Li Diudiu’s life seemed to return to calm after those brief two days of upheaval. Every day he was the first to arrive at the classroom and unlock the door, drew water and brewed tea for Teacher Yan Qingzhi, and was the last to leave in the evening — sweeping up and locking the door behind him.

Even Zhang Xiaolin, whom he’d hit before, caused no further trouble. Perhaps because word had gotten around of his recent closeness with Xiahou Zuo — and everyone feared Xiahou Zuo.

That was just how people were. Otherwise, where would the saying “the fox borrows the tiger’s power” have come from?

Li Diudiu had no desire to be that fox sheltering under the tiger’s might. In the two or three days that followed, he didn’t run into Xiahou Zuo at the dining hall at all. He supposed that fellow had only found him curious and made contact because of that, and from here on, there probably wouldn’t be much further connection between them.

At last, the ninth day of his time at the academy arrived. Li Diudiu’s heart had already grown impossible to contain. He grew more restless by the hour.

For an eleven-year-old child, everything he cherished and clung to was his master. Tomorrow there would be a day off. Tomorrow he could see his master again. Xiahou Zuo had said his master would surely be waiting outside the Daoist temple — and Li Diudiu believed it without doubt.

“Hey, you.”

Just then, while Teacher Yan Qingzhi had stepped out, Zhang Xiaolin called out toward Li Diudiu. The call didn’t faze Li Diudiu at all, but it startled Liu Shengying into a small shudder. That child still hadn’t adjusted to being away from home — though he went back every afternoon when class ended. Of all the students at Four Pages Academy, Li Diudiu alone was an exception: after classes ended each afternoon, he couldn’t leave the academy gate, because Yan Qingzhi had made that a rule specifically for him. The stated reason was that he was poor — though by what logic, no one could quite say.

Li Diudiu turned to glance at Zhang Xiaolin, then said nothing.

Zhang Xiaolin sneered. “Do you think you’ve climbed up onto Xiahou Zuo’s high branch? I’m telling you — he’s done for. Which means you’re done for too.”

Li Diudiu’s heart clenched.

“What happened to Xiahou Zuo?”

Li Diudiu asked.

Zhang Xiaolin laughed. “Haven’t you noticed? It’s been days since he’s been seen anywhere in the academy.”

Li Diudiu asked again, “What happened to Xiahou Zuo?”

Zhang Xiaolin said, “Beg me. Beg me and I’ll tell you.”

Whoosh — a flicker of movement in front of Zhang Xiaolin’s face, and somehow his body shot upward… Zhang Xiaolin stood half a head taller than Li Diudiu, but in that single instant, Li Diudiu had seized him by the collar with one hand and hoisted him into the air.

Li Diudiu said, one word at a time, “I’m asking you one more time. What happened to Xiahou Zuo?”

Zhang Xiaolin, who had been hit by Li Diudiu twice before, was certainly afraid — his face had gone white. But he still held on.

“Let me tell you, Li Chi — you have no backing now. Xiahou Zuo got on the wrong side of someone he shouldn’t have and was beaten to death. You’d better watch yourself. Without Xiahou Zuo to cover for you, let’s see how you swagger around now.”

Li Diudiu’s face changed. “He was beaten to death?”

Zhang Xiaolin scoffed. “Scared? Then put me down right now… ah, ah—”

Whoosh.

Zhang Xiaolin flew. He hit the floor hard, the breath knocked clean out of him. It took a good while before he recovered. By then, Li Diudiu was already gone from the classroom.

Xiahou Zuo had said: if something comes up, go to the private courtyard to find him. Li Diudiu still wasn’t entirely clear on just how unusual Xiahou Zuo was, but the fact that he occupied such a singular private courtyard in a place like Four Pages Academy already said something.

Because of that, Li Diudiu felt that within the academy, no one would dare lay hands on Xiahou Zuo. Zhang Xiaolin said Xiahou Zuo was dead — Li Diudiu didn’t believe it.

