Chen Wuya stood beside the bed, his fingers still resting on the doorframe. Outside, the wind had paused for a moment, and the sheet of paper reading "Door Closed for Three Months" no longer fluttered, its inked words fixed steadily at the center of the wooden door. He did not turn around, but he heard the soft rustle of bedding behind him and knew Bai Zhi had shifted over.
Her voice was very soft. "Are you still thinking about what happened just now?"
He turned and saw her propped halfway up, the thin blanket having slipped to her waist. Her complexion was a little better than before. He walked over, sat on the edge of the bed, and covered the back of her hand with his palm. "Not thinking. Deciding."
Bai Zhi did not ask what he was deciding. She only felt that the calluses on his palm had grown rougher than before, pressing against her skin like a mark carved into flesh and blood.
"The scout is gone, but his master won't stop," Chen Wuya said quietly. "They have their eyes on me. Before, it was because of the Heavenly Machine Scroll. Now... they're afraid I'm alive—afraid I'm living peacefully."
Bai Zhi's fingertips curled slightly, but she did not pull her hand away.
"I know what you're worried about," he said. "You're afraid that, to protect this family, I'll force myself into a blade that rusts if it isn't drawn. But I'm different now. I stayed away from the martial world before because no one believed I could amount to anything. Now I won't leave the mountains because there's someone worth staying for."
Sunlight slanted in through the window, falling across a broken hoe handle on the floor. It had snapped while he was turning the soil yesterday, and