Morning exercises done, Jiang Chen went out as usual to buy breakfast.
The fried flat cakes along Greenwood Avenue, and the bean-curd pudding at the stall opposite Du Dewang's — these had been Jiang An'an's favorites of late.
He pushed open the courtyard gate, yet came upon a person he had not expected.
The man had a plain, honest face and a sturdy build, a great bundle strapped to his back, and no sooner did he lay eyes on Jiang Chen than he began to bow, hands pressed together: "Mr. Jiang!"
It was none other than Tang Dun, the constable he had once come across in Tangshe Town. Back then the man's unpretentious honesty had left no small impression on Jiang Chen.
Only, the bow came out all askew, and the form of address sat strangely on the tongue.
Jiang Chen recalled that, as a boy, Tang Dun had once been taught by a wandering scholar of the Confucian path; to him, no doubt, "Mr." was the highest title of respect there was.
"Constable Tang, have you come to Maple City over the Outer Academy assessment?" Jiang Chen asked, puzzled. "Seems a little early, doesn't it?"
Every third month of the year the Outer Academy held its assessment, but now it was only the winter month — a whole new year had still to be gotten through.
"Not a constable no more, Master. I quit." Tang Dun grinned with honest guile: "And it ain't early. The Academy's that hard to get into — don't I gotta prepare ahead of time? I thought it over. This time I'm gonna smash my pots and sink the boat. It's gotta work!"
"...Staking everything on one throw?"
"That's it! That's the very one! Just goes to show — Master Jiang's a man of vision!" Tang Dun crowed, laying on the flattery thick, then rubbed his hands and turned the talk, awkward but firm: "Of all the folks I know, Master Jiang's the one with real skill. I was thinking, maybe Master Jiang could instruct me a spell by his side..."
"Not without a fee, not without a fee!" Even as he spoke, he drew a cloth bundle from his breast and peeled it apart, layer upon layer, to reveal a gleaming silver ingot, about ten taels of weight.
He stared at Jiang Chen with eyes wide: "Master..."
Perhaps he meant to look earnest, but he rather resembled a constable sizing up some notorious bandit of the waterways.
"Still a few months to the Academy assessment — have you found yourself lodgings yet?" Jiang Chen asked.
In matters such as this, either one agrees outright or declines outright; hesitation only wounds a man's face the sharper.
"Not yet, not yet. Soon as I got into town I went round asking after you, sir — you're famous hereabouts!" Tang Dun thrust up a thumb and prattled on a good while, beaming, before adding: "I'll go find a place right away, right away!"
He pushed the silver toward Jiang Chen: "You take this for now, why don't you?"
Jiang Chen patiently folded the several layers of cloth back down over it: "Keep it for yourself. Rent in Maple City is no cheap matter. As it happens, from today I'll be teaching my sister the martial arts as well — come along and listen as you please. It costs no more effort to have another pair of ears."
He swung the courtyard gate shut behind him. "I'm off to buy breakfast now. Come along, why not? Meantime we can ask the neighbors roundabout if there's any suitable place for you."
"Glad to!" Tang Dun hefted his great bundle onto his back and followed, all eagerness.
The man was the honest, solid sort, and had besides that particular shrewdness peculiar to the plain-dealing — yet he inspired no dislike. Jiang Chen's impression of him was not a poor one. And perhaps, too, some small part of it was owed to that little girl of his, of whom he had seen only her bones and her paintings.
In truth, there were spare rooms in the courtyard, plenty to house Tang Dun. But for one thing, their friendship had not yet reached such a pitch; for another, this home did not belong to Jiang Chen alone — An'an's feelings mattered too. He could not, without so much as asking how An'an would feel about it, simply let another person move in.
That had nothing whatever to do with the man's virtue or character. It had to do only with that sense of "home" Jiang Chen guarded so carefully.
...
The Moon-Gazing Tower.
The finest food and drink were all laid out, and even the several singing girls whom Fang Zesheng richly kept had been sent up to dance at the front of the hall.
