Mid-Autumn

"Oh, it's almost Mid-Autumn..."

On the second floor of a secluded inn in Immortal-Slaying Town, Kaifeng Prefecture, a lean, tough-looking man with disheveled hair, an unkempt beard, and a face so weathered that his age was almost impossible to tell leaned by the window, wine flask in hand, and sighed at the moon.

"You can't go home. How about I spend Mid-Autumn with you?"

A clear, calm voice suddenly sounded from the darkness outside the window.

"You finally came!"

The wiry man glanced outside, then raised his flask and tipped back a great mouthful, his expression unchanged.

"Were you waiting for me?"

The man in the darkness asked quietly.

With drooping eyelids, the wiry man replied listlessly, "Yes. I've been waiting for you all along the way. I thought you weren't coming..."

There was a faint sound, like a pebble landing on a roof tile, and an agile figure slipped lightly through the window and sat opposite him.

Thud.

Without a word, the newcomer set two jars of wine on the dining table and remained silent.

The wiry man studied his childhood friend closely. After a long while, he suddenly smiled. "Did my fourth uncle leave that scar on your face?"

His laughter was broken, his voice hoarse, filled with a tangled brew of emotions.

"No."

The newcomer answered softly, "Bai Mujiu, an unaffiliated adept of the Ming Cult, gave it to me."

The wiry man laughed silently at that, then lowered his head. "Good. At least your nickname, Jade-Faced Fox, wasn't ruined at the hands of my Xie Family."

After a pause, he glanced at the two jars on the table and asked softly, with feigned indifference, "Is this farewell wine?"

The newcomer's lips moved as though he wanted to say something, but just as the words reached his mouth, he swallowed them back.

He fell silent for a moment, then raised his hands without a word and slowly removed the clay seals from both jars.

He pushed one jar toward the wiry man and said in a clumsy attempt at provocation, "If I say it's farewell wine, would you dare drink it?"

The wiry man looked at the jar before him, then at the face across from him, so familiar yet so strange, and shook his head vigorously. "No. I wouldn't dare!"

The newcomer's eyelids, which had just lifted, drooped again. He grabbed the jar before him and tipped back a great mouthful.

Thud!

He slammed the jar onto the table, wiped his mouth, and raised his gleaming eyes to stare straight at the man opposite him. Emphasizing every phrase, he said, "We've known each other since childhood. We've fought plenty and drunk plenty together. Calling us brothers might sound a little sentimental, but calling us closest friends wouldn't be an exaggeration!"

"You don't need me to tell you what sort of work the Embroidered Uniform Guard does!"

"If all your Xie Family had done was sell offices and titles, smuggle goods, and fence stolen property, then going after your family would make me, Shen Fa, a faithless bastard who disowned even his own kin!"

"But your Xie Family was fucking colluding with our sworn enemies, selling out the country for wealth and glory!"

"If you were in my place, what would you have done?"

"The bones of the fifty thousand soldiers who died at Pine Pavilion Pass haven't even grown cold. Their battle cries as they fought to the death still echo in my ears, night after night..."

"What could I do?"

The wiry man lowered his eyes, unable to meet the newcomer's gaze.

Only after a long while did he reach out and lift the wine jar with a trembling hand. He gulped fiercely, the clear wine spilling over to wet his cheeks and the front of his clothes.

"Well said!"

He set down the jar, his eyes bloodshot and his face contorted, and laughed hysterically. "What could I do? All I could do was watch my best friend slaughter my entire family!"

The newcomer raised his jar again and took another great mouthful. Breathing out wine fumes, he said, "I never intended to wipe out your entire family. I kept giving your family chances. Unfortunately, no one would take them. Every last one insisted on following that road into the dark... perhaps they all thought the worst that could happen was death!"

The wiry man laughed until his face was drenched, whether with wine or tears was impossible to tell. "Easy for you to say, standing there without your back aching. Once things had reached that point, was there any difference between half the family dying and all of them dying? Of course they had to stake their lives on one last gamble. If they won, wouldn't everything be fine?"

The newcomer laughed too. "Since you understand it all, why don't you teach me? Other than sending my best friend's entire family to the execution ground, what else could I do?"

