Instructor Li looked at Li Chi and said, “I’ve more or less observed which books you’ve read on the second floor. Those shouldn’t hold much meaning for you. As for the things you want to read but haven’t been able to find — you may come ask me in the future.”

Li Diudiu hadn’t yet processed this when Yan Qingzhi gave him a kick on the backside. “Well? Why aren’t you saying thank you?”

Li Diudiu hurriedly bowed. “Many thanks, Instructor Li.”

Instructor Li pointed toward the door. “Go on, out you go.”

Yan Qingzhi looked toward Li Diudiu and said, “You go ahead — I’ll chat with Instructor Li for a bit.”

Instructor Li looked at Yan Qingzhi and said, “I was talking to you. Out you go.”

Yan Qingzhi: “!!!!”

He spun around in a show of offense and walked out, muttering as he went. “Throwing me out — how is it you didn’t throw me out all those times you begged me to go buy pig head meat and wine for you?!”

Instructor Li said, “Fair point. Would you be so kind as to go buy some more — try to pick the lean cuts.”

Yan Qingzhi: “!!!!”

The Book Forest Tower was vast, yet at that moment only Li Diudiu and Instructor Li remained inside. Instructor Li took one look at the puzzled expression on Li Diudiu’s face and suddenly smiled.

He asked, “Are you wondering why I’m suddenly willing to teach you these things? Why you and not someone else? Why now? What makes you different from everyone else?”

Li Diudiu said, “Yes, I’m rather curious.”

Instructor Li said, “Don’t bother wondering. It’s simply because I’m bored.”

Li Diudiu: “…”

Instructor Li sat back down and said, “You enjoy reading military treatises and books of strategy. Those kinds of works are not to be found in the Academy. Even if you joined the military, you still wouldn’t be able to access them. The people who can see such materials are destined to see them from birth; those who cannot are equally destined from birth to remain unable.”

His fingers tapped lightly against the tabletop. He paused for a moment at this point.

He asked Li Diudiu, “Think carefully about what I’ve just said — do you notice something rather remarkable? You were destined from birth to never see them. If you hadn’t met me, you still wouldn’t have. Which means I’ve changed your fate.”

Li Diudiu bowed. “Many thanks to the instructor.”

Instructor Li said, “Could you be even a little more interesting?”

Li Diudiu was a bit at a loss. He cautiously ventured, “When the instructor speaks of being interesting — what sort of interesting would that be?”

Instructor Li said, “I’ve already raised the subject of changing your fate — surely that calls for you to throw yourself down and kowtow in reverence?”

Li Diudiu threw himself down and kowtowed.

Instructor Li laughed. “Get up — I was teasing you.”

He pulled open the desk drawer and retrieved a thick booklet, which he passed to Li Diudiu. “Yan Qingzhi mentioned you enjoy reading those kinds of things. The few history volumes on the second floor are already considered contraband, and even those only touch on warfare in passing. This is a compilation I put together — written in considerable detail. It took me about half a year.”

Li Diudiu felt the weight of this gift — that Instructor Li had spent half a year writing this out by hand just for him.

He bowed again. “Many thanks, Instructor.”

Instructor Li said, “Do you know how I came to write it over the course of half a year?”

Li Diudiu shook his head. “This student doesn’t know, but I can only imagine the instructor must have labored greatly — enduring cold and heat, working through day and night. This student is deeply grateful beyond words…”

Instructor Li gave him a flat look. “Give it a rest. I probably only needed about three days to write it. The reason it took half a year was simply because I forgot about it. I wrote a bit on the first day, and then didn’t think of it again for five or so months. I write quickly — my speed being…”

At that, he glanced at Li Diudiu, noted the slightly baffled expression on his face, and exhaled with relief.

He continued, “I write quickly — a few thousand characters in half an hour.”

Li Diudiu let out a sound of amazement.

Instructor Li asked, “Can you tell how old I am?”

Li Diudiu felt that staring intently at someone’s face was rather impolite, so he bowed and said, “This student cannot tell.”

Instructor Li smiled. “Just guess.”

Li Diudiu ventured cautiously, “Forty years old?”

