Luo Ren remained silent.

Mu Dai freed herself from his embrace, reaching out to smooth the wrinkles on his clothes, and said, “I’ve always felt that between the two of us, something is missing.”

“It’s not that you’re not good to me, or that we deliberately hide things from each other. It’s just that some things aren’t ready yet, like a series of knots that can’t be smoothed out.”

Luo Ren smiled slightly. Mu Dai had always been intelligent, but then again, where in this world could one find someone truly oblivious?

He asked softly, “Have I made you uncomfortable?”

Mu Dai shook her head. “Not really.”

“We were different to begin with. Before meeting me, you were already a sharp-edged Little Knife Luo. You have so many issues that if you dumped them all on me at once, I might not be able to handle it, or I might even be scared away.”

When a man and woman first meet, they’re primarily attracted by each other’s appearance. No one is obligated to see through the surface to love your pain, experiences, thoughts, or inner depth. But gradually, as feelings deepen, when you smile, she smiles too; when you hurt, she cries as well.

She rose on tiptoe and gently kissed Luo Ren’s lips, saying, “Little Knife Luo, let’s take it slow. We have time.”

Cao Yanhua had returned and was waiting for her. Mu Dai winked at Luo Ren, then turned to leave.

After just a few steps, Luo Ren suddenly caught up, grabbed her arm, and pulled her aside.

Unfortunately, Cao Yanhua chose this moment to be insensitive: “Little Master, they’re checking tickets.”

Luo Ren was annoyed: “Go away!”

The train station announcements were already reporting train arrivals. Luo Ren knew time was short: “I need to return to the Philippines.”

His expression was grave. Mu Dai suddenly felt anxious: “Is it dangerous?”

“Yes, dangerous.”

“Will you come back?”

Luo Ren hesitated: “As long as I’m alive, wherever you are is where I’ll return.”

This answer didn’t satisfy her. She stood motionless, staring at him, her eyes slowly misting over.

Luo Ren felt at a loss. After a pause, he cleared his throat and said, “Don’t be upset. Your master is ill, you need to go back…”

Before he could finish, Mu Dai turned and walked away.

Cao Yanhua hurried after her with small steps: “Hey, Little Master, wait for me, wait…”

Luo Ren smiled bitterly. Behind him, people rushing for trains pushed and shoved, quickly forcing him aside. The hall was filled with voices, suddenly making everything confusing. Luo Ren slowly sat down on a bench.

He understood why Mu Dai was angry. It was his fault for hiding things for too long, not giving her any time to react. In these final moments when every second counted, he suddenly told her he was leaving, and with an uncertain fate…

Suddenly, he heard Cao Yanhua’s voice again: “Hey, hey, Little Master, where are you going now…”

Luo Ren looked up reflexively and saw Mu Dai struggling against the flow of people, trying to push her way out, but the crowd entering the gates was too dense, and she failed twice.

Instinctively feeling she was coming to find him, he quickly walked over.

Across the turnstile, Mu Dai reached out and fiercely grabbed his collar.

“I’ll arrange things with my master as quickly as possible. Once that’s done, I’ll come find you, understand?”

He’d never seen her so fierce before. Her eyebrows drawn together, her face like a steamed bun, making him want to pinch it.

“I understand.”

“Send me messages every day to let me know you’re safe, where you are, where you’re sleeping, understand?”

“I understand.”

“Every day…”

Finally, she faltered, unable to find more words. She glared at him twice, released her grip, and turned to leave.

Luo Ren watched until her figure disappeared, then looked down at his chest, where his clothes were wrinkled from her grip. He tried to smooth them out but couldn’t.

How much strength had this little girl used?

Back in the car, he saw Yi Wansan holding a rooster with one arm while Huo Zihong sat far away, covering her nose and muttering about the smell.

Letting his car—a Hummer—transport a chicken? Wasn’t that a job for poultry transport vehicles?

Luo Ren frowned: “You want this chicken to ride in my car?”

The rooster seemed to know they were talking about it; its small eyes revealed a mix of melancholy and shyness.

Yi Wansan said, “Whatever. Either that or let the chicken run alongside the car. As long as it can keep up, I have no objection.”

Huo Zihong poked her head out, craning her neck to look at the hunting lights on the car roof: “Luo Ren, or we could tie the chicken to the hunting lights—when the car speeds up, the chicken’s head in the wind, super chicken car!”

What ridiculous suggestions. Luo Ren was so angry that he wanted to grab them both and throw them out.

They couldn’t just hold it back, and what if the chicken decided to relieve itself in the car…

So they first went to the farmers’ market, making the two get out to buy a chicken cage, and an air freshener if available.

While waiting, his phone rang. He recognized the number—it was Dr. He’s psychology clinic.

Strange. He Ruihua never called him. Had something happened to Pin Ting?

Luo Ren answered: “Hello?”

There was static, then after a pause, the voice spoke: “Luo?”

Luo Ren’s nerves suddenly tensed.

