Separate Paths

Hearing Miss Xiaoqing's question, Ding Songyan tested the waters and answered: "Yes." The moment the word left his mouth, a surge of joy welled up inside him: *Excellent, this question can be answered!* Delight and pride lit up the corners of Xiaoqing's brows and eyes. Full of curiosity, she pressed further: "At Zhen Manor, eh... Is it Old Master Zhen?" "No," Ding Songyan answered swiftly. This did not involve the dungeon or Yan Changqing; he had not forgotten. Xiaoqing's eyes flicked slightly: "Is it one of Zhen Manor's retained experts?" "No, not a retained expert." Ding Songyan tried to describe his answer with greater precision and detail. He had not forgotten, nor was he affected. "A descendant of the Zhen clan?" Xiaoqing narrowed the scope. When Ding Songyan shook his head and answered in the negative as well, she looked perplexed: "Not a retained expert, and not a Zhen descendant... Surely it can't be some servant of Zhen Manor, can it?" "No," Ding Songyan gave another negative answer. "Strange..." Xiaoqing's gaze went blank as she sank into deep thought. Ding Songyan wanted to give her a hint, but forgot what he meant to hint at. After a brief moment, Xiaoqing's eyes shifted, regaining their lively sparkle: "Someone who doesn't belong to Zhen Manor, but is hiding inside it?" Ding Songyan gave no answer. He had forgotten what she had asked, and also forgotten what his answer was. "You didn't say no, which means yes." Xiaoqing smiled, so radiantly bright that one could hardly look away. "Sometimes, not answering is an answer in itself." Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck her: "A few days ago, you went out of your way to ask if I knew someone named Yan Changqing. It was utterly out of nowhere, and who knows where you even heard that name... "So, the person who told you about the Moth God Sect was him? Someone hiding in Zhen Manor, yet not belonging to Zhen Manor?" *Brilliant! She connected the dots!* Ding Songyan was overjoyed. He had previously felt that Miss Xiaoqing was naive and slightly silly at times, not quite as sharp as she could be. But looking at it now, she was fundamentally quite clever; she was simply inexperienced in the ways of the world and often too lazy to use her head. Backed by a powerful background, she had no fear of danger, knowing that even if she made a mistake, her elders would clean up the mess. From this, Ding Songyan also discovered a way to bypass the clear, hazy "seed." In his view, since Yan Changqing was imprisoned in the Zhen Manor dungeon and could not follow him around to monitor things in real time, theoretically he could only influence Ding Songyan's thoughts through preset focal points, avoidance triggers, and a list of forbidden people encoded into the "seed." This meant that this externally implanted pattern of thinking was rigid, dogmatic, and inevitably incomplete. It could not possibly cover every scenario—especially indirect, roundabout ones. Finding blind spots and loopholes in rules like these happened to be something Ding Songyan was good at, much like bypassing blocked keywords in his past life. Earlier, mentioning Yan Changqing had occurred several days ago, when Zhen Manor was not involved at all, and Ding Songyan had had no intention of leaking information to Miss Xiaoqing back then, so the question had come out quite naturally. Tonight, he likewise had not considered blabbing about Yan Changqing directly; he had only wanted to deepen her impression of his own secrecy and the mysteries surrounding Zhen Manor. Thus, he had easily bypassed the constraints of the clear, hazy "seed." After that, how Xiaoqing thought about it and connected the two was entirely her own business, something Yan Changqing could not control through the "seed." Breaking something he was forbidden to say into multiple pieces, letting them slip out across different days under different pretexts, and allowing the recipient to speculate, associate, and piece together the truth on their own—that was the method Ding Songyan had just discovered to circumvent the restriction. This required prior planning, as well as sufficient time. Ding Songyan gave no response to Miss Xiaoqing's question; after his burst of wild joy came a daze. *What was she asking just now?* *And what was I going to say?* *Uh, at least I still remember the method I figured out...* Seeing that Ding Songyan had not spoken again and wore a somewhat bewildered expression, Xiaoqing nodded in satisfaction: "Answering neither yes nor no means there's indeed some connection, it just doesn't fully match my description, right?" With a look that said "this is so much fun," she mused aloud: "I'll tell my second uncle all about this shortly and see if he can guess what's going on, and guess why you can't speak of it." *Splendid!* Ding Songyan wanted nothing more than to applaud Miss Xiaoqing. He pondered for a moment, and another idea struck him: "Miss Xiaoqing, could I come along with you later to pay our—er, your second uncle a visit? I have important news to tell him." "What important news can't you tell me?" Xiaoqing voiced her displeasure. "You can listen in when the time comes. Right now, I don't quite dare say it," Ding Songyan quickly explained. He had never harbored any extravagant hope of being able to speak of Yan Changqing and Zhen Manor before Xiaoqing's second uncle. Instead, he wanted to use this to openly display his anomalies and suspicions to the man: When Miss Xiaoqing informed her second uncle in advance that Ding Erlang had crucial news to share, yet Ding Erlang stood right before him and "forgot" what he was going to say, the problem would unmistakably and palpably float to the surface. Ding Songyan believed that as a seasoned veteran of the jianghu, Xiaoqing's second uncle would definitely deduce something from that, perhaps even inferring which martial art was influencing his mind. After all, a divine art as formidable and miraculous as Yan Changqing's was unlikely to be unheard of in the martial world. "All right, then," Xiaoqing conceded