At twilight, the river’s flowing waters were like a mirror.

Lifting my eyes, the entire heaven and earth were shrouded in this pale evening light.

I lay in a light boat, not controlling the oars, letting the river wind carry me as I listened to fishermen’s evening songs.

I didn’t know where Song Langsheng could go after leaving the Princess’s mansion, nor did I know what he was doing at this moment.

That day, I thought that after he left, I would stay alone in the mansion facing empty rooms, healing my heartbreak for three to five years. What a dark future that would be.

After returning to my room and thinking all night, I left Father Emperor a letter saying I wanted to broaden my knowledge. At dawn, I slipped out of the city gates and rode fast horses southward.

Fortunately, this journey showed me endless green shadows and blue cliffs, flowers like brocade, and I encountered many people and events. The initial melancholy gradually dispersed in the vast heaven and earth. Looking back on the past, I sometimes had the… illusion of seeing things as passing clouds, my heart broad and clear.

Well. Actually, this morning I was still sighing about the wonderful meaning of “taking a step back for vast seas and skies,” then turned around and spent half a day arguing with a young couple over a rare fish by the river.

The so-called “step back for vast seas and skies” naturally means stepping back for others while broadening one’s own sky.

However, that young couple were local villagers, and more importantly, my male attire cost me the privilege of ladies first, so that fish was still snatched away by others.

The fisherman apologetically gave me two green fish and, seeing my reluctance but noting the fisherman’s youth and harmlessness, plus his offer to personally grill the fish, I accepted the gesture.

That night, I sat by the fire on the shore, drinking wine and eating fish while appreciating the spring river, flowers, and moonlit night. Beside me sat not a handsome Prince Consort but a village fisherman—a scene full of lonely desolation.

When the wine was flowing freely, the young fisherman suddenly said: “Little brother, might you be drinking too much?”

I was too lazy to respond, but heard him add: “Drinking hurts the body.”

I said: “You really meddle in everything—helping young couples buy fish, telling strangers about their drinking. You’re really nosy.”

The young fisherman looked at me somewhat awkwardly. I said drowsily: “Not to mention someone would be stupid enough not to do business selling one fish for a silver ingot. Originally I grabbed it first, but you changed your tune when you saw that little lady was pregnant. If that’s not overflowing kindness, what is it…”

I vaguely heard someone by the riverbank shout “Song Langsheng…” which startled me into jumping up and looking around. But it was just a girl running toward a boy, calling “Song Lang.”

I sat back down dejectedly to continue drinking, staring dazedly at the fire roasting fish, the rising smoke full of Song Langsheng’s silhouette.

The young fisherman beside me pulled me away from the fire: “So close to the fire, the smoke brought tears to your eyes.”

I wiped away the tears circling my eyes with the back of my hand: “I was already crying—it wasn’t from the smoke.”

The young fisherman was completely stunned, obviously never having thought a grown man would say “I was crying” to another grown man after getting drunk. He stammered: “Cry… men don’t shed tears lightly, you…”

I simply tore off my false beard and untied my hair band, letting my black hair scatter in the wind: “Now can I shed tears as I please?”

I think I was truly drunk that night, so much so that what I said afterward, when I returned to the small inn, how I returned, and what happened—I remembered none of it after waking up.

Only when I regained consciousness did I feel the bed creaking and swaying, my body shaking uncontrollably, my heart sinking with a thud. Opening my eyes, everything was already irreversible.

Oh, the above sentence might be ambiguous, but what I mean is…

There was an earthquake.

The hangover made my movements sluggish. In a flash, the walls collapsed. Unable to avoid it, falling beams broke my leg, the sound of breaking bones accompanied by sharp pain that scared my mind blank.

In the palace, I often heard officials discuss natural disasters, and those in high positions always fought with minds and wits. Only now… did I feel what powerlessness meant.

On the edge of life and death, many people flashed through my mind—Father Emperor, Mother Empress, the distant big brother, Crown Prince brother, and… my beloved Prince Consort. No, he was no longer my Prince Consort. At this moment, he had fled to some corner of the earth. If I was about to die and he knew, would he be sad for me?

At the critical moment, someone suddenly rushed through the door, kicked away the beam pressing on my leg, carried me on his back, and jumped straight out the window. The moment we landed, looking back at the building that had instantly collapsed into ruins, and waiting until heaven and earth returned to dead silence, the fear in my heart didn’t calm for a long time.

