"Q-quickly, bring out the carriage. We need to leave here tonight," Old Gu Six stammered.
It was his first time committing theft, and he felt uneasy. Old Gu Six wanted to leave as soon as possible; otherwise, he couldn't shake off his guilty conscience.
"How can we travel in this pitch-black darkness? If we suddenly light a torch in the dead of night, we'll be too obvious. Fleeing at night with a torch is like announcing to everyone that we're the ones who stole from the Commandery office. Besides, dawn isn't far off. Let's leave at first light tomorrow."
Chang'an brought out the carriage, then went back into her space to change clothes. Outside, Old Gu Six also changed out of his night-raiding attire.
They waited for about two hours. When the sky began to lighten and they could barely make out the path, they left.
Luckily, they made their escape quickly. The guard who had spotted Old Gu Six lurking near the city wall the previous evening had changed shifts and, due to other reasons, hadn't reported the incident in time.
Early the next morning, when the new shift started, the guard reported the suspicious man he had seen the previous evening to his superior.
However, the report came too late; the culprits had long since vanished.
Soon after, a sketch of Old Gu Six appeared at the Commandery office. The sketch couldn't be called inaccurate – it was more like a completely different person, bearing no resemblance to Old Gu Six whatsoever.
The face was square, with large round eyes that seemed to glare angrily.
If they were to search for someone based on this sketch, it's a conservative estimate that they wouldn't find the real person even by the time the empire was unified.
To avoid unnecessary detours, Chang'an and Old Gu Six started asking for directions.
As they were still within the boundaries of Xuantu Commandery, they had the honor of seeing wanted posters plastered on the walls when passing through towns, with dark-robed guards standing watch nearby.
"Father, are they trying to catch you?" Chang'an asked.
Old Gu Six glanced at the sketch, emotionless. "No," he replied. The drawing looked like some vaguely human-shaped thing. He was devastatingly handsome; they certainly weren't after him.
Chang'an thought the artist at the Commandery office must be quite talented. If there were any wrongful convictions in Xuantu Commandery, that artist would surely bear some responsibility.
However, they didn't need to worry about their actions implicating innocent people. No normal person could possibly look like the person in that sketch.
Not only was the face square, but the head was square too, and balding. Were they looking for SpongeBob SquarePants?
Was this a case of expectation versus reality?
Old Gu Six remained calm and composed, showing no signs of guilt as he paid the entry fee to enter the city. He had only felt a twinge of unease right after leaving the Commandery office, but he quickly reasoned it out. After all, they hadn't stolen from good people, so why should he feel guilty?
The guards at the city gate unknowingly let the wanted criminal pass through their fingers.
The father-daughter duo walked brazenly through the streets. They didn't need to resupply, so they merely passed through without lingering in the city.
They could have taken the small paths instead of entering the city, but Chang'an was afraid of getting lost again. She thought it would be more reliable to stick to the main roads.
Wanted posters were plastered all over Xuantu Commandery, yet no one could catch the real culprits. The pair left the boundaries of Xuantu Commandery with impunity.
As they traveled further north, the weather grew colder, and the snow on the ground thickened, making their journey more difficult.
They decided to stop at a place called Fenghua Town, renting a small courtyard on the outskirts. They planned to wait until spring before continuing their journey.
It was only two months until spring, and they had already spent enough time on the road. A couple more months wouldn't hurt.
The house had mud walls and a thatched roof. One large room was divided into two: the outer area housed the stove, which connected to a large heated kang bed in the inner room.
When Chang'an saw the heated kang bed, she almost fell to her knees in gratitude to her ancestors. She had finally found hope for surviving the winter.
She had thought this damn world wouldn't have such essential winter gear, but it turned out her imagination wasn't bold enough.
Chang'an placed two wooden boxes in the middle of the kang, and Old Gu Six hung up a coarse cloth curtain, dividing the kang into two spaces.
During their winter hiatus, Chang'an began formally cultivating her inner energy. She thought she was quite clever, but that was just her own perception.
Enduring hardships? That was for other people.
Training in the depths of winter and the height of summer? That was Old Gu Six's routine. Even while on the run, he never missed a day of practice.
Stumbling along, Chang'an finally managed to cultivate some inner energy after a month, though this faint, elusive energy wasn't enough to make her fly.
Having something to do made the winter days less boring. Chang'an was stubborn; the more difficult something was, the more she wanted to master it. If talent was lacking, she'd make up for it with effort.
And so, she entered an immersive training mode that no one dared disturb.
One day, as Old Gu Six was clearing snow from their roof alone, a neighbor, a middle-aged woman, brazenly called out to him to help clear her roof as well.
"Hey, young man, come over and sweep my roof too!"
Old Gu Six pretended not to hear. After finishing his own roof, he went back inside. It was too cold to be doing good deeds.
The neighbor was a widow, but she had sons and daughters. There was no reason for him to help her sweep snow, especially given the saying that a widow's doorstep is full of drama.
A large head popped out from the house next to the widow's, looking somewhat sleazy. "Aunt Chen, I'll help you sweep the snow!"
"Get lost!" she yelled. "Dazhu, Erzhu, come out and clear the snow from the roof! All you do is eat and sleep all day. Even raising a pig would be more useful than you two!"
Aunt Chen stormed back into her house with a dark face, grumbling about how lazy her sons were.
Two eleven or twelve-year-old boys who looked identical came out of the house with tools. They had just finished cleaning the house – how could their mother say they did nothing?
The two daily meals, housekeeping, clearing snow outside – which of these tasks weren't done by the brothers?
But they didn't argue with their mother, silently getting on with their work instead.
The sleazy neighbor climbed down his ladder with a look of disdain. "Winter's not even over, and some people are already feeling frisky," he muttered, loud enough for the neighbors on both sides to hear.
Inside her house, Aunt Chen angrily twisted her young daughter's arm to vent her frustration. The little girl's eyes welled up with tears.
"Don't you dare cry, you little good-for-nothing! You disaster, you killed your father and forced me to be a widow raising you lot. How dare you cry?"
The seven or eight-year-old girl had thin hair and a sallow complexion. She curled up at the end of the kang, hugging herself tightly and not making a sound.
The brothers working outside pretended not to hear. They used to protect their sister, but she never appreciated it, so they stopped intervening.
Chang'an and Old Gu Six had no interest in other people's affairs. The pair were discussing whether to have hot pot or barbecue.
In the end, Chang'an won, and they had hotpot.
The winter days seemed to pass quickly, with darkness falling early. Chang'an lit her homemade ice lantern, and father and daughter sat around the stove, eating with gusto.
Outside, it was a world of ice and snow, but inside, warmth permeated the air.
This dinner lasted quite a while, long enough for an unexpected visitor to arrive at their home.
There was a muffled 'thud' from the courtyard, though the sound was faint—at least Chang'an couldn't hear it clearly.
"Daughter, stay inside and don't come out," Old Gu Six said.
He wiped his mouth with a cloth he had set aside, instructing Chang'an not to leave the house. With a flick of his sleeve, a short sword appeared in his hand.
Holding the sword, he cautiously walked out the door, then carefully secured it behind him.
In the courtyard, where the snow had been cleared just that afternoon, a person lay prone. The darkness of night made it impossible to discern their features.
