As soon as Ye Qi finished saying the prefix “you’re most concerned about,” he regretted it. He clearly knew she had been wounded to the bone by that person—even if she “cared,” it was only remembering to slaughter him. What kind of old vinegar was he drinking here? It was truly petty.
Changling didn’t detect even a trace of sourness in those implied words. She said “Mm,” and added, “I’ve thought about it.”
Ye Qi turned back in surprise. “Ah?”
“When I first entered Jinling, I heard he was Shen Yao’s right-hand man. I became suspicious then,” Changling said. “So I snuck into his bedroom in the middle of the night and lifted his clothes…”
Before she finished speaking, Ye Qi couldn’t restrain himself and urgently interrupted her. “Why did you lift his clothes?!”
“His sleeve. Fu Liujing’s arm here was also once burrowed into by the Twin Heart Gu worm. At the time, a large gash was cut open. I wanted to see if there was a scar, but unfortunately his hand didn’t even have a trace of being bitten by a mosquito… What does that expression on your face mean?”
Ye Qi stiffly turned his head away. “There are plenty of ways to verify if there’s a scar. For you, a young lady, to sneak into a man’s room in the middle of the night… ultimately still…”
“What of it?” Changling said completely unaware. “I used to do this sort of thing often. Once, to kill a Great Yan general, I even hid in a closet and listened to a live spring palace scene for a while, then at the critical moment, with one blade…”
“Enough, stop,” Ye Qi’s ears reddened. “Skip this part. Back to the previous question. You said Fu Yangui’s hand had no scar, so you concluded he wasn’t Fu Liujing?”
Changling: “What else? Am I the type to fabricate things out of nothing?”
“But have you considered that scars can be removed?” Ye Qi pointed to his own forehead. “When I was little, I hit my head. The doctor said it would definitely leave a scar, but later Elder Xiao from Lingbao Pavilion prepared good medicine for me. Now you can’t see it at all…”
Changling paused. “Ordinary wounds might be able to heal, but a Twin Heart Gu scar…”
“Hey, you said it yourself—he transferred the gu worm into an eagle’s body. Since only you had the poison flare up, Fu Liujing never actually had it. If he wanted to erase marks on his body belonging to Fu Liujing, what would be impossible about that…” As Ye Qi spoke, his voice weakened. He turned his head sideways and saw Changling’s footsteps pause.
Her eyes seemed to waver as if unable to bear the weight, then she looked up at him. “Is it really… him?”
He had originally thought that after hearing his words, Changling should be in the stance of grabbing a blade to hack someone down. Unexpectedly, she didn’t display any killing intent, and even seemed to want to overturn this possibility…
Ye Qi’s heart suddenly felt a bit sour. Whether Fu Liujing was Fu Yangui or not, in plain terms he was just another mask of an enemy. How could she suddenly start caring about Fu Yangui?
Little did he know, the turmoil in Changling’s heart came from her several “close encounters” with Fu Yangui. The man surnamed Fu could use unscrupulous means for his goals, casually treating a stranger like her with meticulous care and false affection—naturally the man surnamed Fu would be the same model. She had more or less thought Fu Liujing had one or two parts of genuine friendship toward her. If it were truly like this, wouldn’t all her so-called “loyalty” and “sincerity” back then have been better off fed to dogs?
The key point was, she had even accepted her mortal enemy’s younger brother as a disciple… Wait a moment?
“I taught Fu Er martial arts and even sparred with him. He should have been able to tell who I am, so he should have killed me long ago…” Changling said. “How did you determine he is Fu Liujing? Do you have any evidence?”
Ye Qi thought to himself: It was precisely Fu Yangui’s abnormal attitude toward her that made him suspicious… Everyone in all of Jinling City knew Prime Minister Fu never paid attention to women. The only concubine in his manor was merely for show. The jianghu even rumored he preferred men—yet he dared compete for her hand in marriage right in front of Shen Yao. To say he fancied Changling’s beauty, Young Marquis was the first to disbelieve it.
But in his selfish heart, he was unwilling to “enlighten” her on this point. Moreover, even if he said it, with Changling’s nature, nine times out of ten she wouldn’t believe it anyway.
Ye Qi helplessly sighed. “I don’t have evidence for now. On one hand, it probably coincides with your initial suspicion. There’s also another point… In these past ten-plus years, only these two ‘resourceful and strategic’ exemplars have appeared by Shen Yao’s side, but Fu Liujing and Fu Yangui have never appeared at the same time. I can’t say I’m completely certain, but the greatest suspect is indeed him…”
Changling felt herself hovering at the edge of “what if.” After thinking, she said, “Previously I was too hasty. It seems I still need to find a way to verify… If it really is him, I…”
“Don’t be impulsive yet. I didn’t mention this before precisely because I was afraid you’d fall into a pit.” Ye Qi said, “If he truly intends to conceal it, he won’t easily reveal his hand. Moreover, your elder brother’s half of the folding fan is still in ‘Fu Liujing’s’ possession. If he really is Fu Yangui and you just kill him like that, wouldn’t this trip have been for nothing?”
“How would it be for nothing?” Changling said without thinking. “You’ve mastered the Ten Thousand Flowers Manual. If it can cure your illness, what does it matter whether we have the other half?”
