Gan Qing's mask had just fallen off—not the one she had been wearing on her face.

When she was dragged away by Yu Lanchuan, her thoughts were on something unrelated: Even though I said that I had broken ties with my shifu, shouldn't I act like someone who had gone through Wan Mu Chun's specialised training… For example, something like "Do not come within ten centimeters of me; otherwise, my lethal self-defense mechanism will be activated, my hand may easily slip and take your life."

Sadly, she did not have such a defense mechanism in place. If she did, there was no way she could get on public transport where humans were compressed until they resembled funeral portraits.

By the time she came back to herself, Yu Lanchuan had already pushed her into the car without saying a word.

And she had not resisted.

Why?

Gan Qing herself couldn't quite understand it. Maybe it was because she had just taken a walk in the hospital building behind them and had been affected by the joys and sorrows of the reunions and separations in life.

She was infected.

...Or maybe she just wanted to hitch a ride.

Gan Qing rubbed her own wrists. She looked at Yu Lanchuan's tense side profile and said thoughtlessly, "If there's anything, let's talk nicely. What you did just now, if it was someone else they would be yelling for someone to catch the pervert."

Yu Lanchuan's ears turned red in an instant. He didn't look at her and only said coldly, "Yelling for someone to come catch you? Put on your safety belt."

Gan Qing didn't want to listen to yet another lesson on traffic safety so she had no choice but to obediently put on the safety belt. "Why the hot temper? I notified you beforehand. Why, did I spoil the strategy the alliance leader had deployed in the Asian Pacific region?"

Yu Lanchuan asked, "Why did you come here?"

"That useless bunch of people who worshipped the 'Chun' memorial table mentioned that they have a 'shifu.' We never found out who this 'shifu' is." Gan Qing saw that the car had a fortune cat decoration whose arm was waving back and forth, and couldn't resist taking it to play with. "Wan Mu Chun's martial arts skills aren't passed on to outsiders. You guys know that too. That day when you and Sect Leader Yang were talking outside the door, I heard the conversation. I came to have a look."

Yu Lanchuan asked, "You looked until you ended up in the hospital?"

"Ai, Little Master Yu," Gan Qing said with a bright smile. "I just saw quite a few scenes of heart-wrenching crying. If you continue on like this, I'm going to think that you're worried about me… ah!

Yu Lanchuan's leg spasmed and stepped extra fiercely on the accelerator. Instantly, the car was like a whipped horse. The infrastructure around the remote hospital was not optimal and the road surface was like a pockmarked face. This "shadowless step" technique of Yu Lanchuan's first drove the car into a large pothole, then drove it back out bouncing and leaping. If it weren't for the safety belt restraining her, Gan Qing would have come close to taking flight. "I'm just teasing you a bit and you want me to die with you? Shouldn't the most powerful move be left for fighting the final boss?"

Yu Lanchuan squeezed out two words from the gaps of his clenched teeth. "Speak. Properly."

"Even though public morals are degenerating day by day, who would have thought that an expert in murdering people and setting fires would lower themselves to swindle the elderly in a rural tourism chalet," Gan Qing said. "If I hadn't come, were you counting on an old man over ninety years of age to engage in combat with him? Using my skills in front of Sect Leader Yang is the same as self-reporting which sect I'm from. When I go back, I'll need to move out. Do you think I wanted this?"

Yu Lanchuan asked stiffly, "Who's making you move out?"

"I'm taking the initiative to do it of my own will. It doesn't look nice to be ousted directly," Gan Qing said mildly. She rubbed the fortune cat's little waving paw. As though she was afraid that this alliance leader next to her who got his post by depending on his apartment was not familiar with his job, she kindly explained further. "Since you know that that old man Wei Xiao had once been named in the Alliance Leader's Command, you should know that in the eyes of you righteous sects, 'Wan Mu Chun' is about the same as that pack of people that just got arrested. If I continue to stay there, Old Sect Leader Yang and the others will suspect that I have other intentions."

"Where will you go?"

"I haven't thought of that, I'll have a look around first," Gan Qing said frankly, not thinking much of it. "I might need to stay in Yanning for a while longer. After all, there are still some matters that aren't wrapped up yet."

Matters that aren't wrapped up yet… Is it Travellers' Sect?

"I thought that since you've stayed at No. 110 for so long…" Yu Lanchuan said, "...you would…"

...think of us as...

"...at least be a little unwilling to leave."

Gan Qing turned on the car's stereo system and flipped through the music catalogue. The car owner's taste was very old-fashioned. Once the music was turned on, the sound of "The New Dream of Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies" flowed out.

"The beauty of the rivers and mountains are sublime," Gan Qing had not picked up on the subtle implied meaning between his lines at all and was carelessly speaking nonsense, "Yet, in the end, this is not my home^[1]."

Yu Lanchuan finished the poem, "I ask; when will be the day I return… Where are you planning to return to?"

That single question had Gan Qing stumped. Her movements paused.

The music continued to sing. "Draw a knife to cut off the water, the water flows ever more. Raise a cup to drown the sorrows, the sorrows grow ever more. Tomorrow morning, the cool wind flows in all directions…"

Right as they reached a crossroad, the lights turned red. Yu Lanchuan stopped the car behind the white line, his eyes staring at the countdown timer above the lights.

