"With this, we will be the strongest clan on Qing Mao mountain!"
This sentiment echoed throughout the village.
The Bai and the Xiong clans were still recovering, but of course, those two clans also had their resources to manage.
Since the Gu Yue clan had managed to recover far more quickly than them and had stabilized the resources needed to feed their key gu worm, their position was even more advantageous than before. Before, they were like soldiers without arms - now, they had managed to secure a continuous supply of weapons.
It was easy enough to conceptualize that the cause for this was because they had Fang Yuan to rely upon.
Under his umbrella, they could take greater risks. They also had more people around in part because of his actions.
Because of this, these small advantages slowly snowballed into larger ones, resulting in a massive difference in their village's condition right now. Many people felt that it was only natural that soon the two villages would capitulate to Gu Yue village's demands to either assimilate or become vassals of theirs.
The villagers sang Fang Yuan's praises as they dispersed.
***
In a corner of the village, Yu Sai was resting after a long day of work when someone walked in to meet him.
"Yu Sai," Li Mei said. "Here, I wanted to pay you back." Li Mei handed him a set of Moon Orchid Petals. This was supposed to be repayment for how he had helped her out earlier. Li Mei had been one of the first people lucky enough to get a small ration of Moon Orchid Petals promised by Fang Yuan.
"Thanks," Ye Zan said. He didn't seem to be nearly as happy as Li Mei thought he would be. If he had sold them during the time he had given them to her, they would have fetched a much higher price than they would now. Although Li Mei had technically paid him back with the same number of Moon Orchid petals, it could not be said that their value was the same simply because of the differing times they had been exchanged.
Of course, there had been risk associated with selling them at the time, which is likely why he had just handed them over to Li Mei and let her use them with an I.O.U., but still, Li Mei couldn't help but feel she might've shortchanged him slightly.
When she brought this up, Yu Sai simply waved his hand. "No problem. We're good. Don't worry about it."
There was more to it than that, of course. Li Mei felt that Yu Sai had suddenly become rather frosty towards her over the past few days. She didn't know why - although they never had the best sort of relationship even back during their school days. They had never been antagonistic towards each other. 'Is something bothering Yu Sai?' she wondered to herself. If there was, he wasn't exactly opening up about it.
For the time being, Yu Sai and Li Mei were "living together" in the same house.
Space was quickly becoming a premium within the village once more, at least space which did not have its walls or roofs riddled with holes.
They slept in different places, of course, and the house was somewhat divided between the two of them.
Li Mei had come a long ways from thinking that you could get pregnant by kissing, but she still knew that this kind of arrangement between unmarried men and woman was quite unorthodox.
They hadn't been asked by any of the elders to vacate the place they were staying in. Li Mei had a feeling that day would come soon. The place where they were staying was technically owned by a Gu Master who was a distant relative of the landlord who had died here.
The clan only needed to go through various records to confirm this before they would be forced to leave. 'Maybe that's what's bothering him,' she thought to herself. They needed to find a place once they left here.
She paused her train of thought.
She was still thinking of them needing to find a place together, as if she had naturally assumed that they would be living together even after they were done here.
Her cheeks flushed slightly at the idea.
But from what she could tell, Yu Sai did not return the same feelings towards her that she had developed for him ever since he had rescued her. Since the time that he had saved her, she had seen him in an entirely different light.
Li Mei had dropped as many subtle hints as she possibly could towards Yu Sai. These included placing a small flower for him while she handed him a breakfast tray, stating how she would 'have no problems cooking for him for the rest of her life' when he had complimented him on something she had made for him, or any other number of signs she had attempted to flash his way.
However, he seemed to be ignoring all of them completely.
From what she had heard from him back during the academy, he had never intended to get married simply because it was "too much of an effort," or so he said.
'So maybe he really doesn't like me,' Li Mei thought to herself. The only other thing she could think of to do was to literally scream "I love you!" at him.
However, from what her mother had told her before she had passed away, that was not a really appropriate way for a girl to tell a man that she liked him.
Her mother had said that a real lady would use more subtle hints, and any man worth his salt would be able to pick up on them. Likely, that meant that Yu Sai had picked up on them, and he simply chose not to respond, meaning he was not interested.
'Oh well,' Li Mei thought to herself.
In the coming future, several mortal woman might get the chance to become Gu Masters. Maybe Yu Sai was waiting for that opportunity to snatch a beauty for himself - Li Mei was well aware that her looks were bottom of the barrel.
If Yu Sai ever did change his mind in the future and decided to find a wife for himself, why wouldn't he choose one of them over her? There was no shortage of pretty mortal woman, and he would be guaranteed at least two children from them.
Perhaps their love was just not meant to be, she thought as she rolled over and went to sleep.
Yu Sai, for his part, was grumbling as he arranged the Moon Orchid Petals into his storage Gu worm. He had no use for them as he did not use the Moonlight Gu or any of its derivatives, but he could still sell these on the open market or to someone else. He would not invite censure now if he did so.
As he saw Li Mei's retreating frame, he once again couldn't help but feel frustration rise within him. This girl... despite him trying to drop several hints that he liked her (in spite of the fact that he knew that she actually liked Fang Yuan he decided to try to shoot his shot so to speak) she had given him no response.
I guess our love really isn't meant to be, Yu Sai thought as he turned over and tried to fall asleep. Really, he had been stupid to even entertain the idea in the first place. It was clear that Fate did not favor him when it came to nearly any aspect of life.