“Retracing separation?” Qi Changying chuckled softly.
“Is it because you don’t want to be apart?”
“…”
No one had ever interpreted Su Li’s name that way before.
This left him slightly stunned.
Then he noticed that Qi Changying had been looking at him the whole time, which made him feel somewhat uncomfortable.
So he frowned and asked, “What are you looking at?”
“I was wondering… have we met before?”
The young boy before him had extremely fair skin, no less white than porcelain. His hair and eyes, however, were an inky black, creating a striking contrast with his complexion.
His facial features and contours had many sharp angles, making him look somewhat aloof and fierce. Yet his appearance was exceptionally exquisite, like a work of art carefully drawn stroke by stroke by the finest painter in the world.
His temperament was also unusual. He lacked the innocent brightness that children his age should have. Instead, he was cold and indifferent, with a gloomy air that made people want to keep their distance.
It was difficult not to remember someone with such an appearance and temperament. Looking at him, Qi Changying had a subtle sense of déjà vu, as though they had met somewhere before.
“No.” Su Li shifted his gaze away and replied stiffly.
“Impossible. I have a good memory. I must have seen you somewhere.”
Su Li felt that Qi Changying was deliberately asking a question he already knew the answer to, because his next words were,
“Four years ago, Wuguang Village in Yangluo Prefecture. You were the child dressed in black who was there alone, weren’t you?”
“…”
Su Li fell silent again.
Because Qi Changying was right.
Four years ago, Yangluo Prefecture, Wuguang Village.
At that time, Su Li had followed his master down the mountain for training. When they reached Yangluo Prefecture, they encountered the war between Chaosu and the neighboring lands.
The people of Chaosu invaded the border villages and wantonly slaughtered the villagers. Wrongfully dead, solitary souls were scattered all over the mountains.
His master had brought him out to experience the many aspects of human life and the suffering of the world, making him continually immerse himself among all kinds of underworld spirits to gain different insights.
So Su Li entered the village that had been devastated by the invaders.
His master said that life and death were matters of great karma and that they could not interfere rashly. In such a situation, all they could do was remain bystanders.
Looking back now, everything had been a twist of fate.
His master happened to be absent that day, and something went wrong with the spell he used to conceal his form and aura. A soldier from Chaosu spotted him and charged at him with a raised blade. Qi Changying happened to arrive on horseback and shielded him, taking that blow for him.
A drop of blood splashed into Su Li’s left eye, becoming the variable that led to everything today and bringing about this karmic connection that should never have existed.
Qi Changying and his soldiers drove the Chaosu troops away. They gathered the surviving villagers together, and Su Li was among them.
At the time, Su Li was not yet nine years old. He was a tiny little thing standing among a crowd of injured people who were crying bitterly. His young age made him stand out, and so did his composure.
Perhaps because he was so young, Qi Changying paid him extra attention.
Although Qi Changying was still a child himself at the time, he already behaved like a little adult whenever serious matters were involved. He seemed to have taken Su Li’s affairs as his own. After all, he had personally saved the boy, and he appeared determined to take responsibility for him to the end. He kept asking Su Li what his name was, whether he was injured, and whether he had any family left.
Su Li didn’t answer a single question.
Presumably thinking the child had suffered such a great shock that he was too frightened to speak, Qi Changying turned to ask the other survivors of Wuguang Village whether any of them knew the boy’s family.
But all he got were answers like “I’ve never seen him,” “He’s a strange child,” and “I don’t know where he came from.”
But how could a strange child have come alone to such a remote village? Judging by his clothes and appearance, he didn’t look like someone from Chaosu either.
Qi Changying was troubled by this. By the time he had questioned everyone and turned back to look for Su Li, Su Li had already disappeared.
The whole affair was strange from beginning to end. As a result, Qi Changying remained concerned for a long time afterward about this child who had appeared inexplicably and disappeared just as mysteriously.
Until today, four years later, when he was ordered to go to the Imperial Observatory to invite that so-called Grand-Master of the spirit masters, Qiyueban. The Imperial Advisor told him the person was on the back mountain, so he had come looking for him.
There were many laborer disciples on the back mountain, working in small groups. As he passed them, he heard them complaining about Qiyueban’s misdeeds and knew the person he was looking for wasn’t there. So he continued deeper into the mountain. As he walked, he spotted Su Li sitting cross-legged on the ground in the distance, digging a hole.
The moment Qi Changying saw Su Li’s profile from afar, the outline matched the memory of that day four years ago, and a thought surfaced in his mind without warning.
So that’s how it was.
After all, this child’s appearance and temperament were indeed unforgettable. Even though he had grown considerably over those four years, he was still recognizable at a glance.
And this time, after four years, Qi Changying finally learned the child’s name.
“…What are you digging?”
Seeing that Su Li was unwilling to talk about it, Qi Changying didn’t continue asking. Instead, he turned his attention to the hole he was digging.
“Let me help you. You’re injured.”
