Flying snow fell continuously, like scattered flowers cut from jade, drifting unevenly.

The orange lamps before the window had all been extinguished by the north wind. In the deep night of the small courtyard, snow accumulated inch by inch, piling on the branches of the plum trees.

In this stretch of silent darkness, a hand reached over from the side, lighting a new lamp with a fire striker.

Someone lit the lamp, illuminating the night many years later.

The warm-colored flame in the silver lamp instantly brightened, dispelling the thick night fog that had gathered moments before. Everything in the room before the window gradually became clear. The young man sitting opposite was drawn by the lamplight and looked over with focused eyes. That warm light fell upon him, and though it was clearly the depths of winter, the brilliant silver lamp stand somehow gave rise to a touch of spring.

Lu Tong stared blankly at Pei Yunying.

He was there.

He sat right in front of her, his eyes smiling, at ease and relaxed. In an instant, he slowly overlapped with that shadow from many years ago who had tended lamp flowers in the broken temple of Sunan City and suddenly appeared at the execution ground in wind and snow.

He was… that person.

Lu Tong understood in an instant.

He was the black-clothed man she had encountered in that heavy snowfall.

The wick of the newly lit lamp flickered bright and dim. Pei Yunying lowered his head and took a sip of the tea before him, not noticing the strangeness in Lu Tong’s expression.

But Lu Tong felt somewhat dazed.

She remembered that heavy snow in Sunan City.

That day, she had been forced to save a mysterious stranger whose identity was unknown. It was her first time acting as a “physician,” her first time stitching someone’s wounds. That day was Great Cold, and Sunan City was very, very cold. Later she fell asleep, and when she woke it was already morning.

The black-clothed man’s shadow was gone from the broken temple. The lamp oil on the offering table had burned out. She got up and found herself covered with a torn blanket, still tightly gripping that old silver ring in her hand.

She climbed up from the ground, hugged her medical box and walked out. Pushing open the temple door, brilliant sunshine lay outside – the heavy snow had already stopped.

She never saw the black-clothed man again.

Like that fleeting heavy snow in Sunan City, after waking from the dream, there was no trace. If not for that silver ring, she would have thought everything was just a strange and thrilling old dream she had under that clay statue in the broken temple. Everything hazy and muddled, yet today, on another cold and desolate snowy night just like that one, the old dream had come to rest again.

The continuous flying snow was like drifting spring flowers, passing tenderly across the window shadows. Old lamp flowers had grown cold and turned to ash, while new silver vessels breathed long red flames. Past and present, time strangely intertwined, kneading together many years ago and many years hence into that burning lamp shadow.

Actually, it hadn’t been many years – only four or five years.

Lu Tong stared at the person across from her.

Why hadn’t she been able to recognize him?

His voice, his teasing tone, his bright dark eyes – looking carefully, they were actually very similar to those from years past.

But there seemed to be subtle differences too. His silver blade, the fierceness hidden beneath his gentle exterior, the occasional coldness that flashed through his eyes – these seemed different from that broken temple years ago.

Besides, he hadn’t recognized her either.

That unpleasant chance encounter years ago hadn’t weighed on her mind. They were just travelers who had briefly sheltered from wind and snow under the same roof, stopping briefly before each going their separate ways.

If not for revenge, she never would have come to the capital. That encounter from years ago had long been cast from her mind. In the vast sea of humanity, who would have thought they would meet again at this time.

Pei Yunying looked up and met Lu Tong’s gaze staring at him.

He was startled, looked down to examine himself, and spoke somewhat puzzledly: “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“I was just thinking,” Lu Tong looked away, “that she retaliated against you like that, yet you weren’t angry.”

“She’s just a little girl, and she’s my lifesaver. If I got angry, wouldn’t that be repaying kindness with enmity?”

Pei Yunying rested his chin on one hand, gazing at the tea cup before him: “We’re both fallen people at the ends of the earth.”

Both fallen people at the ends of the earth?

Lu Tong was slightly startled.

She didn’t know what Pei Yunying had experienced in Sunan at that time, but under those circumstances then, she hadn’t developed much ill feeling toward the black-clothed man either. She had probably thought that an assassin who would pay a physician’s fees couldn’t be too bad, no matter what.

Pei Yunying looked up, glanced at Lu Tong, and said thoughtfully: “Speaking of which, you really are quite similar to her.”

Lu Tong’s heart jumped, and she instinctively looked at him.

The young man smiled: “She was still a child then, only eleven or twelve years old, about this tall.” He gestured with his hand. “Probably just starting out, her medical skills weren’t as good as yours. However,” Pei Yunying paused, “you’re much fiercer than she was.”

Lu Tong: “…”

When she had encountered Pei Yunying in Sunan years ago, she was still young and hadn’t truly learned poison-making yet, nor had her temperament greatly changed. She hadn’t completely shed her childish roundness and still carried an air of innocence. In Pei Yunying’s eyes at the time, she was probably just a child with strange behavior.

It was quite normal that he hadn’t recognized her.

