Confession by the Stream

The note had appeared before dawn.

When Nan Feng woke, he felt something digging uncomfortably into the back of his neck. He fished a square-folded scrap of paper from a gap in his pillow. It was a corner torn from an exercise book, with rough edges. By the gray light outside the window, he made out the crooked writing.

"Tower Simpleton, come with me to the back mountain after classes today. Don't tell Tang San. Wait for me at the lawn. Xiao Wu."

The back was blank. The words had been written in a hurry, some strokes running together and outside the lines.

He folded the note, tucked it under his pillow, and sat up.

Xiao Wu was still asleep, wrapped tightly in her blanket with a tuft of pink hair showing. Tang San's bed was empty.

Nan Feng got out of bed and left for morning class. A mumble came from beneath the blanket. He didn't wake her, closing the door behind him.

Nan Feng couldn't pay attention in afternoon class. He wrote a few lines, then put down his pen, the words on the note circling in his head. Don't tell Tang San. Wait for me at the lawn. That was where they trained in the mornings, and no one ever passed by.

When the dismissal bell rang, Nan Feng remained seated for two breaths before getting up. He left the classroom and followed the dirt path toward the back mountain. Most of the weeds beside it had withered yellow, crumbling to powder underfoot.

Xiao Wu was already standing on the lawn. She was beside the bluestone slab, neither warming up nor practicing her kicks, her hands twisting together in front of her.

She looked up at the sound of his footsteps. Her face was taut, her lips pressed into a line, and there was something in her eyes Nan Feng had never seen before.

Unease. And the determination to stake everything on a single throw.

"You're here." Her voice was much softer than usual, as if she dared not speak loudly for fear someone would hear.

Nan Feng stopped a few paces in front of her.

"What happened?"

"Nothing." Xiao Wu lowered her head to glance at her toes, then looked up at him again. "It's just that I... have something I want to tell you. I've wanted to tell you for a long time, actually, but I never found the right moment. Today I felt I couldn't put it off any longer."

She took a deep breath, then let it out.

"Promise me first. No matter what happens after you hear it, you won't tell Tang San."

"I promise."

"Swear it."

"I swear."

Xiao Wu looked into his eyes for two seconds to make sure, then turned and walked toward the edge of the lawn. Nan Feng followed her.

The two passed through a grove of dwarf pines and descended a path buried in weeds. It led through the bushes to a secluded stream.

Tall trees stood on both sides of the stream, their crowns shutting out the daylight. Water flowed from between the rocks with a clear, bright sound. White sand covered the bank.

Xiao Wu stopped on the white sand and turned to face Nan Feng.

"Do you know why I can't hunt ordinary Soul Beasts?"

Nan Feng said nothing.

Xiao Wu clenched her fists, her nails digging into her palms.

"I grew up with my mom in the Star Dou Great Forest. There are lots of Soul Beasts in that forest, but I'm different. I can't hunt ordinary Soul Beasts, because they're my own kind."

The sound of the stream was especially clear now.

"I'm a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast who took human form." Her voice shook as she said it, but she didn't stop, as if afraid that if she did, her courage would fail her.

"A Soft Bone Rabbit. My mom was a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soft Bone Rabbit, and I was a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast from the day I was born. Later, my mom was hunted and killed. I took human form, escaped, and blended into the human world. From Holy Soul Village to Nuoding Academy, no one knew."

Her eyes grew moist as she spoke, but the tears didn't fall.

"You kept your First Soul Ring from me before. You have your secrets, and I have mine. From that moment on, the two of us were the same, both hiding things. But today I don't want to hide anymore. I just wanted to tell you, because I felt you should know."

Her chest rose and fell, as if she had lifted a stone she'd carried for years out of her body.

Her eyes fixed on Nan Feng's face, fear in them: that he would fear her, push her away, look at her as if to say, "You're not human." And something deeper still, the tension of laying everything bare and waiting for a verdict.

Nan Feng was silent for several seconds.

Xiao Wu's face went pale, and her shoulders drew inward, as if she wanted to curl in on herself. She parted her lips, wanting to say, "Forget it, you don't have to answer."

Before the words came out, Nan Feng spoke.

"I know."

Xiao Wu froze.

"I've known for a long time," Nan Feng said.

Xiao Wu's eyes went round. Her lips moved twice before she found her voice.

"You... you knew?"

"I sensed it the first time I met you in the Nuoding carriage." Nan Feng took a step forward, keeping his voice even. "You have demonic Qi. The power of your transformation suppresses it, but not completely. My tower can sense it."

Xiao Wu took half a step back against a tree trunk and slid down it to the ground.

She tilted her head up to look at Nan Feng, tears rolling down one by one. She was still smiling, the corners of her mouth pulled upward.

"You knew all along." She repeated it, her voice hoarse and trembling. "You knew all along and didn't say anything. You still trained with me every morning, still fought with me, still let me kick you..."

"You didn't do anything wrong."

Nan Feng crouched down to meet her eyes. He could see droplets clinging to her eyelashes.

"You're a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast who took human form. That in itself is just where you came from. Where you came from has nothing to do with what kind of person you are."

Xiao Wu's tears fell even harder. She wiped her face, smearing tears and snot onto her sleeve.

