Because it was the New Year, relatives visited frequently. On the company side, downstream suppliers, familiar partners, family friends, and Father Bai’s classmates and friends all came to pay New Year’s visits. The stream of visitors to the Bai Family Residence never stopped.
Even during the Spring Festival break, Father Bai couldn’t rest. One could say his feet barely touched the ground. Besides receiving those people, there were also many he needed to visit. The doctor’s original advice was to rest more, but with all this commotion, he had not a single free moment during the entire holiday, let alone time to recuperate.
As the current mistress of the Bai Family Residence, Lu Zhi naturally had to handle these social obligations. Therefore, she only returned to her parents’ home on the second day of the New Year before Mother Shen sent her back to help at the Bai household. She had been staying at the Bai Family Residence ever since.
On the fifth day, the number of visitors finally began to dwindle. Lu Zhi finally had some time to herself in the afternoon and arranged to go fencing with someone.
She hadn’t expected Bai Lu to find out and insist on tagging along.
“Shen Qing, Shen Qing, let me come, please? I’ve practiced too, I even won an award when I was little.” Bai Lu followed behind Lu Zhi like a little tail.
“An award? When?” Lu Zhi pulled open a drawer where various watches were neatly arranged.
Bai Lu pursed her lips and thought for a moment before saying uncertainly, “When I was eight or nine? Maybe six or seven.”
“Anyway, I know how to play. I definitely won’t embarrass you. Okay? Please?”
Lu Zhi smiled slightly and chose a gold watch with a thin chain to put on.
Her wrist was slender, with a delicate carpal bone on the side. The gold chain made her skin look exceptionally fine and fair.
Bai Lu persisted relentlessly from the side. Having just woken from an afternoon nap, she was still wearing a fluffy rabbit onesie pajama set with the hood up. The two ears bobbed before Lu Zhi’s eyes, and her voice was so coquettish it could drip water: “Shen Qing, I have to go back to work the day after tomorrow. You’re the best. Just take me out to play, please.”
Lu Zhi lowered her gaze. This young girl was squatting beside the vanity, her jade-like fingers gripping the tabletop, her pointed chin resting upon it to create two fine creases. Her beautiful dark eyes stared at Lu Zhi intently, like a puppy eager to please its master.
She had recently become unusually fond of clinging to Lu Zhi. Usually, when Zhao Fei’er asked her out, she seemed uninterested. Instead, she was happy to stay home and follow behind Lu Zhi, receiving the visitors who came to pay their New Year respects.
Lu Zhi considered her recent good behavior and, with a slight turn of her body, gently flicked the girl’s elegantly straight nose. Her voice held a smile as she said, “Go get ready.”
The intimate gesture made Bai Lu blush slightly. She stood up, embarrassed, but quickly became elated, throwing out an “I’ll be right there!” before running out like a gust of wind.
The meeting place was a private club halfway up a mountain. The snow on the peak hadn’t melted yet, only the mountain road was cleared. As they wound their way up the looping roads, the scenery was entirely cloaked in silver—genuinely breathtaking.
Lu Zhi’s work was now not busy, and she had inherited much of her late husband Bai Hao’s estate. This meant she possessed vast amounts of time and money to spend at her own whim, naturally willing to indulge in all sorts of amusements, through which she had also made many new friends.
Because of Bai Lu, Lu Zhi arrived a little late. When she entered, Wang Lin was already changed and warming up with a training staff member.
On the way, Lu Zhi had introduced her: this young lady was around Lu Zhi’s age, also a daughter from a powerful family. Her parents and brothers were high-ranking officials, but she herself had a dissolute nature, spending her days idly seeking pleasure. She matched Lu Zhi’s temperament quite well.
Lu Zhi greeted her, and after mutual introductions, she said to Bai Lu, “Call her Sister.”
Bai Lu obediently showed a smiling face: “Happy New Year, Sister.”
Wang Lin held her helmet in hand, looking heroic and spirited: “Little sister is so pretty. Sister will go easy on you in a bit.”
Bai Lu giggled.
Lu Zhi had her own set of equipment, but Bai Lu had come empty-handed, so she first followed a coach to get her gear.
She happily put on the white fencing uniform, striking several poses in front of the mirror, then took pictures from all angles with her phone, thinking she looked incredibly dashing.
When she went out, the coach asked if she had played before and whether she needed to practice her footwork and hand techniques first.
Bai Lu hugged the black helmet, her confidence welling up. Patting her chest, she declared she had practiced before and even won an award.
Outside on the piste, Lu Zhi and Wang Lin were already standing face-to-face. Bai Lu hurriedly ran over, her eyes glued to Lu Zhi, waving her arms widely: “Shen Qing, Shen Qing!”
Lu Zhi was already fully prepared. Her figure was tall and slender, her limbs long. Standing proudly with the epee in hand, she looked incredibly dashing, like a knight praised by thousands in a storybook.
Even though Bai Lu couldn’t see her expression since Lu Zhi had already put on her helmet, just the slight tilt of her head towards Bai Lu was enough to make the young girl positively giddy with joy.
The coach nearby politely asked if she needed a practice partner. Bai Lu shook her head, hugging her helmet as she watched the two figures before her move back and forth with keen interest.
