Ye Qi unbound the thick stack of journals, singled out three terrain maps, and compared them with the drawing on Wu Run’s fan. Indeed, all were seventy to eighty percent similar, and the differences among these three maps were precisely in those two bleached areas.
“Which means that all three of these places could possibly be the location Senior Wu Run indicated?” Changling asked strangely. “Even so, the scope of these terrain maps is so vast—how should we search?”
Ye Qi pointed to the poetry inscribed on the fan, pondering, “‘Along the frontier passes stretching ten thousand li, a flock of shadows heads south. Aboard a boat one may gaze, shadows reflecting the traveler’s heart’… Both this poem and painting were drawn by Ancestor Wu Run himself, so the scene naturally depicts his personal experience. We should first arrive at this place and, following what’s written in the poem, start from the frontier mountain passes, then journey through rivers, lakes, and seas, traveling south by boat. If we can find the pine and cypress trees and deep pool waters mentioned in the second half of the poem… perhaps we’ll be pretty close.”
The young marquis had mentioned this theory once before. At that time, Changling had felt that searching for secret texts by following mountains and waters was too unreliable. Now, though the scope had narrowed, these three locations were scattered across heaven and earth, north and south, still giving one the feeling of searching for a needle in a vast haystack.
Changling’s expression was somewhat bewildered for a moment. She spaced out for a while, then saw Ye Qi stand up and bend slightly to look at her, his face full of smiles. Changling asked inexplicably, “What are you smiling about? Is now the time to be smiling?”
Ye Qi moved close to her face. “When I think about how in the coming days you’ll accompany me traveling north and south, touring famous rivers and streams of this great land, those days will be as carefree as an immortal’s—how can I not smile?”
“But with this method of searching, it won’t be found without spending a year or two…”
“The world is vast. I believe life-extending methods are far from limited to what we know,” Ye Qi smiled faintly. “I’ll try every possible way to find it, until we succeed.”
Changling’s heart subtly beat a few paces faster. She couldn’t help but wonder, “Before, you always had the air of someone ready to prepare your affairs at any moment. How have you become so contrary today?”
“Actually, when you told me ‘who can live in this world without any bonds,’ I had already made my decision…” Ye Qi gazed deeply into her eyes, saying with a smile, “You staked the greatest obstacle on your path of vengeful revival as a wager just to save my life. How could I let you lose that bet?”
Seeing him recover his vigorous will to survive, Changling actually felt several degrees of joy rise from the bottom of her heart. She no longer cared how long the journey to the East Sea or West Sea would take. “Good. We’ll pack up immediately and prepare to set out. I refuse to believe that if we trek across mountains and rivers, visiting every place on the map, we’ll still come up empty-handed.”
Ye Qi grabbed her hand, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. “Even if we go, we can’t just leave at the drop of a hat. The martial arts conference is imminent. If we miss it like this, all our previous efforts will truly be wasted.”
Hearing this, Changling actually raised her eyebrows. “So what if we miss it? A gentleman’s revenge is never too late, even after ten years. Since I’ve already lain dormant for ten years, I don’t mind waiting one or two more years… Moreover, since Fu Yangui has survived, once we leave, won’t Shen Yao’s death be not far off?”
Ye Qi was startled. “You don’t want to personally… kill Shen Yao?”
“Between personally killing him and personally saving you, which is more important—how could I not distinguish?”
This sentence came without hesitation, yet it made Ye Qi’s gaze freeze—she valued revenge more than her own life, yet she valued his life more than revenge.
“Have you forgotten about our He family’s information network? For these three locations, I’ll first send letters dispatching people to investigate. Message hawks will be several times faster than your urgent horseback travel, and moreover, they can proceed simultaneously. As for us, we’ll continue to stay in Jinling waiting for Seventh Uncle’s news. After attending the martial arts conference, perhaps we’ll have ready-made leads and can head there directly?”
