Winter came way too quickly for anyone's comfort, and before long the ground was covered in a carpet of snow.
As a rule, winter always signified the start of the holidays for the disciples of the Mist Oasis, since it preceded the arrival of a new year.
And so, soon it was time for the disciples' final activity before lessons officially ended for the year- The Patrol.
The disciples were usually put in pairs for this exercise- one junior and one senior. Each pair was given a place within the Pan sect's territory to scout for anything worthy of concern, and to make sure that the common people got to spend new year's in peace.
The junior disciples were handed tokens during their last lessons, tokens which they could use to find their partners.
On the very important D-Day, Yingyue did what she often did on more than ninety percent of the Mist Oasis' important days- she arrived awfully late.
The result of this was that she found the takeoff point devoid of any people. She stood in the shade of her favorite apple tree and looked around frantically,as if doing so would somehow turn back time.
"Geez!"she exclaimed"did everyone honestly leave me behind?".
With a sigh, she took out her token,a small, flat silver square with the number nineteen written on it.
"Did my partner leave too?"she mumbled "it's a real pity that I wasn't paired with Jiejie. She would have definitely waited for me".
She stood uncertainly for a while, wondering if she was supposed to head out on her own or return to her room. Returning to her room definitely sounded like the more attractive option, but she was pretty sure she could get punished for that. Ditching responsibility was against the Mist Oasis' rules.
"Now what am I supposed to do?"she spoke aloud with an overdone sigh, looking up at the juicy fruits as if she expected them to throw an answer or two down to her.
"Looks like I've found myself in quite the tight spot. All of this could have been prevented if only my partner had waited for me. I swear if I get my hands on that meanie I'm going to give them a really large piece of my mind...".
"Will you, really?".
Yingyue paused,then turned in absolute surprise.
"Shixiong! Fancy seeing you here! You aren't part of the patrol?".
Yuchen could not help a lift of his left eyebrow. Instead of answering, he raised a token for her to see. Yingyue's eyes met the number on it, and widened.
"You?! But...".
"Waiting for you can get tiring. Let's go, we're already behind schedule".
And he actually started leaving!
"Shixiong, wait!"she literally had to run after him.
Unexpectedly, he did wait for her to catch up before walking on.
"Where were you?"she asked.
He waved his hand in a vague gesture that meant he had not been anywhere in particular.
"You kept me waiting!"she huffed.
Yuchen gave an inscrutable look, his expression steely-blank.
"Sorry, sorry"she waved both hands,a nervous smile on her lips"it was I who kept you waiting, I know. Sorry".
Their destination happened to be the very same Lan village where the A-list had slain Du.
"It's so peaceful here"Yingyue breathed as they hiked rather leisurely through the place.
It really was, so much so that it was pretty hard to believe that this place had been under attack by one of the most dangerous beasts in the cultivation world just months ago.
There was a quiet cheer in the air, even with most of the people indoors due to the onset of winter.
Yuchen watched her carefully for any signs of the sorrow that had been emanating from her the last time he spoke to her, but the girl had obviously regained her usual happiness. And more importantly, she was acting like herself again, finding delight in the smallest things and regarding even the most unremarkable things with open glee.
When they came across a lone daisy shivering as if from the cold, she plucked it and inserted it into her hair.
"How do I look, Shixiong?".
Beautiful.
The word came to him instantly, surprising him. The Yingyue from the lantern festival had disappeared as soon as the day ended, and the one before him wore no makeup,or ribbons,or jewelry. In fact, her hair was back to its messy single braid.
But for some reason, she looked just as ravishing.
"The flower will die in no time,"he said"you should have left it alone".
Her eyes went wide, and she blinked twice, covering her mouth in alarm.
"Oh no,"she gasped"I didn't think of that".
Balling her hands into fists at her sides, she pressed her lips into a thin, musing line.
"Well,"she said at last"even if I had left it alone, it wouldn't have survived the winter anyway. So, fair enough, right?".
Yuchen could not believe that she had put so much thought into his offhand statement, and was amazed to find that it felt really heartwarming.
"Shixiong, look!"she exclaimed, standing before some snowcapped shrubs"don't they remind you of milky cakes?".
Yuchen looked at the shrubs and back at her, wondering where she even got the idea.
With a light giggle, she swept the snow from the plants into the air... towards him.
Stunned, Yuchen lifted an arm to his face, his fluttering baby blue sleeves fortunately shielding him from the cold white fluffs of frozen water.
But what he saw next left him completely bedazzled. Yingyue's smile was radiant, with a childlike twinkle in her luminous black jade eyes. Flecks of snow sparkled in the sun-washed air around her, surrounding her alluring face with lovely little lights and coercing answering shimmers from the flower in her hair.
This was an image that would imprint itself permanently on Yuchen's memory forever.
