The second day after the matchmaker came to propose marriage, before daybreak, Lu Ju was awakened by certain sounds. Turning over in her bedding, she drowsily saw a slender shadow. Though the man’s long green robe concealed a willow-branch-thin waist, the gray kerchief bound up hair beautiful as silk and satin, and dark powder covered jade-smooth skin, somehow the sight still felt very pleasing to the eye. Like their young miss—once glimpsed, difficult to overlook. However, the aura she and the young miss carried was completely different.
“It’s not even light yet—you’re leaving already?” Lu Ju rubbed her eyes, seeing more clearly.
“If it’s light, people might see me. Better to leave early.” Mo Zi put on men’s black cloth boots with white soles, tightened the straps of her bulging backpack, hung it on both shoulders, stamped her feet, squatted and stood several times to confirm everything was in order. “Lu Ju, I’m going.”
“Mm.” Lu Ju suddenly sat up with a start. “Mo Zi!”
“Yes?” Mo Zi, one hand lifting the curtain, turned her head back.
“I heard the coral hairpins from Nande are really beautiful.” Lu Ju had always wanted one.
“I’ll bring one back for you. Anything else?” Mo Zi’s eyes sparkled in the dim light. “Think carefully—we won’t be doing this business again in the future.”
“Nothing else.” Lu Ju felt cold, rubbed her arms and burrowed back into the bedding, mumbling, “No silver left anyway.”
Mo Zi wanted to say: if she had no silver, who did? Usually Lu Ju was the most frugal, saving the most silver. Xiao Yi’s monthly wages all went to weapons. Bai He loved buying various spice seeds and kitchen knives and cookware—the rarer, the less she hesitated. For Lu Ju to beg to buy something, it must have gone through her repeated consideration, cautiously and carefully, liked to the point of irresistibility before she made the decision.
So Mo Zi said nothing more, went out and closed the cloth curtain, walking into the courtyard.
Xiao Yi quietly jumped down from the roof, as if she’d just woken from sleeping on the tiles. Her slender grass-blade eyes couldn’t quite open, but her mouth was sucking on the sweet nectar root of a scarlet sage flower.
“You slept on the roof last night?” Mo Zi felt that people with superior martial arts all had some unusual quirks, though she didn’t know if Xiao Yi’s skills counted as superior, having no comparison.
Xiao Yi shook her head and spat out two words: “The tree.”
Wanting to ask if Xiao Yi had slept comfortably, then thinking what nonsense—better to be straightforward and leave quickly. Mo Zi prepared to go behind the house.
“Mo Zi.” Bai He ran out from the small kitchen, calling out in a low but urgent voice.
Mo Zi stopped in her tracks. Seeing Bai He approach, she also lowered her voice. “You’re not keeping night watch in the young miss’s room—what are you doing in the kitchen?” One after another, did they all have to see her off?
“At this hour, the young miss is sleeping soundly—it’s fine.” Bai He lifted the bundle in her hand and stuffed it toward Mo Zi. “The young miss decided hastily, and I didn’t have time to prepare anything else, so I just made ten crispy flatbreads for you to eat as dry rations on the road.”
Mo Zi’s hands instantly felt warm—clearly just out of the pan. If others spoke of making flatbread, it would be something that chewed like wax, hard and disgusting enough to make you vomit as dry rations. However, when Bai He spoke of making flatbread, it was her uniquely created thousand-layer dough, filling and delicious food. But this thing took great effort to make—ten cakes required two or three hours.
“Don’t tell me you stayed up all night just to prepare this.” If Qiu Sanniang constantly tested her impassively, occasionally making her contemplate becoming a runaway maid, then Bai He and the others always used their warm, kind hearts to bind her with chains whenever she wanted to flee, causing repeated hesitation and reluctance to leave.
“Didn’t sleep last night, but I can sleep tonight, can’t I?” Bai He didn’t mind. “I made few this time—prepared only for you. Don’t share with those rough boat gang fellows. Don’t they all have wives at home? It’s not that they don’t bring dry rations—they’re just greedy and want to snatch yours.”
“Having wives is true, but they don’t have such good cooking skills.” Mo Zi blinked, smiling mischievously. Changed into men’s clothing, she looked even more like her former military self, almost free of the constraint she had wearing maid’s clothes.
“Never you mind!” Bai He pursed her lips. “Good or bad, it’s their wives’ heartfelt intention. Just keep your own portion safe. Out in the world, who can guarantee nothing will go wrong? If in the first few days you let them trick and coax away all your dry rations, when something happens, won’t they only care about their own lives—who would be willing to share with you?”
“Don’t think of people so badly. These boat gang fellows, though they love joking around daily and seem rough and careless, are actually quite loyal.” Mo Zi spoke well of those rough fellows she’d shared hardships with.
“The young miss taught us long ago—men can’t be trusted. Besides, haven’t our eyes seen enough? Scholars, merchants, boat gang—men are all the same. Even if they can show loyalty to men, can they show loyalty to women?” Bai He didn’t believe it. “Moreover, you’ve only traveled with them a few times—what loyalty! In any case, keep an extra eye out for yourself in all matters.”
“…” Being told to keep an extra eye out by someone without guile left Mo Zi speechless.
“Let’s go.” Fortunately, Xiao Yi was getting impatient.
“Bai He, don’t worry. I memorized this route in my brain from the very first time. Once unfamiliar, twice familiar—this is my third time. I could arrive safely even blindfolded.” No time for a debate conference—she could only smooth ruffled feathers. The better someone’s temperament, the more unpredictable when they erupted. “Hurry back to the young miss’s room, in case she wakes and no one’s there. Oh, is there anything you want me to bring back?”
“Nothing. Just come back safely. Then we sisters can go together with the young miss to see the capital.” Having said this final sentence, Bai He turned and entered Qiu Sanniang’s room.
“Bai He will definitely be a very nagging mother in the future.” Mo Zi turned, walking and talking with Xiao Yi.
“Right now, she’s a very nagging big sister.” Xiao Yi giggled.
Standing at the base of the back wall, Xiao Yi’s form flickered, taking Mo Zi as she leaped up. Using the strength of hands grasping the wall top, they mounted the wall. Twice in succession, she easily delivered the person outside the mansion.
“Mo Zi.”
Today everyone had to call her name once before they’d be satisfied. Mo Zi looked up, smiling eyes gazing at Xiao Yi crouched on the wall top. “You have something to bring back?”
“…” Xiao Yi reacted slowly. “If I must say something, yes. Anyway, if you see a particularly good dagger, bring me one.”
“Mm.” Now she could leave.
“Wait, that’s not it—what I wanted to say.” Xiao Yi’s thoughts were simple, and her words were simple too. “That… when you come back, don’t rush back, understand?”
“I…” don’t understand—
However, the wall top was already empty of any figure.
What did “when you come back, don’t rush back” mean? If she’d already come back, what did rushing or not rushing matter? Mo Zi turned the phrase over and over in her mind.
“Bright and early, making me solve riddles.” Her head hurt. “Xiao Yi, you come and go like the wind—quite dashing—but at least explain yourself clearly! Come back or not come back—which is it?”
Mo Zi looked up at the little grass on the wall, sighing, shrugging the bundle on her shoulders, and turned around.
The sky showed pale gray-purple, wrapping that solitary shadow.
White walls, black eaves, blue-green shadows—like ink, like smoke, drifting gracefully away.