Ye Qi’s heart jumped.
He had helped her search for Wu Run’s secret manual so that after his death, she could pave a longer road—whether for revenge or for Changsheng’s deathbed instructions. But he had never imagined that her entire heart was focused only on curing his illness.
In truth, never mind that he’d only mastered the first level of the Ten Thousand Flowers Manual—even if he’d mastered all three levels, whether it could extend his lifespan was still unknown.
Since childhood, he’d been accustomed to living one day at a time. His parents died early, and no one around him had ever expected him to “live a hundred years.” Even Divine Physician Ji, Jiagu, and Seventh Uncle had all rushed about for him, but all with an attitude of “do what humans can and leave the rest to heaven’s will.” He had played through life, treating everyone with dragonfly-skimming-water kindness. His only heartfelt emotion had been spent eleven years pursuing an ethereal and impractical shadow—before, he only needed to search. Afterward, silently helping her was enough.
Ye Qi couldn’t describe what flavor filled his heart at this moment. Never in his life had his heart felt so sweetly surging, nor had he ever feared death as much as at this instant.
Changling didn’t notice his absent-minded appearance. Only after his reminder did she think of the folding fan box obtained with such difficulty. She hurriedly retrieved it from her waist and handed it to Ye Qi. “I nearly forgot the main business. Take a look—is this thing real or fake?”
Ye Qi temporarily set aside the myriad thoughts in his heart. After receiving it, he pulled open the wooden box—this box was airtight and could even prevent water. Not a single water droplet could be seen on the fan handle.
Unfolding the fan face, he saw written on this half of the folding fan a line of poetry in casual running script.
“Hu light ten thousand li road,群影 toward south going, riding boat chat… gaze望, shadowç…§ traveler者’s heart?” Changling stared at the characters somewhat laboriously and read it once through, not quite understanding. “What does it mean?”
Ye Qi furrowed his brow and stared for a moment, turning the fan face back and forth. “This should be the first half of a poem. I remember the other half of the folding fan reads: ‘North pavilion hears bell chime, south neighbor pine cypress fragrance, dawn falls into pool water, in the ravine white like scattered snow’…”
“I know. I’m asking, what does this entire landscape poem mean?”
Just as Ye Qi was about to answer, the boat naturally drifted forward. He saw some surviving villagers gathered on the mountain rocks ahead, including Aguo Mei and Adou—all had been rescued. Jiagu saw Changling from afar and waved his hand, shouting, “Hey! Are you all okay!”
This mountain flood came suddenly. In the end, only twenty or thirty villagers survived. Although Jing Wuwei had plotted for Wu Run’s secret manual for a long time, if they hadn’t entered the mountains, this disaster might not necessarily have occurred.
Changling and Jiagu worked together to remove the corpse gu from the remaining people. When asked about their future plans, after discussion, everyone decided to properly bury their relatives’ remains before leaving Yanling Village to see the wider world outside.
Whether there would be fortune after surviving great disaster was unknown. As long as there was still a breath left, they had to grit their teeth and continue walking forward. Wasn’t this the life of ants?
Aunt Tian ultimately still died, but fortunately the village chief survived. On the night of parting, Ye Qi saw Adou gently pat Aguo Mei’s shoulder, saying, “Don’t be afraid. From now on, I’ll take care of you for a lifetime.”
He watched from afar, revealing a faint smile. After smiling, he couldn’t smile anymore.
The world’s treacherous evils—even adults couldn’t protect themselves. How could one promise a lifetime?
When Changling finally forced out the corpse worms from the last person and adjusted her breathing, only then did she have free time. She sat down next to Ye Qi and quietly asked, “Have you figured out the meaning of that poem?”
Ye Qi reached out and stirred the campfire, saying softly, “This poem isn’t difficult to understand. I guess that after Patriarch Wu Run comprehended the Blissful Divine Skill, he happened to be traveling south by boat and spontaneously wrote this poem based on the scenery he saw along the way. That journey had mountains and water, trees and snow. If we can find the location described in the poem, we should be able to find the secret manual or whatever else is there.”
Changling had originally thought the poem riddle would have some special method of solving. Unexpectedly, it was this kind of answer. After a long daze, she stared wide-eyed. “A place with mountains and water, trees and snow… Where under heaven doesn’t have those? With just such a doggerel poem, what does he want us to find? Search to the ends of the earth?”
“Naturally it’s not just this one poem. Actually, the key lies in the painting hidden on the fan face. Look here…” Ye Qi unfolded the folding fan and held it up to the campfire’s light. Through the paper surface, one could see lines sketched with a blue brush. “It should be a map, only looking at it now it’s incomplete. If we can piece together the map from the other half and then deduce based on this poem, we’ll be able to know the approximate location…”
“So… gathering a complete poem still isn’t enough,” Changling said. “We still need the other half before we can obtain the secret manual the Patriarch passed down to us?”
Ye Qi put away the folding fan, returned it to the box, and nodded. “Mm. In other words, unless Fu Liujing can voluntarily appear and hand over the half folding fan in his possession to jointly search for the fan’s mystery with us… otherwise, this folding fan is just waste paper to us.”