Sequel: A Serendipitous Encounter - Drunkenly Celebrating Spring 2

Footsteps approached. A pair of boots, glistening with night dew, stopped in front of me.

I closed my eyes.

The expected words did not come out, but instead a very soft sound, almost like a sigh, came from above.

Then, a pair of warm, rough hands, with the familiar calluses from martial arts training, landed on my head and rubbed it hard twice, making my already messy hair even messier.

"Tsk." It was that same impatient interjection.

But for some reason, it didn't sound so harsh anymore.

I looked up in surprise.

The senior brother didn't have any particular expression on his face, but his brows were still furrowed, as if he had encountered some tricky problem that had intrigued him.

"Six months..." He pondered the words for a moment, then glanced at my face. "Alright, six months it is."

I stared at him blankly, not understanding.

“What I mean is,” he grinned, revealing a pair of sharp canine teeth, his smile carrying his unique, somewhat detestable yet reassuring arrogance, “I can just teach it again every six months. Consider it a review.”

My eyes widened suddenly. My heart, which had been shrinking in my chest due to tension and fear, felt like it had been scalded by something, both sore and swollen, and a completely unfamiliar heat surged up.

"But...but..." I stammered, "It's so troublesome...I'll forget...and then I'll ask you again, ask who you are..."

"Just ask," my senior interrupted me, speaking casually as if it were as ordinary as drinking water or eating. "You ask once, I'll answer once. Everyone forgets something... Just remember yourself." He withdrew his hand, crossed his arms, and looked at me. The mouse perched on his head tilted its head as well.

"Besides, even if you can't remember the details, you can still remember the feelings, right?" he suddenly said. "You've been following me for half a year. Even if you've forgotten the details in your mind, you should still remember some of the physical ones. You've built up muscles from swinging the rope dart three hundred times, and you've run the trade route ten times a day, getting blisters on your feet... You should remember all of that, right?"

I was stunned.

Subconsciously, my arms seemed to recall the soreness after overexertion, and my feet vaguely felt the stinging sensation of blisters I had once developed.

"It seems... a little," I said softly, with an uncertain hope.

"A little is fine." The senior brother seemed satisfied, turned and walked outside, a corner of his dark green cloak parting the night. "I'm leaving, time to sleep. I'll start teaching again tomorrow, and you won't get away with not paying me a penny of the compensation you owe me."

As I watched his retreating figure, the panic and inferiority that had almost overwhelmed me were miraculously shattered by my senior's few words.

The moonlight was still there, and the night was cool, but I felt that this night was different from any other night before.

I know, I know...

I will face the same predicament again in six months, but I don't seem to be as afraid anymore.

Because someone told me that it doesn't matter if I forget, he will find me again and again.

*

Later, my senior brother started taking me around to do quests and meet old friends from the martial arts world. I found that everyone liked him very much. Whenever my senior brother appeared in front of people, they would greet him with smiles and say, "Little Jiu, how have you been lately?"

Even if my senior brother secretly pocketed a few of their money, they would just laugh and curse and let him go.

My senior brother is skilled in many things. He's proficient in painting, cooking, and chess, so he was able to keep everyone company as soon as he arrived, and of course they liked him!

On one occasion, my senior brother and I went to a gambling den in the Ghost Market. Our target was a tyrannical gentry, and our mission was to get him to sign a land transfer agreement.

However, my senior brother changed his mind and used another method with me, which was even more effective than the one the elders had discussed earlier!

In the midst of the chaos, I managed to obtain the land deed, but in the blink of an eye, my senior brother disappeared.

"Senior brother, senior brother?" No one answered me.

That's strange, didn't we agree to go together?

Of course I have no doubt that my senior brother wants to take this opportunity to get rid of me, after all, he had many, many opportunities to do so before this.

So I let my mouse sniff the scent left by my senior brother, and the two of us chased after the trail.

"Senior brother—!!!" I was overjoyed to see my senior brother's figure in the distance, but why was there another person next to him?

My senior told me that he was training me to be able to adapt to changing circumstances.

Yay! Hello, senior!

My respect for my senior brother deepened, but it was obvious to the naked eye that the chivalrous man next to him immediately changed his gaze, his eyes darting back and forth between my senior brother and me.

I noticed a bright white fur collar around his neck, which reminded me of something mentioned in the sect guide I had looked at before, so I knew he was a disciple of Tianquan.

