A Walk

He Zhuoming suddenly addressed Tang Shuyu by his full name—his birth name, at that—catching him off guard.

While her constant "Lin Qingyun, Lin Qingyun" had been annoying before, the abrupt shift from "Lin Qingyun" to "Tang Shuyu" made him realize that wasn't necessarily a good thing either.

At the same time, Tang Shuyu's mind had already conjured the puppet's memories. Even though those words had been spoken by the puppet to He Zhuoming, once he retrieved it, that memory flowed naturally into his own, like a river merging into the sea.

In his brief review, it was indeed "himself" who had said such things to Xiao He.

He could also clearly feel "his own" malice and gloating toward him.

...Truly deserving of death. He shouldn't have created that thing in the first place; he should have strangled it while it was still a piece of wood.

Tang Shuyu pursed his lips and retorted sulkily, "And why should I apologize?"

He Zhuoming: "You said it yourself—you're someone who corrects his mistakes."

Tang Shuyu: "When did I ever say that?"

He Zhuoming: "You said it just now on the road—are you going to deny it?"

Tang Shuyu fell silent.

Honestly, hand on heart, Tang Shuyu didn't actually intend to deny it. He had asked that way because he genuinely didn't remember saying it. When he wasn't actively trying to recall something, he basically remembered nothing, not even his own words.

He Zhuoming misinterpreted his silence. She frowned first, then her eyes widened, and her face flushed with anger. "Those words you said on the road—were you just making them up randomly?!"

Tang Shuyu: "...No, not really."

He Zhuoming: "Then why won't you apologize to me? You deceived me with a fake name, said your name was Lin Qingyun—why did you lie to me?"

She was puffed up with indignation, but Tang Shuyu, observing her, felt the situation was a bit better than when he'd faked his death last time.

He defended himself: "Because you directly called me Lin Qingyun. I thought at the time that we'd soon part ways, so I didn't correct you... That's not really my fault!"

Tang Shuyu considered himself blameless—most of the time, even when he was wrong, he'd think he was right. And normally, no one bothered to correct him. Even if he pointed at a deer and called it a horse, everyone would just clap and praise what a fine horse it was.

But this was an exceptional case: He Zhuoming was staring at him with a completely deadpan expression.

Tang Shuyu played pitiful for a while, but He Zhuoming remained unmoved, still facing him with a very cold look.

After he finished spouting a bunch of twisted nonsense that muddled right and wrong, He Zhuoming said very firmly, "You were wrong! You shouldn't have lied to me from the start—apologize to me right now!"

"If you don't apologize, we're breaking up."

Tang Shuyu: "...Isn't it 'cutting ties'?"

He Zhuoming explained: "Friends cut ties. We're boyfriend and girlfriend, so we break up."

Tang Shuyu's mind turned, and he pressed on: "So it's basically the same thing, right?"

He Zhuoming clapped both hands together and slapped them hard against Tang Shuyu's face, leaving it stinging and numb; he couldn't help but hiss.

He Zhuoming said disapprovingly, "Don't try to change the subject. We're talking about how you made up a fake name to deceive me—honesty is the most important thing between people. I trusted you so much; how could you lie to me?"

Tang Shuyu obediently let her hold his face and didn't move. After a long moment, he muffled out, "...I'm sorry."

He Zhuoming: "You really know you were wrong, right?"

Tang Shuyu: "...Mm, I know."

He Zhuoming was satisfied and let go of Tang Shuyu's face.

In a way, she was quite easy to appease.

Tang Shuyu rubbed his heated cheeks, still mulling over the conversation—especially what He Zhuoming had said.

Friends cut ties. We're boyfriend and girlfriend, so we break up.

Tang Shuyu had no concept of dating, but he was smart enough, and he had glimpsed her vastly different hometown from He Zhuoming's dreams. With a little extrapolation, it wasn't hard to guess what "boyfriend and girlfriend" roughly meant.

