“Little Long…”

Under the silver moonlight, the girl’s voice rang out timidly in the courtyard, spreading out like dust drifting under starlight…

Ning Ji watched her footsteps cross the courtyard. She opened the door and peered outside, then turned back and tilted her face upward.

“…Little Long.”

Only then did her voice change slightly, no longer frail — it had gone suddenly, quietly still.

She turned and gently closed the courtyard gate, then went back into the room, drank a sip of water, and climbed the ladder up onto the roof.

She sat down beside Ning Ji.

For a moment, neither of them spoke.

The night was quiet, starlight scattering across the rooftops and streets ahead like a great sea, its waves rendered in silver and black. The city had already fallen asleep. In the distance, the shadows of trees lay dozing beside dark courtyard walls, and the little roofed boats, like massive yet gentle creatures, slept along the rippling riverbank. Only occasionally did a night watchman pass through the distant lanes, his lantern’s warm glow seeping slowly forward, like light leaking out from the city’s own dreaming sleep.

They too seemed to be drifting off within this stillness, watching the night, unwilling to wake.

But it was Ning Ji who spoke first.

…

“Something may have… happened.”

“Mm.”

“That friend who came by the other day — the one called Zuo Xingzhou — might be in trouble.”

“‘Chaos Axe’ Zhou Xing.”

“Yeah, I… I’m not entirely sure.”

…

Whether to tell her about this had weighed on Ning Ji’s mind for a good while that night.

But sitting here on the rooftop now, the girl beside him showed no sign of pressing him with questions. He could feel her sitting quietly there beside him, her arm soft against his, her legs stretched out in their coarse linen trousers, feet in grayish-white cloth shoes. Her body didn’t run hot the way his did — if anything, it gave off a cool, refreshing sense.

Ning Ji couldn’t help but tell her, then.

…

“…Back when I was in the southwest, I had some personal ties with people from the Zuo family — we were even comrades-in-arms on the battlefield against the Jurchens… With tensions rising in Fuzhou lately, Zuo Xingzhou wanted to play the villain to help the court gather intelligence — that’s what he and Yue Yun were putting on an act about the other day… Today, Yue Yun came looking for us, making a huge show of searching for Zhou Xing and Zhan Yunhai. I think the most likely explanation is that those two have already gone missing… And the court’s assessment, from what I understand, is that something has very likely happened to them…”

“…Couldn’t it just be Young Master Yue continuing to build up the act for them?”

“…That’s unlikely. If they’d already successfully infiltrated the enemy’s ranks, then making a big loud show like this would be more likely to cause complications than help. And a few days ago, Zuo Wenxuan came to see me — some of the things he said, some of the jokes he made, I didn’t understand at the time, but thinking back on it now, it’s clear enough… He wanted to find out whether Zuo Xingzhou had been in contact with me, but he didn’t want to alarm me while doing it…”

“…Who is Zuo Wenxuan…”

“…Ah, he’s the one with the glasses, he’s…”

…

In the deep hours of the Fuzhou night, a light breeze drifted by as Ning Ji roughly laid out the situation with the Zuo family. Over the past month, he’d expected this trip to Fuzhou to be a relatively relaxed affair, and hadn’t kept his guard up much. But now that his attention had been caught, many things were beginning to form a clear, coherent picture in his mind.

Looking back over Zuo Wenxuan’s and Yue Yun’s behavior, it seemed very likely that Zuo Xingzhou had already been out of contact for several days, and there was already some evidence that something had gone wrong.

But that wasn’t actually what was troubling him.

He felt the soft warmth of the girl’s touch against his right arm.

Ever since reuniting in Jiangning city, the two of them had already shared a certain intimacy — holding hands on the road, embracing inside a cave, or the playful teasing while washing their feet together after arriving in Fuzhou. But this touch here, on the rooftop, at this moment, seemed to carry an entirely different feeling.

He felt a deep fondness.

There were things somewhat difficult to say, and this wasn’t the moment to say them. He was a soldier who had come up from the harshest of battlefields — in all the days behind him, whatever he encountered, he had always been able to charge forward and meet it head-on without hesitation. Even if something had happened to Zuo Xingzhou — even if Zuo Xingzhou had died — that, in itself, wouldn’t have been such a difficult thing to face. But right now, when it came to how to properly look after her, he couldn’t think of any perfect solution.

“…When I left the southwest, it was a bit like running away from home, really — I couldn’t go back without making some kind of name for myself first, so once I got to Fuzhou, I didn’t really want much contact with the Zuo family either… Of course, that’s not to say the Zuo family is necessarily in real trouble right now — this is their home turf, after all, and any troublemakers will eventually be dealt with…”

His words started out with a clear, logical account of the situation, but toward the end, since he hadn’t fully worked out what to say, he trailed off into a bit of rambling. The quiet night breeze and the girl beside him didn’t weigh on him too heavily, but at one point, as he paused briefly, the girl’s voice rose up.

“…Little Long, just now, I thought… you’d left me behind…”

Those words weren’t about Zuo Xingzhou anymore. Ning Ji turned his head, and in the darkness, he saw Qu Longjun lean in and press her soft lips against his mouth.

