“Tsk, tsk, tsk. So young, and you’ve already learned to bully people.”
Ye Huaiyao lectured them in a deliberately unserious tone. “If you do something wicked, you know you’ll wet the bed when you go home tonight.”
These children were different from the ones he had handed candy to that morning. Their clothes were noticeably newer, and every one of them carried themselves with an air of smug self-importance.
The boy whose arm had been bitten shouted through his tears, “Get lost! This has nothing to do with you!”
Ye Huaiyao blinked. “I don’t particularly want to meddle either. But look at you—you’re covered in bugs. How filthy.”
The boy stared at him in bewilderment. Then he looked down and was horrified to discover that his body really was crawling with countless tiny black insects, an utterly terrifying sight.
He screamed in panic. “What are these things?! Quick! Quick, get them off me!”
The other children were disgusted as well. Not one of them dared go near him, and they scattered in every direction.
The boy covered in bugs was scared out of his wits. Crying as he ran, he chased after his companions, and in the blink of an eye, they had all disappeared.
Ye Huaiyao burst out laughing. Only then did he turn around and examine the boy covered in mud and blood.
He asked, “How are you? Are you hurt?”
The boy raised his eyes. Leaves rustled softly around them, sunlight filtering through the branches. Ye Huaiyao stood smiling with his hands behind his back, his long lashes lowered slightly as he looked at him.
Sunlight wound its way around Ye Huaiyao from behind before falling upon the boy, illuminating his cold skin, his bloodstained wounds, and the heart pounding violently inside his chest.
The boy opened his mouth. A strange nervousness seized him as he desperately searched for something the other person might like to hear. In the end, all he managed was a hesitant, “I… I’m fine.”
He hurriedly wiped the blood from his face with his sleeve, trying his best to maintain some semblance of dignity. “Th…thank you.”
He normally wasn’t much of a talker. It wasn’t because he was insecure; he simply disliked speaking with the people around him, whose voices were so often filled with contempt and malice. Staying quiet saved him the trouble.
But now, the boy suddenly grew anxious.
For the first time in his life, he was annoyed by his own clumsy tongue. He was afraid the other person would find him boring and leave.
Ye Huaiyao, however, had no idea about these complicated little thoughts.
He noticed that the boy’s right arm was twisted at an unnatural angle. Reaching out to examine it, he quickly discovered that the joint had been dislocated.
Ye Huaiyao clicked his tongue. “You call this fine? It’ll hurt a little. Bear with it.”
The boy stiffened. The next instant, a sudden, stabbing pain shot through his arm. With two swift movements, Ye Huaiyao neatly set the dislocated joint back into place.
Ye Huaiyao patted himself down and realised he didn’t have a handkerchief. He simply tore off a strip of his sleeve and tied it around one of the boy’s wounds, which was still bleeding profusely. Then he smiled. “There. All better.”
There was a pure, reassuring quality to his smile, just like the sunlight and drifting clouds around them. The boy stared at him, momentarily dazed. His fingers loosened, and the thing he had been clutching tightly slipped from his hand and fell to the ground.
Ye Huaiyao picked it up. It was the packet of pine-nut candy he had given the boy that morning.
For an instant, time seemed to overlap. The scene felt strangely familiar, and another young face from his memories suddenly appeared before his eyes, stirring an inexplicable emotion within him.
He couldn’t help taking another careful look at the boy. Despite the blood and grime covering his face, the child was actually quite handsome. He had delicate features, red lips and white teeth, and a youthful innocence still clinging to his small face.
His large black eyes gazed up at Ye Huaiyao, bringing to mind an innocent little fawn in the forest.
“What’s your name?” Ye Huaiyao asked. “Where are your parents?”
The boy lowered his voice. “They’re all dead… I don’t have a name. Everyone just calls me ‘boy.’”
Only then did Ye Huaiyao remember. A couple of years ago, he seemed to have heard some of his fellow disciples mention that a new child had come to the mountain to do odd jobs. His life was supposedly rather miserable.
His mother had died the moment he was born. His father and older brothers believed he was unlucky and beat and scolded him constantly.
His village happened to be very close to Ghost Wind Forest and had long suffered from the invasion of demonic qi. Eventually, every other member of the boy’s family had died. Someone from the Chensu Sect had taken pity on him and arranged this work for him.
Half of every month, he worked on the mountain doing cleaning and other chores, earning fifty copper coins.
Ye Huaiyao thought the little fellow was rather pitiful. Wanting to tease him, he said, “‘Boy’ isn’t much of a name. How about I give you one?”
The boy’s eyes immediately brightened. He raised his head and looked at Ye Huaiyao with almost reverent anticipation.
A smile flashed across Ye Huaiyao’s handsome face. He pretended to ponder seriously. “As they say, fight poison with poison. Your life seems to be pretty difficult, so why don’t I give you a name with a similar meaning? How about… A-Nan?”
