An Unplanned Encounter

The next morning, Yun Jingheng delivered the compiled meeting minutes to the archives, then went to the logistics department to confirm the list of supplies for the Sea God Fate venue setup. On his way back, he passed by the Inner Court's Academic Affairs Office and casually flipped through the recent student leave registration forms.

I didn't see Xu Lizhi's name even after turning to the last page.

There are no leave records, no task assignment records, and no reports of seclusion.

A perfectly healthy person just vanished without a trace.

He closed the registration form and stood in the corridor for a while, thinking.

The morning mist over Sea God Lake dissipated, and sunlight cast the shadows of willow trees onto the stone path. Several Inner Court students walked past him carrying training equipment, chatting and laughing.

Everything seemed so normal that it didn't appear like someone was missing.

Perhaps he's overthinking it.

It's not uncommon for students to go into seclusion without reporting it, even in the Inner Court. Some students, when they reach a critical stage in their cultivation, don't want to see anyone and lock themselves in a quiet room for ten days or half a month. After they come out, they just write an explanation and that's it.

Although Xu Lizhi doesn't usually seem like such a willful person, it's not entirely impossible.

He decided not to speculate and to ask someone first.

Lan Muzi doesn't usually work in the Academic Affairs Office; his meditation room is behind the old maple forest in the Inner Court, a secluded and very quiet place.

As Yun Jingheng walked through the maple forest, he saw from afar that the door to the meditation room was half open. Lan Muzi was sitting on the steps by the door, flipping through a yellowed ancient book, with a cup of tea beside her, its steam rising gently in the morning light.

Good morning, Brother Lan.

Lan Muzi looked up, saw it was him, closed the book, placed it on her lap, and smiled.

He was one of the most senior teaching assistants in the Inner Court, responsible for coordinating the course schedules for each grade and the daily management of students. He was considerably older than Yun Jingheng, but the two got along well and spoke to each other without any airs of superior and subordinate.

"What brings Elder Yun here today?"

Lan Muzi picked up her teacup, took a sip, and patted the steps beside her, gesturing for him to sit down. "You don't need to prepare the minutes for yesterday's meeting at the Sea God Pavilion?"

Yun Jingheng sat down on the steps and placed the cup of soy milk he had bought on the way to the cafeteria beside him.

"I finished it last night. Brother Lan, I want to ask you about someone."

"Who?"

"Xu Lizhi, Food-type Martial Soul, seems to have been in the same class as Xing Lan before."

Lan Muzi paused for a moment, holding the teacup, and then slowly frowned.

He lowered his head and thought for a moment, as if going through the classroom observation records and attendance sheets of the past few days in his mind, and finally shook his head.

"I haven't heard from him for several days. Last week, he came to the Academic Affairs Office to submit a nutrition meal plan, saying he wanted to apply to add a few new dishes to the freshmen's nutrition supplement."

"I said yes, and asked him to submit the tasting report along with it. He readily agreed, and then he never came back."

"Have you gone into seclusion?"

"Doesn't look like it."

Lan Muzi placed the teacup on the steps, unconsciously tapping her fingers twice on her knee. "I know him a little. He's very thoughtful and never breaks his promises."

"Even if he were to go into seclusion, he would definitely submit the tasting report first before telling anyone, which is unlike him."

Yun Jingheng remained silent.

Lan Muzi glanced at him sideways, her eyes conveying a clear message: You came all this way to ask me if I've already looked into other things.

Yun Jingheng didn't answer directly, but simply said "I understand," then stood up from the steps and dusted off his clothes.

"Please drink the soy milk for me. I have things to do back at the Sea God Pavilion."

"Wait a moment."

Lan Muzi also stood up from the steps, and as she walked to the door, she turned back and added, "If you need any help, just let me know."

"OK."

Yun Jingheng waved his hand without turning his head.

After walking a few steps, he suddenly stopped, turned around, and asked, "By the way, Brother Lan, he doesn't owe you any money, does he?"

Lan Muzi was taken aback by his question, "What money do you owe?"

"Nothing."

Yun Jingheng turned and left, his steps a little faster than when he came.

Tang Wulin ran into Xu Lizhi in front of the barbecue restaurant at the East Gate.

School has been in session for several days now, and he has sent Xu Lizhi several more messages in the past few days, but has yet to receive a reply.

He had no classes this afternoon and originally planned to go to the training ground for extra practice. When he passed by the east gate, he inexplicably turned towards the barbecue restaurant. It wasn't that he was deliberately looking for someone; he was just thinking, "What if?"

Then he saw Xu Lizhi.

Xu Lizhi was walking out of the alley next to the barbecue restaurant, carrying an oil paper bag in his hand. Steam was coming out of the bag, and it smelled like freshly baked buns.

