“Where were you?” Gou Dzing threw himself on Gaam Yuk Ying. The smaller man staggered.

“Out.”

“I know that. Don't act dumb.”

Gaam Yuk Ying didn't respond. He buried his face in Gou Dzing's neck, since it was all he could reach. They stood comfortably like this for a minute.

“I guess you couldn't find her. Master told me she asked you to look for Teem Djeung Baak.”

Gaam Yuk Ying nodded. It tickled.

“I should have let you go after her, before.”

A shrug.

“Well, I guess it's too late, saying that now. We'll just have to get her next time. Hey, what happened to your face?”

There was a red mark on Gaam Yuk Ying's left cheek, as if he had scraped it against something, or been hit. He wouldn't meet Gou Dzing's eyes.

“Yuk Ying? Hey, what's going on?”

“Nothing. It doesn't matter... anymore.”

“You don't want to talk about it now, huh? Maybe later?”

“Later.”

“Okay.” Gou Dzing pulled him close again. “Let's put some salve on it.”

“It'll heal by itself.”

“I know... but let me test out my skills, please? I made a batch of ointment while you were gone.”

“You?”

“What's with that tone? I used to do lots of healing work, you know? Were you just teasing me?” He caught sight of the little smirk on Gaam Yuk Ying's face. “You little...!”

“Ugh, they're already at it again,” Chan Bik observed, leaning out of the window of Cheng Baak-hap's room to see Gaam Yuk Ying and Gou Dzing chasing each other around the docks of Yuk-hoi Bay. “Hey! You're causing trouble for everyone! Get back here!”

Cheng Baak-hap cleared her throat and laughed. “Yes, Mother.”

“No! What? I'm not! Cheng Si-dze!”

“Hey! Cheng Si-mui! How are you feeling?” Gou Dzing leapt in through the window that Chan Bik had vacated, following close behind Gaam Yuk Ying. The two young men flopped onto the bed.

“What are you doing? You're supposed to be Direct Disciples of the Ng Dzeung, how can you just lie on a junior sister's bed like that?” Chan Bik hissed like an angry snake.

Gaam Yuk Ying cocked his head to one side. “Jealous?”

He narrowly dodged every punch that Chan Bik threw at him.

“Ha ha, you can't tease her so easily anymore, Yuk Ying! Her spiritual powers are catching up, she'll be faster than you soon!”

Chan Bik paused, panting. “What happened to your face? It wasn't Teem Djeung Baak, was it? That-”

“No.”

“Then what?”

He looked at the floor.

“I don't think Yuk Ying's ready to talk yet,” Gou Dzing interceded, standing up. “Why don't we go and do something fun? We've worked so much over the past week, and we only have one last day here. Let's relax and recover. Cheng Si-mui, do you feel alright to move around?”

“You're not leaving me behind to have fun by yourselves. I'll let you know if I get tired.”

“Alright. How about we meet in front of the teahouse in half a si?”

They dispersed to get ready. Gou Dzing filled Gaam Yuk Ying in on the past few days he had been absent.

“I don't understand what makes people... loong are people, right? What makes people act like that.” They sat at one of the benches for travellers outside the teahouse, discretely holding hands, Gaam Yuk Ying's slender fingers twined with Gou Dzing's strong thick ones.

“I guess it's a shortcoming of mine. Father used to say it all the time. Master tells me the same. 'Not everyone is morally good at all times, Gou Dzing. Even good people do bad things.' I get it... but I don't, you know? Yuk Ying?”

Gaam Yuk Ying had extracted his hand from Gou Dzing's and was examining it with excessive care.

“What's wrong? Um... Did you want to talk about what happened to your cheek?”

A nod.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Okay, who did that to you?”

“Demon.”

“A demon? How... Uh... Where was this?”

“Tsou Heung.”

“Tsou Heung? Wasn't that near where we first met?”

“Yes.”

“There were more demons there?”

“No.”

“Did something happen there, before we met?”

Gaam Yuk Ying took a deep breath. “I ran into two demons there before I met you and killed one and knocked the other one out and then I let the villagers take it away but then I thought...” His voice trailed off. Staring into space, his usually sharp silver eyes lost, he said, “I went back to find it.”

“Did... Did you find the demon?”

“Yes.”

“What had the villagers done to it?”

“Torture.”

“And what did you do?”

Gaam Yuk Ying looked down at himself. Gou Dzing looked too. There were faint speckles of blood on his pale grey robes.

“... killed it.”

“Can you... tell me in more detail, Yuk Ying? It doesn't matter if it's jumbled. I'll work it out.”

Gaam Yuk Ying's words came out in fits and starts. “Got to village. Demon was in... shed. We spoke.”

“Spoke? Did you understand it?”

“Not... Yes? Some words... But not all. I cut it free but... it just glared at me. Started to howl. I thought someone would hear so I knocked it out and brought it into the forest and it woke up quickly and... It didn't look... happy...”

“Did it strike you?”

“Yes.”

“You could have stopped it.”

“Why?”

“Um, what do you mean, why? It hit you.”

“It couldn't hurt me.”

“... I see.”

“It was weak and... I was just going to leave it there but... it grabbed my robes...”

His disjointed phrases were incongruously interspersed with the sound of clinking teacups and laughter from the teahouse. Warm sunlight bathed their faces.

“... and put its neck to my blade...”

In the distance, Chan Bik and Cheng Baak-hap strolled towards them, chattering happily.

“Its eyes...”

The two young women saw them, and waved.

“It knelt before me...”

Chan Bik took Cheng Baak-hap's hand and pulled her along a little, hurrying towards the young men.