Though he didn't know exactly when their relationship had progressed to this point—even after searching the puppet's memories, he hadn't found anything useful—once his mind caught up, he became happy in an instant.

He liked Xiao He, and having a specially close relationship with her was a good thing for him.

He Zhuoming was busy tidying up the large pile of hair ornaments she had just taken off.

Even though she had just criticized how ugly it looked to pile all those ornaments in her hair, that didn't mean the ornaments themselves were ugly.

Who wouldn't like pretty jewelry piled with gems? He Zhuoming decided that from now on, she'd wear one each day; she could even use the ornaments to count the days.

Tang Shuyu dragged his chair over slowly, resting his head on the table, and said, "I've apologized now, Xiao He—don't you have anything else to say to me?"

He Zhuoming thought for a moment, then asked, "Is it very late now?"

Tang Shuyu: "It's still early."

He Zhuoming immediately made her decision: "Then after I finish tidying up these things, let's go for a walk outside!"

Tang Shuyu blinked, still waiting for He Zhuoming to continue—but there was no continuation. She didn't even glance at Tang Shuyu, just focused entirely on sorting her shiny new ornaments.

Tang Shuyu couldn't help speaking first: "Xiao He, don't you have anything else to ask me?"

"I shattered into pieces all over the place yesterday, you know!"

He brought it up himself, which caught He Zhuoming off guard.

This time, she finally turned to look at Tang Shuyu, but her expression was bewildered. "I know you shattered into pieces yesterday... so what?"

Tang Shuyu wouldn't give up, hinting: "Think harder?"

Normal people wouldn't shatter like that, would they? I'm obviously not human. The flaw is so obvious—ask me more questions.

He Zhuoming sank into thought.

She strained to think, mull it over, stare at Tang Shuyu's face, using all her lifelong skill at reading expressions—He Zhuoming declared solemnly: "You said yourself yesterday that you cracked because of your own constitution, not because I pushed you. I'm not wrong, and I won't apologize to you."

Tang Shuyu burst out laughing.

He Zhuoming was baffled by his laughter. "What? I didn't tell a joke."

Tang Shuyu had already sat up straight, but after laughing himself tired, he slumped back onto the table, his curved eyes looking at He Zhuoming. "Xiao He, you—"

He Zhuoming: "What about me?"

Tang Shuyu wiped the tears of laughter from the corners of his eyes and said, "Forget it, it's nothing. Don't apologize then—it's not a big deal anyway."

After all, Xiao He stayed with him all day, so those things would never get a chance to touch her.

So there was no need to explain.

After He Zhuoming finished tidying up her ornaments and splashed some water on her face to refresh herself, she dragged Tang Shuyu out to stroll the streets.

Tang Shuyu took the opportunity to introduce things to her—the place they were in now was Moyi, the capital of the Xia Kingdom.

Ancient big cities were quite lively. There was no curfew, the roads were wide, divided into pedestrian lanes and carriage lanes, and the buildings on both sides were exquisitely constructed.

Lanterns hung everywhere, lighting up the night as bright as day. Gazing up into the dark sky, one could even make out the silhouette of the imperial palace in the distance; because the palace buildings were taller than any other structure, they were easy to spot.

The streets were crowded with people, the noise overwhelming. He Zhuoming grabbed Tang Shuyu's hand and instructed him, "Hold on tight, okay? We don't want to get separated in the crowd."

Tang Shuyu: "We won't get separated."

After a pause, he added, "Even if we do, I can find you..."

Before he could finish his sentence, He Zhuoming shouted excitedly that there was a performance up ahead—and dragged him into the denser part of the crowd.

Around an open space in the middle of the crowd, people were performing acrobatics—first fire-breathing, then someone lying on a bed of nails with a stone slab smashed on their chest.

A city kid like He Zhuoming had never seen anything like this. Her eyes went wide as saucers, and she even let go of Tang Shuyu's hand to clap enthusiastically.

