Instructor Li had left the Four Pages Academy — departed in the middle of the night, suddenly, and so it left a lingering sorrow.

Yan Qingzhi stood in the emptied Book Forest Tower, looked at Li Diudiu, and after a moment of silence said, “A man like him — the fact that he lived within the Academy walls for ten years is already a miracle. He once said that no place has ever been able to hold him for three years.”

Li Diudiu nodded. “Instructor Li truly was an extraordinary figure. What he wanted to teach me, he taught. What he didn’t want to teach me — he left, perhaps to spare himself the nuisance of being pestered. It is I who disturbed him.”

Yan Qingzhi patted Li Diudiu on the shoulder and said, “His leaving the Academy has nothing to do with you. In truth, all these years I’ve always known — he might vanish at any moment.”

Li Diudiu nodded again. His eyes were full of regret and guilt.

Yan Qingzhi said, “He doesn’t blame you. He simply wanted peace and quiet. Most people of such profound learning tend to value solitude.”

Outside the walls of Jizhou city, aboard a donkey cart, Instructor Li was gnawing on a flatbread when it got stuck in his throat. He looked around in all directions, realized he’d left in such a hurry he’d forgotten to bring even his water flask, and was seized with irritation.

“That rotten kid — had to keep talking with me, had to keep talking with me… I’d only just found a stable place to settle down, and now I have to uproot myself again. How easy does he think it is for me to find somewhere stable?”

He spat out the chunk of flatbread and let out a long, mournful sigh toward the sky.

“And now it’ll be hard to find someone like Yan Qingzhi — the kind you can mooch off for the long term…”

He wanted to raise his hand and smack himself a couple of times. Eventually he restrained himself.

“I’ve got no one to blame but my own loose mouth — why go on and on saying so much! All these years and I still can’t shake this rotten habit… it’s all Li Chi’s fault!”

He flicked the driving whip…

Then a question occurred to him: when you’re on horseback, flicking a horsewhip feels perfectly natural and dignified. So why is it that the moment the phrase “donkey whip” comes into play, it takes on an entirely undignified air?

He looked back in the direction of Jizhou city, and thought to himself — where in the world could he hide next? The Dachu capital was out of the question; he had far too many acquaintances there. If the court’s people spotted him, they’d probably have him arrested and executed by dismemberment on the spot.

He had deceived people in the Dachu capital across three full generations — the list of enemies there was too long. He could not go back.

If it weren’t for his weakness for the donkey-meat flatbread they made in this part of Jizhou, he’d much rather have found a secluded spot in the graceful landscapes of the South to live in quiet retirement. Now even Jizhou was no longer safe to linger in. He was fairly confident Li Chi was not the sort to go blabbing carelessly — but there were precedents to consider.

Ten years ago, in the Academy, he’d also found a student who seemed rather interesting and chatted with him a few more times than usual. Who would have known the boy had such a timid nature? He turned around and reported everything straight to Gao Shaowei.

At the time he’d intended to leave — but Gao Shaowei had begged him to stay. The Academy examination papers each year were largely composed by him, and Gao Shaowei had a use for him.

Precisely because of that earlier lesson, this time he decided to run immediately. Moreover, even without setting foot outside the Academy walls, he could tell — Jizhou city was about to become unsettled. The common people didn’t see it, but he was different. To survive in this world, he had to think further ahead than ordinary people.

That Prince Yu — heaven only knew how grand his ambitions actually were.

Still…

Instructor Li suddenly thought about it: that young Li Chi had something in his eyes that others didn’t. He ought to accomplish great things in the future.

At that thought he spat dismissively and cursed himself under his breath… *People call you the greatest idler in the jianghu, and the greatest sage under heaven. Do you not know what you actually are? What are you putting on such airs for… you really think you have the power to see through heaven and earth? Really fancying yourself some Liu Bowen or Zhuge Liang?*

But casting a wide net never hurt anyone — on the off chance he actually cultivated someone truly remarkable, wouldn’t that mean a guaranteed long-term meal ticket for the future?

The sort of remarkable person he had in mind was not some minister with a measure of power. People like that appeared formidable but were nowhere near enough to make him feel genuinely secure.

Truly remarkable — meant someone capable of upending the entire world.

After his moment of self-reflection, he sighed again, stared at the flatbread in his hand, and thought: if all else fails, he could just find a spot somewhere and raise pigs. That had been his original area of expertise, after all…

Then he reflected for another moment. Flatbread really was dreadful without any meat stuffed in it. Even if not meat — if only they’d put a few scallion pieces in while kneading the dough, it wouldn’t taste so utterly bland.

The little donkey pulled the cart along, the bell around its neck chiming lightly with each nimble step. Ding-ding-ding, ding-ding-ding.

Instructor Li lay back in the cart and gazed up at the blue sky and white clouds, wondering: was this world round?

—

Back at the Four Pages Academy.

Li Diudiu fell into a relentlessly busy daily routine, and every day there never seemed to be enough hours. Mornings he attended lectures in the first-tier hall. Afternoons he ran to the Yun Studio Tea House to earn money. Evenings he returned and spent his time carefully studying the materials Instructor Li had left him.

These travel journals were not merely a record of all the places Instructor Li had traveled and the things he had witnessed over the years — embedded within them was an incomparable wealth of experience and wisdom.

