The guards lying on the ground could hardly believe their eyes. This young fellow in ragged clothes, his face covered in grime, was plainly a beggar, yet with nothing but a short blade, he had fought the Man-Eating Black Bear to this extent. They had never seen anything like it, and not one of them had expected it.
Watching through the curtains, Yue Rushuang had gone from covering her face with both hands to gazing at him in admiration. Her heart beat several times faster than usual, and she was far more nervous than she had been in that hopeless instant when the guards had fallen in defeat. Alongside her doubts and worries, her heart held hope and trust.
"He can win, can't he?"
Yue Lin's face betrayed no expression, but the emotion deep in her eyes was impossible to hide. Even she had long since forgotten that morning, years ago, when she first met Yuan Su...
The circumstances had been almost exactly the same. She and her father had gone out to attend a banquet, only to encounter a Two-Tusk Man-Eating Tiger on their way home. Fortunately, he had appeared in time and dispatched the tiger with ease. Otherwise, she would long since have become a wandering soul in the Yellow Springs.
Their time together had begun in February and ended in March. He had arrived without warning and left without a word. Everything had felt like a beautiful dream born of her own imagination. After so many years, perhaps Yue Lin had already forgotten the man who had been her first love when she was eighteen.
But some things could never truly be forgotten. There were always moments when memories came flooding back. Just as Malena recalled her own lover, after Ma Linya confirmed their relationship, her memories