She saw Yu Lanchuan supporting his dislocated wrist and saying something to the police officer next to him in a low voice. Ah, that was right, the few of them had fought here with clubs and controlled weapons until the place was a mess. They definitely had to explain this to the police.

But how could they explain it? Gan Qing was thinking absent-mindedly.

This question only flashed through her mind for an instant, disappearing as soon as it was asked. Her mind didn't plan to answer its own question.

She seemed to be in a state where her soul had left her body and she didn't want to bother thinking of anything. Her broken right shoulder and her chest that hurt even when she breathed was also pushed aside for the moment. The voices around her, the wailing, the wind, all quieted down.

For some mysterious reason, her thoughts were wandering.

"Wan Mu Chun's blade has a soul. You must learn to walk along the edge of the blade, and not be conflicted with yourself."

When she was very young, Wei Xiao had casually told her that.

"What does it mean to walk along the edge of the blade?"

"It means that things should be how they should be. One day, when you no longer cut your hands when you play with knives, you will probably understand. You will sense when your knife is ready. And at any time you cower and shrink back, it will know before you."

Wei Xiao was right. When she made the first strike at Yang Ping, there were doubts in her heart. Because her left hand was not her dominant hand, she already lost confidence and also couldn't be sure what kind of knife skills could come out of her hand. She had not fought another person seriously for nearly ten years now. She was like a used paper placemat, huddling and hoarding her own life force, hoping for time to wipe away those complicated debts and enmity.

Ten years. It was enough to render a person useless.

She hadn't even thought properly about what she should do—if, by chance, she really killed Yang Ping with one strike, even if she had no fear like a dead pig that did not fear boiling water, would she be dragging Yu Lanchuan and Yan Hao into the mess too?

The edge of her blade was suppressed by the weight of so many layers of hesitations, it could not bear the burden. That was why, in the second that Yang Ping struck, she instinctively retreated and nearly died from the one blow from her opponent.

The real reason why she could find it in herself to make that second strike was actually not because of Yang Ping's mockery, nor was it because of Yu Lanchuan and Yan Hao's staunch refusal to give way. Gan Qing had long since stopped being someone easily provoked or easily moved. When Yu Lanchuan barred Yang Ping's way, if it wasn't because she was really unable to speak, she would definitely stop him. They were not acting in a movie, there was no need to take risks for the sake of loyalty. Too many had died by Yang Ping's hands to be counted, this man was unspeakably vicious and evil. A dozen Yu Lanchuans wouldn't be his match. No, the second time she picked up the knife was because of what Yu Lanchuan said at that moment. 

For an instant, Gan Qing had sensed that Yang Ping might be filled with uncertainty and fear about everything around him. His demonic skills and his martial accomplishments were all smokescreens to scare others. He lusted after power because he was internally weak… just like her.

Upon reaching adulthood, it was very hard to change the dominant hand even for minor tasks like eating and writing, much less for Wan Mu Chun's knife skills. For the sake of the skills in her left hand, how many times had she cut herself until she was covered in blood? Every inch of skin on her palm and the back of her hand had regrown after being damaged. She tempered herself while lost in despair and at the same time, also acted mysterious and played tricks, putting on a pretense of being "beyond the three realms" and not being concerned about worldly matters. She had always avoided face-to-face confrontations, afraid that others would know the cards in her hands and realised that she was no mysterious otherworldly expert but merely a fool whose life was absolutely screwed up.

When her knife struck for the second time, she knew where the blade should land and how deep it should cut. Hence, her heart had no distractions. She was not bothered by Yang Ping's fist that could smash a person's head and she also didn't have the time to think about whether her opponent's fist would be faster than her knife… This wasn't the "bloodlust" or "gambling desire" that Yang Ping had talked about. It was just the intuition passed down from her forefathers, the result of grueling hard work.

But she never thought that that idiot would stretch out his hand to block the blow for her.

Did he not have common sense? Did he not know that when two experts were fighting, outsiders were not allowed to interfere? If Yang Ping had not been scared witless by her strike and his fist had not gone off-track halfway, would he still have that hand?

"When I was young, your grand-master told me that regardless of what the past was, what the present is or what the future will be, you don't need to have so many hesitations. Just walk along the edge of the blade and you'll be fine. Who isn't walking on thin ice? People like us, what we fight for is just a thread of hope for survival and resolve."

