Wei ate lunch as if tomorrow was not a guarantee. He didn't talk much, but I could see him taking in the details of the dining hall — the layout, the people, the food, the way the light hit the walls. He was absorbing it all, storing it away.

  When he finished, he walked to the counter, handing over the empty bowl to the cook. He turned and looked towards the table, where Xu Ran sat, eating his own portion of rice with a bowl of soup on the side. Xu Ran's eyes met his.

  Wei walked to the table. I didn't stop him. Stopping him would have required a reason and the reason was a truth I couldn't share.

  He sat down. Not across — beside. The configuration that communicated: I'm here with you.

  Xu Ran looked at him. The face of an eighteen-year-old who had been a prodigy and was now a ruin, being approached by a thirteen-year-old whose qi-pattern he'd read as a warning.

  "You're the boy," Xu Ran said. "From last night. With the—" He paused. "—the woman."

  "Yun."

  "Is that her name?"

  Wei shrugged. The shrug of someone who knew the answer and was choosing not to elaborate.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  "Your qi is suppressed," Xu Ran said. Matter-of-fact. "You're holding it in. But it leaks."

  Wei's jaw set.

  "At your age, with that density — you shouldn't need to suppress. Suppression at Foundation level means excess. And excess at your age means—" He stopped.

  "Means what?"

  "Fast growth."

  "Is that bad?"

  Xu Ran looked at his own hands. The hands that had once produced qi-output sufficient to challenge a tribulation and that now couldn't light a candle.

  "I was the fastest in my generation," he said. "Foundation in 12 months. Core Formation in two years. Nascent Soul before the tribulation. They called me the Morning Star." He turned his hands over. Palm up. Empty. "Now I can feel the weather through my core crack. That's what's left."

  "What happened?"

  "I tried to ascend. Triggered a natural tribulation. My core was — I thought it was ready." A sound that might have been a laugh if it had contained any of the qualities laughter required. "It wasn't."

  "The sky thing. The wave. The village."

  Xu Ran's eyes widened. A fraction. "You were there?"

  "I was one of the villagers there."

  Five seconds of silence.

  "I didn't—" Xu Ran began. Stopped. "The village wasn't — I didn't know people would—"

  "They almost did."

  Flat. Factual.

  Xu Ran looked at the table. At the grain of the wood.

  "Then why are you sitting here?"

  Wei considered this.

  "Because Yun stopped it and I wanted to see what you look like."

  Honest. He wanted a face for it.

  Xu Ran met his eyes. Neither looked away.

  "And?" Xu Ran asked.

  Wei stood. Pushed the chair in.

  "You look tired."

  He walked back. To me.

  "Satisfied?" I asked.

  "No."

  "But?"

  "But I saw."

  He ate. The noodles were cold. He ate them anyway.