~~~

To Feng Zhi’s credit, his Qi does not flare up.

If that were to happen, everyone in the party would notice, and dealing with this quietly would no longer be an option. Scandal would be sure to follow, and even that might be an optimistic outcome. The Young Master of the Eternal Flame Clan must not be seen raging through the streets and causing chaos like some common dog.

However, Feng Zhi’s Qi not flaring out of control does not mean that Feng Zhi isn’t angry. It means he is angry and in control of himself. Not a combination Liu Jin looks forward to dealing with, yet one he must. The moment Feng Zhi takes a single step towards Huang Shing’s Qi is the moment in which Liu Jin stands in his way.

“Young Master,” Liu Jin says, his arms spread wide, and his Qi lowered, “you cannot leave the party like this, and you cannot maim Huang Shing in the middle of the city.”

His words don’t seem to reach Feng Zhi’s ears. In fact, nothing seems to matter to Feng Zhi other than the fact that Liu Jin is standing in his way.

“You knew this would happen!” Feng Zhi hisses at him. Liu Jin flinches at the accusation.

“I thought it was a possibility,” Liu Jin admits, already aware of how bad that sounds. Fearing Feng Zhi might bolt at any moment, he rushes out his next words. “I warned him not to! I am not any happier about this happening than you are, Young Master.”

In a way, Huang Shing choosing to approach Yi Jiao right now is almost smart. Not only does the party give him a guaranteed opening, but it also makes it unwise for Feng Zhi to cause a scene.

Of course, pointing that out won’t make things better.

It certainly won’t stop Feng Zhi from glaring at him.

“Move,” Feng Zhi says.

Liu Jin tries to think of anything he can do or say to calm Feng Zhi down, but it’s all useless. Anything he can attempt will just make things worse. Feng Zhi will just interpret his actions as being part of some scheme.

Liu Jin sighs and steps out of the way.

Feng Zhi blurs and leaps out of the balcony. He does it silently. A small mercy, Liu Jin supposes.

Instead of chasing him, Liu Jin briskly walks back into the party and looks for Lu Mei. Luckily, he has no trouble finding her. Perhaps, she had been looking for him, thinking he had kept to himself long enough. It doesn’t matter. She realizes something is wrong the instant their eyes meet.

“What happened?” she asks, quickly walking over to him. Their hands make contact, and information is transmitted through their Qi instantly.

“Those idiots!” Her grip tightens around his hand. “What are we going to do?”

“Trust them to settle their issues without violence and interfere only if it is absolutely necessary.”

Lu Mei stares at him.

“You’re serious. You’re actually serious.”

“Senior Brother Mud could subdue them quickly and easily, but the people will notice the actions of a Heaven Realm cultivator. Horrifying as this may sound, we need to appeal to whatever they have that passes for maturity. Can you create a distraction so they won’t notice our absence?”

“I can stir up five different scandals, yes. That won’t stop these people from noticing a brawl breaking out in the middle of the street.”

“Let’s hope it won’t come to that.”

~~~

Liu Jin’s steps are silent as he crosses several streets in the blink of an eye. Feng Zhi has made contact with Huang Shing, and nothing is on fire yet. That is a good thing. At least, Liu Jin hopes that is a good thing.

Unlike other disciples, who either stayed in the flame-wheeled wagons or were hosted by the rich and influential families of Rumbling Thunder City, Feng Zhi was given an entire manor for his use. Most likely in recognition of his status as the Eternal Flame Clan’s Young Master.

Yi Jiao has been staying with him. As their stay in Rumbling Thunder City dragged on, Huang Shing’s patience must have hit his limit.

The walls around Feng Zhi’s manor are twelve feet tall. High enough to prevent people on the street from watching what goes inside, but still very easy for Liu Jin to leap over.

He lands in the courtyard. There is no need for him to do anything else.

“-utter fool! You will leave this place at once!”

“I am not moving from this place until you let me talk to Yi Jiao!”

It is all happening in front of him. Or perhaps, he should say it is unraveling? No, it is not that bad yet. Feng Zhi and Huang Shing are screaming at each other’s faces, but at least they are doing it out of everyone’s sight. He can see Feng Zhi’s servant standing further back and Yi Jiao further back still.

What is there for him to say here?

He is Huang Shing’s friend, and he is a Core Disciple of the Eternal Flame Clan. However, that doesn’t mean anything here. No matter how he looks at it, he’s an outsider who doesn’t know anything.

Liu Jin looks at Yi Jiao. The girl’s face is pale. Her horrified brown eyes dart constantly between Feng Zhi and Huang Shing as if unable to believe the reality before her.