"Why are you so annoying?" she choked out. "I held it in for so long, wanting to tell you. I spent days preparing myself, afraid you'd be scared of me if you found out. And then you tell me you knew all along."

"You were afraid I'd be scared of you. If I really were, I would've run away long ago."

"Then why didn't you run?" Xiao Wu sniffled.

"Because I've known you for so long, and I know what kind of person you are."

Nan Feng pulled an old handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to her. He had brought it from Blacksmith Village; it had belonged to Old Chen.

"You never hold back when you kick me, but you've never really tried to kick me to death, either. You say you don't care about me, but when I'm hurt, you're the first to come running. Yesterday morning, you even put the last piece of meat in my bowl."

Xiao Wu took the handkerchief and clutched it, staring at him blankly.

"It doesn't matter where you came from," Nan Feng said. "It's enough that you're Xiao Wu."

The stream murmured, and the leaves rustled overhead.

Xiao Wu lowered her head, clutching the handkerchief, her shoulders jerking as she cried for a long while. Nan Feng crouched beside her, neither getting up nor speaking.

When her sobs grew quieter, he shifted into a sitting position, his back against another tree trunk.

After a long time, Xiao Wu spoke in a muffled voice.

"Whose handkerchief is this?"

"My dad's. The one from Blacksmith Village."

"You carry it with you?"

"I'm used to it."

Nan Feng picked up a flat white pebble and turned it over in his hand a couple of times.

"About your mom, tell me if you want to. If you don't, then don't. I won't ask."

Xiao Wu was silent for a while.

"My mom was hunted and killed by people from Spirit Hall." Her voice had steadied, though it was still nasal. "When I escaped, I couldn't bring anything with me. All I had was something my mom told me. Never let humans know who you are."

"But you've told me now."

"Mm." Xiao Wu turned her head to glance at him, her eyes brighter than usual after crying. "I don't know why, either. I just feel that even though you're quiet and hide things every day, you wouldn't hurt me."

Nan Feng tossed the white pebble into the stream, sending up a ring of spray. He looked down as the ripples spread.

"I am hiding things," he said. "But don't worry. The things I'm hiding won't hurt you. One day you'll find out, but not now."

"I know."

Xiao Wu wiped her face with the old handkerchief, folded it, and tucked it into her own pocket.

"I'm keeping this. Don't ask me for it later."

Nan Feng glanced at her and didn't ask for it back.

Patches of light filtered through the branches and leaves. Xiao Wu sat cross-legged against the tree trunk, her chin resting on her knees, her face turned sideways toward Nan Feng.

After a long while, she spoke.

"Nan Feng."

"Mm."

"When you said just now that you knew I was a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, did you feel afraid for even a second?"

Nan Feng thought about it.

"No. But for one second, I felt sorry for you."

"Sorry for me?" Xiao Wu turned to glare at him.

"You ran out of the Star Dou Great Forest and came alone into the human world. No family, none of your own kind. Every day, you have to hide who you are while dealing with everyone."

Nan Feng looked at the patch of sky visible through a gap in the canopy overhead.

"I was alone too when my dad found me. I don't remember anything from back then, but it was probably much the same."

Xiao Wu looked at him for a long time, then lowered her head and buried her face in her knees.

"You... you're not allowed to tell anyone about today. Not even Tang San."

"All right."

"Or Lingling."

"All right."

"No one at all."

"All right."

Xiao Wu lifted her face. Her eyes were still red, but the light Nan Feng knew had returned to them. She gave him a light kick on the shin.

"Let's go. It's almost dark. If we don't get back soon, everyone will snatch up all the steamed buns in the dining hall."

She brushed the white sand from her skirt, held out her hand to Nan Feng, and pulled him to his feet.

The two followed the path back through the bushes and dwarf pines to the lawn. Dusk was creeping in, staining the dwarf pines dark green silhouettes.

Xiao Wu walked ahead, her steps brisk, her scorpion braid swinging back and forth. At the edge of the lawn, she stopped and looked back.

Her lips curved into a smile, her eyes bright, the light of dusk gilding her face with a warm glow.

"Tower Simpleton," she said, "thank you."

Nan Feng stood in the middle of the lawn. The evening wind swept through the pines, lifting the hem of his clothes before letting it fall again.

He nodded to her. He didn't say "you're welcome," or anything else.

Without waiting for his answer, Xiao Wu turned and ran downhill along the dirt path. Her pink figure flickered in the dusk, like autumn's last leaf refusing to fall.

Her footsteps grew more distant, then vanished deep in the pine grove.

He looked down at his empty right hand. The lingering warmth in his palm from pulling her up was fading.

Soul Power was still circulating in his dantian. The dim, deep-yellow glow of his Soul Ring, tinged with purple, pulsed against the skin of his palm, rising and falling in response to the green light from the crack at the base of the tower.

His Soul Power was at level sixteen, four levels short of twenty. At level twenty, the door to the tower's first floor would open completely, and the Power of Mountain Suppression would be released outward. Then he could help Xiao Wu touch the seal deep within her Martial Soul.

Today she had revealed her secret, and he had let her know he'd already known. A corner of the thin veil had been lifted, and there was something new between them: trust.

Nan Feng took a deep breath and started down the mountain.

In the dusk, the lights of Nuoding Academy were beginning to glow, like a handful of scattered gold fragments beneath the gray-blue sky.