“Long time no see.”
Night had fallen deep over Sunset Village.
Sea mist crept in from beyond the village, inch by inch. It crossed the shallows, the reefs, and the half-rotten fishing nets before silently crawling up the village’s flagstone paths.
Though Shui Hua had no idea what was going on, she still obeyed Old Jiang and obediently retreated into the house.
She did not close the window at once.
Crouching behind it, she held her breath and secretly peered outside.
The mist beyond the courtyard gate slowly parted.
A figure emerged from within.
The newcomer wore a dark-blue ceremonial robe, its hem embroidered with fine patterns resembling waves.
As the night wind passed through the mist, those patterns seemed to come alive, glimmering with an exceedingly faint watery light.
His face was gentle, his bearing tranquil.
Yet merely standing there, he seemed to press down upon the night around the entire courtyard with an invisible force.
Shui Hua had never seen anyone like him.
He had not drawn a sword or made a move, yet instinct told her that he was dangerous.
Zhu Changli looked at the stooped old man in the courtyard and spoke calmly:
“Jiang Huaichao. I never expected to meet you here.”
“After all these years, you really do look like a fisherman.”
At the sound of that name, the muddled, listless expression on Old Jiang’s face faded slightly.
Only for an instant.
Very soon, he lowered his eyes again. His back remained hunched, as though he were an ordinary old fisherman bent by decades of sea wind.
“I am a fisherman.”
He replied slowly:
“Lord Life-Destiny Priest, now that you have personally come to my door, may I ask what brings you to this little fishing village?”
Inside the house, Shui Hua froze.
This was the first time she had learned that Old Jiang had another name.
Jiang Huaichao.
Those three characters sounded nothing like an old fisherman who spent his days rowing boats, casting nets, and scolding her for being too noisy.
Nor did they sound like the sort of man who would grab an oar and chase her around the boat whenever she brought in a few extra fish.
Shui Hua instinctively tightened her grip on the window frame.
Zhu Changli did not enter the courtyard.
He glanced at the house behind Old Jiang, then said indifferently:
“Former deputy tide watcher of the Sea Ministry.”
“You were responsible for monitoring tides along Cangzhou’s borders and tracking unusual movements among sea beasts, yet now you claim to be nothing more than an old fisherman?”
Old Jiang raised a hand and touched the tobacco pipe at his waist.
He seemed about to take a puff.
But when his fingers reached the tobacco pouch, he discovered that it contained no tobacco at all.
He paused, then simply tucked the pipe back into place.
“When a man grows old, he has to find somewhere to retire.”
“There are too many rules in the Divine Palace. It isn’t a place suited to me.”
Zhu Changli looked at him.
“If I remember correctly, you did not leave the palace under normal circumstances.”
Old Jiang did not answer.
Zhu Changli continued:
“Your name was struck from the old records of the Sea Ministry.”
“There was no record of your death.”
“No transfer order.”
“No expulsion order.”
“Only one sentence: ‘Requested removal from the registry.’”
His voice was neither hurried nor forceful, yet every word pressed down upon the old man in the courtyard.
“Jiang Huaichao, why did you leave the Divine Palace back then?”
Old Jiang lowered his head and stared at the damp flagstones beneath his feet.
Sea mist flowed through the cracks between the stones.
Like a silent tide creeping toward them.
After a moment, he let out a laugh.
“This old man was getting on in years, and I was badly injured at the time. So I returned to my hometown to recuperate.”
“Then, as I recovered, I found that the water here was good, and the fish were plentiful.”
“I grew reluctant to leave.”
Zhu Changli said calmly:
“You have no family.”
The smile on Old Jiang’s face finally faded somewhat.
Zhu Changli continued:
“If I remember correctly, you were an orphan registered to the Divine Palace.”
“You grew up in the Sea Ministry from childhood.”
“Your home should be the Divine Palace.”
The night wind in the courtyard was cool.
Inside the house, Shui Hua held her breath.
She understood very little of what they were saying.
Former deputy tide watcher of the Sea Ministry.
An orphan of the Divine Palace.
Requested removal from the registry.
Those terms were far beyond her understanding, as distant as the lofty towers of the Divine Palace in Clouddream City—utterly unrelated to the fishing nets, salted fish, and wooden basins of Sunset Village.
And yet, she vaguely realized that Old Jiang had been hiding many things.
Many things he had never told her.
Old Jiang remained silent for a long time. Then he suddenly sighed.
“Since Lord Life-Destiny Priest has investigated so thoroughly, I suppose this old man can’t keep everything hidden.”
He raised his eyes, his tone still slow and unhurried.
“Later, I had a daughter.”
“She and her short-lived husband both passed away young, leaving me only a little granddaughter.”
“This old bag of bones couldn’t possibly abandon the child.”
Inside the house, Shui Hua’s eyes widened.
A little granddaughter?
Her?
Old Jiang was her grandfather?
Yet from the time she was little, everyone in the village had said that Old Jiang had taken her in.
Old Jiang himself had never explained anything.
Shui Hua remained crouched behind the window, stunned. It was as though someone had suddenly tossed a stone into her heart, throwing its surface into chaos.
Zhu Changli did not respond at once.
He studied Old Jiang, as though trying to determine how much truth the old man’s words contained.
After a moment, he finally set the matter aside and came to the point.
“Since you went into hiding here for the sake of your family, I won’t pry further.”
