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Bing collapsed back into her seat nearby, tired and displeased with herself. “Well, that was pointless,” grumbled Bing.

“Hey… you put on a good show,” said Sue, “You didn’t think you could win, but you went out there and tried. That has to count for something right?”

Bing let out a long breath of air, “I’m not sure it does. I… I feel like I gave up too early. I mean, Feng could’ve taken my head off after that mistake. He might have if he wasn’t my brother… and I’m the one that fucked it up in the end. I don’t know those mines would’ve done enough damage to take him out of the fight…

“But if I’d just got his legs? Slowed him down a bunch then hammered on that side I might have been able to win? But I failed the first lesson of real combat. Don’t telegraph your attacks! It’s something you practically teach babies! I can’t believe I gave myself away like that!”

“Have you considered that Feng was just trying to annoy you by making it seem like he didn’t know the whole time?” suggested Lian. “He knows you pretty well, I’m sure he could see you beating yourself up about it just like you are now. It might be his way of getting back at you for messing with the performance?”

Bing shook her head and said, “Nah. Feng doesn’t have a subtle bone in his body. If he wanted to punish me for it, he’d just steel my desert or maybe my snacks. He might even leave a note bragging about it. If he’s feeling particularly creative he might come up with a new round of insults to share with his ‘friends’ but honestly? I don’t think he could be bothered for something this small. Well, he might take some of my snacks, but not all of them, just what he can eat then and there,”

“That’s… oddly specific,” said Kat.

.....

“Eh, he’s done it before. Take a few things from my hidden snack cupboard and leave the rest… and he’s raided the whole thing with his friends a few times,” replied Bing.

“Couldn’t you… move it? It’s not very hidden if your brother knows where to find it right?” asked Kat.

Bing gave of a small laugh, tinged with a slight amount of pain, “Eh, it’s more of a relic from our childhood. With our spatial rings to store things in… if we really want to keep our snacks safe it’s better to just use them. The ‘secret snack cupboard’ idea is one we both came up with as kids. It seemed like such a good idea at the time, we could hide all of our snacks from our parents to avoid getting in trouble for snacking when we weren’t supposed to…

“It um… didn’t really work out all that well. Obviously the maids ‘helped’ us set the whole thing up so they told our parents straight away what we’d done, and we’d always be ‘caught’ when we took things out of the snack cupboard but for a long time we thought somehow we’d been seen eating, not that our parents had placed an array on the cupboard to record who took out what and when…

“So that was a failure… but I still liked the idea… until Feng started to take MY snacks from the cupboard instead of his snacks, and it was this whole big fight that resulted in us making separate snack cupboards hidden from each other. What really hurts though, even now somewhat, is that Feng managed to get one of the maids to tell him where MY cupboard was by pretending I’d moved the SHARED cupboard without telling him, which wasn’t true, that cupboard was still there…

“Anyway, I just… I sort of see it as the first real betrayal of Feng and the breakdown of our super close relationship. Before that day we were practically inseparable. We did everything together and only branched out from each other in minor ways. It sounds a bit silly now… but it meant a lot at the time, and he just sees it now as an old relic I barely use, and a bit of petty theft… I see it as re-opening an old wound,”

“Sounds like a long time to hold a grudge,” said Sue, “Surely that’s exhausting?”

Bing shrugged, “It’s not like I’m particularly bitter about it anymore. We were kids, and there wasn’t any real malice behind it. I’m sure the first time Feng just thought it would be funny… and I don’t like… detest Feng for doing this. As much as I might complain and whinge that this ordeal is what broke our relationship down we’re still close as siblings… but we’re not joined at the hip anymore… and I can’t decide if I like it better this way or not,”

“We all have to grow up sometimes,” said Lian. “Though I still insist you should talk about this a bit more seriously with Feng one day. You never mention it. It’s like… the one you won’t let go. You’ve whined and complained about plenty of his other ‘pranks’ and gotten angry about plenty as well. The snack cupboard just makes you sad,”

“Yeah well… at least it isn’t a heart demon?” offered Bing with a wince.

Lian summoned up a black ball and hurled it at Bing’s head. She didn’t dodge, it was just Lian after all. The ball bounced on Bing’s head before spinning into a hand, that Lian had tied to her own, letting her slap Bing across the cheek. “Ow?” said Bing rubbing her face. It didn’t really hurt, but it was surprisingly, and a little tingly. “Was that even worth the qi?”

“Not at all,” announced Lian with a grin. “It was horrendously expensive for the effect, but for your attitude I think it was warranted, I just couldn’t be bothered to get up. Talking so casually about heart demons… it could have become a serious issue you know? Tempting the heavens like this is a sure-fire way of getting your ass handed to you at some point. Honestly, the only reason it ISN’T a heart demon when it means so much to you, is because it happened before you started cultivating,”

Bing winced but notable didn’t contradict any of Lian’s points. It WAS tempting the heavens to smite you speaking that way. Even still, that didn’t stop the fact that the issue felt like an old wound, scarred over but one that Feng just had to pick at occasionally, bringing up the memory of when it was made. Even if the pain was but a faded memory of that day she cried for hours… it still hurt.

“Welp, this has been depressing, anyone want to hop to a different topic?” said Bing.

“Bing, you started this conversation depressing and were definitely in the driver’s seat for most of the past five minutes. I’m not saying you don’t have a good reason for it… but you are, in large part, responsible for how depressing this conversation has been,” said Lian.

“Eh… but I just lost to my horrible brother? As my friend isn’t it your duty to comfort me in these trying times?” asked Bing.

“Nope. As your best friend it is instead my duty to tell you you’re being an idiot. Just get to Rank 3 first and then beat the stuffing out of Feng. He’s better then you at combat… but not THAT much better,” said Lian.

“Huh… yeah I suppose that makes sense,” mumbled Bing. “Not something I can do quickly… but if I could get it done a year or two before Feng catches up I can hold that over his head for the next century. I’ll take my cultivation a bit more seriously I suppose. For VENGENCE!” said Bing with a grin.

“Do you really think you can step up your cultivation?” asked Kat.

“Oh yeah, definitely,” said Bing. “Not like… a major amount. I already cultivate about as efficiently as I can… but if you’re willing to put in the hard work, you can go for speed over efficiency without sacrificing your foundation. I’ll just have to take a bit more of an active effort in consolidating my gains and well, taking in the right kind of energy,”

“Should we talk about how well you did in your last match Bing?” asked Sue. “We’ve done it for everyone else but well…”

Bing shook her head, “Yeah, no. I’d really rather we didn’t thanks. I know very well what my major mistake was. Plus, I’m sure to get it all pointed out to me by my parents in excruciating detail for the next month or two. So I’d really just rather not dwell on it for much longer. It was a match I could’ve won if I didn’t give the game away, but Feng was always going to be a tough challenge,”

“Well, who is your money on for the final match?” asked Kat.

“I’m not sure…” said Bing slowly as she thought about it. “I think… normally Feng would win, by a small margin, but with the extra time Bodeir has had since his match, and the fact Bodeir didn’t need to fight Lian he might edge it out…”