The sharp pain in my leg almost brought tears. I endured it and looked up to finally see clearly who had saved me from danger—it was the young fisherman who had drunk with me last night. I looked at him in confusion, completely unable to understand why this chance acquaintance would risk his life to save me. But before I could ask, consciousness gradually left me. I said “Save people to the end, send Buddha to the west, Green Fish Brother” before peacefully fainting.

Unexpectedly, this unconsciousness lasted three days and three nights. When I woke, the first thing I saw was a middle-aged woman in plain blue clothes with a rather arrogant expression looking at me: “If you hadn’t woken up, you would never wake up in this lifetime.”

Later, I learned this woman was called Lin Danqing, whom the townspeople called Qinggu.

A few years ago she came from Linchuan Medicine King Valley, possessing life-saving medical skills, but with poor medical ethics. Even if patients died at her doorstep from terminal illness, without enough silver, seeking treatment was wishful thinking.

I was puzzled—not to mention the Princess’s jade seal, all the silver I carried was buried underground. How would this profit-seeking aunt let me seek treatment in her courtyard?

Qinggu didn’t answer, only saying I should thank that little brother well. Without his timely delivery, this leg would have been unsaveable.

Was it him?

When Green Fish Brother entered the room, his worried face relaxed slightly. He sat down to comfort me, saying how excellent Qinggu’s medical skills were, that within a hundred days I should be able to get out of bed and walk. He hoped I wouldn’t worry and should just rest here and recover.

Only now did I truly look at him properly, discovering he had a clear, handsome face that looked very gentle when smiling. I asked: “How did you persuade Qinggu to save me?”

He shook his head: “I only agreed to let her treat my illness.”

“Treat illness?”

“I have a strange disease. Qinggu had discovered it before and wanted to treat me, but I refused. With treating your leg as the condition, I agreed.”

I was quiet for a moment: “A disease that would interest someone like Qinggu must not be an ordinary ailment.”

Green Fish Brother smiled lightly without speaking. I continued: “And your previous reason for refusing—was it because the risk of treatment was greater than not treating?”

Green Fish Brother shrugged: “Since it’s decided, I won’t think about it again. Why must the young lady worry so much?”

“Why?”

“Hmm?”

I let out a long breath and asked: “Why risk danger to save me? Why be willing to do what you originally didn’t want to do just to get someone to treat me? We’re strangers who barely had a chance encounter.”

Green Fish Brother was silent, his expression gentle and quiet: “That night’s events—can’t you remember any of it?”

That drinking night? What happened?

I tried hard to recall, but my thoughts remained blank: “I just remember getting drunk, then waking up to earthquakes…”

Green Fish Brother was amused by my appearance: “Miss is ice-smart and clever. The reason—someday you’ll be able to guess it.”

Since he wouldn’t say, I didn’t press: “I still don’t know what you’re called.”

“I have no name.”

“?”

“A few months ago, someone saved me when I was unconscious by the riverbank. When I woke, I had forgotten my name.”

“…I see…”

Thus, I didn’t know what to respond either.

I forced a smile in return, and he left to busy himself with his own affairs. I lay alone on the bed, staring at the ceiling. Looking back later, those days were actually quite difficult for me.

Stranded in a corner village after disaster, sleeping on a hard board bed that hurt all over, the broken leg often waking me from finally achieved sleep with pain. Waking to darkness, strange bedding, unknown flying insects chirping outside the window—that feeling was truly a bitterness that no amount of crying could relieve.

Only in such nights did I realize my own fragility. I thought I understood many principles and saw through many schemes, always immersed in the world of love unable to extricate myself, thinking I could wait so many years for big brother yet always moving myself first, blaming the Prince Consort thousands of times in my heart for all the grievances I suffered for him. So when I learned he wanted to poison me, I truly thought of ending it all. But I don’t understand—if I didn’t even fear death, why would I cry endlessly over such small physical suffering?

On nights of wild thoughts and tossing and turning, I would occasionally hear the shallow playing of flute music. I didn’t know who was playing, only that the flute sound was soothing and beautiful. Listening to it, I would no longer feel restless and would fall peacefully asleep.

After the natural disaster came epidemic.

I heard that several doctors sent by the government died suddenly from the epidemic before they could even write prescriptions, showing this epidemic’s fierce onset was beyond what small town doctors could handle.

Before imperial physicians from the capital arrived, the government sealed and isolated the affected villages to prevent anyone from escaping and spreading it to neighboring towns. But this made the village like purgatory—the dead exposed, the living waiting to die.

