Night fell, and the characteristic chill of autumn seeped out from the red earth, eroding the warmth left behind by the day’s sun.
Xiao Nanhui sat huddled in a chair, wrapped in a thick wool blanket, watching the two men before her—both of whom were currently of questionable mobility—attack each other with words.
"I told you long ago that this charade wouldn't work. Now that they’ve come knocking on our door, I’d like to see what your 'strategy' is."
Wu Xiaoliu clutched a stack of papyrus in his hand, covered in the flowery, sentimental poetry Hao Bai had churned out that day. "Strategy? You have the nerve to ask us for a strategy? What is this written on the paper? Is this a strategy?"
Hao Bai tightened his grip, nearly snapping the fan in his hand in two.
He had made the fan himself over the past few days using materials stolen from the children in the stronghold who were making kites. Though it couldn't compare to the works of famous masters he had owned before, holding it gave him about seventy to eighty percent of his former "flair."
"Why should I come up with a strategy?! What does this have to do with me? A perfectly good medical house call turned into a prison sentence. Has anyone bothered to ask how I feel about that?!"
Wu Xiaoliu still had a coarse cloth apron tied around his waist. Lately, he hadn't just been attending to Xiao Nanhui’s needs; he had also been forced to serve this powdered and perfumed wandering doctor. He was already simmering with resentment, and the sight of that fan was particularly grating. His tone turned sharp and biting.
"We folk from poor backgrounds aren't as precious as you, Mister Hao. We serve you good food and drink every day, yet you speak as if you're in a dungeon. If a real disaster strikes in the future, I bet you'll be the first one to tuck tail and run."
Hao Bai hated this sarcastic manner of speaking most of all. He looked ready to descend into a full-blown shouting match. "You fat oaf, how dare you slander me? Do you think I truly don't know how she got that injury on her leg? I thought you looked honest, but it turns out you're a treacherous little man inside. I would rather go out and sleep with the cattle and sheep than stay under the same roof as you for another second!"
Since arriving in this godforsaken place, he had been prone to a major fit of rage every three days and a minor one every two. In just over a month, he had effectively severed the refined and aloof lineage of the Qu family within himself.
Wu Xiaoliu, however, was clearly just getting warmed up. He rolled up his sleeves, preparing for a battle of three hundred rounds. "You said it yourself! There’s no time like the present. Please, Mister Hao, pack your things right now. I’ll be sure to save the most comfortable spot in the sheep pen just for you..."
The woman who had been picking at her feet on the side finally couldn't take it anymore.
"Are you two finished? There are only seven or eight of them, yet they’ve spooked you both into this state. How am I supposed to rely on either of you in the future?"
The two men fell silent instantly, but the quiet only lasted a moment.
For some reason, Hao Bai turned his fire on her. "They are just inspecting their territory. At most, they’ll steal some of your food. You should have just given it to them. Why did you insist on letting them stay in the stronghold? You’re just looking for trouble."
Xiao Nanhui gave him a lazy roll of her eyes. "You don't know squat. This stronghold has changed hands; they won't leave until they’ve figured out exactly what’s going on. If you’re in such a hurry to kick them out, aren't you just announcing to the world that something is wrong here?"
Wu Xiaoliu also looked like he disagreed with her. "Even so, they won't let it rest. Seeing how easy we are to talk to this time, there will likely be no end to the trouble in the future."
"If there’s trouble, we’ll deal with it." She shifted her position, hanging upside down off the edge of the bed to perform a strange sort of sit-up. "You two need to exercise more. If something goes wrong later, it’ll be every man for himself. Survival depends on luck, but escaping depends on skill. You two should at least be able to run five miles before I can truly feel at ease."
Thinking of these endless, fear-filled days, Hao Bai’s face turned as black as the bottom of a pot.
"Wasting my breath on you is like playing the lute to a cow!"
With that, he flicked his sleeve in a huff and stormed off. The force of his movement tore a hole in his paper fan, but he didn't care, slamming the door behind him as he stomped away.
Xiao Nanhui sighed inwardly, her face remaining expressionless as her fingers began to pick at the cloth bandages on her foot.
Her foot had been itching terribly these past few days. She felt it was a good sign of healing and decided she might as well unwrap it today to take a look.
Halfway through, the fat man, perhaps feeling there was nothing left for him to do, turned to leave as well.
"Xiaoliu."
Wu Xiaoliu shuddered.
This woman rarely called him by his name; usually, she just barked orders at him. Now that she was using his name, it likely wasn't for anything good.
"Stay a moment. I have something to ask you."
Xiao Nanhui stood up from the chair. The remaining scraps of white cloth fell to the floor, and she kicked them aside.
The injury on her foot was mostly healed, though she still walked with a slight limp. When no one was around, she had already stopped using the crutches.
If nothing else, she was very satisfied with Hao Bai’s medical skills.
She reached out to trim the wick of the lamp. The flickering oil lamp brightened again, casting shifting shadows across her face.
Wu Xiaoliu watched her secretly from the doorway. He suddenly felt that perhaps the months of wind and sand had sharpened her edges; her eyes looked much more resolute and piercing than when they had first arrived in Suyan.
The woman seemed to sense his gaze and looked over the next instant.
"You and I met in a time of crisis and have supported each other to get this far. I already know your identity. Are you not at all curious about my affairs?"
Upon hearing this, Wu Xiaoliu shook his head like a rattle. "Not curious, not curious at all..."
