Betrothal Gifts

Shopkeeper Ma was absent; reportedly, he had returned to Dongting Junshan. A second shopkeeper surnamed Zhao was now minding the store. This second shopkeeper warmly welcomed Liu Xiaolou to the second floor, ordered tea to be served, and personally kept him company.

Liu Xiaolou asked, "Are you from the Zhao Shi?"

Second Shopkeeper Zhao smiled. "Allow me to inform Sect Master Liu—" A jade flute stood planted atop a grave, and wind passed through its cracks, producing a low, hoarse whimper, like someone murmuring words left unfinished in a dream. The footprints led northward, crossing withered grass and frozen earth. Every step sank deep into the mud, yet they had never stopped. At the end of the horizon, gray clouds pressed against the ground, as though this lone and desolate road was all that remained between heaven and earth.

At some point, Lin Zhao had already closed his eyes. He did not look again at the phantom tower in the north, nor did he listen again to the flute echoing through the night. He knew that if Su Yan had truly been awakened, he was no longer the elder brother who would squat down to tighten his straw sandals and teach him how to identify the stars. Yet he also understood that the real Su Yan had never vanished. He lived in every Question Book passed down by word of mouth, in the gaze of every child who raised their head to ask a question, and in the deliberately altered note before that jade flute sounded for the last time.

That was not a summons. It was a warning.

When the morning bell of Enlightenment Pavilion rang for the third time, the little girl had already been arranged to stay in a small house behind the mountain. She clutched half