Water Mirrored Moon - 水鏡月

4. Extra - Two Boys meet as Men:

When I was writing Chapter 30 – 'Temple,' I was already thinking that Xiao Chuan needed a good childhood friend. So, you could say that I wrote Chapter 39 – 'Dove' just for him, introducing our dearest Tong Tong. Because Tong Tong and Xiao Chuan are just too cute...this extra is for my fujoshi/fudanshi friends. Who knows...maybe they'll get their own story!

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Tong Guang sighed again, tapping an unusual metal spear into the dirt as he walked. The weather was becoming warm and he paused to swipe at his disheveled hair under the wide brimmed hat as he continued to make his way through the rustling bamboo forest.

Although it was peaceful, his heart was full of an unsettled murmuring unbecoming of a person trained in martial arts.

At age seventeen, he had come of age and cast aside his childhood name to become Tong Guang meaning "Bright Together". He had studied hard under the Abbot and learned martial arts. Even now he was grateful for the Abbot's teaching.

He had turned eighteen this year, and after discussion with the Abbot he had decided that he would go out into jianghu to travel and learn the ways of the world. In fact, he was only just returning from a three month stay at a different temple and was currently walking the familiar road back to the capital. The Abbot had never really intended to keep him closeted away and the choice to stay and be a monk was his, much like it had been with Xiao Chuan. As if his heart had been pulled by a string, Tong Guang had chosen to leave to see the outside world.

Chuan'ge...I hope you are well, he thought wistfully.

Tong Guang had not seen Xiao Chuan for eight years.

Although Xiao Chuan had mended the relationship with the Abbot over the issue of Wu Cui Xi, he had never given up on her. Rather than stay in the temple, he'd left to become her retainer and while he was there the Seventh Prince decided, as Xiao Chuan was already thirteen, it would be more useful if he stayed with Bai Zhi Yi as a fosterling. Thus, he had ridden out to the Northwest to learn the ways of the Anxi army.

Tong Guang had not seen him once since Xiao Chuan had left to live in the Seventh Prince's manor. In fact, they had fought and parted on bad terms. Neither of them had been particularly good at expressing themselves and their differences in temperament, one hot, one cold, had led to a misunderstanding the night before Xiao Chuan left. Tong Guang still regretted the bitter words exchanged, and he couldn't forget the angry tears he'd cried after.

But that's all in the past...

Tong Guang sighed again and then stiffened suddenly, swiftly shifting his feet on the narrow path. He leaned back while counter balancing on his spear, and narrowly avoided the sword that skimmed just over his chest. Righting himself, feet planted, he turned the spear with a flick of his wrist and four blades clicked out, twisting like a flame around the other end so that the spearhead could not be easily seized. He pointed the business end at the assailant who stood poised like a dancer just above him. The tall bamboo was barely bending, and Tong Guang immediately realized that this person's level of martial arts was not rudimentary.

He is not a common bandit. This will be troublesome.

"Sighs like those...have you lost your lover, pretty girl?" laughed the man.

Tong Guang gritted his teeth, cursing his face. On top of everything ludicrous about this situation, he was being mistaken for a woman. He should have shaved his head again before leaving the temple.

The bandit perused the angry face in question, noting the thick silk waterfall of hair over the shoulders, the pale smooth skin, the delicately tilted cinnamon eyes framed with a full set of lashes, the small thin lips, and the rising flush on the high cheekbones. The man whistled and two more men appeared, one standing on the path behind and one in front.