After exchanging pleasantries, Li Jincheng and Liu Dongjun found an excuse to step outside, leaving Yang Ge and Shen Fa alone.
The two looked at each other without speaking. Only the bubbling of boiling water broke the silence of the wooden cabin.
It was not that they had nothing to say. They had too much to say, yet both felt those words no longer seemed necessary.
After a long while, Yang Ge finally lifted the bowl of tea before him and tapped it against Shen Fa's, using tea in place of wine. "The Welcome Inn... thank you."
Shen Fa silently took a Gilt Waist Token from inside his robe and set it gently on the tea table. Pressing two fingers against it, he pushed it toward Yang Ge.
Yang Ge glanced at it and recognized the token he had received when he became the Thousand-Household Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard's Upper Right Office... except all the lettering had been ground away.
Shen Fa lowered his head and drank his tea. "Keep it as a memento."
Yang Ge did not touch the token. Instead, he teased him with a smile. "Work this rough hardly looks like the handiwork of our great Commanding Commissioner Shen."
Shen Fa curled his lip and smiled too. "You think I had a choice?"
Yang Ge asked with interest, "Regretting it now?"
Shen Fa nodded. "I regret it. I regret it terribly..."
Yang Ge said, "Too late!"
Shen Fa said, "It is too late!"
The smiles slowly faded from both their faces. Both drank their tea to conceal the tangle of emotions inside them, but the tea, with its lingering sweet aftertaste, now tasted as bitter as medicine.
Yang Ge tossed out the dregs in his bowl, picked up the teapot, and emptied out all the