Chapter 284

Li Ran forfeits the moment the pain hits, kneeling and shouting his surrender. His opponent stops advancing, unwilling to drive a beaten man into a corner, and Li Ran takes a few more hits on purpose in order to leave the battlefield quickly. He then leaves the battle stage still pretending to be merely dejected. At home, his bed is flipped and his hidden compartment stands open. He reasons a thief must be responsible, since his contact with Wu clan has always been one sided and untraceable. He regrets hiding the flowerbud Gu under his own bed rather than somewhere safer, though he had few real alternatives: he has no friends here, and a pawn shop would draw suspicion onto a mere scrap grade fossil. Reporting to the city guards is out; they would not trouble themselves over a small fry like him. He considers hiring a Tie clan Gu Master instead. ^{ch. 284}

Searching the wreckage, he finds a heart sound Gu, a paired rank two Gu shaped like a small green and black conch shell that lets two Gu Masters speak within a hundred steps of each other. Wondering if the thief left it for him on purpose, he places it in his ear and demands to know who is speaking. Fang Yuan’s voice answers that Li Ran is a fake name. Li Ran freezes, certain his cover is blown. He tries to bluff, but Fang Yuan, unbothered, invites him to meet in person and offers to prove his sincerity. ^{ch. 284}

Fang Yuan walks him through the city step by step: turn left, then after about fifty steps turn right, then left again at the third junction, warning him not to look around for his hidden watcher. Fang Yuan counts him down, starting at one, two, then skipping straight to five, and Li Ran curses him for miscounting even as he gives in and leaves the house. Partway up the restaurant stairs, Fang Yuan orders him back down and out the door, then sends him to buy pancakes from a shop across the street before finally allowing him back up to the third floor. ^{ch. 284}

The restaurant is the one Li Ran often comes to. When Li Ran finally rounds the pillar and sees Fang Yuan waiting at his usual table, the shock is not the threat itself but the face behind it: he had pictured an older, harder man, and finds instead someone young. Fang Yuan gestures him to the seat. Li Ran sits without a word, staring, certain he will remember this face for the rest of his life. ^{ch. 284}