San Tu and Si Dui ultimately stayed with Tao Mian.
The reason was simple-he gave too much.
Being Tao Mian’s attendant didn’t actually require much work. Or rather, Tao Mian simply wasn’t a man of many demands.
He spent his days sipping tea, drinking wine, and wandering through mountains and rivers-idle and utterly without purpose.
Though there wasn’t much to do, Tao Mian had a strange temperament. He’d have his episodes now and then, and on certain days he simply loved to torment people.
The cup of tea before him-Chu Liuxue had gone back and forth with it three times already.
Too cold. Add some hot water.
Too hot. Set it by the window to cool.
Cooled down. Reheat it.
…
At the end of her patience, Chu Liuxue nearly overturned the entire expensive tea set.
“Meal Ticket, are you in a bad mood?”
Tao Mian reclined against the bed, the sound of drizzling rain soft at his ears. His current lodging was the finest inn in the city. With the window half-open, one could glimpse the misty haze draped over the whole city. A cluster of azaleas hung at a slant outside, heavy with blossoms.
Damp. Cold. Desolate.
Whenever it rained, Tao Mian’s mood swung wildly. Whether it had anything to do with that rainy night years ago-the night a sovereign was slain-no one could say. Seeing the fine rain seeping into his clothes, Chu Liuxue circled around the desk and gently pulled the window shut.
Chu Suiyan sat on a small stool at the foot of the bed, knees drawn up, a thin book of scriptures in his hands. Tao Mian had spent lavishly acquiring ancient texts from every corner, yet he himself never read a single word. Once, Chu Suiyan had mustered the courage to ask if he could borrow a book, and Tao Mian had tossed the entire collection to the boy without a second thought.
Even Chu Liuxue was baffled. She had no idea who exactly she was supposed to be keeping company in their studies.
The rain soaked everything, leaving the world damp and drowsy. Chu Suiyan’s thin little body leaned against a corner of the wooden bed frame, drifting into a light sleep, the half-read ancient book still cradled in his arms. Tao Mian bent down, lifted him onto the bed, tucked the thin blanket snugly around him, then turned back. He plucked a tea pastry from the plate and took a small, deliberate bite.
Chu Liuxue was still waiting for his answer.
Tao Mian finished one piece, lost his appetite, and pushed the rest toward Chu Liuxue. She still hadn’t shaken the habits of her wandering days-feast or famine, never knowing when the next meal would come-and she refused no food placed before her. Afraid she’d make herself sick from overeating, Tao Mian had taken to supervising her portions at every meal, pastries included.
Fortunately, after days of this, Chu Liuxue was slowly coming to understand that no one here would fight her for food. Her eating had begun to slow.
The girl imitated Tao Mian’s manner, chewing each bite carefully, reining in her impulses. Watching her long lashes cast downward, Tao Mian said, quite suddenly, that he missed his disciples.
“Disciples? You mean the current Emperor? Meal Ticket, she’s really your disciple?”
Chu Liuxue’s skeptical tone made Tao Mian purse his lips. He told her that Lu Yuandi wasn’t his only disciple-even Gu Yuan, the once-renowned Sect Leader of the Blue Mist Sect from many years past, had been his beloved student.
“So which one do you miss?”
Tao Mian opened the floodgates and chattered away, telling the girl just how formidable his two disciples were. Seeing that he’d finally regained some spirit, Chu Liuxue didn’t interrupt. She stuffed herself with pastries while half-listening to his rambling.
“Done?”
“You weren’t even listening.”
Tao Mian grumbled, reaching for the last piece of pastry on the plate. As if Chu Liuxue would allow that-she swept her arm around the dish and pulled the entire plate into her lap.
“Stingy.”
Chu Liuxue forgot every scrap of table manners she’d so painstakingly learned, wolfing the pastry down. No one was taking her last bite. Only after she’d swallowed it all did the girl wipe her mouth and pick up the thread of conversation.
“You say the Empress is your disciple-that’s debatable. As for the Blue Mist Sect… I’ve never heard of it. Is it famous?”
Tao Mian couldn’t believe someone had never heard of the Blue Mist Sect. His eyes went wide.
