Noticing the General’s slightly subtle expression, Lai Fu hurriedly corrected her. “Xiaoman, the General and the Madam are husband and wife. If you’re going to call the Madam ‘big brother,’ then you have to call the General ‘big brother’ too.”
“Ah,” Lu Xiaoman thought it over for a moment, then obediently changed her words, “Hello, Big Brother Qi.”
Qi Yan: “…”
Even stranger now.
At his age, he could indeed be this child’s uncle, but Miao Shuang…
He couldn’t help but glance sideways at the person beside him. When he’d investigated the Miao Village back then, the information he’d gotten was that “the Great Shaman of the Miao Territories was in his twenties” — he’d never asked the man himself afterward, but from visual estimation, the information seemed accurate.
In all the time since their marriage, he’d never paid attention to the question of age, not until being called “uncle” by a child made him realize that the age gap between him and Miao Shuang seemed perhaps a bit too large.
Qi Yan pressed his lips together, pinched the tip of the little wooden sword, and handed it back to the girl.
Lu Xiaoman took it carefully, and finding that this General who looked so cold wasn’t nearly as fierce as she’d imagined, she grew bold again. “Thank you, Big Brother Qi!”
“Mn. You’re welcome.”
Lu Xiaoman got her little sword back and happily waved it at the air a couple of times, then turned to look Qi Yan over curiously. She grabbed onto the armrest of his wheelchair and, tilting her head up, asked, “Big Brother Qi, why are you sitting in a wheelchair?”
Though children spoke without filter, the question was genuinely tactless — Lai Fu’s expression changed slightly, and he was about to say something to change the subject, but then he heard Qi Yan had already answered the girl. “Because Big Brother’s leg was injured, so it’s hard for him to move around.”
His tone sounded normal, not angry.
Lai Fu let out a breath of relief.
“Oh! I get it,” Lu Xiaoman said again. “When my daddy hurt his leg, he sat in a wheelchair too, but unfortunately I’m too weak, I couldn’t help push the wheelchair for him. If only Mommy were still here…”
Her voice trailed off as she said this, and she scuffed the ground with the tip of her foot.
Qi Yan wasn’t very good at comforting people, so he could only reach out and gently rub her head.
Lu Xiaoman looked up again and asked earnestly, “Big Brother Qi, does someone help push your wheelchair for you?”
Qi Yan was taken aback.
He glanced instinctively toward Miao Shuang, and found Miao Shuang was standing there with his arms crossed, looking at the courtyard, seemingly not paying any attention to them at all.
Out of some unknown impulse, Qi Yan smiled and answered, “Of course. My wife helps me.”
Miao Shuang: “?”
What did that have to do with him?
Hadn’t it been Lai Fu helping him this whole time — it was only on the occasions when Lai Fu was too busy to manage everything that he’d pushed Qi Yan around… three, four, five, six, seven, eight times or so.
That was just doing it in passing — could that even be called “helping”?
“I get it!” Lu Xiaoman said excitedly, waving her arms about. “Big Brother Miao Shuang must love Big Brother Qi very much!”
Miao Shuang: “…”
His expression had gone completely dark. He stepped forward, pinched the fuzzy hood of the girl’s padded coat, and lifted her away from Qi Yan, saying with a smile, “There you go ‘getting it’ again. What does a little brat know about what ‘love’ means?”
“I-I know what it means!” Lu Xiaoman’s feet left the ground as he lifted her, her two short little legs flailing wildly. “My daddy loves my mommy very much, and my mommy loves my daddy very much too!”
Miao Shuang tossed her aside. “Go play with your broken wooden sword.”
“No! I still have something to ask Big Brother Qi!” Lu Xiaoman struggled and ran back over. “Big Brother Qi, Brother Lai Fu said you’re a great general — so do you know martial arts?”
The question left Qi Yan silent for a moment; he didn’t immediately answer yes or no, and instead said, “Why do you ask? Does Xiaoman want to learn martial arts?”
Lu Xiaoman nodded vigorously.
“Why do you want to learn martial arts? Your father is an accountant — you could learn arithmetic from him.”
“I don’t want to learn arithmetic, I want to learn martial arts! Once I’ve mastered martial arts, I can protect my daddy and my mommy, and beat down all the bad people!”
The girl waved her little sword, stabbing and poking at the air this way and that — who knew where she’d picked up the moves, but they actually looked somewhat the part.
Listening to her words, Qi Yan fell into a daze.
Protect…
This word was so unfamiliar and yet so familiar at once. He too had once wanted to protect something — his family, the people of Great Yong, the Yan Gui Army, or…
All of them. And none of them.
It seemed there was something even more important, yet no matter how hard he tried, he simply couldn’t recall it, so much so that there was an emptiness in his chest, an unbearable, suffocating discomfort.
Qi Yan furrowed his brow.
The strange sense of absence twisted painfully at his heart, to the point that he suspected that Gu worm had swum its way into his very heart, forcibly making him stop thinking about it. He said to the girl, “Xiaoman, come here.”
