Chapter 220 - Becoming A Fringe Disciple (1/2)

The room was plunged into silence. Both Niu Hai and Yue Lin seemed lost.

”What do you mean?”, Yue Lin asked after a while and frowned. He must have heard wrong.

”I said I don't know how to read.” Jing Yi lowered his head. Yes, even after spending five years as an outer sect disciple of the Yun Zou Sect and another year of traveling with Qiu Ling he still hadn't learned how to read and write. He felt lacking. These Senior Martial Brothers would probably think of him as an annoyance now.

Yue Lin slumped down in front of his desk. ”Then how am I supposed to do all of this?!” He shoved the scrolls aside and threw a book at Niu Hai. ”There, you register him and show him around. I'm going back to sleep.” He put his head on the table again and closed his eyes.

Niu Hai stared at the book in his hands then at Yue Lin. ”Heh! Senior Yue! You can't do this! How am I supposed to show him around? I don't even know anything about this place!” He kicked the table but Yue Lin had already gone back to sleep and didn't wake up.

Niu Hai turned around to Jing Yi and smiled sheepishly. ”Well, I guess we'll just sign you up then?”

”Oh, alright.” Jing Yi nodded but took another look at Yue Lin. That Senior Martial Brother hadn't seemed like he cared much. But he should probably try to learn how to read and write. Maybe Qiu Ling could teach him?

Niu Hai thumbed through the book with a frown. He was just a normal official disciple. How should he know how a new disciple was registered? I guess you'd just have to write down his name somewhere? He opened the site that had last been written on and picked up Yue Lin's brush. ”Uh … How do you write your name?”

”I'm also not sure but it's Jing as in spirit and …”

Niu Hai wrote down the character and nodded. Jing Yi stopped, though. It was Yi as in righteousness. But now he wasn't Jing Yi. He was supposed to be called Jing He. How should he know what that name actually meant? He thought of that graceful figure in the blue robe. Someone like him had probably been gifted with a really elegant name. ”And … and He as in waterlily.”

Niu Hai looked up, his gaze strange. ”Waterlily? Are you sure about that?”

”Mn.” Jing Yi nodded but lowered his gaze. He hadn't said anything wrong, had he?

”Oh. Alright. Well, it suits you.” He frowned when he wrote the name, though. Wasn't that a name you'd give to a girl? Well, he couldn't read so maybe he had gotten the character wrong or his parents hadn't known either and had actually called him that. Poor boy. Maybe it was better that he couldn't read.

Jing Yi was still mulling over the name of that person and didn't notice the peculiar gaze directed at him.