I spun the mask Mountain Monster made me in my hand and then reversed its direction whenever I reached the nose.
Notwithstanding Lass Yu taking the letter back then, Huofeng didn’t seem to be informed. I thought nobody gave me a response because Wutong Jin Yuxuan didn’t think it was good for their image. Besides, there was no reason to inform the public of our engagement or cancellation since we never announced it to the public.
Did Lass Yu never hand the letter over to her shifu? If not, why did she not? How can I find fault with her when she worked hard to hide it from everyone despite being a bad liar?
Asking Lass Yu whether or not she liked me was also a question I asked myself. From the perspective of a man, I didn’t want to her to marry some random man not worthy of her. From my perspective, though, she wasn’t what Young Shiyi was to me. She wasn’t what General Manager Bai, Princess Hongzhuang or even Princess Jingan was to me.
I liked Lass Yu but not entirely in the romantic sense. For me, she was a younger sister. She was never good at expressing herself, while I never thought about marrying anyone when we were engaged. If I had to illustrate it, I’d say half of the pie was sibling love, two fifths were a shifu and disciple relationship, and the remaining three fifths were romantic. The thought of proposing again did cross my mind when I heard how much she went through to search for me. At the end of the day, having said all that, I didn’t believe it was fair on either of us if I married her just because I was touched. I couldn’t even answer whether or not I liked her enough to take responsibility for her feelings.
My meal with Yu Feiyuan didn’t last long, yet I recalled so many things related to her that I never imagined I would stay in my memories, albeit them being vaguer than I expected once I saw them. All of a sudden, the only image I saw was the young girl tagging along behind me, smiling sweetly whenever she saw me and calling out, “Brother Ming.” My jolting heart beat snapped me out of my memories, but it also left me questioning an assertion I was so confident about before: is she really just a sister to me?
Xia’er also calls me “Brother” and is a younger sister to me, so why don’t I feel this way about her? I felt this rhythm in my chest once over ten years ago and then again with Young Shiyi. What does Lass Yu want to tell me?
I suddenly heard Lass Yu’s footsteps closing in on me.
I thought she left. Is it time for us to meet again?
I looked down to the mask spinning in my hand.
***
By the time Yu Feiyuan returned to Dragon Phoenix Inn, the room she was in before was booked out, showing business was booming.
Yu Feiyuan’s intelligence gathering abilities were classified as despairingly bad. She’d reveal who she was and what her goal was without being asked, so the person she questioned wouldn’t even have a question to ask.
Yu Feiyuan asked people if they saw Ming Feizhen, a young man with white hair, which provided her confusing or incomprehensible answers from the first floor. Only those with horse feathers to spit would try answering, only for someone to warn, “She’s Hangzhou’s Metal Yu Feiyuan, you dunce.” Nobody from the unorthodox sects who recognised her name and track record would challenge her.
Refusing to resign herself to defeat, Yu Feiyuan found a pretty girl on the second who she took a liking to and the latter called over.
“Y-you are Heroine Yu?”
“This great one is, indeed, Yu Feiyuan.”
Su Xiao’s head titled upon hearing “this great one”. Nonetheless, he composed himself to inquire, “How can I help you?”
Knowing Su Xiao worked at Dragon Phoenix Inn, Yu Feiyuan assumed the former was Ming Feizhen’s friend and smiled: “Have you seen Ming Feizhen?”
Su Xiao pouted: “Aren’t you going to marry him? You don’t know where your husband is?”
“We are not going to marry.”
“I saw the letter you junior sent.”
“That is a misunderstanding. It does not count as I have not seen him.”
“It is effective once you see him?”
“I don’t know, either. I just really want to see him. Has he come back?”
“… Trying to find him is like trying to predict which way a leaf will blow and when.” Su Xiao walked off immediately after answering.
Because of Su Xiao’s visage, Yu Feiyuan felt impelled to follow him: “Please wait. Can you tell me if he is back yet?”
So annoying! I’m not telling! … Is it right for me to do this? She’s his fiancée and my sister-in-law.
Su Xiao was inflamed upon realising he’d have to address Yu Feiyuan as “sister-in-law” and kept walking, only to stop when he thought back on how Ming Feizhen taught him martial arts, literacy, how to crack cases, find thinks and shared survival experience in the pugilistic world.
Maybe… Big Brother Ming really likes her.
Su Xiao stopped in his tracks and then slowly raised an arm, pointing up to the third floor: “… He’s upstairs in that room.”
Beaming, Yu Feiyuan replied, “Thank you, Miss,” then strode off with big steps.
Su Xiao, recovering from a trip down the staircase, yelled, “Wait, I’m a guy!”
***
Unlike the intimidating sound audible whenever Yu Feiyuan’s iron boots tapped the ground, her heart beat with joy. She wasted no time putting together all the things she had to stay to push open the doors, but the empty table and rows of wine jars wiped away her smile.
Does he… still not want to see me?
Yu Feiyuan trembled despite the window preventing the cold from invading the room. Upon feeling a gust of wind behind her, she instinctively pivoted to throw a palm strike. The man strafed to his left to avoid getting caught. Yu Feiyuan spun one hundred and eighty degrees to face the man front on and then struck again. The man shielded himself with an arm, wobbling a little upon taking it on his arm. She immediately knew how dangerous he was if he could still stand after taking a hard attack from her, consequently mounting another attack.
“Elder?!”
The elder threw unbridled strikes aimed at fatal locations on Yu Feiyuan’s body. She ramped up her output with each successive block and then countered with her own palm thrust after defusing ten strikes, throwing it with three times the output of her initial strike. Yu Feiyuan gradually increased her output, yet she didn’t need to max out even after fifteen exchanges.
When Yu Feiyuan threw another straight thrust, the elder drew a circle in front of him, decelerating the force from her strike. The two pulled back under control so that they wouldn’t be hurt by the impact or recoil. She no longer needed his help to defuse the force of her attack in order to prevent hurting herself.
Sporting a subtle grin, he said, “This standard stands at the top in Jiangnan. No wonder why you’re invincible in Jiangnan. Wutong Jin Yuxuan’s best fighter will change in a few more years.”
The voice, tone and contents effortlessly took Yu Feiyuan on a trip down memory lane.
“Y-you…”
“You’ve finally learnt to withdraw your attacks instead of just firing them now. You’ve also managed to combine the right dose of relaxation and rigidity, not to mention the purity of your internal strength. How hard did you train?”
Yu Feiyuan pulled her extended arm back and threw herself onto his chest, locking her arms around his back. She looked up into his eyes and tearfully uttered, “Brother Feizhen, it’s you, it’s you.”
Ming Feizhen pulled off his mask and wiped the tears that he always knew would flow from her eyes when they met again and then brushed her hair aside. With a tender chuckle, he said, “Yes, it’s me, Lass.”
