He froze for a moment, then answered, “We didn’t quarrel. To be exact, we hadn’t even had time to start when I came out… How did you know?”
“I saw the way you looked when you came out, so I guessed. Was it because you told him you wanted to go to sea again that he got angry?” Eve went on.
“How did you know?”
Lug did not even notice he had said the same sentence twice.
He no longer cared about manners; he took two steps right up to Eve and pressed, “Who told you?”
When Lug came close, Eve thought he meant to strike her, and she even weighed in her mind whether to dodge or hit back.
But Lug had no intention of using force.
He had even realized his movement was rude, and while asking he took a small apologetic step back.
“I guessed,” Eve said. “I only thought that if you and Mogi were at odds, the most likely thing would still be the old problem. And sometimes when your letters came, Nanfen would let Minxi and me read them together, so I more or less know what you’ve been doing. You’ve been combining relic archaeology with natural history to reconstruct a picture of the previous era’s maritime civilization. If you want to write a fairly complete work from that, you’d need to make a trip to the old New Continent.”
The New Continent was the former name of Qiyang Continent.
Hearing her, Lug’s voice shook, whether from excitement or shock.
“You got all of it right… I do mean to go to Qiyang Continent, but I haven’t mentioned this to Mogi yet. I haven’t told anyone. It’s still only an idea.”
“Then how did you start quarreling with him?” Eve asked, puzzled.
“I said I wanted to go to some academy out of town for a period of discussion and exchange, but Mogi wouldn’t agree to my leaving. He wants me to stay in Klijin—he won’t even let me go to the eastern part of Klijin. I’m already an adult, and I wasn’t planning to use the family’s money…” Lug’s words were full of complaint.
“I understand.”
Eve gave a helpless little smile.
“I’ve heard that when he was young he ran all over the world too, going wherever it was dangerous. And now? He goes nowhere. All day he takes turns eating with those old wrecks in the city, and even his belly has grown a circle. He lives like that and wants you to become the same.”
“Yes, that’s exactly it!” Lug agreed with her wholeheartedly.
“But he isn’t entirely wrong. Mogi only looks at things from his own angle, and he’s rather unreasonable. You think he’s selfish, but you haven’t thought things through either.”
Lug had been nodding along as she spoke; at the last he frowned.
“I know he worries about my safety. He blames me for not studying martial techniques and magic with him back then, so that now if something happens I don’t even have a way to protect myself. He always wants to control me, saying that way I won’t take detours. But if you ask me, he isn’t helping his son—he wishes he could crawl into my head and live his life over again!”
Lug was agitated, pointing at his own head as he spoke.
“So some contradictions are hard to reconcile. You’ll run into many more later.”
Eve was small, yet just then she had the air of someone who had been through it all.
Hearing this, Lug felt a sudden, groundless irritation.
“If they’re hard to reconcile, then what should be done?”
Lug said. “You called me over here—do you have an idea?”
“If you truly want to resolve the conflict, you’ll certainly have to make some compromises…”
“I can’t compromise.” Lug cut her off. “I got out once; I can get out a second time.”
“Then I’ll go tell on you to Nanfen and have her lock you in the house,” Eve said.
“You…” Lug glared at her, as if about to say something fierce, but when the words reached his lips he only sighed and said, weakly, “You can’t do that.”
“Are you confident in your research?” Eve asked him.
“Of course I am.”
Lug’s back straightened at once.
“I’ve had many finds on the east coast of the Black Feather Continent. Qiyang Continent is the last piece of the puzzle. I dare guarantee that if I can survey Qiyang Continent for a few years, I’ll certainly make some sensational discoveries.”
“Then why not start writing now—write what you’ve found and thought on the Black Feather Continent, and leave Qiyang Continent for later.”
“That won’t do. Without the Qiyang Continent part, inference stays inference. There isn’t enough evidence, and not many people will read it.”
“It’s enough if Mogi reads it,” Eve said. “You have to let him know you’re doing real work. If he won’t look, I’ll find a way to make him look. Besides, writing ahead of time is good for your own career too.”
“What good?”
“Suppose you insist on going to Qiyang Continent and tough it out there for two years. Then one day an urgent letter winds its way into your hands. A friend writes that in your circle someone else has also gone around the Black Feather Continent and reached the same inference as you. That person immediately wrote a short paper, and it drew the academy’s attention. After all your years of hard exploring, you can only add bricks to someone else’s theory. The other party doesn’t even need to go to Qiyang Continent to verify it, because someone has already done it for him.”
“How could that be…”
Hearing this, Lug was a little dazed.
He was thinking over how possible it was, and without noticing he circled Eve and the tree again and again.
Eve watched until she felt a little dizzy.
One could imagine how panicked he was now.
“Go write it now,” Eve urged him.
“I have to start at once.”
Lug finally stopped walking; he almost spoke at the same time as Eve.
In fact, while he had been circling he had already been thinking how to begin.
He left in a hurry.
Halfway there he stopped again, turned back, bowed to Eve, said “Excuse me,” and trotted toward the villa.