Both were women, but the attacks between them were powerful. Every strike was crisp, decisive, and fierce. The sound of metal colliding echoed “clang! clang!” throughout the space.
After watching for a while, Bai Lu realized she had forgotten much of the rules of fencing. However, she at least knew to watch the cords. In any case, the cord behind Lu Zhi was rarely lit up, and even when it was, it was mostly a white light.
As soon as a bout ended, Bai Lu immediately crowded forward. She had been bouncing excitedly earlier, but now she suppressed her voice into a small squeal, staring at Lu Zhi with starry eyes: “You are insanely cool!”
Wang Lin, the loser, wasn’t offended and teased from the side: “Shen Qing, you brought your own cheerleading squad, huh.”
Lu Zhi smiled, pointed at Bai Lu, and said, “You, get up here.”
“Okay.”
Bai Lu had absolutely no awareness that she was a complete rookie. She trotted happily up onto the piste, even sweetly and naively acting cute with Lu Zhi: “You have to go easy on me, okay?”
But the moment they both raised their swords in a simple salute, she sensed something was wrong.
It was completely different from the casualness of watching from the sidelines, or a simple sense of coolness.
Lu Zhi simply stood opposite her, dressed in a white training uniform. The black helmet concealed even her expression. Only a pair of dark eyes pierced through the slit, looking directly at her, steadily conveying the owner’s focused and resolute emotions. Even the air seemed to fall silent.
Bai Lu was almost instantly stunned. It took a moment before she pursed her lips and tentatively took a small step forward, lowering her epee to strike at the other’s shoulder.
Lu Zhi executed a lunge, creating distance between them. Then her sword tip quivered, the resilient blade arcing to tap Bai Lu’s chest.
“Beep!”
Bai Lu froze for a second before realizing it was her own scoring apparatus.
“Again.”
Lu Zhi’s voice came through the mask, clear and cool, carrying a steadying strength.
Bai Lu came back to her senses. She wasn’t upset; rather, an indescribable emotion slowly began to surge from the bottom of her heart.
She looked at Lu Zhi through her mask. Perhaps because of the facial covering, she could focus even more intently on the other person’s eyes—dark as lacquer ink, calm and serene, like a black sea within a galaxy.
Bai Lu unconsciously tightened her grip on the epee, her knuckles turning slightly white. It was a good while before she felt the air around her begin to flow again.
…
With another crisp “clang,” Bai Lu was hit on the shoulder. Unaccustomed to much physical activity, her feet were unstable, and she stumbled, falling onto the piste.
Coincidentally, Lu Zhi had just reached 15 points, ending this overwhelmingly one-sided match early.
“Are you okay?”
Lu Zhi removed her mask to reveal a pale, unadorned face. A few drops of sweat traced from her forehead along her delicate facial contours to the tip of her chin. Her clear, shallow gaze fell on Bai Lu’s face, carrying a hint of concern.
Bai Lu slowly shook her head, reaching out to brace herself on the arm Lu Zhi offered as she stood up.
“Aiya, little sister’s level should really be playing with me. Playing against you is too big a blow to her confidence.” Wang Lin called from the sidelines.
Lu Zhi laughed too, watching as Bai Lu removed her mask and asking her, “What kind of award did you actually win?”
Bai Lu was a little embarrassed, her mouth twitching: “Just a prize from a playful match among a few people in an elementary school fencing class…”
The mirth in Lu Zhi’s eyes grew. She naturally reached out and wiped a bead of sweat that had slipped onto the girl’s eyelashes, teasing her: “And you bragged about that? Where do you get so much confidence, hmm?”
That “hmm” was drawn out with a trailing note—careless yet brimming with affection.
Bai Lu had absolutely no defense against it. She felt almost drowned. She slightly raised her eyes, the entire image in her vision was Lu Zhi’s smiling, amused face. For a moment, she couldn’t even speak.
“Shen Qing, let me challenge you!”
Wang Lin’s loud shout from behind disrupted Bai Lu’s churning, chaotic thoughts.
Bai Lu almost forced herself to turn her head, her gaze landing on Wang Lin. She rose from the resting chair, bounced in place twice, raised her eyebrows at Lu Zhi, and said, “Sister Bai Lu and I will take turns against you in a relay. We’ll exhaust you to death.”
She spoke bluntly, clearly indicating she was on good terms with Lu Zhi.
Bai Lu then removed the cord from her waist and walked toward the rest area.
Actually, she hadn’t played for long. Lu Zhi had taken her down in just a few moves. One could even say she had zero game experience, yet she still felt tired. Under the scrutiny of such a pair of eyes, her legs had even gone a bit weak.
She sat down, picked up an unopened bottle of mineral water, and took a large gulp, barely managing to suppress the restlessness inside her.
A new bout began. The duel between Lu Zhi and Wang Lin was clearly much more interesting than the one with her had been—at least there was back-and-forth, not just a unilateral slaughter.
Bai Lu watched blankly as Lu Zhi attacked, thrust, retreated, dodged…
Her form was athletic, her movements agile. Wrapped in the form-fitting uniform, she was indistinguishable from a professional fencer, utterly erasing any distinction of gender…
But she was, indeed, a beautiful woman…
Uncontrollably, Bai Lu touched her palm. That scorching warmth seemed to still linger, faintly heating the thin skin there.
