“I’m leaving tomorrow,” Hou Li casually mentioned after a long silence had formed.
Xing Yi’s wandering gaze suddenly locked into place as he tried to process what he had just heard.
Blinking his eyes after a short moment of staring, he asked, “Really?”
With his arms laid behind his head and his short, ruffled black hair blowing in the breeze Hou Li replied, “Yeah.”
“Where?” Xing Yi asked, even more confused.
“You probably haven’t heard of it. It’s called Qizhou City.”
“Yeah, I haven’t.”
“It’s really far down south and is pretty new.”
A brief silence formed.
“Why are you leaving?” Xing Yi sat up and turned to Hou Li with a worried face.
“My uncle moved there several years ago, and he promised my parents that he would let one of their children to become his apprentice. And that’s me,” Hou Li revealed, a smile forming on his face.
“What! Are you going to be making swords and stuff for the army?” Xing Yi raised his eyebrows.
“Yeah, I think so. So, I don’t think I’m going to run out of work. Which is good and bad at the same time. But regardless, its good,” Hou Li nodded his head.
But Xing Yi still had one more question.
“Why didn’t you tell me until now?” Xing Yi’s eyes turned soft as a sinking feeling set in his stomach.
Playing with a strand of hair in between his fingers, he stopped and explained with a sad voice, “Because I didn’t want you to be sad. You tend to get emotional easily. I just wanted to enjoy us. Just us being happy.”
Xing Yi turned to the grass in front of him, trying to control himself. To stop himself from crying.
Hou Li sighed before standing up and walking over to Xing Yi and bringing him into a warm embrace.
Hou Li’s voice began to shake as he spoke, “There’s always a truth out there that can hurt you. And I wanted to shield you from it. I know it may have been temporary, but these past several days are something I will treasure forever.”
“Yeah,” Xing Yi replied, his eyes starting to water, though he quickly rubbed his eyes to get rid of the oncoming tears.
Xing Yi and Hou Li continued to embrace for several moments until a particularly annoying voice interrupted them.
“Hey, what are you guys doing? Why are you two hugging?” Xing Yue giggled.
It was Xing Yi’s little sister.
Xing Yi quickly rubbed the single tear off of his cheek and exited the embrace. He and Hou Li stood up.
“Nothing,” Hou Li answered with his hands behind his back, his voice and face having turned back to his ever tranquil and calm façade.
Xing Yue squinted her eyes in suspicion, “You’re lying.”
Both Hou Li and Xing Yi left her question unanswered and walked past her.
“Hey! Where are you guys going?” Xing Yue caught up to them in a sprint and asked.
She squinted her eyes at Xing Yi and noted the slight redness in his cheeks.
Xing Yi shrugged his shoulders to this question while simultaneously leaning his face away from Xing Yue’s observant gaze.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Hou Li, seemingly undecided, let his mind wander for a bit as they trudged down the hill.
After a few moments he said, “Fishing.”
Xing Yi seemed to perk up at hearing this. However, Xing Yue frowned.
“But fishing is so boring!” Xing Yue commented.
Hou Li raised his eyebrow and smirked, “It’s not as if you have to come with us.”
Xing Yue sighed, “An Li won’t stop kissing her boyfriend and it’s so gross. So, I came over because I have no one else to play or talk to.”
“If you don’t like fishing, you could always go over to Old Man Jin, he’s always looking for someone to play Go with him,” Hou Li suggested.
Xing Yue replied, “I don’t want to. Those kinds of games are for old people.”
“You know the Go champion makes the same amount of money as some nobles do? If you get good enough, you wouldn’t have to live in this small village for the rest of your life. And he too was just a common peasant like us. He even lived on a farm just like this one,” Hou Li replied.
Xing Yi’s jaw ever so slightly dropped. His mind blanked as the cogs in his mind, thinking on that statement. Whereas Xing Yue seemed to just get more annoyed.
“That’s impossible for me to do. How could…”
As Hou Li and Xing Yue chatted back and forth, he walked slightly behind them and just thought.
A profound feeling had emerged within him. But within that, lied a great fear. One moment he was hopeful and courageous. But in the next, he was terrified and felt like an ice-cold abyss had emerged in his stomach and was ready to swallow him whole.
That being the notion of leaving his village.
To even think of such a notion, his family would be shocked.
Currently, he lived with his grandfather, mother, father, two eldest brothers and his little sister. Along with them, were his five cousins, two uncles and two step-aunties. It was a large and chaotic generational home, headed by his grandfather.
Fortunately, he was a lax man and didn’t set many rules, the only ones being that they had to be home by dark, respect their elders and to not marry a woman with too many financial problems no matter how pretty she was.
The last one was a bit strange, but it made some sense.
The work force for the farm consisted of his father, two older brothers, his two uncles and one of his cousins. All in all, there were six people on the family’s farm, toiling away every day. They were a strong work force, and it was a very, very rare occasion if there still something to be done at the end of the workday.
As for his step-aunties and mother, they weaved silk and cared for the silkworms, making a tidy profit off of the merchants that passed by every few months. It had been over twenty years since the end of the war and the taxes were very generous into comparison to those times.
His family could be considered well-off in their moderately-sized village. They were able to save up a considerable amount of money, eat meat on a regular basis and didn’t have any problems during the winter.
It was a good life in retrospective.
And where did that place him?
Just as he began asking himself this question, he heard Hou Li say his name.
“Xing Yi, here,” Hou Li handed him a rod.
They were currently located in front of a small creek. Beforehand, they had travelled to Hou Li’s house to retrieve three rods and they were now here. Yes, Xing Yue had continued to
The distance to the left were some rushing rapids. But here, the water had calmed down and formed a tranquil and level flow.
A breeze washed over the left side of his face. The water levels were quite high today. There were certain to be a few fish floating around.
Standing next to each other on the rich green grass, him and Hou Li cast their fishing rods out into the middle of the creek. It wasn’t too difficult to get it out into the right spot as the creek was only about 15 meters wide.
Xing Yue however had a bit of trouble and couldn’t get herself to cast any further than a couple of meters. Xing Yi laughed and quickly helped her and with one single swing, it was in the middle of the river.
Xing Yue blushed awkwardly, “Thank you.”
Xing Yi nodded with a smile on his face and turned to the creek, taking in the beautiful sight. He had seen it before many times but each time he would be shocked at how timeless a view it was. So simple but so breathtaking.
He glanced to his left and saw how focused Hou Li and couldn’t help but chuckle to himself. He always had that face whenever they were fishing.
Memories of all the times they went to fish together flashed through his mind. The teamwork between them to catch the fish, long and honest one-on-one talks that went late into the afternoon, and the genuine and deep connection that formed between them in those times.
At that moment, to both his and Hou Li’s surprise, Xing Yue’s rod suddenly jerked and bent downwards.
Xing Yue gasped and hastily pulled against the fish that was tugging against her hook, her feet digging into the ground. Xing Yi dropped his rod and went over and gave her an extra pair of hands. Simultaneously stabilising while helping her pull, the fish was slowly pulled in. She huffed and puffed, working her little arms to death.