It was winter of the year 101 Changan era, when a messenger arrived from Bai household, bringing a letter for her daughter’s eyes only.

….of course, Bai Lianfei shared its contents with her best friend, Wang Shunji, as she was deeply troubled by these news.

“Apparently, Lady Mother is very sick, and it’s not known whether she will survive this year…” tears prickled her eyes “oh, whatever am I going to do!”

Her father passed away due to a mysterious illness a few years ago, and now her mother was ill as well. It stands to reason she feared that whatever aliment took one of her parents, is now about to take another.

“In that case, you shouldn’t go back there under any circumstances!” Wang Shunji exclaimed, knowing well that his words were rather insensitive. “What if you catch it too, and die?”

“But I cannot leave Lady Mother alone!” Although Bai Lianfei was usually timid and just followed his lead, this time she stood her ground.

They argued like that for a while, until he finally conceded. But…

“At least make sure to bring some souvenirs from Yafan…..”

That was the only condition.

Bai Lianfei’s face lit up, and she nodded enthusiastically, promising to bring a lot of everything she could get her hands on in a large town.

“And don’t forget books!” he reminded her solemnly, as the neverending fight against the suffocating boredom of a ruler village was not to be taken lightly.

She giggled, and agreed with him.

Bai Lianfei also thought that the books and parchments available in Shuangshan’s library were rather lofty and uninteresting and assured him that she will bring lots of new tomes to reinforce the local library, including some of her favorite childhood classics.

…..

And so, she left the following morning, not traveling with any caravan, but using a personal carriage that her wealthy family dispatched for her.

Since it was February, there was still a lot of snow lingering around, and her chalky robes and pale skin looked really beautiful and fitting among the sea of milky white flakes….is what Wang Shunji thought as he was seeing her off.

However, he did not voice these feelings out loud.

Partially because Ming Libai was also there, waving goodbye enthusiastically.

“I hope her mother is going to be alright” he sighed after the wagon took a turn and disappeared from sight, gobbled by the omnipresent forests surrounding Chenfei.

“Yeah, me too…”

However, there was a certain insincerity in Wang Shunji’s voice. He had a foreboding feeling, though he couldn’t pinpoint why it was so.

“Hey, I stole some wine from old man Mo” added his friend after he made sure Bai Lianfei couldn’t hear him anymore.

Even though they were friends, she didn’t always participate in all their activities, and would always scold them if she learned they broke the rules - double harshly so if she learned that they were planning to drink alcohol at the fairly young age of 15.

He could totally imagine her running up from the cart and returning just to lecture them some more.

……..

A little over three months later, a caravan from Yafan arrived.

Alongside many goods, it also brought messages and escorted travelers who tagged along for the convenience of traveling by cart and enjoying additional protection and company.

This was the caravan in which Bai Lianfei was supposed to return to Chenfei.

It also brought a new batch of yaren servants to fill the gaps left by adult employees who, after hitting 20, decided to leave the remote settlement and look for a better life elsewhere. Annu was among them, and this was the day when he met Wen Fengli for the first time.

Of course, the wolfgirl couldn’t contain her curiosity, and approached the stalls early in the morning, when the outpost was still being set up and was off-limits to visitors.

However, although she couldn’t get inside, nothing stopped her from chatting up to one of the guards stationed near the freshly erected wooden gates, meant to serve as an entrance to a makeshift marketplace.

One question interested her in particular.

“Excuse me, with all due respect, what are you going to do if your caravan is attacked by a cultivator?”

The yaren guard looked at her as if judging the sincerity of her question, then seeing she was just a young girl, he rolled his eyes and answered mockingly.

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“A cultivator, eh? Well, beats me. I never faced one of these monsters in a fight” he said, spitting to the side. Never mind he had rather prominent wolf ears and animal shaped canines, and by accounts of many southerners, he would be the only monster of note around.

Then, after pondering for a while, he continued.

“Well, if you ask me, I’d say I’d run. I’m paid to protect the merchants and their wares from petty thieves and ruffians, or wild animals, not supernatural mumbo jumbo” he spat again, then continued “it’s all what if anyway. Listen, I’ve been escorting caravans for two decades, ever since I was a little runt, and not once were we -ever- attacked by someone who could manipulate qi to a relatable extend. And guess why that is?”

She shook her head.

“Well, that’s because there isn’t any cultivator who would attack us!” he said, a confident smirk on his face. “They all have their rules and sects, and orders. And if a cultivator starts breaking them, for example stealing stuff from regular folk, or attacking people for no reason, he’s instantly brought before their magical whatever court and trialed. In some especially vile cases, I heard, entire families, are imprisoned or exiled as a punishment!”

Fengli nodded, listening carefully. She had some idea about that, but for her own safety decided not to share her personal family history, which she kept a secret even from Zhanzhan.

Instead, she played stupid and asked:

“Imprisoned? Exiled? Where to?”

The guard eyed her up, then smirked again.

“Well…where do you think they are exiled? Beyond the reaches of the civilized middle kingdom, they are exiled to the frozen north, barren west or…” he made a dramatic pause “the savage south!”

“What’s bad about the south?”, asked the girl, keeping her innocent facade.

“Wh-what’s bad about the south, you ask? Well, it’s a terrible place, where magical beasts, and demons, and the savage nomadic tribes live. And of course, the exiled criminals as well. Do you think they really become better people only because they were cast away from the civilization as a punishment!? No, of course not! They continue cultivating their wicked ways! They become no different from devils or vile monsters of legend! If they survive long enough, that is…..”

“Have you ever been to the south, though?” asked Fengli stepping from side to side, and probing the guardsman with her ever-inquisitive eyes.

Not gonna lie, this is not what he expected, and he got flustered for a bit. He wanted to scare this young girl a little bit, but it didn’t work!

He remembered how his own grandparents used to tell him anecdotes of the southern wilds and monsters when he was a kid whenever he didn’t want to go to bed, and it always worked like a charm!

“W-well, no, but you know, I heard the stories! There were some people I worked alongside who serviced routes as far as the Scar of the Land! And then, there was that war a few years ago, where major sects send their forces to quell a native yaren uprising there! I heard such stories, that your tail would stay numb for a week after hearing them!”

However, Wen Fengli was unimpressed. Just as she was about to probe him further, a cold gust swept between them.

It was bizarre because it was late May, and the air should be anything but chilly, even given the time of the day.

Some distance away from them stood a teenage girl. Her dark, braided hair contrasted heavily with her pale skin, and her dark, sunken eyes were staring at the wolfgirl with ferocious intensity.

“Who’s that?” asked Fengli, not at all intimidated by this little performance, even though she could almost feel the killing intent emanating from the other person.

The guard shrugged, trying to be dismissive, but even he could feel his heart stop for a moment.

“This is..uhh..one of the guests we escorted from Yafan… her name is uhh…I dunno”

His awkward explanations were broken by a question spoken in a voice even colder than the icy breeze.

“Who are you?”

Fengli looked left and right to see if perhaps someone else is being addressed, but having affirmed that she was indeed the target of the inquiry, she just shrugged and said:

“It’s rude to answer a question with a question”

“Is that so?” was all the stranger said, before turning around and briskly walking away in the direction of Chenfei.

As she left, the freezing wind dissipated, and so did the tension.

“A…a cultivator?” asked the guardsman, still not being able to calm down his rapidly beating heart.

“It seems so….” answered Fengli, equally confused by this incident.

However, it wasn’t her first time seeing teenage cultivators behaving in erratic or immature ways, or thoughtlessly flaunting their powers left and right, so she just assumed it was one of these cases and quickly forgot it.