If Green Fish Brother hadn’t taken me away from the village to this small town one step earlier, I would have died of disease even if not crushed to death.

Naturally, countless people broke down Qinggu’s door threshold. Government officials and county magistrates personally visited, all turned away by her.

She was busy developing medicine to treat Green Fish Brother.

My leg bone was severely broken, and I couldn’t move lying in bed all day. Qinggu was taciturn, only personally changing my medicine when it was time. Otherwise, she stayed in the medicine room not knowing what she was concocting. As for Green Fish Brother, before the medicine was completed, he did whatever he should do. At meal times, he would consciously bring fish and vegetables to make several light dishes for me. Seeing me bored, he remembered to bring me a couple of books. Once I teased him: “Seeing how considerate and attentive you are, your future wife won’t know how happy she’ll be.”

After I said this, his whole face turned red as a persimmon, unable to speak for a long time.

When bored, I would guess Green Fish Brother’s background: “I think… in stories, people like you are usually great villains who originally commanded the wind and rain, killing countless people, then suffered severe injuries and wandered among the people, gradually moved by simple folk. Then you slowly recover your memory, feel guilty for past deeds, and finally use your abilities to help more people, becoming a great hero whose name will last forever.”

Green Fish Brother laughed: “Why not that my evil nature erupts and I kill everyone in the village?”

I said: “Life has so many frustrating things. If storytellers can’t convey hope, what joy would story readers have?”

Green Fish Brother’s smile was full of kindness: “Since the young lady thinks this way, don’t drown sorrows in wine anymore.”

I said: “You’re really strange, always calling me ‘young lady.’ Aren’t you curious about my surname, name, or where I live?”

Green Fish Brother somewhat awkwardly turned to clean up bowls and chopsticks. I called again, and only then did he turn back, seeming very composed: “What’s so important about not knowing a name? In two months when the young lady’s leg injury heals, won’t you be leaving here?”

I was stunned: “So?”

Green Fish Brother shrugged and smiled: “So I won’t ask. I still have things to do. Rest well, young lady.”

Just as he walked out, Qinggu emerged from the adjacent room, holding a bowl in one hand and chopsticks in the other, looking at him with seeming mockery, then at me, shaking her head: “Tsk tsk, one stubbornly won’t speak, one plays dumb to the end. Ah, young people…”

I watched Green Fish Brother’s departing figure, thinking of Qinggu’s words, couldn’t help falling into contemplation.

After that day, I never saw Green Fish Brother again.

Initially I thought he was delayed by something, but more than half a month passed without seeing him.

I asked Qinggu many times, but she wouldn’t answer. She found an old woman to cook and clean for us, then continued burying herself in the medicine room, never stepping out.

Without Green Fish Brother, I had no books to read during the day and no flute sounds to accompany my sleep at night. Only then did I realize that though this person was neither warm nor cold, he easily made people feel dependent. Coming and going without a trace like this left me quite unaccustomed to the silence.

As days grew warmer, the flowers and plants in Qinggu’s courtyard bloomed joyfully, especially the sunflowers. When gentle breezes passed, the flower cups reflected in bright sunlight created warming feelings, so much so that when Green Fish Brother reappeared, the flower colors made his entire person shine golden.

At the time I was walking unsteadily in the courtyard with a crutch. His sudden appearance almost made me fall. Seeing this, he quickly tried to help me but carelessly tripped on the stone steps first. I was stunned, couldn’t help laughing heartily, and he also smiled embarrassedly as he got up.

He said he had spent this past half month fishing at sea.

The harvest was especially large, including the deep-sea cod I had wanted to buy but couldn’t get. In the coming days, he would make a whole fish feast for Qinggu and me.

Looking at his face, I asked: “Why does your complexion look so poor?”

Green Fish Brother’s gaze drifted elsewhere: “Seasickness. I’ll be better in a couple days.”

“…” A fisherman gets seasick?

Green Fish Brother’s complexion took a full ten days to show slight improvement. Seeing my daily inquiries about his health, he finally couldn’t help saying: “I’m truly fine, just caught a slight cold.”

I worried: “With the epidemic raging now, could you have been infected?”

Green Fish Brother said: “I’m very moved by your concern, but…”

I interrupted: “If you’ve caught the epidemic, don’t get too close to me. I’m weak and fear infection…”

Green Fish Brother: “…”

I was naturally joking, but that day Green Fish Brother’s smile was very forced. I didn’t ask why. Though we weren’t very familiar, silence had already become our tacit understanding.

