A young boy from the 1970s, separated from his family, fled famine and led his younger brother into

Lu Xingzhou slowly moved his fingers away from the letter, as if he were looking for a way out.

Su Nianci stared at the exposed words for two seconds, then looked up at him.

"What is it?"

Lu Xingzhou pushed the letter two inches into the table and placed it on top of an old magazine.

"It's nothing, just something from the military."

"Should I write about things in the military to Su An?"

"He's also a member of the military."

Su Nianci's hand had already reached out, her fingertips resting on the corner of the magazine.

Lu Xingzhou was a beat faster than her, slapping his palm down on the magazine.

The two men's fingers stared at each other for three seconds, separated by a magazine.

Su Nianci raised her eyelids to look at him.

"Lu Xingzhou".

"Um."

"Get out of my way."

"Niannian, this is really not a big deal."

"Why are you hiding something that isn't a big deal?"

"I didn't hide it, I just put it on the table—"

"Place it on the table, weighed down with magazines, envelope down, only the last line showing?"

Su Nianci spoke half a beat faster, and pulled the letter directly from under the magazine with his fingers, a movement even more swift than when he sheathed his gun.

Lu Xingzhou's hand missed its target; his five fingers slapped against the empty magazine with a dull thud.

His mouth opened slightly, then closed.

He leaned back in his chair resignedly, crossed his arms in front of his chest, his expression somewhere between "surrender" and "awaiting sentencing".

Su Nianci stood under the lamp and unfolded the letter.

The letter was short, less than three hundred words including the salutation and signature.

The message begins: "Su An, the nineteenth batch of prescriptions has been verified. The source is reliable, and the verification status is marked on the attached list. Two of the three prescriptions you brought back from Yunnan last time match, but the dosage of the third one is questionable. I have asked Lao Liu from the Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine to help with the verification, and the results will be available next week."

Su Nianci's eyes didn't move, but her pupils contracted slightly.

She continued reading.

"Your sister is currently organizing that atlas, and she's making great progress. I estimate she'll have the main framework finished in about a month. Discuss with me when to include these twenty-odd lost prescriptions. I'm thinking of bringing them out on her birthday. What do you think?"

The letter trembled slightly in Su Nianci's hand.

She turned over to her back.

A list was attached to the back.

The A4-sized printed table has three vertical columns: prescription number, place of origin and provider, collection time and verification status.

There are twenty-three entries in total, from the first line to the last.

Item 1: Number 001, Source: "Oral account by Wang Deshun, a folk traditional Chinese medicine doctor in Cangzhou, Hebei", Collection time: "Three years ago in winter", Verification status: "Verified, highly consistent with the style of Su's prescriptions".

Item 2: Number 002, source: "Handwritten copy by Liu Guifen, retired pharmacist from a township health center in Linyi, Shandong".

Article 3.

Article 4.

They lined up one by one, spanning three years and covering twelve provinces.

In the remarks column of each entry, there are two different handwriting styles—Su An's handwriting is large and messy, recording the situation of the on-site investigation; Lu Xingzhou's handwriting is small and square, supplementing the details of verification and the archive number.

Su Nianci's fingers tightened around the list, leaving a thin crease on the edge of the paper.

She flipped the list back to the front and scanned it again from beginning to end.

Twenty-three copies.

Three years.

Twelve provinces.

She put down the list and looked up at Lu Xingzhou.

Lu Xingzhou sat in the chair with his long legs stretched out, his toes touching the desk legs. His expression had changed from "awaiting the verdict" to "leaving it to fate."

"When did you start doing this?"

"The third month after Su An left."

"How did you come up with that?"

Lu Xingzhou raised his hand and scratched the back of his head, the same way Hoshino scratched when he was caught stealing cookies.

"Back then, you were organizing the handwritten prescriptions your father left behind. One night, I woke up in the middle of the night and saw you sitting at your desk, turning those few sheets of paper over and over, muttering, 'If only there were more.'"

Su Nianci's lips moved slightly.

Did you hear that?

"I'm not that hard of hearing."

"Then why didn't you say anything back then?"

"You think all I can do is grow flowers?"

Su Nianci was momentarily speechless after hearing that.

Lu Xingzhou sat up straight in his chair, placed his hands on his knees, and softened his tone.

"I contacted Su An and asked him if there were any traditional Chinese medicine doctors or people knowledgeable in herbal medicine near the mission area. He said there were several. So I compiled a sample of your father's prescription format and style and sent it to him, so that he could keep an eye out for it without affecting the mission."

"And what about you?"