The two of them fell into silence for the moment.

The light from the occasional passing car shone through the windows. Her face brightened and darkened in turns, her cheeks a little dry from being rubbed too hard with wet tissues. She carried nothing with her on her body, even her coat had been tossed aside in the burning building. She played with the decorations in the car absent-mindedly, like someone hitching a ride, like a passerby about to go on a long journey to somewhere far.

The countdown timer on the lights decreased steadily from forty seconds like it was closing in on something. When the digit on the left turned to "1," Yu Lanchuan's hand that was gripping the steering wheel was suddenly covered in a sheen of sweat. The timer again changed swiftly from "10" to "9." The corner of Yu Lanchuan's eye twitched slightly. Like he was being rushed by the number of seconds on the timer, he blurted out, "I am."

Gan Qing asked, "Mm? You're what?"

05, 04, …

"Just now, you said that I scolded you because… I'm worried about you. That's what I meant."

Gan Qing turned her head in surprise.

His face expressionless, Yu Lanchuan spoke rather incoherently, "I'm not continuing what we were saying just now… I just… jumped back a bit…"

"Ah." Gan Qing made a sound in response, a little at a loss. "I understand."

The countdown timer ended and the lights changed to green. But Yu Lanchuan didn't move. Fortunately, this road wasn't a single lane and the traffic flow was sparse.

He reached out and turned off the stereo system. After that, he immediately regretted it because once the space inside the car turned quiet, even the slightest change in the sound of his heartbeat was clear.

Gan Qing made a sound, "Ermm…"

The light's green.

"I…" Yu Lanchuan opened his mouth almost at the same time as her.

Both of them closed their mouths at the same time.

"You first," Gan Qing demurred.

"I don't judge a person by their background and I care even less about the so-called 'lineage' of their skills," Yu Lanchuan said. "What year is it now, are we still as backwards as that terrible vest you're wearing?"

Gan Qing, "..."

"Yu Yan called me and said that the building was on fire and that you were inside. Right after that, someone on that side of the call shouted that the building was collapsing…" Yu Lanchuan couldn't continue speaking anymore. He turned the music on again.

Gan Qing's lashes quivered as though they couldn't bear the weight and fell downwards again. "You rushed here in the middle of the night because of that?"

Yu Lanchuan stomped on the accelerator. "What other reason is there!"

The car had just leaped past the white line when the lights changed to red again. The law-abiding Little Master Yu quickly braked again; there was a heavy thump and the two of them were jolted nearly out of their seats. Yu Lanchuan cursed in a low voice. "I didn't even find out what happened and just borrowed this car from someone and rushed here. In the end, you act like there's nothing wrong and say that you're leaving the moment I see you. Are you even human?"

Gan Qing really wanted to say that this was an unrelated matter but for some unknown reason, when the words were right at her lips, she couldn't say them.

When she walked along the hospital corridors, it was like watching numerous emotional scenes from drama shows. She saw them with her eyes, yet they did not touch her heart. Unexpectedly, she was also being dragged into a "plotline" and for a moment, she was at a loss for what to do.

There was someone who, upon hearing just some fragmentary words, had driven at top speed for a few hours to rush from Yanning's city center all the way here to look for her.

This person had also rushed to the cemetery in the eastern suburbs in the middle of the night and climbed the walls to get in, just to stop her from looking for Wang Jiusheng on her own...

The current little alliance leader was such a warmhearted person?

She suddenly fell silent. The sweat on Yu Lanchuan's hands was making his hands slippery. The engine of his heart seemed to have a few collapsed cylinders and was thumping more and more wildly, jumbling together with the old song from the last century playing from the car's stereo system to become static noise.

Since he was young, Yu Lanchuan had been a "flower on a high mountain ridge" that waited for the other sex to confess their feelings to him. His self-esteem hung high on the precipice of a snowy mountain and was only responsible for sparing the occasional glance to the people confessing to him to indicate his lack of interest. This was practically the first time he was giving in and saying such words… and she dared to remain silent?

Pah, Yu Lanchuan thought. What did I say? I certainly did not confess my feelings… Stop singing, so annoying!

His embarrassment had turned to anger. The second the lights changed, he got the car moving and turned off the music again. With the music off, he felt awkward but with it on, he felt that it was noisy. After he turned it on and off repeatedly a few times, Gan Qing finally couldn't bear it anymore and said, "Little Master Yu, please spare its life."

"Don't assume too much," Yu Lanchuan said coldly. "It's just because you saved my life once when I was young and I'm returning the favour."

"Thank you," Gan Qing said. "Erm… I don't have to strip to make things equal, right?"

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

Gan Qing said, "After all, I don't have a doggy-"

"Shut. Up!"

Gan Qing felt that Little Master Yu was close to making a police report, so she willingly and obediently made a zipping motion across her lips.

Yu Lanchuan became the second heat source after the air-conditioning, steam rising from his head the entire way back to Yanning. Maybe it was the warm air roasting her that made her sleepy or maybe she didn't want him to feel awkward; whatever the reason was, Gan Qing just closed her eyes and rested next to him.