That night I heard flute music again. I lay in bed struggling for a long time before finally getting up, dressing, and following the sound with my crutch, limping along. As expected, sitting on the stone steps in the moonlight, quietly playing the flute, was Green Fish Brother.

Hearing the crutch sounds, he stopped and turned to see me. I gestured in a circle and smiled: “Qinggu’s medical skills are truly remarkable. Look, in just two months I can come out for walks. What a coincidence.”

Green Fish Brother nodded slightly, saying softly: “Yes, what a coincidence.”

I sat beside him and picked up his bamboo flute to examine: “I was wondering—so the beautiful flute music these days was you playing. Hey, what tune is it?”

Green Fish Brother smiled slightly: “I don’t know either. I just pick up the flute and can play.”

I played with the bamboo flute: “This unremarkable broken flute can make you produce master-level flute sounds. Do you think you might have been a musician before?”

Green Fish Brother was amused by me.

I continued: “How about this—when my leg heals, I’ll buy you a jade flute. Maybe you could produce some heavenly music that lingers for three days?”

This time Green Fish Brother didn’t laugh. He raised his eyes, his gaze sweeping across the moon in the sky: “Tomorrow I must go to sea again, return date uncertain. Miss, in one month your leg injury should heal completely, right?” He looked at me: “Go home early. A young lady shouldn’t wander around anymore, worrying your parents.”

The wind was warm, brushing the stray hair on my forehead ticklishly. I nodded, my smile insincere: “Mm, I shouldn’t anymore.”

Green Fish Brother stood up and said gently: “It’s late. Time to rest. Let me escort you back.”

Until he escorted me to Qinggu’s courtyard entrance, he said nothing more. When we parted, I clearly saw he wanted to say something, clearly glimpsed something flash in his eyes, but before I could capture it, it was already gone.

I recalled what a fisherman who had fished with Green Fish Brother told me days ago by the roadside: “Him? He sold his boat long ago. How could he still go to sea with us? Not to mention going to sea—yesterday I asked him to lend a hand, but he couldn’t even pull a fishing net. Sigh, how did he become like that in less than two months?”

Two months—since he saved me.

When I pulled the covers back over myself, I told myself repeatedly not to think about anything, that there were no problems, and once my leg healed I should leave peacefully.

Closing my eyes, I quickly fell into dreams.

In the dream, thousands of turns and returns featured Song Langsheng and that woman who got drunk by the river that night.

That woman, removing her hair ribbon with one hand and holding a wine pot with the other, said to the fisherman trying to stop her from drinking: “I, the person I’ve liked since childhood, liked for a full seven years…” She choked up, laughed, but tears flowed down: “My husband, at the birthday feast I prepared for him, in my bowl… he put poison, called Soul-Forgetting powder…”

The fisherman looked at the woman in shock: “Soul-Forgetting powder?”

The woman laughed again: “Right, you don’t know what that is, do you? I don’t know either. He only told me that if I was poisoned, he could leave me…”

The fisherman was dumbfounded: “One day… one forgetting? How… how could he be so cruel to you?”

The woman didn’t hear clearly what he said, only shaking her head and crouching down, pitifully wiping her tears. The fisherman also crouched down and said seriously: “If your husband treats you this way, perhaps you could tell your parents truthfully. You really shouldn’t give up on yourself like this…”

The woman drew circles with her finger in the sand pile on the ground: “But, but…”

“But what?”

“But I still like him…” The woman looked at the fisherman grievously: “No matter how he treats me, I can’t bear to hurt him… Tell me, would you envy him?”

The fisherman sighed sympathetically.

The woman also sighed: “I envy him too… Someone like me, beautiful as a celestial being, pure as ice and jade, with face like flowers and moon, could treat him so wholeheartedly, devoted forever, giving silently without complaint…”

“…You call this without complaint?”

“Don’t interrupt! Anyway, I just envy him, understand?” The woman, in full drunk state, decisively waved her hand: “I also want, I also want to be liked, not the kind where he likes me because I’m good to him. I don’t want to always be the one chasing, don’t want to always be the one giving, understand? I also want to be liked… want to be liked… I haven’t been embraced for so, so long…”

Speaking of this, she finally lost consciousness and fell headfirst into the sand pile.

I suddenly sat up from the bed.

Outside the window, the sky was slightly bright. I woke from the dream.

How did Green Fish Brother know… that Soul-Forgetting powder causes one day, one forgetting?