"Gan Qing, the past cannot be undone but the future can still change."

Yu Lanchuan seemed to sense something. He lifted his head and looked over with a frown.

When he saw Gan Qing, his tense brows unconsciously relaxed for a moment but soon after that, he seemed to think of something and a dark cloud covered his face again. He walked over to her with large strides, planning to settle the score with her for all the decisions she made without consulting any of them prior to the fight earlier.

"You…" Before he could start his tirade, he saw Gan Qing suddenly smile.

When she smiled, her eyes moved a little more than the corners of her mouth did. The sides of her face that were slightly hollow were suddenly filled with her smile and she looked a few years younger. It was as though a clear stream had flowed past, frost and dust falling away completely, and there was a sense of innocence that was pure and mischievous. It cast a string of pebbles into Yu Lanchuan's heart, stirring up an unending series of ripples.

Yu Lanchuan's right brain only had this tinkling series of ripples left while the fury in his left brain was still putting up a final struggle and shouting: She's shameless enough to be smiling!

The corpus callosum between the two halves of his brain shirked its duty in disgust and went on strike. Yu Lanchuan fought a fierce fight with himself until he lost his rationality and also his ability to speak. After repeating the single word "you" for a long while, he still did not finish the rest of his sentence.

Right then, Gan Qing lifted her unbroken hand and placed it on his shoulder.

"Little Master Yu…" she said with a sigh. Yu Lanchuan frowned as he waited for the rest of her sentence but Gan Qing only smiled and lowered her head, her forehead pressing against the hand on his shoulder, just like she was lying on his shoulder.

So sudden!

Yu Lanchuan's brain exploded. The brain cells on both sides of his brain engaged in battle were all crushed in one fell swoop. His throat twitched and he stopped breathing.

The next moment, Gan Qing's entire body fell on him.

Yu Lanchuan hastily caught her. "Hey!"

But she had already lost consciousness.

She was very light, he could support her weight with just one hand. Her long slender limbs were like an empty, incorporeal frame, like she only had to fall limp and she could be easily kneaded and rolled up into a very small ball.

Out of nowhere, a thought rose in Yu Lanchuan's heart. If her blood was drained out of her, she would be left with barely any weight at all in the mortal realm.

This made his heart pound wildly. Without realising it, his arm tightened its grip around Gan Qing but was then forcibly pulled away by the paramedics who had rushed over. They swarmed up to him and took away the person in his arms.

"Wait… ow!" Yu Lanchuan subconsciously wanted to protect her but he forgot about his own dislocated wrist. When he tried to use force, half his body went numb from pain.

"Sir, your hand needs to be treated!"

"Slowly, careful!"

Yu Lanchuan wanted to get into the ambulance where Gan Qing was but was forcibly held back. After a round of pandemonium, he was pushed into another ambulance and sent to the hospital, had an X-ray done, had his joint pushed back into place… and he had just applied a cold compress to it when he was summoned by the police to be interrogated repeatedly and have his statement recorded. It was a long round of torment.

The way heroes left with a flourish of their sleeves once a matter is over, concealing their name and themselves in stories saved so much trouble. Behind these heroes, there had to be a team and an assistant!

He considered the few "teammates" he had beside him. There was one who could not speak, one who could but was inarticulate, and one who lay down and played dead right away without shouldering any of the responsibility. Yu Lanchuan's mouth was the only one left, a single fighter in the battle. He was completely exhausted in both body and mind.

It was only when the sky was completely dark that Yu Lanchuan could slow down. He hurried to the hospital to check on Gan Qing.

The cold compress from the hospital was pressed against his wrist. He looked at the person on the hospital bed out of the corner of his eye and listened absent-mindedly as the doctor said, "...The most serious injury on her body is the broken bones in her right shoulder. Her right arm also has past injuries that have not completely healed. In the future, she needs to be careful and protect it, otherwise it will affect her daily life. The others are not major issues. The main thing is that she has a serious cold and suffered collisions on top of that and might have a slight concussion. When she wakes up, she might feel dizzy and nauseous… Are you her family?"

Yu Lanchuan nodded absent-mindedly. When his chin moved down, he finally realised it wasn't right and quickly shook his head. "Just… a friend."

"Oh," the doctor said. "Then, can I trouble you to call her family? It's nothing major, it's just that she might feel unwell."