Eve’s talk with Lug had not lasted long, while on the other side Yefei and Sheryl had been watching them the whole time.
“What on earth were they talking about? Why did Lug run off?”
Sheryl’s curiosity flared as she watched Lug return to the villa.
“Those two look rather distant,” Yefei said. “And he bowed?”
“They probably haven’t met many times. As for Lug, I heard he bows to whoever he sees. I don’t know where he picked up the habit.”
Sheryl’s gaze stayed on Eve in the distance.
“Why is Eve still standing there? Shall we go over?”
“Better not. She may want to be alone?” Yefei said.
“Never mind that. Come on.”
Sheryl took Yefei’s hand and walked toward the woods where Eve stood.
Yefei could not talk her out of it, so she put Eve’s violin into its case as well and ran toward Eve with Sheryl.
The others saw what the two were doing and wanted to follow, but the two moved so fast it was almost a sprint.
Mindful of their image, the rest followed a few steps and then went back, disgruntled.
They pointed and whispered about those two wild children for a while, then the talk returned to sights, dresses, and food.
Eve had just been about to take off the high heels on her feet when she saw people running toward her, so she had to straighten and wait for them.
The two stopped in front of Eve, panting.
Sheryl even twisted around to glance behind her; seeing no one following, she let out a breath.
“Hello—” Sheryl was still breathing hard, but she managed a steady tone.
Seeing Eve smile and nod, she introduced herself and her cousin.
“I’m Sheryl Lango. She’s Yefei Silins. We saw you standing here the whole time, so we came over.”
“Hello,” Eve said. “I was only a little tired and rested here a while.”
“It’s pretty dull over there, isn’t it? We don’t really fit this kind of occasion either.”
Sheryl glanced at the distant crowd and winked at Eve with a smile.
“I saw you didn’t seem very interested when you were playing just now.”
Eve looked at Sheryl and suddenly remembered she was the girl who had given her the score earlier.
So she said, “I liked your score very much. It’s quite different from what’s popular now.”
“That was written by Yefei’s uncle. It’s called Autumn Wine Walk.”
Eve’s gaze fell on the girl beside her.
Yefei held the violin case to her chest and held it out to Eve.
“Let’s go sit in the back for a while.” Eve took the violin, slung it on her back, and walked toward the slope.
Sheryl and Yefei followed.
After they passed through a small stretch of woods, they reached the back of the low slope.
A few years ago Mogi had planted flowers and grasses here; now they had grown lush and green.
Among these plants, Eve’s favorite was a pale-blue grass-family plant called yuediyun (moon-end cloud).
In shape it was like muhly grass, growing in clumps and patches.
It was now in flower and fruit; that gradient blue drifted with the wind like cloud and like fire.
Eve pushed aside clump after clump of plants and walked a hidden pebble path.
At the end of the path stood a large tree.
Under its dense branches and leaves were a few scattered wooden chairs and a low table.
Eve drew a brush from a waterproof bag placed under the tree and swept the fallen leaves and dust from the chairs and table.
She set the violin case on the table and invited them to sit.
“If I sneaked over here alone, Nanfen would probably scold me a little,” Eve said. “With you two along, I can slack off in the open.”
Here the green trees made shade, and the flowers and grasses grew thick.
When the autumn wind passed, one could hear a rustle, and now and then fallen leaves and petals drifted down.
“Haha, Auntie really is a strict person,” Sheryl said. “I remember when we were little she brought Minxi to our house. Right in front of everyone she gave little Minxi a scolding that startled us all. Yefei, do you still remember that?”
“Of course I do. And wasn’t that because of you? You took her up East Mountain to play and got her covered in mud. If she hadn’t still been grinning, I’d have thought you’d bullied her.”
Yefei said this while looking at Eve.
“I wasn’t that old either. At the time I thought this place was the middle of nowhere, and only the mountain was fun.” Sheryl laughed.
“Where are you from?” Eve asked.
“Near Liuyuan Peninsula, Luoqimi Town. That place is known for a kind of sweet berry. When you have the chance you can come visit our parts,” Yefei said.
“Then I’ll take you to see our family’s winery.”
“Your family has a winery?” Eve’s eyes lit up. “Is Luo Town your family’s brand?”
Every year Mogi would haul back whole wagonloads of Luo Town berry wine and send it off case by case to old friends, saying it was a specialty from relatives.
Only now did Eve learn that the relatives he spoke of were Nanfen’s sisters.
“That’s right. It’s the Luo Town Winery. Uncle Mogi places an order with us every year.”
Yefei was very proud when she spoke of this.
“Shouldn’t you call him uncle-in-law?” Sheryl reminded her in a low voice at her ear.
“I can’t keep them straight. Last time I called him cousin-uncle and he laughed at me for a good while, so after that I’ve just called him uncle…”
Listening at the side, Eve was finally amused by the two cousins.
Here in Klijin the terms for relatives were also finely divided.
Mogi was a local, while Nanfen’s relatives had only immigrated from a neighboring country in the previous generation, so it was understandable that Yefei could not pin down Mogi’s title.
Eve had no such trouble, because now she called everyone by name.
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