Second Update, Praying for Ya’an

I heard Qinggu’s footsteps and quickly covered myself with the quilt and closed my eyes, pretending to sleep.

Her steps were very light and slow, as if intentional. After a moment, hearing her secure the door, I sat up again, put on shoes and socks, picked up the crutch by the bed planning to follow, but heard the crutch make a crisp “tap” sound and stopped.

Using the crutch would definitely alert Qinggu.

Looking at my injured foot and thinking of all of Green Fish Brother’s abnormal behavior since appearing, I hesitated no more. Setting aside the crutch, I gritted my teeth against the pain and quietly followed closely.

Fortunately, the distance was less than one incense stick’s burning time. I saw Qinggu carrying a basket of something into a dilapidated house.

Supporting myself against a large tree, the bone pain made my teeth chatter, and even on such a cool day I was sweating profusely. I approached the house step by step, stopping before the door and looking inside through the window gap.

I saw Green Fish Brother sitting sideways to me at a round table. Qinggu took out a cup of something from the bamboo basket, set it down, and said in a heavy voice: “Have you thought it through?”

Green Fish Brother smiled without answering, only saying: “If I die, you must still heal her leg injury. If she asks about me, just say I went traveling far away.”

My heart felt as if it had been severely struck.

Qinggu’s gaze was cold and emotionless. She only said: “You don’t even know her surname or name, and she will soon forget you, probably never knowing in this lifetime how much you sacrificed for her.”

Green Fish Brother shook his head: “I don’t need her to remember me. I’m just doing what I want to do.” After speaking, he opened the medicine cup’s lid, held it with both hands, and prepared to drink it all at once.

I forcefully pushed open the door, the panels on both sides slamming hard against the walls.

Ignoring their shocked gazes, I looked at Qinggu and angrily asked: “What are you giving him to drink? Why do you say it’s a nine-in-ten chance of death?”

Green Fish Brother put down the medicine cup and stood up: “Miss, how did you… how did you find this place…”

Qinggu slightly recovered and carefully examined me: “To track me, you don’t even want your own leg anymore…”

I repeated, asking word by word: “I ask you what you’re giving him to drink?”

Green Fish Brother quickly moved a chair in front of me: “Sit down first…”

I ignored him, only looking at Qinggu. Qinggu looked at me quite amusedly and answered: “Poison, poison mixed with many strange toxins.”

I said: “Would a grand physician not heal people but harm them instead?”

Qinggu said: “He’s not sick…”

Green Fish Brother interrupted Qinggu: “Qinggu, let me talk with her alone…”

I stared deadly at Qinggu. Qinggu curved her lips: “He’s not sick, just originally poisoned.”

“What poison did he take?”

Qinggu looked at me with interest: “Even if I tell you, you probably haven’t heard of it. The poison he took is called Soul-Forgetting powder. When it enters the brain marrow, initially the victim forgets everything experienced each day, then the toxicity spreads throughout the limbs and body, memory can gradually recover, but unfortunately… after two years when the poison fully manifests, the five organs and six bowels will rot and die.”

For a moment, I truly thought after hearing her words, I would collapse and fall to the ground.

I had never imagined that the poison Song Langsheng gave me could be so cruel.

Green Fish Brother told Qinggu to shut up, but Qinggu continued indifferently: “When he was first poisoned, I saw him and told him about the poison’s nature. I know how to prepare Soul-Forgetting powder. Though I don’t know the poisoner’s dosage, I can roughly use competing poisons to fight poison with poison—there’s still a thread of hope. But this foolish boy said something about life and death being destiny. He’d rather spend his final days in peace, recovering all memories before dying, than die confused from fear of death. I couldn’t force him. Who knew a girl would appear and make him willingly take this risk.”

I opened my mouth and asked: “Is Soul-Forgetting powder truly a fatal poison?”

Qinggu said: “Unless the poisoner is willing to reveal the formula for making the antidote, otherwise with his condition, I previously only tested with small amounts of toxic substances. Not only couldn’t I suppress the poison, but I added poison to poison, making him vomit a whole bed of blood and fall unconscious for over half a month. Now this life is temporarily salvaged, but…”

Green Fish Brother wouldn’t let me hear more and simply pulled me outside. I shook off his hand, looked at him, trying to make my voice sound not too out of control: “This is… this is what you call going to sea?”

