Gan Qing felt that there must be a piece of her brain that was malfunctioning. She had read half the letter and she understood every word, yet when they were joined together, she didn't understand their meaning.

Her gaze was frozen at a few certain lines in the middle. She read and reread it countless times until her mind was blank and all that was left was the pounding of the veins on her temples, on the verge of breaking through her skull at any moment.

Yu Lanchuan saw that her expression did not look right. "What is it?"

Half a beat slow, Gan Qing lifted her head and stared fixedly at him.

Yu Lanchuan asked, "Was the letter really written by that murderer Wei Huan? Who is it for? What does it say?"

Gan Qing's brows drew slightly closer. Then, she narrowed her eyes. She was looking at Yu Lanchuan but her gaze seemed to pierce through him to land somewhere even further.

"Little Master Yu," she suddenly said out of nowhere, "let me ask you a question."

"Hmm?"

"What do you like about me?"

"..." Her sudden change of frequency caught Yu Lanchuan off guard and like a typical straight male, he couldn't follow the rhythm. He leaned back. "What the hell, did your brain short-circuit?"

Gan Qing smiled at him. It was just like her usual manner of staying serious for barely three lines before teasing him. After teasing, she returned her gaze to the letter but Yu Lanchuan suddenly had a very bad premonition and blurted out, "At the very start, I wanted to get to know you because you saved me when we were young. You left me at the landfill, then turned around and led those people away. I… cough, for many years, I remember the way you looked from the back as you left."

Gan Qing's eyes curved into a smile, not the least bit bothered. "This story sounds familiar. I think 'The Legend of White Snake' I watched when I was young had a part like this."

Yu Lanchuan gave her a kick out of habit. But unexpectedly, his kick that always missed its target landed squarely on her tibia this time. Her leg snapped back and she nearly fell from her chair.

Yu Lanchuan sensed something and reached out to snatch the letter from her hand. "What on earth was written in the letter?"

Gan Qing gathered the letter into her hand and retreated thirty centimeters, taking her chair with her. "Nothing important. Go on, I haven't listened enough. The last time a handsome guy confessed to me, I was still attending the school next door. But he started crying before he finished speaking, tsk, and made it look like the scene of an evil tyrant forcing an honest girl into selling her body."

Yu Lanchuan's fingers on the table curled in. He didn't know what Gan Qing had read but he could faintly sense that the question he had to answer now was possibly a question of life and death.

The air thickened.

What did he like about a person?

If he wanted to score marks for this question, there were actually just three paths for his line of thought to take: appearance, innate qualities and prominence. "Appearance" was about youth and beauty; "innate qualities" referred to being sincere and interesting, with sound integrity. "Prominence" was a little more complicated. Of course, it was not about materialistic requirements or background or academic qualifications; he could only describe it as "the manner and behaviour as a result of having money, rights and status" or "the brilliant, all-encompassing light set off by self-cultivation and deep erudition."

"Your appearance fits my sense of aesthetics." Yu Lanchuan picked each word carefully. "This is the prerequisite. Otherwise, the two of us would be sworn siblings now. Your personality is also very easy to get along with… To me, it's rare to find girls whose personalities fit mine."

Gan Qing said sincerely, "I think that the problem lies with you."

"The problem indeed lies with me." Yu Lanchuan nodded frankly. "But at this age, rather than to change myself to suit other people, I would rather wait for a suitable person to come, even if she is hard to find. Also, due to inherited traits, I am more easily captivated by things that are formidable and mysterious, even if it means trouble. Your Wan Mu Chun happens to meet this criteria."

Gan Qing said, "You've persuaded me. We're so compatible, I guess this is fate!"

But Yu Lanchuan didn't laugh along with her. He said seriously, "But looks will fade. Looking at how you're a glutton who doesn't control her diet, I think that not only will you grow old in the future, you might even put on weight."

Gan Qing, "..."

"Personality can also change. A person's nature is actually not even as stable as the waters of the river in spring. If we could time-travel as we wish, a lot of people would get into fights with themselves from ten years ago. As for the other things, there's even less need to fantasise. They're not all that different from the shells of hermit crabs," Yu Lanchuan said unhurriedly. "As for me, I am merely entranced by these things. By chance of fate, I spent this period of my life chasing after you and happened to end up having some feelings for you. Right now, I still don't know what I like about you. Maybe it's just like no matter how great someone else's prize winning cat is, you still like the common stray at your front door."