He ran all the way to the private courtyard. When he reached the gate, he realized his hands were shaking — he couldn’t tell whether it was from nerves or from running.

The small courtyard gate was shut. Li Diudiu swallowed, raised his hand to knock, and found it trembling even more.

This wasn’t his first encounter with death. The first time was when his family and relatives died from a plague — but he’d been too small then, too young to understand anything.

Just as he raised his hand to knock, the gate creaked open.

Xiahou Zuo, one arm in a sling, had been about to head out. The moment the gate opened, he found himself looking at Li Diudiu’s slightly pale face. He stood there a moment — then burst into roaring laughter, bending forward and shaking with it, for reasons that no one could quite say.

“What the hell are you laughing at!”

Li Diudiu bellowed, then turned and walked away.

Xiahou Zuo fell into step behind him, shameless as ever.

“Were you worried about me?” he asked.

Li Diudiu said, “Just came to check whether you’d died in your little courtyard.”

“There are plenty of people who want me dead. Not many who can manage it.”

Xiahou Zuo laughed and said, “You’re the first person who’s ever worried about me.”

“That can’t be right.”

Li Diudiu said, “Don’t you have any friends?”

Xiahou Zuo looked at Li Diudiu, then nodded. “Now I have one.”

He exhaled a long breath. “Do you drink?”

Li Diudiu shook his head. “My master doesn’t allow it.”

Xiahou Zuo said, “Masters aren’t always right. Come on, come back with me. Have a drink.”

His right arm was bound in a sling, and there was wrapping around his neck too — he clearly had injuries elsewhere on his body. Yet his face showed no sign of having been struck. That took a certain degree of vanity to pull off.

Xiahou Zuo led Li Diudiu back to the small courtyard. He brought out a crock of wine. With his left hand shaped like a blade, he struck the seal off the top with a single slap. For some reason, watching him open the wine like that, Li Diudiu thought it looked rather impressive.

Xiahou Zuo poured two bowls, and pushed one toward Li Diudiu. “Drink up.”

Li Diudiu asked, “Why do you suddenly want to drink?”

“Drink first, then I’ll tell you.”

Xiahou Zuo raised his bowl and gulped it down in one go.

Li Diudiu picked his up and took a small sip. In the past, his master had said wine was sharp and stinging, bad for the mind — children shouldn’t drink it. It would make you a fool. Most of all, his master was simply too frugal to ever buy wine, though the old man craved it desperately. Wandering the Seven Counties, every time he passed an empty wine crock or a discarded flask, he’d stop and sniff it.

At the time, Li Diudiu hadn’t found it pitiable or admirable — he’d simply thought his master was extremely stingy. But Li Diudiu now understood what his master had sacrificed for him over all these years.

He took a sip. Nothing in particular struck him. He found it faintly sweet. So he tilted the bowl back and drained it in one go. In an instant, a warm current settled into his stomach, and Li Diudiu found it rather wonderful.

“How is it?”

Xiahou Zuo had been waiting for Li Diudiu to cough and splutter.

But Li Diudiu showed no reaction whatsoever. He smacked his lips happily and said with a beaming smile, “Sweet.”

“Sweet?”

Xiahou Zuo looked at Li Diudiu. “Open your mouth.”

Li Diudiu opened his mouth.

“Say something,” Xiahou Zuo said.

“Ah…”

Xiahou Zuo peered in. “You didn’t hide any either. What’s wrong with your tongue?”

Li Diudiu said, “It really is good. Sweet.”

Xiahou Zuo sighed. “You’re a freak.”

He poured Li Diudiu another bowl. This time he didn’t drain it in one go — he held the bowl and drank it slowly, sip by sip, looking as though he had many things weighing on his mind.

Li Diudiu asked, “You still haven’t said why you wanted to drink.”

