Chapter 969 — The Old Woman in Grey

CHAPTER 969

The Old Woman in Grey

“You came up this mountain to ask about one girl,” Ye Wanqiu said, pouring the tea herself. “You’re leaving with a summons, a seat in the outer hall, gifts from two great houses and tenth place on the Tianxing. Most guests leave with a jar of our tea.”

“I’d have settled for the tea, Elder Ye,” Shi Feng said, and took the cup with both hands.

Ye Wanqiu’s residence stood on the outer hall’s east terrace, three rooms of dark pine with a view of the seven peaks. Not long ago she hadn’t been able to stand. Now she sat straight on her cushion and poured without spilling a drop. She did it a little slowly, and she clearly enjoyed doing it.

“Then take a jar,” Ye Wanqiu said dryly. “I’ll have it sent to Lianxia with your things. You’ll want something decent to drink while you wait for that court.”

“The court’s at Shuoyang, Elder Ye,” Shi Feng said.

“I know where the court is,” Ye Wanqiu said, and put the kettle down. “Elder Kong’s people will say you’re leaving because of the summons. Elder Jing’s people will say you’re leaving because of the terrace. The Grand Elder will say nothing, and that will be the loudest thing anyone says.”

“Both of the first two are true,” Shi Feng said.

“Of course they are,” Ye Wanqiu said. “That’s why they’ll be believed.”

She drank, and looked at him over the cup for a while.

“There’s no banquet under heaven that doesn’t end,” Ye Wanqiu said at last. “But this one ended better than I expected. When you come back, Snowpine Court will be waiting. My disciple will see to it, because I’ll tell her to.”

“Thank you, Elder Ye,” Shi Feng said, and bowed where he sat. “For the letter that got me in the door. And for everything after it.”

“I was glad to write that letter,” Ye Wanqiu said. “Don’t start thanking me for every little thing. You cured me, and I’ll remember that after you’ve left this mountain.”

Shen Yaoqing was waiting outside on the terrace in her white robe, with her sword at her hip and snow on her shoulders. She hadn’t been told to wait inside, so she hadn’t.

“The outer hall’s rule is that a guest doesn’t walk the upper paths alone,” Shen Yaoqing said, as soon as he came out. “I’ll take you back to Snowpine Court.”

“Lead the way, Chief Disciple Shen,” Shi Feng said.

The east terrace path followed the mountainside above the clouds. Fresh snow covered the steps. Shen Yaoqing walked silently half a pace ahead. Qin Wuyan followed ten paces behind.

Halfway to Snowpine Court, the path forked.

The left branch led toward the outer hall. The narrow right path climbed toward the roadless eighth peak. Its snow was unswept and unbroken.

Shen Yaoqing didn’t slow down, and she didn’t look at the right branch.

Shi Feng did.

Twenty paces up the right branch, an old woman in grey was standing in the snow.

She hadn’t been there a breath ago. He was sure of it. She was small and thin, with white hair pinned up plainly and a grey robe that wasn’t thick enough for the cold. Her hands were folded in her sleeves. Her shoulders had no snow on them.

Shi Feng stopped.

He recognised her at once, and his heart stirred. Far to the south, she’d stood beside the jade lotus carriage in the rain while a servant urged her mistress to abandon him. He couldn’t sense her realm then. Even now, at late Shattering Void, he couldn’t judge her strength. His Spirit Sense went out toward her and found nothing there at all. It found the snow behind her, and nothing else.

Ten paces behind him, Qin Wuyan had stopped too. The old guardian’s hands came out of his sleeves.

The old woman looked at Shi Feng’s healed face for a long time.

“The cripple from the rain,” the old woman said.

Shi Feng bowed to her, low and properly, with his hands together.

“That’s me, Senior,” Shi Feng said with quiet gratitude. “I haven’t forgotten what you did for me.”

The old woman didn’t answer. She looked at him for one more breath. Then she turned and walked back up the path toward the eighth peak, and in a few steps the falling snow hid her.

Shi Feng straightened slowly.

He looked down at the right branch. The snow between the fork and the place where she’d stood was smooth and unbroken. Up the slope, where she’d walked away, it was smooth too. She hadn’t left a single footprint.

Behind him, Qin Wuyan’s hands went back into his sleeves. His face hadn’t changed, but he didn’t say anything for a while, and when he walked on, he walked five paces behind them instead of ten.

Shen Yaoqing had stopped at the fork. She hadn’t turned around during any of it. Now she turned, and looked at the right branch, and then at him.

“That path is closed to guests,” Shen Yaoqing said.

She didn’t ask anything else. She turned back to the left branch and walked on toward Snowpine Court at exactly the same pace as before.

Shi Feng followed her.

He’d asked the elders’ hall once, plainly, and they’d refused him. He hadn’t asked anybody since. He hadn’t asked the old woman anything either. She’d come down the path, looked at his face, and gone back up it. That was her choice to make, not his.

But she’d remembered him. Out of all the people on the roads of the south, she’d remembered a ruined boy in the mud. And she’d come down far enough to see that his face had healed.

At the gate of Snowpine Court, Shi Feng looked back once more toward the eighth peak.

The snow was still falling on every peak of the Serene Jade except that one.