Changling considered briefly and felt his reasoning wasn’t without merit. She only said, “But Wu Run’s secret texts—quite a few people in the jianghu have heard of them. Can you guarantee that the people you send out are absolutely safe? If they leak even the slightest hint…”
Ye Qi said, “This isn’t difficult to handle. I’ve had chronic illness since childhood. To treat my disease, I’ve troubled quite a few of the He family’s human and material resources. This time I’ll just say I’m searching for ice lake pool water that can heal injuries. Naturally, no one will be suspicious.”
Seeing Changling still had a hesitant look, he added, “Moreover, going to the martial arts conference may not be without gains. Have you forgotten Zhou Qin?”
“Zhou Qin? What does she have to do with this…” Changling suddenly reacted. “You mean… Master?”
“The silk pouch that Master Jiaye gave Zhou Qin will surely play a role then. I keep feeling… Master Jiaye will also appear at the martial arts conference…” Ye Qi said, “And don’t you remember? My master and I also agreed to meet then.”
With so many matters recently piling up, Changling’s mind couldn’t keep up with the turns. She had almost forgotten that when she helped Zhou Qin, it was to see her master. By then, with him and Jiagu present, perhaps they could resolve the Ice True Qi restriction on Ye Qi?
“You’re still more thoughtful.” Changling nodded. “Then we’ll follow your plan.”
Hearing this, Ye Qi touched her head. “This is the first time you’ve praised me as ‘thoughtful.’ Could I have misheard?”
Before he finished speaking, Changling poked his paw with one hand. “You’ve certainly grown quite capable!”
Ye Qi fled while laughing heartily. “Without capability, how could I get Second Young Master Yue to listen to me?”
A moment later, clanging and banging sounds came from the bedroom, along with Young Marquis He’s long-absent hearty laughter.
Passing by, He Song saw quite a few servants whispering secretly, mentioning unspeakable matters between the young marquis and Miss Jing. The more he listened, the more outrageous it became. He couldn’t help but dismiss everyone, gazing ahead and shaking his head repeatedly with emotion. “Beauty clouds judgment, beauty clouds judgment. The heavy burden of the He family must still be borne by me after all.”
Over the next half month, Ye Qi truly carried out the image of “beauty clouding judgment” to the end. Not only did he show no avoidance, but disregarding the court officials’ discussions, he insisted on getting engaged to “Jing Changting,” giving Changling a legitimate reason to come and go from the He residence—in any case, Changling wasn’t really Miss Jing. Things like how the Jing family just held funeral rites so how could they hold a celebration were completely disregarded. When the Jing clan leader came to denounce her, she simply disappeared without a trace, leaving everything for Ye Qi to handle.
Changling wasn’t skilled at dealing with these court families’ false courtesies. Ye Qi simply didn’t let her respond. Even Shen Yao’s summons he could deflect with Tai Chi-like evasions, smoothing over all the troublesome trivial matters properly. Most of the time, Changling was in seclusion practicing martial arts—on one hand to restore her tenth-level technique to its peak before the martial arts conference, on the other hand, she also hoped to gain new insights during this time that might benefit treating Ye Qi’s illness.
However, the True Scripture of Sakyamuni emphasized the character for “stillness.” The more her heart had attachments, the more often she encountered obstacles. Each time this happened, she didn’t force herself, simply going out to change her mood and seek other methods—such as confirming whether Fu Yangui had awakened today.
Speaking of which, although Lingbao Pavilion’s elixir had saved Fu Yangui’s life, Prime Minister Fu’s injuries were truly too severe. It was heard that over the past ten-plus days he had mostly been in a dazed stupor. Occasionally when he woke, he could barely speak, and after blinking a few times, he’d fall back into a confused sleep.
This account came from Fu Yanyang. Originally, Changling didn’t quite believe it, until one day she secretly broke into the Prime Minister’s residence and covertly monitored for most of the day, confirming that Fu Yangui hadn’t quietly awakened when no one was around. Only then did she reluctantly believe his injuries truly hadn’t healed.