“Qingmu? Why are you at the clinic?”

“I came to take Pin Ting away. If I remember correctly, you said Pin Ting is your most important relative.”

Yes, that was true. Although they weren’t blood-related, after Uncle Luo Wentiao’s death, Pin Ting was indeed his most important family member. But why suddenly take Pin Ting away?

“The Leopard has entered the country.”

Luo Ren’s mind buzzed, momentarily blank.

He steadied himself: “Is the information reliable?”

Qingmu gave a cold laugh.

He was a proud man who insisted on being thorough in his words, information, and actions, and he despised being questioned.

So he didn’t answer Luo Ren, continuing instead: “I know you’re out of town, so when I got the news, I came immediately to help you relocate Pin Ting—you understand the Leopard. She particularly enjoys torturing people you care about. Your little girl is the perfect example.”

Luo Ren’s throat tightened.

“Do you know where she is now?”

“No, she just entered the country. She probably won’t make any moves for a while. But she’ll come for you eventually, Luo. You took out one of her eyes.”

“Good that she’s coming. Saves me the trouble of finding her.”

Qingmu paused: “There’s another strange thing. The Leopard’s people entered the country months before her and have been active in many remote areas. I’m still investigating. I’ll let you know when I have more information… Also, watch over your little lamb.”

“What?”

“Your little girlfriend. In case the Leopard uses her against us, I’m afraid you’ll be too hesitant to act freely. So find a way to hide her well. Don’t let her ruin things.”

On the train, Mu Dai and Cao Yanhua sat facing each other.

Her mind was in chaos, thinking of Luo Ren one moment and her master the next. Her gaze inadvertently drifted to Cao Yanhua, and she blurted out: “Why did you buy a chicken for no reason?”

“Fate.”

“Oh.”

The Little Master believed that? Cao Yanhua found it incredible. He’d thought she would smack him on the head.

Mu Dai said, “Do you know how my master accepted me as her disciple?”

Mu Dai’s master also lived in Yunnan, south of Chuxiong, near Ailao Mountain, in a remote but quiet small town.

They had met in Kunming.

At that time, Mu Dai had just experienced her tragedy. Huo Zihong wasn’t sure whether to settle in Lijiang or Dali, so she took her to stay temporarily in Kunming.

She couldn’t sleep well every night, often crying and dreaming of Wenwen, dreaming that Wenwen’s family came to her door and scattered thumbtacks before her.

Huo Zihong said, “Mu Dai, if your heart is truly troubled, go to the temple to burn incense, donate some money, and speak your heart to Wenwen.”

Near their residence was a Guanyin temple, Rongji Temple. It wasn’t crowded, was peaceful, and didn’t charge an entrance fee, so Mu Dai often went there.

That day, as usual, she knelt on a yellow brocade cushion, looking up at Guanyin Bodhisattva. The Bodhisattva’s face was kind, with long, slender eyebrows, appearing approachable. Mu Dai’s tears fell drop by drop as she spoke softly to the Bodhisattva.

—Bodhisattva, I am a sinful person.

—I dreamed of Wenwen again. She didn’t blame me and even handed me tissues to wipe my tears. The more she acted like that, the worse I felt.

—If only I knew martial arts, if I had powerful skills, I could have saved Wenwen…

She remembered it was afternoon. Slanting, slightly warm sunlight shone through the wooden lattice windows into the hall, casting diamond-shaped patterns on the ground. Outside the courtyard, dense bamboo rustled as the wind blew, making a soft, swishing sound.

With a tear-stained face, she looked up and saw that someone else had entered the Buddha hall.

It was an elderly woman with a kind, benevolent face like the Bodhisattva. Her hair was gray but neatly coiled into a bun with an old silver plum blossom hairpin. She sat in a wooden wheelchair with a blue felt blanket covering from her knees to her feet.

That was Plum Blossom Ninth Lady.

Mu Dai thought she had come to burn incense and feared she was in the way, so she wiped her tears and stood up listlessly. As one foot crossed the threshold, Plum Blossom Ninth Lady suddenly asked her, “Young lady, do you want to learn martial arts?”

…

Cao Yanhua’s mouth opened wide enough to fit two eggs, completely disbelieving: “How could that happen? Don’t you know how hard it is to find a good master? One who actively approaches you?”

Mu Dai said, “My master is a person who greatly values predestined connections.”

“She said that before me, she had only accepted my senior brother Zheng Mingshan as a disciple. But my senior brother didn’t particularly like light body techniques and was always busy with wrestling and fighting, dabbling in everything. As for the sect’s skills, he wasn’t very proficient. My master, for certain reasons, wanted to accept a final disciple.”

“Master came to Kunming and visited several martial arts schools, but found none suitable. Either their aptitude wasn’t good, or their families weren’t willing to entrust their children to her. She said she happened to pass by Rongji Temple, knowing it was a Guanyin sanctuary. Something moved her heart, so she entered, also hoping to pray to the Bodhisattva to bless her in finding a suitable disciple.”

