One person: Starting with the Snow Drinking Blade

At 5:47 a.m., the sky over the mountainous region of Guizhou was still a deep indigo blue, with only a faint glimmer of dawn appearing on the eastern horizon. The morning mist in the mountains was thicker than the day before, the milky white fog flowing along the ground, enveloping the stilted houses, stone steps, and fences of Biyou Village, making the entire village look like a dreamscape suspended in a sea of ​​clouds.

At the entrance to the storeroom in the backyard of the ancestral hall, Nie Lingfeng's figure slowly emerged from the morning mist. He made no attempt to conceal himself; his long, gray hair was tied back, his dark gray outfit was clean and neat, and he still carried that inconspicuous travel bag on his back, with the Snow Drinking Knife wrapped in coarse cloth.

The wooden door was ajar, just as it had been when I left last night.

He reached out and gently pushed the door open.

"Squeak—"

The old wooden door emitted a dry, groaning sound, which was particularly clear in the quiet morning.

Inside the room, Chen Duo was already sitting on that low stool.

She had clearly gotten up very early, and might not have slept all night. She was still wearing the slightly oversized white protective suit, but she had changed into a cleaner, less worn one. The full-body protective cap was worn neatly, and her hair was carefully combed into two simple braids, hanging down from the sides of the cap and over her shoulders, the ends of which were meticulously trimmed and looked very tidy.

On her back was a faded, light blue backpack that looked a bit old. The backpack wasn't big, the fabric was worn and frayed, and the zipper had been replaced; the color wasn't quite the same as the original, but it was very clean. She wore special black gloves, her hands resting flat on her knees, her posture as upright as a carefully placed porcelain doll.

Hearing the door open, she slowly turned her head, her emerald green eyes peering quietly through the shadows beneath her hat brim at the doorway. Her gaze remained vacant, lacking the emotional fluctuations expected of a normal person, but Nie Lingfeng keenly noticed a faint hint of… focus deep within that emptiness.

She seemed to be waiting for an answer she had already anticipated, or perhaps confirming some vague intuition.

"You've come," she said, her voice soft and flat, as if stating a given fact, without any surprise or doubt.

"I'm here." Nie Lingfeng entered the room, gently closing the door behind him to shut out the damp morning mist. He walked up to her, naturally crouching down to bring his gaze level with hers as she sat on the low stool. "Did you sleep well last night?"

Chen Duo didn't answer the question, or rather, she seemed not to understand the meaning behind it. She simply looked at Nie Lingfeng quietly for about ten seconds before slowly speaking, getting to the point:

"Have you thought it through? Tell me your choice."

She returned the question Nie Lingfeng had asked her the night before, word for word, in a calm tone, yet with an almost naive directness.

Nie Lingfeng smiled, not mockingly, but with a gentle, encouraging smile: "It seems you've made up your mind. So, what is your choice?"

Chen Duo didn't answer immediately. She lowered her eyes, her gaze falling on her hands, which were covered in black gloves, as if she were organizing her thoughts, or perhaps making a final confirmation. The shadow under her hat brim obscured most of her face, revealing only her small chin and slightly pursed, pale lips.

"You..." she began, her voice even softer than before, tinged with an almost imperceptible hesitation, "Can you really help me control the... primal poison within me?"

When she said the words "primitive Gu poison," there was an extremely slight pause in her tone, as if saying the word itself made her feel some kind of instinctive discomfort or... disgust.

"I can't give you a 100% guarantee." Nie Lingfeng chose to be honest. What he needed to build was trust, not false hope. "But I'm 60-70% confident that I can help you sort out, soothe, and guide them, so that they no longer try to break free from your control, turn against you, or harm others all the time."

He paused, his tone becoming even more serious: "What I can guarantee is that as long as you're by my side, I can purify and eliminate the Gu poison that naturally seeps into your body. You no longer need to suppress and block it with all your might, keeping yourself stretched like a string that could snap at any moment. You can... relax a little."

Chen Duo's eyelashes trembled almost imperceptibly in the shadow of her hat brim.

relax?

This word was as distant as a language from another world to her. From the time she could remember, her life had been an endless war against the primal beast within her. Suppression, control, and endurance were the survival instincts she had learned. Relax? That meant losing control, meant death, meant… an irreversible catastrophe.

"No need... to suppress it anymore?" she repeated softly, her voice as light as a feather falling to the ground, her tone filled with confusion and a faint, incredulous hope.