The doctor gave him some casual reminders, then hurried off without waiting for Yu Lanchuan to reply.

Yu Lanchuan pressed on the cold compress and stood there in vain for a while before sitting by the hospital bed. The sky was dark and dreary. The thin intravenous drip pierced into Gan Qing's vein. Her hand seemed transparent.

Who can I call? Yu Lanchuan thought in resignation.

Even though the fighting had been mutual on both sides and Yang Ping was also nothing good, Zhu Qiao was indeed the one who made the first move. She even brought along a dagger that had a blood groove. This wasn't something that could be concealed.

Hence, while everything was being investigated thoroughly, the little mute girl was temporarily detained. Yu Lanchuan called in a lawyer friend of his to follow up with her case and only then found out that Qiao-Qiao was not yet eighteen years old. This was a good thing. No matter what, her circumstances would be taken into account and her punishment would be lighter.

The other three of them were considered to have tried to stop the violence. They also had Yu Yan who came after hearing the news to help turn things around so they were still fine for now. They just had to be ready at all times to be summoned and to cooperate with the investigation.

Yan Hao's main injury was to his mental trauma. The hospital did not take care of treating that so he returned home first. Gan Qing's circumstances were a little more complicated.

After all, she had a criminal record.

No matter how clearly and repeatedly Yu Lanchuan explained that Gan Qing had followed him to the place after he received a location sharing from a friend and there was even the cab's driving log and the receipt in her phone as proof, the police were still very suspicious of her involvement in the matter. If she had not fainted at the right time, she would likely be facing interrogation at the police station even now.

They had asked Yu Lanchuan in a tone that wasn't considered ill-intentioned but was very odd, "You seem quite close to her? Hmm… You're a proper… Why are you hanging around with someone like that? Oh… neighbours. That explains it. Your building has quite a mix of people, you've got all kinds there."

Yu Lanchuan understood what they were saying...Her life had a "stain"; hence, people were exceptionally suspicious of her.

Even if everyone was in actual fact rising and falling together with the muddy waves in the sludge and no one was truly innocent and guiltless in their life, everyone feared bearing a "stain." Serious ones like "criminal record" and "wrong step," less serious ones like "divorce" and "communicable disease"—they were all of a similar nature. Once a person was branded with them, they would not be able to break free for the rest of their life.

A white wall with a slight blemish was still a wall but once a person's life had a blemish, it seemed that from then on, the only road open to them was the road to become the dregs of society.

Yu Lanchuan felt as though there was a stone blocking his throat. It refused to come up or go down, choking him unbearably.

Right then, a diligent nurse at the next bed brought a spittoon to him, cutting off Yu Lanchuan's train of thought.

"Oh, thank-"

"No need for thanks. I heard what the doctor said just now," the nurse said. "A concussion is very hard to bear, she will vomit until she's like a sea cucumber!"

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

The nurse had just stepped one foot out the door when he heard the person on the bed let out a soft chuckle. Yu Lanchuan quickly turned around and saw Gan Qing open her eyes.

The moment she opened her eyes, her limbs that had curled into a ball seemed to regrow their bones and tendons. Her eyes lit a spark of life that suffused through her body and she immediately no longer looked weak or lonely.

"You're awake?"

"How can I not wake up? Such a loud voice cursing me to be a sea cucumber." Gan Qing shifted a little and lowered her head to glance at both her arms. Her left hand was connected to the drip while her right arm was in a splint. She had no free arms.

Yu Lanchuan could tell that she wanted to sit up and had just reached out to support her when he saw her drop both arms and use her abdominal strength to easily fold her body up. Halfway up, she suddenly stopped moving, her eyes staring at a corner of the hospital bed.

Yu Lanchuan half-crouched down and asked urgently, "Do you need to vomit?"

Gan Qing shook her head slightly. Then, she clenched her teeth tightly, forcing a sneeze back. She was indeed still dizzy and she didn't dare let that sneeze run rampant.

Her nose was discontent and her eyes also kept tearing up, yet her heart was contented.

After ten years under the dust and curled up in a ball, she was stretching herself out, once again revealing the edge of her blade.

Yu Lanchuan tested the temperature of her forehead and checked the speed of the drip, then poured water for her. After busying himself for a while, he finally realised that he had forgotten to ask the doctor if there was anything she couldn't eat now and wanted to rush out of the ward to find someone to ask.