Green Fish Brother didn’t speak. Qinggu said: “Since she already knows, why not let her understand the truth rather than continue deceiving?” She looked at me: “His poison has begun spreading. If delayed further, medicine will truly be useless. Based on his last poison attack symptoms, I guessed the poison amount in his body and prepared this medicine. If he truly can survive this ordeal, most of the poison in his body will be cleared. With proper care, I’m confident I can cure him with the third medication.”

I asked: “If he truly survives? What certainty do you have that he’ll survive?”

Qinggu said: “Thirty percent.”

I swallowed: “If he doesn’t drink this medicine today, how long can he live?”

“Perhaps a year, when memory is restored, perhaps longer.”

I looked down at my own clenched knuckles turning white, not knowing what else to say.

Seeing I no longer questioned, Qinggu also said no more and walked out.

Only Green Fish Brother and I remained in the room.

From beginning to end, Green Fish Brother worried about my leg injury, repeatedly asking me to sit down. This time I obediently sat down. He crouched down and lifted my trouser leg, asking: “Does it hurt badly? How… how could you be so reckless?”

I looked down at Green Fish Brother’s concerned gaze, my thoughts in complete chaos: “Just for this leg of mine, you’d gamble with your life?”

Green Fish Brother looked up. I asked: “You wouldn’t tell me, you never told me the truth from beginning to end—was it because that night by the river you heard me say my husband also wanted to give me Soul-Forgetting powder, and you feared if I knew this medicine could kill, I’d be heartbroken and sad, right?”

Green Fish Brother stood up, pulled another chair beside me, sat down, and said softly: “Don’t easily believe things not personally verified. Even if true, don’t punish yourself for others’ wrongs.”

I looked at his completely bloodless face. Even so, he still tried hard to smile, wholeheartedly thinking of me.

“Don’t do this anymore.”

Green Fish Brother frowned: “What?”

“Don’t… don’t be good to me anymore.”

Green Fish Brother said: “I’m not being good to you for your sake—I’m doing it for myself. Didn’t you hear Qinggu say? I only have one year of life left. Only by taking desperate risks…”

“Green Fish Brother.” I interrupted him: “I don’t like you.”

Green Fish Brother was stunned.

“I don’t like you, even though you treat me so well; my liking for him is bone-deep, even though he treated me that way.” I exhaled: “So don’t be good to me—it’s not worth it.”

Green Fish Brother stared blankly at me. I turned my head away, not daring to look at him anymore, but suddenly heard him say: “It’s worth it.”

I thought I misheard.

His voice was light as mist, but his tone was firm as rock: “You’re worth more than anyone else in this world.”

I slowly turned back, not knowing how to respond.

“The first time I saw the young lady by the river, you said you also wanted to be liked, not because of your devotion but purely liked.” Green Fish Brother’s eyes sparkled: “At that moment, those words somehow turned me into that kind of person.”

I felt a buzzing in my head, the wall built with thousands of bricks and tiles in my heart collapsing in an instant.

“Don’t feel guilty because of me, don’t sacrifice anything because of me—that wasn’t my intention. No matter what happens after I drink this medicine, remember: after your leg heals, go home. After returning, ask your husband for a clear explanation. Don’t wrong your years of true feelings…”

I bit my lower lip hard: “What if he still hurts and harms me?”

Green Fish Brother was stunned again, lowering his head: “Then you should let him go and find someone who truly cares for you…”

“Being good to someone doesn’t mean indulging her thoughts and allowing her wishes.” I said resolutely: “If you want to be good to me, it’s not dying like this and making me feel guilty for life, but living.”

I said: “Live, and then you can ensure I’m doing well. If someone hurts me again, protect me with all your ability.”

Green Fish Brother was stunned. In his originally black eyes was a faint mist, the deep and shallow drifting gaze seeming to gather. After a long while, he smiled slightly and said: “Though I know the young lady is deliberately provoking me, but…”

He stood up, took down the bamboo flute hanging on the wall, and handed it to me: “Give me a name.”

I was dumbfounded: “What?”

“If he betrays you again, if you can’t find peace, then bring this bamboo flute to find me.” He said: “I will try not to die—no, I will live. I will tell everyone nearby my name. You just need to come and ask—you’ll be able to find me.”

Outside the window, flowers bloomed like brocade, gentle breeze bringing waves of floral fragrance.

Green Fish Brother’s smile was as warm as sunflowers. The direction that had been unclear these days gradually became clear.

I took the bamboo flute.

“Xu Fang.” Sunlight filtered through leaves into the room, creating spots of light: “Let’s call you Xu Fang.”