And in that enchanting moment, he decided, albeit unconsciously, that he definitely loved her messy hair.
They concluded their patrol of Lan village without spotting anything out of the ordinary, and were almost on their way back when Yingyue squealed and tugged at his sleeve.
"Shixiong, look!".
He looked, only to see something totally commonplace and definitely not worth the fuss- a dumpling place.
"What's so special about it?"he could not help asking.
"They have dumplings!"she announced,as if it was supposed to be something awe-inspiring.
"It's just what I was craving"she added, already heading off in that direction.
Seeing no harm in it,Yuchen followed.
Minutes later, they sat together at a table with heaped plates before them. Yingyue's eyes were full of stars as she rubbed her hands together, almost salivating.
The dumplings were small enough to indicate that they were to be eaten with chopsticks, and stuffed with pork floss and mung bean.
They tucked in without further ado, with Yingyue eating more than twice the quantity her Shixiong did. While she had a most hearty appetite, this was largely due to the fact that Yuchen did not even eat much to begin with.
"Really, it's a miracle that you aren't scrawny, Shixiong,"Yingyue said, leaning across the table to pluck a dumpling from his plate with her chopsticks"you really should eat more".
Yuchen did not point out to her that her words were seriously contradicting her actions at the moment, neither did he tell her that he had actually been trained to go without food for days.
Instead, he contented himself with watching her munch away with gusto. Soon enough, her plate was empty.
"Ahh..."she sighed with contentment, leaning forward on her elbows and propping both chins up on her palms.
Only then did Yuchen realize that he had not been eating.
"Hey, Shixiong..."she began,then paused and tilted her head"Shixiong? Isn't that a little too formal? You and I have been through enough already, side by side. I certainly shouldn't call you something so stiff. What do you think?".
Yuchen did not know what to say to her.
Fortunately, she was not really been expecting an answer. She mused on.
"Hmm...Yu-ge?Yu-gege?"she considered,then snapped her fingers as she made her choice "I got it! A-Chen!".
Yuchen's chopsticks froze in the act of picking a dumpling, and he looked up in astonishment. She couldn't possibly be serious, right?
But as it turned out, she was.
"Eat up so we can leave,"she grinned"A-Chen".
*
*
*
"Ouch!"Yingyue grumbled, rubbing her left elbow.
"What is it?"Chao asked immediately.
"My joints ache. This always happens when the weather is so cold".
"You should have covered up,then"Haoran said dismissively, throwing a berry into his mouth.
It was dinnertime, but Yingyue was finding it very difficult to enjoy her dumpling soup.
"I did cover up!"she snapped"it just has an annoying way of sneaking into my bones".
"What can we do?"Chao mused.
"Who's 'we'?"Haoran retorted"her problems aren't yours".
Surprisingly, Chao ignored him.
"I have an idea, A-Yue".
"Really?"she brightened up, massaging her left fingers"let me hear it".
"There's this warm spring...".
"She isn't allowed in there"Haoran cut in.
"Where?"Yingyue asked eagerly.
"Well... you aren't allowed to use it since it's strictly for members of the Pan clan only, but if you can make it in and out without anyone noticing,all should be well"Chao replied.
"Someone's been having a bad influence on him"Haoran said, glaring pointedly at Yingyue.
Yingyue ignored him.
"A warm spring, you said?".
"Yes. If you meditate inside its waters, you should get healed".
"It heals?".
"Well, not exactly. Just soothes all kinds of pain and aches with immediate effect".
"Sounds cool. How do I find it?".
Finding the warm spring turned out to be a challenge, even with Chao's detailed directions. By the time she spotted it, poor Yingyue's bones were in agony.
Without delay, she stripped to her undergarments and, fearing discovery,hid her clothes properly among the rosebushes.
Then she slid into the water.
It was pleasantly, caressingly warm,its wide expanse silver in the moonlight. Maybe the fact that it was a large body of water should have scared her, but it didn't. Instead, the water felt like a friend, and she could already feel it kissing away the aches from her joints.
She relaxed further until her head disappeared under the surface, taking special care not to fall asleep.
The next many minutes were spent in one of her fantastic daydreams while the pain and discomfort vanished from her body. That was probably why she failed to realize that she had company until she lifted her head above the water and nearly screamed as her eyes fell on broad shoulders and a wide back that tapered down to a rather slender waist.
Fortunately, the other person was facing the opposite direction and could not see her.
Still, it would only be a matter of time before she was discovered.
What a messy situation! Yingyue thought she might cry. Suddenly, she noticed something she had miraculously missed.
The scars.
Whip scars crisscrossed each other all over his back, and finding a single unscarred patch of skin was simply impossible. Yingyue had never seen anything so brutal in her entire life.
The horrified gasp was out before she could stop it, and in that split second before he turned to look at her, she realized who he was.
Pan Yuchen.