The little girl looked puzzled but giggled, “You’re handsome.”

Fu Yun Xi’s thought at the time was: whose ill-mannered child is this? After a pause, he said, “Be quiet.”

The little girl looked at him, pouted, and burst into loud wailing again.

Startled by her sudden crying, Fu Yun Xi asked, “Why are you crying?”

The little girl looked at him: “When I’m sad, I cry. Concubine Mother and Father said I’m not allowed to cry in the manor, so I’m crying for tomorrow, the day after, and the day after that all at once.”

Fu Yun Xi was first bewildered by her words, but then understood – she must be an unfavored young lady from some household, bullied by a concubine and hiding here to nurse her grievances. Seeing her cry so sorrowfully, he asked, “How much longer do you need to cry?”

The little girl counted on her fingers: “One, two, three… half a month’s worth of tears, plus future tears, probably about two hours.”

Two hours – Fu Yun Xi couldn’t help but massage his temples. Was he expected to listen to this plain little girl cry for two hours?

The little girl watched his thoughtful expression: “Immortal, do you want to cry too?” After thinking for a moment, she patted her shoulder with an air of grandeur: “Yan Er will lend you her shoulder.”

Fu Yun Xi didn’t know whether to laugh or cry – where had she heard such words? Seeing her genuinely stick out her chest and offer her fragile shoulder, wearing an expression of “I’m very generous,” his expression stiffened: “Thank you for your kindness, but I don’t want to cry.”

“Don’t want to cry?” The little girl asked suspiciously: “But Immortal, you look like you really want to cry. Don’t be afraid, holding back tears will make you sick. Yan Er won’t laugh at you.”

Fu Yun Xi looked down at the tiny girl, thinking of the secret he’d learned today, and spoke with some melancholy, seeming to address both her and himself: “What use is crying?”

This question was rather profound for a little girl. She tilted her head and thought for a long time before answering: “At least it makes you feel better.”

Fu Yun Xi sat down beside her: “Are you feeling better?”

This seemed to remind the little girl, who exclaimed: “Oh my! I was so busy talking to you, Immortal, that I forgot to cry. I still need to cry Mother’s tears, Ji Lan’s tears, Shu Hong’s tears, and Nanny Chen’s tears too.” As she was about to start crying again, Fu Yun Xi, truly afraid of her tears now, instinctively covered her mouth: “Don’t cry.”

The little girl looked at him with puffed cheeks. Perhaps it was her silly expression that seemed somewhat amusing, as Fu Yun Xi couldn’t help but reach out and pinch her cheek.

“I can’t play with you anymore, or there won’t be enough time – I have so much crying left to do,” she said.

Fu Yun Xi looked at her serious expression: “Why not change crying to laughing?”

“Laughing?” The little girl tilted her head in thought: “I can’t laugh.”

His heart stirred – such a small child, unable to laugh, must have endured many hardships, yet couldn’t even cry openly, having to hide in the mountains to shed tears. His tone softened: “Why are you crying?”

The little girl then launched into an endless stream of words, telling how the Concubine in their manor bullied her and her mother, how her father was cold to them, how the servants treated them with disdain. As she spoke, tears began falling uncontrollably. Fu Yun Xi sighed, suddenly feeling a sense of shared suffering.

Life wasn’t easy – who could claim to have it better than others? The young child before him had her unspeakable sorrows and grief. Seeing her cry without cease, he comforted her: “Shall I catch a small fish for you if you promise to stop crying?”

In these deep mountains, clear springs bubbled melodiously, their waters so transparent that the colorful fish playing beneath could be seen. He was so bothered by this little girl’s tears that he unprecedentedly offered comfort to another.

Seeing the little girl staring at him blankly, Fu Yun Xi stood up and left, returning shortly with a fishing rod. The young master, who had been pampered since childhood, found himself fishing by the spring for the first time, all for a little girl. Seeing him like this, the little girl found it interesting and stopped crying, sitting obediently beside him, watching the float in the water.

“Immortal, why do you need to cry?” Fu Yun Xi was lost in thought when he heard the little girl beside him ask.

He stated: “I haven’t cried.”

“Your eyes aren’t crying,” she pointed at Fu Yun Xi’s chest, “but here is crying.”

Fu Yun Xi was stunned, staring at the little girl before him for a long while. She had seen through his vulnerability.

But Fu Yun Xi merely said coldly, “I’m not.” Seeing his cold expression, the little girl shrank back fearfully: “This place is crying, which is sadder than eyes crying. Mother says people who cry here are very pitiful.”

He didn’t respond, a cold smile playing on his lips.

“Immortal, will you come back here to fish again?” she asked.

The youth’s expression was indifferent: “Perhaps not. I leave for battle tomorrow, and might not return alive. This meeting with you was merely fate.” He regarded his own life and death with detachment, even thinking that dying on the battlefield would be good – then he’d never have to return.

The little girl looked at him, not understanding his meaning: “You won’t come back?”

The youth glanced at her: “That’s right, so this colorful fish will be a parting memento for you.”

But in the end, that little girl never saw him catch the colorful fish.

Not long after, two anxious-looking maids arrived, calling out “Young Miss” to their little mistress while watching him warily. As the maids led her away, the little girl waved at him carelessly: “Immortal, see you again!”

Again? How could there be another time? This parting left life and death uncertain – perhaps they’d meet in the next life, or perhaps never again. He lowered his head, pulling up sharply with his wrist, and a beautiful fish gleaming with blue phosphorescence broke the water’s surface, flashing beautiful halos in the air.

This fish – he hadn’t given it to her.

He smiled, removed the fish from the hook, and released it back into the water. The blue fish flicked its tail, creating a splash of water drops, and quickly disappeared beneath the surface.

“If I survive, I’ll come see you again,” he softly told the water, then looked at the path where the little girl had disappeared. The face in his memory blurred almost instantly.

Well, at the time she had been a mess of tears and mucus, and Fu Yun Xi hadn’t paid much attention to her appearance. He only remembered that pair of eyes, freshly washed by tears, extremely clear – as if everything in the world reflected in her eyes would be profane.

The next day, Fu Yun Xi departed with the army. The youth sat tall upon his horse, raising his head to look at the distant azure sky, his expression extremely profound.

In the subsequent battlefield, amid clashing weapons and seas of fire, the youth matured rapidly in just a few short years, becoming detached, aloof, profound, and composed. He had transformed from an arrogant youth into a handsome young man who remained unperturbed even before thousands of troops, unparalleled in his grace – he had truly grown up.