“Digging up a dead person,” Su Li said expressionlessly.
“A dead person?” Qi Changying was a little surprised. “Did someone die here?”
“…”
Su Li was a little annoyed that he hadn’t managed to scare Qi Changying.
He pursed his lips before adding,
“Digging up soil where someone was buried.”
“Oh… I see.” Qi Changying nodded. He lowered his head, tore off a fairly clean piece of cloth from the inner hem of his robe, and handed it to Su Li.
“Take this and wipe your wounds. I’ll do the rest of the digging.”
Su Li raised an eyebrow slightly. This time, he didn’t refuse.
He took the strip of cloth Qi Changying handed him and moved aside. Then he watched coldly as the young man untied the dagger he carried at his waist and used the dagger, sheath and all, to stir the damp soil mixed with blood and water.
Su Li spoke coldly, as if ordering a lowly laborer.
“Dig deeper.”
Qi Changying replied, “All right.”
Qi Changying dug very seriously, and Su Li noticed that when he concentrated, he would furrow his brows slightly. Yet his overall temperament remained gentle, even gentler than the light of an autumn afternoon.
For some reason, a slightly malicious thought arose in Su Li’s heart.
He wanted to break that gentleness.
“Why are you being so eager? You even have to fight to do the digging?”
Apart from his master and senior brother, everyone else in this world was kind to him for a reason.
They feared his status and coveted his abilities, so every one of them put on a flattering face to curry favor with him.
Zhuge Yu invited him to live in his grand residence because he wanted him to teach them more magical artifacts and techniques so they could improve themselves and revitalize their family. The emperor gave him power so that he would help calculate whether the country’s fortunes would prosper and whether the emperor could safely sit on the throne until he reached the end of his natural life.
Then what was Qi Changying after?
Fortunately, Zhuge Qiyu had given Su Li a heads-up beforehand, allowing him to easily see through Qi Changying’s intentions at this moment.
“What? You’re so obedient to that old emperor’s words that you want to invite me back to dispel the resentment and deliver the souls of your brothers who died on the battlefield? I advise you to forget it. No matter how much you flatter me, even if you kneel and serve me respectfully as a servant, it won’t work. You regard the emperor as a heavenly god, but I don’t listen to him. If I’m unwilling, no one can persuade me to go. Even if you dig the entire back mountain of the Imperial Observatory into holes, I still won’t spare you a second glance.”
Su Li hoped to see the same embarrassment and awkwardness on Qi Changying’s face that he had seen on Zhuge Yu’s. However, he stared at the young man for a long time, waiting until he had finished speaking, and Qi Changying’s expression did not change in the slightest.
He simply waited for Su Li to finish, then raised his eyes and smiled at him.
“Actually, I came here today at my father’s request. Even if His Majesty hasn’t issued an official decree, we still have to obey a casual command from the sovereign. Whether you’re willing or not, I have to come and invite you. This is just for the people above to see. Whether you want to go is, of course, your own decision. I won’t try to persuade you or force you, and I’m not trying to curry favor with you either. You don’t need to take it to heart.”
“……” Su Li furrowed his brows.
The trace of displeasure in his heart grew stronger with every word Qi Changying said.
He let out a cold laugh.
“I thought everyone here was keen on kissing the emperor’s stinking ass, treating his words as the Mandate of Heaven and not daring to disobey him in the slightest.”
“You can’t say things like that carelessly.”
This was the third time Su Li had heard someone use this phrase. He thought the next words would probably be, “That’s a capital offense punishable by beheading.”
But they weren’t.
Qi Changying only said, “We’re in the capital. When a tree grows big, it inevitably attracts the wind. You’re already quite ostentatious in the way you do things, and many people can’t stand you. If someone with ulterior motives gets hold of something they can use to slander and frame you, you’ll have a headache. Although you don’t seem to care about such things, having fewer uncertainties and troubles is always better.”
After saying this, Qi Changying glanced up at him while Su Li remained silent and asked, “Is this deep enough?”
“……” Only then did Su Li recover from his brief daze.
He hurriedly glanced at the small pile of soil Qi Changying had pried up with his scabbard.
“That’s enough.”
“Then shall I wrap it up for you?”
“Mm.”
Qi Changying took off his short, crimson outer jacket, spread it flat on the ground, and began wrapping the soil for Su Li.
As he worked, he said, “The current emperor is obsessed with fate, ghosts, and gods. As a result, he looks down on both civil and military affairs, yet places particular trust in the Imperial Advisor and the Imperial Observatory. This has allowed many parasites to infest the Imperial Observatory. In the past, with the Imperial Advisor protecting them, even if others were dissatisfied, they didn’t dare say so openly. They could only grit their teeth and swallow their grievances. But when you arrived, you dealt with a whole group of people swiftly and decisively. Although everyone is spreading rumors that you’re a vicious god who takes revenge for the slightest grievance, many people are actually applauding you in private and thanking you for your righteous deed.”
