Power Up, Artist Yang!

When Yujia had parted from Zixu, she wandered down the streets, now mostly empty. 

She found herself walking until she ended up at the Bo Villa. She told herself that she wasn't going there. Bo Zhizhong had ended their friendship. He had cut her away, as if their relationship was nothing. As if she was nothing.

Yet still, she ended up where she was now, hesitantly standing in front of the tall, looming doors of the Bo Villa. 

She had inadvertently thought of him when Zixu brought up Three Inks Shop in their conversation before. She didn't want to think of him. But Yujia felt like she couldn't get over it, the fact that Bo Zhizhong would be cold enough to end all of their friendship like that. She still wanted to talk to him, at the very least, even for one last time, if that was what it was. 

A tentative knock on the Bo Villa's front door was met by a servant peering out. 

"I'm here to see Madam Zhou," Yujia explained. It was a perfect excuse. At the end of the day, Zhou Luowei, Second Young Master Bo Zhiyuan's wife, was Yujia's close friend. To visit her after news that the rebellion was put down was a good reason. A great reason, even, one laced with sincere concern.

The servant, who recognized Yujia, quickly allowed Yujia to step in. The Bo Villa was the same as always, with its beautiful and well-maintained gardens filling the front courtyard. As Yujia was brought over to the courtyard for Bo Zhiyuan, she already saw Luowei outside, sitting at a stone table. Even after everything that went down, Luowei maintained a meticulous appearance as always, The folds of her robes neatly pressed, ribbons of a winter cloak tied around her neck in a perfect clasp. 

Luowei rose to meet Yujia, her usual gentle smile across her face. When she came over, she rested her arms on Yujia's. "Sister Yujia, how did these past four days go for you?"

Yujia shakingly smiled. "As well as it has gone for everyone else." 

"Understandable," Luowei acknowledged, sighing. "Thank goodness those rebels had not broken in." 

"I was concerned the whole time for you and your family's safety."

"And I the same. These things are quite worrying to the mind." 

"How is the Second Young Master?"

"He's doing the fine as always," Luowei replied with a smile. Then, she dipped her head down in a partial apology. "Ah, it must be quite impolite that he cannot greet you, but he's currently at a meeting with the Old Master about business." 

"Oh, don't worry about that." Yujia waved her hands. "I understand that there must be urgent business matters considering that the capital can soon open up again." 

"Indeed. It's kept them all quite occupied the moment they received the news," Luowei sighed.

Tentatively, Yujia wrung her hands together. She had been building the conversation up to this moment. "Even the Third Young Master must be busy as well, right?" 

"Third Young Master?" Luowei echoed after Yujia, blinking. Then she leaned her head back, glancing down. "Well, he's not here anymore."

"Not here? What do you mean?" Yujia pressed her lips together.

"Only just before the rebellion occurred, he went away on a trip," Luowei explained, "one for business."

"A business trip? Where to? And for how long?"

"Oh, all around the empire. It'll take years, I presume. Or months, depending on where he goes. Well, I'm not quite sure about the matter." Apologetically, Luowei sighed. "You'll have to ask my husband about it."

Yujia knew that Zhizhong was avoiding her. She just didn't expect an entire business trip across the empire. "What about his wife? Is she here?" Yujia continued pressing on.

"She went along with him," Luowei responded. 

Of course she did. As Luowei said, if the trip took months, it was hard to imagine that she wouldn't, even if Yujia didn't know what kind of person Bo Zhizhong's wife was. He never really talked about her, only revealing the fact that he was married. 

Regardless of that, Yujia also sighed. She apologized, "I'm sorry for asking all these questions about him. You do know that we were business partners. Recently, he cut off all connections with me, so I had been wanting to talk to him again. I did feel like we left many things unsaid, things we could've talked through. And maybe then, it wouldn't have ended up this way."

"I understand." Luowei nodded. "Would you like to talk to me more about it? Perhaps over a cup of tea?" 

