guard that Wu Lingyu reminded her to show some respect to? He seemed like an ordinary old man.
Just as she was appraising him, the other party opened his eyes.
“New student?”
“Yes.”
“Place your name plate down and enter.” The old man closed his eyes after speaking.
Sima You Yue recalled the name plate that her direct instructor had given her when she first reported, and placed it on the table before heading inside. After taking two steps in, she came back and ask, “May I ask, where the medicinal books are kept?”
The old man opened his eyes and sized her up, saying, “The area at the back of the third floor. And the area behind the fifth floor.”
The bottom three levels of the library contained your average books. They were arranged based on how often one would come to use them, and thus, the medicinal books were placed at the very last position on the top floor. The fourth and fifth levels contained the more rare and uncommon books, and were arranged as such. Medicinal books were also arranged at the back of that.
“Thank you.” She said as she headed to the third floor via one of the corner staircases.
After heading to the area containing the medicinal books, she carefully selected some of them. Hugging them to her, she went to the door on the first floor.
“I want to borrow these books.” She placed the books on the table as she spoke.
That old man stood up slowly. When Sima You Yue saw him like this, she wondered when the chair would finally fall apart and cause him to tumble.
Thinking about this, she couldn’t help but smirk.
The old man glanced at her and she immediately wiped the grin off her face. He looked over at the books she brought one by one, and took out two books from the pile, returning the rest to her.
“You can’t take these two books out of the library. Apart from that, everyone can only borrow five books at a time.”
So there were actually books that she couldn’t take outside with her. However, she took a look at those two books, and they were taken from the very last shelf. She recalled how those shelves were of a different colour from the others. It could be that the books up there couldn’t be taken out of the library.
“This is your token. Keep it well, you may leave.” The old man said when he saw Sima You Yue in deep thought.
“Do I not need to place these two books back?” She asked.
“Can you find their original placement?”
“I still remember it.”
“Then, go ahead.”
Sima You Yue took those two books and headed upstairs. That old man’s eyebrows trembled excitedly when he saw that she had found their original placements after a few turns.
The library was huge, and on their first time here, most people would get lost and wander about this place like a maze. However, she actually remembered where the books were placed after just one time. This was a huge shock to him.
Very quickly, she placed the books back and saw that the old man had laid down to rest again with his eyes closed without a care for the world. She took the books on the table, as well as her own name plate before leaving. When she walked out of the library, she still turned around and glanced at the old man. She didn’t feel that there was anything special about him, so why did Wu Lingyu specially remind her of this?
When she came back, she looked for Wu Lingyu and asked him. Wu Lingyu said faintly, “When did I saw that he was a weird old man or anything like that?”
“Didn’t you tell me to treat him with a bit more respect? Isn’t it because he has a bad temper or anything like that?” She asked with wide eyes.
Wu Lingyu saw the way she was acting and could not help to rap her on the forehead, saying, “I asked you to treat him with respect because his influence is rather high. He has been here longer than others, so he is worthy of respect.”
Sima You Yue was speechless. It turned out that she had misunderstood him.
“If we’re speaking of a weird old man, the one with the worst temper would be our master. Actually, the old man in the inner sect is weird too.” Wu Lingyu said.
“The old man in the inner sect? Who is that?” Sima You Yue asked curiously.
Wu Lingyu’s expression when he spoke about the old man was rather weird. This gave her a feeling that something was off. That year, when he was in the sect, he must have fallen into the hands of this old man.
Seeing Sima You Yue’s excited expression, Wu Lingyu’s eyes shone unnaturally, saying, “If you have the chance to enter the inner sect in the future, you will know. If you don’t manage to enter, it will be useless even if I tell you. You should read your books properly.”
Sima You Yue knew that it would be impossible to pry any information out of him. Once she managed to enter the inner sect, she would definitely ask about it.
Seeing that she couldn’t get anything out of him, she started to read her books. With Wu Lingyu around, she could enter the spirit pagoda to read without worry and save quite a bit of time.
As such, five days later, Sima You Yue went to the library again. She wanted to return the five books and borrow another five.
“You’ve finished reading it all?” The old man had some recollection of Sima You Yue, and never thought that she would be back to return these books so quickly.
Sima You Yue placed the other five books on the table and said, “I’m done reading them.”
The old man didn’t say anything as he let her borrow another give books. She came back five days later to return them.
Today, she was in the spirit pagoda reading the book when she felt a bit tired and was just planning to rest when LIttle Spirit told her that Wu Lingyu was looking for her, so she went out. The moment she went out, she saw Wu Lingyu come in from the outside.
“What’s up?”
“Your fourth brother is hurt.” Wu Lingyu replied.
“Fourth Bro is hurt? How did he get hurt?” Sima You Yue asked anxiously.
“He got in a fight with others and was wounded.” Wu LIngyu said, “Because it happened after class, the teachers usually wouldn’t care.”
What he meant was that they would not bother about this incident.
“I got it. I’ll go take a look at my fourth bro.” After speaking, she disappeared in a flash.
Sima You Le was currently lying on the bed. Bei Gong Tang had already given him a few pills to heal his wounds. However, his injuries were harsh and couldn’t heal immediately.
A group of people surrounded the house, and the atmosphere was heavy. Bei Gong Tang stood up and said, “I’m going to kill them!”
Ouyang Fei, who was beside her, grabbed her, saying, “They’re just waiting for us to go right now! Wouldn’t you be walking right into their trap if you headed there now?”