“Impossible. The Blue Mist Sect was one of the great sects under heaven. San Tu, you’re simply ignorant.”
Chu Liuxue said nothing. Only silence.
That silence crept toward Tao Mian and wound itself around him, from skin to bone to heart.
The mortal world shifts like seas turning to mulberry fields. Flowers bloom and wither before the steps. Even a cultivation sect that once shook the world could not withstand the torrent of passing years, and had gradually faded into nothing.
Love and hatred alike scattered, swept away by the ceaseless current, rolling ever eastward.
“San Tu.” Tao Mian produced a plate of pastries from who knew where, gazing at Chu Liuxue with sorrowful eyes. “Eat.”
Chu Liuxue had no idea what had brought this on, but the lure of food was too powerful to resist. Suspicious yet swift, she pulled the plate in front of herself.
“Why are you suddenly being so nice to me?”
“Alas.”
Tao Mian heaved a long, theatrical sigh.
“I’ve just realized a profound truth.”
“What?”
“People… are meant to live until they die.”
“…”
What kind of nonsense was that.
“Eat, eat. Dying from overeating is at least a dignified way to go.”
Chu Liuxue’s body stiffened. For the first time, she felt genuinely threatened by food.
“I’ll save some for Suiyan.”
Their chatter had, predictably, disturbed Chu Suiyan’s light sleep. The boy rubbed his eyes and sat up. This story is hosted at g.com.
Seeing both children awake, Tao Mian tapped the table with his fingertip.
“We head north today. To the capital. I’m going to see my second disciple.”
Tao Mian’s actions and thoughts were impossible to predict. At least in Chu Liuxue’s estimation, his moments of normalcy were growing fewer by the day. He was basically losing it around the clock.
And now he actually wanted to take her and Suiyan as disciples.
“What’s wrong with being my disciple? I, Tao Mian, am brimming with ability. Don’t just stare at the few bowls of rice in front of you-learn properly, and something as trifling as keeping fed and clothed won’t even be a question. Children shouldn’t be so short-sighted.”
Chu Liuxue decided he was having another episode and ignored him, continuing to gnaw on the flatbread in her hand.
But Chu Suiyan’s eyes lit up. He carefully pinched the edge of Tao Mian’s sleeve and asked-could he really become a disciple?
Tao Mian gazed into the boy’s eyes for a long time, as though peering through layers of mist to examine his very soul. That look was something Chu Suiyan didn’t yet understand, but Chu Liuxue sensed something was off. She broke half her flatbread and handed it to her brother, then stuffed an entire piece into Tao Mian’s mouth.
She’d grown increasingly brazen of late, because she’d come to realize that the adult was unreliable and the little one was even more clueless. Young as she was, she had no choice but to shoulder the burden of looking after all three of them.
Tao Mian flailed and made muffled noises, looking thoroughly choked.
Chu Suiyan held his greasy half of flatbread, glancing back at his sister in bewilderment.
“Eat your food. You haven’t even filled your stomach, and you’ve already got the energy to daydream about things that don’t exist.”
“Liuxue…”
“Eat.”
Chu Suiyan chewed his flatbread glumly, not daring to talk back.
Tao Mian, the whole piece of bread still clamped in his mouth, rolled his eyes back and forth between the two siblings.
A silent sigh.
Chu Suiyan was younger than Chu Liuxue and followed his sister in everything. It had always been Chu Liuxue looking after him-letting him eat first when there was food, pushing him behind her when there was danger. The two of them had stumbled their way through growing up together, until they met Tao Mian and stopped drifting.
Now Tao Mian wanted to take disciples, and Chu Liuxue clearly didn’t want her brother to accept.
It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Tao Mian… well, there might have been a tiny-just a tiny-sliver of doubt. But the real reason was that she didn’t want Chu Suiyan dragged into the conflicts of the world.
She couldn’t see far into the future. She only sensed, dimly, the shape of what was to come.
If Chu Liuxue refused, Chu Suiyan would follow his sister’s lead without question.
What to do about this? Tao Mian wondered.
He wanted to pass his skills on to both of them, so that no matter what they faced in the future, they could at least protect themselves.
But the Gold Finger had only revealed the origins of one.
One of them was destined to walk into the grip of fate-willing or not.