"Last time you said it was a Finger Sword, and that we had to wait for the Bright Sword Master-" Li Piaoqing said with a smile, then suddenly stopped. She stared blankly at his fist, already knowing what was inside.
Pei Ye slowly opened his hand and said softly, "I saw how you always carried that Finger Sword your Senior Brother forged for you. Even after it broke, you still held it tight. The dead can't come back to life, but you said Miss Ming was a pillar in your heart, so I thought... I'd ask her to forge you an identical [Heart-Slaying Glaze]. Perhaps it would make you feel better. I don't know if it can make up for some of your regrets. Maybe I was just being presumptuous."
On the boy's open palm lay a lifelike [Heart-Slaying Glaze]. It no longer had a spring mechanism, but a sharp sliver of cloud-white true qi had been fixed inside it by wondrous means.
The tiny characters engraved on it were clear and lovely: "A backward glance gives birth to emerald hues; a gentle sway sends pale green billowing. [Ming Qitian]."
"..." Li Piaoqing picked up the little sword and quietly studied it for a while.
"Do you like it?" Pei Ye asked, a little apprehensive.
"No."
"..."
But then the girl raised her head, her eyes red, and murmured, "Why isn't your name on it?"
"Ah, I... I thought... I wasn't good enough."
"This is your gift to me." Li Piaoqing handed it to him and said softly, "Pei Ye, in my heart, you're... very, very important. I want to see your name on it."
"..."
Only after the boy had painstakingly engraved the plain, unpolished characters [Pei Ye] on it did Li Piaoqing take it back, her face reddening