Jiang Wan could feel something changing inside her body.
It was as though something that had never belonged to her had appeared in her veins, slowly flowing through her limbs. There was no pain, and no visible change.
She did not have time to think about it further.
The footsteps of that person stopped again within the fog by the cliff.
“For a little girl, you’ve got quite a lot of courage.”
The voice drifted out of the mist.
It sounded exactly like the Mirror System.
Yet there was something extra layered beneath it—something Jiang Wan could not describe.
All she knew was that it made her feel sick.
Sheng Zixu’s hand rested on the hilt of his blade, his knuckles white. The deepest wound on his shoulder had already turned black. Blood ran down his arm and dripped onto the rocks.
“Run,” the voice in the fog continued. “Giving someone hope and then crushing it… that’s far too entertaining!”
“I will catch you.”
Jiang Wan did not hesitate.
She grabbed Sheng Zixu by the wrist and pulled him sideways along the edge of the cliff.
A low laugh sounded behind them.
Then, in an instant, the feeling of being watched completely disappeared.
Still uneasy, Jiang Wan extended her mind-reading ability. Only after confirming that the person had moved away did she release Sheng Zixu’s wrist.
“How much farther can you go?” Her tone carried a trace of concern.
“None of your business,” Sheng Zixu snapped, leaning against the mountainside and gasping for breath. His mouth was still as stubborn as ever, though his voice had already grown weak.
Jiang Wan ignored him and turned to walk forward along the cliff wall.
The fog had not completely dispersed, but she could vaguely make out a narrow path leading downward on the left.
“Let’s go.”
She walked ahead, with him following behind.
After about a quarter of an hour, the terrain gradually leveled out, and more than half of the fog had dispersed.
A faint light appeared at the edge of the forest.
It looked like candlelight shining from inside a house.
Jiang Wan extended her mind-reading ability.
No killing intent.
Only faint, sluggish thoughts.
Like someone sleeping.
“There’s a house ahead.”
“You know that too?”
“My hearing is good. None of your business.”
As they drew closer, they saw that it was a solitary earthen house with a thatched roof. Dim yellow candlelight shone through the window. There was a small courtyard in front, with neatly chopped firewood stacked beside it.
Jiang Wan knocked on the door.
No one answered.
She knocked three more times.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
A rustling sound came from inside.
The door opened a crack, revealing a dark-skinned man in his fifties. He narrowed his eyes and looked the two of them over.
“Who are you?”
“Sir, we got lost in the mountains, and my companion is injured. Could we stay here for one night?” Jiang Wan asked calmly.
The man’s gaze moved past her and landed on Sheng Zixu.
He was covered in blood, his face as pale as paper. Yet his back remained perfectly straight, and the broken blade still hung from his waist.
“What kind of injury?”
“A knife wound. We were being chased,” Jiang Wan said honestly. “But the people chasing us have already left. If it’s inconvenient for you, we’ll leave immediately.”
The man stared at her for several seconds before opening the door wider.
“Come in.”
The outer room contained a stove and a fire pit.
The man rummaged through a cabinet, pulled out a clean piece of white cloth and a jar of liquor, and placed them on the table.
“A knife wound, huh? Wash it first. I don’t know how to treat injuries, so you’ll have to handle it yourselves.”
Jiang Wan picked up the jar and removed the lid. The smell of alcohol was strong.
She looked at Sheng Zixu.
He was trying to untie the cloth around his shoulder with one hand, but after tugging twice, he still could not undo it.
Jiang Wan reached out to help him.
Then she poured the liquor directly onto the wound.
He let out a muffled groan and slammed his back against the bedpost.
“Couldn’t you at least warn me before pouring it?”
“Would it hurt any less if I did?”
“No, but at least I’d have time to prepare myself.”
“Well, now you know. Next time, expect the same treatment.”
After the liquor washed over the wound, the blackened flesh around its edges became more visible.
Jiang Wan leaned closer.
Thin black streaks were spreading outward along his blood vessels, like tree roots burrowing through his flesh.
She lowered her voice.
“The blade was poisoned.”
Sheng Zixu turned his head and glanced at his shoulder.
“How long can I hold out?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then I’ll hold out until dawn.”
Jiang Wan tore the white cloth into strips and bandaged him again. Layer after layer, she wrapped it tightly around the wound.
When she tied the knot, she looped it around once more and pulled it tight.
Sheng Zixu lowered his eyes to look at her hands.
There was mud beneath her fingernails and dried blood on her fingers, but her movements were clean and practiced.
“Have you treated other people before?”
“I’ve treated myself before. I practiced sanda, so I often got scraped up.”
“What’s sanda?”
“Fighting with boxing gloves. No blades.”
Sheng Zixu thought about it.
“Isn’t that basically the same as street performers fighting for a living?”
Jiang Wan paused and looked up at him.
His expression was completely serious.