As though anger had driven him to laughter, the wiry man rocked back and forth, trembling. "For me, Xie Yu, to have met you, Shen Fa, in this lifetime-what good fortune earned over three lives!"

The newcomer raised his jar toward him. "If there's another life, don't get to know me."

The wiry man picked up his jar and drank on his own, then said softly as hot tears scattered, "Yes, I shouldn't get to know you. This feeling... it's too agonizing. Far too agonizing..."

Holding his jar, the newcomer gazed at his friend, once so gallant and spirited that he had seemed like the Champion Marquis reborn, now filthy and disheveled, stripped of all hope like a dog that had lost its home. His own heart was wracked with anguish.

After a long while, he finally put down his jar and said quietly, "Leave. Take those elite men under your command and go to the Western Regions, to Lingnan, to the Eastern Isles. You could carve out a place for yourselves anywhere... just don't return to the Upper Capital. I don't want to kill my best friend!"

The wiry man rasped, half laughing and half crying, "I want to leave too, but I can't just stand by and watch you slaughter my entire family!"

The newcomer frowned. "Why don't you understand? You're nothing but a blade. Someone is egging you on to your deaths so they can preserve their own wealth and glory!"

"I know!"

The wiry man slumped back in his chair, his face turned upward. "From the moment I led my brothers in the Mighty Martial Battalion out of Liaodong, I knew we were a blade. Someone wanted us to return to the Upper Capital and kill until heaven and earth turned upside down... but what else could I do?"

For the first time since arriving, the newcomer smiled. The fellow was still just as sharp, like a wolf-ruthless and precise, never letting a single opening in battle slip by.

What a pity. They could have fought shoulder to shoulder until the final moments of their lives...

As though he had made some decision, he abruptly raised his jar and gulped down a great mouthful, then said fiercely, "Give me your men. I'll save your family!"

The wiry man lifted his head and stared steadily at him.

The newcomer held his gaze without blinking.

After a long while, the wiry man finally smiled. "Second Shen, oh, Second Shen. You're still so weak and indecisive, so softhearted. If you don't change, you'll die a miserable death!"

Against his filthy face, that smile looked remarkably clean.

The newcomer smiled too. "What else could I do?"

Without caring whether his friend was willing, he lifted his jar and clinked it against the one before him, then tipped back a mouthful. Breathing out wine fumes, he said, "Forget about anyone who colluded with the enemy, anyone who took charge, or anyone who held civil or military office. As for the women and children, I'll do my best to find them a way to live. It won't be a good life. All I can promise is that they'll survive!"

The wiry man smiled. "Can I still trust you?"

Shen Fa looked straight at him. "You don't have to... at worst, I'll apologize to you down beneath the Nine Springs!"

The wiry man leaned back in his chair again and looked up at the cobwebs on the rafters, murmuring to himself, "With those words from you, waiting for you all this way wasn't in vain."

He stretched out his large, filthy hand and, under Shen Fa's tense gaze, curled his fingers and tapped lightly on the table three times.

The next instant, several imposing men in iron armor, ring-pommel sabers hanging at their waists, leaped up to the second floor and saluted the wiry man with clasped fists. "General!"

In the shadows, countless fingers settled tensely on the triggers of powerful crossbows.

Seemingly oblivious, the wiry man pointed loosely at the man opposite him and said casually, "Remember this man. From now on, as long as he keeps fighting the Tartars, obey him. Even if he orders you to your deaths on the Grasslands, obey him!"

"But if one day he turns traitor-even if you merely suspect him of turning traitor-cut off his head at once and kill his entire family!"

Despite those murderous words, the newcomer suddenly felt his heart relax.

He lifted his jar and said solemnly to the wiry man, "For me, Shen Fa, to have been your friend in this lifetime, Xie Yu, was good fortune earned over three lives!"

The wiry man gave a derisive laugh and did not move.

The newcomer did not mind. He tilted his head back and drained the jar, then rose drunkenly to his feet. "But for the rest of this life, let's not meet again..."

The wiry man waved lazily. "Then we won't. But make sure you remember what you said. If even one is missing, I'll fight you to the death for as long as I live!"

The newcomer scoffed and leaped out the window. "Who's afraid of dying? All I fear is losing you as a friend..."

The wiry man remained silent for a long time before lifting the jar in front of him. "I'm sorry, old friend!"