Though Chen Ping'an appeared frail and slight, he carried the heavy bundles of locust branches with effortless grace as he strolled through Mud Bottle Alley. The little girl in the red cotton jacket trailing behind him stared, wide-eyed and dumbfounded. Had she not insisted otherwise, he would have taken even the branch resting on her delicate shoulder.
At the alley's entrance stood a young girl with twin braids, her cheeks flushed bright red—perhaps frostbitten from the winter cold. Catching sight of the red-jacketed girl swaggering along with her bundle, she muttered sullenly, "Li Baoping, didn't we agree to drop off the branches and go to school together? You don't even know—Old Master Ma is acting strange today. He's dressed like Mister Qi and says he'll be taking us on a scholarly tour to the Cliffside Academy. If he gets angry, it's on you."
The girl in red didn't so much as blink. She reached into the embroidered pouch at her waist, plucked out a vibrant green locust leaf gifted by Chen Ping'an, and twirled it smugly before her peer, wearing a look that said, You don't have one, but I have plenty.
The twin-braided girl scowled, baffled as to why a worthless leaf was worth flaunting, but found herself irritated all the same—particularly by Li Baoping's infuriatingly pleased expression. Most of the children at the academy, even troublemakers like Li Huai, couldn't best Li Baoping in a scuffle. Li Huai had once been beaten so badly he lay on the ground pretending to be dead, only for Li Baoping to strip off his pants and hurl them into a tree, leaving him wailing and bare-bottomed all the way home. His mother, not one to be trifled with, had dragged him straight toward Fortune-Luck Street in a rage, only to be cowed by the imposing stone lions and painted door gods guarding the grand Li residence. She gave her son another thrashing right then and there and returned home to their shabby west-end hovel without knocking. That night, though, she slaughtered a chicken and stewed it, and Li Huai, naked atop a stool, feasted with glee, long forgetting the humiliation of having his head drummed into the dirt.
The girl with the braids gestured with both hands to indicate size, wrinkling her nose. "It's just a locust leaf. What's so great about that? My father gave me a golden abacus last night—real gold, this big!"
But the girl in red was lost in her own little world, indifferent to golden trinkets. She continued waving the leaf with a flourish, lifting her chin toward Chen Ping'an. "He gave it to me. I've got more in my pouch."
The braided girl sighed. From the very first day she met Li Baoping, she'd been this vexing. She only spoke when she wished to, only listened when she felt like it, and only did as she pleased. If there were more children her age in Dragon Riding Alley, she wouldn't have bothered playing with her at all.
Even Mister Qi often found himself at a loss when it came to Li Baoping's peculiar questions—questions he always answered seriously, yet never to her satisfaction. Sometimes, he'd solve a riddle she'd posed the day before, only to find her gone the next day, off chasing minnows, catching crickets, or flying kites, forgetting entirely what she'd asked in the first place.
Chen Ping'an, burdened with branches, couldn't turn to look, so he raised his voice slightly. "How many students are left at the academy?"
Li Baoping was struggling to shift the load onto her other shoulder—it was already the umpteenth time, and the burning pain stung fiercely.
The girl with braids held up a hand. "Only five of us now: me, Li Baoping, Li Huai, Lin Shouyi, and Dong Shuijing."
With nothing better to do, she rattled off the details like beans spilling from a bamboo tube. "Mister Qi once promised he'd take us on a scholarly journey, eventually to study at Cliffside Academy. Back then, we had fourteen or fifteen students. All their families agreed. But later, most of the rich kids from Fortune-Luck Street and Peach Leaf Lane started faking illnesses, then just stopped coming altogether. Li Baoping said they left town to join distant relatives. Funny thing is, they were the ones happiest about going to Cliffside Academy. I don't get it. That's such a long journey—aren't they tired?"
Despite her tender voice, the girl spoke clearly and with surprising maturity, her gentle disposition and keen mind more like that of a miniature adult. Chen Ping'an couldn't help but think of Gu Can—though she wasn't quite the same as that snot-nosed, prickly little hedgehog.
He smiled and asked, "What's your name?"
The girl with twin braids replied coolly, "I'm Shi Chunjia. You may address me as Miss Shi."
Chen Ping'an was speechless.
Li Baoping cut in, "Just call her Little Rock."
Shi Chunjia bristled like an angry kitten, glaring. "Don't call me Little Rock! That goes for you too, Li Baoping!"
But the ever-distracted Li Baoping was already onto her next flight of fancy. She paid no mind to Shi Chunjia's protest, having long since turned her thoughts away from nicknames. Yet Shi Chunjia, persistent to a fault, continued to reason and plead, determined to shed the moniker. She knew all too well: once they reached Cliffside Academy, if Li Baoping so much as said it once, that name would cling to her forever.
While the two girls bickered behind him, Chen Ping'an approached the edge of Fortune-Luck Street and asked, "There are many Li family estates here. Which one's yours?"
He silently hoped it wasn't one of the Four Great Families. After all, when luring the old ape from Zhengyang Mountain, he had scaled the walls of the Li estate using the progeny locust tree of Fortune-Luck Street—and had even broken two of their birdfeeders with his slingshot.
Shi Chunjia replied grumpily, "Hers is the one with the locust tree outside the wall. Whenever her family wouldn't let her out to play, she'd sneak a ladder up to the wall, climb the tree, and drop down onto Fortune-Luck Street. Once, her parents were so furious they took the ladder away and insisted she use the front door. So she jumped. Didn't come to school for a month. Came the next two months on crutches."
Li Baoping, unfazed, nodded seriously. "I reflected afterward. The landing was all wrong—I shouldn't have stomped down with both feet like that. Once my legs healed, I tried again…"
Shi Chunjia huffed. "And missed another half-month of school!"
Li Baoping pouted. "But the third time went just fine."
Shi Chunjia seethed. "Only because you hit a growth spurt a year later! Had nothing to do with your landing technique!"
Chen Ping'an didn't interrupt their squabbling. For one, he was worried the Li family might recognize him and sic their dogs on him. But deep down, he also envied them—their safety, their doting elders, their right to an education.
Despite the worry, Chen Ping'an was determined to see Li Baoping's burden safely to her doorstep. Perhaps this was karmic retribution—he had told the red-jacketed girl one must always follow through on promises. And so, he braced himself to walk straight into the lion's den.
But perhaps fate had finally stirred from its slumber. The gatekeeper failed to recognize him, and Li Baoping didn't ask him to carry the branches inside. As Chen Ping'an turned to leave, relief washing over him…