"OI, BRAT!"
A loud voice was suddenly transmitted directly to Van's mind leaving him ringing and disorientated. Resisting making a fool of himself, he instead allowed himself to express a feeling of astonishment instead of just dumbly staring into the distance. It took a few seconds before he recovered, but he immediately apologized to Meirong.
"Young Hero Van, I have something to discuss with you. If you could follow me to another location?"
With a slight smile, Fairy Meirong stood up and waited for Van to follow. Standing up quickly to accept her invitation, Van followed behind her at an appropriate distance.
"What is wrong with you? You could've just talked normally-"
"Well, brat. I decided to talk out seeing how badly you've been handling things. I thought I could leave you without my wise teachings and let you learn by yourself. But, it hasn't even been a single day and you've already messed up."
In response, Van was about to let a quizzical expression appear on his face but refrained as he knew it would cause more questions from Fairy Meirong. Instead, he responded to Yu Lin, carefully controlling his expression=.
"What have I done wrong? I've calculated all possible ways that I-"
Rudely interrupting, Yu Lin's abrasive voice once more made its presence in Van's mind.
"What calculations? You call those pathetic inexcusable actions of yours calculated?! If any of my juniors were as foolish as you, I would make them recite the rules for the rest of their lives!"
With his pride successfully having collapsed into dust, Van worked up his courage to instead humbly respond to Yu Lin.
"This junior implores the sage to allow him to partake in the venerable sage's wisdom."
A ghostly Yu Lin appeared in the air next to Van with a poof; a large grin shone brightly on his face.
"You see, brat. I always knew you were a wise one. Everyone makes mistakes every so often. I would never make that mistake, but experience is what makes the man. After all, old ginger is spicier than young ginger. I'm glad that you are able to finally see that. Your magnanimity and strength of heart really do wonders for my reputation. If only every junior could be like you and have such a firm Dao heart. Though you're still not as good as I-"
Coughing loudly to remind Yu Lin to answer his question, Van meekly stared at the ghostly apparition in front of him. A nervous smile could be present on his face as it implored Yu Lin to stop.
Murmuring to himself about how rude the younger generation was, Yu Lin eventually decided to stop ranting about himself and started to respond to Van.
"First things first, get that stupid smile off your face. You're embarrassing yourself. In front of me… and also that little girl staring at you."
The floating Yu Lin pointed off to his side.
Following the finger, Van's face turned a few shades paler. Fairy Meirong's face had lost all composure and a clear expression of displeasure was present. One of her delicate hands had formed a clenched fist and was slightly trembling. The protector that followed her didn't hide his animosity either. His eyes seemed to pierce through Van as his impression of Van fell to record lows. The two
In response to all of this, Van smiled at Fairy Meirong, trying to recover from the copious amount of embarrassment that was present in him at that moment. His face burned a scarlet red, but he tried his best to keep himself from breaking down in shame. Inwardly crying and cursing his heart out, he walked forward with stiff steps continuing to follow the Fairy despite the many unfortunate scenes showing her an unfavorable impression of him.
With a heavy atmosphere, Van felt like he was walking in molasses as he trudged along in the Fairy's trail.
To add to all of the pressure, Van could hear a soft, but distinct squeak of amusement. Turning his head sharply, he eyed the bottom of one of the lavishly decorated screens near the wall to find a tail darting into the darkness. Flames could be seen in Van's eyes as his fury was sparked; if looks could kill, Sanji would've died a thousand times over. Barely managing to hold on to his reason, Van continued to walk onwards.
They had made it out of the Dragon Tea Pavilion enveloped by an awkward silence. One side had a disgusted and furious fairy with her disappointed guard, while the other involved a scarlet-faced green-robed youth with a withdrawn aura. Van wished there was a ditch nearby that he could dive into and bury himself. The amount of shame that he had accumulated in those few moments was enough for a lifetime. He had already made a bad impression, from what he was told by Yu Lin, and had just worsened it to lows never seen before.
The fury from the Fairy had started to feel the air and her guard had started to sweat nervously. He had never seen his young mistress this embarrassed in all the years he had been by her side. This young genius was going to be in for a beating. Flashing a look of pity behind him at the downtrodden youth, he distanced himself from both the young mistress and the youth so as to not be caught in the devastation that his young mistress was about to invoke.