"You…" Gan Qing was stunned for a long while. She covered her face and laughed helplessly. "I think there's something wrong with you."

Yu Lanchuan didn't say anything. He sat quietly opposite her in the rundown little restaurant, his eyes almost blazing in his sincerity. He stretched his arm and pressed his hand down on top of Gan Qing's head. "Hey, little stray, your laughing face looks even uglier than your crying face. Who bullied you?"

Gan Qing said softly, "I don't know."

She thought her life was a drama plot where tragedy and turmoil existed side-by-side and that she was a lone rebel going against the flow. But now, she realised that her life was just one of those black comedies churned out by the dozen and she was a panicking little clown who didn't know where to direct all her efforts.

Yu Lanchuan's hand slid down along the line of her head, brushing across the dried-out corners of her eyes and her dry skin. Finally, he gripped her hand and slowly, bit by bit, tugged Wei Huan's letter out.

After only a couple of glances, he looked up in shock. "Wait! Qiao-Qiao said before that when her dad was investigating the massacre, he had a mysterious friend helping him outside. Could it have been Wei Huan?"

"Meizhen-jie said that on that night, the Travellers' Sect people kidnapped the families of a few Beggars' Sect sect elders. The guard fell asleep. A few drunk little hoodlums were playfully throwing cigarette butts and 'accidentally' set the factory on fire. Both the kidnappers and those who started the fire were later sentenced to jail for their negligence. The longest prison term was seven years, that was for those from Travellers' Sect who had a hand in the kidnapping. As for those few who threw the cigarette butts that started the fire, in the first place, they were only drunkards who happened to pass by. It basically had nothing to do with them. They only went in for a short while before coming back out again. Many years later, those who were sentenced to jail were freed one after another. Zhu Cong also grew up. He could not make peace with what happened and returned to Yanning to investigate what happened that year and found out that those hoodlums that seemed to have been there 'by accident' had all hidden themselves and ran away. He had no one else he could trust in Yanning, so he found Wei Huan to help him." Gan Qing stared at the letter's yellowing edge. "As for the motivation of those few who started the fire, the letter does not mention it… It should be none other than the usual types. Either they did it for some kind of reward from someone or they themselves had some sort of dirt that had fallen in someone's hands. When the victims' families hunt them down, they would definitely try to justify themselves…"

Yu Lanchuan continued her sentence, "They only asked me to throw a cigarette butt. I didn't know that the factory would catch fire and I didn't know that there were people inside."

The two of them said those words almost in unison.

Gan Qing's voice was suppressed in her throat. "With one yuan as a start, Wei Huan broke the prohibition on killing and from then started to unearth the culprits one by one. The two of them kept searching and taking revenge. Among them… was someone with the surname Gan. When they killed him, they alarmed his wife and she suffered a great shock. From then on, her mental state was unstable. They had a little girl who was taken away and brought up by Wei Xiao who had come in pursuit of his unfilial disciple… because he felt that the crimes Wei Huan committed were all his own debts to pay."

"Gan Qing…"

"Do you know what Wei Huan's last words to me were? He said, 'I lost. I'll turn myself in. Little shimei, don't kill me.'"

Wei Huan did not have remarkable looks. His appearance was not as handsome as his shifu, his skin was very dark and he was very thin. When he walked, he kept his head down. He could easily pick any random construction site and blend in as one of the labourers. Back then, he was not yet forty years old but he already seemed to be very old. When he spoke, he appeared rather pitiable.

"I thought he was begging for mercy because he was afraid of death. I thought, how can this person be so disgusting?" Gan Qing's shoulders suddenly fell. "I…"

She went through unimaginable efforts to lure Wei Huan out. For the sake of doing this, she skipped school and infiltrated all sorts of illicit places until she ended up with an evil aura on her. She had determined that he was a coward afraid of death and wanted to take the chance to escape. How could she let him go?"

Wei Huan realised this. In the end, he fought an all-or-nothing battle until she was covered in wounds and nearly had to crawl her way home.

But those scary wounds did not leave any lasting effects. Instead, it was the cut she made herself that resulted in her only having one arm that could lift heavy things now.

