This was undoubtedly the boy's own decision.
And now, the threshold for triggering that decision had lowered-he no longer waited until he had nowhere left to retreat, nor was he acting to stop something from being changed. Instead, after discovering that those who should have been more reliable were not, he decided to take the initiative and change something himself.
First, he had to understand a great many things.
Pei Ye walked to a corner of the training ground. Zhang Junxue was drawing a bucket of water from the well, which she tipped out in front of her. As Pei Ye approached, he saw the clear film of water slide smoothly away, leaving behind a heavy saber with a black body and a white edge, its sharpness fully exposed.
Then she put down the bucket, sat down, and picked up her whetstone to continue sharpening with a metallic scrape.
"Thank you." Pei Ye moved a rock over and sat beside her. "Things were so urgent then that I had to entrust everything to you without asking what you thought. I'm sorry."
Zhang Junxue shook her head. "I wanted to help you."
"But it meant going against the Prefectural Office, after all. That's no ordinary matter." Pei Ye sighed softly and said again, "Thank you."
"Mm."
"Actually, when I entrusted it to you, I already believed you wouldn't refuse..." As he spoke, Pei Ye suddenly smiled. "I'm a little curious-when you found Li Piaoqing, you must have needed at least twenty sentences to explain everything, right?"
Zhang Junxue's hands paused, though her expression hardly changed. She seemed incapable of merely casting a sidelong glance, so she turned her head and looked straight at Pei Ye, speaking in a low voice.
"Pei Ye."
"Yes?"
"I'm not mute."
"Hahaha." Pei Ye leaned back,