Hou Jingshu’s heart was hammering in her chest. She had been trying to come up with a way to ask Jian Wu if he wanted to accompany her back to the Shang Kingdom, but she never in a million years expected him to be the one who asked her if he could tag along. She was both excited and inexplicably nervous.

“You want to come with us? Really?” she asked.

Jian Wu nodded. “I’ve been thinking about it. I was born in the Shang Kingdom, and it sounds like there’s unrest in the kingdom. I’d feel bad about traipsing around the continent when my homeland is in trouble.”

“Is… is that the only reason?” Hou Jingshu felt disappointed for some reason. She didn’t know why. She was the country's princess, so she should be happy that he was so loyal to it, yet all she felt was a strange sadness.

“It’s not the only reason,” he admitted, shrugging, “But I’m not comfortable sharing my other reasons.”

“Oh…”

Well, now she was curious. Hou Jingshu really wanted to know what his reasons were for going back with them, but she also knew better than to pry. Everyone had a right to keep their secrets. So long as those secrets didn’t affect those around them, she saw no problem letting them remain such.

“Then please allow me to welcome you into our group. Thank you so much for coming along with us.” Hou Jingshu pressed the fist of her right hand into the palm of her left and bowed.

Jian Wu returned to the gesture. “Not at all. Thank you for agreeing to my selfish desire.”

Hou Jingshu smiled at the man. She couldn’t see past his mask, but she somehow knew that he was smiling as well.

“Um… excuse me.” Huǒ Shuchang raised a hand. “Can I say something?”

Hou Jingshu didn’t know why she felt so irritated at Huǒ Shuchang for interrupting her and Jian Wu, but she couldn’t deny that she felt a strong urge to punch the older man in the face. Even so, she was the Shang Kingdom’s only princess. She couldn’t afford to show such blatant anger at someone who hadn’t done anything to deserve it.

“Yes? What is it?”

“I won’t be accompanying you guys to the Shang Kingdom,” Huǒ Shuchang said.

“What? Why not?” asked Jian Wu. He seemed upset. It was the first time since their meeting that Hou Jingshu had heard him display this kind of emotion.

Huǒ Shuchang shrugged. “You guys know my background. I’m the son of the Phoenix Clan’s head. It would be one thing if you didn’t know who I was, but now that you do, I can’t accompany you to the Shang Kingdom.”

“Oh. Are you worried about being used as a political hostage?” asked Hou Jingshu. She would be pretty upset with him if that was the case. If he really thought she would stoop so low, then it meant his opinion of her was equally bad.

But Huǒ Shuchang shook his head. “No. I mean, I’m sure that’s one issue. The bigger problem is that I wasn’t supposed to let anyone find out my identity. It’s part of our training. All members of the Shuchang are to go out into the world without a single copper to our name and train ourselves. The rules set down by the family are that we’re not supposed to let people know who we are. Now that someone has discovered my identity, I’ll have to return to the Xia Dynasty. I expect a missive demanding I return home to show up in a few days.”

Hou Jingshu nodded. “While I was hoping you would also come with us, I understand why you cannot. And since you can’t come, all I can do is wish you safe travels.”

“Thanks.”

“It does kinda suck though.” Wu Yong placed his hands behind his head and sighed. “You’re the strongest one among us, so our fighting force will be greatly diminished without you around.”

“I don’t think we have too much to worry about,” Zheng Yawen said with a huff. “Her Highness and Jian Wu have become very strong in their own right. I doubt we’ll run into anything that can give them trouble.”

“Are you saying I’m not needed?” asked Huǒ Shuchang.

“That’s exactly what I’m saying.”

“Ouch.” Huǒ Shuchang pantomimed being stabbed through the chest. “Your words wound right here. Just how are you going to compensate for the emotional damage done to my heart?”

“By stabbing it?”

“That’s only gonna make it worse!”

While everyone else was joking, Jian Wu had remained silent. Hou Jingshu glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, wishing not for the first time that he wasn’t wearing a mask so she could see his face. She wanted to know what kind of expression he was making. That said, she could practically feel the loneliness pouring off him.