He looked exactly the same as when we last met during the holiday: round face, smiling eyes narrowed into slits, walking with small but rapid steps, looking even more like a gas cylinder.

He was clearly taken aback when he saw Tang Wulin, then gave a somewhat embarrassed smile and quickly came to greet him.

"Wulin! What are you doing here? I was just about to look for you."

Xu Lizhi shoved the oil paper bag into Tang Wulin's hand, "Freshly baked buns, mutton filling, have one while they're hot."

Tang Wulin took it, but didn't eat it.

He looked Xu Lizhi up and down, making sure he was unharmed and had no missing limbs, then let out a long sigh of relief.

"Where have you been these past few days? You didn't show up for our meal, and you didn't reply to my messages. I thought something had happened to you."

Xu Lizhi's smile froze for a moment, then turned into a deeper embarrassment.

He took something out of his pocket and handed it to him.

"The communicator is broken. I dropped it when I went out that day, and the screen shattered completely. It won't even turn on."

"I've been too busy cultivating these past few days and haven't had a chance to fix it. I just finished it today and was thinking of coming to find you, but who knew we'd run into each other here first."

His tone was natural, carrying a sense of guilt for causing trouble for others. When he said "it was just fixed today," he even waved the communicator in front of Tang Wulin.

Tang Wulin glanced at the communicator. There was indeed a faint crack on the screen, stretching from the upper left corner to the lower right corner, like a mark from being dropped on a hard object.

Of course he knew Xu Lizhi wasn't serious. Although he hadn't known Xu Lizhi for long, he knew the man very well. Even if his communicator was broken, or even if he was busy in seclusion, Xu Lizhi would definitely find a way to send him a message and let him know, so as not to make his friend wait for several nights in vain.

But Tang Wulin didn't expose him; he simply took a bite of the baked bun.

The lamb filling, with added onions, tasted really good.

"Alright, it's good that everyone's alright."

He closed the oil paper bag, glanced at Xu Lizhi again—round face, smiling eyes, exactly the same as when he came over to share a table with the boiled fish at the barbecue restaurant late that night.

But for some reason, his intuition told him that something was wrong.

"You'll treat me to dinner next time." He patted Xu Lizhi on the shoulder, then turned and left.

After walking a short distance, he looked back and saw Xu Lizhi still standing at the entrance of the barbecue restaurant, waving at him, holding another oil paper bag in his hand.

The smile was the same as before, his eyes narrowed into slits, and his round face was filled with a harmless and honest expression.

It was almost dark when Tang Wulin arrived at the Sea God Pavilion.

The setting sun painted the surface of Sea God Lake orange-red, and several egrets took flight from the willows on the island in the middle of the lake, their wings skimming across the water, creating ripples that spread outwards in concentric circles.

Yun Jingheng was sitting on the windowsill, adding the last stroke to the core pattern of the array plate, when he heard familiar footsteps downstairs. Without looking up, he called out to the door, "The door isn't locked."

Tang Wulin pushed open the door and placed the oil paper bag he was carrying on the desk.

"Baked buns, bought on the way."

Yun Jingheng put down his pen, opened the oil paper bag, glanced at it, took one, and took a bite.

"Lamb?"

"Yes, I ran into her."

"Who?"

"Xu Lizhi."

Yun Jingheng stopped chewing, swallowed the bun in his mouth, and then looked up at Tang Wulin.

Tang Wulin leaned against the desk and recounted the events of the afternoon from beginning to end. He mentioned meeting Tang Wulin at the barbecue restaurant entrance, saying that Tang Wulin's communicator had just been repaired after being broken, and that Tang Wulin had been somewhat evaded.

After listening, Yun Jingheng placed the remaining half of the baked bun on the parchment paper, wiped his fingers with a handkerchief, his movements unhurried and his tone no different from his usual conversation.

"I asked Lan Muzi today too. He hasn't heard from Xu Lizhi for several days. He promised to submit a tasting report last week, and then he just disappeared."

He leaned against the windowsill, his fingers gently tapping the rim of his glass.

"A normally meticulous person suddenly disappears, goes missing, breaks appointments, and then suddenly reappears at the same old spot, holding freshly baked buns, smiling as if nothing happened. Isn't that a coincidence?"

The two people looked at each other.

Outside the window, the setting sun finally sank below the horizon of Sea God Lake, and the sky darkened, but the orange-red band of light on the lake surface remained, like a fire that had been burning all day and had not yet been completely extinguished.

"When I saw him today, I felt something was off. I'll try to get closer and probe him a bit. Let's not have too much contact lately. Get my whereabouts from Xie Xie and the others."

"OK."