Lin Yue remained silent and freed one hand to help pick the wild fruit.
Between the two of them and their three available hands, they stripped the bushes clean, leaving behind only a few dark thorn-covered branches swaying beneath the vast heavens.
Gu Yun lifted the hem of his clothes and bundled the fruit inside. Lin Yue glanced at him, then lifted the hem of his own robe and gathered his share as well.
Gu Yun led him towards his home. Along the way, the two of them stuffed themselves full of wild fruit and snapped off willow twigs to clean their mouths afterwards.
Gu Yun’s home was, in truth, nothing more than a dried-up bridge culvert not far from Zhuyang County town.
The bridge above was cracked and broken. Whenever it rained, filthy muddy water seeped through the gaps into the space beneath.
It had rained only a few days earlier, and thick clouds had smothered the sky for days afterwards. Only today had the sun finally emerged. With so little sunlight, the underside of the bridge naturally had no chance to dry out. It remained damp and clammy, permeated by an indescribable chill and stench of decay.
One side of the bridge tunnel was piled with a chaotic heap of weeds, reed stalks, and stones, all already flecked with faint mould.
Looking closely, one could even spot a chipped earthenware bowl among the pile, caked in filth and long since stripped of its original colour.
Lin Yue looked towards Gu Yun.
Gu Yun explained, “Those things belong to Old Huo.”
Old Huo was a beggar. Though only thirty-two years old, hardship had weathered him into the appearance of a man in his fifties or sixties.
His hair had already gone grey, and his skin was rough beyond measure.
One of his legs was lame, making walking difficult, but he was an exceptionally kind-hearted person.
By the time Gu Yun arrived in Zhuyang County, it had already grown late. After wandering the streets for a while and preparing to sleep rough by the roadside, Old Huo spotted him and brought him back to his own territory, this very bridge culvert, giving Gu Yun a temporary place to stay.
Day after day, Gu Yun failed to find work and continued living there, yet the old man never drove him away.
Whenever Old Huo managed to beg for food, he would occasionally share some with him.
Three days ago, the old beggar announced that he was leaving to seek refuge with an old brother of his. Before departing, he handed over the right to live beneath the bridge to Gu Yun.
In troubled times like these, beggars were everywhere. Places that could shelter people from wind and rain were not simply places one could occupy at will. You had to fight for them, and only the victor could claim ownership.
Old Huo looked like the sort of person who needed looking after, but in his younger days he had actually worked as an enforcer for a wealthy household. Even now, he fought ferociously.
It was not that his physique or martial ability remained what they once had been, but rather that he fought like a man with no regard for his own life. There was not a single beggar in the county who did not fear him.
Though he had left, he had not mentioned his departure to anyone else. Otherwise, Gu Yun would never have been able to keep hold of this “home”.
Gu Yun had already calculated the timing. By the time the other beggars realised Old Huo was gone, he himself should already be able to move elsewhere, sparing him the need to fight them to the death for this place.
Gu Yun glanced at Lin Yue, placed the wild fruit on a slightly cleaner patch of ground, then pointed towards the space beside Old Huo’s belongings, the right-hand side of the bridge tunnel.
“This is where I stay. Wait here a moment.”
He ran back outside and found the pile of weeds and reed stalks he had carried out earlier that morning to dry in the sun.
After drying for an entire day, all the damp chill had finally been driven out of them. They were no longer limp and sodden.
Though they still carried a faint mouldy smell, it did not matter. Gu Yun happily gathered them up and carried them back.
Originally, he had intended to leave these things behind for the next unfortunate soul. Who would have thought the next unfortunate soul would still be himself?
The ground beneath the bridge was far too damp and slippery, so Gu Yun spread the reeds outside instead, arranging them neatly until they formed a sleeping space just large enough for one person.
By now darkness had fallen, so there was no need to worry about children spotting him sleeping outside the bridge and pelting him with stones.
Lin Yue was like a shadow.
Apart from the brief moment when Gu Yun went to fetch the “bedding”, during which Lin Yue stayed behind beneath the bridge guarding the pile of wild fruit hardly anyone would have wanted anyway, he followed after Gu Yun the entire time.
As Gu Yun laid out the bed, Lin Yue stood to one side observing. After a while, he crouched down and began helping him arrange things.
At last, the task was complete. Gu Yun clapped the dust from his hands and informed him proudly that this was his bed.
“And what about you?” Lin Yue asked.
Gu Yun shook his head. “I’m not sleepy tonight. Tomorrow night I’ll use Old Huo’s things.”
The stars were densely scattered across the sky tonight, which meant tomorrow would likely be another bright sunny day. Once Old Huo’s belongings were aired out beneath the sun, he too would have a proper bed.
A slight movement passed through Lin Yue’s brows. “I’m not sleepy either.”
