The ointment felt hot against his skin for a moment, then gradually turned cool.

Sang Zhi watched as Ye Qianning puffed her cheeks and blew on his arm. For some reason, his nose began to tingle. It felt like no one had ever been this close to him before.

Everyone else feared and despised him. Only she treated him like a normal person, without fear or disgust.

At the thought, Sang Zhi’s eyes grew slightly red.

Ye Qianning looked up just in time to see the look on his face.

Sang Zhi froze for a moment, then blinked a few times and looked away.

’He seems so insecure, and there’s a certain strangeness about him I can’t quite put my finger on,’ Ye Qianning thought. ’Like... like the Ugly Duckling.’

"Well, I should get back to my reading." Sang Zhi stood up.

"What’s the point? No matter how much you read or how smart you are, didn’t you still fail the monthly exam?" Ye Qianning grabbed his sleeve.

Qian Zhuye nodded in agreement.

"If you’re going to fail anyway, what’s the point?" ’Knowledge alone is useless without power and influence.’

Pulled by the sleeve, Sang Zhi sat back down in the chair.

Ye Qianning figured that to lift his spirits, she first had to liven him up. "You’ve listened to storytellers before, right? How about I tell you two a story?"

"Yes! I love listening to stories," Qian Zhuye said, his interest piqued.

Sang Zhi sat quietly, looking composed. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

Ye Qianning felt she was starting to understand the little traditionalist. "Alrighty then, I’ll show you two what I’ve got."

"I heard there’s a storyteller on the third floor of Immortal’s Drunkenness who tells tales of the Penglai Immortals. Have you heard them? If you have, tell us that story," Qian Zhuye asked.

"Never heard it."

"Then what have you heard? Just tell us whatever you know."

"I can’t tell any of the stories from Immortal’s Drunkenness."

"Then what can you tell?"

"The Ugly Duckling."

"..."

Sang Zhi froze.

Qian Zhuye’s expression was complicated. "What in the world is an ’Ugly Duckling’?"

"It’s just the Ugly Duckling."

"A duck that’s ugly?"

"Close enough."

"What’s there to tell about that?"

"So, are you going to listen or not? If not, you can leave," Ye Qianning glared at him.

"I’ll listen, I’ll listen." Qian Zhuye’s expression was still a mixture of confusion and disbelief. ’The Ugly Duckling??’

Sang Zhi was also curious and tilted his head to look at her.

Ye Qianning cleared her throat. "Once upon a time, there was a papa duck hatching his eggs. One by one, the little ducklings broke out of their shells..."

"What’s a ’papa duck’?" Qian Zhuye interrupted.

"A duck daddy."

"But shouldn’t it be the mama duck who hatches the eggs?"

Ye Qianning retorted, "In my story, the daddy duck does the hatching. Are you going to keep listening or not?"

"I’m listening, I’m listening," Qian Zhuye nodded, looking a bit bewildered.

"The ducklings hatched one after another until only one egg was left. The daddy duck waited and waited. Finally, the last duckling broke through its shell. But he was big and ugly, not like his siblings at all. His brothers and sisters were frightened by the sight of him and hid. Even his own father was disgusted by his ugliness and ignored him. His siblings bullied him, too. The ugly duckling became very sad and insecure..."

Ye Qianning modified the story slightly, adapting it to her audience as she told them how the ugly duckling slowly transformed into a swan.

At first, Qian Zhuye listened with a bewildered and conflicted expression, but he grew more and more serious as the tale went on. When the story concluded, he found himself subconsciously looking over at Sang Zhi...

The more Sang Zhi listened, the deeper the expression in his grey eyes became. As the story ended, he slowly closed his eyes, as if imagining the beautiful and breathtaking moment the ugly duckling turned into a swan.

It was as if his heart had been lifted as well. ’If the ugly duckling can become a swan, then...’