As autumn approached, An Chen took Zi Mo away from Jiangnan and went to Yazhou and the East China Sea.
I looked up at Zi Mo and asked, "So, before that autumn, you were in Yangzhou, right?"
Zi Mo said, "Yes, all the way until the willow branches on the low embankment in Yangzhou turn yellow."
After thinking for a long time, I mustered up my strength and asked her in a low voice, "Did An Chen mention to you back then that he... he had a friend in Yangzhou, and they had... enjoyed the willows and listened to the zither together on the embankment?"
Zi Mo said, "Hmm?"
I closed my eyes. "It's nothing, please continue."
She paused for a moment, then said: The East China Sea is beautiful.
As the sun set, Zi Mo, dressed in simple clothes and a rustic outfit, waited on the shore for An Chen to return from the sea.
The women of the fishing village pointed at her and whispered that she had deep blue eyes and snow-white skin, and was a bewitching woman from the East.
Zi Mo remained indifferent, drew a dagger from his waist, narrowed his eyes, and coldly swept it across the woman's neck, drawing blood with a single stroke.
As dusk fell, the sea turned crimson, and drops of blood fell onto the sand and stones on the shore.
Zi Mo looked at the remaining women with a cold smile. They were panicked and looked at her in fear.
She raised her sleeve, but someone grabbed her hand. An Chen's voice rang in her ear, "Zi Mo."
Zi Mo turned around, the blood-stained twilight casting a golden halo around An Chen, his expression calm and gentle.
He said, "Don't do anything, I'll take you away."
Zi Mo stopped and asked An Chen, "I'm from the Eastern Lands, what am I going to do? People will keep pointing fingers at me from now on."
An Chen stroked her long hair and said, "I think it's fine."
An Chen took a light purple jade pendant from his waist: "Zi Mo, purple jade suits you better than a dagger."
They went to Mount Li and stayed together amidst the rolling hills.
An Chen picked a snow plum and prepared medicine to detoxify her.
At the top of Mount Li is a pool called Silver Cup Pool. The spring water in the pool is warm, while outside the pool, ice and snow stretch to the horizon, withered vines cover the area, and fireworks bloom in the misty haze.
An Chen used his internal energy to expel the poison from her body while she was in the pool.
The warm air surrounded the two of them. Poisonous blood seeped from the corner of Zi Mo's mouth, staining her snow-white cheeks down to her chin.
She frowned and said, "An Chen, it hurts."
Zi Mo paused at this point in her story, and said, "This is the first time I've ever cried out in pain to someone."
In the past, even when the knife pierced her bones and gnawed at her heart and lungs, she never told anyone about the pain.
An Chen chuckled softly behind her, "Zi Mo, from now on, if it hurts, just yell it out; if you want to cry, just cry it out."
Looking at the undulating snow-capped mountains, Zi Mo whispered, "I'm really in pain."
She brewed Muxi wine from the East for him to drink, and he could drink a thousand cups without getting drunk.
Zi Mo said to An Chen, "I don't know any characters from the Central Plains. Would you teach me to read?"
An Chen looked at her, and after a moment, he wrote the two characters "An Chen" on the paper and said, "You must remember my name."
She learned it stroke by stroke, and studied very hard.
Zi Mo asked An Chen, "Don't you have any family?"
He smiled, then looked down and wrote the two characters "Zi Mo" on the white paper: "It didn't exist before, but it does now."
They stayed in the East for several days.
One night, more than ten men dressed in black descended from the sky. At that time, Zi Mo still had residual poison that had not been expelled. An Chen, considering her safety, took a hidden weapon heavily, which struck him squarely in the chest.
The newcomer looked at Zi Mo and said to her in the Eastern dialect, "Kill him and come back with us."
Zi Mo drew her dagger, propped herself up, and held the blade to her neck: "If any of you dare to touch him, I'll have the Emperor take my body back."
The men in the shadows exchanged glances, then coldly said, "The Emperor will settle accounts with you." They then vanished.
Zi Mo took out a tube of ointment from her bosom and applied it to An Chen's wound. She said, "They poisoned the hidden weapon. This is the antidote."
An Chen leaned against the table, looking at her calmly. After a long while, he spoke, "Zi Mo, do you have family?"
Zi Mo was taken aback, then shook her head: "No."
An Chen quickly bandaged himself up, then raised an eyebrow and said, "Don't lie to me. Tell me about your past, okay?"
He spoke in a very soft tone, as if lovers were discussing something.
Zi Mo lowered her head and said simply, "Really, no, I'm an orphan. I don't remember anything from when I was a child."
An Chen looked at her, slowly approached, pressed his lips to hers, and whispered, "Alright, from now on I will be your family."
The autumn wind was chilly, and Anchen was as warm as a silver pool with wisps of mist.
Afterwards, the two countries went to war again.
When the message arrived, An Chen was examining someone's pulse and treating their illness, while Zi Mo sat behind a bamboo curtain mending his clothes.
An Chen placed the letter on the table beside him and looked at Zi Mo with a smile, "Your skills are getting better and better. Back then, it would take more than ten days to sew a leather hat."