Seeing how quiet the child was, without a trace of the liveliness one would expect from an ordinary boy, Ye Huaiyao deliberately tried to provoke a reaction. After saying it, he couldn’t resist adding, “Sounds nice, doesn’t it? If you don’t like it, there’s always A-Sang, A-Mei—”
“No! I like it! It sounds very nice!”
The boy was afraid Ye Huaiyao would be displeased. Before he could finish, he hurriedly answered, his face filled with happiness and expectation. “I want to be called A-Nan. Thank you for giving me a name!”
“…”
The last little bit of Ye Huaiyao’s conscience suddenly began to feel guilty. He coughed, “Good boy. A name chosen by Brother Ye is naturally the best… Um, are you hungry?”
Huaijiang had originally been watching the children fight. After Ye Huaiyao teased him, he had angrily entered meditation to cultivate. But before long, that brat’s voice came drifting into his ears again, refusing to leave him in peace.
Huaijiang snorted inwardly. At least the kid knew his manners. Having offended his senior, he had come back to apologise.
Huaijiang deliberately put on a dignified air and said coldly, “What do you want?”
Ye Huaiyao: “Bring me some osmanthus cakes. I want to feed a child. Hurry, hurry, hurry.”
“…”
Huaijiang exploded. “What exactly do you take this old man for?! The cook of your Xuantian Tower?!”
“No,” Ye Huaiyao replied. “I regard you as my closest companion, the friend I never need to stand on ceremony with. You’re already residing inside my primordial spirit. Don’t you think you should pay rent? Every day you ask whether I need your help, and you can’t even satisfy such a tiny request…”
Before he could finish, a steaming packet of osmanthus cakes appeared in his hand.
Huaijiang: “Take it and get lost.”
Ye Huaiyao readily complied. He took the food, immediately shut his mouth, and stopped tormenting the now thoroughly enraged old mirror.
He handed the packet of osmanthus cakes to A-Nan, then couldn’t resist taking a small piece for himself.
Freshly steamed, the cake was indeed soft, sweet, and fragrant. He would probably have to ask Huaijiang for more later. Ye Huaiyao mumbled through his mouthful, “The candy’s dirty, so don’t eat it. Take these cakes home instead and fill your stomach. I’m leaving.”
He turned to go. The boy hurriedly reached out as if to grab him, but just as his dirty little hand was about to touch Ye Huaiyao’s sleeve, which flowed like drifting clouds, he quickly withdrew it.
Ye Huaiyao turned back. The boy held the osmanthus cakes out with both hands. “Y-you should eat two more pieces.”
Ye Huaiyao was startled, then laughed. For the second time that day, his slender fingers ruffled the boy’s hair. “I’m not hungry. You… eat a little more for me.”
Spring sunlight filtered through the shade of the trees. Light and shadow flowed and intertwined, forming a balanced, subtle beauty around him.
Those slightly raised brows and those faintly smiling eyes were etched into the depths of the boy’s dark, upturned gaze.
Although Ye Huaiyao’s own circumstances seemed hardly better than his, merely seeing this person inexplicably brought the words favoured by heaven to mind. Even his gentleness was radiant and unrestrained.
After saying this, Ye Huaiyao didn’t linger. He turned and walked out of the forest.
A-Nan watched him disappear. Then, with great care, he removed the strip of sleeve Ye Huaiyao had used to bandage his wound and folded it with utmost reverence.
He held it against himself for a while, as though trying to determine the best place to keep it. In the end, he tucked it into a hidden pocket over his chest, close to his heart.
…
“One Tower, One Domain, Three Sects, Five Families.” This saying referred to the most powerful forces in the cultivation world. The “One Tower” was Xuantian Tower. The “One Domain” was Li Hentian. The “Three Sects” were Guiyuan Manor, Daoyan Sect, and Tianya Huadao Sect. The “Five Families” were the Leng, Yan, Ouyang, Tao, and Ji families.
Of these, Li Hentian was a demonic domain, mysterious and unpredictable, sinister and treacherous. The Ouyang family lived beyond the worldly realm and was notoriously difficult to locate. The Tianya Huadao Sect was situated in a remote borderland. The remaining sects and aristocratic families were comparatively more involved in worldly affairs.
Xuantian Tower was jointly governed by the Illustrious Sage and the Law Sage.
The elder generation of the paired Law and Illustrious Sages had already retired. Their successors, the young Law Sage, Lord Shaoyi and the Illustrious Sage, Lord Yunqi, had both risen to fame at an early age and were considered paragons of the younger generation.
Eighteen years ago, Lord Yunqi disappeared without leaving behind even a corpse. Xuantian Tower refused to acknowledge his death, and so the position of the Illustrious Sage had remained vacant ever since.