“By chance, she saw me in the Buddha hall, crying and saying I wanted to learn martial arts. Master said, being at that place at that time, her wanting to teach and me wanting to learn—if we hadn’t met, that would have been that, but since we did meet, it was fate.”

At this point, she changed the subject: “Chubby Cao, do you usually want to buy chickens?”

No, he only wanted to eat chicken—spicy chicken, cumin chicken, roasted chicken wings, chicken soup.

“So why did you suddenly want to buy one at that particular moment?”

Because at that moment, his mood had suddenly dropped. He felt that nobody cared about him, except for that rooster, which quietly looked at him.

What was that lyric? “Just because I looked at you once in the crowd.”

Mu Dai said, “Isn’t that fate? A moment earlier or later, you wouldn’t have wanted to buy it. Just like on the Chongqing Yangtze River cable car, if you hadn’t decided to steal from me, you wouldn’t have wanted to be my disciple.”

She lifted the curtain to look at the scenery outside. The train was moving fast, with distant telegraph poles rapidly passing by one after another.

Cao Yanhua asked: “What kind of person is my grandmaster? Will she be unwilling to accept me as a disciple?”

Mu Dai said, “She’ll ask you questions. Just be honest and don’t try to pull any tricks in front of her. Your skills are just a pinky finger compared to my master’s—don’t keep thinking of yourself as the great Cao from Liberation Monument…”

She lowered her voice: “My master said that back in the day, when she went to rob wealthy households, she used no knife or gun. She would sit cross-legged on the main house beam and tell the owners that if anyone could make her move, she wouldn’t take a penny. But if they couldn’t overcome her, they’d have to give her a thousand silver coins.”

Cao Yanhua’s eyes lit up as if hearing a legendary story: “Then what happened?”

“Those servants and guards climbed up ladders to attack her. Ouch, ouch, they were all kicked down. The master of the house turned green with anger. He wrapped ten tubes of silver coins in red paper and had servants bring them up on a gold-lacquered tray. My master then came down, took the silver coins, and left a piece of green tile on the gold tray. On the tile, she had carved a plum blossom with a swallow perched on its tip. While sitting on the beam, she fought off attackers with one hand and carved with the other, not neglecting either skill.”

Cao Yanhua stared blankly: “What does the swallow mean? Swallow… Li San?”

“Not exactly. Master said that at that time, Swallow Li San’s reputation was too big in the Beijing-Hebei area, and many people borrowed his name.”

“Then what was the meaning of leaving a tile?”

“The homeowners would properly place this tile on the eave of their main house. It signified that this household had been looked after by Plum Blossom Ninth Lady of the Swallow Sect. If others in the trade respected this, they wouldn’t come to rob a second time.”

Cao Yanhua pursued the question: “What if someone came to rob a second time?”

Mu Dai glared: “They wouldn’t dare!”

The grandmaster was indeed formidable. Cao Yanhua felt proud by association. Suddenly, he thought of something: “Then how did your grandmaster’s legs become disabled…”

Before he could finish, he realized his mistake. Mu Dai’s expression changed, and she raised her hand to swat his head.

It must be a sect taboo. Terrible, terrible! Cao Yanhua’s scalp tingled as he squinted, preparing to receive her slap…

Thank heavens, Mu Dai’s phone rang.

It was Luo Ren.

Answering, he asked from the other end: “What’s the next station?”

The next station? Mu Dai wasn’t sure. Fortunately, a train attendant was passing by, so she quickly asked and told Luo Ren.

He said, “Get off at the next station.”

“Why?”

“No time for why. Get off the train and exit the station.”

Mu Dai’s heart skipped a beat. She vaguely guessed what was happening. After a pause, she said: “Alright, I’ll tell Chubby Cao.”

“No need to tell him. Let him continue the journey.”

…

After hanging up, Cao Yanhua looked eager: “Was that my Brother Luo? Little Master, you just said you needed to tell me something. What is it?”

Mu Dai coughed twice: “It’s like this… your master… must get off at the next station…”

“Weren’t we going all the way to Chuxiong? Why get off at the next station?”

“No, no, no, you continue the journey. We’ll meet up in Chuxiong and then go to master’s place together.”

“But why?”

…

After getting off and exiting the station, she saw Luo Ren’s car at the end of the crowded flow of people. The four hunting lights on the car roof were like bright eyes. Luo Ren leaned against the car door, waving to her from afar.

Mu Dai stood in the crowd with a plastic bag, smiling. When most people had dispersed, she finally sauntered over.

Luo Ren asked her, “Earlier, you said you wanted to take me to meet your master. Why?”

“Because my master is an old-fashioned person. She says, ‘Heaven, Earth, Ruler, Parents, Teacher’—a master is almost the same as parents. If I have someone I care for, unless she sees and approves, it doesn’t count.”

Luo Ren made a sound of acknowledgment, his brows furrowing.

After a while, he looked down and straightened his clothes: “So, do you think what I’m wearing is acceptable?”