somewhat helplessly after weighing her own strength. Once Ding Songyan finished writing today's installment of the storybook and she finished reading the chapter, Xiaoqing stood up and glanced out the window: "Head to Tianyang Guildhall on your own. I'll go ahead first to let my second uncle know." She then lowered her voice: "Ren Youyang and his guard are still watching your stalker from the shadows, and I don't want him spotting me. With him around, you won't need to worry about danger." "Understood," Ding Songyan said, nodding. As outsiders who did not belong to Great Zhao, Miss Xiaoqing's side likely wished to avoid exposing their identities. After Xiaoqing left, Ding Songyan packed up his belongings, pretended he was going out to cool off in the night breeze, exited the courtyard, and locked his door. He had long since scouted out the location of Tianyang Guildhall, preparing it as a place to seek refuge and help in moments of crisis. Following the path to Fengshui Bridge, Ding Songyan was just about to turn onto the route Miss Xiaoqing had taken earlier when he saw Ren Youyang sitting before a roast meat stall, smiling and waving at him. The Zhenling Sect disciple wore a light gray plain zhiduo robe, his two hound ears standing relaxed in the night breeze. The bruises and scars on his face had mostly faded or healed, no longer detracting from his demeanor as an expert. "Out to catch the breeze?" Ren Youyang asked with a grin. Ding Songyan sat down: "Worked up a foul sweat writing tomorrow's storybook, so I came out to cool off." Acting like an old friend, Ren Youyang pointed at the roast mutton before him: "Have some, then. How about a couple of drinks?" Without waiting for Ding Songyan's reply, he lowered his voice: "Since you returned from outside the city, the 'moth person' tailing you has left. I didn't touch him, hoping to use a long line to catch the big fish and smoke out the 'moth father' or 'moth mother.' But these 'moth people' are a bit different from the intel I received this evening; for now, I can't determine who the 'moth mother' or 'moth father' is. "Also, the authorities have people secretly tailing you as well. Counting me, we could make up a game of madiao." Madiao was a four-player card gambling game quite popular at the time. *You don't even know about Miss Xiaoqing's side...* Ding Songyan wanted to give a hint about where the abnormality of those "moth people" originated, but upon raising his wine cup, he had already "forgotten" the matter. ...... Leading her maid, Xiaoqing moved through streets and alleys dappled with moonlight and swaying shadows of trees, heading toward Tianyang Guildhall. Just as they stepped into a secluded, deep alley, a dark figure suddenly pounced down from a tree. Xiaoqing shifted her footing, sliding sideways to dodge. Immediately following that, the crisp snap of a whip cracking through the air rang out without warning, yet no whip shadow appeared in midair. The dark figure recoiled abruptly, kicked against the alley wall, and flipped backward into someone's courtyard like a startled bird taking flight. *Smack!* Another whip crack sounded. On the wall the dark figure had just kicked off from, two marks appeared: one deep, splitting the bricks and stone; the other shallower, from which powder continuously cascaded down, the impacted surface seemingly turned soft and pliable. The two whip marks intersected, yet from start to finish, no whip had ever appeared in the alley. "Left already?" Xiaoqing let her hands hang low, looking as though she hadn't had enough fun. "Then what did he come for? Just to say hello?" After muttering to herself, a thought struck Xiaoqing, and she looked up toward the tall watchtower in the distance. Hurriedly taking her maid by the hand, her figure blurred like an illusion, blending into the dark night and vanishing. Returning to Tianyang Guildhall in the eastern district of the city, Xiaoqing started complaining the moment she stepped into the front hall: "Second Uncle, I ran into a terribly crafty enemy who deliberately forced my hand to expose us to the Southern Zhao authorities!" Sitting in the front hall, Xiaoqing's second uncle held a teacup, brushing aside tea leaves with the lid as he looked up: "Someone ambushed you?" He wore robes with wide sleeves, his black hair hanging loose. His features bore a resemblance to Xiaoqing's: a slightly small face with gently upturned corners of the eyes. Elegant and refined, he carried himself with grace and a natural maturity, looking to be only in his early thirties. Xiaoqing nodded vigorously: "I was even forced to use the Formless Whip!" She recounted the ambush from beginning to end before mentioning the information about the Moth God Sect and the mysterious figure in Zhen Manor, Yan Changqing. Her second uncle set down his teacup, stood up, clasped his hands behind his back, and paced slowly: "This matter is complicated. Starting tomorrow, do not go looking for that Ding Erlang at night." Seeing Xiaoqing about to protest, his expression grew stern: "Your father sent you here to broaden your horizons and gain experience, not to take reckless risks and play around. If you truly must go, I will accompany you." "Fine..." Xiaoqing agreed, pouting with a hint of grievance. Her second uncle pondered for a moment and murmured to himself: "What is the Moth God Sect after... What Zhen Manor is scheming may be even larger than what we desire... "The name Yan Changqing is indeed unheard of..." The handsome, dashing man looked back at Xiaoqing once more: "Qingli, is there anything else?" Xiaoqing racked her memory earnestly, then shook her head: "Nope." ...... After finishing the wine and roast meat with Ren Youyang, Ding Songyan took his leave and strolled back toward Chengyu Lane. As he drew near the Ding family courtyard, a thoughtful expression crossed his face: *Did I forget something...?* After pondering for a while with no results, he unlatched the courtyard gate, returned to his room, lay down on the bed, and quickly drifted off to sleep. A night without dreams.