Setting Out (1)

Snow fluttered beneath the corridor eaves, six-pointed ice crystals spinning through the air. The moment they touched the warmth cast by the corridor pillars, they silently melted into tiny droplets, winding down the wood grain and gathering into specks of dampness on the blue bricks.

At the center of the stone table, the small red-clay stove still kept that pot of plum blossom brew warm. The clear wine lay quietly in the cups, reflecting the snow-filled sky.

Thin wisps of heat continuously spilled from the mouth of the tin pot, carrying a crisp, intoxicating fragrance of wine as they tried to gain a foothold in the biting cold. Yet they always twisted into a wisp of mist and, the instant they drifted half an inch upward, were swept apart without ceremony by the snow wind passing through the corridor, leaving no trace behind.

Yu Xiao True Person held the plain tin wine pot, his fingertips absentmindedly stroking its body, warmed by the stove. The cup before him remained brimming full, its surface tranquil, without even the faintest ripple.

Yet his gaze rested on the cup before Chu Shihan, already more than half empty. Seeing the bottom of his disciple's cup about to show, he naturally turned his wrist. The clear wine traced a thin, precise arc and silently filled the white porcelain cup once more, his movements as smooth as flowing clouds and running water.

To him, the very posture of passing cups and changing goblets, boiling snow around the stove, was elegant and interesting enough.

Chu Shihan quietly listened as his master finished explaining the origins of the snow. He smiled inwardly, privately marveling that a figure of his master's heaven-reaching cultivation would occasionally reveal a mischievous temperament almost like that of a child.

But he had not forgotten