Xiahou Zuo smiled. “Almost every student in this academy has been bullied by me. Even the teachers don’t want to pick a fight with me. So I genuinely have no friends. I crook my finger and people swarm to me — but they come out of fear, not willingness. You’re different… Word has probably spread around the academy by now that I was beaten. You’re the only one who came to check on me.”

Li Diudiu laughed sheepishly. He didn’t know what to say either.

“Maybe it’s because you’re still a child,” Xiahou Zuo said, shaking his head with a small smile. “Children don’t think about things that deeply. You just felt a connection and came to have a look.”

He exhaled again — as though far too much had been pressing down inside his chest and abdomen for far too long. Every time Li Diudiu saw him, he was smiling. But the bitterness buried behind that smile was something he told no one.

Not anymore.

Now he wanted to say it. But he felt it was shameful to say, so he drank first.

Two bowls down, a faint flush had crept into Xiahou Zuo’s face. He looked over and saw Li Diudiu was pouring himself a third bowl. Xiahou Zuo was startled and snatched the crock away. “Your first time drinking and you want this much? Are you trying to die?”

Li Diudiu said, “Heh heh… it’s good.”

Xiahou Zuo looked at him sidelong. “Finish that bowl and you’re done. If Yan Qingzhi finds out you’ve been drinking during class hours, he’ll have grounds to expel you after all.”

“I don’t care anymore,” Li Diudiu said. “If he doesn’t expel me, I’ll deliberately fail the monthly evaluation so badly he has to send me away. I don’t want to stay in this place anymore. I want to go find my master.”

“Talk nonsense like that again and I’ll—!”

Xiahou Zuo suddenly let fly a crude oath.

“If you do something like that, who are you being worthy of? Worthy of your master?! If you intentionally walk out of this academy, I’ll… I’ll beat you to death.”

He said those last three words with tremendous force.

Li Diudiu lowered his head and said, “It’s too painful. I’m here eating well, sleeping well, dressed well, and my master is homeless, sleeping on the street. It’s truly too painful… here.”

He pressed his hand to his chest. “It aches badly.”

“Then find a way to earn money yourself.”

Xiahou Zuo said, “Leaving the academy now is running away. The most worthless kind of man runs away. A man with backbone faces things head-on. What is hardship? Hardship is the enemy. If you leave the academy now to rough it out with your master on the streets, you’re surrendering to the enemy.”

Xiahou Zuo said, “A man can’t live like that. A man pushes through. Refuses to yield. If someone tries to push me around, I push back. If fate tries to push me around, I push fate! “

He looked at Li Diudiu. “Carve it into your head: if you refuse to yield, you push.”

Li Diudiu suddenly felt a surge of fire rising in his chest and belly. Perhaps it was the wine taking hold. This fine-featured, handsome young boy slapped the table with a resounding crack. “Push!”

His hand hurt.

Xiahou Zuo looked at him like that and couldn’t suppress a satisfied smile.

“Li Chi — sit down and let me talk to you for a while…”

Xiahou Zuo leaned back, resting the back of his head on the chair and looking up at the sky. His voice had gone slightly hoarse. “There are plenty of people in this academy who want me dead. Not because they want it themselves — because someone has told them to want it.”

The look in his eyes as he stared at the sky held a deep thread of hatred.

“My father is a powerful man. High rank, great authority. My mother was a servant… you might find it laughable — a man of such power and position, and he thought a little maid was his one true love. So I came to be… but that household had no room for my mother. No room for me either.”

He looked down at Li Diudiu and gave a bitter smile. “So I was sent out of the family. My brothers — legitimate and illegitimate — all knew that even though I was born of a concubine, my father favored me. They were afraid I’d claim a share of the inheritance one day. They’d be thrilled if I were dead.”

Li Diudiu slapped the table. “Then I’ll protect you!”

Xiahou Zuo looked at the boy’s slightly childish display and burst out laughing — laughing until the corners of his eyes grew faintly damp.