Instructor Li shook his head. “Would you believe me if I told you I’m already over one hundred and fifty years old?”

Li Diudiu was startled again. This time, regardless of politeness, he instinctively looked up and studied Instructor Li’s face. No matter how he looked at it, that face did not appear to belong to someone one hundred and fifty years old.

Instructor Li said, “When people grow old, their face shows spots. When trees grow old, they show rings. What you may not know is that people also develop rings as they age. If I were to cut open my arm for you to inspect, you’d see that the cross-section contains one hundred and fifty rings — one ring per year, which is why they’re called annual rings. Here, allow me—”

He raised his arm. Li Diudiu’s face went pale in horror. “Please don’t, Instructor!”

Instructor Li looked at him. “You actually believed that…”

He sighed. “Yan Qingzhi told me so many entertaining stories about you. I assumed you were an interesting person. Turns out you’re just a simpleton…”

Li Diudiu was so frightened he didn’t dare speak. Before coming here, he’d thought to himself that the so-called lunatics and monsters in the eyes of those Academy students and instructors were probably just people of genuine talent who simply preferred not to associate with others — and wasn’t he, Li Diudiu, considered a monster in others’ eyes as well?

But now he understood he had been wrong. The Instructor Li before him was genuinely not normal.

“There are truly far too few interesting people in this world.”

Instructor Li sighed with feeling, then turned to look out the window, murmuring as if to himself, “I spent so many years trying to traverse this entire world, to see it properly, to understand what kind of place this actually is. All that time, and the interesting people I’ve encountered could be counted on one hand. The longer I walked, the more I came to understand — this really is one hell of a rotten place…”

Li Diudiu ventured another cautious question. “Are you truly already one hundred and fifty years old, Instructor?”

Instructor Li shot him a sidelong glance but offered no answer.

“See for yourself.”

Instructor Li noticed Yan Qingzhi returning from outside, a bag in hand — most likely the aged wine and pig head meat he’d gone to buy. He rose and began making his way out of the Book Forest Tower, speaking as he went. “Once you’ve finished reading, burn it all. Best that others don’t know about this.”

Li Diudiu quickly acknowledged the instruction, then took the booklet and found a spot to sit down and begin reading.

Outside the Book Forest Tower, Instructor Li unfolded a small collapsible table. Yan Qingzhi set out the wine and food on it, then glanced inside — Li Chi was sitting near the window, reading by the natural light.

“Go on ahead without me for now.”

Yan Qingzhi went back into the Book Forest Tower, and before long, an oil lamp appeared beside Li Diudiu.

“Thank you.”

Instructor Li picked up a piece of meat and placed it in his mouth, looking thoroughly satisfied.

Yan Qingzhi asked him, “Why do you enjoy eating this sort of thing?”

Instructor Li said, “Because I’m hungry for it.”

Yan Qingzhi: “…”

He pressed on with another question. “There’s so much meat to be had in the world — this is the cheapest of all meats. And yet it’s your favorite.”

Instructor Li sighed. “Precisely because this is the cheapest meat — that’s why I keep asking you to go buy it. You’ve gone so many times and I’ve never once paid you back. If I kept asking you to buy the most expensive cuts, wouldn’t you end up cursing me out?”

Yan Qingzhi: “I wouldn’t go that far… but I’d curse you out all the same.”

Instructor Li smiled and said, “You’re more interesting than that young one. He’s not as exceptional as you made him out to be.”

Yan Qingzhi said, “He’s just not yet very familiar with you. Once the two of you get to know each other better, you’ll discover just how insufferable that little rascal can be…”

Instructor Li smiled, picked up the wine cup and took a small sip. It was aged wine — unlike new wine with its sharp burn, the older vintage carried a deeper, more potent weight.

“Did you tell Li Chi you were one hundred and fifty years old?”

Yan Qingzhi asked.

Instructor Li nodded.

Yan Qingzhi said, “Enough with the boasting — he’s someone who takes the words of people he trusts at complete face value. Not just friends, either — anyone he’s decided is worth trusting, he believes everything they say. You tell him you’re one hundred and fifty and he’ll actually believe it.”