"I contacted Old Zhao from the logistics department of the military region. Before he retired, he had traveled to most parts of China to purchase medicinal herbs and knew many local pharmacists. I told him my needs, and he helped me make the connections. After that, things just started to fall into place."

Su Nianci tapped the seventh item on the list.

"Who went to see this Zhuang ethnic minority pharmacist from Baise, Guangxi?"

"I went. Last year you took the kids back to the military region for a week. I told you I was going to a meeting in Beijing, but I actually flew to Guangxi."

Su Nianci frowned.

"You're lying to me?"

"I'm not lying. I did have a meeting. After the meeting, I took an overnight train to Baise. I met the person the next morning, got the prescription in the afternoon, and flew back on a red-eye flight that night. When you woke up the next morning, I was already cooking porridge in the kitchen."

Su Nianci recalled the dark circles under Lu Xingzhou's eyes that morning. She asked him what happened, and he said, "Last night, Xingye kicked the blanket and it hit my face."

She took a deep breath.

"Anything else?"

"What else?"

"How many other times were you lying to me?"

Lu Xingzhou's gaze drifted for a moment, then fell on the curtains, before returning to his own.

"About seven or eight times."

Su Nianci slammed the list on the table, making a loud thud.

"Lu Xingzhou".

"exist."

You kept this from me for three years.

"right."

"You and my brother have been in cahoots for three years."

"right."

"You flew to twelve provinces."

"Um."

"Every time you come back from a business trip, you have dark circles under your eyes and tell me it's because you were working overtime, had insomnia, or were kicked by the kids."

Lu Xingzhou's lips twitched.

"I was indeed kicked out a few times."

Su Nianci stood under the lamp, clutching the list of twenty-three items in her hand. The edges of the paper were damp from being held by her palms.

Her mouth opened twice.

No sound came out the first time.

The second time, there was still no sound.

Then she walked over.

She walked up to Lu Xingzhou, stretched out her hands, and hugged his neck.

The movements weren't gentle; the embrace was rather forceful. When the arms tightened, Lu Xingzhou's neck was choked, and he coughed halfway but couldn't cough anything up.

Su Nianci buried her face in the crook of his neck, her nose touching the taut vein on the side of his neck.

Her voice was muffled inside his collar, nasal and heavily indistinct.

Why do you keep everything from me?

Lu Xingzhou's two hands hovered in mid-air for a moment before slowly landing on her back, one around her waist and the other on her shoulder blades.

"I'm afraid you'll think I'm meddling."

Su Nianci tightened her grip on her arm a little more.

Her lips brushed against his collarbone, her voice so soft it was almost drowned out by their breathing.

"You idiot."

Lu Xingzhou rested his chin on her head, his Adam's apple bobbing slightly.

The two of them hugged under the lamp for a long time, so long that Su Nianci's arms started to ache. She rubbed her face against his neck, then buried it back in his neck.

The wind outside the window rustled the fallen leaves in the yard for a while, then fell silent again.

After a while, Su Nianci released her grip and took a half step back.

She glanced down at the list she was still clutching in her hand; the corner of the paper was already crumpled.

"When did you originally plan to give it to me?"

"Your lunar birthday is in forty-three days."

Su Nianci spread the list out on the table and pressed down the wrinkles with her palm.

"No need to wait."

Her gaze swept from the first line to the last, stopping at the seventeenth line.

Article 17, prescription number 017, source column reads: "Oral account from a 93-year-old Miao doctor in a Miao village in Guizhou, verified."

A line of small text was marked next to it in Lu Xingzhou's handwriting.

The words were very small; she had to lean closer to see them clearly.

"The old woman said that when she was young, she saw a soldier surnamed Su providing free medical care in the village and left behind this prescription. It was about 35 years ago."

Su Nianci's finger remained motionless on the line of small characters.

Thirty-five years ago.

Su Weiguo was only in his early twenties.

He had only recently enlisted.

She wasn't even born yet.

Her father had treated patients in a Miao village she had never heard of before and left behind a prescription.

Then the prescription remained in the memory of a 93-year-old woman for 35 years, until her husband came into the village and it was discovered.

Su Nianci pressed her fingertips on that line of text for three seconds, until her nails turned white.

The light from the table lamp illuminated her lowered profile, and the shadow of her eyelashes fell on her cheekbones, trembling slightly.

Lu Xingzhou stood to the side without saying a word.

Su Nianci folded the list and put it into the notebook on the table that was copying the "Collection of Su's Effective Prescriptions," placing it between the first and second pages.

She closed the notebook and pressed her palm on the cover for two seconds.

"Sailing".

"Um."

"My dad has been to far more places than I know."

Her voice was very soft.

So quiet that the filament of the table lamp on the table hummed louder than her.