He sat down at one end of the grass mat. The surface was extremely rough and prickly against the skin.
Lin Yue did not know what sort of life he had once lived, but subconsciously he felt certain he had never touched such things before.
A trace of irritation stirred within him. Even the wild fruit lingering in his mouth tasted unbearably sour and astringent.
“Comfortable?” Gu Yun leaned closer and asked.
Lin Yue met a pair of eyes so clear they seemed almost transparent. Forcibly suppressing his irritation, he gave a faint nod.
Gu Yun immediately broke into a brilliant smile.
Lin Yue said, “Sit down as well. I have something I want to ask you.”
The smile on Gu Yun’s face faded slightly.
He could roughly guess what the other man intended to ask. Nothing more than revisiting old matters.
While fetching a cleaner bunch of wild fruit to snack on, Gu Yun carefully reviewed the countless explanations he had fabricated during his spare moments. Once he confirmed there were no problems, he returned.
Carefully lowering himself onto the grass mat, he bit into a wild fruit and said, “Ask away.”
Since the other man disliked the fruit, Gu Yun did not offer him any.
Without warning, Lin Yue asked, “Why do you speak so haltingly?”
After asking the question, he said nothing further and simply stared straight at Gu Yun.
Most people in the Great Xuan Dynasty possessed brown irises, ranging from yellow-brown to dark brown. Unless examined closely, everyone’s eyes looked black, including Gu Yun’s as an outsider.
But Lin Yue’s irises were genuinely black.
Whether viewed up close or from afar, his pupils were invisible, making his eyes darker than anyone else’s. They held no trace of lustre at all, pure and hollow to the point of eeriness.
Beneath the dim grey evening sky, the effect of his unblinking stare was especially terrifying.
Gu Yun was genuinely startled. For some reason, he immediately thought of Sadako*.
(*TN: the long-haired female ghost from “The Ring” that crawls out of a television.)
After calming himself slightly, he pretended to busy his mouth with eating while frantically thinking of an explanation.
This was the one thing Gu Yun had overlooked despite all his careful planning.
Swallowing the fruit, he said:
“You forgot that too? I couldn’t speak before. You took me to see a shaman-healer, and only then did I learn how to talk. But I was already older by then, so learning speech wasn’t as quick as it would be for a child. Give me a bit more time and I’ll definitely become fluent.”
Lin Yue slowly scrutinised him from top to bottom.
Gu Yun’s eyes widened abruptly. “You despise me?”
Lin Yue stopped staring directly at him, his expression softening somewhat. “No.”
Then he changed the subject at once. “Why did we elope?”
After circling around for so long, they had somehow returned to the original topic after all, just as Gu Yun had expected.
Carefully selecting only the words he was confident he could pronounce, Gu Yun slowly answered:
“My family and your family are hereditary enemies. In earlier years, our families fought often, secretly sabotaged each other, and spread bad rumours about one another. Those things were extremely common.
“After we secretly fell in love, neither side’s elders agreed to it. They each arranged marriages for us elsewhere. We had no choice but to elope.”
Although Gu Yun deliberately chose only words he could manage, some pronunciations still came out strange and awkward. Combined with his halting speech, it made him even harder to understand.
Lin Yue concentrated carefully as he listened. After taking a moment to process everything, he finally pieced together the meaning.
Lin Yue asked, “Why exactly did our families become enemies?”
Gu Yun shook his head. “That I don’t know. The elders never spoke of it.”
Lin Yue asked again, “When did we elope?”
“At the start of this year. After the elders discovered we’d run away, they sent people to capture us, so we became separated while fleeing. I didn’t know where you would go, so I followed the official road towards the prefectural city where we agreed we would settle down together.
“Along the way, my valuables were stolen. I was afraid they would kill me, so I didn’t dare resist. While they were dividing the spoils, I escaped. It was fortunate you insisted before we left that I change into men’s clothing. Otherwise, whether I could have escaped at all would have been uncertain. If things had gone even worse, then perhaps…”
At the perfect moment, Gu Yun cut off that line of thought and smoothly continued with the rest of the story.
“After escaping, because I had no money at all, I pawned my clothes, exchanged them for poorer ones and a bit of dried food, and eventually wandered here. By then, I had lost everything, but I still didn’t want to give up. Since you never betrayed me, I certainly would never betray you either.
“Today I went out hoping to see if I could catch some fish to fill my stomach. Then I saw someone floating in the river. When I got closer, I realised it was actually you!”
At this point, Gu Yun tried his utmost to squeeze out a couple of tears.
Unfortunately, he had already cried himself dry earlier, and not a single tear would come out.
So instead he arranged his face into a sorrowful expression, looking every bit like someone about to become a widow, and gave a deliberately fake little sniffle.
“Thank Heaven you’re all right. Otherwise, I would have followed you in death!”