Pei Yunying turned his head to glance at the wound on his shoulder. Not knowing what he was thinking of, he clicked his tongue and spoke with disgust: “The needlework was really terrible.”

Lu Tong: “…”

Following Pei Yunying’s gaze to his shoulder, that scar had lost its former gruesome appearance after the passage of time, yet still couldn’t change the fact of its crudeness. His new and old wounds had both passed through her hands, like the same painting sketched by someone at different times, from clumsy to refined, recorded in vivid detail.

Inexplicably, Lu Tong suddenly remembered what Pei Yunshu had said to her before at Bao Zhu’s washing ceremony at Prince Wen’s mansion.

Pei Yunshu had asked: “Is Physician Lu from Sunan? Brother Ying also went to Sunan a few years ago. Did you two meet in Sunan?”

She had instinctively denied it then, never imagining that fate would go round and round, and travelers who had once sheltered from wind and cold together would one day meet again elsewhere.

The silver lamp bloomed with luxuriant flowers like brilliant red millet. Lu Tong gazed at the solitary lamp on the table, lost in thought.

A hand waved in front of her.

Lu Tong looked up.

Pei Yunying withdrew his hand and smiled: “Physician Lu seems to have many worries on her mind.”

Lu Tong collected her thoughts: “If Master Pei could invite himself over uninvited a few times less, I would have far fewer worries.”

When she said this, though her words were sarcastic, her manner was much more relaxed than before, as if facing an old acquaintance she had known for a long time, with a casual ease.

This ease was caught by Pei Yunying, and his expression became somewhat strange.

After a moment, Pei Yunying’s eyes flashed, and he said thoughtfully: “I don’t know why, but I always feel this scene is somewhat familiar.”

Lu Tong pressed her lips together.

The black-clothed man in the temple years ago had never pried into Lu Tong’s private affairs from beginning to end. Even though he had initially teased her a few times about stealing from dead people, after Lu Tong explained it was for making medicine, the black-clothed man hadn’t asked any more questions.

He had ignored her strange behavior and in the end hadn’t pulled off her face veil either, as if she were just an ordinary girl from a common family who had happened to walk to the broken temple and meet him there.

Perhaps because of this reason, when Lu Tong looked at Pei Yunying now, she inevitably regarded him with the eyes one uses for an old acquaintance.

Though they had only met once.

Heavy snow fell silently to the ground. The continuous snow landed on the window sill and quickly melted into transparent water stains.

“The snow will stop soon.” He looked out the window.

The moon was completely hidden behind clouds. In the pitch-black snowy night, a faint bird call sounded from the distant sky.

Pei Yunying’s expression moved slightly.

In a moment, he drained the tea cup before him in one gulp, fastened his collar, and stood up.

“Physician Lu,” he looked down at Lu Tong with lowered brows, his smile appearing very gentle in the dim candlelight, “thank you for helping me tonight.”

“You’re welcome,” Lu Tong said flatly. “Master has paid the medical fee.”

Pei Yunying raised an eyebrow, his dimples brilliant at the corners of his mouth: “Then I’ll come to visit again next time to express my thanks.”

Having said this, he picked up his blade and was about to leave.

“Master Pei.” Lu Tong called out to him.

He turned back.

Lu Tong handed him the medicine bottle containing wound medicine: “Fifty taels, don’t forget.”

He was startled, then smiled and took it: “Thank you.”

With a “creak.”

After the medical hall door closed softly, everything returned to silence again. The wooden window was pushed open further by the north wind. Looking out through the wooden window, the entire garden was filled with rustling wind and snow.

Yin Zheng came over carrying a lantern, looking outside carefully and cautiously: “He… he’s gone?”

“Gone.”

Yin Zheng patted her chest with lingering fear: “I was so scared just now. Miss, he didn’t do anything to you, did he?”

Lu Tong shook her head.

That bird call in the snowy night had come so suddenly… the people meeting him should have already arrived.

She didn’t know if it was because snowy cold days always made people let down their guard, but knowing that past connection, her way of looking at Pei Yunying now was different from before. They couldn’t be called friends, and might even face each other with weapons in the future, but at this moment, there was unexpectedly the melancholy of suddenly encountering an old friend.

Lu Tong walked to the low table in the inner room and opened the lid of her medical box.

The medical box contained various small medicine bottles, a silver jar, gold needles, and several yellowed old medical texts. Lu Tong reached to press the very edge, and with a “click,” the lid of the innermost compartment opened.

This compartment wasn’t large, only finger-length and square. Originally it was meant to hold mulberry bark thread, but inside lay neatly arranged a white jade pendant and a blackened silver ring.

Lu Tong picked up that silver ring.

Too much time had passed. The silver ring wasn’t as lustrous as before, covered with rust marks, its patterns unclear. Holding it in her hand, she could feel the cold texture.

Yin Zheng followed and looked over, opening her mouth in some surprise: “What is this?”

Lu Tong only took gold needles and medicine bottles from her medical box – this was the first time Yin Zheng had seen the hidden layer in the medical box.

Lu Tong answered: “A token.”

