Wang Jiake didn't know how long she had been running with the other person. Her adrenaline was fading and she was starting to feel a burning pain in her feet, like she was treading on Ne Zha's fire wheels. Her hair that she had washed in the unlicensed hotel but didn't have the time to dry was now frozen stiff. From head to toe, ice and fire overlapped.

It was only now that she saw clearly that the person pulling her to run together was a thin and tall young woman dressed in a black wool turtleneck and black long pants. The collar of the turtleneck was unfolded, hiding the lower half of her face. She was like the female heroines in movies dressed for covert activities at night. This person had an extremely good sense of direction, there was no hesitation at all in her steps. Pulling and dragging Wang Jiake along, before long, she had led her to the main road.

When she saw the sparse traffic flow and the pedestrians returning home late, Wang Jiake's heart that was scared witless finally dropped from her throat back down to her chest.

The pedestrians all cast strange looks at this barefoot and sorry-looking young woman. On a normal day, even something like people seeing her tripping and falling on the street was enough to make Wang Jiake embarrassed but now that people were looking at her when her appearance was so wretched, she wanted to cry from joy. She felt like she had finally returned to the human world.

The shocks and scares from the past few days exploded together. Wang Jiake's legs weakened and she fell to the ground.

Gan Qing was pulled to a stumble.

"My… My feet hurt." Before Wang Jiake had finished speaking, her tears were falling. She vaguely felt that it wasn't nice to complain to a stranger and reached up to roughly wipe the corners of her eyes, desperately trying to hold the tears in.

But tears were like floodwaters, easily breaking through her rational mind that had yet to mature fully. Wang Jiake's mouth curved down and then was forced into a straight line, curved down and forced back again. Finally, like a little child, she started sobbing, her words incoherent. "It hurts… I'm scared… It's so scary, Mum…"

Gan Qing was just bending down to talk to her and did not expect the other person to single-sidedly move her up one generation. The word "Mum" was thrown into her face but she didn't dare lay false claims to it so she could only swallow her words back in. A second of carelessness, and she inhaled the fuzz on her wool turtleneck along with the words.

At the start, she followed Big Horse Monkey and needed to stay quiet. After that, she had to maintain her image before the two major sects. She had been holding this sneeze in for half the night now and really could not hold it in anymore. She turned and sneezed hard enough to shake the heavens. Were it not for the turtleneck collar blocking the way, her nose would have flown off.

This loud sneeze frightened Wang Jiake into trembling and she cried even harder.

Her head dizzy and feeling swollen, Gan Qing sucked in a breath through her nose and glanced at her. She felt that there weren't any major problems. The girl's feet were not seriously injured; she had just stepped on some pebbles and the arches of her feet were too tender, resulting in numerous small cuts that looked terrible.

"Hey, listen…" Gan Qing said.

With much effort, Wang Jiake responded with a string of tearful hiccups, choking until her eyes were rolling up.

Gan Qing said hastily, "Forget it. Go on and cry, take your time. I won't disturb you."

In response, Wang Jiake set her voice free and wailed.

Gan Qing pulled her collar down and breathed out on her palms. She rubbed her ice-cold hands and stared at the traffic lights, her mind wandering from boredom.

"If you sneeze, it means that someone is thinking of you."

Back when she was young and living at Mudpool Backlane, Meng Tianyi had teased her with that.

At that time, Gan Qing was attending primary school. When she heard that, she thought it was very mysterious because the phrase "someone is thinking of you" made her feel that this world that she only understood bits and pieces of seemed to be linked to her in some indescribable way. In the crowd of living things in the world, she appeared on the stage of someone's mind. There were as many copies of her as there were people thinking of her, all of them overlapping, countless and innumerable.

By the time she had grown older, she finally understood that this saying was a rather sorrowful joke.