Behind him, Gan Qing let out a wolf whistle. It even had a twisty tune.

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

"No need to trouble yourself, Little Master Yu." Gan Qing beckoned at him. "I don't have much appetite. Come over here and talk to me. The police will probably interrogate me on my own. Let's check our stories so that I don't expose you."

"Just speak the truth. What do you mean by exposing me… What are you doing!"

Gan Qing had directly pulled out the drip.

"Annoying." She casually took a cotton swab and pressed it against the puncture wound, lightly flexing her numb fingers. "I barely take half a pill of cold medicine in a year. I'm not used to drips, just seeing it makes me want to go to the bathroom and it's not like you can help me get there."

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

Gan Qing shot a glance at him without looking up, then smiled. "I know you don't mind but the other patients might not agree. It wouldn't be good if other people think you're a perv and beat you up. You wouldn't even be able to fight back."

Yu Lanchuan forced his words out through the clenched teeth. "Thank you for your wise words. In the past, there had already quite a few-"

Before he could finish speaking, Gan Qing suddenly took hold of his wrist that had been dislocated. Her hand seemed even colder than the cold compress. Yu Lanchuan shivered lightly. He stayed motionless, not daring to move, letting her callused fingertips wander over every inch of his injury.

"Good," Gan Qing said. "It's not a serious injury. The swelling is not very bad and there aren't any unnecessary muscle strains."

Yu Lanchuan finally regained his wits and grabbed his hand back. His face turned stiff. "Don't just touch as you like!"

"Should I pay? If yes, then I'll pay the cost of the cab ride. You don't have to reimburse me for that." Gan Qing waved her hand. The improper smile on her face had yet to disappear but her voice suddenly changed. "After getting a taste of Yang Ping's might, how could you still dare to take the blow for me? Didn't you learn your lesson?"

It would be fine if she didn't mention it but once she brought it up, it was the final straw that set Yu Lanchuan off. "If I hadn't blocked it, your brain right now wouldn't be concussed, it would have been smashed to bits!"

Gan Qing listened to him go on a long tirade that attacked the structural composition of her brain, complete with logic and proof. She tried interjecting a few times to no avail and had no choice but to listen while sitting there and drinking water. She had just drained the glass and was putting it down when Yu Lanchuan sprung up like a spring-coiled robot, automatically standing up to pour her another glass.

The water was warm, the temperature just right.

Yu Lanchuan said, "...We agreed beforehand that we would just keep him under control and wait for the police to arrive and hand him over. But you just had to use that 'jianghu matters should be settled the jianghu way' excuse, didn't you? Do you know the difference between 'standing up for a right cause' and 'beating each other up'? Do you know that you still have a..."

"A criminal record," Gan Qing continued for him.

Yu Lanchuan swiftly turned mute.

"What?" Gan Qing lifted her head, unbothered. "When the police interrogated you, they should have focused on that, shouldn't they? A respectable and elite member of society like you, why would you have anything to do with an ex-murderer?"

Yu Lanchuan's mouth tightened.

"I want to ask too." Gan Qing spread her hands at him. "Little Master Yu, instead of busying yourself to become a CEO and marry a perfect woman, you spend whole days hanging around with me, don't you feel that it's below you? You strive so hard for your career, your academics are better than anyone else's, you stand above your peers in your work—your life should be a smooth-sailing one. I'm a bomb that could go off at any time; with me around, aren't you afraid that something that crosses the line will happen one day and drag you down..."

"I will bear the responsibility." After falling silent for a long while, Yu Lanchuan suddenly spoke.

"N-No, no, there's no need for that." Gan Qing's tongue was in knots. "There's nothing of that sort between us."

"What I mean is that I will be responsible for my choices," Yu Lanchuan gritted his teeth and said, pausing between each word. "Even if that day comes, I am willing to bear the consequences of failing to see clearly with my own eyes. I don't need you to tell me what to do, mind your own business!"

Gan Qing made a miffed noise, then said softly, "A friendly reminder…"

"What I want is not a friendly reminder!"

Gan Qing paused. The fingers of her left hand resting on her knee rubbed against each other for a while. She could see her reflection in his eyes—a miserable and sorry sight, an arm that didn't listen to her commands hanging from her body, looking just like a mutt who had spent half her life wandering from place to place.

Gan Qing let out a short laugh. "Little Master Yu, do you want to put on your glasses before saying that?"