“You’re impressive. You use a blade, and yet you still ended up in this state.”
“I got injured because there were too many of them, not because I couldn’t beat them.”
“Right. So many people surrounded you, you took down three, ran away, and nearly bled to death in the mountains. Truly an achievement worthy of a monument.”
When the man came out of the inner room, he was carrying a bowl of hot porridge and two coarse-grain flatbreads.
He placed them on the table.
“I don’t have much to offer. Eat first. My son died two years ago, but his clothes are still in the cabinet. Take them if you don’t mind wearing them. Get some sleep after eating, and leave as soon as the sun rises tomorrow.”
After saying that, he returned to the inner room.
Jiang Wan pushed the bowl of porridge toward Sheng Zixu.
“You eat first.”
“I’m not hungry.”
“You lost that much blood. If you don’t replenish yourself, you won’t be able to walk tomorrow.”
He picked up the bowl and took a sip before pushing it back toward her.
“We’ll share it. Half each.”
Jiang Wan drank two mouthfuls.
Then she broke the flatbreads in half and handed him the larger piece.
He did not take it.
Instead, he took the smaller piece from her hand.
The two of them sat there and finished the bowl of porridge and the two flatbreads together.
After swallowing the last bite, Sheng Zixu suddenly spoke.
“You… do you have some kind of ability to hear what other people are thinking?”
Jiang Wan immediately answered, “No such thing.”
“Back in the fog, when you covered my mouth, I noticed. The timing of when you stopped was too precise. It was like you knew exactly when that person would come near us. A normal person couldn’t do that.”
Jiang Wan was silent for several seconds.
Then she said, “Oh.”
Sheng Zixu looked at her, the wariness in his eyes undiminished.
Neither of them said anything else.
The two simply sat there in silence.
The fire in the hearth was dying out, and the orange-red coals gave off their last faint glow.
Jiang Wan leaned against the wall, thinking about the question Sheng Zixu had asked.
“How old is your sister?” he suddenly asked.
“She was fifteen when she disappeared. She should be eighteen now.”
“You still haven’t found her after three years?”
“Mm.”
“How do you know she’s still alive?”
Jiang Wan stared at her fingers.
There was still dirt trapped beneath her nails.
“I don’t know. But if I stop looking for her, then she’ll truly be gone.”
Sheng Zixu did not ask anything else.
He removed the broken blade from his waist and placed it across his knees before leaning against the wall and closing his eyes.
After a long while—so long that Jiang Wan thought he had already fallen asleep—he suddenly spoke.
His words came out of nowhere, and his voice was very low.
“We’re staying here one more night. I’ve been poisoned and don’t have the strength.”
The corner of Jiang Wan’s mouth twitched.
Did he really have to say it in such an awkward way?
She did not respond.
Instead, she stretched out her injured leg. The bruise on her knee had already swollen badly.
She rested her hand on it and pressed gently.
Outside, the fog slowly gathered once more.
That person did not return.
Before dawn, Jiang Wan was awakened by a sound.
It came from inside her head.
The voice of the Mirror System sounded in her mind, still as cold and emotionless as ever.
“An abnormal fluctuation has been detected in the host’s body. Immediate examination is recommended.”
Jiang Wan opened her eyes.
The fire pit had already gone out.
Sheng Zixu was still leaning against the wall opposite her. His breathing was steady, and his complexion looked slightly better than it had the previous night. However, his lips were somewhat gray, and a thin layer of cold sweat covered his forehead.
She reached out and touched his forehead.
It was burning hot.
“Wake up.” She patted his face.
He frowned without opening his eyes. His voice was so hoarse it was almost inaudible.
“What is it this time?”
“You have a fever. Either the wound is infected, or the poison is acting up.”
“I won’t die.”
He sounded completely unconcerned.
“You say you won’t die every time, but you keep getting worse every time.”
Jiang Wan stood up and walked to the window, looking outside.
Dawn had only just begun to break.
The fog was thinner than it had been the night before, and she could see the dirt road outside the courtyard that led down the mountain.
The man was already awake and chopping firewood in the courtyard.
When he saw her come out, he did not even raise his head.
“Leaving?”
“Sir, is there a town nearby? Or somewhere we can find a doctor?”
The man put down his axe and thought for a moment.
“Twenty li east of here, there’s a town. But in your friend’s condition, he won’t be able to walk twenty li.”
“Is there anywhere closer?”
The man shook his head.
“No. And even if there were, you’d need money. Do you have any?”
Jiang Wan fell silent.
“I heard some of what you two were saying last night from the inner room.”
The man’s tone was neither harsh nor gentle.
“Knife wounds, being chased, and that thing you called… sanda. You two aren’t ordinary people.”
“We are ordinary people.”
“Ordinary people don’t get involved.”
After saying that, the man turned and went back inside.
Not long afterward, he came out carrying a small cloth bundle and handed it to her.