"No need," Nie Lingfeng replied decisively. "I will help you 'pacify' them, like taming a wild horse, like channeling a flood. At first, it may take us working together, but slowly, you will learn how to 'communicate' with them, how to make them...obedient. When that day comes, you won't have to wear this bulky protective suit anymore, or these gloves that isolate you from everything."

He reached out and gently tapped the back of her gloved hand on her knee, his touch light as if afraid of startling her: "You can walk in the sun like a normal person, feel the wind on your skin, touch your favorite animals, and taste all kinds of food... Of course, you have to start with gentle things."

He spoke slowly, describing simple, unadorned scenes that held unimaginable allure for Chen Duo. Sunlight? Touch? Scent? These were either taboos for her, or distorted experiences shrouded in layers of protection.

She listened quietly, her empty eyes seeming to undergo subtle, almost imperceptible changes as Nie Lingfeng described. It was as if, beneath the frozen surface of a lake, an undercurrent was beginning to stir very slowly.

After a long while, she slowly raised her head, her emerald green eyes piercing through the shadow of her hat brim to meet Nie Lingfeng's eyes. This time, her gaze seemed to "focus" for a moment, truly landing on his face.

"Okay," she said.

The voice was still soft, but no longer flat; instead, it carried an almost resolute, do-or-die determination.

"I trust you."

Four words, seemingly light, yet carrying immense weight.

Nie Lingfeng's smile deepened; it was a genuine smile, filled with relief and responsibility. He nodded, extended his right hand, palm up, and offered it to her.

"Then come with me," he said. "I'll handle things at the company."

Chen Duo's gaze fell on his outstretched palm. The fingers of that hand were long and slender, with distinct knuckles, and the palm had thin calluses from years of holding a knife, but it looked clean and steady. She hesitated for about two seconds—which was a long time for her to think—and then slowly raised her left hand, gently placing her gloved hand in his palm.

The rough texture of the gloves' fibers was palpable; even through the fabric, Nie Lingfeng could feel the delicacy and coolness of her hands. He gripped them firmly, with just the right amount of pressure, conveying a reliable warmth.

"Village Chief Ma..." Chen Duo suddenly spoke up, bringing up the topic from last night, her tone carrying a very faint, almost instinctive concern.

"This time, we can only be spectators." Nie Lingfeng's tone was calm, yet carried an undeniable air of authority. "I promised you I wouldn't intervene. This is all I can do for him right now."

Chen Duo nodded and didn't ask any more questions. But Nie Lingfeng could feel that the hand he held in her palm tightened slightly, almost imperceptibly.

"Okay," she said, then paused and added something that surprised Nie Lingfeng, "Then I'll keep an eye on you. So you won't... sneak up on me."

Nie Lingfeng was stunned for a moment, then chuckled, his smile containing both helplessness and a hint of surprise.

This girl... has actually learned to "checkmate" him? She knows how to use his own promises to bind him? This seemingly simple sentence actually means that she has begun to engage in more complex thinking, and has begun to have her own logic-based "ideas" and "strategies".

This is a huge step forward.

"Alright, keep an eye on me," Nie Lingfeng said with a hint of indulgence in his voice. "I'll go make a call and make some arrangements. You... just stand here and watch over me, don't let me 'run away'."

Chen Duo nodded earnestly, her emerald green eyes fixed on him, as if she were truly fulfilling her duty of "surveillance".

Nie Lingfeng released her hand, walked to the old locust tree in the corner of the yard, turned his back to her, and took out the old Nokia candybar phone from his pocket. The cool plastic casing felt distinct in the morning air.

He took a deep breath and dialed Xu Si's number.

"Beep—beep—beep—"

The monotonous ringing of the phone seemed particularly long in the quiet morning mist. It rang seven or eight times, and just when Nie Lingfeng thought no one was answering, the phone was suddenly grabbed.

"Who is it?!" Xu Si's voice exploded from the receiver, hoarse and muffled, filled with the irritability and morning grumpiness of someone forcibly dragged from deep sleep. There was even a muffled thud of a pillow being hit in the background. "What the hell time is it?! Don't you have any sense of public decency?!...

"Fourth Brother, it's me, Xiao Feng." Nie Lingfeng spoke calmly, his voice not loud, but clearly suppressing the irritation on the other end.