304 The Artist on the Walk Back

"What should I call you from now on?"

Yujia, who just picked up the jar, paused for a brief second. As she walked back to him, she pursed her lips, thinking. "You've called me many things in the past," she noted.

"Now that you mention it,  I definitely have," Zixu agreed.

The two began to cross the bridge, back in the direction of their homes.

"Remember when we first met? I was pretending to be your younger brother, so that was certainly interesting."

"Ziyang still doesn't know that someone impersonated him in the past, " Zixu mused, raising a brow. " I should tell him sometime."

"If you do, tell him when I'm not around." Yujia covered half of her face with her palm. "I'm still embarrassed by that."

Zixu changed the topic,  noting, "Actually, the first time that we met was before the Lingxin entrance exam."

Yujia's eyes lit up. "Right!" 

The first time they ever ran into each other was when Yujia went to sketch out a commission for Bo Zhiyuan. Zixu was visiting Zhiyuan, and by chance, she ran into him when exiting the courtyard.

"You still remember that?" Yujia asked, the corners of her lips curving upwards.

"I remember every moment that I've spent with you," he replied nonchalantly.

Squinting at him, Yujia said, "When'd you become so cheesy?" 

Zixu gave a short laugh. "Why not? I just speak the truth." 

Laughing as well,  Yujia shook her head to feign disappointment. "What am I going to do with you?" she questioned with a deep sigh. But still,  from the smile she wore on her face, it was clear that she didn't mind.

"Back on the topic of our first meeting," Zixu interjected, "I've been meaning to ask, but I've never had a good chance until now. You called me by a different name when we first met. 'Wu Hao' — who is that?" 

Yujia froze in her steps, the smile on her face freezing as well. She blinked. 

"Ah, did I call you that?"

"You most definitely did." Feigning ignorance didn't seem to work with Zixu. 

She placed a hand on the back of her neck,  then resumed walking, moving a few steps ahead of Zixu. She really didn't think that he would remember that slip-up of hers.

When they first met, because of the fact that she was new to the world, she thought of her pre-transmigration life frequently. Yu Zixu shared the same face as her old high-school crush, Wu Hao. And thus, when Yujia ran into him, she accidentally called him by this name. 

"He's no one," she ended up saying, "just an old acquaintance at most. You do resemble him, so that was why I mistook you for him when I first saw you."

How was she going to break it to him that she came from a different world? 

"I see," Zixu replied, his voice calm. 

She cautiously observed his expression through her peripheral vision, and seeing that he didn't seem too bothered by it, she let out a breath of relief. It was good that Zixu wasn't going to continue hanging over the mystery of Wu Hao. 

Zixu then went on, "You said that he resembles me?"

Nevermind. Yujia took back the statement that Zixu wasn't too interested in Wu Hao's identity.

"Slightly, I suppose," she answered, biting back the truth that he shared nearly an exact replica of Wu Hao's face.

"Then, am I like him?"

Yujia paused again at this question of Zixu's. He stopped in his tracks as well. She turned to him, responding with a firm tone, "No. Not at all. I barely remember what kind of person he is now, but in my memories, he has always been cold and distant. You're not like that at all, at least to me."

He tilted his head, ever-so-slightly. "Then, what am I like, to you?"

She had to think for a moment.

A memory of Yu Zixu surfaced in her mind, one where he waited for her within the Half Moon Pavilion, the morning after the two had a drink. In that memory, a ray of sunlight cut perfectly through the sky, highlighting the edges of his angled features. At the same time, the sunlight wrapped him in a warm glow, paired with a soft smile resting on his lips. 

"You are…" she began, hesitating. Then, that memory of Zixu became a little clearer, and along with it, her confidence in her answer. 

"You are like the dawn of morning, Zixu." She tilted her head to match him, smiling a little brighter now. "Isn't that what the 'Xu' in your name means? Dawn. After the darkness of the night, daybreak appears, bringing the light along with it. To me, you are just like that. Though you may have been in the land of the night, dawn always arrives. Always."