The sun was slowly dipping beyond the horizon, so they went into the tavern attached to the inn and got something to eat. Jian Wu was silent throughout the entire meal. No one but Hou Jingshu seemed to notice. She was surprised that Huǒ Shuchang hadn’t, but then she realized he was hitting on her bodyguard, something he did with relative frequency.

Hou Jingshu and Zheng Yawen parted ways with the boys after dinner. Her bodyguard asked the innkeeper if they could have a bucket of hot water and some cloth, which was brought to their room several minutes later.

“Your Highness, please allow me to help you wash off.”

“Mmm. Very well.”

Hou Jingshu undid the buttons on her training gi. Each clasp that was unlocked revealed more skin, until every button had come undone and she let it fall to the floor. She grimaced upon looking at her breast bindings. The bandages she had used to wrap her chest so they wouldn’t jostle when they moved were soaked through with sweat and dirt. Maybe they should have stopped to rest so she could change them out, but there was no telling what might have happened if she had done that.

She undid the breast bindings, allowing her chest to spring free. Zheng Yawen smiled wistfully.

“I have always been so jealous of your figure. You’re several years younger than me, and yet you have physically matured far more than I have.”

“I think I’d prefer your slender figure, honestly,” Hou Jingshu said as she undid her braids, knelt on the floor, and pulled her hair over her shoulder. “My chest gets in the way when I fight.”

Hou Jingshu’s chest was much larger than the average woman’s, but not only did this make it harder to fight, it also attracted the unwanted attention of men. She wrapped her breasts not only so she could fight better, but also so men wouldn’t hit on her as much.

“Ah. The words of the busty mean next to nothing here. You can’t understand the pain of women with smaller chests.”

“And you can’t understand the pain of women with larger chests.”

The two giggled for a moment, but then Zheng Yawen knelt behind Hou Jingshu, dripped the cloth into the warm water, and used it to wash the princess’s back.

The warm, wet cloth against her skin was soothing, but Hou Jingshu longed for a nice bath. She wanted more than anything to let her body soak in the hot water’s of her bath at home. Her lips trembled as she realized how homesick she was.

Hou Jingshu had come here on a desperate gambit to find the ingredients needed to cure her father. This was the first time she had ever left her nation.

Up to this point, Hou Jingshu had been relying on momentum and desperation to keep her focused on her goal. Now that she had accomplished what she needed to do, all the feelings she had kept locked away tumbled out of her. She missed her father. She missed Zhou Lihua. She missed Yu Chenguang and his daughter. She wanted to see them all again.

“It’s okay, Your Highness. We will see everyone soon. You only need to hang on for a little while longer,” Zheng Yawen said, having sensed her emotions. She was the person Hou Jingshu was closest to among her bodyguards. This woman seemed to understand her feelings better than she did herself sometimes.

“I know. Thank you,” Hou Jingshu said.

The solitude of the evening was only broken by the gentle sloshing of water.

***

Night had fallen on the city. The only sound Wu Jian heard as he opened his eyes was the snoring of Wu Yong and Huǒ Shuchang.

Wu Jian sat up in his bed, shivering only slightly as the cool night air hit his bare chest.

He stepped out of bed, bare feet padding against the floor, and got dressed. He opened the window, grabbed the ledge, and flung himself onto the roof. Crouched on the roof, Wu Jian looked up at the sky. The moon and stars were bright. They shone like tiny pricks of light.

“Yōuměi,” Wu Jian called.

His shadow writhed as a head emerged from within. Two heterochromatic eyes, one blue and the other yellow, peered up at him.

“Are you just gonna stay there?” asked Wu Jian, reaching out with a hand.

Yōuměi fully emerged from his shadow and nuzzled her nose into his hand. He knelt and rubbed her soft fur.

She had been stuck inside of his shadow for a very long time. He felt bad for forcing her to remain in there like that.

“It looks like you’ve risen in strength again. Fifth Subrealm of the Asura Realm. That’s pretty good. I wonder how you cultivate while you’re in my shadow.”

Yōuměi tilted her head like she didn’t understand what he was saying. He just smiled and shook his head.