It was said that decades after a person's death, as the people who once remembered this person gradually passed away, this person would be completely forgotten by the human realm, thus coming to a second, more complete, death. At a glance, this idea seemed to be extremely sorrowful but in actual fact, if one thought about it carefully, there was a rather romantic aspect to it. After all, there were some people who were already forgotten by the human realm while they were still alive. If they lost their phone for a day, they wouldn't miss any important messages. Even if they leave a message for their internet friend online, it would very quickly sink under the ocean-like waves of information.

If just a sneeze could evoke a thought, then it was really a bargain.

Gan Qing let out a bitter laugh but without thinking about it, she fumbled out her switched-off phone.

In those seconds when she stared at the starting up screen on her phone, a fearful, apprehensive hope rose in her heart. She hoped that a question like "Why aren't you back yet?" would pop up on her screen… even if it wasn't very polite.

Right at that moment, a small gust of wind blew past. Gan Qing's nose itched and she sneezed again.

Shit, it won't work now. Sneezing twice meant that someone was scolding you.

As expected, her phone started shaking like it was spasming.

— Where are you? Reply!

— Did you fail to find a parking space and drive all the way to Siberia!

— You piece of trash, you switched off your phone again!!!

Gan Qing, "..."

There was indeed someone scolding her.

But when she called Yu Lanchuan back, the other person did not pick up.

"Ai," Gan Qing exhaled a puff of white breath. She heard Wang Jiake's sobbing coming to a pause so she patted the girl. "Don't cry anymore. I'll take you to buy a pair of shoes."

As she thought, the phrase "buy a pair of shoes" summoned Wang Jiake's rational mind back. Her scattered gaze focused a little and she said between her sobs, "But the shoe shops should be closed by now, where can we go to buy shoes?"

"Even if they weren't closed, I wouldn't even know which way their doors open. Forget about the shoe shops." Gan Qing extended a hand to Wang Jiake and let her stagger up holding on to her for support. "Don't worry, it's not far."

It was indeed not far. Five minutes later, she brought Wang Jiake to a nearby twenty-four hours convenience store.

Wang Jiake stood on tiptoes. At a loss, she avoided the cartons of beers and soft drinks piled outside the store and looked at the eight yuan cotton slipper in Gan Qing's hands, dumbfounded.

The cool and awesome "heroine dressed for covert night activities" said, "My purse is in my coat and I only have ten yuan left in my mobile wallet. Just make do with this first. Are you gonna wear them or not?"

"...I'll wear them."

Gan Qing continued to ask, "What do you plan to do? Go to the hospital first? Or the police station? Or go home?"

Wang Jiake's frozen hair was plastered to her face and she looked at Gan Qing, lost and confused. The two of them locked gazes for a while, then Gan Qing sighed again and took out her phone. "Regardless of anything, call your family and let them know that you're safe first."

"Their numbers are in my phone, I don't remember them." Wang Jiake didn't take her phone. She lowered her head and stammered out those words, then dropped her shoulders. "I… owe a lot of money… The people from the high-interest loan lenders are waiting for me at my family's place. I'm too ashamed to face my parents."

As she spoke, she seemed to want to cry again. Gan Qing was out of patience. Right then, her phone rang.

"Officer Xiao-Yu? What… Erm, okay." Gan Qing listened for a while, her expression becoming increasingly odd. She fell silent for a few seconds, then turned towards the lost and witless Wang Jiake and said, "I think I'll send you to the police station."

The police station was as bustling as market day. There wasn't even enough space to go around.

"Wait a minute, Sir, can you repeat your age… Who brought someone so old back here?!"

"Is there anyone injured? Should we call 120 first, just in case?"

"They said that they didn't fight, they were just chatting."

"Bullshit, do they need such a large crowd to chat? What were they chatting about? A conspiracy to take over the world?"

"Ai, have I seen you somewhere before? Did you come here once in the past, the one who wore the Spiderman costume…"

"This is a controlled weapon, isn't it? Whose is it? And this one too… made of peach wood, this nonsense that has 'As Swift as Luling' on it, whose is it? This item is considered an item of feudalistic superstitions, isn't it? We had just done a strict crackdown but you guys are still doing it! Still doing it!"