She felt no happiness about this. In fact, she had been secretly tracking Fu Yangui’s condition from Ye Qi, originally intending to use threats or enticements, whatever it took, to make him fill in the blank spaces on the folding fan once he recovered—unfortunately, since he wouldn’t even wake up, this step couldn’t be taken.
After several twists and turns, she wasn’t without gains. At least through these past days of observation, she discovered another matter—Fu Yanyang’s capabilities far exceeded everyone’s imagination. Not only the affairs of the Fu residence, but even the Fu family’s dealings with court matters, he handled everything thoroughly and smoothly. The Yulin Guards even tried to plant something under the pretext of seeing an assassin break in, but in the end, Fu Yanyang quietly resolved it, and Shen Yao failed to weaken the Fu family’s influence as he wished.
“Second Fu’s performance is indeed beyond expectations. After all, everyone previously treated him as incompetent.”
Under the moonlight, Ye Qi and Changling lay side by side on the rooftop. After hearing this, he didn’t seem to show much surprise, only saying, “But if Little Fu didn’t have some ability, how could he have made the fan end up like this?”
“What do you mean?”
“Blood staining the fan isn’t strange. What’s strange is that with his elder brother critically ill and dying, he still had the presence of mind to use vinegar powder to remove blood traces from the fan…” Ye Qi crossed his legs. “Obviously, he did it deliberately.”
Changling sat up abruptly. “Why would he do that?”
“Think about it—if we had directly obtained the complete folding fan, finding Wu Run’s secret texts would be easy, right? Then at that time, Fu Yangui would have no value. Even if we didn’t act, Shen Yao could act.” Ye Qi tilted his head. “But if he gives seventy percent and hides thirty percent, the situation is different… Just like how you visit his house every few days. If you happened to see someone trying to kill Fu Yangui, do you think you would ‘casually’ save him?”
With a “puff” sound, the wine flask in Changling’s hand shattered on cue. Seeing her crush the porcelain flask, Ye Qi sat up in fright and grabbed her hand. Seeing she hadn’t cut herself, he breathed a sigh of relief. “Be careful. You keep self-harming for no reason—there’s not much spiritual medicine left in my cabinet.”
Changling said coldly, “If I’d known this kid harbored such thoughts, when I cut his brother, I should have given him one too.”
“His intentions aren’t bad. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have only made two gaps…” Ye Qi said, “It’s just that our positions are different. He doesn’t want his elder brother to die, while you… don’t want me to die, that’s all.”
Changling snorted disdainfully. “He still doesn’t trust us in the end. In the end… we’ve taken on an ungrateful disciple.”
“You can’t say that.” Ye Qi held her hand. “After all, his brother’s critically dangerous sword was struck by you. Fu Yanyang is also very clear about what his brother did to the Yue family in the past. Even with the master-disciple bond, we can’t demand that he trust us without reservation… After all, in this world, too many disasters come from trust.”
Changling didn’t listen at all. “But I hate being schemed against most in my life, and I most hate this tune of being unable to control one’s own fate.”
“But I also scheme against people.”
Changling said, “You’re different.”
“How am I different?” Ye Qi smiled. “I’ve done quite a few unscrupulous things to others too. You just don’t know about them.”
“You’re just different anyway.” Changling insisted stubbornly, “You’re different from all of them.”
This “different” was warm enough to the heart. Ye Qi’s entire being emanated a warm, melting feeling. He drew a circle in Changling’s palm. “Actually, when I took Second Fu as a disciple, I also had ulterior motives.”
Changling said dismissively, “What could you want from him?”
Ye Qi slightly raised his eyes, gazing at thin clouds drifting past the crescent moon, the corners of his mouth curving upward. “That well… you’ll know when the martial arts conference comes.”