Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The rain had cleared, and the sky was bright again.

After washing the blood from my body, I followed him to a flatbread stall in town.

At that point, I still did not call him Senior Brother.

“Uncle Rabbit.”

The nickname slipped out before I could stop it. I pointed at the steaming red date cakes in the basket and asked tentatively, “Can I eat that?”

“No.”

He looked puzzled for an instant, then, expressionless, grabbed two stools and motioned for me to sit with him. “Come here. Eat a steamed bun.”

Seeing the white, round thing in his hand was steaming too, I did not hesitate. I shuffled over eagerly, took it, and tore into it.

The way I wolfed it down clearly gave him quite a scare.

“Is it really that good?”

I said nothing and only kept stuffing steamed bun into my mouth.

He did not know I had not eaten anything hot in a very long time.

Since waking in the mountains half a year ago, I had only had a few days of hot soup in that fat man’s estate. After that, I had stayed in the back mountain, drinking rainwater and tearing at chicken meat.

After two steamed buns, I drank a huge bowl of vegetable-leaf soup.

I was just about to ask him for another bowl when he had already stood and led me to a crossing a few steps away.

There stood a great glowing wall. Several people lingered before it, heads raised, staring at the portraits scrolling across its surface.

He turned around and tapped my shoulder lightly with a twig.

“Since you know a few moves well enough to protect yourself, I imagine your background can’t be too humble. You’ve been gone for half a year. Your family must be looking for you.

“This is the missing-person notice board used throughout the Four Domains and One Realm. You look fifteen, sixteen, maybe seventeen. You should know how to find your own way home.

“All right. I’m very busy, so this is where we part ways.”

With that, he tossed the twig aside and left without looking back, decisively and without the slightest hesitation.

I stood there in a daze for a moment. My mind had not caught up yet, but my feet had already started following him.

One street.

Two streets.

When we reached the mouth of an alley on the third street, he stopped.

Hands on his hips, he turned sideways to face me, his tone a little irritable.

“Why are you still following me?

“We met by chance. I bought you steamed buns. I’ve already done more than enough.”

I had not meant to anger him, so I hurried to explain.

“I’m not following you on purpose.

“It’s just that I don’t know who I am, and I don’t remember whether I have a home.”

My memories now began on a snowy night half a year ago.

The sky had been very dark, and the wind very cold.

I was so frozen I had lost all feeling. I could only stumble dully toward the only light I saw, and ended up trespassing into someone’s estate.

At first, that fat man treated me kindly. He gave me hot food and a charcoal fire.

He even had someone help me change into new clothes and invited me to stay in a fragrant, warm room.

But after only a few days, he seemed to become a different person, insisting on pressing himself against me.

“I didn’t mean to hurt him. One night, I woke with a start and found someone tugging at my quilt. I lifted my hand, and a flash of Silver Light shot out, sending him flying a long way.

“That’s how his leg broke. I didn’t think it would be that serious.”

I did not want to remember what had happened then, and even now, speaking of it made my voice tremble despite myself.

But when I saw his expression growing darker and darker, I was afraid I would miss my chance and he would lose all interest in hearing where I came from, so I could only force myself to keep talking, the words spilling out like beans from an upturned basket.

“After that, the fat man locked me up. He stopped giving me food and had people come bully me every day.

“But because the Silver Light protected me, they couldn’t get close.”

I spread my hands and told him the Silver Light was not something I could control.

It seemed to appear whenever I was threatened.

His assessing gaze fell on my palms, so intent it was almost as if he meant to burn holes through them.

Only then did I suddenly remember that this Silver Light had injured him too.

“Uncle Rabbit.” I forced myself to take a steadying breath and defended myself. “I’m not as bad as the fat man said.”

I had not occupied his back mountain.

It was because, the moment I escaped that estate, someone had driven me into the mountains.

I had nowhere else to go, so I hid in the makeshift chicken shed halfway up the slope. It was warmer there, and I could clearly see the people who came chasing after me.

Nor had I eaten a hundred or so of his family’s chickens.

I had only eaten two.

I had simply been too hungry.

For months, I had survived on wild grass and rotten fruit fallen from trees. My soul and senses felt as if they had drifted outside my body, leaving me unable to tell reality from illusion.

Once, I dreamed I was drinking chicken soup. When I woke, a chicken lay limp in my arms, its neck already wrung.

“Uncle Rabbit, that was the first time I stole a chicken to eat. Today was the second.”

I lowered my head in shame.

I watched his shadow stretch long beneath the slanting sun until it reached my feet.

He stood there quietly, his wrist resting on the hilt of the sword at his waist. His posture was lazy, as if he did not care what I had said at all.

Since he gave no response, I could only keep talking.

I told him everything I had experienced over the past half year, without hiding a single detail.

I spoke from dusk until darkness fell, until my mouth was dry and my stomach was empty. Only then did I hear him slowly speak.

“Stay here. Don’t move. Wait for me.”

I had no idea what he meant, but I obediently did as I was told.

He slipped into the night and returned in less time than it took to eat a steamed bun.

Without another word, he grabbed me by the back of my collar and flew up onto the rooftops.

I was bewildered and stunned. “Uncle Rabbit?”

He frowned. “Call me uncle again, and I’ll throw you off.”

I shut my mouth.

But after we had run a few steps, I still could not help asking, “Why are we running?”

He stared straight ahead.

“Someone is chasing us.”

“Who?”

“People from the Zhao Family.”

If I remembered correctly, that fat man’s surname was Zhao.

“Why are the Zhao Family’s people chasing us?” My throat tightened, and my heart began to race. “Did the fat man send them? Is he trying to kill me again?”

By the time I finished speaking, he had already carried me more than ten li away and landed on the silent city battlements.

Moonlight flowed like water, soaking the earth beneath our feet and outlining both our figures.

I looked up at him.

A few loose strands of hair hung from his temples, brushing his cheeks in the wind and blurring that already still, unfathomable face.

Our eyes met. Calmly, he released my collar, lowered his gaze, blinked, and said in a flat voice,

“He won’t come to kill you again.

“Because just now, I killed him.”