Chapter 215: Side by Side (Patreon)

The air in the room seemed frozen by invisible frost, the temperature sinking along with Fumizuki's gaze. Wei Yenwu turned his head away without thinking, dodging the stare that could pierce any disguise. In this world, she was the only person he could never deceive.

"After all these years…" Fumizuki's voice was light as a sigh, yet it carried more weight than any interrogation. "You really haven't changed one bit."

Her tone tangled together deep weariness, disappointment, and something close to helpless exasperation, the look of a woman who wished the iron would finally turn to steel. She watched her husband stand there with his head bowed in silence and swallowed down a good many words, each sharp as a knife. She had said them too many times already, and they had hurt too many times.

Wei Yenwu knew better than anyone what he had done. The weight and consequences of those choices had haunted him like a nightmare for half his life. He simply didn't dare, and couldn't bring himself, to face the collapse that might follow.

That was why Fumizuki had said it: after all these years, he still hadn't changed.

He was still hiding.

But…

"This time, I can't let you have your way." Fumizuki's tone hardened abruptly. "What happened back then must never happen a second time."

She took a small step forward. Her voice wasn't loud, but every word fell clearly into the silent room.

"We've already lost Little Ta."

"I won't let Hui-chieh carry what was never meant to rest on her."

"Fumizuki…"

Wei Yenwu's throat bobbed, and his expression froze for a moment.

He knew that when his wife spoke in this tone, any excuse or delay was meaningless. He knew her temper better than anyone: gentle as water in daily life, but the moment you touched her bottom line, she became the hardest bedrock.

But he, too, had reasons he could not give up. Some sins and some debts had to be borne by him alone. He couldn't let Fumizuki wade into this muddy water for his sake.

"This is my business."

The instant the words left his mouth, Fumizuki's eyes went distant.

Her thoughts were yanked back to a night many years ago, so silent it set her heart racing. The manor had been ablaze with light, and she had stayed home watching over Yanjing, who was with child and emotionally fragile. Wei Yenwu and his two brothers had gone out together, saying they had some trouble to deal with.

In the end, only Wei Yenwu and Lin Yühsia came back.

Back then, Wei Yenwu had said exactly the same thing.

And then?

And then came the slow withering of Yanjing's eyes. The father Talulah lost before she was even born. The fate of that child, carried off by the Black Snake. The bewilderment and longing in Ch'en Hui-chieh's eyes, every time she had gazed north over more than ten years.

The regret and pain that, even today, had never truly faded.

None of it could be allowed to happen again.

Fumizuki drew a deep breath and pressed all her surging emotions back down. Her spine straightened. The authority and resolve of a princess of Higashi, buried deep in her blood, fully awoke in that moment.

"I've made my position quite clear, Wei Yenwu."

Her voice was calm and unruffled, yet it carried an ultimatum that brooked no argument:

"What you refuse to do, I will do for you."

"And if you still want to keep hiding…"

She raised her eyes slightly, her gaze a bright blade of snow, and swept it across her husband's suddenly rigid face.

"Then lay down the burden of Governor of Lungmen and come back to Higashi with me to retire."

…

…

The streets of Lungmen were crowded, neon just beginning to glow. Ch'en Hui-chieh trailed half a step behind, her gaze resting on the back of the "Victorian" ahead of her, a figure both strange and familiar.

Looking at that back, Ch'en Hui-chieh still felt as though she were in a dream. Little Ta, whom she hadn't seen in so many years, was really walking right in front of her, wearing a disguised face, chatting about trivial old Lungmen memories in a tone so relaxed it was as if they were just ordinary sisters who had grown up together in these streets and alleys and never been parted.

The heavy past, Koschei's shadow, the truth of their father's death, Wei Yenwu's silence…

In Talulah's steady storytelling, and in the occasional glimmer of concern in her eyes, unchanged since childhood, all of it seemed to be set aside for the moment.

"Hui-chieh, is something wrong?"

Noticing that Ch'en Hui-chieh's steps had gradually slowed, Talulah looked back, a little puzzled.

"Nothing."

Ch'en Hui-chieh quickly put on a smile and shook her head, then asked, as if changing the subject:

"Little Ta, after you go back tomorrow, you'll go straight back to running around for your cause, won't you?"

"Of course."

Talulah answered without a flicker of hesitation. She seemed to feel no attachment at all to this fleeting moment of warmth. That land of frost and cold was where she truly belonged.

Ch'en Hui-chieh lowered her eyelids, yet the corners of her mouth curved upward in a smile.

Yes. That's Little Ta for you.

The last trace of uncertainty in Ch'en Hui-chieh's heart scattered like thin mist in the wind. Her feet stopped suddenly, and in the middle of the endless stream of people she stood like a rock fixed in the sea.

Talulah, drawn to a halt with her, turned in confusion.

Ch'en Hui-chieh lifted her eyes and looked straight through the Victorian disguise into the depths of Talulah's eyes. Her voice wasn't loud, but it was perfectly clear, cutting through all the hesitation and probing that had come before:

"Little Ta, in a couple of days I'll be going back to Victoria."

"Hm?"

Talulah froze for a moment, but when she saw the look in Ch'en Hui-chieh's eyes, her confusion vanished without a trace.

"You've decided?"

Talulah asked. It was a pure confirmation.

"Of course."

Ch'en Hui-chieh nodded, with no hint of dithering.

Talulah smiled. Even through the disguise, the warm outline of her true self showed in that smile.

"Then I'll come see you after you graduate."

"Mm. It's a promise."

Ch'en Hui-chieh smiled too. It was the most relaxed and the most resolute smile she had shown all day.

After exchanging smiles, they started walking again.

Only this time, Ch'en Hui-chieh deliberately quickened her pace. She no longer lagged behind, and no longer merely followed.

She walked steadily at Talulah's side, shoulder to shoulder.

…

…

Two days passed in the blink of an eye. Before nightfall, Ch'en Hui-chieh said goodbye to Talulah and returned alone to the hotel where she had stayed before.

Someone seemed to have given instructions. In those two days nobody had entered the room, and everything lay exactly as she had left it.

The crimson sword still rested quietly on the table. Ch'en Hui-chieh walked over without any preparatory gestures like a deep breath, only picked it up by the scabbard, like an ordinary guest retrieving something she had left behind, and hung Chi Xiao at her waist again.

And the Lung-slaying sword gave no reaction at all this time.

Thirty minutes later, under the watch of the Shadow Guards, Ch'en Hui-chieh stood alone before the Governor's Office and walked inside with a calm expression.