Chapter 27

On a sudden impulse, Jiang Yu rocked up on her toes, hands behind her back, smiling up at him. “In that case, how about this, I’ll provide the materials, and Junior Brother refines an artifact just like it for me?”
Shen Anzhi’s gaze flicked to her palm, a vague discomfort pricking at his chest. “Senior Sister truly knows no shame.”
“Of course not. You’re my junior brother.” Jiang Yu said it as if it were the most natural thing in the world. “And I won’t make you work for free. However many spirit stones you want, I can pay.”
“…”
For once, Shen Anzhi had no immediate retort. What startled him even more was that his first instinct had not been to refuse.
His fingers spun the copper coin faster. He glanced sideways at her. “If you still have the strength to say all that, you might want to stop the bleeding first. Is Senior Sister planning to bleed herself dry?”
Only then did Jiang Yu look properly at her palm, and, belatedly, the pain hit hard enough to pull a hiss from her. Out of the corner of her eye she peeked at Shen Anzhi. His steps slowed; he looked over, and as soon as he noticed her gaze, turned his head away as if nothing had happened.
Jiang Yu shuffled closer in small steps. Before she even spoke, he’d already stopped walking. She smiled, lips curving. “Junior Brother, it really hurts. It’s a bit hard to bandage on my own.”
“Senior Sister wants me to…”
He turned slightly, looking back at her. His gaze dropped to the torn flesh of her palm. His hand circled her wrist as he lifted it, dark eyes tightening at the sight of that bright red gash.
Under that stare, Jiang Yu’s guilty conscience prickled. She swallowed and lowered her head.
Hopefully he wouldn’t figure anything out.
Her voice went soft and muffled. “Mm.”
Shen Anzhi leaned in a fraction; his breathing hitched for a heartbeat before he forced his hands to stay gentle. His voice dropped. “Why slice open your palm?”
Jiang Yu bit her lower lip. “I just… slipped and cut myself, Junior Brother.”
Even like this he was suspicious. Truly, it was so very Shen Anzhi.
Half-convinced at best, he let go long enough to pour powder over the wound, then lifted his brows and met her eyes, his gaze drifting over the sweep of her lashes.
The angle of the cut ran from outside to in, the hilt pointed toward herself, obviously a wound made by her own hand. As for why, Shen Anzhi truly couldn’t fathom it. His fingers brushed absently over the neat bones of her wrist.
“Don’t be this ‘careless’ again,” he said with a quiet hum, and still finished bandaging it for her, tying off the wrap with a neat little bow.
“Junior Brother, your butterfly knots are getting more and more polished,” Jiang Yu said quickly, jumping to a safer topic. She toyed with the fresh bow on her palm, dimples showing as she smiled.
“If you have eyes, you can learn,” Shen Anzhi replied lazily. His tone was all nonchalance; he didn’t even lift his lids, and yet out of the corner of his eye he had already taken in her bright smile and gone briefly, faintly dazed. He coughed once. “It’s simple.”
Jiang Yu remembered that first time, and her eyes crinkled. “Then why did you look twice before?”
Shen Anzhi’s little finger hooked the tail of the bowstring. He lowered his voice. “Because… I thought Senior Sister was rather interesting.”
Jiang Yu let out a soft, speechless laugh. “Of course I’m interesting.”
They hadn’t gone much farther before the mountain path opened up at a bend. The sound of clear water reached their ears, a narrow, cold green stream cutting quietly through the rocks.
Jiang Yu’s gaze had only just left the water when a thin, plaintive chirp pricked her ears. The two of them turned; a ball of messy fluff was huddled by the roots of a nearby tree, a tiny bird chick trembling as it uselessly flapped its undeveloped wings.
After a moment’s thought, she turned to the young man beside her. “Junior Brother, there’s a little bird right there. Its nest is up in the tree… could you put it back for me?”
Shen Anzhi’s glance fell, flat and disinterested, on the shivering chick. Arms folded, he looked back at her instead. “The strong prey on the weak. That’s the law of nature. Since it’s fallen into the dust, that’s simply its fate. Why fight it?”