"It's not feudalistic superstitions, it's a misunderstanding." Yu Yan's face was covered in sweat and he hurried over to bring away the peach wood sword with both hands. When he turned his head around, his veins were pounding at a corner of his forehead. "It wasn't easy for me to not have to be on shift today. I thought it was going to be a peaceful night! Yu Lanchuan, I really have to concede defeat. Ever since I knew you, the gap between reality and my dreams is getting wider and wider!"

Yu Lanchuan sat with his legs crossed, his face looking like he was going to sue someone. "How many times do I have to repeat myself, I was defending myself lawfully. When will you people be done? Your people are doing redundant tasks and your effectiveness is low. I still have work to do at night. Do I need to give my lawyer a call?"

Yu Yan almost wanted to kneel to him. "F— you! Now that it has come to this, can you please take a break and not create more trouble?"

Next to them, Elder Zhao was also someone whose every inch of his face screamed his refusal to comply or to accept things. His mouth with those thick catfish lips twisted and he refused to say a thing, letting his follower speak for him.

The frazzled police officers on duty were nearly going mad. "Are the people now all so fucking awesome? The one just now was a high-level executive and kept saying he wanted his lawyer! This retired worker is another one with a face full of disdain for mortal affairs! Venerable old man, I think you're not a retired worker, you're a retired emperor, aren't you? Should I kneel down and shout 'Long live the king!'"

"Excuse me…." Gan Qing poked her head into the police station. "Did I come at the wrong time?"

She couldn't simply cling onto a vehicle to hitch a ride when she had Wang Jiake with her and she didn't have enough money for the bus. She had no choice but to take a cab to the area near No. 110 and leave Wang Jiake in the car as collateral while she went on her own to Yu Lanchuan's car to get her coat and purse. Fresh from a traumatic experience, Wang Jiake was forced to be alone with a strange cab driver for five minutes and had trembled the whole way there. When they reached the entrance of the police station, she had yet to recover and the "heroine" was already selling her out.

Gan Qing pushed her towards the police officers. "I found this person and brought her back. May I know how many people I can exchange for her?"

The officer who had come out to receive them amidst the bustle was shocked speechless by this bandit-like way of exchanging hostages.

Yu Yan, "..."

His heart was so drained that only dregs were left.

After a round of pandemonium, other than the few people who carried controlled weapons with them, the other people were all released. In the cold wind, they stood in two rows as clearly defined as the waters of the Jing River and the Wei River, each waiting for someone to pick them up. Almost everyone was holding up their phones.

Yu Lanchuan called a cab and briefly explained the situation to the anxious senior high school student waiting at home. Han Dongsheng slowly and softly apologised to Zhou Beibei… because his father-in-law's treasure sword had been confiscated by the police. Yan Hao texted Boss Jiang to tell him that he would be back soon. Zhang Meizhen took her phone out and stared at the screen for a while, then turned her head and locked it.

Next to them, surrounded by his own disciples, Elder Zhao had probably received a call from his children. His unbridled aura when he was fighting for the Dog Beating Staff was swept away and he was saying to his family in a low and yielding voice, "It's too cold… My phone switched off by itself, I didn't see… Ai, I'm going back now. I can take baby girl to preschool tomorrow, this won't affect it, don't worry…"

Elder Tian stood next to him with his hands in his pockets, unmoving. Who knew what he was thinking.

"People of our age have all gone through difficult martial arts training when we were young," Zhang Meizhen suddenly said softly. "Back then, we really trained in all seasons—through the depths of winter and the peak of summer."

Gan Qing's percolating sneeze was cut off by her. Tears in her eyes, she turned around to look at Zhang Meizhen.

