Ni Su saw that crooked-neck tree.

Bright light cast dappled patterns through the tree shade. The tree full of greenery reflected against a stretch of vermilion high walls. Within the walls, monthly rose flowers climbed out along the bricks and tiles, cluster upon cluster, vivid and blazing.

That child was about eight or nine years old, wearing a gold-woven red round-collared robe with a silk cord at his waist. The gold and jade beads dangling from it occasionally collided with crisp sounds.

In the earthen pit beneath the tree sat a brand-new box containing some New Year’s money, some small trinkets made of gold and jade, a fine inkstone, a wolf-hair writing brush, and some neatly stacked rice paper—under the sunlight, ink marks were faintly visible on the reverse side.

Noticing someone in the distance, he raised his tender young face and saw dappled light falling on that young woman. Her powder-white skirt hem was lifted by the wind, the snow-white shawl in the crook of her arm also gently swaying. Dark hair, black eyes, fair complexion.

His secret hadn’t been buried yet and someone had already seen it. The child frowned. “Who are you?”

Just this one sentence inevitably reminded Ni Su of that time in the cypress forest outside Dazhong Temple, when in the darkness with heavy snow, that lonely soul who appeared with a lantern had first spoken to her—also like this.

Ni Su didn’t answer him but walked a few steps closer. “You’re burying these here—which year do you plan to dig them out to buy sugar cakes?”

He was still too young. He clearly didn’t know this young woman who appeared to be eighteen or nineteen, yet hearing her easily speak his plan, a trace of astonishment entered his clear eyes. “How did you know?”

“Don’t you have any lessons to attend to today?”

Ni Su asked him instead.

He shouldn’t have answered this strange woman, but seeing those bright, smiling eyes of hers, he hummed in acknowledgment. “My teacher isn’t home.”

“At your age, what do you usually busy yourself with?”

Ni Su squatted beside the earthen pit with him, one hand propping up her chin.

What did she mean by what does he busy himself with at his age? He thought this person was very strange, but the upbringing he’d received still made him speak: “Reading and practicing calligraphy, and I also have to practice martial arts.”

It was a dry, general summary.

“Then what do you play with?”

Ni Su asked him again.

Hearing this, he turned his face. “There isn’t much fun to be had in Yun Jing, but recently I’ve made a friend.”

“You must be very close with him?”

“He cries too much. I’ve fought for him before.”

He said.

Ni Su smiled. This eight or nine-year-old child before her truly seemed so full of life. Under the sunlight, his cheeks were even slightly flushed from the sun.

That was the fresh, vivid blood color belonging to a living person.

“Which family’s lady are you? Why are you here?” he asked again.

Ni Su didn’t answer but picked up a white jade Luban lock from the box—it was Xu Ziling’s favorite object at this time.

She raised her face and indeed saw his eyes fixed tightly on the Luban lock in her hand.

“That’s mine…”

“Now it’s mine.”

Little Xu Ziling’s robe was the most brilliant color here. He had just stood up when his robe lightly brushed her skirt hem. The instant he reached out his hand, she transformed into a pale mist, floating and swaying before his eyes, then dissipating.

Along with her, his Luban lock also vanished without a trace.

Ni Su felt she had experienced what it was like for Xu Hexue to transform into a long mist. Her figure was very faint—it could be scattered widely by the wind or slowly gathered together.

Gathered in a stretch of wind and sand, in the city walls standing on the plateau, her figure faintly and lightly merged into the clamorous crowd.

They were all gathered around a well.

A woman’s cheeks were burned red by the sun. She was cursing: “A defiled woman! One that barbarian used! Our family doesn’t want her!”

The young woman in tattered clothes said helplessly, “I never wanted to enter your family’s door again…”

“After such a thing happened, do you still want to live?”

“Exactly. Things being as they are, it would be cleaner if you just died…”

People spoke in a cacophony, their voices piercing the woman’s heart and lungs like sharp arrows. She asked tremblingly: “Can’t I?”