“But isn’t running into us also its fate?”
Jiang Yu dropped into a squat, crimson skirt spilling over the damp earth like petals. She tipped her face up, head cocked as her butterfly hairpin chimed faintly, and gently cupped the trembling scrap of life between her hands, offering it to him. “Junior Brother, be kind. Save it, just this once?”
She admitted, even to herself, that it was something of a gamble.
Shen Anzhi’s brows drew together briefly. In her eyes, bright like rippling water, his own shadow stared back at him, dark and small.
“I can’t,” he said at length. His gaze lingered on the chick’s downy feathers and the slight, odd angle of its wing. “It… won’t want me near it.”
“Hm?”
He was explaining, but the explanation sounded… wrong.
“Try it and see.”
He didn’t even need to touch it. The moment his hand came within a palm’s width of the chick, it broke into frantic, shrill screaming, as if it meant to shred its tiny throat.
Jiang Yu jerked in fright and snatched it back. “Are you all right?”
Something like helplessness flickered through his eyes. He turned away, arms still folded, walking a few paces toward the trees. His lashes lifted once as he cast her a sidelong look.
Did that bird just… despise him?
The corner of Jiang Yu’s mouth twitched, and she quickly bit back a smile. She scrambled up the gnarled trunk, using hands and feet, and carefully deposited the scruffy chick back into its nest.
A clear, sharp cry rang out overhead. Jiang Yu looked up, eyes brightening. “It’s back!”
The mother bird circled anxiously several times, then finally forced itself to dive. A streak of grey dropped like an arrow, sharp beak jabbing straight at Jiang Yu’s crown and forehead.
Jiang Yu ducked her head, hugging her hands over her hair as leaves and wings thrashed around her. “Stop pecking! I’m not stealing your baby, I swear!”
“Senior Sister, jump down,” Shen Anzhi called, brows ticking up as he watched the flash of scarlet atop the branches.
She was so keen to be kind, she didn’t care in the least whether she got hurt.
Jiang Yu pushed off with the tips of her toes, trusting him completely. Her red figure lifted like a butterfly, gliding down through the air. As the rush of freefall swept through her, arms suddenly cinched tight around her waist, the circling wind cut off by a solid, warm chest.
She smashed lightly into him, forehead bumping his shoulder.
Right by her ear, his heart hammered, steady, yet too fast, nearly drowning out her own uneven breathing. She could have sworn she heard the quickest ghost of a sigh, threaded with something complicated, before it vanished so fast she wondered if she’d imagined it.
The arm clamped around her waist tightened for a heartbeat.
“You can open your eyes now,” Shen Anzhi murmured, looking down at the girl in his arms. His Adam’s apple bobbed.
Jiang Yu’s lashes trembled as she blinked them open, coming face-to-face with his jaw. “Junior Brother, you can put me down.”
He didn’t move. She braced a hand on his shoulder and lifted herself slightly. “Junior Brother…”
“I heard you.”
The muscles along his arm went taut; he lowered her carefully to the ground, then angled his body to slip a half-step away as if nothing had happened.
Jiang Yu steadied herself, smoothing her rumpled skirt. Her gaze slipped over him with frank curiosity. “Do all the birds and beasts keep their distance from you like that?”
Mist still clung to the stream. Shen Anzhi was silent for a moment, his profile blurred in the haze.
“...Not all,” he said at last, voice low and unreadable.
Jiang Yu rubbed her chin thoughtfully. As her eyes roamed, they caught on a patch of damp earth by the water, where a clump of long, supple green grass was growing, blades thin and pliant. Her eyes suddenly lit up.
“Junior Brother, wait here a moment!” she called. Before the words had finished, she was already jogging lightly down to the bank.
She crouched, comparing lengths with her fingers, then drew her dagger and neatly sliced off a few stalks. Pale green sap oozed from the cut ends, staining her fingertips.