The Farmer and the Snake

In the guest room of the contestants' rest building, the soul-guided temperature control system kept the room at twenty-one degrees. The cold-white ceiling lights had long since switched to their dim nighttime setting, spreading across the floor like a thin layer of frost.

Yun Ying had fallen asleep on the sofa.

The sofa had originally been meant for accompanying parents. Its foam cushions were rather soft and its armrests low. She was tall, so she could not stretch out her legs and could only curl up sideways. Her long ponytail had initially rested neatly over the backrest, but as she slept, it slid down beside her neck, the ends brushing the sofa fabric with faint rustling sounds. She was still wearing her clothes. The orange-trimmed collar of her deconstructed outfit pressed against her collarbone, while the clasped waist belt dug into her lower back. Her spear leaned against the wall, its black shaft and illusion-crystal patterns resembling a silent snake in the dim light.

She was not sleeping deeply. The scent of chili oil from the street still clung to her nose. In her dream, someone flew across the arena, spear winds scraped past her scalp, and Xie Xie sneered, "Rolling around on the ground." She swung around and slapped a yogurt cup onto his face—

Then her waist suddenly spasmed.

"Ah—"

At 12:40 in the middle of the night, Yun Ying was awakened by her own back. The sofa was too soft. After curling up sideways for two hours, her lumbar spine felt as though someone had bent it out of shape, the aching swelling from her sacrum to her ribs. She opened her eyes and saw pale-blue soul-guided patterns slowly flowing across the ceiling. For a moment, she could not tell whether she was on a heated brick bed or in East Sea Academy's guest quarters.

She propped herself up on one elbow, not daring to move too much for fear that her back would protest again. The moment she sat upright, her spine popped back into place segment by segment. She bared her teeth and silently cursed in an old-fashioned way.

"This damn sofa... harder than a can of condensed milk."

The room was quiet. Tang Wulin was sleeping on the bed in the inner room, breathing steadily. Xie Xie was staying in the standard room next door, and his door was still locked.

Yun Ying stepped barefoot onto the floor. It was slightly cool. She felt her way to the little table in the dark, found the bottle of mineral water Xie Xie had left there yesterday, unscrewed it, and tilted her head back to drain it in one go.

The water slid down her throat, crisp and cool, with a faint sweet aftertaste from soul-guided filtration. She let out a satisfied "Ha," narrowing her eyes as if she had taken another sip of that yogurt from earlier. She crushed the empty bottle flat and tossed it precisely into the recycling bin beneath the table. Ding.

"Even cold water tastes good in Federation City."

Rubbing her lower back, she twisted twice on the spot. Her lumbar vertebrae cracked softly, and she felt a little better. Her combat suit was too tight, so she loosened the clasped waist belt by half a notch. Gathering up her long ponytail, she casually tied it into a messy bun at the back of her head, leaving a few brown strands hanging beside her cheeks. Then she curled back up on the sofa in another position—this time lying on her stomach, her chin on a throw pillow, her legs draped over the armrest, and another cushion stuffed beneath the hollow of her waist.

"This works," she muttered. "As long as I don't get a slipped disk tomorrow."

She closed her eyes, and three minutes later, her breathing evened out again.

At 6:50 the next morning, East Sea Academy's morning training bell had not yet rung. The corridor lights were pale gold and sensor-activated, only lighting up when someone passed.

Xie Xie knocked on the door.

He wore casual training clothes rather than the combat suit Yun Ying had mocked as "not as flashy as mine." He had deliberately styled his hair, his bangs sticking up, looking every bit like a young master who was "punctual and presentable." He carried two takeaway bags: fresh from the newly opened cafeteria window, pork rib noodles with less salt and extra scallions, two servings of soy milk, four tea eggs, and a small cup of yogurt—the kind Yun Ying had praised yesterday.

His first knock was light. There was no response. His second was heavier. "Yun Ying. Get up."

Tang Wulin was already sitting up in the inner room. He opened the door with a grin. "Xie Xie, you actually treated us?"

"Shut up." Xie Xie shoved a bag of noodles into his hands. "That's yours. I'll take hers in."

Tang Wulin accepted it, amused. "The Farmer and the Snake, getting ready."

Xie Xie kicked the tip of his shoe and pushed open the door to the sitting room.

Yun Ying was asleep on the sofa, lying on her stomach. Her brown hair had fallen loose, with several strands hanging beside the pillow. Her collar had been rubbed crooked, its orange trim dark in the weak morning light. Her long legs rested over the armrest, one ankle still swaying. The cushion behind her waist had slipped halfway aside.

Xie Xie stood before the sofa and looked down at her for three seconds.

"What... can't you see I'm sleeping..." Yun Ying woke from the push to her shoulder, her face buried in the pillow and her voice muffled. "Don't make noise..."