At that time, had Wei Huan really been weaker than he wanted to be and could not injure her vital spots?

Or had he only exhausted his last bit of strength to make it look like an unfair fight or even like an underage girl's legitimate self-defence… desperately pushing her away from being a mad and demented murderer?

What are the requirements for a life of peace and happiness?

Firstly, one must have the capability to settle down and build their life. They need to have a lot of money, otherwise one major illness is enough to force them into desperate straits. Secondly, they need to be mindful to maintain their connections to society. At the key moments, they can speak out and there will be people who listen to what they have to say. Otherwise, they will have nowhere to go to demand justice when bullied.

They must also manage their hopes and desires well, and even go so far as to manage the expectations others have for them. Otherwise, if they are just careless for a moment, resentment and anger will breed everywhere.

And also… a strong heart is required. Regardless of the many worries in the world outside, I remain steadfast and unmoving^[1]. I choose my own path and will never turn back even in a mountain of knives or a sea of flames.

A person who could do all that has already done everything within the realm of possibility for a human. The rest depends on Heaven.

If Heaven says, All right, pass.

Then amidst the many dangers and perils, they can keep their humble and insignificant life.

If Heaven says, Wait a minute.

Then, this nearly half a lifetime, the hardships endured, the injustice suffered, the blood lost, the soul thought to have been tempered in blazing fire… all of them become nothing but a fleeting illusion.

Gan Qing thought that next time, if there was again a girl who didn't know the ways of the world staring at her with eyes as wide as an owl's and asking in bewilderment, "On what do you build your life?" —

— she would definitely not dare to brush it off with a laugh.

In a corner of the little restaurant, the foolish child who had scalded himself was sobbing in a small voice. The boss dug out some coins to coax him. "All right, just blow on it and it'll be fine. Don't cry anymore, we still have customers here. Grandpa will give you money. Go out on your own and buy ice-cream for yourself."

The teenager pouted and shouted unclearly, "I don't want!"

"Why not? Don't you like ice-cream?" the boss asked. "That chocolate one…"

"I don't… don't want!" The teenager raised his voice and pushed the boss's hands away.

How would he know to control his strength? The elderly boss lost his footing and was pushed until he stumbled. The coins scattered all over the floor.

"Aiyo." The boss's arms spun in the air like a windmill for a while before he narrowly caught the edge of a table and landed his butt on a small stool. "You're going to push me to my death!"

The teenager was frightened out of his wits.

The boss pressed on his chest where his heart was thudding wildly and scared him. "If you push me to death, no one will keep you anymore! You'll have to sleep on the streets and beg for food!"

Upon hearing that, the teenager was truly scared. His mouth opened and he let his voice loose, his cries so heartrending it seemed that at this point in time, he was representing all the sorrows in the entire world.

But Yu Lanchuan was looking at Gan Qing with apprehension, because Gan Qing had been startled by the crying noise and turned her head to listen for a while and then, unexpectedly, smiled.

Then, she stood up and walked over to the teenager. She helped the boss pick up the coins scattered all over the floor. "Don't scold him anymore. I'm sure he must have been bullied by the little hoodlums from No. 13 High… Hey, darling, look here."

Gan Qing rubbed her fingers and snapped her fingers a couple of times in front of the teenager. A coin rolled from the slit of her little finger all the way to the tip of her thumb, then spun a couple of rounds there like it was dancing, before falling into her palm.

The teenager was distracted by this little trick. He hiccuped as he stretched out his neck, curiously pushing Gan Qing's hand open.

Gan Qing went along with his movement and dropped the coin into his hand. "Why don't I bring you to buy ice-cream? No one will dare bully you."

The teenager looked up at her. With just a little bit of sunlight, he burst into full bloom—his face changed from stormy to clear in an instant, his smiling face covered with snot, a hiccup making him jolt on the spot.

Gan Qing lifted him by his shoulder. "Let's go!"

Yu Lanchuan couldn't be sure what state Gan Qing was in right now. Afraid that something would happen to her, he hurried after her. "Boss, keep the table for us!"

With two bodyguards, the teenager was so happy that his two legs seemed to be galloping. He bounced and hopped in joy in front of them.