Unfortunately, eighteen years had passed, and the one who had departed still had not returned.
Xuantian Tower was built upon Xieyu Mountain. The Illustrious Sage’s residence had originally been called “Shi Gong Chun Feng” Beginning with Spring Breeze. Flowers and greenery flourished there, and every season was warm and beautiful. Now, however, winter snow never melted. The magnificent scenery of the past could no longer be seen.
Zhan Yu led a group of Xuantian Tower disciples on patrol through the night wind.
Outside, it was still early spring. The weather was supposed to be mild and pleasant. Here, however, the place was bitterly cold. A northern wind carried snow through the air, blowing straight into their mouths and noses.
Even opening one’s mouth slightly made the throat feel as though it were being sliced by knives.
Yet despite the cold, not one of them thought to use spiritual power to protect themselves. Ever since the Illustrious Sage had departed, this had apparently become an unspoken rule.
Zhan Yu’s boots crushed the snow beneath his feet with a crisp crunch, crunch, crunch. He turned his head and saw a row of gauze lanterns hanging beneath the corridor.
The lanterns swayed in the wind, their light rippling like water.
Suddenly, a sharp ache filled his heart.
Zhan Yu was a direct fellow disciple of both the Law Sage and the Illustrious Sage. As an Command Envoy, he was responsible for overseeing the twenty-eight branch halls under Xuantian Tower and held an extremely high position.
If this place had not been Beginning with Spring Breeze, he would never have personally come here to patrol.
Of the two shixiongs he had grown up alongside, Law Sage, Yan Chen was the steadier and older one. Zhan Yu himself was naturally carefree and unrestrained, and so he had always been closer to the graceful, easygoing Ye Huaiyao.
Ever since something had happened to Ye Huaiyao, Zhan Yu had become much more melancholy than before. His cheeks had grown thinner, revealing a sharper, more resolute profile.
The group continued walking. Suddenly, one of the disciples whispered, “Zhan-shixiong, why does it look like… there’s light in Ye-shixiong’s study?”
Zhan Yu immediately turned his head. Sure enough, behind one of the windows not far away, there seemed to be a faint glow, flickering in and out of sight.
His heart trembled. It was as though someone had gently knocked against it.
He knew he was supposed to apprehend some unwelcome intruder who had trespassed into the residence. Yet somewhere deep inside him was an inexplicable yearning. His footsteps quickened as he followed the light.
A tall, slender silhouette was cast onto the paper window by candlelight. Zhan Yu pushed the door open. The figure standing before the window with his hands behind his back turned around.
He had phoenix-shaped eyes, sword-like brows, a straight nose, and a slightly pointed chin. His features were sharply defined, his bearing strikingly heroic, and there was an unmistakable nobility about him that could not be ignored.
The moment Zhan Yu saw his face clearly, his eyebrows twitched. The hand gripping his sword tightened abruptly, then it slowly loosened.
He gestured for the disciples behind him to leave. In a soft voice, he said, “Yan-shixiong.”
Zhan Yu’s emotions had yet to settle. He could hear the tremor in his own voice. After a brief pause, he continued, “Why are you here in the middle of the night?”
The person standing inside Ye Huaiyao’s study was no intruder. He was none other than the Law Sage of Xuantian Tower, Yan Chen.
Yan Chen’s expression remained calm, but there was an almost bewildered sorrow in his voice, “I was meditating just now. I had a nightmare. I dreamed that A-Yao was still here, so I came to take a look.”
Cultivators ordinarily had no need for sleep. Yet Yan Chen had dreamed while meditating. In other words, his mind had become distracted. This was extremely dangerous. One moment of carelessness could send a cultivator into qi deviation and leave them in a state of cultivation madness.
Such a basic mistake should never have happened to a dignified Law Sage.
Zhan Yu’s lips parted slightly. He wanted to say something comforting. But when he heard Yan Chen call him “A-Yao,” a tremendous grief surged through his heart. His throat tightened as though something were lodged there. Not a word came out.
The two stood silently for a while. At last, Zhan Yu forced a smile. “When he was here, I was always complaining that he was too noisy. Now that Ye-shixiong isn’t around to say a few words to me every day… I really can’t seem to get used to it.”
Eighteen years and he still hadn’t gotten used to it.
Yan Chen’s hand clenched inside his sleeve. “The site of the decisive battle from all those years ago still has to be guarded this year. I just… can’t accept it.”
Before he could finish, Zhan Yu suddenly seized his arm. His grip was so strong that his fingers nearly sank into Yan Chen’s flesh.
“Yan-shixiong—”
Zhan Yu’s voice trembled. “Look at Ye-shixiong’s soul lamp!”
It was lit!
Author’s Note:
Today we have little angel Yao and beloved, universally-adored Yao~