But the book says that Tianquan always goes on missions with several close friends, so why isn't this Brother Tianquan with them?

My thoughts drifted, and I considered a possibility—this chivalrous hero had been ostracized by the sect disciples, and no one wanted to play with him!

So I became genuinely sad and grabbed my older brother's hand, trying to put it on my senior brother. "Brother, if you don't have any friends, play with my senior brother!" I was introducing him to how great my senior brother was, and how he would definitely be a good investment, when I got a slap on the back of the head from my senior brother. "You brat, when I usually have you running trade routes, why aren't you this good at sales?"

"Ouch!" I rubbed my head and pouted. "How can that be the same..."

The chivalrous man was amused by my senior brother and me. Afterwards, the three of us parted ways, all looking forward to our next meeting.

*

Before that, I had forgotten everything again, as usual.

My senior colleague found me, but he wasn't angry or impatient. He suggested that I try keeping a journal, writing down what happened each day, and then looking back at it if I forgot about it.

I don't deny that it's a good suggestion, but...

"Senior brother, I can't read."

The senior student choked up.

Not only me, but many of the children in the same sect were illiterate. We all came from different tragic backgrounds, and even after entering the sect, we were all hopelessly illiterate.

After that day, I saw my senior brother even less. I could only run my own business, make my own umbrellas, weave my own straw sandals, and save the money I earned in a jar to give to my senior brother as compensation.

One day, my senior brother returned, his feet glistening with morning dew. As soon as he got back to the camp, he buried himself under the covers, leaving only his eyes staring at the ceiling. When he saw me following him, he slowly turned his head, his face and eyes flushed with a redness I had never seen before.

My senior asked me, "Do you think two men can be together?"

"Two men?" I wondered why my senior would ask such a question. But since he asked, I should think carefully before answering him.

I don't have many memories. Although in these few memories every worldly rule teaches me that it is the right way for men and women to be together, my senior brother has never been bound by worldly rules, so how can I demand that he be judged by the standards of ordinary people?

I nodded and said, "Yes!"

"..." The senior brother's face turned even redder, and he hurriedly buried himself completely in the quilt.

I noticed that there was a white thing stuck to my senior brother's wristband, the material of which looked like the fur collar worn by the chivalrous hero I met at the ghost market.

About two weeks later, my senior asked me to investigate something.

"Go and find out what the people in Tianquan have been up to lately." It was the middle of the night, and I was so sleepy and confused, but I was eventually bribed by him with two years' worth of pine nut candy and went without any backbone.

When they arrived at the destination, they found the disciples packing their luggage day and night.

I disguised myself as one of their people, grabbed one of the younger ones, and asked, "Where are we going?"

"Are you still half asleep? Aren't we going to Jiangnan?"

Jiangnan... I turned my head and saw a man diligently packing his luggage. His back looked a little familiar.

When I told my senior brother about it, his face immediately darkened. Without saying a word, he slipped out and didn't look back no matter how much I called him.

But he left with a smile on his face and returned with a light step.

Not long after, my senior brother somehow learned to recognize characters and gathered all the younger children in the sect together to teach us to recognize, read, and recite characters. The characters he wrote on the ground were unexpectedly beautiful, but I always felt that whether it was the tone of his voice when reading poems or the strokes of his writing, my senior brother was no longer like my senior brother. His every move carried the habits of another person, and sometimes when he talked about a certain poem, a rare tenderness would appear in his eyes.

He called me over at night and handed me a thick notebook and a fine calligraphy brush.

Under my questioning gaze, my senior coughed twice, trying to cover up his misunderstanding, and glanced away awkwardly. "It was... given to you by him."

"Him?" Who is that?

Later I found out that I met the chivalrous brother at the Ghost Market.

I was utterly shocked when I saw them holding hands—"When did you two...?"

"You don't need to worry about that. Just know about this." My senior brother said this without any regard for my jaw, which was about to dislocate. Instead, my chivalrous elder brother kindly helped me put my jaw back in place and stuffed a string of copper coins into my hand, saying that I could buy pine nut candy.

Feeling the weighty quality in my palm, my nose tingled, and I buried my face in the arms of the chivalrous elder brother and cried.