The crowd grabbed her, trying to push her into the well.

Ni Su stood behind the crowd. She only saw a silver spear like a shooting star instantly embed itself in the tree trunk beside the dried well. Sharp and fierce brilliance flashed. The surrounding people stepped back. She raised her face and saw that young general wearing crimson robes and silver-white scaled armor, mounted on a white horse, looking down from above: “Of course you can.”

Ni Su immediately stepped forward and tightly grasped that woman who had been forced to the well’s edge. At that instant, the general’s sharp eyes swept over. She turned her head and met his gaze.

Wind and sand stretched endlessly.

The young man was clearly stunned for a moment.

Rope was bound around the woman’s body. Ni Su didn’t rush to help untie her but said to her, “Lady A’Shuang, General Xu says you can, so you can. Don’t fear what people say, because none of them has the right to decide your life or death for you.”

Qingqiong’s features resembled hers greatly. Ni Su looked at her. “You must live, live well. Death cannot solve anything—it will only leave you with more regrets. Someone will know your goodness.”

And someone is waiting to be your son.

Not a ghost fetus, but a living, breathing person.

“Where did this little lady come from?” Xue Huai looked at her attire—it truly didn’t match this border city’s wind and sand. He had just curiously looked at her twice more when the sword hilt of the general on horseback knocked his head. He cried “Ai” and turned his head back, only to see the young man’s expression was strange. He clicked his tongue. “Little Advanced Scholar, why did you hit me?”

Xu Hexue ignored him, his eyes fixed again on that woman. Seeing her untie the rope for A’Shuang, only then did she have time to turn her face. The more he looked, the more he felt an inexplicable familiarity.

Sunlight was bright and clear. The common people of Yongzhou City didn’t dare act presumptuously before this general. They didn’t even dare look at him much. But Ni Su, supporting A’Shuang with one hand, raised her face to scrutinize him.

His skin wasn’t pale, but in this border city with intense sunlight, his complexion wasn’t particularly dark either. His bone structure was still that bone structure—less of a scholar’s gentle refinement, more of a military general’s sharpness.

Silver crown, dark hair, bold eyes and brows.

So this was Xu Ziling at seventeen or eighteen.

Ni Su spread her palm. A white jade Luban lock lay quietly in her hand. She met that young general’s astonished gaze. “General, do you still need medical workers by your side?”

The young man finally confirmed she was that woman who had once witnessed his childish behavior and also made off with his favorite Luban lock.

“You’re a medical worker?”

He spoke, his voice crisp and clear.

“Don’t I seem like one? If not, then what do you think I seem like?”

Ni Su asked with a smile.

What did she seem like?

Xu Hexue scrutinized her. Still wearing that same shirt and skirt, her shawl white as snow, she wore a pearl, flower, and golden bird hairpin at her temples. Fine, loose hair was blown by the wind to brush against her cheeks.

Her skirt hem fluttered as if about to fly—ethereal yet mysterious.

“A ghost.”

The young man soothed the horse’s mane and spoke two words in a calm voice.

“…Little Advanced Scholar, can you speak properly or not?”

Xue Huai laughed heartily. “The little lady clearly resembles an immortal maiden from a painting. Are you really a medical worker?”

“Yes.”

Hearing the two words “ghost,” Ni Su wasn’t the least bit annoyed but smiled. “However, I’m a medical worker who specializes in treating women’s ailments.”

“Specializing in treating women? You don’t see men?”

Xue Huai scratched his head.

“If you need it.”

Ni Su met the young man’s gaze again. “Little Advanced Scholar General, do you still need medical workers or not?”

Here the light was bright. The young general’s eyes merely touched hers and the heart in his chest beat once, then again. Though he showed no emotion outwardly, his ears were somewhat hot.

He smiled softly, his eyes curved, spring radiance rippling:

“Yes.”