Childhood Playmates

Ever since Ye An accepted Qian Duoduo's offer, the Body Tempering Pills had arrived on time every month.

At the start of each month, three Body Tempering Pills came without fail.

[Azure Cloud Finger (Second Layer): 118/200]

[Azure Cloud Finger (Second Layer): 126/200]

[Azure Cloud Finger (Second Layer): 135/200]

[Qi-Nourishing Formula (Initial Glance): 86/100]

[Qi-Nourishing Formula (Initial Glance): 93/100]

[Qi-Nourishing Formula (Micro): 1/200]

On the day his Qi-Nourishing Formula advanced, Ye An was sitting on his bed, meditating.

As he broke through, the wisp of energy in his Dantian suddenly seemed to catch fire. It swelled sharply and surged through his meridians into every part of his body.

It felt like warm water flowing through his veins. Wherever it passed, the heat blazed like the midday sun.

It had taken him over a month to bring the Qi-Nourishing Formula from Initial Glance to Micro.

With Internal Energy behind it, and the effects of the Body Tempering Pills as well, his Azure Cloud Finger progressed much faster.

Ye An struck a wooden board with one finger. The board split apart at once—his force had penetrated seven-tenths of the way through! He was almost there!

On the night Qian Duoduo invited Ye An to join him, he returned home to find his father, Qian Wanguan, going over the accounts in his study.

"Dad, there's something I need to tell you." Qian Duoduo stood in the doorway, ill at ease, his fingers picking at his sleeve. "I've taken on a retainer."

Qian Wanguan did not look up. His brush did not pause. "Oh? Who?"

"Ye An, from the Green Bamboo Martial Arts Hall. He reached First Body Tempering not long ago."

Qian Wanguan's brush stopped. He raised his head and looked at his son.

"He's fifteen, with a High-Grade C Bone Structure," Qian Duoduo added. Better to say it himself than wait for his father to ask.

Qian Wanguan was silent for a moment. He set down his brush, looked at his son, and asked gravely,

"Do you know what a retainer is?"

"I do."

"Then why take on someone with a High-Grade C Bone Structure? You can find First Body Tempering practitioners on every street. What can he do for you?"

Qian Duoduo's lips moved, but he could not bring himself to speak. He wanted to say Ye An was the hardest-working person he had ever met, that Ye An would surely make something of himself. Yet the words would not come.

Because his father was right.

A High-Grade C Bone Structure and First Body Tempering—people like that really were everywhere.

Seeing his son's dejected expression, Qian Wanguan sighed. "Fine. You've taken him on, so that's that. It's only a few Body Tempering Pills a month. The Qian Family can spare them."

Qian Wanguan picked up his brush and returned to his unfinished work. His tone grew flat. "But remember, a retainer isn't someone you hire for fun. When the Qian Family needs him, he'll have to pull his weight. How much can a First Body Tempering practitioner with a High-Grade C Bone Structure do?"

Qian Duoduo stood in the doorway with his head lowered. He did not dare answer.

"Go on." Qian Wanguan did not look up.

As Qian Duoduo left the study, he heard a faint sigh behind him.

He knew his father was not angry. He was disappointed.

Standing in the courtyard, Qian Duoduo drew a sharp breath and forced down the tightness in his chest.

I haven't misjudged him. I haven't.

Ye An knew none of this.

All he knew was that Qian Duoduo delivered the Body Tempering Pills on time each month, never late and without much to say. He usually left as soon as he dropped them off, though now and then they chatted and shared what they had learned.

The days continued to pass.

By the end of June, the weather had begun to turn hot.

One evening, Ye An left the Martial Hall and was about to head to the North Granary. As he reached the entrance to Willow Alley, he heard someone calling him.

"Ye An? Is that Ye An?"

Ye An turned. Several people stood beside a wonton stall at the alley entrance, waving at him.

At a glance, he recognized one of their faces.

"Stone?"

"It really is you!" The boy called Stone ran over and looked Ye An up and down. "Haven't seen you in years. You've grown so tall."

Stone had been Ye An's playmate as a child. He lived at the east end of Willow Alley, and his father sold goods from a shoulder pole. Money had always been tight for them.

As children, they had played hide-and-seek in the alley, raided birds' nests, and caught fish in the moat. Later, Ye An had spent several years shut up at home, rarely going out, and they had gradually lost touch.

Ye An walked over. Four people stood by the wonton stall—Stone, Little Wu, A-Fu, and someone a little farther away. She held a skewer of candied hawthorns and watched him with her head tilted.

She was a pretty young girl.

Fifteen or sixteen, she wore a plain white dress, with her hair pinned up by a silver hairpin. Her eyes and brows had a cool, clear look. Girls like her were rare in Willow Alley.

"Chen Qingyao?" Ye An looked at her. She would have been considered attractive anywhere.

Chen Qingyao's mother bore the surname Shen, but everyone in Willow Alley called her Widow Shen.

Ye An had never met Chen Qingyao's father. He had heard the man was someone important in the prefecture.

Widow Shen's older brother was on good terms with many people in Willow Alley and had some influence in the county. Though the alley's residents gossiped behind their backs, no one dared trouble mother or daughter openly.

Widow Shen had raised Chen Qingyao alone in Willow Alley. She never associated with the neighbors, and whenever she went out, she held her head high as though everyone owed her money.

