Zheng Shan patted his shoulder and smiled at Elder Mu.
Elder Mu nodded, and the two walked side by side into the side room.
Luo Qingxuan and Tie Zhan stepped aside to make way, watching the two old men enter the room one after the other.
Low voices soon drifted from the side room, now mingled with a sigh, now with a burst of soft laughter.
Tie Zhan stood beneath the corridor, arms folded, and said in a muffled voice:
"I never expected Martial Uncle Zheng to have such a past."
Luo Qingxuan said nothing. She merely looked toward the side room, her gaze shifting twice between Zheng Shan and Wang Yuan.
She withdrew her gaze and looked at the old locust tree in the courtyard. The autumn wind swept dead leaves from its branches, sending them spinning into the distance.
The faint bustle of the Prefecture City drifted over the courtyard wall. The warmth of everyday life mingled with the chill of late autumn in the twilight, somehow making her feel exceptionally at peace.
"Dao Child."
She suddenly spoke.
Wang Yuan turned to look at her.
Luo Qingxuan fell silent for a moment, her voice lower than before:
"Your master and Elder Mu have not seen each other for more than ten years. Let them talk a little longer."
"Tie Zhan and I will wait in the front courtyard."
With that, she turned and walked toward the moon gate. Tie Zhan followed behind her, but after taking two steps, he looked back at Wang Yuan and said in his muffled voice:
"Dao Child, that Iron-Scaled Rat has been raised well."
Wang Yuan nodded slightly and watched the two disappear one after the other around the corner of the moon gate.
Early the next morning, when the sky had