Fighting

Beijing summers had a heat that left people nowhere to escape. The asphalt roads softened under the sun, giving a strangely yielding sensation beneath one's feet. The leaves of the roadside trees were coated in dust and hung lazily, as if even breathing took effort.

Xia Mi walked down a street outside an internet café. Thinking that she would be leaving the country tomorrow, and that her brother at home would probably make a fuss again, crying, "Big sister, don't go," made her feel irritated.

She deliberately stepped on the sunlight filtering through gaps in the branches with her sandals, as though she wanted to grind it into the ground, watching the gold-flecked patches of light dance across the pale, delicate tops of her feet.

Li Lin carried his schoolbag beside Xia Mi. He lived near Peking University High School, so they were more or less on the same route home.

Though they were "childhood sweethearts," their relationship was more like that between a scholar and a painted-skin demon from Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio. Both had noticed something unusual about the other. The difference was that Li Lin did not want Xia Mi exposing his true bloodline rank in public, while Xia Mi was determined to take Li Lin in as one of her top generals.

Sometimes, Li Lin could not understand why Xia Mi was so fixated on him... Though it was true that, despite his dragon-blood ratio being far lower than that of ordinary hybrids, he had kept pace with Xia Mi in both academics and physical ability.

But... couldn't she assume that he was simply a one-in-ten-thousand genius among ordinary people?

Apparently not.

Li Lin recalled the common understanding in the hybrid world: the greater the talent, the purer the dragon blood. He could only hate that he had learned this too late.

After graduating elementary school, he and Xia Mi had been specially recruited into Cassel College's preparatory class.

But Xia Mi had set her sights on Li Lin as early as first grade. No matter what they did, she had to compete with him and determine who was better, trying to make him willingly become her little follower.

Thanks to the Dragon-Slaying Binding System, no matter what challenges Xia Mi threw at him—from sports and martial arts to arcade games and test scores—the two of them always traded wins and losses, neither able to gain the upper hand.

Li Lin remembered receiving a weather warning not long after starting middle school that Typhoon Dandelion had made landfall in the south. Xia Mi had suddenly slapped her desk and announced that she planned to transfer to the highly regarded Shilan High School in that area.

The middle schooler, worn down beyond endurance by Xia Mi, wept with joy. He had nearly made a gentleman's agreement with her on the spot, promising to meet again at the college entrance examination five years later.

Yet five years did not pass at all. Xia Mi took a week off and ran back to Beijing, still shaken as she told him how she had gone traveling, accidentally run into the typhoon, and nearly gotten herself killed.

Li Lin could tell that Xia Mi's expression held more frustration and impatience than fear. He had the feeling that she had not been frightened at all, but had simply found it too boring outside.

But since she herself claimed the typhoon had scared her—

Li Lin secretly thought that Xia Mi would surely settle down for quite a while. Maybe he could finally enjoy one peaceful semester of life.

To his surprise, Xia Mi tossed a bamboo sword—one that looked suspiciously as though she had stolen it from the youth center—onto the desk before him and invited him to fight on the athletic field.

What had she said back then again...

Li Lin recalled the classroom scene. One moment, the bright-eyed, white-toothed girl had been frowning and complaining about how dangerous the "typhoon" was. The next, she had eagerly thrown down a bamboo sword and appeared in front of Li Lin like a female ghost lunging at the screen in a horror game, staring him down at close range.

"Li Lin, let's fight!"

Xia Mi, who had been playing hopscotch between sunlight and shadow beneath the trees, suddenly hopped in front of Li Lin. Mimicking some stance from either Ip Man or Huo Yuanjia, she flailed her arms about before clasping her fists in salute.

"Heroine, please spare me. I still have to catch a flight tomorrow..."

"You say that like I'm not catching one too. Hurry up! A man who doesn't dare fight isn't a man!"

Li Lin had no choice. He knew that whenever Xia Mi put on this uncompromisingly forceful attitude, no matter how radiant her smile was, it meant she was actually in a terrible mood.

When Xia Mi was in a bad mood, she generally only did two things: picked a fight with Li Lin, or found somewhere to sit alone and daydream.

Under normal circumstances, Xia Mi chose the former, unless Li Lin was not nearby.

If an ordinary person had a stunningly beautiful childhood sweetheart from elementary school onward, even if they did not necessarily end up together, they would at least have a dazzling youth that would make their hearts race whenever they looked back on it years later.

But Li Lin and Xia Mi's youth was filled with countless bruises and swollen welts. Their classmates often discovered in horror that whenever these two desk mates disagreed, they would run up to the rooftop of the teaching building, beat each other up, then return to class grinning foolishly and continue the lesson.

From Li Lin's perspective, Xia Mi truly was a literal "heaven-gifted genius." Despite her young age, she already had the bearing of a master, well versed in all seven major boxing styles and able to wield every kind of martial art with ease.

He had also noticed that whenever their fights reached a stalemate, Xia Mi would "break through in battle" without warning, pulling out bizarre moves she had never used before.

It was like facing a bottomless stone well. He was a wooden bucket falling toward its depths, able only to hear the splash of water Xia Mi held back with every move, yet never able to fathom her true limits.

Fortunately, Li Lin had bound Xia Mi through the system. Otherwise, she would have beaten him flat countless times already.

From Xia Mi's perspective, Li Lin was instead the incomprehensible genius.

No matter how she tried to raise her strength within the limits of a hybrid's understanding, Li Lin would catch up at astonishing speed in battle until he was precisely her equal.

If her rate of "improvement" slowed even slightly, she might even lose to Li Lin.

Xia Mi had also noticed Li Lin's seemingly endless potential. Ever since they were children, no matter how excessively she pushed him, it only made him grow stronger faster.

That sudden thrill of finding worthy prey, coupled with the realization that Li Lin's bloodline was so mysterious that even she could not see through it completely—

Made Xia Mi want more than once to directly offer Li Lin an invitation to "eternity."

But Xia Mi had to restrain that desire to cherish talent, curb her words and actions, and work hard to play the "Xia Mi" Li Lin knew.

After all, Li Lin had long been under the Secret Party's close watch. She could use this opportunity to exploit Li Lin against those rebel ministers and monarchs who were gradually awakening.

So much so that her greatest pleasure now was observing when this strange hybrid would finally reach the limit anchored by his bloodline.

Xia Mi naturally grabbed Li Lin by the wrist and pulled him at a brisk pace toward the subway station near the school. There stood a nearly deserted martial arts training center, which was actually a disguised teaching base for the preparatory class.

The two of them waded through the scorching streets, entered a stairwell plastered with promotional posters beneath an advertising sign reading, "Promote the national essence, strengthen the body," and handed their student IDs, decorated with a relief of a half-decayed World Tree, to the front desk.

"Do you need to prepare any weapons?"

The teacher in charge at the front desk asked Xia Mi and Li Lin. He was already accustomed to these two oddballs borrowing the venue every few days to spar.

Their passion for fighting was even greater than that of the lunatics in the Executive Department.

Xia Mi merely waved her pale, skinny little fist at the teacher, then dragged Li Lin into the gymnastics room beside them.