Wu Jian was currently at the fourth subrealm, so Yōuměi had somehow managed to rise in cultivation when he wasn’t looking. Maybe she had cultivated when he was inside of the medicinal river. Could the medicinal ingredients enter his shadow? He supposed he shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth, but he couldn’t deny his curiosity.

“I suppose it doesn’t matter. Anyway, did you want to spend some time roaming around? I figured you’d like to stretch your legs. Just be sure to come back before everyone else wakes up. I still don’t want anyone to see you.”

Yōuměi stood on all fours and turned toward the city. It looked at the buildings, then at the street below, before disappearing into a shadow. The large panther appeared again on another building, but then she disappeared once more and appeared on the street below. Wu Jian’s last sight of her was the panther disappearing into an alley.

After he was sure she was gone, Wu Jian raised his right hand and clenched it into a fist. It didn’t look any different from how it normally did. Everything seemed the same. Yet he could feel the strength behind that fist far more acutely now. He had not yet had a chance to test out his newfound physical abilities, but they had run all the way here without breaks and he hadn’t gotten tired at all. While Hou Jingshu and Huǒ Shuchang were gasping for breath, he had felt just fine.

I wish I had the chance to test out my strength.

Maybe he would be able to ask Huǒ Shuchang for one last spar before he left. Wu Jian bit his lip.

I can’t believe Huǒ Shuchang is leaving…

He hadn’t known the older man for that long, but Huǒ Shuchang was the first man Wu Jian had bonded with. Wu Yong was his older half-brother, and yet Huǒ Shuchang felt more like a brother than Wu Yong ever had. When Wu Jian imagined what an older brother would act like, or what they should act like, Huǒ Shuchang was what he imagined.

“I thought I’d find you out here.” Wu Jian spun around to find Huǒ Shuchang standing behind him. The older man grinned. “Enjoying the night air?”

“Something like that.” Wu Jian ran a hand through his hair. “Are you really leaving?”

“What? You gonna miss me?” asked Huǒ Shuchang with a grin.

“...”

“Wait. You serious?”

Wu Jian looked away. He furrowed his brow, wondering if he should say anything, then sighed.

“I’ve never known what it felt like to have a guy friend before. All my friends up to now have been girls.”

“Are you bragging? Because that sounds a lot like bragging to me.”

“No, you idiot! I’m telling you that I think of you as a friend!” Wu Jian snapped. He clicked his tongue, then started again. “Since I’ve never had a guy friend before, being able to experience things that guys do is also foreign to me. But it’s cool. I’ve never just been able to pal around with someone like that before.”

He, Wu Meiying, and Hou Jingsnu had competed and trained together, but there was always that underlying current of tension between them. Wu Jian was aware of them as women. He couldn’t just treat them like he would a man because that strong instinct to protect them and provide for them was always present. He didn’t feel any of that with Huǒ Shuchang.

That the reason he cherished the bond he and Huǒ Shuchang had.

“Yeah, I sorta get what you mean,” Huǒ Shuchang said.

The two of them sat on the edge of the roof, legs dangling over the side. The night sky illuminated them.

“I have a lot of brothers, but none of us have what I’d call a brotherly bond. All of us are competing with each other. They would sooner kill me than befriend me.”

“Are they really that violent?” asked Wu Jian.

“Father strongly believes that might makes right and that someone who is killed is unworthy of being called his heir. Of course, it would be different if someone outside the family kills us. He might not care about our deaths, but he would destroy whoever killed us since it's a slight upon the family. However, he’s not gonna care if I get killed by one of my brothers.”

“Your father sounds like a real piece of work,” Wu Jian said with rank sarcasm.

Huǒ Shuchang shrugged. “I’m not denying it. The man is awful. In either event, you’re also the first person I’ve met who I feel like I’ve bonded with. If I had a little brother, I would want him to be like you.”

“Is that why you’re trying to marry me off to your sister?” asked Wu Jian.

“This and that are two separate issues. Don’t conflate them.”

“Sure, sure.”

The two of them continued to talk until Yōuměi came back. The sun was rising by the time they headed back inside their room. It was the start of a new day, and the beginning of Wu Jian’s separation with his first male friend.