Instructor Li said, “Then I really should have shown him my rings. Do you know where on the human body rings would appear? I’d wager you don’t — they’d appear at any elongated cylindrical part of the body, because that’s precisely the shape of a tree.”

Yan Qingzhi: “Could you please be normal for once…”

Instructor Li said, “I used to try very hard to perform what you’d all consider normal, to blend in and become like everyone else in this world. Eventually I found that becoming just like all of you was deeply tedious — and at the very least, it betrayed who I actually was. So I decided I no longer wanted to pretend.”

The winter sky darkened quickly, and the world outside was growing dim. He picked up the small table and headed inside, saying as he walked, “Let’s eat inside. And have your cherished student eat something too.”

Yan Qingzhi said, “You’re only thinking of that now?”

Instructor Li said, “No — it’s because I’m almost full.”

Yan Qingzhi called out to Li Diudiu to come eat. Li Diudiu just shook his head and said he wasn’t hungry. Yan Qingzhi became convinced this must be an impostor.

It was not until nearly midnight that Li Diudiu finally rubbed his eyes and stood up. He carried the booklet over intending to ask Instructor Li about things he hadn’t understood — only to find that both of them had already stretched out on the floor and fallen asleep.

The Book Forest Tower was not cold. From outside came the sound of wind and snow. Li Diudiu felt that the wind and snow paired perfectly with the brazier before him.

Moving quietly, he pulled up a chair, found two blankets and draped them over Instructor Yan and Instructor Li, then settled down beside the brazier and continued reading.

He read quickly. Just past midnight he’d already finished the book — yet Li Diudiu felt he still only half understood it. So he turned back to the beginning and read it through a second time, with greater care.

When he finally stretched and felt the faint approach of drowsiness, he noticed that the window outside had already taken on a faint, diffuse light.

In winter, when the early morning already glows dimly, it means the hour is not so early at all. Li Diudiu rose, worked through a set of boxing forms to get his meridians circulating and his blood flowing, and worked the stiffness from his body. Then he prepared to go and fetch breakfast for the two instructors.

Just then, Instructor Li stretched with a yawn, sat up, and looked at Li Diudiu. “You didn’t sleep all night?”

“That’s right, Instructor.”

“Do you understand it now?”

Instructor Li asked.

Li Diudiu answered, “The first time through, I felt there was so much I didn’t understand. The second time through, I felt I understood everything. But then I started the third time, and I feel there’s much I don’t understand again…”

Instructor Li laughed — Li Diudiu wasn’t sure why — then nodded and said, “Now I think you’ve become just a little interesting. Go outside the Academy and buy a few flatbreads — I’ll heat up the rest of the meat and we’ll have it stuffed in the bread.”

Li Diudiu acknowledged quickly, straightened his clothes, and headed out. The moment he opened the door, a gust of cold air rushed in — and before him lay a world of white. It had snowed all night. Everywhere the eye could see was silver and pristine.

Li Diudiu took a deep breath and felt a clarity run through his entire body.

“Don’t breathe like that into the wind and snow — it’s damaging to the lungs.”

Instructor Li spoke from behind him. “Especially in cold places — breathing in long, rapid, open-mouthed gulps for an extended time can cause serious harm. It can kill.”

Li Diudiu had genuinely not known this. He turned back to offer his thanks.

He went outside the Academy, bought a few flatbreads, and returned to find Yan Qingzhi already washed and groomed. Yan Qingzhi said, “You don’t need to go to your lessons in the first-tier hall today. Stay here and keep reading your books. Ask about anything you don’t understand. Sleep here if you get tired.”

Li Diudiu said, “That doesn’t seem quite right.”

Yan Qingzhi narrowed his eyes. “Stop pretending, would you?”

Li Diudiu laughed. “Yes, Instructor.”

Just then, Instructor Li came in from the inner room, carrying a repeating crossbow, which he held up and gestured toward Li Diudiu. “A gift for you. I modified it. The regulation repeating crossbow used by the Dachu military can only fire seven bolts and its firing rate is too slow. The one I’ve modified can fire twelve bolts.”

He smiled with a trace of self-satisfaction. “If only I had the proper conditions, I could build you something truly novel.”

—