Tang Shuyu let out a snort and couldn't be bothered to critique such lowbrow tricks—since He Zhuoming wasn't holding his hand, he crossed his arms.

Moyi was prosperous, with no shortage of talented and extraordinary people, so even this level of performance wasn't rare even for ordinary folk. The only one applauding and cheering was He Zhuoming.

The other onlookers' expressions were indifferent, and some were even jeering.

When the burly man doing the chest-smashing saw this, he flipped over, brushed the rubble off his body, and cupped his hands in apology to all directions. "It seems you are all well-traveled and knowledgeable. Our little tricks hardly deserve your attention. In that case, we have no choice but to bring out some of our real skills."

With that, he clapped his hands, and the young man who had been helping with the hammer pushed out a box covered in black cloth.

The burly man let out a loud shout, his voice landing like thunder, drawing everyone's attention—and at the same time, he yanked off the black cloth.

Inside was a transparent glass box, and lying crosswise in the box was a mermaid.

Gasps rose from all around. He Zhuoming grabbed Tang Shuyu's hand tightly. "A mermaid!"

Tang Shuyu: "Just a jiao fish."

His tone was indifferent, and he took half a step forward without a sound, positioning himself in front of He Zhuoming.

He Zhuoming was very curious: "Is it a real mermaid?"

Tang Shuyu: "It probably is."

Even though the glass box looked quite large, the mermaid's tail inside was enormous—at least two meters long—so it had to bend its knees and curl up just to fit its whole body inside, looking quite cramped.

The burly man picked up the hammer and knocked on the box with the handle—the whole glass box vibrated slightly, and the mermaid inside suddenly snapped its eyes open, its fat fish tail thrashing in the cramped space.

The box rattled from the struggle, and the crowd around gasped; the people in front tried to back away in fright while those behind tried to push forward, causing a brief commotion.

Tang Shuyu reached out and pulled He Zhuoming's shoulders, drawing her into his embrace. The surging, wave-like crowd was all blocked outside by Tang Shuyu's arm.

The chaos brought cries, and the surroundings were too noisy. He Zhuoming clung to Tang Shuyu's arm, tugging at his lapels.

Tang Shuyu understood, lowered his head, and brought his ear close, hearing He Zhuoming say, "That mermaid looks so pitiful—its scales are bleeding."

Tang Shuyu looked up and glanced at the glass box, then laughed helplessly.

He lowered his head again and leaned close to He Zhuoming's ear. "Xiao He, if your eyesight is that bad, let's stop by the pharmacy and get you some medicine later."

He Zhuoming: "My eyesight is great! Ever since I started cultivating seriously, I feel like my vision has improved a lot!"

Tang Shuyu reached out to press down on her head, but his hand paused mid-air—in the end, he chose to pinch He Zhuoming's face instead, turning her head toward the gently shaking glass box in the distance.

"Xiao He, take a closer look. What's on its tail is human blood, not mermaid blood. This is a jiao fish with cultivation. If it wanted to, it could crawl out and make a midnight snack out of you."

He Zhuoming couldn't believe it: "It eats people?!"

In fairy tales, the Little Mermaid was so kind and lovely!

Tang Shuyu let out a scoff. "With a tail that big, if it's not for smashing a prey's bones with a single slap, is it for cracking walnuts?"

He Zhuoming was shocked, and when she looked back at the mermaid in the glass box, she suddenly felt its scale-covered face was indeed somewhat fierce.

Just then, the young man coordinating with the burly man pulled a stack of coarse paper from his chest and began handing them out in a circle.

When he got to their spot, Tang Shuyu reached out and intercepted the paper; the young man glanced at Tang Shuyu, meeting his curved, smiling eyes.

With a rough look, he only felt that this pair of similarly aged youths seemed quite friendly, so he also smiled, nodded at them, and continued handing out papers to the next people.