“Ten copper coins. It’s not much, but it should be enough for you to find somewhere to rest. Don’t tell anyone I gave it to you.”
Jiang Wan looked at the cloth bundle but did not take it.
“Why are you helping us?”
“If my son were still alive, he’d be about your age.”
The man shoved the cloth bundle into her hand, then turned his back and continued chopping firewood.
“Go. And don’t look back.”
Jiang Wan gripped the cloth bundle.
She stood there silently for several seconds before saying, “Thank you.”
Then she turned and went back inside.
Sheng Zixu was already standing.
Leaning against the wall, he had put his tattered outer robe back on by himself. Every movement pulled at his wound. There was no expression on his face, but the sweat on his forehead betrayed him.
“Someone gave us ten copper coins. There’s a town twenty li east of here. We’ll go there first.”
“Twenty li.”
He repeated the distance.
He did not sound like he was questioning it.
He sounded like he was calculating how much strength he had left.
“If you can’t walk anymore, say so.”
“If I say so, will you carry me?”
“If I can’t carry you, I’ll leave you by the roadside.”
Jiang Wan said it mercilessly.
Sheng Zixu looked thoroughly unconvinced, but he stepped outside anyway.
By the time the two of them left the courtyard, the sky had fully brightened.
The mountain air carried the scent of earth and morning dew.
Jiang Wan looked back.
The man was still chopping firewood.
He never looked up.
The mountain road was difficult to travel.
Sheng Zixu walked slowly, while Jiang Wan stayed about two steps ahead of him. She neither turned around to urge him nor deliberately slowed down to wait for him.
She knew people like him.
The more you waited for them, the more they would think you were taking pity on them.
As they neared the town, Jiang Wan’s mind-reading ability suddenly caught a powerful emotion.
Fear.
She grabbed Sheng Zixu by the sleeve and pulled him behind the bushes at the side of the road.
“Someone’s ahead.”
As soon as she spoke, a figure came stumbling toward them from the far end of the dirt road.
It was a young woman.
Her hair was disheveled, her clothes covered in mud. She had no shoe on her left foot, and she twisted her ankle with nearly every step.
When she saw Jiang Wan and Sheng Zixu, she first recoiled in fright.
Then, as though all the strength had drained from her body, she collapsed onto the ground.
Her lips trembled, but she could not speak.
Jiang Wan crouched down and met her at eye level.
“Don’t be afraid. We’re not bad people. What happened?”
The woman looked up. Her eyes were red, and her voice seemed to be forced out of her throat.
“They… they took everyone in the town… They captured them all…”
Jiang Wan’s heart sank.
“Who?”
“People wearing black… They came last night. They searched every house, saying they were looking for a man with an injured shoulder…”
As she said this, her gaze fell on Sheng Zixu.
Her pupils suddenly contracted.
“It’s you… They’re looking for you!”
Jiang Wan did not turn to look at Sheng Zixu’s expression.
Instead, she stared directly into the woman’s eyes and extended her mind-reading ability.
The fear was real.
But beneath it, there was something else…
Something was wrong.
“You said you escaped from the town.”
Jiang Wan’s voice remained calm.
“How did you escape by yourself?”
The woman’s gaze flickered.
“I… I climbed over a wall from the backyard…”
“You climbed over a wall and ran all the way here. How far did you run?”
“I don’t know…”
“Your left foot has no shoe. The sole of your foot is covered in mud, but there isn’t a single wound on it.”
Jiang Wan spoke slowly, enunciating every word clearly.
“It took me an hour to walk from the town to here. The road is covered with gravel and dead branches. If you had run that far barefoot, there’s no way the sole of your foot wouldn’t have been injured at all.”
The woman’s face went pale.
Jiang Wan stood up and stepped backward.
“You didn’t escape.”
Her eyes remained fixed on the woman.
“You were sent here.”
The woman froze for a moment.
Then the fear on her face fell away like a mask being torn off.
She stood up, brushed the mud from her clothes, and the corners of her mouth slowly curved upward.
“The people above were right,” she said.
Her voice was no longer trembling.
Her entire manner of speaking had changed.
“You really are difficult to fool.”
She raised her hand and waved it toward the town.
Figures flickered through the trees on both sides of the road.
Jiang Wan did not run.
Because she knew they could not escape.
More than a dozen men dressed in black closed in from both sides.
The nearest was less than ten paces away.
Jiang Wan glanced sideways at Sheng Zixu.
He drew the broken blade from his waist.
“This time, we really can’t run,” he said.
His tone was as calm as though he were merely commenting on the weather.
Jiang Wan took a deep breath.
Her mind raced.
Then she heard that sound.
It came from the direction of the town.
Far away.
Yet perfectly clear.
A bell.
Ringing again and again.
Like a funeral bell.
Like the arrival of judgment.
It was exactly the same sound she had heard at that compound.
As though someone were announcing:
We caught you.
You lost.