The Moment Between Flying and Falling

Book 1: Chapter 3

In such a discreet and tiring manner, Yanbo lived on the plains for several months, reading early in the mornings, practicing late into the night, becoming largely old news after another month or so. As such, time flew by, and the end of the year came around, and with it, much celebration and festivities. Many of her fellow disciples had gone home to visit their family, and the rest chatted together, their shifu giving them a rare, hard-earned break. Yanbo had no family to speak of, and after sitting silently through one evening chat with Yucheng's prodding, she resolved to use the time in which the training grounds were empty and the library was silent to practice.

On the night of the New Year, everyone who'd remained behind was allowed to stay up until midnight to watch fireworks and attend festivities, and Yanbo, for once, took a break from obsessively reading through books to watch the fireworks from a distance. In the distance, in the direction of the town, Yanbo could almost swear she could hear the sound of laughter...

Yanbo brought out the flaming paper crane from the inside of her sleeve and set it on the table, feeling rather tired all of a sudden. Resisting that urge briefly, she returned back to her quarters. On the way back, she bumped into her shifu, who was strolling alone.

Yanbo respectfully greeted her shifu. He considered her.

"Why are you still here? Why haven't you gone out with your fellow disciples into town to see the festivities?" He asked.

Yanbo bowed her head slightly. "I don't have any friends to go out with, so I decided to stay and practice. I was getting tired, so I wanted to head back to my quarters to rest."

Her shifu seemed to want to say something else, then finally nodded to her. "That's fine, as well. I've seen you working hard for the past few months, even if I don't say much, and I'm looking forward to seeing your performance in the year-end test in a few days. Don't work so hard, though. It's the New Year, after all, and it's time to rest a little."

Yanbo nodded, and continued on her way. That night, she fell asleep the moment she leaned back against her pillows, still fully dressed.

The next day, she stayed in the library once again, flipping through a thick tome. Suddenly, waves of exhaustion crashed up on her, but she fought against them, keeping her eyes wide open and staring at the words on the page as the blurred in and out of focus. Her eyelids grew heavy, and she rested her forehead on the book, thinking to only rest her eyes for a brief moment, but the moment she relaxed, she fell asleep.

When she woke up, the candles in the library had all been extinguished, leaving her in the dark corner. It was clearly late in the night, and since Yanbo had been studying in the corner, the person who'd checked the library before closing it for the night must've overlooked her and left her sleeping there.

She stood up, rubbing her sore neck, her limbs stiff and a little numb, her back aching. As she started to close the book and return it to where it belonged when she heard a quiet creak. Yanbo whipped her head around, her muscles tense, ready to leap out and attack the intruder, but she realized it'd merely been the wind blowing through a door off to the side.

Yanbo considered that door, remembering it to be the entrance to the secret section of the library storing books that were forbidden, dark, or possessed some other secrets that caused them to be guarded during the open hours of the library by at least one of the older disciples. In order to even enter the chamber one step, one must have the permission of their shifu, and to do so, they would have to justify why exactly they were entering the secret chamber. But now, at night, the door was completely unguarded. Yanbo had scoured through many of the cultivation books in the public library, but she was starting to get curious, what sort of books was it that required such strict supervision to be read, what sort of secrets they possessed. Even after all her sweat and blood, after the early mornings and late nights, she'd always felt that her cultivation base wasn't steady, wasn't right, and she'd never been able to understand why. Perhaps one of the books in the secret chamber could answer her questions.