Confirmation

That reaction was perfectly normal; no reaction at all would have been strange. Zhao Changhe thought nothing more of it and clinked bowls with a chuckle. "Drinking from big bowls, eating great hunks of meat. When I read Water Margin as a kid... uh, anyway, I dreamed of that as a kid. It felt like such soaring, cloud-piercing bravado. Now that I'm actually in a bandit den, we have to scrimp on meat, buy our own wine, and carefully ration a single gourd between us. Talk about shattered illusions."

Luo Qi laughed despite himself. "What you're talking about takes a bandit king, or at least a senior chief. But I think you could absolutely get there."

"That's a bit difficult. To become a senior chief, I'd at least have to be a full cult member, right? So far, there's no sign of them letting me join. They said I could join once I had faith, but nobody's even preaching to us! Instructor Sun doesn't seem responsible for that, and the helmsman never shows his face. Who knows where he's hiding?"

Luo Qi sipped his wine and studied Zhao Changhe's expression. "From your attitude, you don't seem to care all that much?"

"I do care a little. I want the Blood God Art, not the Blood Baleful Art. Of course, joining the Four Symbols Cult would be even better... someone practiced the Blood God Art and still got beaten by someone below his level."

Luo Qi burst out laughing.

It seemed that, although Zhao Changhe never said it outright, Yue Hongling's battle with Xue Canghai really had beaten all his expectations of the Blood God Cult out of him.

Zhao Changhe sipped his wine. "Anyway, there's no hurry. We've only just started. Who knows, maybe this helmsman will be dismissed tomorrow? If Instructor Sun takes over, my days will be a lot easier. He really does treat me well."

"In your dreams. You think Helmsman Fang is hiding away for fun? He's probably preaching in the city... though I didn't see any sign of the Demon Cult preaching when I went there today. I suppose getting started is hard, and he hasn't begun yet."

"Not necessarily." Zhao Changhe lowered his voice. "Don't you think this Sub-Helm is strange?"

Luo Qi's mind went on alert. He did not want to discuss this topic. You'd be better off agonizing over whether I'm a man or a woman! But now that Zhao Changhe had brought it up, he could only play dumb. "What do you mean?"

"The Sub-Helm is new, but that underground altar definitely wasn't just excavated. Think how huge a project that would be! Clearly, it was already there. It must be a secret site someone left behind long ago that the Blood God Cult discovered."

Luo Qi immediately said, "That's perfectly normal. If there's a ready-made place, why not use it? Then they built a mountain stronghold nearby and established a Sub-Helm. Nothing strange about that."

"But what reason did they have to establish a Sub-Helm in the dead of winter?" Zhao Changhe was thoroughly exasperated. "A cult that big, and they made no preparations beforehand? They suddenly start now, with everything buried in snow and ice, short on clothes and food. Why put themselves through that? Did getting beaten by someone below his level damage Cult Master Xue's brain? Oh, Yue Hongling hadn't beaten him yet back then."

For a moment, Luo Qi had no answer.

Seriously, could you stop bringing up that business about being beaten by someone below his level?

"Yue Hongling happened to overhear their plans to attack the Luo Family around here. She said Cult Master Xue was here at the time too. That means there's some fairly important secret hidden here. The Blood God Cult's main force moved in to explore the place, with the cult master personally leading them. Later, killing Luo Zhenwu interrupted things. They probably never finished what they were doing, or only got halfway through. The cult master couldn't stay here long-term, so even in the dead of winter, he left people here to establish a new Sub-Helm and keep searching."

Luo Qi: "..."

Zhao Changhe drained his bowl and set it down heavily on the table. "I strongly suspect this isn't even the Blood God Cult's business, but the Four Symbols Cult's. Whether I can join the Four Symbols Cult or learn the Blood God Art, there's merit to be earned here. Keeping an eye out certainly won't hurt."

Luo Qi gazed into his wine bowl, his eyes deep and unreadable. Suddenly, he looked up with a smile. "You really should just drink when you're drinking. All this talk is anything but hearty and straightforward, yet you keep going on about being a real man."

"Fuck that. Come on, let's knock back three bowls!"

"This gourd doesn't even hold that many bowls."

"Then however much there is! Hot wine really hits the spot in winter!"

The hot wine did indeed hit the spot. Its warmth flushed Luo Qi's cheeks red, yet his eyes held even more of a mist, something impossible to name or explain.