He clears his throat.

Nothing happens the first time. The argument between Feng Zhi and Huang Shing continues. Liu Jin clears his throat once more, and another time still. Each time is louder than the previous one. By the fourth time, he adds a loud, rasping cough to go along with it.

That does it.

Huang Shing and Feng Zhi turn towards him as if they are only just now noticing he is there.

“Brother Jin!”

“Qing Jin!”

Perhaps, they are.

“I realize I have no right to say anything here, so please forgive my impertinence,” Liu Jin says, bowing his head. “It occurs to me that there is one person who is not saying anything right now.”

He glances at Yi Jiao, and Feng Zhi growls. “Do you think it’s up to you to dictate what we do?”

“No, Young Master,” Liu Jin says, shaking his head. That seems to catch Feng Zhi by surprise. “It is not up to me to do anything right now.”

He points to Yi Jiao.

“It is up to her.”

Yi Jiao looks at him as though she were a rabbit who had just been yanked out of her burrow and exposed to the harsh light of day. Her eyes are as wide as dinner plates, and her white-knuckled hands clutch at her robes. Her Qi bristles in an almost animalistic fashion.

“It’s her choice whether she wishes to speak or not,” Liu Jin says, his voice perfectly resigned.

Feng Zhi grits his teeth but says nothing. Huang Shing looks pleadingly at Yi Jiao, who tries her hardest to avoid his eyes. Feng Zhi’s servant does not move an inch or say a word. She might as well be another decoration in the garden. Liu Jin finds himself envying her quite a bit.

For several breaths, no one says or does anything. The courtyard is so completely silent that not even a single cricket dares to make a sound.

“I…I think…” Yi Jiao’s voice is soft and full of hesitation. She lets go of her robe and takes a deep, shuddering breath. This time her words come out firmer. “I think I need to speak with Shing.”

Feng Zhi’s reaction is immediate. “But he-”

“Don’t!” Yi Jiao looks at him with pleading eyes. “I have put this off long enough. I need to speak to him.” Her gaze sweeps over them. “Alone.”

It’s Feng Zhi’s turn to look conflicted. His face might as well have been made out of stone, but the way his Qi swirls around him says it all. Once again, everyone is left to wait with bated breath.

