"...All right."
By Moon-Catching Lake, the boy and girl stood quietly beneath the willows. In the morning light, a faint layer of rippling shimmer lay over the lake.
"How is the sect leader?" Pei Ye asked quietly.
"He's out of danger this time." Li Piaoqing gazed at the lake. "It's just... he may not have many days left."
"...How long?"
"Maybe a dozen days, maybe three months." Li Piaoqing lowered her head. "Actually, the first moment I saw him like that, I knew there was no saving him."
"..." Pei Ye lowered his eyes toward her, unable to speak for a moment.
He still remembered their first meeting. Burdened with the blood debt of her Senior Brother's murder, she had chatted and laughed as usual in those oppressive circumstances, giving no sign of the crushing weight on her heart. Barely a dozen days had passed since she escaped that abyss. Pei Ye had only just seen her truly happy and full of hope, and now everything had suddenly been smashed back down.
Her only family was leaving her once again, and Jade Feather was losing its only Grandmaster. The seventeen-year-old girl would have to shoulder everything alone again.
And this time, she no longer faced Seven Flood Dragon Cave, but Joy-in-Death Tower.
"Then what are you going to do?" Pei Ye's voice was a little dry.
"...What is there to do?" Li Piaoqing smiled, gazing quietly ahead, her skirts swaying like the willows.
"There was never really any question of 'what to do.'"
Pei Ye turned to look at her. Her profile was still as clear and lovely as ever. He had looked at that face many times, from near and far, in haste and in careful detail. "A backward glance brought forth emerald hues; a turn sent pale green