Got bit by the idea bug, wrote this up.
Bitter Tea
Xu Ping sat serenely in front of the low table, breathing in his tea's pleasant aroma. It was a nice blend, a subtle mixing of sweet and bitter that sat well on his tongue. He had few enough luxuries out here so far from the clan's holdings, but it couldn't be helped. Normally his sister or cousin would be doing this while he tended to their holdings, but this year the Argent Peak had a particularly noteworthy crop of disciples. The opportunity presented by so many clans in attendance could not be passed up. Already he had negotiated a favorable trade deal with a neighboring city and had a list of prospective buyers looking for things he could provide. It was looking like they would make more a profit in this year than in the past six combined. Not bad for a man who had been clan head for less than ten years.
Xu Ping eyed the girl sitting at the table across from him, her head bowed and her tea untouched. Then again he might have had to come here anyway, to make sure his arrogant daughter had properly learned her lesson. He took a sip of his tea and carefully set it down on the table, the tap of ceramic on wood quiet even in the confines of the silent room. The girl started at the noise all the same, and she made eye contact with him for just a moment before looking back at her folded hands.
"Your cultivation has progressed since I last saw you, Xu Jia," Xu Ping said, tone neutral.
"Y-yes it has, Father," Xu Jia said, a small hint of pride entering her voice. "I have recently reached to the middle yellow stage and have progressed to the third claw of the Hidden Predator's Claw art."
"Indeed you have, and I can sincerely say I am proud to see you taking to the family's techniques so well." Now came for the hard part. "But before coming to the Argent Peak Sect, you had shown a level of skill that would have seen you reaching these milestones months ago. The Third Realm would have still been some years off, but I had expected you to be closer, what with the resources provided to you by both the sect and the clan."
Xu Jia wilted, shrinking in on herself. "Well that's… that is because I have been met with several misfortunes that could not be avoided." A poor deflection, he should have taught her better than that. An oversight on his part, his duties as clan head had clearly taken up more time than he had realized.
"An understandable hindrance," Xu Ping said. "But it also seems that both your sister and the friends you mentioned in your letters have met with poor luck as well. The correspondence I shared with their families implied they were quite put out by their daughters' work ethics." Xu Jia paled, her head snapping up to meet his gaze. It wasn't as bad as he made it sound, situations like has had happened in the past, and he had even managed to turn these ones into profitable connections. However, it was for the best that this lesson stuck with his daughter well into the future. "Do you perchance have any idea why such is the case?"
Xu Jia glanced around the room for a distaction, and hastily took a slow sip of tea to buy time. He had a good idea about what the cause was, the aforementioned correspondence having painted an all too predictable picture, but she hadn't told him about it herself. "I….may have dealt a minor injury to someone some months ago, and they may held a grudge against me and my friends."
That was one way to put being hindered at near every-turn by a commoner girl whose eye Xu Jia had put out on the first day the Outer Sect's protections had been lifted. A commoner girl who was now the apprentice of a Bao disciple from the Inner Sect, and justifiably held a grudge.
"And did you gain anything from them when the injury was dealt?" he asked, taking another sip of tea.
"Yes Father," Xu Jia said. "Several spirit stones, medicines, and low-level beast cores, as well as a selection of books." Her tone was quiet and shamed. She already knew that the reward had not been worth the cost. Not nearly. Xu Ping let the silence hang in the air for a few moments, the tension in his daughter's body ratcheting higher and higher.
Finally, he took pity on her and spoke. "And what lesson has this past year taught you, my daughter?"
"That….I should not have stopped at such a small injury? That I should have gone so far that she could never have retaliated against me?" At least Xu Jia wasn't certain in her answer and was only trying to say what she thought would please him. He would have been furious if that was what she had learned from this ordeal.
Xu Ping hummed, looking into his teacup. "No. While that lesson itself is not without merit, it is for cases where a severe injury
must be dealt against someone who could do you harm in the future. Anything short of complete destruction will leave the chance of them exacting retribution, but such a tactic comes with inherent costs as well. In this case, it would have been the expulsion of you and your friends from the sect, and I would have needed to pay reparations to the girl's family. We are not so rich as to skirt the rules." He glanced at her, and saw the way his daughter shrank even further, almost to the point where he thought of breaking the cold facade and holding her close and muttering comforting words. But no, it was important that she learn this lesson now, where it wouldn't bring ruin to the clan. "What you should have done was either not injure the girl at all, or to have been light enough that she and her friend would have fully recovered in a few weeks' time. She might have sought vengeance or have been cowed enough to let the matter lie, but any escalation would have been on her part, not yours. In all honesty, the duel you two had was rather generous in its conclusion."
He let the reprimand hang in the air while she absorbed his words. "I have other matters I will need to attend to soon. For now, you are dismissed, please think on my words before we speak again." Xu Jia rose to her feet, bowed, and left, her head hanging low.
Xu Ping sighed and drained the last of the tea. He had let it sit too long by now, the sweetness was gone entirely, leaving it overly bitter and distasteful.