What Li Diudiu found most essential to commit to memory were the detailed descriptions of various regions throughout the journal. As he read, those words formed vivid images in his mind. Based on those descriptions, he could almost see individual storefronts, individual winding streams, pleasure boats drifting on the water, and the patrons aboard those boats…

Hmm!

Li Diudiu shook his head. That last part he would not read.

Without quite realizing when it had happened, another ten-day break arrived. Li Diudiu couldn’t have explained why he found himself deliberately tidying himself up — though he didn’t change into new clothes the way he had before visiting Prince Yu’s manor, he still took care with his appearance, combing his hair until it lay smooth and neat. Then he strolled out into the Academy in a casually wandering manner, watched Headmaster Gao board his carriage, and immediately set off running toward the Headmaster’s home.

He arrived at the gate to find Gao Xining already waiting for him at the entrance. She stood there — like a summer flower blooming in the depths of winter. When Gao Xining caught sight of Li Diudiu’s thin, lightly dressed figure, she couldn’t help glaring at him.

“Aren’t you afraid of freezing to death? Wearing so little — is it because you’ve put on weight?”

Li Diudiu sighed. “We haven’t seen each other for ten days, and your mouth is still just as foul.”

Gao Xining said, “My mouth is perfectly fragrant, thank you very much. Your mouth is the foul one.”

Li Diudiu said, “So it’s foul because you’ve been eating me all this time?”

Gao Xining: “Tch! Who would eat you.”

Li Diudiu produced the sweets he’d bought from behind his back. “Here — eat these. Once you’ve eaten them, whatever smell of me is in your mouth will be covered up, and your mouth won’t be foul anymore.”

Gao Xining let out a sly little laugh, took the sweets, and the two of them settled down on the steps at the entrance to the Headmaster’s home. Just as Gao Xining opened the box of sweets and was about to eat, a sudden realization struck her. She asked Li Diudiu, “Were you just flirting with me a moment ago?”

Li Diudiu said with perfect seriousness, “Why would I bother flirting with a matchmaker for no reason? And a not very effective one at that.”

Gao Xining laughed and said, “Well, that’s true.”

Then she glared at Li Diudiu. “Who do you think you’re looking down on?!”

Li Diudiu laughed. “Hurry up and eat — they’ll spoil in a moment.”

Gao Xining: “Would you stop talking? Every time you say something I want to hit you.”

Li Diudiu went quiet.

A moment later, Gao Xining nudged Li Diudiu’s shoulder with her own. It was only then that she realized just how tall he had grown. They’d only been apart half a year — how had he grown so fast?

When the two of them had sat side by side before, her shoulder had been higher than Li Diudiu’s. Now Li Diudiu’s shoulder was a little higher than hers. Earlier, when she’d been standing on the step speaking to him, it seemed like he wasn’t much shorter than her even from below.

She stared for a brief moment, then said in a none-too-pleasant tone, “You met Yuan Jiabei just that once, and now Yuan Jiabei’s been placed under house arrest and isn’t permitted outside — I can’t even visit her. Do you have some kind of gift for this? Every girl you meet ends up locked away? Why is it so hard to find you a match?”

Li Diudiu thought for a moment, then defended himself. “I’ve only met two — one is the matchmaker, and the other was Yuan Jiabei. I did Yuan Jiabei wrong, and when the opportunity comes I’ll apologize to her properly. As for you…”

Gao Xining raised an eyebrow. Li Diudiu lowered his head and said, “Of course, you also got caught up in my mess.”

Gao Xining let out a short huff. “I’m not eating!”

She shoved the sweets back at Li Diudiu. Li Diudiu sighed. “Those sweets haven’t done anything to offend you…”

Gao Xining said, “You’re right — the sweets are foul!”

Li Diudiu said, “Impossible. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, it’s my mouth that’s foul, not yours — your mouth is sweet and fragrant, so sweet and fragrant that when you speak I feel like I’m about to pass out from the scent, dizzy and dazed.”

Gao Xining said, “If you can say things like that to your matchmaker, how is it you can’t say them to a girl? You see plenty of young women every day at the Yun Studio Tea House — how is it your mouth doesn’t run like this with them?”

Li Diudiu said, “Didn’t I just say — I’ve handed the matter of my future wife over to you. Anyone you didn’t personally find for me won’t do.”

He handed the sweets back to Gao Xining. “Go on, eat.”

Gao Xining said, “I won’t eat them. I’m afraid you put something foul in there, and then poisoned the foul thing on top of it.”

Li Diudiu stared at Gao Xining with wide eyes. “Ning-ge, you’re a girl — could you show a little more restraint? I’m genuinely worried now about whether you’ll ever be able to get married. You’re out here playing matchmaker for other people, and meanwhile you yourself might end up being alone your whole life…”

At this point in the sentence, Li Diudiu suddenly felt a cold presence settle around him — as if something like killing intent was surging and billowing outward from right beside him.

Li Diudiu instinctively slid his backside to one side, picked up a piece of sweet, bit into it, and said, “How delicious.”

Gao Xining exhaled one long, slow breath.

Then another long, slow breath.

Neither one helped…

She shoved Li Diudiu bodily from the upper step down to the lower one.

—