“What righteous deed?” Su Li said coldly. “I did it for myself.”
“But you did inadvertently vent other people’s anger for them. And those people include me, of course. I should thank you too.”
After wrapping up the soil, Qi Changying tied two firm knots in the jacket. Only after making sure none of the soil would leak out did he hand it to Su Li.
“I heard His Majesty asked you to calculate the fate of the nation. You must have said something to him, right? Recently, he suddenly started paying attention to the war in the northwest. The authority and military provisions granted this time are several times greater than before, which has made our lives much easier. Although that wasn’t your original intention, our Qi Family Army has indeed benefited from your actions, so I should thank you as well.”
“…” Qi Changying kept saying things that left Su Li speechless.
After a long pause, Su Li finally said stiffly, “Since your soldiers are so important to you, when the emperor ordered me to accompany the army to the northwest battlefield, why didn’t you hurry to thank me profusely and use that as a command token to force me to obey? What, is refusing to persuade or force me and letting me decide for myself another tactic of retreating in order to advance, of luring the enemy in before capturing them?”
“It’s not that complicated. How old are you? Why would I use that kind of trick against you?”
“I’m only responsible for inviting you. Whether I can get you to come isn’t something I can decide. To put it selfishly, if you don’t want to go, I’m not the one who’ll have to explain myself and take responsibility for it. It has nothing to do with me. If something brings me neither benefit nor loss, why should I go to the trouble of pestering you?”
Qi Changying was genuinely about to laugh at this child.
Then he became a little more serious.
“I never lie, Su Li.”
“If you insist on asking me for a reason why I’m not trying harder to persuade you… people like my father and me, who are accustomed to fighting for our lives on the battlefield, don’t really believe in ghosts and gods. To say something that others mustn’t hear, those stories about ghosts and fate that the Imperial Advisor used to tell sounded no different to me from the tales of those wandering charlatans who wave flags in the streets and swindle people. As for whether ghosts, souls, and the Mandate of Heaven truly exist in this world, who can say for sure? In any case, I’ve never seen them.”
“When it comes to delivering souls, different people have different opinions. If you’re willing to go, naturally, that would be best. But if you’re unwilling, that’s fine too. Although I don’t know whether gods and ghosts exist in this world, I know that every soldier in my Qi Family Army is a good man who was already prepared to sacrifice his head and spill his blood for his country the moment he put on his armor. We have the courage and determination to do so. No one can imprison us, whether in life or in death.”
Su Li instinctively wanted to argue with Qi Changying.
But when he raised his eyes, he could see the light in the young man’s eyes. So he swallowed the words he had not yet spoken and instead asked, “You say this is something others mustn’t hear, yet you told me? Aren’t you afraid I’ll turn around and tell Zhuge Yu, have him report you to the emperor, and get you punished later?”
“Perhaps there is that risk. But I believe you won’t.”
The small bundle of soil Qi Changying had offered remained unaccepted for a long time, so he placed it beside Su Li instead. Then he stood up and brushed the dirt off the hem of his clothes.
“Having come here and seen you, my task is complete. I’m glad to have met you, Su Li.”
“I’m not glad.”
Su Li didn’t even know what he was saying anymore.
In any case, whenever he heard Qi Changying speak, he instinctively wanted to contradict him.
Qi Changying didn’t mind at all. He simply smiled again.
“I know.”
In fact, Qi Changying had come to the Imperial Observatory today purely to fulfill a routine duty: to invite the famous Qiyueban.
His father was the person least willing to get entangled with the Imperial Observatory and Zhuge Yu. Naturally, he was just as unwilling to deal with Qiyueban, the ancestor of this bunch of charlatans.
His father was unwilling to accept the emperor’s proposal, but as a subject, he could neither disobey the emperor’s command nor fail to send an invitation. Since he couldn’t bring himself to visit the Imperial Observatory, he had no choice but to send his son to make the trip.
When Qi Changying came, he had only intended to go through the motions. He hadn’t planned to stay for so long. He just wanted to explain why he had come, ask for Su Li’s answer, and leave. As for why he spoke so much with Su Li and even helped him dig soil, it was partly because he had encountered a familiar face, and partly because…
This child seemed very unhappy.
To carry such a heavy reputation at such a young age and walk through the world must be exhausting and difficult, right? Otherwise, he wouldn’t have displayed such maturity far beyond his years.
There was nothing he could do about it.
After all, Qi Changying didn’t see the notorious, vicious, arrogant, and domineering evil god Qiyueban. He only saw a young boy named Su Li, wearing a servant’s clothes, covered in wounds, digging soil alone in the back mountain, and fond of saying the opposite of what he meant just to provoke people.
He couldn’t reconcile these two identities and bring them together in his mind.
His father always said that he was too softhearted. For a general, this was a fatal flaw, and sooner or later, he would suffer because of it.
But his father wasn’t here now.
So Qi Changying thought:
When you meet an unhappy child, do whatever you can to make him feel a little more relaxed and a little happier.
