Lu Zhidao paused at the words. She turned around, her lips forcing a difficult, tight smile.
“I don’t need it now,” she murmured.
It was rare for Chu Ning to see her smile, and she found herself dazed by the sight. Though Lu Zhidao’s tone remained calm, comparing her now to how she had first appeared revealed many subtle changes.
Chu Ning knew that Lu Zhidao was nominally the foster daughter of Vice Commissioner Lu and had assumed she’d always lived in comfort. She hadn’t expected Lu to have once been just like that little beggar. Looking at the graceful figure before her, sword at her side and a clean air about her, it was hard to connect her to a street urchin. One could only wonder how much hardship she had endured to become who she was today.
Because she felt the girl’s pain as her own, she had stepped in to stop the man, yet she couldn’t bring herself to face the girl directly—as if she couldn’t face her own wretched past. So, she had simply thrown the money and told her to go.
Keenly sensing the turbulence in Lu Zhidao’s heart, Chu Ning didn’t press further. She simply looked at her and smiled.
Wait!
Lu Zhidao had given the beggar a small silver ingot. Where did that money come from?
“Lu Zhidao!” Chu Ning looked up, staring at her intently. “Where did you get that money?”
The emotion Lu Zhidao had felt just a moment ago vanished instantly into a cloud of panic. In a moment of negligence, she had been caught red-handed. She started walking forward in silence, suddenly spotting the fan stall ahead like a literal lifesaver. She pointed forward and said, “We’re here! Go, quickly.”
“I asked you where the money came from. Did you return it all?” Chu Ning was relentless.
“I returned it.” Lu Zhidao blinked unconsciously, looking at Chu Ning with an expression of total sincerity. She rationalized it to herself: she had returned the vast majority of it, so it wasn’t exactly a lie.
Chu Ning eyed her suspiciously. “Are you hiding ‘private money’? If you had this money all along, couldn’t we have just taken the boat and left?!”
Lu Zhidao couldn’t talk her way out of this one. Her fingers rubbed the hilt of her sword restlessly. She figured being misunderstood as someone hiding private savings was better than letting Chu Ning know she hadn’t returned every cent, so she remained silent.
“Stingy,” Chu Ning pouted. “How much more are you hiding?”
“None left,” Lu Zhidao answered truthfully.
Chu Ning looked at her sideways, her face full of disbelief.
“Really, there’s no more.” Lu Zhidao instinctively patted her own pockets to show they were empty.
At the fan stall, Chu Ning showed her work to the owner.
Everything went smoothly, except for Lu Zhidao, who kept her distance, hanging her head and using her hand to shield her face, terrified that someone would recognize her as the person in the painting.
The owner accepted the fan and gave her twenty wen. Chu Ning didn’t haggle and accepted it contentedly. As she left, the owner gave her several more blank fans, asking her to bring them back once they were painted.
Chu Ning carried the pile of fans back to Lu Zhidao, her footsteps light and cheery. “It seems my studies weren’t in vain,” she said with a laugh.
Lu Zhidao nodded and took the fans from her.
On the way back, Chu Ning counted on her fingers, murmuring calculations. “I estimate we can save enough for the boat fare in about a month.”
“I can earn money too,” Lu Zhidao replied flatly.
“It seems you really are out of money now,” Chu Ning teased. “Don’t push yourself; I can just paint.”
Lu Zhidao pondered for a moment. “I don’t eat ‘soft rice’ [live off a woman]. I can do something else.”
“How is this eating soft rice…”
“Wait a moment.” Lu Zhidao handed the fans to Chu Ning and walked toward the docks.
The docks were bustling with cargo and passenger ships. A freighter had just docked, and many porters were busy unloading. Each man carried a burlap sack half the size of a person on his shoulders. They looked incredibly heavy, forcing the men to hunch over as they trudged forward.
Lu Zhidao walked silently to a pile of goods and tested the weight of one of the sacks.
“Hey! Don’t mess with that! I’m talking to you!” a foreman nearby shouted as he walked over.
Lu Zhidao set the sack down and asked, “How much for one trip?”
“We don’t hire girls here. You can’t carry these,” the foreman said, waving her off.
Without a word, Lu Zhidao easily lifted a sack with one hand and tucked it under her arm. “How much?” she asked again.
“Not bad, I didn’t see that coming,” the foreman laughed. “One wen per bag. The more you do, the more you get. Carry them to the warehouse and collect a bamboo tally. At the end of the day, we calculate your pay based on the tallies. Go on.”
“I’ll come tomorrow.” Lu Zhidao set the sack aside, dusted off her clothes, and walked away without looking back.
On the other side, Chu Ning had been left waiting halfway. She watched Lu Zhidao head to the docks from a distance, assuming she was gathering information, so she waited patiently.
Suddenly, from the end of the street, came the “Clang… Clang… Clang…” of a brass gong. The sound was clear and bright, carrying quite far.
Looking toward the sound, she saw a man carrying a shoulder pole, walking while striking the gong and shouting to sell candy. A swarm of children rushed toward him, chirping as they surrounded him. The shouting and the gong stopped simultaneously.
Remembering Lu Zhidao saying she was once chased for several streets for a single piece of candy, Chu Ning instinctively walked over.
She found the man sold two types of malt sugar. One was a hard, yellowish-white block called xing candy. The other was yi candy, a yellowish-brown, extremely viscous liquid.
