Tang San's Twin Sister-Chapter 216

Tang Yin felt antsy all day, her nose buried in books as more and more piled up on her side. As she closed up another one and sighed. Glancing at the mountain on her side that was about to tilt over, and the light of the day filtering in through the window. Oh damn, she had been here the entire night.

"You should maybe consider sleeping," Jiang said, leaning against the door as she grumbled and rose from the chair.

"I should maybe, but did someone bring me something to eat?" She asked him, and he huffed as he held up a bag of snacks. "Never leave your girlfriend hungry is a lesson I learned early." He said, and she grinned as she took it from him and skipped through the hallway.

"No running on the hallways." Tang Yuehua shouted from the other side, looking at her as she grinned and waved, amused by her niece's antics. "You are too old for that," she commented, and Tang Yin shouted back.

"Still eighteen, so technically a teenager."

"Yes, in your imagination." Tang Yuehua shouted back, and Tang Yin did as she asked, slowing down and walking, with Jiang rising one of his elegant bows towards a woman who seemed to be somehow fixated on them as if wanting to remember where she had seen them before that crossed their path. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

The others encountered were more familiar, greeting him and Yin alike, especially Xue Ke, the princess of the Heaven Dou empire, who was most fascinated with him, and greeted Jiang, who randomly attended lessons with Yin whenever fancy struck him, enthusiastically from a window.

Everyone, by now, had realized that Tang Yin was Tang Yuehua's niece, and here, due to their family relationship. Jiang was her plus-one, but aside from his status as a powerful spirit master, no one knew anything about him. No family name, no origin, nothing, just a huge imposing mountain of a man with old-fashioned manners.

It was no secret that many of the girls found him very curious and crushed on him. Yin giggled at the thought, admitting she found it somewhat flattering that he was all hers.

"Have you found anything?" Tang Yuehua asked them, and Tang Yin shook her head.

"No."

"I am sorry that our library does not seem to hold the answers you are seeking," she sighed. "I scoured the archives, but still I found nothing that sounded like it might help."

"It's fine, I always knew it was a possibility that there was no solution." She said, smiling, before looking into the lake. "I think I will go train a bit. If knowledge can’t fix it, I can always try to brute force it."

"You should sleep more, or maybe at last spend more time with Jiang." Tang Yuehua told her. "You are so focused that he seems lonely; you need to make time for him as well." Yin wanted to tell her Aunt that Jiang's life hung in the balance, his death a giant sword of Damocles over her head, but she couldn't without revealing her secrets, telling the woman too much about who she was and what would happen, so she merely smiled.

"I will, don't worry." She assured Tang Yuehua when Jiang placed his hand on her back.

"Alright, I need to head to teach my class." Tang Yuehua said and smiled. "We have art classes in two hours." Knowing Tang Yin loved to draw and had to practice using her mechanical hand, her sketches still looked a bit awkward, but far better than before. The practice also helped tremendously in improving her skill with it.

Jiang then lifted her up, and she let out a jip in surprise. "Miss Tang Yuehua is right, we should spend a bit more time together." He smiled and then spread his wings. “I found a nice place a bit outside the city, I want to show you.”

"Wait, what?" She said, but then they were already airborne and not protesting; she let herself be carried, ending up in a flower field when he settled her down, allowing her to overlook the entire city and the pavilion.

"Get some sleep, Yin," he said, and she shook her head.

"I can't.” She whispered. “I am having nightmares whenever I close my eyes. I am seeing Tang San surrounded by magma, and he seems to be skirting death again and again. When I do not see my brother in mortal danger, I see you die. Right in front of me. My sword staking you right through the heart. Whenever I close my eyes. I have to do something.”

"Sleep. You need to sleep." He said, and she looked at him before taking him up on his offer and laying her head down on his lap, the ground beneath her hard and familiar at the same time, somehow comforting, far more than the soft bed at the Pavilion. She felt a gentle kiss on her temple. “I promise I will watch over myself and you.” Closing her eyes, she fell asleep, worn out from the time she had been desperately trying to find a solution.

Eventually, Yin was again in a world of magma and fire, a snake with red eyes watching them.

She wanted to scream to do anything as she noted and felt Tang San opposing that. No screaming, so she watched, watched how her brother danced with death, unable to do goddamn anything.