Tang San Meets Xiao Wu for the First Time
Three days later, a humble carriage left Five Souls Village, traveling slowly along the dirt road toward Nuoding City. It carried a family of four, as well as a child's dream of changing the world.
At the village entrance, beneath the old locust tree, the children and villagers gathered to see them off.
"Brother Zu! Sister Xiao Wu! Come back and see us during the holidays!"
"Auntie Su, Uncle Yan, take care in the city!"
"A-Zu, remember to have someone bring back the new stories you write!"
Yan Zu leaned out of the carriage window and waved with all his might. Xiao Wu squeezed in beside him, her eyes red, but she still smiled. "We'll definitely come back! We'll bring you candy from the city!"
The carriage traveled farther and farther away, until Five Souls Village became a tiny speck on the horizon beneath the golden-red morning glow.
Inside the carriage, Xiao Wu leaned against Su Qing, while Yan Zu sat shoulder to shoulder with his father. Yan Hu patted his son on the shoulder without saying a word, but the warmth of that broad palm spoke louder than a thousand words.
In the faint morning light, Nuoding City slowly awoke beneath the autumn sun.
In a neat little courtyard in the west of the city, Su Qing carefully straightened Yan Zu's collar. The Nuoding Academy uniform, made of coarse cloth, still could not conceal the composure in his bearing that belied his age.
Six-year-old Yan Zu stood in the morning light, a head taller than children his age, though he had yet to lose the roundness of childhood.
His face was pale enough to be almost translucent, and his cheeks still held a trace of baby fat. Yet years of practicing the Nine Yin Manual had given him a well-defined jawline, lending him less of a childish air and more of the refined handsomeness peculiar to a youth.
Most striking of all were his eyes-pure black, like obsidian soaked in water. They were clear to their depths, yet within them lay a calm and clarity beyond his years.
Su Qing folded his uniform collar into perfect order, then reached out to smooth the stray hairs over her son's forehead. His black hair was as soft as fine silk, and a faint coolness brushed her fingertips as it slipped through them.
She looked at Yan Zu's absurdly handsome little face, her heart both proud and aching-proud of her son's precociousness and extraordinary qualities, aching because he was destined to go farther than she had imagined.
Xiao Wu's clear voice called from outside the courtyard. "Little Brother A-Zu, hurry up! We'll be late!"
Xiao Wu came hopping over, her soft pink hair woven into a long braid that hung down to her calves, its end tied with a simple strip of cloth. She wore the new little pink dress Su Qing had made for her. Its skirt flew up as she spun, revealing a length of slender, fair calf, while her waist was so slender it seemed one could encircle it with a single hand.
After this period of cultivation, her figure had grown even more light and graceful, and every movement was full of lively charm. Her big, limpid eyes seemed to hold the clearest spring water in the forest; when she blinked, her long, curled lashes fluttered like butterfly wings. Her pink lips tilted up slightly, giving her a natural, endearing innocence even when she wasn't smiling.
Most striking was her exquisitely sculpted face. Her skin was almost translucent in its fairness, glowing with a healthy flush in the sunlight. Her small nose was pert, and two pointed canine teeth peeked from the corners of her mouth, adding a touch of playful, wild beauty.
"Once you're at the academy, listen to your teachers and get along with your classmates," Su Qing said softly, her eyes full of reluctance to part. "If anyone bullies you... don't put up with it. Come back and tell your mother and father."
Yan Hu stood at the courtyard gate with a bulging bundle on his back. Inside were flatbreads Su Qing had risen early to cook and hard-boiled eggs.
"Come on. Dad will take you to the academy gates." Yan Hu grinned, though worry hid in his eyes. He knew his children were extraordinary, but parents could never help worrying.
Nuoding Junior Soul Master Academy stood in the east of the city. Within its bluestone walls were several old-fashioned teaching buildings and a spacious playground.
It was the start of the school year, and the academy gates bustled with activity. Parents seeing their children off, curious new students, and older students maintaining order made for a lively scene.
At Nuoding Junior Soul Master Academy, the clamor of opening day washed over those within its bluestone walls.
Yan Zu and Xiao Wu followed the crowd toward the hall for the new-student assessment. As they passed through the central courtyard, a gaze drifted down from behind an open window on the second floor.
Tang San had just finished helping Yu Xiaogang sort through a batch of theoretical manuscripts and was leaning by the window for some air. His gaze wandered aimlessly over the bustling crowd below until a flash of pink suddenly caught his eye.
The morning breeze swept across the academy playground, gently lifting the girl's distinctive scorpion-tail braid behind her. Her pink hair shimmered in the light of the rising sun. She had turned her head to speak to the boy beside her, her profile delicate, the tip of her nose turning up in an endearingly innocent curve.
Then she turned back and smiled.
At that moment, Tang San felt that the noisy voices at the academy, the wind brushing his cheeks, even the sunlight pouring down, had all suddenly faded and stilled.
He could clearly see the two little canine teeth at the corners of her mouth, and the sparkling light in her crescent-shaped eyes. That light was pure and lively, like a fawn leaping across a woodland stream for the first time, filled with the clarity of one untouched by the world and a vibrant vitality.
She possessed a contradictory yet fatal allure-an air of purity untainted by the mundane world, yet also the innocent, endearing charm peculiar to a young girl.
Those two qualities blended perfectly in the upturn of her lips, the gentle sway of her waist, and the shifting glances of her eyes, weaving an invisible net.
Tang San felt something seize his heart in a fierce grip, then suddenly let go. The sound of his blood surging roared in his ears.
He had seen the freshest-faced girls in Holy Soul Village and the finely dressed young ladies on the streets of Nuoding City, but he had never seen anyone like her.
She was unlike anyone else. She was a wild rose blooming as she pleased in the mountains, dewdrops upon her petals-vivid and radiant, with an utterly natural allure.
But in the next instant, that radiance found a clear direction.
The girl lifted her face and looked at the silent, black-haired boy beside her. The trust and affection in her eyes were so deep they could not be dissolved, as though, vast as heaven and earth were, only the person before her was worthy of her entrusting everything to him without reserve. She even reached out naturally to brush nonexistent dust from the boy's shoulder, the gesture familiar and intimate.
If...
An unfamiliar, burning thought sprang up without warning, leaving Tang San's throat dry.
If the person standing beside her... were me.
The moment the thought surfaced, he ruthlessly stamped it out. Reason returned, and cold reality settled over his heart: she was someone else's companion, and the way she looked at that boy was so intent.
Tang San tightened his grip on the window frame, and the wood gave a faint groan. His knuckles turned white from the force. He lowered his eyes, and when he raised them again, that momentary wonder and stirring had been pushed deep into their depths, covered by an obscure, inscrutable hue. He silently committed the two figures to memory, then turned and left the window.