Lu Xiaoman came back over to him, and Qi Yan gently pinched her arm and shoulder.
This child’s bones and sinews really were quite suited to martial arts — it was just a shame that his own martial arts had been entirely ruined, his internal energy completely gone; there was no way for him to teach her now.
And besides, even if he really were to teach her, he’d need to ask her father’s opinion first.
He had Lai Fu go call Lu Fang over. The moment Lu Fang heard his daughter wanted to learn martial arts — and that she’d even gone shouting about it in front of the General — he was so startled his knees went weak and he dropped to kneel. “General, forgive me! My daughter was just being a mischievous child, just talk, she doesn’t really mean to learn martial arts!”
“Daddy, what are you doing!” Lu Xiaoman tried to pull him back up. “I wasn’t just talking, I really do want to learn martial arts!”
Lu Fang, flushed red with anxiety, scolded his daughter in a low voice. “Do you know how much suffering it takes to learn martial arts?”
“I know, but I’m not afraid!”
“You…”
Qi Yan shot Lai Fu a look; Lai Fu understood at once and gently took hold of Lu Xiaoman, “Xiaoman, the snow in the back courtyard has piled up really thick. Why don’t I take you to build a snowman?”
Lu Xiaoman pouted, looking at her father with a wronged expression, but the very next second she was beaming sunnily again, grabbing Lai Fu’s hand. “Okay! Let’s go right now!”
A child’s attention was always so easily diverted. Lai Fu led Lu Xiaoman away, and Qi Yan spoke up as well. “Mr. Lu, please rise.”
Lu Fang stood up and let out a sigh.
“Judging by Mr. Lu’s reaction, you must have already known for a while that Xiaoman wanted to learn martial arts,” Qi Yan said. “I wonder how old Xiaoman is this year?”
“Five.”
“That’s indeed a good age to begin learning martial arts.”
Lu Fang gave a bitter smile, his already careworn face looking even more careworn.
“However…”
However — this accountant looked to be around forty, and yet his daughter was only five?
Seeing Qi Yan’s confusion, Lu Fang hastened to explain, “Actually, my daughter isn’t my own by blood. My wife was born with a weak constitution and couldn’t bear children — this child was one we took in. Since it happened to be the day of Xiaoman, we gave her that name as hers — ah, my daughter doesn’t know about this, so I hope the General and Madam will keep it secret for me. Let’s just say I had a late-life child.”
Qi Yan nodded. “Don’t worry, we won’t interfere in others’ family matters.”
“My thanks to the General.”
“No wonder your daughter doesn’t resemble you at all,” Miao Shuang said, raising an eyebrow.
Lu Fang’s smile grew even more bitter. “The Madam is right to reproach me. I was spineless, couldn’t protect my late wife, and now it’s my daughter who has to protect me instead… truly shameful.”
He let out a long sigh. “Does the General truly intend to teach my daughter martial arts?”
Qi Yan shook his head. “In my current state, I’m not able to teach her. If she has a high aptitude, perhaps I could point out a move or two, but…”
But in the end, it would still be better to find her a proper teacher.
Before he’d been stripped of his post, he’d had a handful of good friends; finding someone who could teach martial arts wouldn’t have been difficult. It was only that he had now deliberately cut off contact with them, to let them keep themselves safe, so as not to be implicated.
He’d deal with it once the time was right.
Looking at his own hands, which had already recovered to a fair degree, Qi Yan asked, “I wonder if Xiaoman likes archery?”
“She does. Just yesterday she was running around the courtyard shooting a slingshot everywhere — I scolded her for it, since pellets don’t have eyes, what if she hurt someone. Today she’s stopped with the slingshot, but now she’s gone and taken up that little sword instead.”
Lu Fang sighed again as he spoke, “This child is always too lively for her own good, terribly mischievous.”
“In that case, I’ll try teaching her archery, to see whether she can really bear that kind of hardship. As for the rest… let’s wait until I’ve recovered a bit more.”
Lu Fang finally accepted the reality of it, and bowed deeply to him. “My thanks, General.”
Miao Shuang, listening off to the side, couldn’t help but curl his lip. He thought to himself: wait until your body’s recovered? Go ahead and keep waiting, then.
It seemed the General was getting a bit restless — his hand had only just healed, and already he wanted to start teaching people archery. Probably, now that his body had been recuperating well these past few days, he was starting to feel capable again.
Had he known, he wouldn’t have given him such a strong dose of medicine — he should have kept him hanging on slowly instead, half-alive and good for nothing.
That way he wouldn’t go putting his attention on other people.
He stared at Qi Yan with something like a smile, barely managing to hold himself back from summoning the golden Gu worm in front of an outsider. Once Lu Fang had left, he gave a cold snort and turned to head back to his room.
Qi Yan turned his wheelchair to face him and called out, “Wife.”
Miao Shuang: “?”
Qi Yan: “I need to go back to my room too. Won’t Wife help push my wheelchair?”