Hosting Shen Nanqi today, Fang Lin spared no expense in the display.
Fang Lin smiled brilliantly, plying the wine cups again and again, while Shen Nanqi bore throughout the look of a man who had not yet properly woken.
"Come, Senior Brother Shen! This cup is my toast to you — steady climb and swift advancement, and may you soon take one of the top three places of this city!"
"No more wine." Shen Nanqi pressed a hand down over Fang Lin's cup, smiling inscrutably: "Soon enough."
Fang Lin started, then understood what Shen Nanqi meant, and turned the pause into a laugh: "And so it will be! With Senior Brother Shen's talent, how could it not come about soon?"
"Zhu Weiwo is about to leave for the State Dao Academy, and Wei Feng has slain so many practitioners of the heretical paths of late that he should be due for promotion." Shen Nanqi spun his own cup and narrowed his eyes: "So are you not soon to have your wish?"
There was no easy way to answer that.
"Say what you will, even as you are now, Senior Brother, you have the strength of an Academy top-three!" Fang Lin wore a sincere expression: "Others never saw the splendor of your slaying of the fierce beasts in the Three Mountain City region, but I saw it with my own eyes. To my mind, Senior Brother Shen, you are simply too unassuming. Else, of the fifth-years in that Three-City Trial all those years ago, besides Senior Brother Zhang Yuan, it should have been you!
You never took to the field yourself, and what came of it? Why, Lin Zhengren never raised a hand either, and a senior brother who did step up was beaten by that fellow Fu Baosong. Tell me, what kind of mess is that!"
"Junior Brother Lin, if you have something to say, just say it plainly." Shen Nanqi smiled as he looked at Fang Lin: "Keep heaping on praise like this and this senior brother of yours won't be able to bear it."
"I truly have nothing to petition you for, Senior Brother." Fang Lin moved his seat a little closer and said earnestly: "Every word I've said comes from the heart. My only reason for inviting you here today is plain admiration, and my gratitude for the care you showed me out in the Three Mountain City region."
"In that business at Three Mountain City, I accepted a payment, so there's nothing to thank." Shen Nanqi's lids lifted a fraction: "You've suddenly grown so attentive, yet ask nothing of me. Could it be... you wish to befriend me?"
"If you, Senior Brother, would deign to look on me with favor, the honor would be mine!" Fang Lin looked quite delighted: "I may be of modest ability, but the House of Fang, after all, is one of the three great surnames of Maple City — it can always spare some support for Senior Brother Shen's cultivation!"
Shen Nanqi laughed: "He Lin, you speak plainly, so I shall speak plainly too."
He leaned back into his chair: "The you of old, I would have disdained to befriend."
Fang Lin nodded along, smiling: "I certainly knew nothing of propriety back then."
"But the you of now..." Shen Nanqi said: "I dare not befriend you."
Fang Lin's smile froze fast.
"Tell me," asked Shen Nanqi, "do you have any idea whom you now resemble?"
"Whom?"
"To be precise, you are merely straining to imitate something external." Shen Nanqi rose to his feet and clapped him on the shoulder: "Fang Heng."
That done, he walked off on his own. "Save me the friendship, then. If it's business you want, I can still be found."
In those days at the Outer Academy, Shen Nanqi had been one of the senior brothers who had thought rather well of Fang Heng. It was also for that reason that the House of Fang had been able to get a line on him in the first place.
"Go slow, Senior Brother Shen!" Fang Lin nonetheless squeezed out a smile at his retreating back.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
The sound of footsteps descending faded into the distance.
The singing and dancing had ceased at some point unknown.
The expression slowly drained from Fang Lin's face. He rose abruptly and sent the whole table crashing to the floor!
There was a shadow that had long hung over his head, one he had thought long since torn away.
He had put in no end of effort, and torn away layer after layer of it.
Only in the end did he discover that it was the whole of the night itself.
And that cannot be torn away.