# Chapter 104: All Things Have Their End
White Lotus cradled the bowl of soup and asked, in her idle way, "When your little sister was ill, did you nurse her like this too?"
The mention of Jiang An'an brought a natural smile to Jiang Wang's face.
"She is a very good child. Even when she is sick she does not throw tantrums. All you have to do is buy her something good to eat, and she is happy again. So I would buy her Cai's Delicacy lamb, Du Dewang's hotpot, Osmanthus Fragrance Studio pastries..."
Jiang Wang counted off his sister's favorite foods one by one, and the more White Lotus listened, the more the taste turned sour in her mouth.
That bowl of soup in her hand, it suddenly... it had never smelled good in the first place.
_Your little sister falls ill, and you fuss over her with mountain delicacies and sea treasures. I risked life and limb to keep you alive—and you give me this to drink? This swill?!_
Her heart was roaring; her face wore a dry smile.
"Enough. Thank you." White Lotus cut him off.
She had noticed that the man was sparing of words, but the moment he brought up his sister, he was suddenly brimming with things to say.
"Mm. You are weak in the body; you should speak less." Jiang Wang raised a hand. "Drink, drink—there is still some left. When you are done, I will ladle you more."
White Lotus filtered out that last sentence automatically. After some hesitation, she raised the bowl to her lips.
She suddenly stopped and looked at Jiang Wang again, those beautiful eyes blinking. "You want to watch me drink? Would you like to know... what I look like?"
"Forgive me, forgive me. I had forgotten. My apologies." Jiang Wang turned and walked toward the mouth of the cave.
"Hey!" White Lotus called him back, and only when he had turned around again did she say, a smile playing at the corners of her mouth, "Help me lift the veil..."
The voice was sweet and lilting, soft and beguiling.
Jiang Wang felt his lips go a little dry. To say he was not curious about what White Lotus looked like would be a lie. Though they had shared but little time, every moment with her was unforgettable. The woman's figure, her voice, even the single pair of eyes she showed—each was of the finest quality.
And now, White Lotus was asking him to lift the veil. There was no need for hesitation.
Jiang Wang strode forward, caught hold of that veil, and gently drew it down...
Beneath the veil...
Was the face of a beauty...
A mask.
It was a lotus-patterned mask, exquisitely made. Strangely, it combined both the sacred and the eerie in equal measure.
"Hahahaha!" White Lotus laughed until her whole body shook.
Jiang Wang's hand froze in midair, then slowly withdrew.
_I should have known..._ he thought.
"Drink your soup." He flung the words down coldly and stalked out of the cave, once again the butt of a joke.
Behind him, White Lotus's laughter rang on without end.
Jiang Wang stood outside the cave, gazing up at the sky, his expression bleakly wistful. Inside, the black bear watched his retreating back with an equally wistful expression.
At last the laughter faded...
"Gulp~"
"Pfft!!"
White Lotus's roar erupted: "Jiang Wang! Are you trying to be the death of me? Its hard-to-swallow-ness is worse even than its hard-on-the-eyes-ness!"
...
"Here—a jam I made with my own hands. I chose the sweetest wild fruits, condensed the purest water with a water-element Dao art, nourished them with the most wholesome wood-element essence, and blended them with all my heart." Jiang Wang wore a look of utter sincerity. "Won't you try it again?"
White Lotus looked at that garish heap, then looked back at Jiang Wang with an equally earnest gaze. "Jiang Wang, I beg of you—wild fruits and so on, you need only pick them and hand them to me. I prefer them raw. Truly."
Seeing the pleading in White Lotus's eyes, Jiang Wang felt a great sense of relief.
In all the time he had known her, this was the first time White Lotus had yielded to him. All because of his incomparable culinary skill.
_A craft in hand is no burden at all; the ancients did not deceive me!_
He went out again, gathered a big pile of wild fruit, and returned. White Lotus ate fruit inside the cave while Jiang Wang continued to keep watch outside.
He looked at his two "pots" and was rather at a loss.
_Was it really so awful to drink?*
The so-called pots were just slightly larger rocks, with a hollow gouged out of the middle. One held wild-vegetable soup; one held wild-fruit jam.
He leaned in close to his creations. After hesitating for a long while, he ultimately did not dare to taste them. After all, White Lotus had made such a pitiful show of suffering. Even when she was beaten senseless by Ji Xuan the other night, she had not cried out like that.
But to simply pour it all away, that he could not bear to do either. After all, he had labored over them in real earnest, pouring in heart and effort.
"Such a waste..."
Jiang Wang muttered, his gaze drifting aimlessly until it settled on that black bear, sitting there obediently.
"You. Come here." He beckoned.
...
...
Jiang Wang had been gone a long time.
He was a Dao Academy disciple, gifted, hardworking, with a bright future. He had his own life, his own good friends, his own beloved little sister.
His life, once, had been calm and bright.
White Lotus sat quietly in the cave, her gaze lost and fleeting.
In truth, her body had recovered very well. The Flesh-Rebirth Soul-Return Art had taken effect with a perfection beyond compare. That was a secret art she had only heard of but never mastered, a power born of the Abyss of the Yellow Springs.
It only confirmed her judgment all the more.
And yet, for once, she found herself hesitating.
Was it because of that bowl of dreadful wild-vegetable soup?
Or was it the warm embrace that had come, unbidden, at the very moment she had braced herself to meet death?
White Lotus could not tell. She was not a soft-natured woman by nature, and yet she had, to her own surprise, played at infirmity for half the day.
She let out a long sigh.
But all things have their end, just as last night had already passed.
...
When the White Bone Envoy appeared, White Lotus had already drawn the black veil back over her face. Her breathing seemed long and steady, and she did not look like one badly wounded.
Outside the cave, there was also a black bear lying collapsed on the ground, foaming at the mouth.
"A single beast. If you mean to kill it, just kill it—why torment it?" The White Bone Envoy stood at the mouth of the cave and spoke.
"You are unexpectedly merciful." White Lotus walked out of the cave at a leisurely pace.
"It seems the rumors were mistaken; you have not been hurt." The Envoy, of course, cared nothing for a bear foaming at the mouth. He had only been casting about for a way to begin, and went on: "When I got the news, I was frantic with worry. Luckily, it was only a scare for nothing."
White Lotus let the second half pass over her, and said in a soft voice, "Whoever wants my life so badly—they know my every movement to the letter, and have even gotten wind of Ji Xuan. They are not afraid at all that I might be captured alive... and spill all the secrets of the organization?"
"In any case, it was not me. If it were, I would not be coming alone."
"Of course. If I died now, it would serve you no good at all. Later, though—that is another matter."
"You flatter me. Whenever you die, I shall be grieved to my core." The White Bone Envoy turned and walked away, even pausing to brush aside a branch that barred the way.
The two wove through the forest, their feet crushing fallen leaves with a soft rustling.
The distance between them was subtle—close enough to seem familiar, yet ever alert against each other.
They could, of course, be comrades fighting shoulder to shoulder, fellow disciples toiling for the same ideal. But if one were careless, they could also become the ones who swallowed each other up.
There was no denying it—this sense of walking along the edge of a blade together was the state in which White Lotus felt most at home.
Her steps grew lighter and lighter, and she walked on until she suddenly asked, "Envoy, has anyone ever fought to the death for you?"
"There have been!" The White Bone Envoy did not turn his head. "Those who wanted to kill me often fought for their lives."
"True enough." White Lotus laughed softly. "People like us."