After watching for a while, she saw most of the children were buying the yi candy, which was spun onto two bamboo sticks. Feeling a bit like a child herself, she asked the vendor for two servings. It was very cheap—only two wen in total.
The vendor enthusiastically took two sticks, dipped them into the pot of syrup, and skillfully twirled them, pulling up a shimmering strand of sugar. He twisted the sticks together until a large glob of thick syrup was coiled at the top, looking like a tiny torch.
He repeated the process for the second piece. Chu Ning held the fans in one arm and the two candies in the other, carrying them back to their meeting spot.
Soon, Lu Zhidao walked back. Chu Ning greeted her with a smile, waving the two candies in front of her eyes.
Lu Zhidao didn’t react immediately; she blankly took the fans from Chu Ning’s hand first.
Chu Ning assumed she was being shy and provided an excuse for her. “I saw them selling candy over there and really wanted some, so I bought one for you too.”
“We aren’t children anymore,” Lu Zhidao said, glancing at the candy. A faint smile hid at the corner of her mouth, though she quickly returned to her stoic expression.
“Do you want it or not?” Chu Ning laughed. “If not, I’ll eat it.”
“I’ll take it,” Lu Zhidao said solemnly. She rubbed her right hand hard against her clothes to wipe away any sweat before reaching out to take one of the sticks.
Chu Ning’s eyes were full of playfulness. Now that her hands were free, she held one stick and twirled it for a while before putting it in her mouth.
Lu Zhidao stole a glance at her, feeling as though the girl’s shallow dimples were overflowing with sweetness. The thought made her feel a sudden, private embarrassment, and she turned her gaze back to her own candy.
She unconsciously swallowed. She hadn’t expected it to be so easy to get candy now. If someone had been kind enough to give her a piece when she was little, she wouldn’t have been chased and beaten. The irony was that despite being chased for blocks, she never even got to eat it.
After being adopted by Vice Commissioner Lu, she never lacked food or clothes, but for some reason, she had never eaten candy again. It was as if a clear line divided her life in two, with completely different worlds on either side. Lu Zhidao intentionally or unintentionally avoided her past. But the marks left by life don’t disappear; they are simply buried deep.
As they walked back together, Lu Zhidao saw that Chu Ning wasn’t paying attention and was focused on eating her candy. Lu Zhidao stared at her own stick and leaned in cautiously, wanting a taste, but then changed her mind. That’s too casual. I should wait until I go back and wash my hands before eating it slowly.
So, Lu Zhidao walked stiffly toward the inn, holding the candy high like a small torch.
“Aren’t you eating?” Chu Ning’s candy was already more than half gone.
“In a bit…” Lu Zhidao swallowed. “I’ll wash my hands first.”
“I don’t see you insisting on washing your hands before we eat dinner,” Chu Ning teased.
Lu Zhidao didn’t argue; she just kept holding the candy high. Seeing the deliberate movement, Chu Ning smiled helplessly and let her be.
Back at the inn, Chu Ning began to paint.
Lu Zhidao flipped over an upside-down teacup and rested the candy stick inside it. She unbuckled her sword and set it aside, then stood up to wash her hands thoroughly. She returned to the table and sat with her arms crossed, staring at the candy as if she were a cold observer.
After a while, she stood up again and paced slowly. Seeing the candy starting to slide down the stick, she sat back down and carefully used the two sticks to twirl the syrup back to the top.
Once it was secure, she stood up again and wandered aimlessly. She happened to walk behind Chu Ning and tilted her head to look at the painting.
Chu Ning stopped her brush and straightened up to look at her. Seeing Lu Zhidao treating a piece of candy with such solemnity made her want to laugh.
She pointed the end of her brush at the candy and teased, “If you don’t want to eat it, you can give it to me.”
Lu Zhidao turned to look at Chu Ning. She pursed her lips and hesitated for a long time before saying, “Fine.”
But despite her verbal agreement, when she paced back to the table and saw Chu Ning looking down at the painting again, she silently nudged the teacup with the candy further away…
“Who’s going to steal it from you?! I was just teasing,” Chu Ning couldn’t help but laugh. “Eat it soon, or it will melt.”
Lu Zhidao nodded. She rubbed her hands on her clothes again before picking up the stick. Just as she was carefully moving it toward her mouth, her peripheral vision caught a small, dark shadow flitting past the door.
Her movement froze. Certain it wasn’t the waiter, she grew alert. She set the candy back in the teacup and instinctively rested her hand on her sword.
Soon, the shadow returned. It seemed to pace for a moment before lightly pressing against the edge of the door. It was unclear what the person outside intended.
Lu Zhidao adjusted her breathing and silently unsheathed her sword, creeping toward the door.
Sensing something was wrong, Chu Ning set down her brush and looked at her in confusion. Lu Zhidao made a “hush” gesture. Chu Ning nodded in understanding, not daring to make a sound lest she alert the intruder. Her heart was in her throat as she watched the door.
The person outside was now separated from Lu Zhidao by only a single door.
Lu Zhidao waited patiently, hiding by the side of the door, her eyes locked onto the shadow like a wolf ready to pounce. Taking advantage of the moment the person peered through the crack, she yanked the door open and, with a flick of her right hand, thrust her sword forward.