Years ago, Pei Yunying had given her this silver ring as payment for medical fees, telling her to take this ring to find him in the capital in the future to exchange for candied hawthorn. Lu Tong hadn’t paid it much mind, but in a sense, this was the first medical fee she had received, so she had carefully preserved it for many years.

She had never expected to actually come to the capital years later.

It was just that whether that casual joke from back then could be taken seriously was hard to say. Perhaps Pei Yunying himself had already forgotten this old matter. What this silver ring could actually be exchanged for – silver, position, or something higher – no one could say for certain.

Tokens were things that to those who valued promises were worth more than a thousand pounds of gold, but to those who made promises lightly were worth less than grass.

And the current Pei Yunying didn’t look like a gentleman.

Beside her came Yin Zheng’s voice of sudden realization: “Could it be… this is the token left by that ‘fiancé’?”

As if glimpsing the tip of an iceberg, Yin Zheng’s eyes showed excitement.

When Du Changqing had asked Lu Tong why she came to the capital, Lu Tong had only said she came to the capital to practice medicine in order to find a lover, who had once been saved by Lu Tong on the road and had given her a token.

At the time, Yin Zheng had thought this was just Lu Tong’s way of putting off Du Changqing, but now seeing the jade pendant and silver ring in this hidden layer, she found it all quite intriguing.

Lu Tong gazed at the silver ring in her hand, her eyes slightly unfocused.

Now was not the time to reveal their connection. Before then, this was at most just a dead object.

Seeing her remain silent for a long time, Yin Zheng became more certain of her guess and stared wide-eyed at Lu Tong: “So you really do have a lover in the capital!”

Lu Tong was startled.

A lover?

A chance rescue on the road, a token left behind, and years later a coincidental reunion – if this were in some romantic play, it would indeed sound very much like destined love, a lover fallen from heaven.

It was just…

It was just that never mind being lovers – given what she planned to do in the future, it would be good if she and Pei Yunying didn’t fight to the death. Whether this thing would become Pei Yunying’s relic was uncertain.

Forget it, better to put it away.

She put the silver ring back in the compartment, closed the medical box, and shook her head gently.

“He might well be an enemy.”

…

The winter cold rippled. In the city, a hundred thousand households closed their doors and huddled around red braziers. At the third watch, the snow had not yet stopped.

In the snowy night of the capital, a black-clothed figure was walking through dark alleys.

Wind and snow covered him layer by layer. Snowflakes fell on the man’s shoulders and quickly melted, leaving small patches of cold water stains.

At the end of the silent dark alley, a figure appeared soundlessly under a wall covered with long snow.

“Master,” Chi Jian said in a low voice: “Deputy Envoy Xiao just sent word that there’s great chaos in the palace, the entire city is under martial law, and His Majesty has summoned all the palace guard units to enter the palace to attend him.”

Pei Yunying nodded: “I understand.”

“You are…”

“Today isn’t my turn to guard the palace, so naturally I’m going to change clothes and return to the palace to answer the summons.”

Chi Jian fell silent, looking at the person before him.

The young man wore pitch-black archer’s clothing, his expression normal, with white cloth wrapped in layers around the torn area on his shoulder.

“Your injury…”

“It’s nothing,” Pei Yunying said. “It’s already been treated. Let’s go.”

Chi Jian didn’t move.

The young man paused in his steps, turned around, and looked at the tall guard beside him: “What else is there?”

Chi Jian hesitated for a moment, then finally summoned courage to speak: “Master stayed at Renxin Medical Hall tonight. That Physician Lu saw master’s injuries and has probably guessed the truth. This matter is of great importance now. If she secretly reports and reveals this, I’m afraid it will bring no small trouble to master…” He gripped his waist blade tightly, a flash of killing intent passing through his eyes: “Should we…”

Regarding Lu Tong of Renxin Medical Hall, Chi Jian found it hard not to be wary. Whether it was the previous imperial examination case or the later frame-up with corpses at Wangchun Mountain, one could see that Lu Tong’s scheming and methods surpassed ordinary people. The downfall of the Fan family, officials in the Criminal Court, was connected to her, and even those rumors about the Grand Tutor’s mansion might not have been without her fanning the flames.

A mysterious woman whose past couldn’t be investigated, whose loyalty was uncertain – if she dared to thrust a knife at others, she would naturally dare to thrust a knife at Pei Yunying.

“No need.” Pei Yunying interrupted Chi Jian’s words.

Chi Jian was startled.

Pei Yunying turned back and gazed toward the distant lights of the street.

In the distance, countless flower-like snowflakes fell silently. West Street was peaceful, with solitary lamps illuminating the flying snow. It seemed he could see through the bare plum trees in front of the door to the medical hall’s plaque covered by wind and snow, and the red brocade lantern under the eaves that gave off warm light.

He said: “She won’t tell anyone.”

Chi Jian didn’t understand: “Why?”

Lu Tong really didn’t seem like someone with a kind heart who deserved such certain trust.

Pei Yunying withdrew his gaze and smiled slightly as he looked down.

“Because,” he said, “I paid the medical fee.”