The sun that hadn't had the time to illuminate the mortal world thoroughly was setting in the west, about to step down from the stage. On the wall of the cold drinks shop in the corner, there was already the character for demolition painted on it in a very large size.

When they were still far away, the teenager already started to shout. "I want… want cho-choco!"

He had barely finished speaking when hoots of laughter came from the side. As the days grew longer, the roadside skewer stalls were popping up. The young people who did not study hard now had one more place to waste their time. This pack of brats were hopelessly idle and bored, and their bar for jokes was so low it was at their feet. They probably wouldn't have any sort of classy interest in their lives. When they heard the intellectually-disabled teenager's voice, they were like flies smelling an odour, the entire swarm getting excited over it.

"Ai, the large donkey is here again!"

"Do donkeys also eat 'chochoco'?"

One of them imitated the teenager. "I want… want cho-choco!"

The carefree smile on the teenager's face faded away. The cold drinks shop only had one young woman working there and she didn't dare speak out. She only dared to complain softly, "The fuck is wrong with them."

As they jeered, the little hoodlums stood up and surrounded the cold drinks shop's entrance. "Little donkey, go ahead and buy. After you buy it, we'll feed you."

Right then, a voice came from around the corner. "Did you hear that?"

The little hoodlums turned towards the direction of the sound. They saw Gan Qing and Yu Lanchuan walk over unhurriedly.

Yu Lanchuan asked, "Hear what?"

"Dogs learning how to bray like a donkey." Gan Qing tugged at her own ears. "How strange."

The one learning how to bray felt like he was being attacked personally for no reason and came out in anger, ready to spew obscenities. "You-"

But one of his companions behind him pulled him back. Coincidentally, this person's hair was dyed the colour of copper green. He was none other than one of the "cavalry" riding the public bikes and fighting in the brawl that afternoon.

When the green-haired cavalry saw Gan Qing, he looked like he had seen a ghost. He cried out in fear, "Three Stabs Six Holes!"

"Hmm?" Gan Qing tilted her head. She reached into her coat. "Since when did I have such a long nickname?"

The green-haired cavalry thought she was taking out a knife and quickly leaped back. "Jiejie, we were wrong!"

His fear was contagious. The few hoodlums around him all tucked their tails in, putting a show of being unwilling to surrender even as they stuck close to the wall and slipped away.

"Tsk, they sure ran away fast." Gan Qing finally took the item out of her coat—a coin pouch—and tossed it to Yu Lanchuan. "The boss treated us to dinner so I guess I'll treat you to ice-cream."

The intellectually-disabled teenager did not keep worries in his heart. He happily let the chocolate ice-cream smear all over his face and drip down as he went home.

When Yu Lanchuan came out of the cold drinks shop holding two ice-creams, he saw Gan Qing leaning against an electrical pole on the opposite side of the road, staring at No. 13 High in a daze. Her shirt was too thick and she hadn't tucked it into her pants. The back hung free like it was draped on an empty clothes rack, a stray and lonely spirit contained within.

Yu Lanchuan looked at her shadow stretching out long and suddenly couldn't breathe. He walked over to her with large strides.

Startled by the sound of his footsteps, Gan Qing turned her head and again gave him an unruffled smile. "After getting a treat from this jiejie, shouldn't you say 'Thank you, Jiejie'? Little Master Yu, your manners can't even be compared to that daydreaming young man."

"...Whose jiejie are you?"

Gan Qing reached out and took one of the ice-creams. "When you were young, you ran after me and called me 'jiejie' for a whole night. Why, now that you've grown up, you're deny-"

Yu Lanchuan's freed hand pushed her shoulder suddenly. Gan Qing, who could only move her left shoulder freely, was pressed back against the electrical pole. Afraid that the ice-cream would drip on Little Master Yu's very obviously expensive coat and with barely any time to react, her only option was to hold the ice-cream away from her body and she looked just like she was opening her arms for a hug.

The faint lingering smell of mint swiftly slipped into her neckline. Then, a cold yet burning kiss fell on her textbook perfect smile.

T/N:

[1] 我自岿然不动 "I remain steadfast and unmoving" is from the poem 《西江月· 井冈山》 (Moon over the West River - Jinggang Mountains) by Mao Zedong. The preceding line before it describes being surrounded by tens of thousands of enemy troops.