Xiao Nanhui leaned in close to his fat face, as if trying to stare two holes into it. "Truly?"
Wu Xiaoliu’s calves began to tremble uncontrollably again. "Truly, truly..."
What sin had he committed? They had finally managed a period of harmony, only for things to revert to the tension of their first meeting overnight.
The woman pulled back and nodded with satisfaction. "Fine. Then it is your own choice not to know; you cannot say I wasn't being honest."
Wu Xiaoliu quietly shifted half a step toward the door. "It’s getting late. How about we talk tomorrow..."
Without even lifting her eyelids, she suddenly asked, "The night we first stayed at the Sun residence, I asked you a question. Do you remember?"
Wu Xiaoliu’s restless foot came to a dead stop. He didn't speak, but his silence proved he remembered.
"I asked you if you had ever heard of a group of people who all have the same face and kill with flying wires."
Xiao Nanhui’s words were like a heavy hammer striking Wu Xiaoliu’s heart, making the expression on his face almost impossible to hide.
"You can't play dead this time. If you're thick-skinned enough, you can try actually dropping dead and see if that works."
It wasn't a matter of being thick-skinned; it was a matter of how much courage he had.
Wu Xiaoliu collapsed back into the chair with a thud, keeping his head down, not daring to look at her. "I know you're someone with a significant background, but those people... it’s better if you never encounter them."
"What if I’ve already encountered them?"
He looked up in shock, his tiny eyes wide as he scanned her from head to toe. "Then how are you not dead? How are you not missing any arms or legs?"
Well, she wasn't missing any limbs. After all, with her, Bo Lao, and that man named Ding, there were few in the martial world who could actually maim them.
But she hadn't come out unscathed either.
She thought of the pathetic state they were in at the old Xiong residence in Huozhou and felt a urge to laugh. The corners of her mouth twitched upward for a moment before falling back down. "You really did know something all along. Why didn't you say anything when I asked you before?!"
Wu Xiaoliu reverted to his cowardly, aggrieved look. "It’s bad luck to talk about it. And you didn't keep pressing me..."
Xiao Nanhui couldn't stand his spineless act. She grabbed the teapot on the table and poured two cups. "Then I suppose it’s my fault. We have time today, so let’s make up for last time. Tell me everything you know. Don't leave out a single word."
Wu Xiaoliu sighed and drained his tea in one gulp.
"I was born in Mao'er Town, thirty miles south of Wancheng. Back when it was prosperous years ago, there were several hundred households. From the time I could remember things, I would go into the mountains with the other children to find food..."
"You aren't planning to start from when you were three or four, are you?"
"...Didn't you tell me not to leave out a single word?"
"Get to the point."
"...The people you mentioned came to the town once when I was a child. They kidnapped many children. I was almost taken too."
Xiao Nanhui’s eyes finally lit up, and she leaned forward. "Kidnapped children? How old? Were any of them ever found?"
"Half-grown children, mostly seven or eight years old. I’ve been sturdier than others my age since I was small; at five or six, I looked seven or eight. Of those who were taken, no one ever returned to the town except me. But most of those kidnapped children were orphans anyway; no one would have bothered to ask about them."
"Then how did you escape?"
Wu Xiaoliu became bashful again. Xiao Nanhui slammed her hand on the table. The teapot, the two cups, and the candlestick all jumped three inches into the air before landing back down. Wu Xiaoliu spoke up hurriedly, "I... I think I... I think I wet my pants. They thought it was disgusting and bad luck, so they threw me away..."
Xiao Nanhui’s lip twitched.
The people in that organization were terrible, yet they apparently had a germaphobic streak.
"When you were with them, do you remember anything they said or did?"
Wu Xiaoliu’s body didn't shake, but his eyes reflected a genuine terror. "I was too young then, and I was terrified. I only remember... I only remember many wild dogs that seemed mad, thorny brambles, and red-hot branding irons..."
She lowered her eyes, hiding the complex emotions within. "Fine. You don't have to say any more."
She felt she might know how those ruined, identical faces had come to be.
The candle flame flickered and dimmed again. She didn't bother with it, but in a rare gesture, she peeled a few sand dates for Wu Xiaoliu.
As Wu Xiaoliu chewed, his mind gradually settled.
A few autumn insects circled the flame, their wings making a faint, irritating fluttering sound.
After a long silence, Xiao Nanhui asked, "You said that was when you were a child. Does that mean those people haven't appeared since?"
"A few years after that incident, I left Mao'er Town. In all my years of wandering around Lingxi, I truly haven't heard of those people again."
"Do those people have a title or a name?"
Wu Xiaoliu shook his head. "They won't even let people recognize their faces; how could they have a name? But back in my hometown, everyone called them... the Puhuna."
Xiao Nanhui frowned. "What is a Puhuna?"
"I only heard the elders talk about it. They said a long time ago, when those people first started operating around the Jizhou area, an old monk from the East tried to convert them, but he was brutally murdered. Before he died, he only said the three words 'Pu-hu-na.' The villagers didn't understand it, but it was passed down by word of mouth. Whenever those people were mentioned again, they would say the Puhuna had come."
A gust of night wind blew open the cloth curtain at the window. The candle on the table finally turned into a wisp of blue smoke and went out.
*Puhuna.*
Xiao Nanhui moved her ten newly freed toes, silently repeating those three syllables in the darkness.
Who, exactly, were they?