My senior brother covered his ears with both hands because of my noise. "Hey, hey, hey, it can't be that bad. People who don't know better would think that your senior brother abuses you!"

No, that's not true!

I cried because... because...

"Waaaaaah!"

*

My journal writing project is finally settled.

I've heard other kids in Kaifeng say with great distress that their families always secretly read their diaries, which makes them very sad and angry.

But I don't think so. I always write in front of my senior brothers and my chivalrous elder brother.

The day before yesterday I ate a few candies and a few noodles; yesterday I caught a few fish and a few rabbits; today I drank a few bowls of Fenghechun liquor that my senior brother brought back from Jiangnan—

"You've been drinking?" The chivalrous elder brother caught the key word and looked at me with concern and shock.

The senior brother waved his hand dismissively and said, "It's fine to have a sip or two now and then. He's not that delicate—why don't you care about me when I'm drinking?"

Faced with my senior brother's shameless behavior, the chivalrous elder brother was quite troubled. "Why argue with a child about jealousy? Besides, can these two things be the same?"

"Of course they're the same!" The rogue senior brother leaned in shamelessly and then shamelessly pulled the chivalrous elder brother into his arms. "All I know is that you only care about this kid and don't care about me at all..."

The chivalrous elder brother: "..."

I:"……"

My older brother was speechless because of my senior brother, which left me utterly speechless.

My old friend once said that my senior brother and I were like a potato and a lotus root; I was honest and straightforward, while my senior brother was a cunning and mischievous devil.

But brother, let's not laugh at each other like tomatoes. You're not much less accommodating than me... I silently flipped through my diary, which detailed the number of times my chivalrous brother was "tricked" by my senior brother and the specific events. When I wrote it, my brother's face was red, and my senior brother's face was also red, but neither of them stepped in to stop me from continuing my "rebellious" ways.

That's what you guys made me write, so don't blame me.

My notebook is very thick; it can hold a lot of information. The rain that has fallen in Kaifeng, the snow that has drifted by, and the wind that has blown through it are all inside. I've also tucked fallen flowers and withered leaves inside. When I take it out, it takes me back to the forgotten yesterday.

These views are certainly not my own experience.

I don't know if it's appropriate to say this, but I always feel like I'm the child of my senior brother and my chivalrous elder brother. Before, my senior brother led me through the streets and alleys, but now the footprints of the three of us have covered all of Kaifeng's spring, summer, autumn and winter.

Listening to operas, music, and playing with cats and dogs—it was all done by the three of us.

I like these kinds of days and enjoy this peace.

During this time, my senior brother and the chivalrous elder brother were constantly searching for a cure for me. They felt that although my condition had improved a lot after writing in my journal, it was not a long-term solution. They hoped that I could be like a normal child, forgetting only my troubles, rather than having both joy and sorrow erased.

Actually, I don't care.

Every time I stroke the journal, smell the ink, and touch the dried petals and leaves, I feel extremely satisfied!

My senior brothers have already done so much for me.

There was an old locust tree at the Suzhou-Mongolia School, and we often went there to eat locust leaf noodles. My mouth was stuffed full of noodles, and as soon as I stopped, a locust leaf happened to fall from above and float into my bowl.

I looked up at the locust tree above me. It turned green and then yellow, then bare again. People eating noodles and enjoying the shade under the tree came and went, but it always came back as promised each season.

"Senior brother, where are my pine nut candies? Where are my two-year-old pine nut candies?" I pushed open my senior brother's door to "collect the debt," but I couldn't see him anywhere. Even the quilt was folded neatly—this was too strange. You know, my senior brother usually just leaves the quilt piled up on the bed in a mess as soon as he wakes up, like a rat's nest.

Could it be that Brother Haoxia is coming today, and he's finally showing some decisiveness?

I grinned slyly, planning to write about it in my diary so I could tease him when he got back. Maybe I'd see my senior brother's face turn bright red again, and I'd even manage to turn the tables on my chivalrous brother!

Humming a tune I often heard in Changshu from Kaifeng, I left my senior brother's residence.

As I was walking, I suddenly heard voices coming from the council hall. I leaned over the door and listened for a bit, but I only heard them say something about "Hexi" and "rebellion". I couldn't hear anything else.

When it finally quieted down inside, I belatedly realized that there were no disciples in the courtyard today. The usually lively and noisy courtyard was now as if someone had died.