The cab they had called arrived and Zhang Meizhen pushed her into the car. Enveloped by the heated air, Gan Qing couldn't really keep her eyes open. She heard Zhang Meizhen say, as though speaking to herself, "We had once stood in glory, we had once had hundreds respond to our every call, our voices had once shook the heavens… In his whole life, Old Yang had craved too much for a good reputation, had chased too hard after a 'simple life'—I guess it could be called overcompensating. He didn't know what the people under him were thinking. That Tian fellow travelled all around when he was young and regarded the four corners of the land as his home. Now that he's old, he has no home and no job, no sons and no daughters. Other than his welfare allowance, he depends on the occasional presents from his disciples to survive. His clothes are probably also given to him by his disciples as a mark of filial piety, he can't even bear to sew the patches on directly. The Zhao fellow is better off. In the past, he worked at a public transport company. He has some pension money, not much. I heard that his children don't respect him and he still has to help them bring up his granddaughter. He's saving for his descendants while he himself lives frugally. Let me ask you, when they see Wang Jiusheng prospering, how could they not turn green with envy?"

"Our generation is old now and a lot of us don't like to pass our martial arts skills down to the next generation. Old Yu had always left it to fate, Old Yang may always say 'Each generation is worse than the last' but he has never forced his granddaughter to learn staff techniques. Even your shifu, with that unconventional temperament of his, understood and accepted it in his later years."

Gan Qing's expression flickered.

Zhang Meizhen let out a laugh. "Gan'er, it was not that he wasn't willing to teach you properly. It was because learning martial arts is too difficult and after going through all that pain, it's also useless. Instead, it would make a person brag about their capabilities and be unwilling to live a steady and honest life."

In Beggars' Sect, he was clearly a Nine Pouch Elder whose every call was answered by hundreds. But when he changed out of his patched clothes, he could only be a dull and cowering nobody.

Which identity would a person like that acknowledge?

Old Sect Leader Yang had always said that empty fame was a phantom made of smoke and dust. When in the center of it, a person must not allow these things to confuse their eyes.

If that venerable old man was really so clear-headed, then why would he, at the age of over ninety, still be unwilling to let go of that jade-green Dog Beating Staff?

Gan Qing sniffed. "How's Sect Leader Yang?"

Zhang Meizhen shot her a look. "So you know already."

"I bumped into a few Beggars' Sect people." Gan Qing thought for a while. Then, concealing the part about Yang Ping mentioning Wei Xiao, she briefly explained what she had been doing for most of the night. "That Yang…"

"Yang Ping." Zhang Meizhen sighed. "That brat had both his arms rendered useless by your shifu and one leg broken by his own father but he's still surprisingly so robust?"

"The first time I met him, he was not even ten years old." Zhang Meizhen seemed to be spacing out. It was only after a long while that she said, "His arms and legs were thin, only his head was large. At that time, you couldn't see anything wrong yet… He was a boy after all, who knew whether his growth spurt would come early or late. There are those who only start to grow when they're seventeen or eighteen. He's the sect leader's son and was very pampered within the sect. Those people fawned over and flattered him, calling him 'Little Sect Leader.' Others might not take them seriously but the child did. At that time, I was still a young lady, younger than you. I had nothing better to do with my time and liked older men. I took a fancy to Yang Qing…"

"The patient is out of danger for the moment. However, his age is too advanced and he needs to be observed in the ICU for a period of time. Where is the patient's family? Come over here and sign the papers!"

Old Sect Leader Yang heard his granddaughter respond and say something to the doctor. The noise seemed to be separated from him by a layer of film, blurred and indistinct, not going into his ears. After a while, the hospital bed under him jolted a little. Someone was pushing him away. He strained to open his eyes a crack.

"Grandpa! Grandpa? Can you hear me… Grandpa… Is he awake? Is he conscious…"

The woman's voice was clear and sweet, sometimes near and sometimes far. Gradually, it turned into someone else's voice.

"Yang Qing." He heard that person call him from the distant past. The voice was obviously very nervous, yet pretending to be totally unbothered. "Let me tell you something. I have a crush on you."