The Handkerchief

"By the way, Sister Hongxiao, do you know why there are so many people dressed differently in the city today?"

Qu Hongxiao did not answer right away. She gazed at the many Tree Fellers hurrying through the mist in the distance, then said softly after a moment, "Those people are here to buy things."

Qin Sanyue pressed the scar over her right eye and muttered to herself, "I haven't heard anything about a gathering in Black Stone City today."

The two walked together under their umbrellas.

Hu Lan sat up in bed, rubbing her sleepy eyes. Yawning, she hooked her feet into a pair of shoes beside the bed, then staggered over and sat down in front of the dressing mirror.

Looking at herself in the polished bronze mirror, Hu Lan opened her eyes little by little, then widened them little by little.

"What is this?!" she cried, hurriedly rubbing her forehead with her fingers.

There, below her forehead and between her eyebrows, was a strangely shaped black mark.

She rubbed it hard, but when nothing happened, she quickly covered the spot between her brows, got up, and ran to the washroom next door. She filled a basin with water and began washing her face, rubbing the mark between her brows over and over.

At first, she thought it was an ink stain, but when she could not get it off no matter what she did, she began to panic.

But reckoning that breakfast at her teacher's house would soon be ready, she had no patience to keep dealing with the thing between her brows. She hurriedly pulled out a silk scarf and tied it around her forehead to cover the mark.

She turned down Hu Zhifu's offer to see her there because of the rain, grabbed an oiled-paper umbrella, and hurried out alone.

Behind her, Hu Zhifu nodded repeatedly, thinking how diligent and eager to learn his little sister was.

Hu Lan had just turned out of her courtyard and onto the main road when she could not help freezing for a moment. She noticed there were far more people outside today than usual, and many of them looked like outsiders. Could there be some kind of market today?

She cast the baffling thought out of her head and strode forward beneath her umbrella.

She jogged all the way to the Three Flavors Study, but by the time she arrived, not only were her shoes soaked through, but her trousers were wet halfway up as well.

Ye Fu had brought out a small stool and was sitting in the doorway, whittling a piece of wood with a knife. When he saw Hu Lan, he burst out laughing.

"Little one, you're braving all sorts of hardships just to get to school. I thought you probably wouldn't come."

Hu Lan clenched her fists and huffed, "I'm very hardworking!" Then she rolled her eyes and asked, "Have you eaten?"

Ye Fu raised an eyebrow and asked, "What do you think?"

Hu Lan immediately wilted and stamped her feet. "It's all this rain's fault. It made me miss breakfast."

Ye Fu laughed, put down what he was working on, and brushed the wood shavings off his clothes. "We haven't eaten yet. We've been waiting for you. Come on in."

Hu Lan's eyes curved with a sudden smile. She ran over, rubbed her soaking wet head against Ye Fu's waist, and said cheerfully, "You're the best, Teacher!" Then she dropped her umbrella and rushed inside, unable to wait.

Ye Fu could not help sighing. "Children really are full of life."

He looked back at the stars, dimly visible through the thin mist above, and a broad smile spread across his face.

"So this is what the grand curtain over Black Stone City looks like."

At the breakfast table.

Ye Fu looked at the silk scarf on Hu Lan's forehead and could not help asking, "What made you decide to dress yourself up today?"

Hu Lan swung her feet, touched the scarf on her forehead, and pouted. Reluctantly, she took it off. "That's not it at all!" She rubbed the black mark between her eyebrows and said aggrievedly, "I don't know why this thing appeared, and I can't wash it off no matter what I do."

The instant Ye Fu saw the black mark, his gaze darkened. He could see with perfect clarity that an aged consciousness lay dormant within it.

He stirred his Divine Sense slightly and learned what the consciousness residing on Hu Lan's forehead intended to do: wait for a chance to seize her body.

"Teacher, you think it looks ugly too, don't you?" Seeing Ye Fu's gaze darken, Hu Lan said with a glum face, "I don't want this thing either, but I just can't get rid of it."

Ye Fu's gaze softened again, and he smiled. "Who says you can't get rid of it?"

As he spoke, he reached out, pressed his thumb against the black mark between Hu Lan's brows, and gently wiped it away.

A shrill, anguished voice rang out in his mind. Ye Fu used a thought of his Divine Sense to say to the consciousness that was about to disperse, "Your luck is terrible, setting your sights on my student."

A vast presence was about to surge out from between Hu Lan's brows, but Ye Fu snuffed it out the next instant.

Ye Fu smiled. "See? Isn't it gone?"

Hu Lan looked at Ye Fu suspiciously. "Really?" She had spent so long trying to remove it that morning and had nearly missed breakfast. She did not believe her teacher had wiped it off with one gentle rub.

Doubtfully, she went next door to look in the mirror.

A moment later, Ye Fu heard a delighted cry and could not help smiling.

On the next street over, a man in a long robe suddenly turned pale and staggered to his knees.

He muttered over and over, "The old ancestor is gone..."

He hurriedly pulled a small metal bird from his robes and spoke to it. "The old ancestor's presence has dissipated. Something may have happened to him. Send someone at once."

Then he released the metal bird.

Chapter 35: The Handkerchief

Zhong Suihua, the owner of the Cloth Robe Workshop whom everyone affectionately called Hua Niang, was troubled at the moment.

She set aside her usual seductive manner and asked helplessly, "Esteemed customer, do you really want to buy this piece of cloth?"

Standing before her was a young woman with her long hair loose.

The young woman raised a hand, her wide sleeve hiding her face. She chuckled and said, "I do. This humble woman wants that piece of cloth."

Her voice was sweet and alluring, and her every gesture was full of temptation.

"But that really isn't for sale. It's only used to keep the dust off. The workmanship is rough, and the color isn't good either. Why don't you look at the ones in our display instead?"