Ye An had played with Chen Qingyao and the others when they were little. But they had all been children then; now even their appearances had changed.

Stone called out from the side, "Ye An, what are you doing these days? Still studying?"

"No, I stopped."

"I'm training at the Martial Hall now."

"Training?" Little Wu's eyes lit up. "So you're a martial artist?"

"Mm."

"What level are you?" A-Fu leaned in, curiosity written all over his face.

Ye An hesitated, then answered, "First Body Tempering."

For a moment, the wonton stall fell silent.

Stone reacted first, his voice jumping an octave. "First Body Tempering? Are you serious?"

Ye An did not deny it, and his expression barely changed.

"Holy shit." Stone turned to Little Wu and A-Fu. The three exchanged looks, their expressions shifting from surprise to envy, then to something harder to name.

"First Body Tempering..." Little Wu murmured. "You could get a job that pays well pretty much anywhere, couldn't you?"

"A lot better than us." A-Fu gave a bitter smile and glanced down at the fraying cuff of his sleeve. "I'm an apprentice at a cloth shop. I make one qian of silver a month. Stone's a peddler—three qian is a good month for him. Little Wu has it worse. He hauls sacks at the docks and works himself to the bone for two qian a month."

Stone started to reach out and clap Ye An on the shoulder, as he once would have. Then he seemed to falter. His arm stopped before it touched Ye An and drew back. "Not bad, Brother An. Looks like you're moving up in the world."

Even his tone had changed.

Ye An caught the tiny movement. He smiled faintly and said nothing.

Chen Qingyao stood to the side. Only when the others had finished speaking did she ask, "Is First Body Tempering really that impressive?"

Stone turned to her. "Of course it is! How many people from Willow Alley have reached First Body Tempering all these years?"

To ordinary people, any martial artist stood far above them. Practicing martial arts took not only talent, but money.

Chen Qingyao bit into a candied hawthorn, unimpressed. "Oh."

She said no more. After eating the last hawthorn, she tossed the bamboo skewer into a basket nearby and dusted off her hands.

"I'll head back. You all keep talking."

"Aren't you waiting for your uncle to pick you up?"

"No need. What could happen in the alley?"

Her skirt swayed in the dusk, and soon she disappeared around the alley entrance.

After a few steps, Chen Qingyao slowed and looked back at her companions from Willow Alley.

Stone was still talking to Ye An. Little Wu gestured as he spoke, and A-Fu chimed in now and then.

First Body Tempering.

In Chen Qingyao's world, it was just a number. Her mother had told her that even great masters at Third Body Tempering had to be polite around the father she had never met. What did First Body Tempering amount to?

After today, she would have nothing more to do with these people.

Her father's letter had already arrived. Once her uncle had made the arrangements, she and her mother would leave Willow Alley, leave Anping County, and go to the prefecture.

This place, this alley, these people—they would all become part of the past.

Stone watched her go and sighed. "She's still the same."

"The same how?"

"Well..." Stone scratched his head. "I can't quite put it into words. She's just not one of us."

Little Wu lowered his voice. "Did you hear? Her father sent a letter. He wants to bring them to the prefecture."

"Really?"

"Really. Widow Shen was telling someone at the alley entrance a few days ago, loud enough for the whole alley to hear." Little Wu curled his lip. "Said her Qingyao was going to be a young lady of a grand house, and a place like Willow Alley wasn't good enough for her~."

Little Wu even imitated Widow Shen's tone.

A-Fu snorted. "That father of hers hasn't shown his face in over ten years. Now he suddenly wants them to come? Who knows what he's after?"

"Shh—" Stone put a finger to his lips. "Keep your voice down. Her uncle works here in Anping County."

They all fell silent, understanding without another word.

Ye An said nothing more. He barely knew Chen Qingyao and knew Widow Shen even less. None of this had much to do with him.

After they chatted a little longer, Stone glanced at the sky and said he needed to go home to help out. Little Wu and A-Fu went their separate ways too.

The playmates of his childhood now led different lives. He trained at the Martial Hall; they worked to get by. First Body Tempering was only Ye An's starting point, but to them it was already a height beyond reach.

Ye An did not know how to put it into words, but he had things of his own to do.

Life at the North Granary went on as usual.

Night patrol, inspections, a whistle, then off he went. Steward Liu still looked half-dead.

The only change was that things had grown considerably tenser around the North Granary lately.

"Those people from Blackwind Stronghold are getting bolder and bolder."

"Tell me about it. Someone slipped into the eastern granary again a few days ago and stole several sacks!"

"What are the patrols doing? Sitting around eating for free?"

"Eating for free? I heard the grain thieves didn't make a sound. How were a few green recruits on patrol supposed to catch them?"

Ye An listened without joining in.

That night, it was already late when Ye An returned from the North Granary.

Moonlight fell across the stone-paved road of Willow Alley, its pale blue-white glow like a layer of frost.

Ye An pushed open the gate and entered the courtyard. The light in his father's room was already out.

He slipped quietly into his own room and checked his Martial Arts progress.

[Azure Cloud Finger (Second Layer): 148/200]

[Qi-Nourishing Formula (Micro): 32/200]

Fifty-two points to go. At his current pace, the second layer would be complete in a little over a month.

Then he would reach Second Body Tempering.

Soon.