"I'm afraid I'll have to decline that offer." Yujia gestured her head behind her. "My family is still waiting for me to come back home. If I'm gone for too long, they'll worry."

"That's alright. Do get home safely," Luowei bid farewell. 

…

"Yufeng, it just doesn't make sense, don't you think?" Yujia said. "The timing of things." 

She was lying on her bed. Freshly bathed, dressed in clean robes, Yujia certainly was much more comfortable now. The warmth in her room and under her blankets, despite how freezing it was outside, made her feel cozy at heart. 

Yufeng, on the other hand, was not like Yujia, who was melting her stress away through lazing around. Instead, Yufeng was sharpening knives— a habit that Yujia found alarming at first, but soon learned to accept as Yufeng's way of relieving her own stress. 

The scraping noise of metal against metal filled the room. Before the rebellion battles happened, Yufeng had requested some ingots to buy weapons, which Yujia had happily allowed. What she didn't expect was that for a mere fifty silver ingots, which Yujia had provided in hopes that Yufeng would buy one good blade with it, Yufeng would haul back numerous weapons on her back, ones of all shapes and sizes. 

Yujia had asked Yufeng the reason why before, to which Yufeng replied that her skills were growing rusty without practice for many weapons, so she had to retain her diverse skills by repurchasing all of them. 

The weapons weren't poor quality, per se, but they weren't the finest either. It would be difficult to buy so many fine weapons with only fifty taels. It turned out that in Yufeng's case, she had specifically selected weapons that would be greater if they were just refined a little. That had led to Yufeng sharpening them whenever she could, especially with the swords. During the day, she would pass time training in the courtyard. At night, she would be sharpening them. 

Well, Yujia figured, as long as it made Yufeng happy and kept her occupied, there was nothing wrong with it. Slowly, she grew adapted to the sound of sharpening metal too, something that filled any silence in the room. 

Earlier before, Yujia had been talking to Yufeng about everything regarding Bo Zhizhong. She told her about the broken friendship, how Yujia confronted him about it, and how earlier today, she went to find him in the villa but couldn't.

Now, Yufeng agreed with a hum, "It doesn't. It's odd how he's vanished now."

"That's what I was thinking—" Yujia said. 

" To disappear at the brink of war, not for the reason of escaping like other families, but for the purpose of a… business trip?" 

"It's beyond odd. When the entire empire is facing the threat of the rebels, it's dangerous to go anywhere. Who in their right mind would go on a trip right now? Is merchant business really worth risking your life?" 

"Do you think he really loved you that much to be incapable of handling your rejection and therefore fled the capital in shame?" Yufeng snorted.

"Please," Yujia breathed, "that would just be… no. I can't imagine that." Perhaps if the rebellion didn't occur, that would've been a valid route. Yet fleeing at the risk of one's life for the purpose of love, when he could've avoided her perfectly fine in the safety of the large capital?

"How about his family? Did they seem concerned?" Yufeng asked.

"I only met with Zhou Luowei, and I suppose she doesn't know him well. Understandably so. She seemed worried for everyone, I think." 

"Then, well, I guess I just don't get him," Yufeng said. "You're going to be married as a main wife, in a relationship that you are perfectly happy in. What does he expect you to do? Abandon your current happy love to go be with him as a mere concubine?" With a 'tsk', she went on, "I pity his wife."

"I suppose that's why he left. Why he cut off everything." Yujia turned over on the bed, staring at the wall. She was quieter now. "Maybe he knew that he didn't have any chance, and he didn't want to feel the pain of rejection. He didn't want me to feel awkward either, knowing his one-sided feelings. Maybe running away was his ability to really move on."

But as Yujia knew, running away was never the solution to moving on. 

"It's a good thing that he's gone now. Just don't let yourself think about people like him. Some are just like him, destined to come and go in our lives. If we hang ourselves up over them, there's only pointless misery ahead," Yufeng advised.

"I guess," Yujia slowly said.. She stared at the wall for a few more minutes, then closed her eyes.