“But do you remember whether any strange phenomena appeared in this area?”
Old Jiang rubbed his temple.
“It was too long ago.”
“I don’t remember.”
Zhu Changli said flatly:
“The sea mist remained for three days.”
“Fog is common by the sea,” Old Jiang replied.
Zhu Changli continued:
“The tide flowed backward in the middle of the night.”
“The wind shifted, and so did the tide.”
He went on:
“The cries of ancient whales reached the shallow waters.”
Old Jiang fell silent for a moment.
Then he smiled.
“The villagers are ignorant.”
“It’s hardly strange that they mistook the cries of sea beasts for the song of whales.”
Silence settled over the courtyard.
Inside the house, however, Shui Hua felt her heartbeat growing faster and faster.
Old Jiang was her grandfather?
Why had no one ever told her?
She instinctively tightened her grip on the window frame, her fingers paling from the force.
At that instant, Zhu Changli seemed to catch the faintest fluctuation of aura from within the house. His gaze shifted almost imperceptibly.
Old Jiang immediately coughed.
“Has the Life-Destiny Priest taken to investigating ancient history because the Divine Palace has nothing else to do?”
The cough was not loud.
Yet like a pebble falling into water, it instantly stirred the faint current of energy in the courtyard and concealed the girl’s presence inside the house.
Zhu Changli did not allow himself to be distracted.
He asked only one question:
“Lord Hai Ruo personally traveled east back then.”
“You should know about it, shouldn’t you?”
The fingers gripping the tobacco pipe finally paused.
Zhu Changli took one step forward.
As his foot came down, the sea mist beyond the gate pressed inward like a rising tide.
Old Jiang slowly lifted his eyes.
His back was still hunched.
But in those murky eyes, the laziness of an ordinary old fisherman gradually faded away.
Zhu Changli said:
“Jiang Huaichao, Lord Hai Ruo brought back an infant girl during that eastern tour.”
“That infant girl is the Goddess Dantai Jingyue of today.”
“And in the old tide records, I found a reference to Sunset Village.”
“Three days of sea mist.”
“The tide flowing backward.”
“The cries of ancient whales.”
“And—”
He paused for a moment.
A trace of coldness finally entered Old Jiang’s eyes.
“Lord Life-Destiny Priest.”
“Anything concerning Lord Hai Ruo is not something you or I can discuss freely.”
Zhu Changli smiled faintly.
“I was ordered by the High Priest to investigate certain matters from the past.”
“Your refusal to cooperate is making things rather difficult for me.”
Inside the house, Shui Hua’s heart tightened.
She instinctively took half a step backward, but accidentally nudged the small wooden stool at her feet.
The stool wobbled, giving off the faintest sound.
Zhu Changli’s gaze instantly swept past Old Jiang and fell on the room beyond.
Old Jiang raised his hand almost at the same moment.
The flame of the old oil lamp in the courtyard flickered.
A faint blue radiance spread silently, like a thin, still curtain of water, concealing every trace of life within the house.
Zhu Changli looked at the lamp, and at last, his eyes grew more profound.
“Jiang Huaichao.”
“These past years, it seems you haven’t forgotten everything the Sea Ministry taught you.”
Old Jiang replied coldly, “There’s no law against an old fisherman lighting a lamp at night, is there?”
Zhu Changli did not continue circling around the old records.
He looked toward the house behind Old Jiang.
“Is the person inside your little granddaughter?”
Old Jiang fell silent for a moment.
“Yes.”
The corners of his mouth twitched.
“Wretched as a stray cat, foul-mouthed, eats like a bottomless pit, and never listens.”
“From the time she was little, her only talent has been driving people mad.”
Inside the house, when Shui Hua first heard him acknowledge her, her heart inexplicably warmed.
So Old Jiang hadn’t simply picked her up off the street.
He really was her grandfather.
But when she heard what came next, she was so furious that she nearly rushed out to curse him.
Who was wretched?
Who was foul-mouthed?
Who ate too much?
She was obviously just growing!
Yet Shui Hua’s instincts also told her that she could not go outside just then.
All she could do was cover her mouth tightly and force every curse back down her throat.
Zhu Changli said mildly, “I’d like to meet her.”
“After all, you and I were once acquainted.”
“If the descendant of an old friend possesses sufficient talent, I can grant her an opportunity to change her fate.”
Old Jiang’s eyes turned completely cold.
The wind in the courtyard fell silent.
Sea mist spilled over the low fence and crept to Old Jiang’s feet.
The two men faced each other across a wooden door and a stretch of fog.
One was now the Life-Destiny Priest of one of the Divine Palace’s Nine Halls.
The other was a former deputy tide watcher of the Sea Ministry, struck from the records many years ago and living in seclusion in a fishing village.
The night was so quiet that it seemed someone had pressed it down into the depths of the sea.
After a long while, Old Jiang closed his eyes.
When he opened them again, the chill in his gaze had already been forced back into their murky depths.
Without turning around, he said quietly to the room, “Huahua.”
“Come out.”
“Pay your respects to Lord Life-Destiny.”
Shui Hua’s heart tightened.
She looked at the sword still held in her arms.
Then she glanced at the dense night fog outside the window, thick enough to seem almost solid.
For once, she did not answer loudly, grin impishly, or talk back.
After a moment, she slowly walked to the door and reached out to push it open.