“... and I cut its head off.”

“Hey, Gou Si-hing! Gaam Si-hing! Where are we going?”

----------------------------------------

“What do you think?”

Gaam Yuk Ying scraped his boot along the sand, lifting his eyes to stare down the long beach that curved away into the distance. Behind him, Chan Bik and Cheng Baak-hap gazed at the expanse of white and golden-yellow where the opaque teal water lapped up and sank away.

“It's called a beach. What do you think? Gou Dzing asked again.

“It's pretty,” Chan Bik murmured, then her attention shifted to the substrate below her feet. “But there's too much sand! Is this a desert? But there's water... Is a beach a kind of desert but with salty water? And it's getting in my shoes!”

“Just take them off then,” Gou Dzing suggested.

“I don't want to... I don't want to touch sand with my bare feet.”

“You can brush it off afterwards.”

“It's the during I don't like. Wait, Cheng Si-dze?”

Cheng Baak-hap slipped her boots off, small toes pale with lack of sun sinking into the white-gold sand. Chan Bik fretted in place, not wanting to more any more, but eager to explore the beach.

Gaam Yuk Ying blinked at her. “Chan... Si-mui?”

“What is it, Si-hing?”

“You don't like the sand.”

“Not at all. It's getting everywhere...”

“We'll go somewhere else.”

“But I want to see. Argh! This is so annoying! I want to see the beach but I hate this sand!”

“Dzing.”

Gou Dzing grabbed his shoulders with far too much excitement. “Yuk Ying, did you just call me 'Dzing'? You did, didn't you! Why are you being so affectionate today?”

Chan Bik's face hid nothing. “You call that affectionate?”

“It's super affectionate from Yuk Ying!”

“Yeah, right, of course. That man has a face like a clay warrior. Even if you ground it down it would be hard to find a speck of affection.”

“Chan Si-mui, you're being harsh again.”

“... sorry Gaam Si-hing. I didn't mean to say you're not affectionate, I just meant you're very bad at showing it...”

“It doesn't bother me.”

“Dzing.”

“Yes, yes?”

Gaam Yuk Ying held out his hand. “Can I borrow your sword?”

“My sword? Okay.” Gou Dzing drew it and handed it over, jade hilt first.

“Gou Si-hing, does your sword have a name?” Chan Bik asked suddenly, shifting from foot to foot.

“Uh... It's Yuk Ying.”

“... wait, what?”

“You named your sword after your boyfriend? What the hell?”

“Gou Si-hing, that's a bit...”

“No! No! It's not like that! Yuk Ying, don't look at me like that! This sword is a family heirloom! It's had this name for over a century, it's not the same words either...”

The others eventually stopped teasing him and he folded his arms around Gaam Yuk Ying grumpily, resting his chin on top of the shorter man's head.

“It's pronounced the same, but it's 'Yuk' as in 'Jade' and 'Ying' as in 'Punishment', not 'Treasure' and 'Gem-like'.”

“What a coincidence though... Are you sure...?”

“Shut it, Cheng Baak-hap.”

Gaam Yuk Ying escaped Gou Dzing's embrace and held out his hand to Chan Bik. “Let's go.”

“Huh, whe- ah!”

He pulled her up as Gou Dzing's sword floated beneath his feet and she quickly wrapped her arms around his waist in surprise.

“Wow! Gaam Si-hing, since when could you do this?”

“It's been several years.”

“Why have you never shown us this before?”

“No need.”

“It's one of the skills you can develop when you break through to the Third Daan-tin, Chan Si-mui,” Gou Dzing explained. “Watch.”

The sand below his feet suddenly solidified and began to convey him across the beach and then back again. “Fine elemental control. When you reach this level, you should be able to travel using fire.”

A burning light seemed to be ignited in Chan Bik's eyes. “I'm going to reach Third Daan-tin as soon as possible!”

“We're taking a break today, Bik Si-mui, remember?” Cheng Baak-hap laughed. “Can I catch a ride, Gou Si-hing?”

“Should we race?”

“Yes!” Chan Bik shrieked with excitement. Gaam Yuk Ying smirked at Gou Dzing.

“What, you think just because you're a Metal cultivator, you're going to win? No way!”

“Prove it.”

Both groups shot away over the sand, Chan Bik screaming with excitement. They reached the limestone rocks at the far end, Gaam Yuk Ying easily outstripping Gou Dzing. The latter wiped sweat from his forehead.

“Wow, that was actually really hard. Trying to control so many individual particles like that.”

“That sounds like a lot of work.” Cheng Baak-hap tapped her chin. “Why not use a liquid concept?”

“You'll have to dumb that down for the idiots.”

“The way sand moves, at least on this beach, is something like a liquid, right? It gets displaced easily, it pours... If I take it in my hands, it moulds to the shape of my hands... Rather than trying to control each grain, why not conceive of it as a liquid?”

Gou Dzing looked at his feet, and the sand below them rose like a wave. He surfed away across waves of sand in a big loop, coming back to join them. “That... is so much easier.”

“Who's the smart one?”

“You are, Father Cheng.”

“Good filial piety, you know who's your father.”

“Let's eat.” Chan Bik pulled open the packs they had brought. “And let's play some games. How about this, we ask each other questions, and if you can't, or won't answer, you have to do a task instead.”

They all agreed, settling down on a large cloth they had brought along. With a bowl of rice in one hand, Chan Bik pointed at Gou Dzing first. “Gou Si-hing! I'm asking you – Admit it! You're the young master of a rich family, aren't you?”