Ning Xing held a book full of plant diagrams before Mei.

"And this is the blue leaved hibiscus! See? Isn't it pretty?"

Mei stared at her blankly.

"Why would you think I'd be encouraged by pretty flower pictures?"

"W-well! You can always just start by tending to flowers! And flowers still fetch a good price?" Ning Xing forced a smile. "You don't need to toil at a field!"

Mei shook her head vigourously.

"Y-you're not making any sense at all! Surely you're only refusing something this easy out of stubborness, or your inner demon!" Ning Xing shouted.

She froze.

"Sorry, I lost my composure... I've been trying to convince you for hours... I'm just trying to help..."

Mei pointed at the diagram.

"So how much is that flower worth?"

"You're finally agreeing? It's 50 jade per flower! Isn't that great?"

"If it's that expensive, then it must take a lot of effort to grow! If not, someone would have made a huge farm and became rich, lowering the price!"

Mei crossed her arms proudly.

"Don't think I'm clueless just because I used to be a peasant! My mom and dad always had to weigh which crops were worth the price and effort!"

"Flowers require a mature plant! That takes a lot of effort! How long will it take for a spirit plant to grow up? And some flowers will only grow in certain seasons! You're not fooling me!"

As Mei gave her a smug look, Ning Xing grabbed her head and screamed.

"Gahhhhh! You're impossible!"

"Ning Xing! Calm down!" Shaohe shook her.

"I don't care what you say, your inner demon still needs to be sorted!" Ning Xing continued. "Do you want to have your entire life ruined just because you're too lazy to tend to some plants?"

"And what evidence do you have that this will help me? It will probably make it worse!" Mei huffed.

Why was it actually kind of fun to watch Ning Xing squirm? Mei felt like she might be awakening something.

Just as Ning Xing was about to argue back, Shaohe stopped her.

"Take a break... drink some water. I'll discuss with her." he whispered.

Mei wondered if he knew she could hear him.

"Fine!" Ning Xing stormed off.

...

Shaohe gave her an awkward smile.

"Sorry about that... Ning Xing means well. She's just a little inflexible at times."

"Yeah, I can tell."

Mei decided to be as difficult as she could.

"I see..."

"Well, I've actually spent a lot of time reading in the sect library..." he said.

"Really? What books? Have you read the Asura's Purge?"

"Huh? No, I've been reading academic material." he said.

"Boring."

Hearing her response, Shaohe looked as if he had just stepped into a cow patty.

"Anyway, I've read a book on inner demons before! According to it, the first and most important step to dealing with an inner demon is to first understand the root cause."

"Mei Xiu, what's the exact reason you don't want to farm? If we could resolve and help you accept that, we might not even need you to farm in the first place."

"Aren't you going to say something about how it's a waste of my talent?" Mei was a little surprised.

Shaohe had a melancholic look on his face.

"Life's just unfair at times. We might have things we've always wanted to do, but not the talent for it. Hard work can make up for it, but I've always felt there would still be a gulf regardless. And in a sense, talent is kind of like having expectations set on you, isn't it?"

"I've seen it first hand with Wang Wei. He always pushed himself to his limits, to satisfy his parents. But was it really what he truly wanted to do?"

"In a sense, I think it's actually a little admirable. Most people would have followed what talents they had, and perhaps lived their long lives without doing what they truly wanted. But you chose to to reject it regardless."

"Mei Xiu, what is it you truly want to do?" Shaohe asked sincerely.

Mei was taken aback. She wasn't expecting something so philosophical from him.

"Well, right now, I want to go back to my room and read a book."

Shaohe scrunched his face.

"Understandable. But what about in the future? What do you want to be?"

"I dunno."

"And that's it! I think that might be the key to solving your inner demon!" he exclaimed.

Mei felt defeated. This guy was impossible to win against!

"So what do you want most right now?"

"Money?"

"Well... we all do." Shaohe laughed awkwardly. "Wait, maybe that's it!"

He brightened up.

"Maybe that's it! You seem to understand a little about economics from what you mentioned earlier, right?"

"Huh? That's just common sense for peasants. If your life depended on farming, you'd find out which crop made the most money."

"If anything, my mom is way better than it than me! I've seen her haggle things to a quarter of their price before!"

"Well, that doesn't matter right now. I've actually been thinking for a while now." he said. "You see, when I looked through a the shops here, I realised even really amazing stuff gets sold for cheap here!"

"What if we just exported goods outside and mark up the prices?" he said excitedly. "I've been thinking for it for a long time, but I'm not actually allowed to have any jobs since I'm not a real disciple."

"So you want us to work together as merchants? Why are you asking me anyway?" Mei looked at him suspiciously.

"Well, I was too embarrassed to tell Wang Wei, and I wasn't sure which disciples I could trust." he scratched his head. "But you're his friend, so it's probably fine?"

Mei thought hard to herself.

There was no way it would be that easy to make money, right? Why would anyone even sell their products in the sect if they could sell them for more outside?

She felt like something wasn't adding up.