Sun Fuling stared fixedly at him for three to five breaths before slowly sitting back down, truly intending to look on without lifting a finger.
That was taken as her consent.
He Lingchuan worked with all his might, swiftly framing two kites in bamboo and pasting the white paper over them. The room was warm, so the paper he had pasted earlier dried quickly, ready for painting.
Sun Fuling merely waited, eager to see what other skills he had besides scribbling a few words to reduce little children to tears.
When it came to painting, He Lingchuan was a complete layman, but he had to show off a little before Master Sun. Pulling out red and black pigments, he applied color to the white paper with sweeping, splashed-ink strokes.
It was nothing more than random scribbling, at best filling in blotches of color. Sun Fuling could endure it no longer. "What on earth are you doing?"
"Painting a fish!" He Lingchuan pointed at the fish-shaped bamboo frame. "Aren't koi colored like this?"
Besides, which multicolored koi didn't look like graffiti?
"Should I paint a big black fish instead?" It would be easy, sure, "but that would lack any refinement."
Sun Fuling tried hard to keep a straight face. "You're a commander; are you this careless when drilling your troops?"
He waved a hand dismissively. "My soldiers all know that more sweat in training means less blood shed in war. There's no need for me to whip them with bamboo switches!"
Sun Fuling finally broke, letting out a laugh.
Of course he wouldn't use bamboo switches. The Yuheng Army shared the same lineage as the Panlong Army; both treated shirkers and slackers to whips and staves.
Seeing her smile, He Lingchuan finally let out a breath of relief.
Seeing him turn to ruin another kite, beginning by drawing two large circles on the back of the paper that looked like turtle shells, Sun Fuling was at her wit's end. "And what are you painting now?"
"The venomous snake's spectacles—I mean, eyes." He Lingchuan kept a solemn face. "I'm planning to paint a banded krait."
"Enough, enough." Unable to stand watching him make such a mess, Sun Fuling snatched the brush from his hand. "Let me do it. You go paste the paper!"
He Lingchuan naturally didn't argue. He had already exhausted his few meager tricks; he couldn't have painted anything more anyway.
Seeing the slight upturn at the corners of her lips as she painted, he knew Master Sun was in good spirits again.
Watching Master Sun paint, he blurted out subconsciously, "Are you sure you aren't a nursery teacher?"
"A lion cub?" Was he comparing her to a little lion?
"Nothing, nothing at all!" Looking at Master Sun's painting, the lines were clean and concise, the colors bold—*cough*, brimful of childlike whimsy. "It looks great!"
As long as it looked good, that was all that mattered.
The two divided the work and cooperated, finishing the crafts in about three hours, even producing two more kites than originally planned.
"Let's keep these two for ourselves." Amid the laughter and banter, that earlier touch of awkwardness had vanished like mist.
He Lingchuan noted that she had said "ourselves."
Master Sun, on the other hand, heard a rumble from his belly.
"Haven't you eaten dinner yet?"
"Oh, not yet." Belatedly rubbing his belly, he realized that the moment he returned, he had been doing unpaid labor for Master Sun, without a chance to forage for food.
Though it hadn't been entirely unpaid—he had gotten a kiss in, hadn't he?
Having no idea what was in his head, Sun Fuling ladled water to wash her hands, saying, "Thank you for tonight. How about I treat you to grilled meat? The academy just handed out our charcoal allowance today, along with two large cuts of pork and some pork sausages from the tavern at the foot of the mountain."
She had turned back into the brisk, capable Master Sun.
Meat? He Lingchuan perked up. "Then what are we waiting for?"
He hopped the wall back into his own kitchen and strode back out, carrying his charcoal stove in one hand.
This outdoor charcoal stove was something he had fashioned out of a cracked earthenware crock in his quarters; he had ground the broken hole smooth to serve as the feed opening for the charcoal, then tapered the top opening to serve as the stove top.
As for the grill, it was simple: a cleanly washed thin stone slab.
Sun Fuling brought in chunks of ice from the mountain spring, put them in an iron kettle, and set it on the heated stone slab.
On the other side of the slab, she set out sweet potatoes and autumn chestnuts.
He Lingchuan took a knife and sliced the washed pork into thin pieces.
This was Master Sun's salary. She had specifically chosen pork collar, marbled with fat and lean; once brushed with a layer of Yuheng City's specialty sweet pear sauce, it let out a loud sizzle the moment it touched the stone slab.
Yuheng City had once been called Pear City. The pears grown here were large and sweet, and the locals used them to make various snacks, the most famous being sweet pear sauce. This sweet-and-savory sauce paired best with meat; coated around the pork collar and grilled until lightly charred, it was eaten together with carrot strips.
*Crunch.* It had all the crispness and flavor one could ask for. The pear juice cut through the greasiness of the meat, leaving only a rich, mellow aroma.
He Lingchuan also toasted a few flatbreads. Once their crusts turned light golden, he tucked the grilled meat inside, adding some pickled vegetables gifted by the landlord.
Sun Fuling took a bite of the meat-stuffed flatbread and a sip of wine, sighing in pure satisfaction.
"Your culinary skills really are getting better and better."
He Lingchuan gave her a cupped-fist salute. "Thank you for the compliment. Pity is, when it comes to this craft, I'm still not a match for Mister Shao—Shao Jian."
Sun Fuling agreed: "His grilled meat was indeed superb."
"You've tasted it?"
"I have." She took another bite, then paused. "In the past, Mister Shao would take the children from the academy out for picnics too. The moment his skewers came off the grill, no one would touch what the rest of us made. I wonder where he has traveled to now?"
He Lingchuan instinctively looked up toward the sky.
"By the way, last time you asked the headmaster about the calculation of the Tianluo Star," Sun Fuling added. "Afterward, I noticed it lit up on two more nights."
He Lingchuan was startled. "When?"
"A month ago, and seven days ago."
Those were the Dragon-Torture Pillars distributed by Shao Jian, put to use by the celestial gods' believers.
He had been carrying out his mission with unswerving resolve.
Sitting here, He Lingchuan could feel the storm gathering on the horizon.
He thought of Fang Canran.
More than a century apart, the stubbornness and resolve of these two men seemed carved from the exact same mold.
The deeds they achieved stirred the winds and clouds, bound to bring profound ramifications to this world—and even to the Divine Realm.
Yet tonight, the stars shimmered, and the tranquil night was like a painting.
Looking down at the scattering of lights at the foot of the mountain, Sun Fuling suddenly murmured, "The lights in the city look better than the stars in the sky."
He Lingchuan looked down. Yuheng City could not yet boast ten thousand lights, nor was it nearly as brilliant as the Milky Way above. Yet behind every lamp was a family, and each held a story.
Now, his duty was to safeguard these thousands of households.
The two slowly sipped their wine, falling silent for a long time.
The snow had stopped long ago. Sitting beside the toasty charcoal stove, they felt no cold. This sensation of an infinite expanse of heaven and earth with the lights of mortal life beneath their feet was something one could never experience in Panlong City.
"Haven't there been any fights at the academy lately?"
"None," Sun Fuling smiled. "Yuheng Academy is going to offer night classes soon—a special section opened specifically for your soldiers."
"Thank you for your trouble," He Lingchuan said with sincere appreciation. "The Xiluo people near Yuheng City have enlisted enthusiastically, but too few are literate. They need to at least be able to read orders and battle reports, and understand hand signals and code words."
The Xiji Kingdom had always discriminated against the Xiluo people and forbidden them from going to school. When Yuheng City was first breached, you couldn't find a single literate person among twenty Xiluo natives.
Chapter 729