Yu Lanchuan quietly turned the temperature up on the air-conditioning. He felt that Gan Qing had a face that naturally had a touch of coldness. No matter how high the temperature of the air roasting it was, the capillaries beneath her skin refused to show even a hint of a flush, like they were being frugal with her vitality.

Her right hand was resting on the car door, the cloth-wrapped fingers dangling in midair, trembling slightly beyond her control. They didn't look at all dangerous; instead, it gave one the urge to take them and hold them in their own hand.

I might have gone mad, Yu Lanchuan thought.

Older-than-average young man so busy with working overtime that he has no energy to look for a partner, starts having his imagination run wild the moment he sees someone of the other sex who looks acceptable.

Wait a minute… who's older-than-average? Definitely not me, I'm in the prime of my life! Yu Lanchuan's mind theater was full of scrolling comments. Isn't she just an uncultured village bumpkin, how is she acceptable? She's just the level of an ordinary passerby!

There was another red light. Yu Lanchuan couldn't stop himself from turning his head to glance at her. He took off his coat and threw it over her body.

Gan Qing was definitely awake. She was just acting dumb and keeping her eyes closed. Her lashes moved slightly.

Yu Lanchuan quickly withdrew his gaze. ...Her lashes are longer than an ordinary passerby's.

For some reason, there were many red lights on this journey. The drive was bumpy and fitful, and when they returned to the city district, it was already past midnight. Yu Lanchuan stopped the car at No. 110's entrance. Gan Qing "woke up" right on time. "You need to find a place to park, right? I'll get off first."

As she spoke, she removed the coat on her body as though nothing had happened, smoothed it out and folded it, and pushed the car door open.

Yu Lanchuan asked, "What happened to your hand?"

Gan Qing looked at the bandages on her finger. "Didn't I say just now? I met a tough thorn that wasn't easy to handle. I cut myself in the process."

"No." Yu Lanchuan lowered his eyes, his gaze falling on her right hand that had a slight deformation. "What I'm asking is, what happened to the muscles and tendons of your arm?"

Gan Qing paused.

Yu Lanchuan cleared his throat, covering up rather conspicuously. "I'm not being a busybody. My stepfather was a doctor before he resigned. I can help you ask if there is any possibility of treating it. Actually, if it had been treated in time when you were injured…"

"I don't know, I've never had it treated," Gan Qing said.

Yu Lanchuan was stunned.

Gan Qing shrugged. "It was my own choice. Why would I get it treated?"

"Your own… what?"

"Ai, what kind of look is that?" Gan Qing flashed him a smile. "Don't worry, I'm not crazy, I'm not sociopathic, and I definitely don't have a tendency to self-harm. Little Master Yu comes from a learned family, so you should know the rules, right? Ne Zha cut his flesh to return them to his mother and carved his bones to return them to his father. I revolted and broke ties with my sect, and made a clean break with my former shifu. So of course I would need to leave something behind—I returned the over ten years' of martial arts skills in my right arm."

Yu Lanchuan stared at her, dumbstruck.

"That's right, the jianghu is a vicious place." As Gan Qing spoke, she pushed open the car door and got down. "The demonic sects are black-hearted and ruthless, and are capable of anything… I'll head up first. Thank you for the ride. Get an early rest."

In the biting cold of an early morning at the end of the year in Yanning, she stretched her body and then walked into the small building. Even Zhang Meizhen who went out to party everyday had already returned home and was fast asleep. Keeping her movements quiet, Gan Qing washed up and returned to her room and tidied her belongings.

Her belongings were not many —just a few everyday clothes and some daily necessities. After she got up tomorrow, she would take a day off from Boss Meng to give the room she had lived in a thorough cleaning. She would take down the curtains and the bed sheet to wash, and then she could take her leave of Madam Meizhen. There would be no trouble at all.

Gan Qing put the little dog plush that her ex-roommate, Miss Night Owl, had given her on the windowsill. She tore off the note the night owl roommate had left her and planned to leave the dog to Zhang Meizhen as a souvenir. She was not going to bring it with her.

"On what do you build your life?" Miss Night Owl asked her from across time and space.

A good question. Gan Qing crumpled the note into a ball and threw it into the trash can. However… humans aren't flowers or grass or trees, why do they need to have a fixed thing beneath their feet to "build their life" on?

Living like the floating duckweed was also living. There was nothing wrong with that.

Yu Lanchuan's sudden and rather sorry way of getting close to her did not mess up her plans. Gan Qing rested her head on her hands and lay face-up on the bed. She thought back on this special part of her life, savouring it, then swallowed it as though it was a sweet snack she had obtained unexpectedly.

Good thing it's me, Gan Qing thought. A man and a woman all on their own, if it were someone else, they would be letting their imagination run wild.

T/N:

[1] "The beauty of the rivers and mountains are sublime; yet, in the end, this is not my home; I ask, when will be the day I return" ("江山信美，终非吾土") is from the poem 平湖乐 by the Yuan dynasty poet Wang Yun.