"You are like the dawn of morning, Zixu." She tilted her head to match him, smiling a little brighter now. "Isn't that what the 'Xu' in your name means? Dawn. After the darkness of the night, daybreak appears, bringing the light along with it. To me, you are just like that. Though you may have been in the land of the night, dawn always arrives. Always."

He smiled faintly. Though he didn't say anything, the warmth of his expression was enough to demonstrate what he was thinking.

After a brief moment of silence, Zixu then added on, "I thought of the name that I should call you by."

"And that is…?"

"Remember the name I gave you when you disguised yourself as my maid?" He turned his head to face her. "Yu'er. It's simple and nice to say."

Yujia wrinkled her nose. "If you call me that, I'll call you Little XuXu."

"You may call me by whatever name you prefer," he responded with a complacent smile.

The two somehow arrived at Lingxin already.

As Yujia slowed in her steps, she couldn't hold back a laugh. "Little XuXu? For real? You do not mind?" That was the most ridiculous name that she could come up with in her mind.

"Yu'er, didn't I say that any name is fine by me?" Zixu insisted, keeping that calm but smug tone.

"Little XuXu it is then."

"Sure, Yu'er."

Yujia grinned and shook her head at Zixu. Then, she looked down at the jar of wine she carried in her arms.

"I bought this jar entirely because you said you wanted to drink the wine in the capital again. It's a welcome gift, I suppose. You should take it." She pushed it into his arms.

Zixu accepted it, holding it in front of him so that he could have a better look. After that, he replied with a smile, "It's thoughtful of you. I'll take it, and we should drink together again sometime. It would be a pity to finish this jar without sharing it with someone."

"Sounds nice." Yujia turned her head back to look at the door of the villa. Facing Zixu again, she bid, "I'll have to go now, I'm afraid. I promised Senior Brother Yunhe to critique his art early this morning, and I'm running a bit late."

"Alright," Zixu agreed, bowing. "I have to be going as well, to sort out the goods brought back from the trip. See you again soon, Yu'er?"

"Yes, Little XuXu." She raised her eyebrows, then laughed again.

She really couldn't take that name seriously. It seemed like Zixu couldn't either, since he cracked an amused grin whenever she said that name.

…

After exchanging farewells, Yu Zixu departed, heading back to the short walk towards the Yu Villa.

If he had to name the happiest day of his life, perhaps it would be today. Even though he was usually able to hold back his expressions, on the walk back, he couldn't stop a grin from periodically surfacing on his lips as he thought about her. Yang Yujia. Yu��er.

It felt like a dream. And if it was, this would be a dream that he would never want to wake up from.

While he walked, thinking about the interactions of today, he recalled that mysterious name again. 

Wu Hao.

A misspoken name like that would not have normally bothered him, but the mystery behind it was too great. When he thought about it, coupled along with the things Yu'er told him, he still couldn't arrive at a clear answer.

She told him something, one time, when she was drunk. It was likely a phrase that she didn't remember telling him. 

While looking at his face, her gaze blurry, she had once said, "You know— you look so much like him— it almost hurts."

Even if Zixu had no knowledge of the true story behind all of this, he could already gather the conclusion that the "him" she talked about before was none other than this "Wu Hao" they talked about today.

Mysteries like these usually bothered him. He liked arriving at an ending, a truth. 

But in this case, when Zixu thought about it some more, he realized that he didn't particularly need an answer to the identity of Wu Hao. 

Yu'er didn't want to tell him about the full story of Wu Hao today. That was her right. Everyone had stories of their past that they didn't want to always explain. Zixu did as well.

When the time was right, she would naturally tell Zixu the full story. Until then, it didn't matter who Wu Hao was. He was only a memory of the past, after all. 

Zixu would patiently wait for her to tell him that story, until however long that it would take. Furthermore, even if she never wanted to tell him about those events in the past, he had no need to pressure her to either. Whether or not she wanted to tell him the backstory was a decision that she could and should make on her own. He would respect that. 

Arriving at the front doors of the Yu Villa, Zixu smiled softly, then stepped back home.