“Very well,” Feng Zhi says.

~~~

Brother Jin, the jerk Feng Zhi, and Feng Zhi’s servant all leave the courtyard. After such a long time, Huang Shing is face-to-face with Yi Jiao. Her hair is longer and her cultivation has grown. She looks more like a woman than before, yet she is still the same Yi Jiao he laughed and played with as a kid. His once closest friend. The girl he had been engaged to marry.

He has no idea what to say.

She is mere feet away from him, but the words will not come. He has fought and bled for this moment. He’d been ready to fight Feng Zhi to the bitter end to rescue her, but now…

Nothing is happening like he thought it would.

“I’m-”

“I’m sorry!”

Yi Jiao’s blurted apology silences him completely. Yi Jiao has never been the sort of girl who gets scared easily, yet ever since he came here, he has seen nothing but fear in her eyes. He’d thought she had been scared of Feng Zhi coming back. However, Feng Zhi has left, and her fear remains.

It begins to occur to him that it is not Feng Zhi she is afraid of.

“You’re sorry?” He echoes. A laugh leaves his mouth. It’s not a happy one. “What are you sorry for? That Feng bastard came to the city and took you! I should be the one saying sorry! I’m the one who couldn’t stop him! That’s why… I traveled for so long. That’s why I trained so much! I wanted…I needed to make it right!”

His voice rises and lowers without his control. It is the look on Yi Jiao’s face that does it. Because she shouldn’t ever look like she does right now. It is wrong, and somehow, he has a feeling it is because of him.

“And… And I joined the Eternal Flame Clan, but I couldn’t find you,” Huang Shing continues. “And when I did, you didn’t look hurt or abused. You were just there.”

He waves his arm in her direction. The motion comes out weak and tired. It is like he has suddenly lost all his energy. He can’t even muster the will to speak anymore. He just waits until she says something. Anything.

“Feng Zhi didn’t take me that day.”

Anything but that.

“Of course he did!” Huang Shing shouts. “That’s what-”

“No!” Yi Jiao cuts him off. “That’s what it looked like. That’s… that’s what we made it look like.”

“What you made it look like?” Huang Shing echoes. “That doesn’t make any sense. You’re not making any sense, Jiao!”

“Just…Just listen to me! Please!” Yi Jiao begs, holding up her hands. “Do you remember the day our engagement was announced?”

“Of course I do,” Huang Shing replies. “We had gone to the river to play and came back covered in mud. They had to delay the ceremony so the servants could clean and change us.”

“And after that, we never played in the river again,” Yi Jiao says. “They wouldn’t let us. Everything changed that day. You weren’t just my friend anymore. You were my fiancé. We couldn’t go see each other whenever we wanted. We couldn’t be alone. Someone had to be looking over our shoulders all the time. It was such a hassle you rarely visited anymore.”

Huang Shing winces.

“I’m not blaming you!” She immediately adds. “I stopped trying to visit you too. That’s my point! Everyone kept talking about how great and significant our union was, but all it was was suffocating!”

Yi Jiao breathes heavily as if she had just finished a difficult fight. It does Huang Shing good to see some of her old fire, but he wishes it wasn’t in this context.

“I didn’t want it,” she tells him. “I didn’t want any of it. And I liked you, but I didn’t want to marry you, Shing. That only became more clear to me as the months passed.”

She says it softly, her tone almost apologetic, yet Huang Shing feels as if she had driven all the air out of his lungs with a vicious blow.

“Then Feng Zhi arrived one day. I’m apparently pretty talented, you know? Scarlet Miraculous Body, he called it. He said it was a trait that would do well in the Eternal Flame Clan.”

“So that’s why he took you,” Huang Shing hisses. Yi Jiao shakes her head sadly.

“He didn’t take me, Shing. He offered me to go with him, and I agreed.”

“You a-agreed?” Huang Shing shouts, incredulous. “That doesn’t make any sense! I remember that day! Feng Zhi claimed he was taking you! Your family tried to object! If you agreed, then what was that day?”

“It was necessary!” Yi Jiao shouts back. “If I had just left and canceled our engagement, my family and yours would have lost face. Their relationship would have been left strained! It would look like my family spit on their faces and claimed they weren’t good enough. However, if the Young Master of the Eternal Flame Clan acted on his own, then it couldn’t be helped. Those below the big four have to do as the big four say. That’s the way of things.”

“So what?” Huang Shing holds his head and laughs hysterically. “The whole thing was an act? I thought you were being kidnapped! Your whole family thought you were being kidnapped!”

“I was going to explain things!” Yi Jiao raises her voice, but no amount of shouting can stop him from seeing the misery and guilt on her face. “I sent a letter in secret to my family explaining everything later. There was also one for you but...” She covers her face with her hands. “You weren’t there anymore. Why weren’t you there anymore?”

“Because I was looking for you!” Huang Shing shouts. “What did you expect me to do?”

“Not try to challenge the entire Eternal Flame Clan?!” Yi Jiao shouts back. “Who does that? And don’t even tell me it’s because you love me! You had eyes for every pretty girl in the city but me, and that was a good thing! So why!”

“I’m dumb, okay!” Huang Shing shouts. “I get that! I have been getting it since I left Soaring Cloud City. But you’re still my best friend! Of course, I was going to try to save you.”

He hates how small and weak his voice sounds, and he hates how Yi Jiao looks at him. Hates how miserable she looks. Hates how much pity there is on her face.

“I wanted to tell you as soon as I learned you were in the Eternal Flame Clan,” Yi Jiao says, looking down. “But I kept putting it off. Then you left for Night Phantasm City, and I told myself I’d tell you when you returned. I didn’t, and you left for the Dead Plains. And once again, I told myself, I’d tell you when you returned… But I didn’t. I couldn’t bring myself to face you. I’m sorry. For everything.”

Huang Shing doesn’t say anything.

“Please, say something.”

“I… I need to think,” he tells her, quickly walking away before she can call out to him.

At least, he’d like to think she would have called out to him if he had been any slower. His ego needs at least that much right now.

Huang Shing does not remember walking out of the manor, but he must have because he and Qing Jin are suddenly standing outside its gates. The look on Qing Jin’s face makes it clear he heard it all.

“Do you want a drink?” Qing Jin asks him. It’s so unexpected that it draws a laugh out of him.

“Shouldn’t you be at the party impressing all the important people?” Huang Shing asks.

Liu Jin crosses his arms. “You’re more important right now.”

“Sister Mei won’t like hearing you say things like that,” Huang Shing jokes. Liu Jin doesn’t smile. Doesn’t even give him one of those small smiles Brother Hong likes complaining about. Huang Shing sighs. “It’s okay, Brother Jin.”

“Are you sure?”

“It’s fine.” Huang Shing playfully punches his shoulder. “I need to be alone right now. Don’t worry. I’ll be fine.”

Getting up has always been something he is good at.

Huang Shing walks into the night.

~~~