Fork in the Road
After finishing the noodles, the pickled radish was also gone. Zhao Xiaopang stacked the empty plates and carried them back to the kitchen, returning with a pot of tea. He poured a bowl for each of the four people, sat down at his seat, blew on the steam from his bowl, and glanced at Long Tian through the white mist.
How long will you be able to stay this time?
Long Tian thought for a moment, "Stay one night. Leave first thing tomorrow morning."
Zhao Xiaopang didn't touch his mouth to the rim of the bowl, pausing for a moment before finally taking a sip. Chen Hao leaned back in his chair, placing his teacup on the table without picking it up. Mr. Wang stood at the cafeteria entrance for a while, then turned and left upon hearing this. Before leaving, he patted Long Tian's shoulder, pausing briefly as if checking the thickness of what lay beneath the fabric, before withdrawing his hand and walking back down the corridor to the teaching hall.
At dusk, Long Tian sat for a while under the old banyan tree in the academy. The tree was much thicker than when he left three years ago, its roots arching out of the soil and intertwining into crisscrossing ridges on the ground. Yu Jin sat next to him, holding a piece of coarse candy he had brought from the cafeteria, still unpeeled. Zhao Xiaopang was talking to a lower-grade student in the corridor not far away, his round back swaying in the twilight. Chen Hao leaned against a pillar in the corridor, flipping through an old book in his hand.
Long Tian sat on the roots of the banyan tree and reached into his clothes to touch the edge of the token. The gray iron's sharp edges were warmed by his body heat, and his fingertips brushed against the embossed patterns of the sword star emblem, creating a very faint granular sensation. He withdrew his hand and placed it on his knees, looking up at the gaps in the gradually darkening sky through the canopy of the banyan tree.
"Did you practice your skills under this tree before?" Yu Jin suddenly asked.
"Yes. In the third year, I honed the First Soul Skill of Yin-Yang Rotation here until the light bullet could make three turns. Zhao Xiaopang was using scarecrows as targets under the tree, and I destroyed three of them."
Yu Jin unwrapped the piece of coarse candy, took a small bite, and chewed slowly. He looked up at the branches and leaves above him, and at the sky turning purple between them, without asking any further questions.
Dinner was bought by Zhao Xiaopang from the braised meat shop at the entrance of town, and it filled half the table. Chen Hao somehow got hold of a jar of rice wine, opened it, and poured it into several rough bowls. He drank two bowls himself, Zhao Xiaopang drank one and his face turned red, and Yu Jin picked up a bowl, took a sip, and put it down. Long Tian held the bowl of wine in his hand without drinking, the warmth of the rim of the bowl passing through the porcelain wall to his fingertips. He looked down at the slightly cloudy liquid in the bowl, reflecting the fragmented shadows of the lamplight.
Chen Hao finished his third bowl, turned it upside down on the table, and spoke in the same tone as when they challenged each other to a duel at the martial arts arena, "After you leave tomorrow, I'll stay here. Zhao Xiaopang will stay here too. Mr. Wang is old enough to have someone take over his classes, so I will. Zhao Xiaopang will sweep the yard and manage the canteen." He looked at Long Tian across the table of empty bowls and plates, "Once you've resolved your matter, have someone pass on a message. Xiaopang and I won't go far."
Long Tian nodded. Zhao Xiaopang was slumped over the table, already half asleep, his cheek pressed against his arm, creating a crease, and he mumbled something incoherent in his sleep.
The dormitory room where Long Tian used to live was new. The bedding had been replaced, and the potted asparagus fern on the windowsill had been replaced with two small mint plants, their leaves shimmering with fine, velvety edges in the moonlight. Yu Jin slept on the bed opposite him. The two lay on their respective bedding, separated by a table. The chirping of insects outside seeped in through the cracks in the window, one after another without interruption.
"Long Tian," Yu Jin spoke from the shadows.
"Hmm."
"After you go back up the mountain tomorrow, how long will it take for the new core of that bead to fully connect with your sixth ring?"
Long Tian thought for a moment in the darkness, "It will probably take about ten more days of break-in. Its shape is already fixed; now it needs to ensure that the interface between the six rings and the rings moves evenly with each rotation. Like gears that have been unused for a long time and need to be re-engaged, you need to slowly rotate a few times to allow the contact surfaces to wear down naturally."
Yu Jin didn't ask any more questions. Moonlight slanted in through the cracks in the window, drawing a narrow, long, bright line on the ground between them. The two of them turned over, and the chirping of insects continued, as if an entire meadow was emitting sounds at the same frequency.
The next day at dawn, when Long Tian and Yu Jin left, Zhao Xiaopang didn't come to see them off. Chen Hao stood at the courtyard gate and said that Zhao Xiaopang had drunk too much wine the night before and was still asleep. He himself stood by the door frame and didn't walk forward. Only after Long Tian and Yu Jin turned around and took a few steps towards the town entrance did he call out behind them, "The goods have arrived, I'll help you receive them." Long Tian didn't turn around, but raised his right hand and waved it behind him. Yu Jin walked beside him on the dirt road in the early morning light, their shadows stretching long behind them. After leaving the town entrance, there were fewer and fewer people on the road. The wheat waves in the fields swayed and rose again in the wind, like a carpet combed by an invisible comb. The outline of the mountain at the end of the official road reappeared in the increasingly bright light, still that dark color, that undulating ridge line that continued into the distance.
Yu Jin walked beside Long Tian, glancing at him sideways. He noticed that Long Tian's pace and breathing were slowly returning to their usual rhythm—shoulders relaxed, steps neither hurried nor slow, following the dirt path he had trodden himself along. Yu Jin looked away, adjusted the straps of his bundle, and caught up with Long Tian's pace. The two walked side by side, the wheat fields on either side of the road rustling in the morning breeze as they passed, like a vast chorus of whispers triggered by a single signal, then gradually quieting down and returning to their original state of continuous swaying in the wind.