Only when they had finished drinking did he look down at his empty bowl and suddenly say, "Changhe, in a world like this, you shouldn't trust people too much. Keep these deductions to yourself. Why say them aloud?"

Zhao Changhe blinked. "Why couldn't I tell you? I wouldn't blab about this to anyone else."

"Don't readily trust anyone, including me." Luo Qi paused, then added, "That includes Instructor Sun, who you think treats you so well."

"Uh..." Zhao Changhe ventured, "You haven't had too much to drink, have you?"

Luo Qi smiled and stood up, looking as though he could not hold his liquor, then stretched. "Yes, I'm not much of a drinker... I'll go to bed first."

Zhao Changhe stood too and, a little tipsy, slung an arm around Luo Qi's shoulders. "Senior Brother, you're kind of a lightweight. That was only a few cups..."

Luo Qi failed to react in time. He actually missed his chance to dodge and was caught in a firm embrace, his whole body instantly freezing.

"Tsk, so skinny." Zhao Changhe squeezed his shoulder with his large hand. "You really can only train your inner breath. In a world without internal power, I could take on ten of you. Go to sleep, go on. I'll train a little longer. Feels like hot wine gets the blood flowing and makes training more effective..."

His hand left that shoulder, and Zhao Changhe was already outside the door, holding a horse stance.

Luo Qi stood there in a daze, stiffly turning his head toward the doorway.

He just put his arm around me like that?

Was that perfectly normal to Zhao Changhe? Just throwing an arm around a brother's shoulders. What man hadn't done that...

But Luo Qi was completely numb, still bewildered, his mind utterly blank, as though electric currents were still coursing through his body.

Zhao Changhe had darted to the doorway to hold his horse stance, and his heart was overflowing with regret too.

Of course he had done it on purpose!

After a little wine, the sight of Luo Qi's pretty, flushed face had briefly set the monkey in his heart loose. He was a hot-blooded man, after all... and he had also wanted to seize the opportunity to confirm his suspicions.

Men's and women's shoulders naturally differed in softness.

This time, he really had confirmed it. Luo Qi was a woman.

At first, he had also felt a mischievous urge to see how this Senior Brother disguised as a man would look after being groped, unable even to complain... "Don't trust anyone, including me," huh? Hah.

But he soon wanted to slap himself. He really was asking for trouble. What practical purpose did a little groping serve? He couldn't actually do anything, and all he had achieved was to leave himself with a pillar propping up the heavens that refused to subside. He could only hide it with a horse stance.

Why put myself through this?

And how are we supposed to get along now? I said myself that things would be easier if he were a man, yet I just had to stir up trouble. Confirm it, my ass!

Zhao Changhe really wanted to slap himself to death.

So one stood there staring blankly at the other, while the other trained with a wooden expression and a stiff neck. Both their minds were wandering beyond the heavens. The atmosphere remained strangely frozen for a while, until Luo Qi suddenly broke into a radiant smile.

Zhao Changhe caught it out of the corner of his eye and went numb himself for a moment, solemnly maintaining his horse stance as he stared at the sky.

Then Luo Qi strode over and took the initiative to sling an arm around Zhao Changhe's shoulders. "Hey."

Zhao Changhe went rigid. "Huh? What is it?"

"Your horse stance isn't right today. Training like that will cause problems." Luo Qi leaned close to his ear and murmured, "Don't tell me a little wine has you thinking of that now that you're warm and comfortable? That's no good. Want your buddy to take you to a brothel in the city?"

"Uh... well." The corner of Zhao Changhe's mouth twitched, and he asked with some difficulty, "Don't you usually avoid even touching other people's hands? Why are you throwing an arm around my shoulders?"

Luo Qi acted as though nothing were amiss. "We weren't close before. Now we're brothers, aren't we? Isn't this what brothers do? You can put your arm around me, but I can't put mine around you?"

So that was it.

He still wanted to keep up the act? Force it through with this method? After standing there stunned for ages, this was his answer?

Zhao Changhe did not know whether to laugh or cry. He had no idea what to make of this chance to cop a feel delivered right to his doorstep, but he felt considerably more at ease.

It did not seem so bad, really... but with Luo Qi leaning against him, an arm around his shoulders, that orchid-fragrant breath brushing his ear... Zhao Changhe discovered, to his shame, that even his horse stance could barely conceal it anymore.