Chapter 28- A Yang Man

The ice was, if anything, colder than it looked. That was the bad news. The good news was that you could insulate yourself, to a degree, with vital energy. The other bad news was that the draw on your vital energy was atrocious, so you had to move quickly. Across the incredibly slick ice. If you fell, you would be dead before you had time to scream. There was simply no way you were going to be able to protect your whole body with vital energy for long enough to stand up again.

Tian was very patient with all the tests. He did not, in fact, want to be back in a wheelchair, or to lose his feet. He liked his feet. He used them every day. However, patience has its limits, and Sister Su looked like she was willing to conduct tests until the mountain wore down to an anthill.

“The sun is getting low in the sky. I should go now.” Tian cupped his fist and turned towards the lake. The flaming tree was waving in the wind, as though it were inviting him to come take a bite of all that low-hanging fruit. He got two steps closer to the ice when his collar was grabbed again.

“Sister, I can’t imagine my collar is that nice to grab. Tell you what, I’ll grab yours and we can compare.”

“We’ll go together.” Liren was firm on this.

“I’m better at Moon Crossing the Lake than you are.”

“Yeah, but I can use it just fine. And I’m faster than you.”

“Says the woman who never beat me in a race.” Tian grumbled.

“First of all, you cheated by moving the finish line. Second, you know I can see you are secretly pleased, right? You are easily the worst liar in the sect, in the sense of being bad at it.”

“Slander. Of all the vile, despicable slander! I am a fantastic liar!”

“Brothers and sisters, is Tian a fantastic liar?” Tian and Hong looked back at the other three. Brother Wang was sharing a bag of salted melon seeds with Sister Su, while Lin had her own. All three were shaking their heads in perfect synchronicity.

“I hate you all.”

The heads continued to shake.

“This is what happens when I leave the house without crane support. Nothing but oppression and slander. I am going to go eat a delicious fruit now. Keep up if you can.” Tian sniffed and turned back towards the lake. Liren snickered and matched his pace.

They reached the ice edge and regulated their breathing.

“Do you remember when we went night fishing on that lake just off the Pebble river? The little lake with the poplar that had been struck by lightning? Do you remember how the moon rippled across the water as you slowly polled along, how the waves drove the moon over the water? Then the water would calm, and you could see that the moon hadn’t moved at all. The world moved chaotically, but the moon kept to its own time and its own course. That’s what we will move like. Ignore the changes in the world around us. Just be the moon drifting over the water.” Tian murmured, pitching his voice just for Liren’s ears.

“Mmm.” She grinned slightly. “Shall I let you lead this time?”

He looked up at her and smiled back. “Yes.”

He reached back and pulled out his dragon hairpin and let his snowy white hair tumble down to his waist. It felt right to just flow. He exhaled, inhaled, and with the exhale, stepped out onto the frozen lake.

Tian felt the disconnect within himself- blazing yang trapped inside his heart as frozen yin flooded his body. His steps were small, controlled, but quick. He moved so smoothly it looked like he was gliding, it looked like the wind was pushing a spirit of the mountain across the frozen lake.