"Breakfast." Xie Xie placed the takeaway bag on the small table, then gently set the yogurt cup beside her hand.

Yun Ying sat up a beat too slowly. Her long brown hair was untied and slid from her shoulders across her chest in a messy tangle, several strands stuck to the corners of her mouth. She rubbed her eyes, blinked twice, and focused on Xie Xie's face—

Xie Xie had yellow hair.

Not an exaggerated yellow, but a light golden brown. He had styled it in every direction that morning, with one tuft of bangs sticking straight up. Under the morning light, it looked like a little field of wheat sprouting from his head.

Yun Ying stared at his hair for three seconds, then opened her mouth.

"What are you looking at... you stinking blondie."

Xie Xie's expression froze.

The hand holding out a tea egg paused. He blinked, then narrowed his eyes. "Look who's talking, you stinking brown-haired dumpling."

"You—"

"See that?" Xie Xie turned sideways and raised his chin toward Tang Wulin, who had just emerged from the inner room carrying noodles. Tang Wulin's black hair was neat, his school uniform buttoned to the second button, and he had the look of a good student saying good morning to both of them. "Only Tang Wulin has normal hair. He looks like a proper good student."

Yun Ying refused to back down, sweeping a handful of bangs behind her ear. "What's wrong with brown hair? It's naturally brown. Yours is dyed, right? Do Federation City young masters use money to buy fancy hair too?"

"It's not dyed!" Xie Xie raised his voice by half an octave. "Mine is called 'dawn gold-brown.'"

"I wasn't talking about your hair!" Yun Ying grabbed the pillow and hurled it at him. Xie Xie dodged sideways, and the pillow flew into Tang Wulin's bowl. Tang Wulin caught it with a smile, not spilling a drop of soup.

Xie Xie was completely speechless. He had kindly treated her to breakfast, and this was how she treated him. The Farmer and the Snake. The words popped into his head on their own. Afterward, he really did slam the takeaway bag down on the table, cross his arms, and sneer. "Fine. I'll pour out the yogurt."

Yun Ying's eyes immediately locked onto the yogurt cup, lighting up just as they had when she first drank it yesterday. But she stubbornly replied, "Go ahead. Pour it out, then buy Tang Wulin another one. I'll drink tap water."

"Who opened the bottle of mineral water I left on the table last night?" Xie Xie struck precisely where it hurt.

Yun Ying choked.

Tang Wulin was eating noodles beside them. He looked up and added, "She drank it. I even heard the bottle hit the recycling bin with a ding."

Yun Ying's ears reddened slightly, whether from sleeping messily or being exposed. "...You left the water on the table. That made it abandoned property."

"Abandoned property?" Xie Xie laughed angrily. "I put it on the table to drink this morning. Did you think you were picking up a weapon in the arena?"

"You never picked up my spear in the arena either," Yun Ying shot back. "Blondie."

"Brown-haired dumpling."

"Blondie."

Tang Wulin set down his chopsticks and gently advised, "If you two keep arguing, the noodles will get soggy. Yun Ying, eat first. Xie Xie specifically ordered less salt and extra scallions, and he even got tea eggs. The yogurt's cold and hasn't melted."

Yun Ying glanced at Xie Xie. Xie Xie turned his face toward the window, but he did not actually move to pour out the yogurt. She reached over, picked up the cup, stabbed in the straw, and took a huge sip. Her cheeks puffed out, and her eyes lit up again like those two little bulbs from yesterday.

"...Tastes good," she mumbled, then added, "But a blondie is still a blondie."

Xie Xie squeezed out through clenched teeth, "Brown-haired dumpling."

"Blondie."

"Brown-haired dumpling."

Tang Wulin laughed out loud and carried his bowl to sit on the other side of the table. "Is your hair issue really that important?"

Yun Ying held the yogurt, her long hair draped over her shoulders, collar crooked, and waist belt still loosened by half a notch. She lifted the foot resting on the armrest and swung it as she looked at Xie Xie. "Xie Xie, did you invite me to breakfast just to call me a brown-haired dumpling?"

"I invited you to breakfast, and you called me a blondie." Xie Xie pulled over the stool opposite her and sat down, pushing the other bowl of noodles toward her. "Eat. Afterward, we're drawing lots. Keep arguing and I'll confiscate your yogurt."

Yun Ying gave a huff, set down the yogurt, and picked up the bowl of noodles. Less salt, extra scallions, and it smelled just right. She took a sip of soup and narrowed her eyes in satisfaction, then fished out a piece of pork rib. It had been stewed until tender, unlike last night's restaurant, where everything had been unbearably salty.

"Tang Wulin, how are your noodles?" she asked.

"Pretty good." Tang Wulin smiled. "Xie Xie said less salt, and it really is less salty."

Xie Xie lowered his head and ate from his own bowl. That tuft of yellow hair still stuck up. Hearing the word "blondie," his Adam's apple bobbed, but he did not respond.

