Wen Kexing was walking very quickly now, as if he wanted to leave something behind him as far as possible. With Gu Xiang’s short legs, she had to jog lightly to catch up to him. Seeing that he only got quicker and quicker, Gu Xiang disrupted the silence between them. “Master, are you heartbroken?”

Wen Kexing asked gently without looking back. “What would I be heartbroken about?”

After mulling it over, Gu Xiang had to admit that she wasn’t sure. She heard him laugh softly, his feet almost gliding over the ground rather than moving. “With his disguise, I can’t even know for sure if he’s a beauty or not… Besides, I prefer the soft type, so he won’t be of my taste even if he is beautiful.”

Even with her qinggong Gu Xiang was unable to catch up, and she blurted out, “But didn’t you say once that you liked the tall ones with tiny waist and pretty butterfly bones…”

“You remember it wrong,” he interrupted. Then he added, justifying to no one in particular. “I just felt like… I’d finally found someone I can relate to⁠—Gu Xiang, stop following me.”

“Huh?” In a blink, Wen Kexing was already meters away from her. Gu Xiang called out sulkily, “Why, Master? Did I anger you again?”

Wen Kexing had already disappeared in the rain with only his distant voice reaching her ears. “You talk too much.”

Gu Xiang, left all alone, stomped petulantly and cursed him under her breath, “I was nice to you and this is what I get!”

Then she raised her head to stare after the direction Wen Kexing had vanished to, suddenly being reminded of the image of his soaked back, his broad shoulders, his unwavering steps under the rain that didn’t wait for her one bit. There was no one beside him but he never looked sideways, like he had been travelling alone for a while now.

She pitied him a little.

Finding someone you could connect with or whatever was fine… But that person was a flickering lamp that would die out in a few years, so what was the point?

Under the cold wind and rain, one thought they could have attained something but couldn’t. Who in this world could really live how they wanted to?

Could you?

No one knew where Wen Kexing went that night.

In the early morning, someone consistently banged hard on Zhou Zishu’s door. When he opened the door, Cao Weining almost crashed into him, but then the younger dragged him outside, telling him while running, “How can you be so calm in your room, your disciple is about to lose his life!”

“Who?” After that chaotic night, Zhou Zishu’s thoughts had yet to untangle themselves. It took him a few seconds to react, and he frowned. “You mean Zhang Chengling? What happened now, why is it always him?”