Chapter 11 The Silver Whistle
The night before I left, Xiao Huai An stayed in my room until dawn.
He packed my luggage for me and tucked a small silver whistle into my sleeve. "If anything happens, blow this. I will send people to fetch you at once."
I suddenly wanted to tell him that I had already seen our ending.
Seen him standing in the snow in a dragon robe. Seen the white banners of the entire Wen Clan. Seen the shock in his eyes when I fell from the tower.
But when the words reached my lips, they only turned into one sentence. "Xiao Huai An, if I do not come back, the Wen Clan..."
"Don't talk nonsense." He covered my mouth. The pads of his fingers carried thin calluses. "When you come back, we will go to Jiangnan."
I knew this promise was like flowers in a mirror and the moon in water, yet I still nodded.
Some lies, once the listener believed them, seemed to become true even for the one who spoke them.