The summer night’s cool touch reached his heart, and there transformed again into a warm sensation. Ning Ji didn’t feel surprised — it was as if he’d known all along that, somewhere, at some moment, this was bound to happen. And his heart began pounding, thump-thump-thump, swelling larger and larger…

“…I, I… I won’t do that…”

“…Mm.”

Their shadows touched gently together upon the rooftop…

…

A sea breeze drifted in, blowing quietly over the ancient city beneath the stars, the night watchman’s lantern soaking through the long street and rippling out again down the lane.

They sat together on the roof for a long while more, and only in the deepest part of the night did Ning Ji lift the girl, who had drifted off to sleep in the stillness, and carry her slowly down from the roof. With his skill so high and his mind so calm, carrying her down the steep wooden ladder felt like a slow, steady descent from a great height.

He laid her back down on the bed in her room, her earlier words of heartfelt confession still echoing in his mind.

“…Little Long. When I was still young, I was actually the daughter of a martial family — my father was a general. So even though as a child I studied books, played the qin, and learned needlework, what I really wanted to be, back then, was a free and unrestrained female general of my own…”

“…After my father died, I was bought by Wen Shoubin, and I learned a great many things, but I lived through some very dark days. Little Long, during that time, I didn’t dare think too much — there were times I wanted to die. When I reached the southwest, following Wen Shoubin’s orders to go cause trouble for the Huaxia Army — it was on the darkest of those days that I met you… I thought I would die that very day…”

“…The person I was back then — I think I really did die that day… After I woke up, you and Aunt Gu showed me something new every single day… Back then you always kept such a stern face, and I was so afraid of you, but slowly, I came to understand — you wanted me to become a whole person…”

“…I don’t know how to put it. Back then, I had only just started to remember my past — thinking of my childhood, of my dead father, slowly remembering more and more… Little Long, before that, I had always just been merchandise. You saved me, and sometimes I wondered — had I simply become your merchandise instead? I thought about that for a long, long time…”

“…After leaving the southwest, I often found myself thinking of you and Aunt Gu. Little Long, I would often remember your stern face, and I’d remember the way you looked that night you killed Wen Shoubin and all those others. You’re so skilled, and so upright and honest — after leaving the southwest, I never met anyone else like that again. And then, that day in Jiangning, when I suddenly heard your name again, it really felt like a dream…”

“…Little Long, I want to be with you…”

…

“…I want to be with you, but not as a burden hanging off you. Little Long, over this past year or so, traveling from the southwest to Jiangning — in the first half of the journey, the uncles of the Huaxia Army taught me so much, and in the second half, I saw so many things too. I saw so many ordinary people, all struggling to live as best they could — some of them cheating and scheming, some not so respectable, but I learned a lot from it too. Do you know, I can act the beggar, I can put on airs, I can make myself look ugly on purpose…”

“…But I think, what does any of that matter? Just like it said in that book you gave me back in the southwest — ordinary people find their own ways to survive, and so do women… I might never become a great hero or a legendary warrior like you, but there are plenty of people in this world who just need to find their own way to live…”

“…Little Long, I want to be with you… and I know that means we’ll keep running into all sorts of trouble out there. I know you’ll hesitate, and you’ll feel torn, but I don’t want you to become someone timid and cowering just because you want to protect me. I’m the daughter of a martial family, and I’m not stupid either — I’ll surely find a way to survive alongside you in this world. Little Long, I want to beg you to help me…”

…

Aside from that first line — “I thought you didn’t want me anymore” — which had come out slightly choked with emotion, Qu Longjun, speaking there in the darkness, had actually been calm and resolute throughout. It reminded Ning Ji of the time back in Chengdu when she used to secretly watch him — back then, the girl had seemed fragile and melancholy, like a dandelion that might scatter at the slightest breeze, and that fragility had stirred his protective instincts.

Only now did he realize that, throughout their time back together, aside from always seeming a little anxious on the subject of “bringing her along,” she had become, in every other moment, something more like tough, resilient grass. She handled everything with method and order, always with her own clear judgment — especially during this recent stretch in Fuzhou, where she’d seemed all the more composed and independent.

From a martial family’s daughter to a starved horse sold off to others — perhaps this Qu Longjun before him now was, in truth, the person she had always been inside.

Even as she spoke such bashful words as “I want to be with you,” even as she leaned in to kiss him, aside from her skin growing hot to the touch, her expression had remained calm and composed throughout.

This, too, spared Ning Ji a good deal of awkwardness.

He wanted to be with her too.

And so, in these early morning hours, he confessed as much to her in turn.

…

The night breeze stirred the grass and dew of early morning.

As the sky began to show its first pale light, the girl lay sound asleep. Ning Ji walked out into the courtyard and ran through a set of forms.

The city slowly stirred awake in the quiet; lights began to flicker on in the distance, roosters crowed. The fist forms in his hands moved slow and heavy — though he only struck at empty air, it felt as though he were stirring some vast cauldron of mercury, the blood coursing through his body like a great river in flood.

Since arriving in the southeast, for the first time in his life, this young man had truly felt the sea.

And at the same time, he felt the calm that came with battling against it.

In the early hours of the thirtieth day of the fifth month, in the third year of the Wu Zhenxing era, the southeast blazed with the fire of high summer.

She and he — beginning a summer of standing by each other’s side—