Yun Ying gnawed on a tea egg, peeling it roughly and stuffing the yolk into her mouth. "Xie Xie."

"Speak."

"Your blond hair is actually... not bad."

Xie Xie's chopsticks paused. He looked up. "Your brown hair isn't bad either. That's more honest than saying, 'It stands out, so Xie Xie won't lose track of me in the arena.'"

Yun Ying choked on the yolk and coughed. Tang Wulin handed her a tissue. She took it and glared at Xie Xie. "You copied me?"

"Learned it from you," Xie Xie said. "A wild woman drinks yogurt, a young master parrots her. Fair enough."

Yun Ying lined the eggshells up on the table, little white fragments like some kind of declaration of war. She pointed at the tuft sticking up from Xie Xie's forehead. "That bit looks like grass scraped by my spear."

Xie Xie pointed at her brown hair spread over her shoulders. "That mess looks like brown rope sliced by my Light Dragon Dagger."

"Your Light Dragon Dagger slices brown rope?" Yun Ying laughed. "Your dagger's name sounds good, but that metaphor sucks."

"It looks like it."

"..."

"Xie Xie, just accept your fate. You're a blond young master, I'm a brown-haired wild woman, and Tang Wulin is a good student. Three hairstyles, three destinies."

Tang Wulin raised a hand. "My destiny is eating noodles."

Xie Xie was completely speechless. He looked at Yun Ying—brown hair loose around her shoulders, clothes worn crookedly, her eyes bright as she held the yogurt, her tongue quicker than her spear when insulting people—and recalled how she had taken his pork ribs at dinner yesterday, pushed back his Federation Credits, stuffed egg yolk into his bowl, and said "money worship," then drank his mineral water in the middle of the night, before greeting him this morning with "stinking blondie."

The Farmer and the Snake.

He, Xie Xie, was the farmer who had carried breakfast through the door, only to have the snake sit up and call him a "stinking blondie." Tang Wulin had been right. The Farmer and the Snake, getting ready.

But he did not actually pour out the yogurt. He did not take back the noodles either. He even pushed another tea egg closer to her bowl.

Yun Ying noticed it. She said nothing, but as she bit into the yolk, the corner of her mouth lifted by the tiniest amount.

6:50 became 7:10. The morning training bell rang softly outside, and footsteps sounded along the path. Yun Ying finished her noodles, crushed the empty yogurt cup flat, and tossed it accurately into the recycling bin just as she had with the mineral water bottle yesterday. Ding.

She stood, gathered her long ponytail, slipped a hair tie from her wrist, and tied it high in a careless knot. Her combat suit's waist belt was tightened again, its clasp returned to place, and the orange-trimmed collar was pulled straight. Her spear leaned against the wall. She picked it up, and though the energy ring on its tassel did not light up in the morning sun, she herself became that moving neon light once more.

When she turned around, Xie Xie was already standing at the door in his training clothes. He had adjusted his blond hair, but that one tuft would not stay down, so he simply let it be.

As Yun Ying passed him, she bumped his shoulder. "Let's go, blondie."

Xie Xie bumped her shoulder back. "Let's go, brown-haired dumpling."

Tang Wulin followed behind carrying the empty bowls, smiling. "If you two keep bumping into each other, you'll be in the arena before the lottery draw."

Yun Ying looked back, her brown ponytail sweeping through the air. "Tang Wulin, your hair is normal, so don't laugh at us."

Tang Wulin touched his black hair. "I'm not laughing at your hairstyles. I'm laughing at the two of you."

Xie Xie gave a "Heh" and pushed open the door. The sensor lights in the corridor lit up one after another, stretching the three of their shadows into long strips. He touched his pocket. The two Federation Credits Yun Ying had returned to him were still there, along with the two he had secretly put back yesterday. She had not pushed them back this morning, which meant she had accepted them.

The Farmer and the Snake.

The snake had called him a blondie this morning, but she had drunk the yogurt, eaten the noodles, and gnawed through two tea eggs.

The corner of Xie Xie's mouth twitched. He did not know whether he was annoyed or something else. He, Xie Xie, an elegant and peerless young master, had been called a blondie by some brown-haired wild woman, and had even treated her to breakfast—yet the satisfied sigh she gave after drinking his mineral water last night, along with those shining eyes as she held the yogurt this morning, mixed with the words "stinking blondie," somehow remained clearer in his mind than even his fantasies of turning the tables.

"Damn," he muttered.

Ahead of him, Yun Ying strode forward with her spear over her shoulder. The iridescent glow of her outfit flashed in the window light at the end of the corridor, as if a tiny sliver of aurora had been sewn into the academy morning.

Xie Xie thought, so be it. The Farmer and the Snake.

Xie Xie's yogurt was not for just anyone to drink.